Artisan pizza returns downtown with Goat Mountain pizza
<p>Melissa Brown, Jill Nystrom and Kaprice Frederickson are serving up artisan pizza in the Bonner Port Mall.</p>
BONNERS FERRY — Jill and Dan Nystrom have one more thing on their plate. . . err, pan?
The hard-working owners of the Rusty Moose have opened Goat Mountain Pizzeria in the Bonner Port Mall around the corner from their restaurant.
Jill’s daughter, Melissa Brown, will manage the restaurant. Brown is originally from Bonners Ferry and recently moved back to town from Pennsylvania with husband Bryant and daughter Aurora.
The pizzeria is open in the former Papa Byrd’s Bistro location.
The pizza oven and tables are the same, but everything else is new, from the paint to the menu.
The town needed a downtown place to get really good pizza,” Melissa says. “I came up with the names, but everyone worked together on it.”
The pizzeria makes its dough fresh and features some standard flavors and some unique ones, like the Goat Mountain pizza, with mozzarella and feta cheeses, olives, artichoke hearts, basil, onion, garlic and fresh tomato with a pesto sauce.
“We ate a lot of pizza in the last few weeks,” Jill said. The family tested out different recipes until they decided what they liked for the menu.
“We always talked about having a pizza place,” Jill said.
Her father ran a pizzeria in Great Falls, Mont., and would make homemade pizza every Saturday night. Jill says her dough is similar to the kind he used to make. She likes to use good quality ingredients and toppings, and says the pizzeria will be open to experimentation.
“It’s not for me,” Jill says.
She intends to continue to focus on the Rusty Moose, bringing her customers all their favorites. “It’s for Melissa, and the rest of the town,” Jill says.
Kaprice Frederickson is helping out behind the counter at Goat Mountain Pizzeria. She is confident the business will be popular.
“It’s a fun place to work, I like the pizza and my coworkers,” she said.
There is still some work to be done, including collecting decor for the walls, in the style of the Rusty Moose. Customers can find Goat Mountain Pizzeria open now, in time for fall football, dine-in and carry-out.
The Nystroms want to have a license to serve beer and wine soon, and are hoping to be able to provide delivery service in the future.
Hours for the pizzeria are Sunday through Thursday, 2 to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 2 to 9 p.m.
Contact them at 267-1123 or like them on facebook at www.facebook.com/goatmountainpizzeriabonnersferryid.