The Capri Restaurant's Meridian outpost has closed its doors, ending a nearly six-year run at 1407 W. MacMillan Road. A thank-you note taped in the window said Sunday, November 1, was the location's last day, but gave no explanation for why the strip-mall diner shut down.
The Idaho Statesman reported that the Meridian restaurant has closed “until further notice.” The note in the window didn't specify a reason for the closure, leaving longtime customers without an explanation for why the location went dark.
The Meridian Capri had been open for not quite six years. According to the same report, the restaurant opened as a second, strip-mall location at the end of 2020, expanding the Capri brand beyond its original Boise home for the first time. By January 20, 2021, the Meridian spot was fully up and running, as the Statesman's Words & Deeds column reported at the time, declaring that “The Capri Restaurant has officially welcomed the world at 1407 W. McMillan Road.”
A Co-Branded Vision With Delsa's Ice Cream
The Meridian expansion was originally planned as a joint venture. Per BoiseDev, the Capri was set to headline a co-branded restaurant alongside Delsa's Ice Cream Parlor at the McMillan Road address. Permits for the project indicated a 3,728-square-foot building meant to house both businesses under one roof.
That combined footprint on MacMillan Road is now empty of Capri's breakfast crowd, though the dossier evidence doesn't clarify what, if anything, remains of the Delsa's side of the arrangement. The note in the window offered customers thanks but no roadmap for whether the restaurant might return.
Boise's Original Capri Keeps the Grill Running
While the Meridian branch has gone dark, the original Capri at 2520 W. Fairview Ave. in Boise continues to serve customers as usual. That location has fed Idaho customers since the early 1950s, according to the Statesman's earlier Words & Deeds coverage, and owner Nick West took over the diner-style eatery in 1998.
The Boise restaurant remains open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the Statesman reported, citing the restaurant's website. It's the kind of old-school breakfast institution where a rotating sign out front has become a neighborhood landmark — Rudy the Rooster, a statue perched atop that sign, was installed in 2016.
Mixed Reviews Across Both Locations
Online reviews for the two Capri locations tell somewhat different stories. The Meridian restaurant carried a 3.3 out of 5 rating on Yelp and 4.0 out of 5 on Google, while the Boise original scored higher marks of 3.9 on Yelp and 4.5 on Google, per the Statesman's reporting.
For now, the Boise Capri remains the sole place to get the diner's breakfast fare, with its Meridian sibling's future left unaddressed by the note taped to its window.
