It’s fun to draw circles on a map with a radius of 25 miles or 50 miles from where you live and search for new places to visit. I live just south of Grass Valley, and when I make this experiment with culinary adventures in mind, one set of possibilities stands out: the corridor on either side of Interstate 80 from Granite Bay up through Auburn to Colfax. Although its angling opportunities are not well known (such as the foothill canyon sections of the American River; see the article in this issue by the late Bill Carnazzo), this corridor offers excellent food opportunities, whether it’s a stop after fishing for a quick burger or a side trip for fine dining of the highest order.
With regard to the latter, Source Global Tapas Restaurant and Hawks are found next to each other at Quarry Pond Center in Granite Bay. These restaurants are on Douglas Boulevard, between Sierra College Boulevard and Auburn Folsom Road. Their dining rooms face south and overlook an inviting pond and its wildlife. The menu at Source is exciting and different. My wife and I like the fact that using their small plates, you can build a meal that suits your food whims and budget. We have found that the menu items are very high quality and are presented beautifully, making dining there a visual pleasure, as well. Wines by the glass are reasonably priced for a top-quality, generous pour. The terrace is very nice on pleasant Sacramento Valley evenings, but the sun can be brutal if you aren’t sheltered with a table umbrella. I always like the Spanish paella balls, as well as the Hawaiian ahi poke and edamame and the boquerones — anchovy fillets marinated in vinegar and olive oil. A vegetable offering is blistered shishito peppers. Sliders of some type and a top-end burger are often on the menu. There are always a number of interesting things to choose from.
If you desire fine dining in a bit more formal, romantic setting, go next door to Hawks. You overlook the same pond, but this is one of greater Sacramento’s finest restaurants. What they call “Sunday supper” may be their forte, and Sunday is the best night to visit (a boon if you’re driving home from fishing the Sierra). Side vegetable dishes and breads often are the mark of a great restaurant, and Hawks shines here. They seek out fresh, farm-totable ingredients. On a recent evening, the appetizer list included a luscious purée of wild mushroom soup with truffled crema and chives. A wild-arugula salad with blood orange and pickled shallots tempted. For our entrée on a winter evening after steelhead fishing, I chose a crispy duckconfit cassoulet with smoked pork belly and fennel sausage and Italian butter beans. It was hearty fare. My wife chose a lighter pan-roasted petrale sole, creamy orzo, and a currant and beurre rouge sauce. A shared dessert featured chocolate decadence, peanut butter anglaise, and cocoa nib gelato. Sunday supper is $40 per person, and they offer a seven-course tasting menu for a bit more. On a good night, Hawks ranks with the best restaurants in this part of the state.
If you want to be a bit farther up the road before stopping, Carpe Vino is a fine, bistro-style restaurant in Old Town Auburn that dazzles with its food offerings and wine selections. We always have a designated driver and often spend the night in town, particularly if Highway 80 has a bad road report in the winter. The citrus serenade prix-fixe theme dinners are awesome, but ordering off the regular menu, which changes with season and ingredient availability, is always refreshing and special. Sometimes we drop in for an appetizer and a glass of wine at the replica of the original mahogany bar. Supposedly, silent-screen legend Mary Pickford bought the original bar in the 1920s as a gift for her husband/lover, Douglas Fairbanks. Carpe Vino’s brick-walled rooms have open-beam Douglas fir ceilings and tin ceiling tiles from the old Shanghai Restaurant across the street, which is now a brew pub. (It’s the Auburn Alehouse Brewery and Restaurant, and is well worth visiting. –Ed.) There is always quality art on the walls. This is a tasting room, wine shop, and restaurant, all wrapped together, right off I-80 in Historic Old Town.
Executive chef Eric Alexander surprises you with appetizers such as squid la plancha and steamed Prince Edward Island mussels. Small dishes of nuts, cheeses, and olives are available at the restored mahogany and Douglas fir bar. One night, they served fingerling potatoes fried in duck fat as bar munchies. Wines by the glass are very high quality, and Sierra foothills appellations are featured. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Dragonette Cellars sauvignon blanc vinted by dear friends in Santa Barbara County. I liked the California halibut with fingerling potatoes, spring onions, pea shoots, and salsa verde for an entrée. We also liked the braised lamb shanks with pureed potato, artichokes, heirloom carrots, green olives, and orange. Dessert was a crème-fraiche– lavender semifreddo. Carpe Vino is definitely worth a stop.
Another possibility is Max’s Restaurant and Holiday Inn in Auburn, which is on the same turnout as In-N-Out Burger if that’s the food route you want to travel. This is a franchise offshoot of the famous Max’s Opera Café in San Francisco. I remember late-night soirées there after concerts. I always ordered the huge New York deli pastrami on marbled rye, along with chocolate decadence cake and a glass of the bubbly. Their motto is “Everything You’ve Always Wanted To Eat.” We stopped by recently and found an expansive menu in a nice setting with friendly staff. The pastrami sandwich remains dear to my heart. I tried their fries, which were the spiced, thick-cut variety mixed with a few French-fried onion shards. They were a delight. My wife had half a braised brisket melt and a top-notch slaw that was crisp and fresh. A condiment caddy arrived with four mustards. I wish one was a Dijon style for the pastrami. We didn’t have dessert, but I bought a key lime pie to take home. If the deli sandwich and soup thing doesn’t work for you, Max’s offers a variety of entrées.
Several miles up the road at the Foresthill exit off Interstate 80 is Ikeda’s on the south frontage road and Machado’s Apple Barn on the north frontage road. Ikeda’s has fast food and fairly good burgers, as well as good produce, specialty foods, condiments, and fabulous pies to take out. Their fresh corn in season is wonderful; we grill it wrapped in foil with mayonnaise, lime, and Cajun or chili seasoning. Machado’s has a smaller selection than Ikeda’s, mostly of fruits and produce, but their pies are worthy.
A right turn and a zigzag at the Interstate 80 Bell Road exit gets you to Danielle and Dave’s new Dingus McGee’s. They took over the older Headquarters House location and have something of an event center, as well as a restaurant and deck on a hill overlooking a small golf course. Dingus McGee’s has been a mandatory stop for many families on the way to Tahoe for decades and features Cajun variations of American classics. Dingus McGee was a Gold Rush miner who supposedly brought Cajun recipes and a special barbeque sauce to California. At a recent lunch stop, I tried the Cajun popcorn, which consisted of spicy crawfish tail meat fried in a corn batter and served in a paper funnel. Mine was a bit overdone, but good enough with a frosty beer that I want to try it again. My angling partner had an excellent blackened catfish po’ boy sandwich. I could have chosen from an array of salads, sandwiches, and burgers. Dinner features steaks, pastas, ribs, and seafood plates with Gold Rush names. They have an array of beers and wines, but I thought the wine overpriced for the quality. And although legions of kids remember the alligator and bison burgers offered by the original restaurant, they are no longer found on the menu. This is a fun place, though. Prices are somewhere between those of fine dining and chain restaurants. Café Vista near the Highway 80 Meadow Vista–Clipper Gap exit is a pleasant surprise. This small neighborhood restaurant opens for breakfast and lunch on weekdays, well as on Friday for dinners. They feature espresso, pastries, and deli items. Recently, we attended a sold-out tapas and Spanish wine tasting event there with fellow anglers from the Meadow Vista area. We grazed on a two-hour parade of tapas, talked of angling successes, and rated the wines. It was a delightful evening, all for $20 a person.
The Red Frog, at 1001 Highway 174, about a mile out of Colfax, is an eclectic gathering place that serves burgers, pizzas, chili, and, on Tuesdays, tacos. It’s about as funky as it gets, but their deck overlooks the canyon of the North Fork of the American River and infamous Cape Horn, the switchback cliff route that killed several hundred Chinese workers when it was carved and blasted during the building of the transcontine-side on a late March evening and watched a train wind its way eastward. We were distracted from that view by an eight-foot plastic great white shark, dozens of frogs of all colors, lizards, toads, and a moose perched alongside tropical ceiling fans. A whale and several fish hung in spotlighted trees below the deck over a brush pile that housed a mother fox and kittens that lived alongside an abandoned vintage truck. Inside, a red lamp post from owner Randy Brock’s Red Lamp Restaurant highlighted the bar memorabilia. As the perennially late California Zephyr climbed the Cape Horn bend, the moon rose over a snow-covered Sierra crest.
Since there was not much else on the menu, we shared a cheeseburger, fries, and a seven-inch pizza. That and one Blue Moon and two glasses of decent house red wine came to $23.74, not including tip. Stick with the burger. Taco Tuesdays began in April. The place starts getting crowded with Rollins Lake campers as spring and summer arrive. We might just drop by after fishing late into the evening.
Please Send More
A package arrived in the mail recently that, upon opening, contained . . . three bottles of beer. Beer! I didn’t even know you could mail the stuff. More precisely, there were three bottles of Deschutes River Ale from the Deschutes Brewery, which is located in Bend, Oregon.
The shipment impressed me on two counts. First, as stated on the accompanying flyer, the ale is “full of Cascade and Crystal hop character, malt poise, and a large helping of craft passion,” and it not only lived up to this description, it met my number-uno, admittedly low-brow criteria, which is that it taste refreshing. This is exactly the sort of beverage I would reach for on a warm summer day, even if it is more complex (in a good way) than my usual lawnmower beer of choice, Miller High Life.
Second, I was impressed because, unknown to all but two or three of my closest angling buddies, one of my favorite trout waters is not in California, but just north of us: the Deschutes River. Was the arrival of this box an example of some weird synchronicity, some propitious alignment of the stars? What could it mean?
Actually, I know full well what it meant. The brewery wants a mention in California Fly Fisher. Such cheek.
I should note that Deschutes River Ale has a third quality that intrigued me — it is considered a “session” beer. Not being up to speed on drinking jargon, I had to use Google to find out what that meant. The most interesting definition refers to low-alcohol beers, brewed in England during World War I, that armaments workers drank without becoming (too) intoxicated during their workday drinking periods, or “sessions.” Alcohol by volume in session beers is supposed to be less than 4 or 5 percent. If you’re interested in keeping score, Deschutes River Ale has an ABV of 4 percent.
So what we have here is a lightly hopped, highly quaffable brew that won’t have you buzzed after a couple of pints. I’d put a few bottles in the fishing cooler, if only I could find the beverage at a retailer in Truckee. Or if the brewery would take mercy on this poor editor and ship me another box. . . .
Richard Anderson
Postscript
The Deschutes Brewery will be sponsoring a “Sacramento Base Camp Week, “ focused on “beer-centric events and tastings,” from June 11 through June 15 at various locations around Sacramento. For more information as it becomes available, visit event/sacramento-base-camp-week. The brewery is known for relatively hop-forward beers. At the 2013 International Brewing Awards, their Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Inversion IPA, and Obsidian Stout took gold medals, their Black Butte Porter took a silver medal, and their Red Chair NWPA (Northwest Pale Ale) took a bronze medal.
If You Go…
The restaurants of the Granite Bay–Auburn–Colfax corridor can be readily accessed from Interstate 80, making them suitable destinations when fishing either that specific area or when returning from fishing farther uphill. Here are their addresses, contact information, hours, and prices.
Source Global Tapas Restaurant, 5530 Douglas Boulevard in Granite Bay. Phone (916) 772-3900. Dinner, Tuesday through Sunday, 4:00 to 9:00 P.M.; lunch, Wednesday through Sunday, 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M.; happy hour daily 4:00 to 6:00 P.M. Closed Mondays. Small plates, $2.50 to $13.50; large plates $22.00 to $26.00. Wine, beer, and a full bar.
Hawks, 5530 Douglas Boulevard in Granite Bay. Phone (916) 791-6221; on the Web at http://www.hawksrestaurant.com. Dinner, Tuesday through Thursday, 5:00 to 9:00 P.M.; lunch, 11:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. On Friday and Saturday, dinner is served from 5:00 to 10:00 P.M. Entrées, $14.00 to $42.00. Seven-course tasting menu, $90. On Sundays, a prix-fixe “Sunday supper” is offered from 5:00 to 9:00 P.M. for $40. Wine, beer and full bar.
Carpe Vino, 1568 Lincoln Way in Auburn. Phone (530) 823-0320; on the Web at http://www.carpevinoauburn.com. The wine store and tasting room are open Tuesday through Sunday, 12:00 to 5:00 P.M. The restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday, 5:00 to 10:00 P.M. Entrées, $20 to $30. A Friday prix-fixe menu is offered at $49. Excellent wines by the glass.
Max’s Restaurant, 110 Grass Valley Highway in Auburn. Phone (530) 8886100; on the Web at http://www.maxsworld.com. Open seven days for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast is served Monday through Friday, 6:30 A.M. to 11:00 A.M., and Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.; lunch is served daily from 11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.; dinner is served Sunday through Thursday, 4:00 to 9:00 P.M., and Friday and Saturday, 4:00 to 10:00 P.M. Bites start at $5, entrées $11 to $22. Wine, beer, and a full bar.
Machado’s Apple Barn, 100 Apple Lane in Auburn. Phone (530) 823-1393. On Bowman Road between Exit 122 and Exit 123 off Interstate 80.
Ikeda’s, 13500 Lincoln Way in Auburn, between Exit 121 and Exit 122 off Interstate 80. Phone (530) 885-4243; on the Web at ca.com/gourmet-food-produce. The restaurant is open Monday through Thursday, 110:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M., and Friday through Sunday, 10:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. The market is open Monday through Thursday, 8:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M., and Friday through Sunday, 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M.
Dingus McGee’s, 14550 Musso Road in Auburn at Exit 123 off Interstate 80. Phone (530) 878-1000; on the Web at http://dingusmcgees.com. Open for lunch, 11:00 A.M. to 2:30 p.M., Wednesday through Sunday, and for dinner, 4:00 P.M. to closing, every day. Munchies, $5.95 and up, entrées to $28.95. Wine, beer, and a full bar.
Café Vista, 17100 Placer Hills Road in Meadow Vista off Exit 125 on Interstate 80. Phone (530) 878-6169. Open for breakfast and lunch Monday through Saturday, 7:00 A.M. to 3:00 p.m. and for dinner on Friday, 5:30 to 8:00 P.M.
The Red Frog, 1001 Grass Valley Highway, one mile north of Auburn on Highway 174. Phone (530) 346-1010. Open 11:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. weekdays and 11:00 to 2:00 A.M. Friday and Saturday. Inexpensive, limited bar food. Wine, beer, full bar.
Trent Pridemore
