A lot of things have changed in Ketchum in the last 15 years. Luckily, Perry’s Restaurant isn’t one of them. Owned by Keith and Paula Perry, the restaurant (located on the corner of 4th Street and 1st Avenue, Ketchum) celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, officially a Ketchum institution and top ten tourist destination.
I always think of Perry’s first when I want a deli-style sandwich or a salad. But it’s much more than just a great lunch spot. It’s also a place to get breakfast on a lazy weekend.
Peter and I are often seeking late lunch venues on Saturday afternoons. We like to sleep in, go for a bike ride, play tennis or take a long hike and treat ourselves to a lovely “linner” afterward. On one such day, we found ourselves at Perry’s and were pleased to find them still offering lunch at 3:30 p.m. (Perry’s is open in the summer from 7am to 9pm seven days a week.)
We scanned the menu—full of fabulous breakfast items—several kinds of eggs benedict ($8.25 a la carte), every omelette you can imagine ($6.50 – $11.00) and a choice of either French toast ($5-$7.50), pancakes ($6.25 – $10.75) or Belgian waffles ($6-$8.25). If you’re feeling lunchy at breakfast, they also offer artisan sandwiches ranging from $6 for a half—which is huge— to $12.50 for a full sandwich complete with bread baked on site every day. And they don’t stop there. The salad menu includes a Caesar, Chef, Albacore and Hawaiian (dinner salad topped with chicken salad). We lean towards the grilled menu items including a mouth-watering turkey-cranberry-swiss melt ($6.25-12.50—think day after Thanksgiving without all the work) a grilled salmon filet ($9) and the Perry’s burger with choice of “the works” either cheddar and bacon or grilled mushrooms, onions and melted swiss cheese ($8.25). All items are a la carte and side salads are available ($3.75), in addition to various soups ($3.50-$6.25) and waffle fries ($1.75-$3.75).
We opt for the Perry’s burger with grilled onions, mushrooms and melted swiss (the best kind of burger invented, in my opinion) and decide to prep our pallets with a bottle of Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc ($7 per glass or $21 per bottle to toast the French-Open-esque-style tennis we just played). To keep accompany the burgers, we split a medium order of waffle fries ($2.50).
At Perry’s orders are taken at the counter and runners deliver food to patrons. I’m always a bit perplexed when it comes time to tip however. Should I tip the normal 15-20 percent? Or do I tip less because it’s not quite full-service? We paid, poured some waters from the self-service station and found a table outside on the deck. Shortly thereafter, the cashier brought our wine, evidently we forgot to grab it before we sat down. Whoops! Within a few minutes our burgers and fries arrived, both of which were superb.
Let’s cut to the chase and start with the burgers. They were first-rate—mushrooms and red onions sautéed to perfection, and the fries—magnificent (French accent implied)! My love affair with waffle fries has officially begun!
After “linner” we sat on the deck enjoying our wine, and reminisced about our world-class tennis game. Once again we marveled at our luck in being back in a Ketchum that never seems to change.
