I have been passing through the small Central Valley farm town of Williams since before Interstate 5 was completed in 1979. The road led to Northern California, the Northwest and Canada, and included a roadside snake farm on the way to Red Bluff, which was frightening to a youngster, as well as endless colorful Burma Shave signs offering bits of rhythmic, humorous wisdom.
If you turned west at the community of Williams, Highway 20 took you to the Indian Valley Reservoir turnoff, Clear Lake, Lake Pillsbury, and on to the coast. An eastward deviation sent you past the Colusa National Refuge toward Colusa and shad fishing in the Butte City area on the Sacramento River. Farther on, Highway 20 went through Yuba City and Marysville to the lower Yuba, the Feather, or up the mountain toward Grass Valley and Nevada City. More fishing choices led north to Downieville on Highway 49 or farther up Highway 20 to Truckee and beyond.
One way or another, there were lots of angling and recreation opportunities for anyone passing through Williams, but there weren’t many meal options. Beyond Williams, the towns of Maxwell, Willows, Orland, and Corning offered little. Nearby, Winters, at the Berryessa turnoff, had a plywood burger shack. (Since those long-ago years, however, Winters has turned into a foodie destination of sorts, with some intriguing restaurants. I will be writing about them in a future column.)
Our default dining option in the Williams area back then was Louis Cairo’s Italian restaurant. A Sunday return from Hat Creek, the Fall River, or the Trinity took longer in those days, and dinner at Louis Cairo’s was a timely stop, even if it meant a late arrival in the Bay Area, not always a bad idea considering Sunday traffic jams and backups at a number of bottlenecks that still plague us today. The restaurant was legendary because of their garlic bread and had a reputation as good steak house, and after a week of camping my fishing buddies and I were ready for a hearty meal that someone else prepared and served. We shared some good times there. Today, it has slipped under new owners and has a dated look. Their garlic bread is still fabulous, but is a side order at eight dollars, and reviews are mixed. One meal will be excellent, and another less so because of food preparation issues and service. As a friend reported, entrees may match San Francisco prices, but this isn’t fine dining. We stopped for nostalgia reasons returning from Clear Lake this spring and verified those mixed reviews. If you order beef, be emphatic about “medium rare.”
At Williams, there are nevertheless some alternatives to “broasted” chicken, pepperoni sticks, or drumstick ice cream cones at the Highway 20 Shell station about a mile west of I-5. A drive through Williams may include a call-ahead order to Granzella’s for deli takeout or a ready-on-arrival meal. I can’t say how efficient this is or if it really saves time. Sandwiches at Granzella’s are made with quality meat products, produce, and breads. Their sit-down menu has a wide range of menu choices. I like the smaller-portion, less costly offerings when driving. This is an Interstate food emporium and an institution somewhat like Pea Soup Anderson’s in Buellton, the Harris Ranch in Coalinga, and the late, revered Milk Farm near Dixon. Food quality is above average, but not stellar. Their gift shop offers many olive and vinegar products, hard-to-find condiments, and gifts. After a disastrous fire in 2007, they’ve rebuilt and have an inn, a timbered-ceiling sports bar, and accommodation for RVs and trailers. The Old World look has stuffed animal heads as part of the décor.
If you want a quick meal along with ample parking in an open, secure lot for a boat trailer or RV, Roberta’s Taqueria in downtown Williams is a good bet. It offers better-than-average Mexican food served on shaded concrete tables outside a walk-up window. Beer isn’t available, but that’s an asset when on the road. I’ve found most menu offerings to be excellent. Menudo is served on Sundays. Meat choices include carne asada, carne al pastor, carnitas, chicken, buche (pork stomach), cabeza, chorizo, and tripe, which separates this type of taqueria from the food chain beans-and-rice places such as Taco Bell.
Increasingly, I find that I’m headed to Clear Lake around the end of March and again in October looking for bass and crappies. I stay in the town of Clearlake because, after a day on the water, its location shortens the drive to my home in the Gold Country. My wife and I don’t like fast food, and a number of restaurants are closed midweek in the off-season. This spring, we discovered The Spot. It’s a burger place, but the food is of a much higher quality than you usually find. Combine a clean, neat restaurant that is on the water with pleasant staff and live music, and you have a winner. Add a pier and a dock for more points. Another plus is a happy hour from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., in the bar only, which offers a $5.00 fish taco meal.
The restaurant is within walking distance from our cheap motel, so we can indulge in some nice draft beer offerings. A surprise is decent wine, unusual for a burger place, but some fine wines come out of Lake County. During a blistering midday, or when winds drive you off the water, visit Red Hills Vineyard in Kelseyville and take in their unique “boatique” tasting room built around a display of some of the finest classic wooden boats in the country.
Interstate 80 is another corridor leading to fishing in the foothills and up the mountain in the High Sierra. In Auburn, Maria’s Mexican Tacos on the north frontage road offers fresh, authentic Mexican food that would place it in the upper quarter of restaurants — or higher. Their menu, which suggests a Baja influence, includes goat tacos, lengua, cabeza, delightful sopas, and shrimp and calamari as taco ingredients. This unpretentious restaurant offers blistered peppers and free chips with all meals. It also has an outside patio with fans that is comfortable on most days. I like that I can order the lower-alcohol, yet still tasty Modelo Especial on tap, and a less known Victoria beer from Pacifico. “Hot” means hot here, but a request for milder spicing is respected.
Baja-style fish tacos are hard to pass up, but I’ll do so for Maria’s carnitas tostada bowl that is two meals for me, if I can manage to halt myself at the halfway point. Those same carnitas in a super burrito supply flavor, aroma, and pleasing texture, and the leftovers are often my breakfast the following day. The vegetable ingredients are finely chopped and include radish, red cabbage, cilantro, and some subtle surprises.
We lost Cafe Luna and several other restaurants in Colfax, 15 miles up the road from Auburn, due to rent increases from a new absentee landlord. As I often say, call ahead, particularly in resort and vacation destination areas, where turnover is often a common theme. Turnover, though, can be a positive thing. Colfax has a new tacqueria, Homie Joe’s Tacos, in the space formerly occupied by Drooling Dog. Their menu is limited, but all dishes are made from scratch and freshly prepared on site, as is evident when you walk up to the counter and see the prep end of a meal in progress. My traveling partner had been there before and quickly ordered beef tacos. I tried another carnitas bowl to see how it stacked up against one I sampled a few weeks earlier at Maria’s, this one without a fried shell, reducing the calories considerably. A small dish of chips and salsa was offered if you asked. At an adjacent table, a burrito arrived that was large enough to provide at least three meals. The patron had a mouthful, so gave two thumbs up. The kitchen was equally generous with the meat portions of our orders. Homie Joe’s is developing a following and worth a stop.
The Red Frog, between Colfax and Rollins Lake on Highway 174, is expanding. This has been a funky stop for locals, but more people are learning that they serve decent burgers and an assortment of draft beers, have live music, and on Tuesday Tacos you’ll find very reasonable prices. The deck offers a fabulous view that can include the California Zephyr as it rounds Cape Horn. This isn’t a flatland kind of place. Next door, the Dawg House has finally opened after months of permit problems.
Long Ravine Campground at Rollins Reservoir, down the road a mile from the Red Frog, used to let us drive in to the Beach Hut Deli at the Marina without a camping fee. No more, but you can come by boat. My friends and I fish Rollins more and more. There are crappies, smallmouths, largemouths, and brown and rainbow trout if you know when to be there.
If You Go . . .
Louis Cairo’s, 558 7th Street, Williams, CA 95987, (530) 473-5927. Open Saturday, 4:00 to 9:00 p.m., Sunday, 3:00 to 9:00 p.m., and the rest of week, 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; http://louiscairos.com.
Granzella’s, 451 6th Street, Williams, CA 95987, (530) 478-5583. Open 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and to 10:00 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day; https://www.granzellas.com.
Roberta’s Taqueria, 530 East 5th Street, Williams, CA 95987, (530) 473-5927. Open 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily.
The Spot, 14629 Lakeshore Drive, Clearlake, CA 95422, (707) 900-8671. Open 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday; 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Sunday; https://www.clearlakespot.com.
Maria’s Mexican Tacos, 13483 Bowman Road, Auburn, CA 95603, (530) 823-8540. Open Tuesday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Closed Mondays.
Homie Joe’s Tacos, 212 N. Canyon Way, Colfax, CA 95713, (530) 512-5050. Closed Wednesday, open 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Tuesday, with Sunday noon to 6 p.m.
The Red Frog, 1001 Highway 174, Colfax, CA 95713, (530) 346-1010. Open 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. daily.
The Dawg House, 745 State Highway 174, Colfax, CA 95713, (916) 792-5073. Closed Monday and Thursday, otherwise open 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. except Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.
A Digression
My comments above about the high-quality hamburgers at The Spot in Clearlike reminded me that seemingly humble menu item such as burgers have the potential to be raised to the level of a fine-dining experience. Years ago, a Livermore Valley winery-owner friend and I rode BART to San Francisco chasing the ultimate burger. We took along a bottle of an award-winning Frog Hill zinfandel. Our destination was Jeremiah Tower’s first venture after his breakup with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. The Balboa Café was located in Cow Hollow and had a reputation for superb food, including a cheeseburger made with his special beef blend and served on a bun freshly baked in-house with heirloom tomatoes and baby lettuce. It took a forager in those days to get the heirloom tomatoes. Instead of presliced American cheese, my order came with an aromatic Wisconsin white cheddar that married perfectly with the medium-rare beef and the fresh baked, slightly yeasty bun.
Mandatory fries, really French pommes frites of extraordinary quality, were cooked in duck fat to order. This was not a burger joint. My meal partner and I learned that day that “gourmet” can apply to almost anything made with the finest of ingredients, prepared with the excellence of a skilled line cook and paired with an appropriate wine (and now with craft beer, if that is a preference). That experience took place long ago, but the lesson for foraging fly fishers is that you shouldn’t be surprised to find restaurants these days that elevate common dishes like burgers and fries or macaroni and cheese to impressive heights of quality. When this elevation occurs in rural areas, patronize those places, because they are rare and thus to be valued, and need
