‘It was such an iconic place’: Community mourns loss of Wolf Lodge Steakhouse

For the last 25 years, JR and Marie Van Dyke had a standing date.

Once a month, they’d drive the 15 miles from their Carlin Bay home to Wolf Lodge Steakhouse.

The retirees would nestle into table 47 and order their cowboy steaks – medium-rare.

On Monday when they heard the restaurant had burned down, Marie shed a tear. A few days later, they made the drive for a different reason: to see for themselves the fire’s destruction.

A stone chimney rose above twisted metal, with a little wood even visible from the red lodge. Someone zip-tied a bouquet of flowers to a still-standing pole.

“It was such an iconic place,” Marie said. “It’s very painful for us to see this.”

The couple took a chunk of burned wood home for a keepsake.

The Van Dykes were among dozens who came to see the remains of Wolf Lodge Steakhouse this week.

The restaurant first served as a convenience store when it was built in 1938. Since 1982, it has been a destination steakhouse.

Wally and Patti Wickel converted the store into the cowboy steakhouse. It was always known for its staff that lean more family than anything else.

Joe Kress, one of the first cooks at the restaurant, brought his family to work with him. His wife, Julie, and their children waited tables, according to Kress’s 2002 obituary in The Spokesman-Review.

The Inn’s unique cooking style – over an open tamarack fire – dates back to its earliest days.

The steakhouse is owned by the Engle family. Thomas Engle, the family’s patriarch, died in 2021. His celebration of life was at Wolf Lodge. His wife, Lisa, put the restaurant into a trust last year, according to property records.

The couple’s daughter, Brittany Engle of Post Falls, thanked the community for their support this week in a Facebook post.

“The outpouring of love from the community has been a light in this unthinkable time,” she wrote. “The warmth it brings to our hearts, seeing all of you post your own cherished memories at the restaurant, means so much to us.”

She went on to thank Shawn and Nicole Martel, who managed the day-to-day operations of the restaurant.

“What you have sacrificed for this restaurant (your baby), has never gone unnoticed by our family, staff, and community,” she wrote. “Your heart and soul was etched into every corner of the business.”

Engle wrote she’s unsure what the future holds, but “we can only hope to see Wolf Lodge stand again.”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Jason Bluebaum with the Idaho Fire Marshal’s Office confirmed Friday. Additional information will likely be released next week, he said.

Bluebaum told The Coeur d’Alene Press that the agency had ruled out criminal activity, but a specific cause of the fire had yet to be determined.

Nicole told The Press the fire started in an exhaust hood while the restaurant was closed as employees were arriving for a Labor Day picnic. Food for the party was being prepared in the kitchen. The Martels did not respond to a request for comment.

In the meantime, Angela Navejas, founder of the nonprofit Made with Kindness Foundation created in honor of three University of Idaho students slain in 2022, stepped up to create a GoFundMe for the Wolf Lodge Steakhouse’s employees.

Many of the employees at Wolf Lodge worked there for decades, and finding a new job can be difficult, so the funds will help them bridge that gap and have some breathing room, Navejas said. As of Friday afternoon, the fundraiser had garnered $8,000 of its $50,000 goal. All the money raised will go directly to employees, Navejas said.

“The outpouring of love from the community has been a light in this unthinkable time” Brittany Engle