Donnie Mac’s located in Boise, Idaho

Trailer Park Cuisine

As we climbed into the hoisted-up car at the brightly colored Donnie Mac’s, it was the closest thing I’d felt to an acid experience since my drug experimentation days. It may have had something to do with Holly’s transformation from the 80’s disguise she’d been wearing the night before. In the morning, with the teased-up black-haired wig removed, her plastic dangling earrings remained as evidence of her previous identity. Holly shifts her appearance between decades from one day to the next for self-entertainment, and Donnie Mac’s shifts its identity between middle class eatery and low-income cuisine for the entertainment of its patrons.

According to Donnie Mac’s website, this is what Trailer Park Cuisine means: “It is really what America is all about… Motorcycles, palm trees, cowboys, pickup trucks, bright colors, blue jeans, chrome, rust, barbwire, freedom, nostalgia, recycling; all wrapped up to present the finest comfort food your lips have been tasting since childhood… only better!!”

When I hear Trailer Park Cuisine I don’t think of good times not like hearing the word Jamica. Say—Jamaica—to a young or old-blooded American, and the first thing they think—sun, beaches, and resort. Try the word Mexico and you’ll probably get the same answers. When I went to Cabo San Lucas, I paid middle class prices for an American-style bean burrito in the 3rd world. I think Donnie Mac’s is onto something with the trailer park theme. The food is reasonably middle class priced. The omelet had fresh, not canned, mushrooms and was lacking that American processed cheese flavor. The omelet was defiantly a step above the average trailer park styled omelet such as you might find at Tom’s Cabin Cafe. Furthermore, Donnie Mac’s is neither located next to a trailer park nor within walking distance of a Money Tree, Dollar Store, or Smoke Shop.

Donnie Mac’s should use a Club Med model for good business. With some stepped-up marketing by the people at Donnie Mac’s, when people hear trailer park, instead of thinking low income, meth, and pit bulls—their first thoughts could be hot waitresses with all their teeth, pepper jack cheese, sautéed mushrooms, and Harley Davidson motorcycle parking. No one imagines a Mexico vacation with the realities of Juarez women murdered along the US border, unrest in Chiapas, and a corrupt political system. I believe Donnie Mac’s can rake in even more money by moving their location to the American version of the 3rd world. With a little marketing, soon people will say, “Hey, after church let’s eat at the trailer park.”

I can’t wait to say on Sunday morning, “Hey Amy, let’s call Holly and visit the trailer park. I’m hungry for a middle class omelet at a middle class price. Ooh, I haven’t lived this middle class since I went to Cabo Wabo (Van Halen’s Club) in Cabo San Lucus, Mexico. I love 3rd world middle class livin’.”

More food for thought: Middle class livin’ in the classless wilderness. I hear the best way to experience the great outdoors is in an RV.

Donnie Mac’s
1515 W. Grove St.
Bosie, ID 83702
(208) 384-9008