LAVA HOT SPRINGS, Idaho — The Kats! Bureau at this writing is the dining room at the Lava Hot Springs Inn. This is in the building’s basement, where room guests enjoy George’s Famous Breakfast.
George’s Famous Breakfast is named for George “Daddy Kats” Katsilometes, who opened this B&B nearly 40 years ago. The original vision was to offer a full-service, buffet-style breakfast. Potatoes, also famous in this state, are prominently featured. Diced fruit, egg dishes, pancakes/waffles, cereal (hot and cold), juice, are all laid out.
If you’re lucky and stay on the right overnight, you might catch the business founder flipping flapjacks in the kitchen. You might also catch his oldest son helping out, chopping fruit. This has happened exactly once since 1989.
The breakfast has always been complimentary for room guests. So has the WiFi. And soaking in all the natural hot baths, 18 total (two of which are exercise or lap pools). No fees to park in the surface lot, which is just off Center Street as you drive into town. No “hot beverage tax” for coffee or tea in the dining room. No “reading fee” to flip through dozens of Dad’s books in the upstairs sitting room. You pay a charge for your doggie, announced up front.
You might see where we’re going here.
Over the years I’d not thought much of the Inn’s hospitality strategy because there really isn’t one. Common sense is the philosophy. If you like it, so will the guests. If you don’t like it, especially if you don’t like it enough not to return, then it’s a bad idea. George’s Famous Breakfast might not be the most profitable concept on a particular day. But the guests who return — multiple generations now — have grown to love it.
I’ve had several return guests tell me they learned to swim at one of the pools here, and so have their children. We don’t need an abacus to figure out that value.
Writing of the Inn, and of Lava Hot Springs, is an annual tradition. We’ve made yule logs on these trips, chatted with Zak Bagans about filming “Ghost Adventures” at the Inn, reminisced about time well spent in the Idaho State University Minidome, and soaked in sub-zero conditions with icicles forming in our hair. But no frozen locks this year, as we are in our second green Christmas in a row in the Pocatello region. It’s too warm to snow, but there has been rain, with a cool-wet climate all week.
I’m told Santa will deliver snow this year. Beware of false profits, I say, as I gaze at the snowless foothills.
Lava is a tucked-away burg, population of about 280, the number slipping from a high of about 520 over the years. Residents have moved out, passed away or sold off their homes to outside investors for Airbnb rentals. This has made business a challenge for places that share the Inn’s same attention to customer service, such rustic places as Old Home Hotel, Riverside Inn, Lava Spa Motel our our own B&B.
Airbnbs are convenient, but we’ll take the personal touch of these small lodges along the Portneuf River, anytime.
This town was an indelible piece of my life as a kid growing up in nearby Pocatello. The family lived here until I was almost 13, Dad running his Community Animal Hospital, which is still under operation. In those days we swam and cavorted at the state-operated Lava Hot Springs pool, with three Olympic-style diving platforms and now a water slide that actually stretches over the town’s entrance. (I would love to have been at the zoning meeting for this concept, “We have a plastic tube filled with water running high above the street, and the kids will love it!”)
The Lava Hot Springs Inn, a cornerstone destination, was built as a hospital in 1926. The Inn has been in the family since Dad bought the parcel and renovated the building and property in 1988. The hospital was originally constructed to treat injured military personnel, up until 1957. Then it was turned into a nursing home, its function until 1985, when it was shut down and fenced off until Dad bought the land.
The building was gutted of its antique surgical equipment (which is now on display at the South Bannock County Museum, just across the street), blooming to seven buildings and more than 30 rooms.
As part of Lava lore, in the early days of the family ownership, Dad drilled into the property and struck natural mineral water. A geyser shot up from what is now the well that services the pools at the original building.
Even Jed Clampett, shootin’ at some food and finding bubblin’ crude, was not so lucky.
Lava has a niche personality, of course, This isn’t the Bellagio. Locals and visitors have been known shop and dine in snuggy pants and Crocs. But the town shares an appreciation for wonderful water effects, and in Lava the hot water rises from deep in the Earth. I’ve said for a long time the water here is magic. It definitely keeps Dad looking young. People here sometimes ask if we’re brothers. My actual brother is not amused, nor am I.
I was reminded of that aquatic magic earlier today, when I lowered myself into the Aztec pool, approximate temperature 102 degrees. with my iPhone in my shorts pocket.
I scrambled out, pulled the phone, grabbed a towel and thought, “I need a bag of rice, now!” But the phone continued to operate, no issues. I even checked to see if the mineral water had bumped the charge to 100 percent. Oh, and you can drink the Lava water, and we bottle and sell the mineral-filled beverage.
I’ve described Lava to countless people I’ve met over the years. I start with a line I first heard from the great Rita Rudner, “I don’t care where you’re from, Las Vegas is the opposite of it.” This is true of Lava Hot Springs, where the breakfast is famous, the water is magic and parking is free.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.