New Boise dive bar on Main Street filled with local history

When Idahoans step into into the Cub Tavern for the first time on Friday, they’ll discover a watering hole that seems anything but new and swanky.

Located on ground level of the Smith Block Building, 1015 W. Main St., the Cub is like stepping back in downtown Boise time.

“This is just a good classic bar,” explains Jade Stacey, who restored the historic two-story building after buying it in 2020. “We’re trying to give it a feel like it’s been there for 50 years.”

Think of a familiarity similar to the Cactus Bar, he says. Or Pengilly Saloon (fondly called Pengilly’s by locals).

Pull up a barstool at the Cub, and “you’re going to go, ‘Oh man, this thing feels like it’s been here forever,’ ” Stacey says. “And that’s the whole point. There’s a lot of old stuff in it, right?”

Whether you’re buying rounds or chalking pool cues, there’s plenty of visual fodder to keep conversations flowing while the booze follows suit.

Revived signs

The Cub’s exterior sign, and name, came from a now-defunct Cub Tavern that operated from the 1940s to 1980s where Bar Gernika now serves lamb grinders. But that’s just the tip of the dust-covered iceberg.

Although the sign came from the original Cub Tavern in Boise, “it’s not a relaunch of the Cub,” co-owner Jade Stacey says. “… When I saw the sign, the sign kind of named the bar.” Cub Tavern

Inside the roughly 3,000-square-foot bar are various artifacts of history and culture. The Smith Block Building itself? That was built in 1905.

The saddle above the bar belonged to Stacey’s great-grandfather. “He was a sheepherder in Ashton.”

Near three pool tables, a towering, weathered “Boise” sign is destined to conjure up hometown pride. “That was the sign on the Hoff Building,” Stacey explains, “which was originally the Boise Hotel. It went up in 1930-ish, and it came down in the ‘80s. And it’s been behind a storage unit … for the last 45 years.”

Experienced bar owners

Stacey co-owns the Cub Tavern with longtime friend and bar operator Tod Asin, known for the Atlas Bar downtown, the Alpine Bar in Meridian and the Royal in Boise’s Hyde Park, which Stacey also co-owns.

Asin is the man responsible for the Triumph motorcycle perched near the ceiling. (Classic movie buffs will appreciate the “Easy Rider”-style paint.)

There’s no kitchen at the Cub. No food menu. No reinvention of the wheel, period. Even if the brick walls might feel like they got mortared around the time the wheel was invented.

The old Boise sign came from the exterior of the Boise Hotel, now the Hoff Building. Cub Tavern

There’s also no specific target clientele at the Cub.

“It’s open to everybody,” Stacey says. “It’s going to appeal to everybody. One of the points is even though it feels old, and it’s kind of that neighborhood dive bar that you want, we also want it to be safe and clean.”

And if you feel at home at the Cub? Leave your mark.

Customer photos

“We’re going to try a different play on when people try to sign the dollars bills and stick ’em places,” Stacey says. “We’re putting in a photo booth, and we’re hoping that people take pictures in it and start sticking them around in certain places.”

Hmm. One must remember that this provides irrefutable proof that you were at a bar.

“That’s true,” Stacey agrees with a laugh. “And we might get some photos that we’d rather not see, right?”

The Cub Tavern’s grand opening is at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4. Normal bar hours will be 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Co-owners Jade Stacey and Tod Asin had a vision to decorate the Cub with “old stuff,” Stacey says. “Stuff that we’ve gathered, each one of us, stuff that we’ve done.” Cub Tavern