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The Faces of Uncommon: Doug Baehr, Brett Kendall, and Julia Richardson roll sushi for you at Uncommon Kitchen. |
Comments (2)Eating off the Beaten Path
Published: July 19, 2010
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It goes without saying that at Moonshine Ink, we love food. We talk about it, revel in it, and share it with others. Luckily our area offers no shortage of places to feed your hunger from multi-course affairs to in-and-out pit stops. With summer in full swing — the perfect time for leisurely enjoyment of good chow — we thought we’d take our readers on a North Tahoe/Truckee tour of quality eats off the beaten path. Read on, and let that stomach rumble.
NORTH & WEST SHORES:
Compiled by Melissa Siig
OBEXER'S GENERAL STORE
After several decades of being run by various tenants, Obexer’s General Store is back in the Obexer family. The iconic West Shore deli and market reopened in February after a complete remodel and menu overhaul. The interior of the store was redesigned to match the area’s maritime history — black-and-white paintings of sailors of yore decorate the walls, and the deli serves up “custom craft sandwiches” and “minnow meals.” The new Obexer’s is quickly becoming known for the housemade brown-sugar peppered bacon they slip into sandwiches and breakfast burritos. Their most popular sandwich, Kaleb’s Club, features the delicacy along with turkey, Jack cheese, tomato, and lettuce between three slices of multi-grain bread ($7.49). Wash it down with a real fruit smoothie or root beer float ($4.50).
5300 West Lake Blvd, Homewood, (530) 525-1300; market open daily, 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., deli until 8 p.m.
STONY RIDGE UNCOMMON KITCHEN
Dawn and Doug Baehr closed their famed Tahoma breakfast joint, Stony Ridge Cafe, in 2005, but fans of their cuisine did not have to despair for long. A year later, the couple opened Uncommon Kitchen in the back of New Moon Natural Foods in Tahoe City. The deli serves up fresh ethnic and gourmet food, perfect for lunch or dinner-to-go. My favorite sandwich is the Muffaletta, a New Orleans’ tradition made with salami, provolone, Swiss cheese, bell peppers, olive salad, and pepperoncinis on homemade bread ($8.75). For dinner, take home the Thai coconut noodle bowl: udon or rice noodles in a coconut broth with your choice of tofu, chicken, or shrimp ($6.50/$9.50). Don’t pass up the fresh sushi or desserts, either!
505 West Lake Blvd, Tahoe City, (530) 583-3663, uncommonkitchen.org; hot food served Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sushi, sandwiches, and salads until 7 p.m.; cold case stocked with salads, noodle bowels, and desserts open store hours, Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
OAXA'S HUATUCLO GRILL
When every other restaurant in Tahoe City is packed on a busy weekend, head over to the North Shore’s best-kept secret — Oaxaca’s inside the Tahoe City Golf Course clubhouse. The Mexican-American restaurant opened last year, filling a void left by the closure of the clubhouse’s Old Tahoe Country Kitchen about four years ago. The new owner didn’t change the décor — it still has the feel of an old-school diner or café — but changed the cuisine and added dinner to what was traditionally a breakfast and lunch joint. Spread only by word of mouth, news of Oaxaca’s authentic Mexican food has kept locals and golfers coming back for more. Its most popular dishes are the chicken chile relleno ($8), burrito combo with choice of carne asada, chicken, carnitas, or veggie ($8), and the chicken flautas ($6). And what would a clubhouse be without cheeseburgers ($8) and hot dogs ($4)? Wash it all down with a $2 draft beer during the Par Bar’s happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m. daily.
251 North Lake Blvd, Tahoe City, (530) 583-1516; open daily, 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
THE CREST CAFE & CATERING
Ditch the car and run, bike, or float over to the Crest Café for some riverside casual dining this summer. Start your day with a breakfast sandwich — egg and cheese with ham, turkey, or bacon — on a ciabatta roll ($6.29), go burn some calories on the bike path, then return for a smoked turkey panini at lunchtime ($7.79). If you recreated extra hard, reward yourself with a homemade ice-cream sandwich ($3.50). Wednesday through Friday, the Crest is open for a different themed dinner each night. The Wednesday night barbecue is a great (and affordable) way to spend a summer evening — dining on ribs, tri-tip, chicken, or burgers on the deck with an all-you-can-eat buffet of watermelon, baked beans, corn bread, and pasta salad ($9.95/just burgers, $11.50/full buffet). If that doesn’t entice you, then how about the daily $1.50 draft PBR special or Thursday sushi night?
150 Alpine Meadows Rd, Alpine Meadows, (530) 581-3037, thecrestcafeandcatering.com; open Wednesday to Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Sunday to Tuesday until 4 p.m.
INCLINE VILLAGE & KINGS BEACH:
Compiled by Carole Bernardi
BITE
When Brooke and Thomas McCarthy met working at a restaurant in Incline Village, cupid struck their love for food as well as for each other. Married four years now, the couple opened Bite a little over two years ago. Inspired by the Latin idea of tapas, they worked with three contributing chefs and came up with an innovative and tantalizing array of dishes. Check out the French-cut lamb chops in mango mint dip ($15) or the variety of sliders (from $10) for hearty post-biking fare. The BLT slider (bacon, Maine lobster, and roasted tomatoes) is a must have ($18). If you have a hankering for the south, don’t miss the flawlessly spiced and well-crafted Andouille sausage and shrimp gumbo ($8). A thoughtful drink menu (including absinthe) and heavenly desserts (a favorite is key lime bites, $9) round out an experience that is social and genuinely flavorful.
907 Tahoe Blvd, Incline Village, (775) 831-1000, bitetahoe.com; open Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m.
CALIENTE
If you want something beyond the ordinary Mexican menu and ready-mix margaritas, grab your zarape and head for Caliente in Kings Beach. Take a seat under the big palapa on the outdoor deck, dig into their homemade Don Tomas guacamole with cotija cheese ($10), Playa Paella (shrimp, clams, achiote chicken, and chorizo with saffron rice, peppers, and onions in spicy lobster tomato broth, $20.90), and wrap it up with chocolate con churros (white and dark chocolate with vanilla ice cream, $8.90). Best of all is their tequila selection. Boasting 100 choices, the selection is huge and the price range is just as varied ($8 to $120). Famous for their Thunderbird margarita (topped with a float of Cointreau), you may find yourself joining their “Tequila Seminar Club,” where you meet reps of different distilleries, held the first Thursday of each month at 5 p.m. with a $10 entry fee. “We take our customers as seriously as we take our tequila,” says General Manager Albert Surna.
8791 N. Lake Blvd, Kings Beach, (530) 546-1000, calientetahoe.com; dinner served daily 4 to 10 p.m., lunch served 11:30 a.m. weekends, and the bar is open Sunday to Thursday until 11:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until 12:30 a.m.
ART'S COFFEE HOUSE
In less than 1,000 square feet, nestled in the corner of Village Market in Village Center, comes an intoxicating aroma that breathes of handmade breakfast and lunch burritos, smoothies, and fresh brewed Alpen Sierra Coffee. Rather than juggling for a table, you’ll usually find locals lined up, stopping in between market list demands and post office pick ups, for their favorite menu item at Art’s. Don’t miss a burrito, no matter the flavor (breakfast burrito, $5.99; chicken chipotle burrito, $6.49), fill up with a 16-oz. smoothie ($4.99), or skip the protein and go straight for dessert, a double scoop sundae is only $4.29.
Village Center, 770 Mays Blvd, Incline Village, (775) 832-5655; open daily, 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.
BROOK AVENUE GRILL & GELATO
If you’re at the Kings Beach shoreline and the Tahoe sun has left you over-warm, you don’t have to walk very far for relief. Simply cross the street to get the tastiest, fresh homemade lemonade in all of Tahoe (including pulp and fresh mint sprig, $3.45). The brother and sister team of Christine Lawshe and Scott Copland opened the eatery four seasons ago and stay open from mid-May to mid-October. They recently added a breakfast menu (killer cowboy burrito, $7.25) to their already exceptional lunch menu, which includes fresh grilled ahi tuna tacos ($10.50). They’re still the only location where you can get Ciao Bella Gelato in a multitude of flavors. Not a fan of lemonade? You crazy, but you should at least make up for it with an espresso shake ($6.50) made with gelato and fresh brewed local Sierra Pacific Coffee.
8421 N. Lake Blvd, Kings Beach, (530) 546-3663, brookavenuegrill.com; open daily, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
TRUCKEE
Compiled by David Bunker
LOS TACOS BAILANDO
There are certain expectations when you eat from a restaurant on wheels that looks like a cross between a Winnebago and an Airstream trailer. The Los Tacos Bailando (Dancing Tacos) truck, typically parked on the east side of Donner Pass Road across from the Assumption Catholic Church, fulfills these expectations. Let’s face it, when you eat from a Winnebago, you are not looking for elegance, presentation, or ambiance. What you want is savory, cheap, filling food. Los Tacos Bailando delivers this.
It also delivers a dose of authenticity. Grab the lengua tacos, just because if you are eating tacos on the side of the road, you should not be eating a bland choice like the chicken burrito, and because Los Tacos Bailando is part of a Mexican food tradition where every part of a slaughtered animal — including the tongue — is consumed and celebrated. So forget for a moment you live in a country where thousands of pounds of edible meat is thrown away because it does not suit our culinary fancy — grab two tacos de lengua and a couple al pastor (slow-cooked marinated pork) for $1.50 each, walk to the edge of the nearby railroad tracks, sit down among the overgrown grasses and blooming poppies, stare at the rusting, graffittied hulks of motionless railroad cars, and chomp down on some beef tongue. It’s a dining experience a million times superior to staring at the stucco walls of a strip mall eatery, where they probably don’t even serve beef tongue.
On the move, but typically alongside Donner Pass Road east of downtown Truckee at lunchtime, (530) 414-4248.
FULL BELLY DELI
Grabbing a sandwich is often a culinary cop-out. You are expecting nutrition — some amalgam of turkey, cheese, mayo, and lettuce — and not nuance. This is not the case with Full Belly Deli. The Truckee eatery, tucked away in the Pioneer Commerce Center, puts thought — and a whole bunch of flavor — into each gut-busting, savory sandwich. All the sandwich bread is baked fresh, in-house each day. Meats and vegetables come from local or regional sources whenever possible. And you will find nice, unexpected touches to each sandwich, like a chipotle aioli on the hot-pressed Southwest chicken ($8). If you are ravenous, look for the “junkyard” section of the menu, featuring meat-heavy sandwiches like the Dirka Dirka ($8.50), corned beef, pastrami, pickles, yellow mustard, Swiss cheese, and jalapeño coleslaw. Full Belly will also caffeinate and fill your belly in the morning, with a wide selection of breakfast sandwiches and coffee.
10825 Pioneer Trail Rd, Suite 103, Truckee, (530) 550-9516, fullbellydelitruckee.com; open Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
THAI DELICACY
As Truckee has grown, so has the diversity of restaurants. Today, the town has outgrown a culinary past that was confined within the bland bounds of the typical food trifecta — American-Italian-Mexican. Thai Delicacy is a member of the new crop of restaurants that has brought flavorful, international fare to town.
One of the greatest things about Thai Delicacy is the restaurant’s daily lunch special, where an entrée, rice or pad thai, a Thai salad, and a curry puff appetizer goes for only $8.95. And diners can dial in the spiciness of their food for asking for a 1 (non-spicy) or a 5 (taste-bud frying spice). If you pop in for dinner and are willing to spend a little more, drop $17.99 for the honey crispy duck. It might have a little more than your daily allowance of duck fat, but your taste buds will thank you.
11253 Brockway Rd, Suite 101 Truckee, (530) 550-1269, thaidelicacy.com; open Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m., and Saturday, noon to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Closed Sundays.
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