Located on Sun Valley Road is a small business that packs a big punch: 4 Roots, a breakfast and
lunch café that serves up food for any and all dietary restrictions, from gluten-free to paleo and
vegan and everything in between. What started for owners Beth Sluder and Chris Steen as a
health journey through diet for their daughter with an autoimmune disease became an endeavor
into providing healthy, sustainable dining options for patrons—an embodiment of the café’s
slogan “We have your health in mind.”

How it Started

Twin Falls locals, Beth and Chris began eating at 4 Roots in Twin after their now seventeen-year-
old daughter began getting sick starting at the age of two. After learning that their daughter’s
nutrition may affect her symptoms, they became obsessed with cleaning up her diet, which led
them to the café they would eventually buy years later. At the time, 4 Roots was a small hole-in-
the-wall restaurant, with a small menu, lawn furniture for seating, and a kitchen set up for basic
home cooking. But the family of three loved eating there, to the point that the owner eventually
offered to sell them 4 Roots in 2017.
Thought it wasn’t what either Beth or Chris were involved with at the time the offer was put to
them, both had previous experience in restaurants. Chris’s father owned a restaurant, which Chris
grew up around and then he later managed Johnny Carino’s, an Italian restaurant in Twin Falls,
while Beth had experience waitressing at several restaurants. The couple decided to sink every
last penny into buying the business, and Beth dropped out of school to take over the daily
managing of the establishment.
Under Beth’s supervision, the 4 Roots menu was revamped and expanded and the space
redecorated while Chris used his restaurant knowledge to renovate and update the kitchen. After
about six months, things really took off, and 4 Roots gained popularity. But after six years of
running the restaurant while Chris was on the road five days a week for his job, and now with
four kids to take care of, Beth was burned out and wanted to sell.

Coming to Sun Valley

While running 4 Roots in Twin Falls, opening a location in Ketchum had always been at the back
of Beth and Chris’s minds. Ketchum has always held a special place in their hearts: Chris has
been camping in the area with his family since he was ten years old, and he even took Beth to
Ketchum on one of their first dates, fifteen years ago, where the two even dreamed of one day
living here.
With that in mind, they had a realtor in Ketchum who would periodically call them up when a
potential space became available, but none seemed right. Chris and Beth even ate at Hailey
Coffee Company one day [the business that occupied the 4 Roots space before them] after
coming back from Redfish Lake and said to each other, “Could you imagine if we had this spot?”
In an instance of pure kismet, the day that Chris and Beth sold their Twin Falls 4 Roots location,
to an employee (legally they are still the owners but have nothing to do with the Twin Falls location anymore and hope to one day separate completely), they got a call from their realtor that
the Hailey Coffee Company space had become available. Chris quit his job, and the family made
the move to Ketchum to open up the newest iteration of 4 Roots, which opened September 2023.

The Menu

The 4 Roots menu has quite the variety, both in terms of food and in terms of the dietary
restrictions it caters to. The menu is 100% gluten free, about 75% organic, and has numerous
vegan, vegetarian, keto, and paleo options. Health is the number one priority, which means foods
are free of seed oils, all meats are nitrate free, and the salmon and tuna are wild caught. While for
some restaurants with a similar ethos, this might result in overly complicated dishes and
mysterious ingredients, for them it’s important to make a menu of the basics: breakfast,
sandwiches, soup, salads, wraps, rice bowls, coffee, juice, and pastries.
Beth handles the more creative aspects of the business, designing 90% of the menu and curating
the space in terms of music and décor, while Chris handles logistics and executes the menu in the
kitchen, acting as chef. While they’ve kept their menu simple, creating healthy versions of dishes
people have come to expect at breakfast and lunch, they’ve also incorporated ingredients that the
area’s health-conscious consumer appreciates being available: jackfruit, paleo mayo, vegan taco
meat, and more. Their create-your-own acai bowls are a fan favorite, with a menu of options to
add, including salted caramel nut butter, bee pollen, and chia pudding.

The Future

While Chris and Beth have their hands full operating their current location, they have aspirations
to expand—nationwide in the long run, if they can figure out how to execute it, but Boise/Eagle
and Southern Idaho in the nearer future. For now, though, they’re happy with the community that
they’ve settled into. “It’s such a small community, and the culture of being athletic, fit, and
health-conscious is really refreshing,” says Chris. “It’s just really nice to be up here where most
people know what cold-pressed juices and gluten-free are. And of course, we’re an outdoorsy
family as well, so the outdoors scene is really nice.”
Beth agrees that the community has been even better than expected. “We initially wanted to
come up here because Ketchum seemed so cool and we’d hike and camp up here all the time, but
I don’t think we really understood how the community worked up here, and once we came in, it
was so much cooler than we thought it would be. All of the business owners on this block have
just been wonderful, and we have a bunch of regulars that are already almost family.”