So where's the Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell or Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers? You won't find them in the Wood River Valley, even though a population of some 20,000 residents swells to more than twice that size during busy tourist seasons.
You can dine on sushi, authentic Mexican food, Thai, Chinese, Italian or French cuisine to your heart's content. But finding a fast burger and fries can be a bit trickier.
Busy little towns such as Ketchum and Bellevue normally have a few fast-food restaurants, while cities the size of Hailey typically sport a half-dozen or more. Yet there are only two fast-food chain establishments in the entire Wood River Valley—McDonald's and Subway, both of them nestled somewhat unobtrusively along Main Street in Hailey.
Local zoning rules aren't particularly fast-food friendly. They typically restrict lighting and the size and locations of signs, which are the calling cards of fast-food restaurants. Elsewhere, you can usually spot a Burger King from a mile away.
In Ketchum, drive-through windows are prohibited except at banks—and they don't serve burgers.
So what gives?
The subject seems to be a sensitive one in the Wood River Valley. Many telephone calls in preparation of this article went unreturned.
But Julie Oxarango-Ingram and Deborah Burns were willing to talk about it. Oxarango-Ingram is the newly installed executive director of the Hailey Chamber of Commerce, and Burns is involved in lots of things. She owns retail businesses in both Hailey and Ketchum, is on the board of directors of the Ketchum-Sun Valley Chamber and Visitors Bureau, is president of the Retailer's Alliance of Ketchum and holds a seat on the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission.
Basically, the answer comes down to demographics, Oxarango-Ingram and Burns agreed. The populace, in general, doesn't want fast food establishments, particularly the national chains.
"We have four health clubs in the north valley now," said Burns. "It would be kind of ludicrous to have fast-food restaurants, too. Where would you put them?
"Hopefully, Sun Valley-Ketchum is a place where healthy living is already taking place," she said. "Why would we want to even think of having fast food in an athletic-conscious place like this?
"We're not only health conscious. When you look at the north valley, we're also weight conscious," Burns said. "I don't think it would really fly. People would come out of the woodwork if you tried to put a fast-food place here. "Half the people raised in the north valley don't even know what a Big Mac is."
Big Mac hamburgers are available at McDonald's in Hailey, but you'll have to watch carefully to find one. The big bright signs common to McDonald's establishments are absent from the Hailey restaurant.
"I do remember when McDonald's went in," said Oxarango-Ingram. "They did have to jump through a lot of hoops. They had to redesign the building, so it doesn't look like your run-of the-mill McDonald's."
She said the public and local officials tend to want to preserve the "unique character of the area with its mom-and-pop type establishments."
Burns said that fast-food restaurants could destroy that very aspect of the valley.
"The restaurants here are struggling anyway," she said. "Anything like fast foods would hurt the restaurants we already have."
Burns said the public and local officials have been unsupportive in the past of efforts by national retailers, offering fast food or other commodities, to locate in the valley.
"We are very committed to local commerce," Burns said. "Fast food's not in our consciousness. It's the anti-Christ."
Fast-food restaurants, such as McDonald?s in Hailey, are conspicuously absent in the Wood River Valley. Some local residents say that?s partially by design. Photo by Chris Pilaro
