Small Business
Roadside Refreshment
A tour of out-of-town eateries
By Amy Newman
F

rom top-notch burger joints to upscale fare, fresh seafood to fusion cuisine, Alaskans have no shortage of fantastic dining options—even outside of cities and larger towns. From roadside diners to intimate taverns and small cafés nestled in the woods, these small, locally owned restaurants along Alaska’s road system provide a dining experience so big, they are a destination unto themselves.

Long Rifle Lodge, Glacier View
The sight of Matanuska Glacier from the Glenn Highway is enough of an excuse to drive almost two hours out of Anchorage. The Long Rifle Lodge in Glacier View, serving food to match the spectacular scenery, is an excuse to stay for a while.

Opened in the late ‘70s, the restaurant has grown from just a handful of tables to a 70-seat dining room. Locals, tourists, and Alaskans come for the views and the ale-house-style menu after a day of exploring, heli-skiing, or whenever they’re in search of delicious, creative food.

“Great burgers, fish sandwiches, homemade black bean and quinoa burritos,” owner Kate Riddles says of the restaurant’s menu. “Our veggie burgers are made here too, [and] one of our summer favorites is our blueberry chipotle tacos.” The lodge’s pies, crisps, cinnamon rolls, and desserts are also all made from scratch daily.

The view is as impressive as the menu. The lodge, right along the highway, overlooks the blue-white terminus of the 27-mile-long Matanuska Glacier. And for those times when the wildlife doesn’t make an appearance, the animals are on full display inside.

“We have black and brown bears, a Kodiak grizzly, a musk ox, mountain goat, Dall sheep, and many other Alaskan animal mounts on display,” Riddles says. “It’s a great place for tourists to come and see Alaska’s animals up close and personal without getting bit.”

The Long Rifle Lodge is located at Mile 102 of the Glenn Highway. Find it online at longriflelodge.co.

Flying Squirrel Bakery & Café, Talkeetna
Opened in 2009, the Flying Squirrel Bakery & Café is tucked into the woods on Talkeetna Spur Road, away from “the hubbub of ‘downtown’ Talkeetna,” says owner Anita Golton.

“We try to offer something for everyone, including counter-service style breakfast and lunch, wood-fired pizza nights, and many options for vegetarians, gluten-free folks, and carnivores, too,” she says.

The café—called “the Squirrel” by locals—offers creative breads, sandwiches, wood-fired pizzas, and pastries. Whenever possible, dishes incorporate Alaska-sourced and Talkeetna-grown ingredients, such as carrots, zucchini, rhubarb, berries, barley, and birch syrup, including fruits and vegetables from Birch Creek Ranch, which is run by Golton’s husband Brian Kingsbury.

Flying Squirrel Bakery & Café’s rotating bread schedule includes everything bagels, baked in the wood-fired oven.

Friday and Saturday evenings are pizza night at the Flying Squirrel Bakery & Café in Talkeetna. Pizzas are cooked in the café’s wood-fired oven, which burns locally sourced birch.

Flying Squirrel Bakery & Café

Bagel
Flying Squirrel Bakery & Café’s rotating bread schedule includes everything bagels, baked in the wood-fired oven.

Friday and Saturday evenings are pizza night at the Flying Squirrel Bakery & Café in Talkeetna. Pizzas are cooked in the café’s wood-fired oven, which burns locally sourced birch.

Flying Squirrel Bakery & Café

Pizza oven
Breads are baked fresh daily in the wood-fired oven, which burns only locally harvested birch. The rotating schedule includes olive oil baguettes, bagels, Alaska barley bread, challah, and molasses multigrain. They’re sold by the loaf and used in the selection of sandwiches.

The café also has a large selection of desserts and pastries that pair perfectly with an organic espresso or coffee. The Squirrel is known for its rugelach (a Yiddish croissant stuffed with nuts, raisins, or cinnamon) but also has muffins, scones, cookies, and brownies, plus a revolving selection of more decadent desserts like cappuccino cheesecake, raspberry truffle cake, and a chocolate grasshopper cake.

Flying Squirrel Bakery & Café is located at Mile 11 Talkeetna Spur Road. Find it online at flyingsquirrelcafe.com or on Facebook @flyingsquirrelcafe.

McKinley Creekside Café, Denali Park
Fifteen minutes south of the entrance to Denali National Park & Preserve, the McKinley Creekside Café has been dishing out “fresh casual fare made with love” to locals, independent travelers, and small tour groups since 1997.

The café on the banks of Carlo Creek serves “homestyle meals of meatloaf and chicken pot pie, fresh Alaskan halibut and salmon, daily fish specials, fish tacos, prime rib, and the best hamburgers around,” says Holly Slinkard, who co-owns the café and adjoining cabins with her best friend and business partner, Tracey Smith. “Everything we do is done by scratch. Every soup, every sauce, we bake our own bread—it’s crazy.”

Rhubarb straight from the café garden makes this strawberry rhubarb pie a Creekside Café staple.

McKinley Creekside Café’s blueberry pancakes are made from a family recipe shared by kitchen manager Kristina Miller.

McKinley Creekside Café

strawberry rhubarb pie
Rhubarb straight from the café garden makes this strawberry rhubarb pie a Creekside Café staple.

McKinley Creekside Café’s blueberry pancakes are made from a family recipe shared by kitchen manager Kristina Miller.

McKinley Creekside Café

blueberry pancakes
The café uses locally sourced ingredients whenever possible, peppered with herbs and veggies from its on-site greenhouse and garden. In addition to the set menu, the café has a weekend brunch, house-smoked ribs on Wednesday, and prime rib on Fridays. It also offers a boxed lunch to go for all-day explorers—it comes with a choice of one of three sandwiches or a quinoa bowl, plus a granola bar, bakery item, chips, and bottled water; guests can order the night before to have it ready for pick-up by 6:00 a.m.

The bakery is famous for its homemade Denali-sized cinnamon rolls (also available in a smaller Texas-size) and its rhubarb-strawberry coffee cake, made with fresh garden rhubarb. The rhubarb also finds its way into the café’s rhubarb muffins, strawberry-rhubarb pie and jam, and the occasional rhubarb lemonade. Guests can enjoy Alaska Artisan Coffee or a specialty cocktail out on the deck, soaking in the view of the Alaska Range to the west and, on occasion, a moose or two sauntering through the creek.

McKinley Creekside Café is located at Mile 224 of the Parks Highway. Find it online at mckinleycabins.com/copy-of-cafe-bakery or on Facebook @mckinleycreekside.

Moose-AKa’s, Denali Park
Moose-AKa’s is proof that exquisite food can be found in the most unlikely of places. The Balkan-style tavern, named Alaska’s coziest restaurant by Food and Wine magazine, is tucked alongside gift shops and tour operators on the strip of boardwalk in Glitter Gulch, just outside the entrance to Denali National Park & Preserve.

Inside the small dining room, co-owners Michael-Jared and Maja Waring are serving Eastern European cuisine that can’t be found anywhere else in Alaska.

“We serve dishes from Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro,” says Michael, who is the restaurant’s sole chef. “We are one of the few restaurants in the state that don’t offer pizza, burgers, or seafood.”

Instead, the menu offers stuffed peppers, rice pilafs, and the eponymous moussaka, made with layers of potato, bacon, and ground beef. The beer and wine list includes Serbian imports that Michael says are only served at Moose-AKa’s. He prepares each dish from scratch daily, with meat from Mike’s Meats in Eagle River and produce from Charlie’s Produce in Anchorage.

“There is no server assigned to a table—we serve every table as a team. Our guests get to interact with the full staff, even myself as the chef when the opportunity presents itself.”
Michael-Jared Waring Co-owner Moose-AKa’s
The menu is only part of the restaurant’s appeal. Moose-AKa’s approach to service is different, and part of what helped it earn that “coziest restaurant” designation.

“There is no server assigned to a table—we serve every table as a team. Our guests get to interact with the full staff, even myself as the chef when the opportunity presents itself,” Michael says. “We have also adopted the European custom that allows our guests to relax and not feel rushed, and during the menu presentation, we inform them that we will not present the check until it is requested. This allows them to feel comfortable relaxing as long as they would like.”

Moose-AKa’s is located at Mile 238.9 of the Parks Highway. Find it online at moose-akas.com or on Facebook @Mooseakas.

49th State Brewing – Denali Park, Healy
Despite the name, the Interior outpost of the popular Anchorage eatery is located not in the town of Denali Park but in Healy, on the north side of the park itself. Dining at 49th State Brewing – Denali Park is not exactly the same as dining at the flagship Anchorage location. The restaurants share a name, but the experience, from the ambiance to the food, is designed to be different.

“The aesthetic in Anchorage is more refined, not as rustic,” says co-founder David McCarthy. “In Denali, it’s more about the ambiance of what’s around us, and we incorporate that into the restaurant.”

It begins with the courtyard, designed to evoke the feeling of camping. The entry gate—a replica of one of the original entry gates to Denali National Park—leads to a campfire that’s always burning, surrounded by wood benches made by a local artist. There’s a deck to admire the mountain ranges, a horseshoe pit, a live music stage, and a replica of Bus 142, the infamous wreck that attracted hikers to the Stampede Trail (until it was removed in 2020).

The interior echoes the outdoors, with locally harvested birch trees behind the bar, and the walls are painted different shades of green and brown so that a 360-degree turn replicates the changing seasons. On one wall there’s a driftwood motif; on another, yak skulls from locally raised and harvested yaks; a third has polished airplane propellers attached to beer kegs.

“Everything in that space, including this large centerpiece that is the fireplace, is part of this welcoming of the outside, inside,” McCarthy says. “You open the doors, and the forest and trees from the outside literally continue inside.”

The menu of 49th State Brewing – Denali Park naturally includes some of the same items as the Anchorage headquarters, but some specialties are unique to the Interior.

Artem Shestakov

The menu of 49th State Brewing – Denali Park naturally includes some of the same items as the Anchorage headquarters, but some specialties are unique to the Interior.

Artem Shestakov

The menu of 49th State Brewing - Denali Park naturally includes some of the same items as the Anchorage headquarters, but some specialties are unique to the Interior.
The interior of 49th State Brewing – Denali Park is designed to feel like the outdoors with driftwood and birch motifs, yak skulls, and a color scheme that replicates the changing seasons.

Artem Shestakov

The interior of 49th State Brewing – Denali Park is designed to feel like the outdoors with driftwood and birch motifs, yak skulls, and a color scheme that replicates the changing seasons.
The interior of 49th State Brewing – Denali Park is designed to feel like the outdoors with driftwood and birch motifs, yak skulls, and a color scheme that replicates the changing seasons.

Artem Shestakov

Like the Anchorage location, 49th State Brewing – Denali Park’s menu is classic pub fare centered around sustainable Alaska foods. The menus have some overlap—like the Bavarian pretzel with cheese, the king crabby melt, and the yak burger—but other items on both the food and beer menu are only served at the Healy branch.

“We have sausages that are made with our beer, and they’re on the menu in the Denali location but not in Anchorage,” McCarthy says. “We have flatbread pizzas with unique toppings that are only up on that Denali location. We make beer at that location that is only served there. We don’t can it; it’s only on tap or growler.”

The differences in food, beer, and ambiance were intentional.

“We wanted to create this oasis that everybody could pull in and stop, whether they’re grabbing something to go, sitting to take a break, or grabbing some beer or soda to go,” McCarthy says. “We can’t even tell you how many people—truck drivers and locals going back and forth on the highway—use this as a stopping point.”

49th State Brewing – Denali Park is located at Mile 248.4 of the Parks Highway. Find it at 49statebrewing.com/denali or on Facebook @49thStateBrewingDenaliPark.

Monderosa Bar and Grill, Nenana
Less than an hour’s drive from Fairbanks, in a small log cabin 3.5 miles north of Nenana proper: that’s the Monderosa Bar and Grill. The Monderosa has been serving burgers, chicken, sandwiches, and more for forty years. Visitors to the Monderosa are greeted by colorful hanging flower baskets and a large sign that makes a single, bold claim: “Still the Best Burgers in Alaska.”

“We’re well known for our hamburgers, but we strive for excellent quality in everything we serve,” says owner Donna Mather. “If you haven’t had a Mondo burger, you need to come try one.”

The Monstrosity Burger at Monderosa in Nenana has a full pound of ground beef, two cheeses, bacon, and all the fixings.

Monderosa

The Monstrosity Burger at Monderosa in Nenana has a full pound of ground beef, two cheeses, bacon, and all the fixings.
The Monstrosity Burger at Monderosa in Nenana has a full pound of ground beef, two cheeses, bacon, and all the fixings.

Monderosa

There are two Mondo burgers to choose from—the classic or the monstrosity. The classic is a half-pounder topped with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, and a choice of American, Swiss, or pepper jack cheese (there’s also the Mondo bacon cheeseburger, which is the classic Mondo with bacon). For heartier appetites—or anyone planning to drive straight through to Anchorage without stopping—the Monstrosity Mondo is a full pound of beef topped with bacon, American and pepper jack cheeses, and all the fixings.

As one review on Trip Advisor put it: “Three hours later, still full, didn’t eat it all.”

The Monderosa Bar and Grill is located at Mile 309 of the Parks Highway. Find it on Facebook @mondonenana.

Hilltop Restaurant, Fox
What began as a small, roadside shack in the mid-’70s has become a must-stop spot not just for truckers but for anybody in search of good food and friendly service along the Elliott Highway.

Hilltop Restaurant & Marketplace, just north of Fox and about a half-hour outside of Fairbanks, serves the hearty, homestyle meals expected from a roadside diner, with portion sizes to match. Pancakes, omelets, and biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Burgers, meatloaf, and chicken fried steak, plus soup and chili for lunch and dinner. But it’s the homemade pies that make drivers pump the brakes.

“We’ve been told we have the best burgers, but our signature is our pie,” says manager Kelly Lindig. “We have our own bumper stickers that [read], ‘I Brake for Pie!’”

Hilltop’s pie options are plentiful. Coconut, banana, and chocolate cream pies piled high with luxurious clouds of whipped cream. Blueberry, three berry, apple, rhubarb, and strawberry rhubarb. Butterfinger, peanut butter, and the Fatman, a walnut shortbread crust layered with cream cheese and chocolate fillings. The pies are displayed diner style—individually sliced, plated, and placed in a see-thru refrigerated case.

Hilltop’s pies have such a devoted following, a customer once caused a minor panic on its Facebook page when she posted that she’d been told the restaurant had lost its pie lady.

Not to worry, the restaurant reassured her. The pie lady was still baking; they simply must have called the wrong number.

Hilltop Restaurant is located at Mile 5.5 of the Elliott Highway. Find them on Facebook @Hilltop-Truck-Stop.