The best restaurants and food in Anchorage with Sourdough Dan Morris

Sourdough Dan Morris of Alaskan Sites and Bites joins Jennie to talk about his favorite food and restaurants in the Anchorage area.

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Music credits:  Largo Montebello, by Domenico Mannelli, CC.

Transcript

Jennie Flaming: 0:03

Welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast with me, your host, Jennie Flaming, my occasional co host and full time husband Jay and I bring you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska travel and life and Alaska. Fairbanks on your summer trip to Alaska. Today we're going to talk about all the best things to do to take advantage of that time in Fairbanks. The Director of Communications at explore Fairbanks, an organization that promotes Fairbanks as a destination for visitors from around the world. She oversees a team of three that's responsible for explore Fairbanks 's website, social media publications, advertising and public relations. When not at work, Kasey loves hanging out with her niece and nephew, baking cakes, drinking Alaskan made beer and spirits and listening to 90s music. Casey, welcome to Alaska uncovered. Thank you for being here. Thanks so much for having me. Now, I'm gonna just say that for folks who've listened to this podcast for a while, you know that I spend time in Fairbanks every year and I used to live there. So not only is Kasey good at her job, but you can know that she won't be trying to sneak any bad information. Not that you would do that anyway. But sometimes I think people are like, but it's not your job isn't your job to talk about how great this is? And yes, but I also love Fairbanks so we're gonna have a fun time today. So thank you so much for being here, Kasey.

Kasey: 1:56

Yeah. Thanks for having me. And I love to talk about Fairbanks and I will not sugarcoat anything if I don't have to. Yes,

Jennie Flaming: 2:03

and that is one thing. You know, we're all about real talk on this podcast. So love that. Okay, Kasey, to start off. How did you get to Alaska? Well,

Kasey: 2:16

I was actually born here was born in Fairbanks,

Jennie Flaming: 2:19

right on,

Kasey: 2:20

you know, I grew up here I went to UHF got my graduate or got my graduated from UHF with my bachelor's degree. So I've been here my whole life. I'm actually a fourth generation Fairbanks, son. So awesome. My family has been here over 100 years at this stage.

Jennie Flaming: 2:37

That is super cool. Love it. And I happen to know because you told me that you went to high school with a couple of other people who have been guests on this podcast. So that is super fun. Yeah, so

Kasey: 2:53

way Binkley from the remote discovery. Yes. In clay from Borealis sparks, and I all graduated from West Valley High School together.

Jennie Flaming: 3:01

That's so fun. And by the way, if you're listening to this and you're going to Fairbanks you should definitely go back and listen to those episodes. The one about the riverboat discovery was one of the very first episodes and the podcast and the one with Morgan was about winter. But even if you're visiting in the summer, it was still a pretty fun episode. So Yes. Cool. Okay, so, Kasey, as you know, when people come to visit Fairbanks in the summer, there's kind of two different groups of people, there's people who are coming as part of a bigger cruise to organize tours that perhaps starts or ends in Fairbanks, or is in Fairbanks during the middle. And then there are people who come on their own. So I was thinking it would be cool to kind of talk about those two things separately. So let's start with folks who are on some type of tour. So perhaps they booked it through a cruise line, or another tour company, and they're in Fairbanks for a couple of days. What are some great suggestions you have for things for people to do while they're in town?

Kasey: 4:11

Yeah, so one of the things I always recommend, especially for those people that are on cruise tours, cruise packages, that may only have you know, 18 to 24 hours and Fairbanks as part of their itinerary. I always recommend extending that, whether it's at the start of your tour or the end of your tour, because it'll really give you a chance to see a little bit more of Fairbanks it gets you that chance to acclimate a little bit better. So I really recommend that one of the things that I would definitely recommend for anybody who's in that boat is to really stay try to stay closest to the downtown area. It really provides a good central location for being able to get out and explore things, especially if you don't have a car or there's a lot of restaurants in the downtown area, you can come visit the Morris Thompson cultural Visitor Center, there's shopping for souvenirs, there's museums, activities, lots of things that you can do right there in that downtown core area. For those people who don't have a car, especially

Jennie Flaming: 5:21

arriving early or staying a little bit late, like for all the reasons you mentioned, and also, if you're starting your trip in Fairbanks, and your luggage gets lost, and that gives you a couple of days for it to catch up. Well,

Kasey: 5:35

you know, and we hate to say it too, but you know, sometimes your flights are delayed a little bit. If you if you're on a delayed flight, and you're, you're pre arranged to where it's leaving at a certain time, they're not going to wait for you. So especially if it's on that front end of your trip, it gives you that little bit of a buffer to make sure you actually make it to Fairbanks in time to join up with your tour group.

Jennie Flaming: 6:00

Yep. And it also, you know, it's a long trip for most people to Alaska and it, you know, you get to kind of settle in, same thing, if it's at the end of your trip, you get to kind of relax a little bit before you leave. Yeah, that's really good advice. Are there any other things that you think are really good for people with kind of a shorter visit? Or maybe who don't have a car or part of a tour? Any other things that you recommend for them?

Kasey: 6:28

Yeah, you know, we mentioned it earlier, the riverboat discovery, if it's not part of your tour already, it's a great tour, not too far from downtown. So really easy to take or to get there with, you know, a cab or ride share or something like that. The University of Alaska museum of the North, same thing really easy to get there. From the downtown area or from any local lodging, there's also opportunities to go go panning that are not too far from town. So there are some really great options that you can get out and experience that, you know, for a short cab ride or a ride share ride would would get you there. Yep.

Jennie Flaming: 7:12

Well, I agree with you about gold panning to you. It's like, it's, it's really hard not to get caught up in it. Once you start. You're like, Ah, it's very addictive.

Unknown: 7:24

Well, they don't call it gold fever for no reason.

Jennie Flaming: 7:27

I know, people. It's funny when I go gold panning with guests. And they're like, Ah, I don't know, I think this might be done. And then they're like, two minutes later, they're like, obsessed.

Kasey: 7:39

Absolutely. It's hard not to be like you said,

Jennie Flaming: 7:43

yeah, yeah. Cool. I will also I will also add that like, I'm downtown Fairbanks, like you talked about the Morris Thompson Cultural Center, which is wonderful. There's also that trail that goes kind of along the Chino river behind there, where the antler arch is and all that that's also really cool to see in that same spot. Another thing you can walk to downtown. Yeah,

Kasey: 8:09

that Riverwalk from, you know, basically from where the Morris Thompson Center is on the east side of downtown all the way to Pioneer Park, which is a great summertime spot to visit. Yeah, you know, they do a great job of planting flowers along that that path and yep, really accessible. It's flat. It's really easy to walk around downtown. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming: 8:33

I totally agree. It's really nice, especially when you're traveling, like, just get outside Get Some Fresh Air soak up the midnight sun or whatever season it is. Yeah, totally. Okay. Well, um, Casey, let's switch to Well, first of all, anything else for folks that kind of fall into that category of traveller? Yeah. I,

Kasey: 8:57

there are a couple of things actually. Great. One thing I know, we talked about cabs and ride shares, but it's really, you know, nice to remember that we have a public bus system to max transit. It's called the mass transit system. It's really inexpensive. I believe a day passes $3, which lets you get on and off as many times a day as you want to, and it is actually free for anybody. 60 and over. So I know a lot of I know a lot of our visitors fall fall into that category. Yeah. But that that public bus system will get you to a lot of these places. It'll get you around downtown. It can get you to the Museum of the north and other places around town. It can even take you all the way out to North Pole.

Jennie Flaming: 9:42

Why would someone want to go to North Pole? Well, North Pole is where the spirit

Unknown: 9:48

of Christmas lives year round. It's not the actual North Pole and it's on the air on.

Kasey: 9:54

It's a little little town about 18 miles south of Fairbanks X Really, but they've got a great store called the Santa Claus house where you can go and talk to Santa almost every day of the year. You can see his reindeer are there. They've got lots of as you can imagine Christmas ornaments at this house. You can also order letters to be sent back home to you know if you've got kids or grandkids you know with a north pole postmark, so really a fun store. But there's also some really fun restaurants like the pagoda Chinese restaurant, which is heralded as one of the best Chinese restaurants in the state. Yeah.

Jennie Flaming: 10:38

And it was on a lot of times people have heard of it from being on diners, drive ins and dives, right.

Kasey: 10:45

Yeah, multiple times. Actually. Yes. Yeah, I've

Jennie Flaming: 10:48

had, I've had guests on my tour or like, to the famous Chinese restaurant. I'm like, Ah, that's gotta be Agoda. Yeah. Cool. Okay. Anything else for that crew before we move on? I don't think so. Okay. That was a great suggestion. Okay. So moving on now to folks who are doing a trip around Alaska on their own. And they have a rental car, let's say, and they're going to be in Fairbanks for a few days. Of course, all the things you already mentioned are good for someone in that situation. Also, are there any kind of additional things that you'd recommend people check out? If they have a little more time and maybe a little more freedom?

Kasey: 11:37

Yeah, absolutely. There's, you know, North Pole is always a great kind of afternoon trip or you know, half day trip, it doesn't take a full day to go and experience all of that. Chino Hot Springs Resort, which is about 60 miles away, is a great option for people, they can either stay overnight or make a day trip out of it too. They've got a host of activities out there as well as just the hot springs where people can go and soak in the Rock Lake in the pool inside. But then there's some activities and attractions that are maybe a little bit farther out of town things like running reindeer ranch or the Cina outdoor collective, where you can go dog mushing or hanging out with reindeer Yes, who and go dog washing in the summer. It's a little different, but you can do it. So, you know, but then there's also great hiking trails. And there's other places to visit that are, you know, not too far away that if you have a car are easier to access then through, you know, the public bus system or through a rideshare.

Jennie Flaming: 12:40

Yeah, definitely. I also wanted to jump in and mention that Ryan Olson from Cina outdoor collective was on the podcast last summer and talked about her experience in the I did a ride but also about the tours they offer. And then in December, she and Jane from running reindeer ranch did episode about reindeer. So to go check out yeah. Cool. Okay, anything else that is a little further out of town that's good for people to visit.

Kasey: 13:16

I think that's those are kind of the highlights right there. I mean, there's there's, of course more. But

Jennie Flaming: 13:20

yes, I agree with those. And I mean, I got engaged at Chino hotspring. So I'm a little partial to Knott's Berry, but it is really, it is a really cool experience for sure.

Unknown: 13:36

Yeah,

Jennie Flaming: 13:37

and if you're, if you're on a group tour, you'll probably stop there as part of your tour. But if you're not, I always find that that is much more interesting than it sounds like it's gonna be, you know what I mean? 100%. That's like a metal pipe. How cool can see but there are such cool interpretive signs there about all the things that the pipeline has to protect both the pipeline, but also the land around it. In in that like, interior extreme temperatures. So I think that is a pretty cool place to go to.

Unknown: 14:14

Yeah, it really is. And like you said, the interpretive signage they have up there, you can also see what they call a pig, which is what they put through a pipeline to clean it because things needed to be cleaned. So it's really interesting. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming: 14:30

it definitely is. One other question I had for you to Casey before we get into, like Fairbanks as base camp type things. Could you talk a little bit about the sort of craft beer and filling scene in Fairbanks because for the size of the town, it's pretty awesome. And I know that you personally really enjoy them. So, um, could you share a little bit about that too, for people who are in craft beverages.

Unknown: 15:01

Yeah. You know, like you mentioned in my bio it's one of my you know, top activities is to drink locally made beer and spirits. Yeah. But we right here in the Fairbanks area have oh gosh, four breweries who do lat 65 Silver Gulch black spruce. Oh, and midnight mine five. Sorry, I forgot one there. Yeah. But, you know, they all do it a little bit differently and some specialize in German beer, some have more cider, some, you know, so it really kind of depends on your vibe, but they're all really great breweries. And a lot of them have food trucks at them regularly so you can go and have dinner and and a drink. And then on the distillery side, we have quite a few too. We have Ursa Major. There's Fairbanks distilling company, hoarfrost distilling and Arctic harvests out in North Pole, who are all doing some different types of things, some do fudcon Some do ROM and some have done moonshine. So really, you know, a wide variety there, too.

Jennie Flaming: 16:10

Yeah, for sure. I am going to especially give a shout out to the various cranberry concoctions that were frost house. They look very pretty, and they're delicious. Oh, yeah. And the other really

Unknown: 16:26

cool thing is if you know if somebody's listening to this, and as you know, oh, maybe you know, going to the craft brewery isn't my thing. But I'd like to sample some of these. A lot of our local restaurants have these beers and spirits available at them too. So there's multiple ways to be able to check them out. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming: 16:46

for sure. Cool. Okay. So, um, we're gonna take a short break. And then when we come back, we're gonna talk about using Fairbanks as a base camp to explore further beyond a few other Fairbanks things. So we'll be right back.

R. Jay F: 17:03

Hi, everyone, j here. I hope you're enjoying this episode so far. Thanks to all of you for listening. You may have noticed that Alaska uncovered does not have ads. We like to invite people as guests on our podcast who we truly believe have important experiences and knowledge to share with you. Even when we don't have guests, we value sharing our honest experiences and knowledge freely, you can help support our work to bring you accurate, entertaining episodes about Alaska travel and life by supporting us on Patreon. The link is in the show notes patreon.com/alaska uncovered, you can become a member for free or you can become a financial supporter of this podcast for $5 a month and get access to our exclusive members only podcast episodes once a month, along with our mailbag join now

Jennie Flaming: 17:49

alum from explore Fairbanks and we're talking about all the awesome things to do in Fairbanks during the summer. So Casey, I thought of a question. I wanted to ask you that before we get into the base camp thing. So does it really not get dark in the summer?

Unknown: 18:09

It really does not get dark in the summer. Actually, so from May 17 to July 27, I think is the right days, off the top of my head, we have 24 hours of daylight Yeah, the entire time. And now it doesn't mean that the sun doesn't set, it just means that the sun doesn't set far enough below the horizon for the skies to get dark. So for 70 straight days, we have 24 hours of sunlight. And for people who are coming to visit and have never experienced that. It can really kind of throw them off. Yeah. Understandably so. Our lodging facilities all have blackout curtains. But one of those kinds of insider tips is I would recommend people bring a sleeping mask because yeah, help kind of be able for them to shut their brains down and be able to sleep at night, even when it's daylight outside.

Jennie Flaming: 19:06

Yes, I totally agree about that. And, you know, I have observed that it's very different when you live there versus visiting because when you are living in Fairbanks, or at least this is my experience, it's sort of happened slowly, right? Like, well, it doesn't happen slowly happens fast, you know, it's dark, and then you're gaining light really fast. And then it's summer. But you're not you don't just wake up one day with no darkness like you do. If you are visiting and you you're like, oh, whoa, and then especially if you're like from the East Coast and have a four hour time change. Also, like I've definitely had guests who arrived at the airport and they were like, I don't I can't make any sense of what time I don't

Unknown: 19:50

know what to do with myself. Right. Or like

Jennie Flaming: 19:52

I was told that it was one in the morning, but that can't be right. That is right. It is one in the morning.

Unknown: 19:59

Yeah. You're right. And I will say I am one of the lucky ones that it doesn't bother me. Yeah, I sleep with my curtains open all summer long. But I do know other people even born and raised here, people who, who it really does kind of have have that effect on them where they really need a dark room to be able to sleep at night. So it really just kind of depends on the person. But I think especially for those visitors, it's more of kind of that shock of it being so different from where they're, you know, from where they're from. Yes, for sure. And especially if you are, you know, being like for sure, tent camping, but

Jennie Flaming: 20:36

even in an RV, they don't always have blackout curtains, or they often don't. So that eyemask tip is a really good one. Okay, so, um, you know, a lot of people fly into Anchorage and use that as a base camp for their trip. But just letting everybody know, you can also fly into Fairbanks and use that as your base camp. So um, Casey, for someone who's doing that, let's say they have a week or, or so and they're going to use Fairbanks as a base camp. What are some places that are maybe a little bit further away that you can get to you on a day trip? Or a couple day trip and then come back to Fairbanks and use it to fly in and out of what are some of your favorite suggestions for that? And well,

Unknown: 21:23

it's funny because there's only so so few roads that lead in and out of Fairbanks.

Jennie Flaming: 21:30

You can go in three directions. Yeah.

Unknown: 21:33

But there's awesome things in all three of those directions. Yeah. So if you think about going kind of North, you know, Chino Hot Springs Resort, like we mentioned earlier, makes for a great day or overnight trip. Yeah. But also the Arctic Circle. You know, it's kind of one of those bucket list things that not everybody gets to go and do. And there are great tour options in and out of Fairbanks to be able to get there, you can drive it yourself, however, that comes with a caveat is that most of our rental car companies don't allow you to take their rental cars on that road, because it's mostly gravel. It's remotes, it is a truckers road. So you really have to know and understand the rules of that road to be able to travel it safely. So we often don't encourage people to do it on their own. Although you can. Yeah, but there are there's there's multiple tour companies who offer that. And with a combination of flying and driving, some are, you know what they call a fly, fly or drive drive. So it really kind of depends how much time you want to invest into that into that trip and and what type of landscape and scenery you want to see when you're on that tour.

Jennie Flaming: 22:47

Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I would just like, put in a little plug for the drive and fly because yeah, it is like at least a seven hour drive. Can it ever be shorter than that? Not really perfect weather. And I feel like it can't but then you also get to see you have this experience from the air, which is also very cool. In addition to being not repeating the extremely long drive, right? If

Unknown: 23:22

you like road trips you do. Yeah, and the nice thing about that drive to are also is that generally speaking, you're going to be with a tour guide who was narrating the trip for you? Yes, we go to explain some of the landscape and the scenery changes that you're seeing as you travel north to the circle and some of the the landmarks and things along the way and you'll get to stop and get out and stretch your legs and so it's really a great, great opportunity to take a tour above the

Jennie Flaming: 23:51

Arctic Circle. Yeah, totally agree. I totally agree that a tour is the way to go. Okay, what about so that's kind of the northern direction. What about the southern directions so

Unknown: 24:06

the southern directions which there are two there Southwest and South East you know, but kind of looking southwest you you go right through Denali National Park as you are driving south out of Fairbanks. Yep. And for a lot of people who are on organized tours they're gonna make a stop and Denali anyway but but if you're doing it on your own, it's a great opportunity. You know to go explore the national park there there are places you can stay in that area if you want to make it you know, an overnight trip but going to the park there are there shuttle buses that you can take that gets you deeper into the park so you can hopefully see some more wildlife and see some more landscape. There's great hiking trails in Denali have all sorts of, you know, experience levels, there's flat trails, there's some pretty steep and and extreme trails to So choose your own adventure. Yeah. But you know Denali is a really great park to visit and and really easy and accessible to

Jennie Flaming: 25:10

Yeah, yep. And I'll just mention that Denali is much closer to Fairbanks than it is to Anchorage. So where you fly in for most people depends on like the whole scope of your trip. But if you're primarily going to Denali, flying into Fairbanks is a great option because it's a much shorter drive not that the drive between Anchorage and Denali isn't beautiful. It is beautiful, but it is longer, right?

Kasey: 25:37

Yeah, yeah. from Fairbanks. It's about a two hour drive to the to the entrance of Denali National Park. So if you're thinking about coming from Anchorage, it's closer to that four to five hour range. So it's a lot closer if you if you fly into Fairbanks. Yep.

Jennie Flaming: 25:52

And you can also take the Alaska railroad down there. It's also closer to fare but it takes longer on the train. But it's closer to closer to Fairbanks than incurred. Yeah.

Unknown: 26:04

So it's about a four hour train trip between Fairbanks and Denali. And what some people will do is, you know, a we take the train to Denali in the morning and then arrange for shuttle, you know, from Denali back to Fairbanks or vice versa. Yeah. So there are some of those options available to where you kind of see almost like the fly drive, you know, to the Arctic Circle, you get to see and experience different things on the train than you do on the road. So yep, that's definitely an option there

Jennie Flaming: 26:33

to cool. Hey, does that leave us with the southeast?

Unknown: 26:41

It does it with the Richardson Highway. I love the Richardson Highway. Yeah, the Richardson Highway. I think underrated by a lot by a lot of people. Yes, but I totally agree. Beautiful. And leading, you know, down towards Valdez you know, it's a it's a little bit of a hike to get to Valdez from here. But you know, that is a great trip. But there's places to stay along the way between Fairbanks in there. So there's lag rapids lodge south of Delta. There are some new places popping up in delta that are cool to stay at nice. There's some great camping spots between here and there. So if you are one of those people who have rented a motorhome or want to tent camp, there's Harding Lake and birch Lake and Quartz Lake and delta Clearwater, and there's all sorts of great campgrounds along the Richardson Highway. Yes. You know, really provide some great opportunities.

Jennie Flaming: 27:45

Yeah, absolutely. Um, anything else? Along those lines? I think we covered all the, the major driving directions. Yeah,

Unknown: 27:55

I mean, there's only so many so many. You can go I mean, which, which makes it easy in some ways, because it kind of like well, what do you want to see? It will guide you on a direction. Yes.

Jennie Flaming: 28:08

One other thing that I'm just going to mention in here, Kasey, this is this is definitely outside the scope of this particular episode. But I do want to mention that for people who are national parks chasers because I've had quite a few clients like this Fairbanks is a good jumping off point for gates to the Arctic National Park. But it's not close to Fairbanks. Like taking a couple of hops on a small plane because you know, gate to the Arctic is roadless, and, and my husband Jay, who's the part time co host on this podcast, he worked there for three summers, I spent quite a bit of time there. It's awesome. And Fairbanks is about as close as you can get to that. Um, you know, in a place where there's like an airport, but but that isn't seen a lot. Like it's not that great. But I just wanted to mention that we should do an episode in the future about gates, but yeah, just throw that out there too. Yeah,

Kasey: 29:14

no, you're absolutely right. And that's one of the places you know, we often refer to Fairbanks as a base camp. Yeah. You know, and that that is one of the places that we are absolutely a base camp to, you know, because it's easier to get there from here. That doesn't mean that it's easy. Yeah.

Jennie Flaming: 29:34

Yeah, it's still it's still a way it's first. Yeah. And it's still gonna involve flying. At least on at least one small type of aircraft, right. Yeah. Awesome. Okay, so Casey, um, anything else about that before we jump into the final wrap up questions? Well, I

Kasey: 29:55

kind of actually you know, now that I'm kind of thinking about a little But one of the things I wanted to mention for for any type of visitor coming to Fairbanks is that there's actually a pretty wide variety of tours and activities that will do pickups at your hotel. Yeah, offs. So even if you know, some of these, you know, like the Arctic Circle tours, some of them will pick you up at your hotel. So even if you're one of those people who are maybe not renting a car, but want to add that to your trip, yeah, talk to your talk to the tour providers about whether or not they offer transportation because a lot of them do. And you'd be surprised. I mean, there's fishing tours that do their city tours that do so really check in with with the actual provider and see what they recommend for for transportation to their location, or if they offer it themselves. Yes,

Jennie Flaming: 30:52

that that is really, really good advice, especially around like, if you're trying to make something happen, and you can't quite figure it out. Like, these are common questions, you know, people all the time, who operate tours, have people asking them, like, how do I get to you, and they will totally help you figure that out?

Kasey: 31:10

Yeah, you know, the best thing I can recommend is that, you know, the tour provider or the activity provider is going to be the expert on their property. So, I know we all love to Google search and read the Reddit forums and you know, but they're really the experts. So if you if you call, you know, running reindeer ranch and ask them what they recommend for getting there, they're gonna have some of the best advice that you could possibly get.

Jennie Flaming: 31:35

I absolutely agree with that. And that is one struggle with like Reddit forums and TripAdvisor you know, you might be hearing from somebody who's been there one time versus someone who's helping people get there every day. Right? Yeah. Cool. Okay. Kasey, what is your favorite month in Fairbanks?

Unknown: 32:00

So one of my favorite months would be would have to be May. I, I love I love me because it's kind of the the month of change in my mind, the beginning of May here has a tendency to be a little brown. Before the leaves have sprouted the snow is generally melted. Yeah, by mid May. We are typically very, very green, you know, things will sprout up in the middle of May. We're at full 24 hours of daylight. So I think like what do you think about months in the and the month that sees the most most change from start to end? It's probably May and that's what

Jennie Flaming: 32:43

yeah, that is really magical. When I lived in Fairbanks, I think I've mentioned this on the podcast before, like I am from Seattle, which is a place where spring takes many, many, many months. And in Fairbanks, it's like three days. You know, it's like breakout. And then there's three days of spring and then it's summer. It just happened so fast. It's so exciting. It's really cool.

Kasey: 33:09

Yeah. So we have this kind of phenomenon in Fairbanks called green up. Yeah. And it's typically around May 17, I think is what the what the historians put it at it as what happens. But literally in a 24 hour period, you'll see things go from brown to green, diesel, but the grass will, you know, become more vibrant. Yeah, it really is this almost magical period. Last May actually, we were hosting a travel writer conference in Fairbanks, and they were here during that time. And I know that we told everybody on their first day, pay attention because it's going to change. And you know, on that second or third day and they were here they're like, oh my gosh, it's green. And

Jennie Flaming: 33:55

we you we told you this would happen. Yeah, that is so cool. Yeah. Okay. Um, what are your favorite restaurant restaurants? in Fairbanks? Yeah,

Unknown: 34:11

I so I love a good locally owned restaurant. And yes, luckily, most of our restaurants are other than, you know, the chain fast food restaurants. But especially when it comes to summertime, which I know is kind of our focus today is I love a restaurant that has has an outside dining option. Yeah. You know, eating outside in the winter is not totally recommended for many reasons. So I love I love being able to eat outside in the summer whether it's you know, the deck at the pump house, or grabbing food from a Thai food place and having a picnic in a park or you know, there's there's so many places that have whether it's a rooftop deck or it's a patio. Yeah That's what I always look for is a good outdoor dining option in the summer. Yes,

Jennie Flaming: 35:06

I completely agree with that. So great. And I love that you mentioned Thai food because everyone from Fairbanks talks about Thai food, everyone Yeah,

Unknown: 35:18

we amazingly we have over 20 Thai food restaurants you know for for town our size. That's quite Yeah. So we like to say there's fancy Thai there's drive thru Thai, there's, you know, spicy Thai and not spy eat out. Or you want you can find it and yes, here's the insider tip. If you ask any Fairbanks and what their favorite Thai food restaurant is, you're gonna get 20 different answers from 20 different people.

Jennie Flaming: 35:47

Yes, that's true. Definitely. And sometimes people will say, Well, you know, when I'm at work, it's which is over here. It's this one, but this one is close to my house. I mean, it's this one. Yeah. The

Unknown: 36:02

other answer you will get is, oh, well, I like the pod tie from that place. But I like the curry from that place. And I like you from that place.

Jennie Flaming: 36:10

Yeah. Yes, that's how I Yes. Yeah, I totally get that. Oh, that's so fun. Okay, what is your favorite thing to do sticky with summer for right now? What is your favorite thing to do in Fairbanks in the summer when it's your day off? Well,

Unknown: 36:33

hmm. I kind of changes my answer how you phrased it there too. My favorite thing to do in Fairbanks I would say would would be drinking those locally brewed beverages and spirits specifically and outside patio if they haven't, yet. I I'm a big camping girl. So I love to go camping. So honestly, I like to get away from Fairbanks.

Jennie Flaming: 36:55

Yeah, of course.

Unknown: 36:56

But you know, so I, you know, I'm lucky enough that my family owns or some of my family owns a cabinet courts Lake down the Richardson Highway. Nice. A lot of time at courts like, but just you know, trying to get out and see as much of the state and honestly at times getting away from cell phone service. Yeah, it's magical. Yes. So magical. Yeah. So I really like getting just getting outside and being outside as much as possible in the summer.

Jennie Flaming: 37:27

Yes. Super important. Well, Kasey, thank you so much for coming on and talking about Fairbanks and sharing that with us today. Thanks for being here.

Unknown: 37:40

Yeah, thanks so much for having me. This has been really fun.

Jennie Flaming: 37:44

I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Kasey. Experts like Kasey who really know their local area like she does Fairbanks are what really make this podcast fun, and it is wonderful to be able to bring our guests to you. You can help keep us going by subscribing to our Patreon. The link is in the show notes. And in addition to the joy that you will get from supporting Alaska uncovered, you will also get access to our monthly subscriber only episode. In your mind at the end of June. It will be about avoiding crowds and you don't want to miss it. So go ahead and subscribe now if you haven't already. The link is in the show notes.