Ansots Chorizos, the family‑run Basque restaurant in Boise’s historic Basque neighborhood, has earned national attention as one of five finalists for Outstanding Hospitality in the 2026 James Beard Awards.
For owner Dan Ansotegui, the recognition reflects not only his team’s dedication, but also the good hospitality of the Basque community. As he told Euskal Kazeta, the nomination speaks to the heart of the restaurant, a place where customers are meant to feel at home, and where Basque flavors and traditions continue to evolve through family, staff, and community.
For Ansotegui, the recognition came as a surprise. A validation of the values that have shaped his life’s work.
“We’ve been nominated three times before, but those were for different categories; those were for chef,” he said. “So it was kind of nice to go into a new one. I didn’t really understand it when we were first nominated, because in the past we’ve been nominated for the region of the Mountain West, and this is the first time we’ve been nominated under the national category.” Winners will be announced June 15 in Chicago.
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What stood out most to him was what the nomination said about his team. “I think it just says a lot about the staff we have here and the way that we treat our customers. Hopefully everyone comes in and they’re at home or they’re in a place that they’re very happy to be.”
The honor, he added, extends beyond his own restaurant. “It’s been a really cool thing for the whole community and Basque restaurants in general. When attention is brought to one restaurant, I think it brings a little attention to everyone. It puts us all on people’s to‑do lists. Hopefully it’s something that’s good for the community of Boise and all Basque restaurants throughout the States.”
Ansotegui is no stranger to the James Beard Foundation. His earlier nominations for Best Chef placed him among the top culinary talents in the country. But this year’s honor feels different.
“I think the idea that we were one of, I think, 20 in the nation to start with, and now we’re in the finals, so now we’re one of five throughout the nation; it’s really an incredible honor,” he said. “You always kind of think that it’s a mistake. It’s been really cool, and the amount of people that have noticed, or travelers who look up places to go in Boise… we seem to be rated pretty high, which is a really nice compliment. It’s a great way for us to meet a lot of people we probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.”
Although Ansots Chorizos opened only a few years ago, its roots stretch back through decades of Basque food in Boise; much of it shaped by Ansotegui himself.
“We haven’t been here very long,” he said. “I had other restaurants here in Boise. I had Bar Gernika, I opened that in 1991 and sold that to one of my employees in 2007. Then I opened the Basque Market in 1999 and sold that to friends in 2006.” Bar Gernika and the Basque Market have become cornerstones in Boise’s Basque restaurant scene. Ansotegui’s success in the restaurant business traces back to his grandmother, Epi Inchausti, and her popular boardinghouse in Hailey, Idaho.
After returning to teaching for several years, Ansotegui found himself back in the restaurant world. “I came back from teaching to work for another friend at another Basque restaurant here; a tapas restaurant in town. And then COVID hit and we closed down, and we didn’t want to close. So that’s when we opened here at Ansots.”
Opening during the pandemic came with challenges. “We signed our lease in May of 2020, and the city wouldn’t let us open. I think we finally got permission in September,” he said. “So during that time we were working on the menu, trying to make sure we were doing things that other Basque restaurants in the area weren’t doing.”
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Boise is home to six Basque restaurants, and Ansotegui wanted Ansots to contribute something distinct. “We wanted to make sure there’s enough variety in Basque cooking that we touched on some things that maybe weren’t being done everywhere. Making our own chorizos – we are the only people around here that do that.”
Their menu also leans heavily on traditional sauces. “We do a lot with sauces, whether it’s the salsa biscayne, or the salsa verde, or the koxkera. Those are things that we use a lot, and I don’t think that’s used in a lot of the places here in Boise.”
Ansotegui’s influence on Boise’s Basque food scene spans more than three decades, but he resists the idea of holding a role in preserving Basque culture.
“I don’t really think of it as a role, I just do it because I enjoy doing it,” he said. “As a teacher, I enjoy spreading the word, teaching other people about things, whether it was 4th‑grade math or how to make clams in salsa verde. My daughter and my wife take that as our role too, to teach people who want to learn about Basque cooking.”
Ansots is a family business. His daughter Ellie works alongside him daily, and his wife Tamara contributes ideas and feedback when helping during the catering events.
“It’s great being able to come in every day; my daughter’s here, and my wife has a lot of input,” he said. “It’s always good to bounce ideas off people you trust and love. What we do here isn’t just coming from one mind. We have input from everyone.”
That includes their staff. “Definitely, especially for the front of the house. They make people feel welcome, and we are greatly indebted to everything that they do.”Ansotegui has watched Boise’s Basque food scene evolve over decades, shaped by unique local history.
“Boise is an interesting spot,” he explained. “The boarding houses here were much older than in other places. When the owners were in their 60s and 70s in the 1970s, fewer and fewer sheepherders were coming over, so the boarding houses were starting to die out. We never got any boarding houses in Boise to switch over to public restaurants, so Basque food here didn’t develop in the same way as in Nevada or California.”
Instead, Boise’s Basque restaurants emerged later, and differently. “Basque food here is definitely on a different trajectory,” he said. “We’re lucky. Boise is a small enough community, and there was a time when Boise’s population was about 10% Basque, which is a large amount for an immigrant population.”
Today, Ansots stands as part of that evolving story, and now, as a James Beard finalist, it brings national attention to a unique ethnic community that has been shaping Boise for more than a century.
Ansots Basque Chorizos
560 W. Main St.
Boise, Idaho
(208) 336-9166
Ansots is featured in our video on the Basque Block
