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Toni R. Milano. Ramon Zugazaga was born in 1946 in Guernica, Vizcaya Spain. Growing up, Ramon worked in his family’s restaurant and at the age of 18 immigrated to the United States, also working at the Holland Ranch, then owned by Jess and Elias Goicoechea.

At the ranch, Ramon worked as a sheepherder, camp tender, and cook under a three-year contract, eventually staying for five years. He returned to Spain for a few months before coming back to the area.

Ramon moved to Boise and was a chef at the Boardinghouse restaurant before moving to Gooding, Idaho and opening the first Biltoki. Missing Elko, he returned and opened Biltoki at the corner of Fourth and Silver streets in 1983. Two years later, he married Jane Last and they had two children, Kepa and Belen.

Ramon’s love for soccer led him to coach for the Elko Indar Futbol Club starting around 1991. The team plays around the state, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah and has traveled to San Sebastian, Spain three times to play for the Donosti Cup.

(go to the original for Ramon's audio words)

Active in the Basque community, Ramon has served as president of the Basque Club for 10 years, helping with projects around the clubhouse, cooking and planning games for the National Basque Festival, and making sure the Basque heritage is passed down to the younger generations.

Apart from the restaurant, Ramon has catered for various events, hosted cooking demonstrations for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and led fundraisers for the SnoBowl. In his spare time, Ramon enjoys hunting and traveled last fall to South Dakota to hunt birds, pheasants and buffalo.

Zugazaga closed Biltoki in 2013. Today, he hosts a lunch once a month at the Basque Clubhouse for the community and continues to coach girls soccer, planning another trip to Spain next year with the Indar girls team.

“I enjoy helping people,” he said recently. “Doesn’t matter who it is.”

“I want to leave the world better than I found it.”