I live in Willows, California, and travel up and down Interstate 5 to fishing destinations on a nearly daily basis. As I have mentioned numerous times in this column, I love great food for a reasonable price, and my focus is on locally owned and operated eateries. Some folks have asked me, “What about this place,” or told me “I have a place for you!” The only eateries I recommend, though, are ones that Kirsten and I patronize. And I don’t do chain restaurants. I value food that comes from chefs and cooks who use local products and strive to serve the best meals possible to their patrons, and that’s what I recommend. I don’t like eating at restaurants that use a freezer full of processed foods to fill their orders. I can get a Hungry Man TV dinner for that.
In this issue, I’m focusing on eateries in the Orland, Corning, Red Bluff, and Cottonwood areas of I-5. Some of these local places have been in business for more than thirty years and are local institutions.
Orland: The Farwood Bar and Grill
The Farwood Bar and Grill is the place where Kirsten and I celebrate milestones in our lives with our family. It has great service, a bar, and great food. The current owners, Jim and LeighAnn Byerly, have taken it to new heights after purchasing it from originators Bob and Jan Walker in 2008. The Walkers opened the restaurant in 2006.
The building and the bar have a rich historical lineage. The wooden bar was shipped to California around Cape Horn and was located in San Francisco before it was brought up the Sacramento River by barge in 1916 and placed in its current location in a what was then a “gentlemen’s club” called the Richelieu.
The Farwood Bar and Grill is an upscale eatery, but its menu items have reasonable prices. The menu changes seasonally with what fresh local ingre- dients are available. When they run out of something, they run out, and that’s a good sign.
Everyone in my family has a different favorite, but we can agree that the “pom filet” is outstanding — a grilled six-ounce filet mignon, cooked to your taste, topped with Sierra Nevada Cheese Company herbed goat cheese and a red wine pomegranate reduction, served with mashed Pyramid Farms sweet potatoes and freshly roasted Brussels sprouts. I even love their Brussels sprouts.
Kirsten and I usually get the Farwood salad and split it before our entrée. The Farwood salad is a feast in itself, and you can add grilled chicken and shrimp. The salad’s main components are leaf lettuce, feta cheese, T. M. Duche Company walnuts, dried cranberries, and julienne-cut apples with your choice of dressing. I am usually a meat-and-potatoes guy, but this salad is fantastic.
My dad’s go-to when we get together for dinner is not a steak, but the Farwood’s steakhouse burger. This has two of Farwood’s house-ground patties, Sierra Nevada Cheese Company white cheddar cheese, bacon, onion marmalade, and Dijonnaise mustard on a burger bun from the local Tin Roof bakery.
Farwood Bar and Grill, 705 Fifth Street, Orland. Phone: (530) 865-9900; web, www.farwoodbarandgrill.com. Open for lunch and dinner from 11:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. They can work around food allergies.
Corning: Bartels Giant Burger
Bartels Giant Burger was started in 1975 by Carole and Dennis Bartels, and now their son Eric and Eric’s wife Victoria run the day-to-day operations of this burger joint. There are actually three different locations of Bartels Giant Burger: Corning, Anderson, and Redding. I have eaten only at the Corning location. It is one of my quick pit stops coming home from the lower Sacramento. It is located right off of Interstate 5 at the Solano Road– Corning Road exit in downtown Corning.
I write about many burger joints, but I can’t help it — nothing is better than a great burger. Bartels has them. I love the namesake “Giant Burger.” It is a third of a pound of Harris Ranch certified angus beef patty. It comes with mustard, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, and onion, and you can choose how they cook it, from rare to burned. Bun options include lettuce wraps and a Polish bun, and you can add nine different cheeses and twelve different other toppings, from jalapeno slices to chilis to bacon. It is truly a great burger, customized however you like it. I always add pepper jack cheese and chilis. I also order the grilled chicken sandwich, a chicken breast filet grilled to perfection on your choice of a giant or regular bun. It comes with mustard, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, and onion, and I usually add Swiss cheese and pickles.
The Bartels offer only homemade sauces and fresh vegetables on all their burgers or sandwiches. On busy days, if you get there late, you will find they have run out of different vegetables or even out of different meat selections. They have their beef patties and chicken delivered three times a week from a local butcher shop.
Bartels Giant Burger, 22355 Corning Road, Corning. Phone: (530) 824-2788; web, www.bartelsgiantburger.com. Open from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Corning: The Olive Pit and Olive Pit Café
The Olive Pit is a locally owned and operated business that was started in Corning in 1968 by Pete and Ann Craig. The Olive Pit originally was a hamburger stand. The couple then began selling their olive products at the stand, and people loved them. The business has grown over the years and is still operated by a third generation of the Craig family.
Most folks think that the Olive Pit is just a place to buy olives. However, it also carries all kinds of other olive products, including olive oils, and a large inventory of local farmers products, from pasta sauces to vinaigrettes and traditional salads. My favorite traditional salad is the muffuletta. The Olive Pit’s muffuletta is a mix of cauliflower, celery, carrots, olives, peppers, onions, pickles, capers, garlic, and vinegar with traditional spices. I have had many different types of muffuletta from different local manufacturers, and this one is one of the best. Kirsten and I often serve muffuletta at Lake Almanor to our fishing guests at dinner. We always have it sitting right next to the green salad we serve. Muffuletta can be used as a side dish, or it can be used in all types of recipes, from topping pasta to a condiment for hamburgers.
The Olive Pit Café offers burgers and sandwiches with a wide selection of coffees and milkshakes. My favorite burger is a no-brainer: the muffuletta ciabatta burger, a flame-broiled third of a pound beef patty on a base of Olive Pit muffuletta olive mix, topped with provolone cheese on a ciabatta bun. Fantastic!
The Olive Pit and Olive Pit Café, 2156 Solano Street, Corning. Phone: (530) 824-4667; web, www.olivepit.com. The Olive Pit is open every day of the week from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Red Bluff: A&R Custom Butchering
Kirsten introduced this deli to me a couple of years ago, and it has become one of my favorites. A&R Custom Butchering is much more than a deli. It is an old-school butcher shop that offers custom meat preparation on both wild and domestic animals. If you don’t see it in their meat cases, ask for it. They will go out of their way to cut meat just for you. Kirsten and I get most of our pork and beef from this shop. It has become a regular stop if we are in the area.
The deli specializes in Boar’s Head Brand deli meats, cheeses, and sauces. Their sandwiches are made to your custom order, and you can order a full or half sandwich. The deli offers six different breads or wraps, nine different condiments, seven meats, eight cheeses, and the list goes on. The vegetables are cold and fresh, and everything is done the way an old-fashioned sandwich counter would have done it. They have three custom signature sandwiches: the Hoghunter, the Butcher Block, and the Rancher. On Wednesdays, the have a homemade pulled pork sandwich and on Fridays a tri-tip sandwich. Both sandwiches are available on their grilled garlic bread. In the winter months, the deli offers daily house-made soups — my favorite is their jambalaya.
My favorite sandwich is the Hoghunter, which is prepared on white bread with Boar’s Head Pepperhouse Gourmaise mayo, ham, and bacon topped with Swiss cheese. I add tomatoes, lettuce, red onions, and olives. Sometimes I skip those veggies and just have coleslaw slathered over it. Kirsten’s favorite is the Friday tri-tip sandwich on grilled garlic bread with no barbeque sauce or cheese, though it usually comes with barbeque sauce and cheddar cheese. If she does go for cheese, it is usually provolone.
A&R Custom Butchering Retail Meats and Deli, 1055 Main Street, Red Bluff. Phone: 530-527-6483; web, www.arcustombutchering.com. A&R Custom Butchering Retail Meats and Deli is open Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and closed Sundays.
Cottonwood: Kenny’s Kitchen at the Branding Iron
At least a decade ago, Kirsten and I found a place called the Branding Iron Diner, located at the Shasta Stockyard in Cottonwood. The diner had great food — basically, it was an upscale greasy spoon that always tooted its horn about homemade hot meals. One morning while we were heading to Redding to visit the folks at The Fly Shop to drop off flies and to pick up materials, we planned to go to the Branding Iron for breakfast, but when we got there, the restaurant was jammed full, so we looked for an alternative.
I Googled places to eat nearby, and we found Kenny’s Kitchen. We drove no more than a mile back down Cottonwood’s main Street to a little diner. There were two folks leaving, and we got their table. The people running the little diner were having a great time having fun with their customers and working hard to make sure everyone was being taken care of. We ordered and received our meals within ten minutes and enjoyed a fantastic breakfast.
A couple of months later, we learned that those folks had taken over the Branding Iron location. Now it’s named Kenny’s Kitchen at the Branding Iron, and the homemade, old-fashioned, upscale greasy spoon kitchen was merged with another outstanding local eatery. Just like every other place that has great fresh food, you might be told that they’re out of something if you show up too late.
Kirsten and I have eaten at the diner only for breakfast, but Kenny’s Kitchen offers both breakfast and lunch. Kirsten and I keep on telling ourselves that we have to stop and have lunch there. It is on our to-do list. If their lunches are as good as their breakfasts, they have a great lunch. My favorite breakfast is the country-fried steak and eggs, a classic staple of Kenny’s Kitchen. Their fried steak is light and crispy, screaming hot, and always has just the right quantity of herbs and spices. The steak is covered with their sausage gravy, homemade daily, which is rich and creamy without as much of a fatty taste as I’ve experienced with other country gravies. I usually order the hash browns and the eggs over medium. Lately, I have ordered their country potatoes. I had been missing out. They’re crispy, with a hint of garlic.
Kirsten’s favorite breakfast at Kenny’s Kitchen is the veggie omelet — three eggs, with fresh spinach, onions, and mushrooms. It comes with your choice of cheese. She usually gets Monterey jack, if she gets a cheese at all. Kirsten leaves the potatoes to me and gets the fresh fruit bowl as a substitute.
Kenny and his wife, Nicole, strive for excellent customer service with delicious homemade foods. They have a winner going in Cottonwood.
Kenny’s Kitchen at the Branding Iron, 3917 Main Street, Cottonwood. Phone: (530) 347-4036; no website. Open from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Wednesday through Monday. Closed on Tuesday.