Meet the owner

World citizen, former teacher, long-time Idahoan, passionate proponent of the slow food movement…and, of course, restaurant business maven…a host of adjective phrases come to mind when describing Stephanie Telesco. For Stephanie and her husband and Brick Oven co-owner Jeff Nee, restaurant ownership was primarily an extension of their belief in the importance of sitting down together for a home-cooked meal.

Stephanie explained it this way:

The Brick Oven Bistro never consciously set out to be a “family restaurant” per se, but we did very much wanted to create a family dining experience. We’ve carried this intention through on a lot of levels…but the fundamentals are a casual ambiance, wholesome food, and a staff that embodies the caring that we believe family dinners should model.

Most people who come and eat with us got this intention right from the get-go. You all walked up together and got your food from the people who served it. You interacted with them. You  went and sat down together in areas that look like a family dining room. You ate simple, healthy and abundant meals that could just as easily had been prepared by your mother or grandmother. And then you did the most important thing aside from nourishing your bodies. You talked. No distractions. No TV. No one jumping up and running to the kitchen to grab something they’d forgotten (that’s what our staff is for!). You just plain “visit.”