Drive south on Highway 89 toward the mouth of Snake River Canyon and the sign at Flying Saddle Resort reads differently than it has for most of the last two decades. It used to say Flying Saddle Resort & Steak House. Now it says The Grizzly. The change looks recent enough that Alpine's own restaurant listings on Tripadvisor still show it with zero reviews as of this August, sitting a few spots below places that have accumulated hundreds over the years. For a town with only thirteen restaurants on that same list, a brand-new one with no track record is worth a closer look before word of mouth writes the story for you.
The Steakhouse Alpine Grew Up With
Flying Saddle has been on that stretch of river since 1949, with a full remodel in 2008 that gave the place its more recent shape: a steakhouse serving hand-cut Black Angus beef and wild game, a salad bar in summer, a western sports bar with saddle-style stools and eight TVs for whatever game was on. For years the kitchen ran under the banner of a genuine western supper club, the kind of place built around elk, bison, and fresh-cut steaks rather than anything trying to reinvent itself.
That formula produced a restaurant that people either loved without reservation or walked away from frustrated. Some diners called it the best meal in Star Valley, praised the scratch-made soups and the clam chowder that showed up most nights. Others described steak cooked past any recognizable texture, a kitchen that couldn't keep pace with a full dining room, and at least one guest who got billed twice for the same dinner after checkout. That split matters here. A restaurant with a fifty-year identity and a genuinely mixed reputation is a different renovation story than a place polishing something already beloved. This was a kitchen that needed more than new paint.
What Actually Changed
According to the resort's own description, the overhaul went well past the sign. Owner Sharene Garaman has described the transformation as running from the ceiling down to the stoneware, with a new culinary team building the menu from scratch. The results show up in dishes that read nothing like the old wild-game supper club: crispy calamari with aji amarillo truffle aioli, a mojito-marinated rack of lamb, and a dessert called Campfire Cake finished with chocolate mezcal ice cream and edible gold. Guests are met with a croissant and honey truffle butter before the meal even starts.
The new name is a deliberate nod to grizzly #399, the Grand Teton bear whose decades of appearances with her cubs made her one of the most photographed animals in the ecosystem. It's a name built for recognition well beyond Alpine's town limits, which turns out to matter for how this restaurant is positioning itself.
Book Ahead, Because the Verdict Isn't Written Yet
The Grizzly currently runs Wednesday through Sunday, 4:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. for last seating, with reservations recommended especially in peak summer months. That's a narrower window than a full seven-day operation, and it means a Monday or Tuesday craving still sends you elsewhere in town.
The absence of reviews cuts two ways for anyone who lives here. On one hand, there's no crowdsourced verdict yet to argue with. On the other, that also means the first wave of local diners is effectively writing the record. If you remember the old steakhouse's inconsistency, this is the window where showing up yourself tells you more than any star rating will for another year.
Where It Fits on Alpine's Plate
None of this happens in a vacuum. Alpine already has a real, if compact, dining scene, and knowing where The Grizzly sits inside it says something about what kind of gap it's actually filling.
| Spot | What It's Known For |
|---|---|
| Melvin Taproom & Kitchen | Alpine outpost of the Melvin Brewing name that started in Jackson Hole in 2009; dog-friendly patio, pork al pastor and shrimp tacos |
| La Cabaña Del Tequila | Mexican fusion with carne asada fries and a full tequila bar |
| Driftwood Pizzeria | House-made calzones and pizzas near Palisades Reservoir and the Snake River Canyon entrance |
| Bull Moose Saloon | Combined lodge, saloon, restaurant, and liquor store with a fireplace-lit dining room |
| Casa Mezcal | Local favorite for cocktails and Mexican plates |
| Yankee Doodle's Cafe | Breakfast and lunch counter, closed Wednesdays |
| Rivers Coffee Company | The town's coffee shop |
That's a town that already covers breakfast, pizza night, tacos, and a casual beer-and-burger crowd without much trouble. What it hasn't had, at least not consistently, is a kitchen aiming at the kind of occasion dinner that used to mean a 45-minute drive to Jackson. That's the actual gap The Grizzly is trying to fill, and it's a narrower one than "Alpine needed another restaurant."
Built for the Highway as Much as the Town
Naming a steakhouse after grizzly #399 isn't really a local-in-joke. It's a name built to catch the eye of the exact traffic that passes Flying Saddle on the way to Grand Teton National Park, the same corridor of travelers who already know the bear's name before they know Alpine's. The resort has been investing in that direction generally, adding new pickleball courts alongside its existing heated indoor pool and hot tub, the kind of amenity build-out aimed at getting guests to treat the property as a stop worth lingering at rather than a place to sleep on the way somewhere else.
For residents, the practical read is straightforward. A restaurant marketed to Jackson-bound highway traffic during peak summer and fall is a restaurant where tables get harder to find during exactly those months. If a night at The Grizzly is on your list, the smart move is booking it now, in the window while the restaurant is still finding its footing and before the tourist season fully catches up to the marketing.
Alpine doesn't get a new fine-dining kitchen often enough for it to be background noise. Whether The Grizzly earns the reputation the old steakhouse never quite settled into is still an open question, and for once, the answer isn't already written somewhere online. Go find out before it is.
JH Living keeps track of what's actually changing on the ground in Alpine, Wilson, Jackson, and Teton Village, because knowing what opened on Highway 89 this year is part of knowing the place. If you ever want to talk about the valley itself, from river frontage to what a parcel near the canyon actually costs to build on, Let's Connect.
