Mary Tyson, Director of the Center for Regional History
Club Rio, where this photo was taken, was known for great Basque meals served by chef Gloria Batís. It was also frequented as a place to drink, to gamble, and for Basques to board for a night or two. Gloria and her husband, Pete Batís, started the club in 1941, and lived in the back. It was in a central location on the north side of Sun Valley Rd. just behind where Enoteca is now.
Gloria served traditional fare in the Rio such as chicken and rice, potatoes with garlic and parsley, baked lamb, shrimp, fish, fried pimientos (peppers), and mina salsa (chili sauce). Many luminaries ate her food. Ernest Hemingway, who was known to love Basque cooking, was a frequent early customer and followed her from her first club restaurant, the Idaho Club on Main St. to the Rio. He would come in with Martha Gellhorn, and sometimes brought in pressed ducks, that he had pressed himself, and Gloria cooked them in the oven for him.
When WWII started, the Sun Valley Lodge closed and became a Naval Convalescent Hospital. Gloria and Pete shut down Club Rio for the war years as well, though they cooked many meals for the navy servicemen during that period.
In this photo, Gloria, center, is lighting birthday cake candles for a party. The other man helping her light candles is the distinguished British Ambassador, Archibald John Kerr. Gloria and Pete closed the Rio in 1951, and she went to work as the chef for Trail Creek Cabin for twenty more years.
Note this story was originally published in December of 2024 in the Idaho Mountain Express.
