California’s Shenandoah Valley lies three counties and three rivers south of my home in Grass Valley. Forays in the springtime and early summer lead me across the Bear River (Rio Oso), across branches of the American, and over the Consumnes. One route follows Highway 49, California’s Gold Rush road. It passes through and leads to important things in my life: good fishing, great food, special wines, and rich history.
The road could be called a wine road or a wildflower path, and I rarely make the drive without diverting onto less-traveled side and back roads. My wife, Karen, serves as spotter when she accompanies me. She looks for wildflower-studded hillsides, wooden barns, scenic vineyards, and interesting wineries. I’m always on the lookout for angling access and bass ponds. It’s best to take our old truck, wear working boots and a well-worn cowboy hat, and not be in a hurry. These roads are rich in scenery, wildlife, and history. You might see the vestiges of a minehead frame, rocky tailings, or a rusted, iron-roofed smelter building. Don’t be timid if you see an interesting pond. Drive up that gravel road respectfully and start a polite conversation. You might strike gold of a different type. Remember that grape growers don’t like dust, though. Keep your speed down and assess that farm dog really well before you get out of your vehicle.
Doggy biscuits do wonders for calming the beast.
A friend and occasional fishing companion has access to 18 ponds and small lakes near his home. He occasionally leaves notes in rural mailboxes, printed with a picture that shows he’s not a dirtbag. I do the same. We’re angling for invitations. Gifts for the landowners don’t hurt. Another angling companion has access to a historic ranch and its quarry ponds through business connections. Seek, and ye shall find. Don’t be shy. It never hurts to ask.
Our first overnight stop on our wine-and-bass route is often the Amador Harvest Inn, located on Steiner Road in Amador County, a few miles above the small, ungentrified foothill town of Plymouth. The valley’s vineyards, which produce rich zinfandels, barberas, and syrahs, surround you. My wife’s favorite nursery, Amador Flower Farms, is two miles away and famous in its own right.
Amador Harvest Inn is part of Deaver’s Vineyards and Winery. A perk for a night’s stay in the B&B is the right to fish their three natural-looking bass ponds . . . catch-and-release, of course. You can rise early to cast a popping bug at dawn, return 50 yards across a verdant mowed lawn to have a scrumptious breakfast cooked by innkeeper friend Joan Crain, who’s known locally as the “Queen of the Scones,” then kick a float tube around the tree-draped lake some more before heading out for exploration and wine tasting while the bass retreat to deeper water during the midday sunlight and heat. We returned to fish late and barbecue on the back deck. Most smaller ponds weed up as the summer heat comes, so plan on visiting during the spring. (For lodging reservations, phone the Amador Harvest Inn at (800) 217-2304 or e-mail reservations@amadorharvestinn.com.)
As mentioned in my March/April 2010 California Fly Fisher article, “Fly Fishing the Upper Water Column for Largemouth, Smallmouth, and Spotted Bass,” the spring can offer all-day angling. When the water warms in the early summer, midday is a good time to hit the Consumnes River for smallmouths, if you are fortunate to find access and the river gives you decent flows. I was at Maria’s beachside fish restaurant in Playa Flamingo,
Costa Rica several years ago. We invited a single guy to join our table for dinner. He was a rancher and had a mile of frontage on the Consumnes.
Plan B is to do some responsible wine tasting . . . taste and spit. You can start at Amador Harvest Inn and walk Steiner Road in either direction to the Renwood, Amador Foothills, Spinetta, and Dillian wineries. Hop in a vehicle, and a wine taster’s paradise is within several miles in all directions. A right turn takes you into the heart of the Shenandoah Valley. Favorites are Nocietto, Easton, Story, and Bray Vineyards, but the possibilities are endless, and the wineries are a lot less crowded than those in Napa and Sonoma. Winemaker John Hoddy recently retired. His Bray Vineyards rosato upset a bit of the wine world when this Amador County barbera rosé won a double gold and a few more awards. It’s not your mother’s rosé! More and more California vineyards are making quality dry rosés that complement just about any food, whether it’s a picnic or an evening barbecue on a hot summer night. Another winner from this vineyard, which also produces fabulous estate-grown olive oil, is their BrayZin Hussy Red. The faithful return in costume for release parties. Network! You might just get access to another pond.
Nearby is Cooper Vineyards and Winery. Rusted vintage trucks tell that you have arrived. Cooper has grown legendary grapes for eons. Some of the best barberas in the nation come from Cooper grapes. They are about four years into winemaking. I’m prone to their primitivo. Stray and go over the hill to the historic Chinese settlement of Fiddletown or back up Shenandoah Road to Sobon Estate Vineyards and their interesting tasting-room museum, or drive farther up beyond River Pines to El Dorado County’s Fair Play wine district. On the way, you may see a very fine roadside lake that lends itself to bass bugging and another that requires an invitation to be fished. The gate was closed there, but we will be back. I think that D’Augustini Pond is the most beautiful foothill lake in the Sierra.
If you prefer bigger water, head south to New Melones, Lake Amador, or Salt Springs for redear sunfish, bass, and crappies, Pardee for smallmouths, and Comanche for just about anything that swims. There’s more than an overnight stay here. My fly-fishing friends and I have been working Highway 49 for years.
Taste
Taste is a restaurant in Plymouth that is a destination in itself. You might not know it if you drove through the sleepy, two-block-long business district. Across the street is a welding shop. Nearby is a feed store, and the restaurant shares a common wall with a café/bar that is largely avoided by out-of-town visitors. You can wear either your boots or a blue blazer to Taste and be comfortable. Taste reminds me a little of the Continental Divide in Ennis, Montana. Both are the last place on earth that you would expect a five-star restaurant. You might find grape growers, cowboys, anglers, and celebrities in this low-key dining establishment, but you could bet that the chef wouldn’t kick out Ted Turner and Barbarella, as did his counterpart in Ennis a few years ago.
In my opinion, Taste is without doubt the best restaurant in all directions for many miles, including Sacramento, which is only 38 miles away. Why? Superb cooking and presentation and the best ingredients that are available. Owners Mark and Tracey get their lamb from Colorado, duck from Vermont, and play the organic, free-range game that produces high-quality dishes. Local produce is always their first choice. The menu is limited, but it’s because they won’t serve anything that is less than the best.
A signature small taste is an aromatic, phylo-wrapped mushroom “cigar.” Crimini, shitake, and oyster mushrooms, fresh herbs, and goat cheese go into this creation. Another is a duck confit salad with smoked duck, poached farm-fresh eggs, cannellini beans, and a black-garlic aioli. On a recent visit, our party of four thought that the grilled filet mignon with confit of shallots and creamed Bloomsdale spinach and the seared duck breast with wild-rice pine-nut dressing, dandelion greens, and a soy yuzu glaze were the best that we had ever tasted. Ditto for a succulent Colorado rack of lamb with hazelnut spaetzle, grilled baby vegetables, and fig gastric. Taste is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays for private parties. Reservations are advised. Mark and Tracey escaped the San Francisco Bay Area and its long hours and frantic pace of life for a country experience. You feel very welcome there. Two days later, when we returned home, there was a “Thank You” note from our waitress, Debi!
Taste is located at 9402 Main Street in Plymouth. Phone (209) 245-3463; email info@restauranttaste.com. Open for dinner Thursday through Monday, starting at 4:30 P.M. on weekends, 5:00 P.M. on weekdays. Small tastes, $8 to $13; larger offerings, $20 to $35. Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover accepted. Beer and wine. Corkage is free on the second Thursday of the month, otherwise $15.
Amador Vintage Market
Across Plymouth’s lazy main street, next to a thrift shop and a few doors from a throwback barber shop and a small-town park with a Victorian bandstand, wildflowers, and rose garden, is Beth Sogaard’s Amador Vintage Market. Her motto is “Something Good Is Cooking on Main Street.” Another sleeper! Amador Vintage Market has a fabulous deli, whether you choose to provision for wine tasting or a fisherman’s picnic basket. As you are waiting for your order, you notice four or five prep chefs working their butts off in the expansive kitchen. You might want to browse and pick up some of their exotic and unusual gourmet products to take home. Try Beth’s deep-fried spiced tortilla chips. They work with everything. I always buy at least two bags for my pantry. Beth caters wine-country events as far away as the Mendocino coast, Sierra foothills release parties, Tahoe weddings, and get-togethers in all directions. Amador Vintage Market also has cooking schools in the winter months.
Amador Vintage Market is located at 9393 Main Street in Plymouth. Phone (209) 245-3663; on the Web at http://amadorvintagemarket.com. Fresh deli sandwiches, salads, desserts, preordered lunches, wine, beer, catering, cooking classes. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Preorders and catering seven day a week. Beer and wine. Visa and MasterCard accepted.
Amador City’s Imperial Hotel
A year ago, I phoned Taste for a reservation on a Wednesday night. They were closed, but suggested the Imperial Hotel, since my wife and I were staying nearby in Sutter Creek. Amador City is not as well known as Sutter Creek, but interesting antique stores, a culinary depot, costume and quilting shops, and a fabulous bakery/deli line its one-block-long main street. The Imperial is a restored Gold Rush era hotel with an elegant high ceiling. It’s described as featuring “seductive elegance,” but they haven’t gobbed it up with red velvet curtains. There’s a separate historic wooden bar, as well as a charming outdoor garden. Next door is a garden-art place, and across the street a small stream that is largely dry by the end of the season. Sandblasted Gold Rush–era brick walls serve to highlight top-quality art that is set off by the original wooden plank floors and wavy glass windows.
Our young waiter handed us an outstanding wine list that featured many local wines by the glass. That’s where we found out about Bray’s barbera rosé. We shared a scrumptious Imperial salad that featured mixed greens with sweet blueberry balsamic vinaigrette and toasted pecans. For my entrée, I chose a juicy pork chop with seasonal fruit and basmati rice. Karen tried wild white Mexican shrimp, chili/ginger rubbed, with lemon garlic sauce and more rice. A berry cobbler with homemade ice cream and some herbal teas completed the meal. On another visit, we will stay in one of the historic upstairs rooms and have dinner in their lovely back gardens. I might try a local port after dinner, since I wouldn’t have to drive.
Imperial Hotel is located at 14202 Highway 49 in Amador City. Phone (209) 267-9172; e-mail info@imperialamador.com; on the Web at http://www.imperialamador.com. Open for dinner Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday 5:00 to 8:00 P.M., Friday and Saturday, 5:00 to 9:00 P.M. Open for lunch Saturday and Sunday, noon to 2:00 P.M. Entrées, $13 to $28. Beer and wine. Visa and MasterCard accepted.
Andrae’s Bakery
A great lesson in the American Dream: Build a top-quality place and people will come. Andrae’s Bakery in Amador City is a stop for a continental breakfast of scones and designer coffee, as well as for lunch, and for stocking up on gourmet condiments and ingredients. We visit when heading south for picnic items that can provide a gourmet meal at lakeside or outside a southern foothill vineyard tasting room under the olive trees. Specialty breads include, but are not limited to blue cheese and walnut (available at 9:45 A.M.), hazlenut sourdough (Friday through Sunday at 8:00 A.M.) and olive ciabatta (Saturdays at 8:30 A.M.). A ham-and-Swiss croissant makes up for that breakfast you missed on the drive up to the foothills.
Andrae’s Bakery is located at 14141 Old Highway 49 in Amador City. Phone (209) 267-1352; on the Web at http://www.andraesbakery.com. Open Thursday through Sunday, 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. Breakfast, lunch, picnic items, and condiments. Visa and MasterCard accepted.
Reader’s Suggestion: The Lube Room Saloon and Grill
The Lube Room is located in the town of Dorrington, on Highway 4 in the Sierra. (Nearby fishing venues include the North Fork of the Stanislaus River, Lake Alpine, Spicer Reservoir, and White Pines Lake.) It’s in what had been the garage of an old stage stop, and caters to bar lovers, skiers, fishermen, bikers, locals, etc. Peanut shells go on the floor. The kitchen measures about six feet by eight feet and puts out great hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, and so on. It offers dining both indoors and outdoors, pool, darts, sports TV, friendly barkeeps, and friendly people. Everyone I’ve brought to this place for a burg loves it.
DAVE RYNIEC
Arnold
Reader’s Suggestion: Dunsmuir Brewery Works
Who could resist spring-like weather in February? Certainly not my fishing buddy, Tom, and I. We’ve been skunked on the upper Sacramento River in much worse conditions, so we were looking forward to getting skunked under sunny skies and balmy winter temperatures. We were not disappointed.
My vote that first night was for dinner at the Burger Barn in Dunsmuir. It’s about as good a mom-and-pop burger stand as you can find, at least in that neck of the woods. But Tom said, truthfully, “We need beer.” Beer? Sign me up. So we went to a brewpub he remembered from last summer: the Dunsmuir Brewery Works, just cater-corner from the Ted Fay Fly Shop, in town. We ordered pints of the spiced Winter Ale, which was very tasty and not too spicy. The surprise came when our dinners arrived.
Tom ordered the Brewery Burger, which came with the standard works, plus additions of bacon and blue cheese bits. Oh yes, all on a soft, crunchy, delicious, toasted ciabatta bun. He wouldn’t give me a bite, the bum. But he said it was delicious. Despite “the works” and additions, he could still taste the grilled beef. He smiled and cleaned his plate, with all the attendant lip-smacking and moaning and groaning. OK, Tom wasn’t moaning and groaning — that was me.
I have lately been sampling the local taquerias’ fish tacos. There are quite a few mom-and-pop Mexican restaurants where I live. And the fish tacos are good. But the fish taco I had in Dunsmuir beat them all. My tacos, with red snapper, came in double tortillas, with plenty of salsa fresca and some spicy guacamole. From the first bite I knew I was going to love this taco, because the amount and flavor of the fish were readily apparent. Too often, too little fish is smothered by the various fixings. Not so at the Dunsmuir Brewery Works.
This seems to be a theme at this small restaurant: the central protein in their sandwiches, cooked just right and in portions that aren’t stingy, is complimented, and not overwhelmed, by the flavorful additions. It’s no accident. The care that brewmaster Aaron Greener takes in his brewing is matched by the care chef David Clarno gives the meals he prepares. David obviously works hard to find ways to enhance the flavor of the various meats they serve. Sometimes it’s subtle, like with my buddy’s burger; sometimes it’s guacamole with a kick. Whatever it may be, we decided we needed another run at it the following night.
The Dunsmuir Brewery Works is not a large place; after all, it resides in the shell of an old service station. It perhaps holds 25 or 30 patrons. There’s a patio out front, and in the summer season they probably need it. Both nights we ate there, the place was full, but not crowded. The service was very straightforward, friendly, and without an ounce of pretension. We were the only anglers there, and it was our observation that the rest of the patrons were either locals or travelers from I-5. Aaron confirmed our guesses, noting that his clientele was about a 50-50 mix of locals and those just passin’ through. He told us that the locals have adopted his restaurant and that what passes for modern word-of-mouth (Yelp and other social networking sites) brings in the freeway custom.
Aaron was happy to talk to us. He and David opened the brewpub just a year ago, and business has been good. They have intentionally limited their menu and kept it simple: salads, sandwiches, and a few appetizers. And the beer, of course. We asked Aaron, who’s a long-term local, having been a ski instructor on Shasta and guided for the Ted Fay shop, what prompted him to start brewing beer. He told us that he became interested in the process even before he could legally drink, at age 18. He’d been brewing at home, by my judgment of his age, maybe 15 years. Well, practice makes perfect, and we thought his brews were damn near perfect. Light and full of flavor. Here’s a guy who obviously enjoys what he’s doing, and it shows — behind the bar, in the kitchen, and in the happy diners in the room.
Interestingly enough, you can’t get french fries at Dunsmuir Brewery Works. Aaron and David have resisted the urge to install a deep fat fryer. So, instead, you get sides like salads, soups, warm potato salad, fresh veggies, and coleslaw. What they have installed recently is a smoker, and Aaron said that soon he’ll be adding ribs (O, joy!) to the menu.
For our second meal, Tom tried the grilled adobo chicken sandwich, which was every bit as good as the burger. He also got a taste of that guacamole, which has a nice bite, but no burn. I ordered the Memphis-style pulled pork. Now, I’ve had my share of pulled-pork sandwiches, all very good, and all with spicy barbecue sauce. This one, however, was topped with a sweet onion sauce and coleslaw. What a delicious surprise! David takes four hours to bake his pork shoulders, and they come out of the oven full of flavor and perfectly cooked. As with the other dishes we ate, the sauce and coleslaw made good partners with the meat, enhancing, but not hiding, the flavors. We both had house salads for our sides. Tom had the roasted red pepper vinaigrette dressing with his, and I had their creamy bleu cheese. What can I say? We ate every bite. In addition to the house greens, there were actual, recognizable vegetables in the mix: string beans and sliced bits of cucumber and squash.
The portions are good, and the prices are reasonable. Service is fast and friendly. The beer is cold and foamy, and the chow is delicious. We have to go back. There are those smoked ribs for one thing, but I want the chance to try out their Caesar salad, the smoked salmon BLT, and the smoked bratwurst. For the herbivores who are reading this, look forward to trying the cold vegetarian plate or the grilled eggplant, sweet pepper, and portabello. The menu also offers appetizers and “small plates,” flatbread pizza, nachos, etc., which you should give a try if you’re not up to a full meal. And wash it all down with the local suds.
We came for the beer, but stayed, and returned, for the food. Give Dunsmuir Brewery Works a try when you’re fishing in the area. You won’t be disappointed.
Dunsmuir Brewery Works is located at 5701 Dunsmuir Ave., in downtown Dunsmuir. Lunch and dinner, Tuesday through Sunday, 11 A.M. to 9 P.M. On the Web at http://dunsmuirbreweryworks.info/. BRUCE CUNINGHAM
Dixon
Foraging Book Review
All That the Rain Promises, and More…
By David Arora; $17.99 from Ten Speed Press
This pocket guide to edible and nonedible mushrooms of western North America is focused toward novice gatherers. Its sharp color photographs and easy-to-use keys for identifying mushrooms help ensure that the fungi you collect will make for a tasty meal rather than send you to the hospital. This, of course, is the primary purpose for any mushroom guide, but the author of All That the Rain Promises, and More…, David Arora of Santa Cruz, states in the preface that he also wants to put “the fun in fungi.” He certainly does, with photos of smiling mushroomers and anecdotes that entertain and teach.
Richard Anderson
