Great American Bites: Sizzling ski-town fare at Jackson's Teton Thai
— -- The scene: Where is the last place you would expect to find great Thai food? If you answered, "In the middle of the employee parking lot at the Jackson Hole Mountain ski resort in Wyoming," then be prepared to be shocked. I know I was. And I am not the only one - if you read almost any customer review on Yelp, Chowhound or Urban Spoon, it will begin with something like "World Class Thai Food in Wyoming? Yes!"
I have eaten at countless restaurants, from dives to 5-stars, in almost every major ski town in North America, and I have never found any scene remotely like that at Teton Thai. The excellent food is even more notable when viewed against the local backdrop of bison, steaks and trout on seemingly every Jackson-area menu. Everything about the place is incongruous: It sits in a small building that no one would ever find if they didn't set out to find it, and while locals know where it is, the many guests of the ski resort staying throughout Teton Village need to make a cold dark walk on which they may get lost.
Teton Thai has just a handful of tables (seating 28), and since every dish is carefully cooked to order, it is not especially fast. There is perennially a line out the door, though in peak ski season locals know better and phone in their orders for pickup. In summer, despite the fact that the nearby town of Jackson is even busier as the gateway to Yellowstone National Park, slopeside Teton Village is slower and Teton Thai much easier to get into.
The restaurant has been open for a decade, but when its lease in a higher profile town location got too pricey, the owners took a leap of faith and grabbed this tiny shack-like building no one else wanted in the parking lot. Fortunately when it opened last winter their customers followed, while each ski season brings new faces. They also operate a second location over the mountain pass in nearby Driggs, Idaho, but the couple spends most of their time here. Sam Johnson overseas the bar and front of the room while his Thai wife Suchada cooks her heart out in the small kitchen, using carefully sourced ingredients.
Reason to visit: Salad rolls, soups, curries and most any main dishes.
The food: I have eaten plenty of Americanized Thai food, as well as plenty of the real stuff in Thailand. The menu at Teton Thai falls squarely in the middle, with generically American-Asian appetizers like egg rolls, fried wontons and steamed dumplings you would be unlikely to find on the streets of Bangkok. However, there are a few notable Thai-influenced exceptions, especially the unique spare ribs, more of a country-style cut with a pineapple-based sauce, and the salad rolls, veggies and peanut sauce rolled in translucent rice wrappers with the distinctive flavors of cilantro, Thai basil and green onions.
The rest of the menu is much more varied than typical Thai restaurants in this country - especially those in any other ski town. The salads are intriguing, like the Laab, which combines chopped chicken and greens with toasted rice powder and lime chili dressing, or the Yum Woon Seen, combining chicken, shrimp, red onion, lime, cilantro and glassy noodles. Both are fairly spicy, as is much of the food here, though they happily vary heat to each customer's desire, and the waiters automatically ask what level on a 1 to 5 scale you want (3 is plenty for most folks).
The menu was too big for me to make a dent, but I tried something from each section, including the Tom Kha Gai, a soup made with coconut milk, kaffir lime and lemongrass, one of several interesting options on the menu (plus there's another section for the entrée-sized noodle soups). There are extensive choices of both noodle and rice-based main courses, plus half a dozen curries, from which I tried - and loved - the Panang Salmon, a coconut-based curry with kaffir lime leaves and green peas, served with white rice. Duck shows up a couple of times on the Teton Thai menu, so I made it my centerpiece, ordering the Pad Gar Pow Duck, which is listed under rice dishes but is really a large entree of thick, juicy and decadent slices of duck breast fanned on a plate with garlic chili sauce, a medley of sautéed vegetables and white rice. I'd have trouble not ordering this again on my next visit.
In addition to an impressively large and varied menu for such a small eatery, they have a small bar that churns out a large number of exotic cocktails, though I stuck with Red Stripe beer from Jamaica to counter the heat. Almost everything on the menu can be made vegetarian, proteins replaced with tofu, or otherwise changed to accommodate food allergies, but the one constant is a decent level of spice: as the menu warns under the curry section, "Curries cannot be made less spicy than 2 stars." That was fine by me and apparently fine with the line of customers still out the door when we finished our dinner. In ski season you can beat the rush by coming at lunch or for après ski, since the same menu is served from noon until 10 p.m.
What regulars say: "You've got to try it, totally different from anything else around, and a great mix of locals and visitors," said Zahan Billimoria, a professional mountaineer with Exum Mountain Guides.
Pilgrimage-worthy?: Yes - if you visit Jackson or Teton Village, summer or winter.
Rating: Yum! (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)
Price: $-$$ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)
Details: Original, 7342 Granite Loop Road, Teton Village, WY; 307-733-0022; http://tetonthai.com/
Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a BBQ contest and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an e-mail at travel@usatoday.com.