Where Tahoe City Eats When the Lakefront Decks Go Quiet

Sunnyside's West Shore deck went quiet on Oct. 5. Moonshine Ink reported in June that Sunnyside Restaurant & Lodge was scheduled to reopen on April 1, 2027, after renovations. Jake's on the Lake, on the marina side of the Boatworks Mall, plans to stay open through the end of October, and its owners have called this its final summer. By November, both of the town's headline lakefront dining rooms are expected to be dark.

The rooms taking up the slack sit in town, on the river, or behind a fireplace. They are built for a Tuesday in November, and most of them come from people who already worked in Tahoe City kitchens.

Two decks, two endings

Sunnyside at 1850 W Lake Blvd is the longer story. According to edible Reno-Tahoe, T S Restaurants has run it since 1987, in a house built in 1908 that became a small lodge and marina in 1946. On June 10, 2026, the company announced that this summer would be its last, and that chef Mark Estee's Local Food Group would take over. Estee started Moody's Bistro in Truckee and earlier cooked as executive chef at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe's Lone Eagle Grille, according to the announcement carried by South Tahoe Now.

The plans are specific. The kitchen gets larger, private dining space expands, and the ownership group will refresh the 23 lodge rooms with new paint, carpet and furniture, with no new construction. The name stays. Moonshine Ink's reporting has Estee keeping American fare, seafood and burgers while adding some smoked items. One caution on timing: an edible Reno-Tahoe item from late June said the exact handover day was still to be determined, so call ahead before planning a visit around the reopening. The weekend of Oct. 3 and 4 was the last one before the reported shutdown. Sunnyside's listing shows live music on Fridays from 5 to 8 p.m. and Taco Tuesday from 4 p.m.

Jake's has an even shorter runway. SFGATE reported that Jake's opened in 1978 as the second restaurant in the T S Restaurants group and closed on Nov. 1, 2025, when its lease ended. Boatworks redevelopment plans, which include a luxury hotel, were the backdrop, and the report said in October 2025 that the project was not yet approved. The Sierra Sun reported that Jake's reopened in June 2026 with a new chef, Ronnie Miranda, and midweek happy hours aimed at local customers. It planned to stay open through October, though the timeline could still shift.

What a summer-only room costs

When Jake's managing partner Jeff Hill described the restaurant's 2025 closure, he said summer was the only time the place is profitable. In SFGATE he added that without local customers, small businesses depend more on tourism and take bigger losses in the shoulder season.

A restaurant whose year is decided by the deck lives and dies by the calendar. Sunnyside's own description promises a cozy winter by the fire, so a closure of just under six months, from Oct. 5 to April 1, changes the shape of a West Shore winter in a way a single dinner service never would. Jake's has said it hopes to serve only in summer if it continues at all, and that model leaves the lake side of town quiet for half the year.

The rooms built for the other months

Savoie sits a quarter mile west of the roundabout at the Truckee River bridge, at 760 River Road, in the old Pfeifer House. The building closed as a restaurant in 2019, and Maureen Sullivan bought it that same year. Her stepson, chef Mark Sullivan, and his wife, chef Alison Sullivan, then spent nearly six years renovating. It opened in early July 2026 and serves Alpine cooking from France, Switzerland and Italy, drawing on Sierra farmers and ranchers.

Nothing about it depends on a lake view. The original stone fireplace was kept, a spiral staircase leads to a wine cave, and the dining room faces the Truckee River. Alison Sullivan told the press she wanted it to evoke the cabins and lodges she grew up in. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m., and edible Reno-Tahoe reports that the large central bar serves the full menu without a reservation. Reservations run through Savoie's website.

According to SFGATE, Sylva, in the middle of town, opened the day after Thanksgiving in 2024, which put its first season in the dead of the off-season. When Moonshine Ink visited on a Thursday night in fall 2025, there was a line out the door for a table. SFGATE also reported that Andrew Shimer, the chef and co-owner, grew up in Tahoe City and used to cook at Christy Hill; his partner is Chata Villa. The menu changes often and leans on wood-fired cooking and shared plates.

Minglewood Coffee & Company, at 590 N Lake Blvd next to Tahoe Dave's, opened on July 11, 2025 in the former Syd's Bagelry space. Alex and Amanda Looby own it, along with Christy Hill and the Sandbar. It runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, has added a beer and wine license, and has floated trivia and live music for the evenings ahead.

The people behind these rooms share a pattern. Shimer came out of a Tahoe City kitchen. The Loobys already ran two restaurants in town. Mark Sullivan cooked at PlumpJack in Olympic Valley when it opened, and he visited Tahoe as a child. Estee built his reputation in Truckee. Each of them has a Tahoe history that predates the new project.

The calendar from here

The farmers market is the easiest way to link the two halves of that table. It runs at Commons Beach, and the Commons Beach lot is closed to parking during market hours. Dogs stay out of the stall area, but there is a "Doggy Jail" by the old jail at the entrance, with a slackline, shade and water. Free bike valet is available near the entrance. A Thursday morning there followed by an early table at Sylva fits the pattern of a town that keeps its center of gravity in the middle of Tahoe City once the docks empty out.

In 2025 the market moved indoors to the Boatworks Mall for a stretch from Oct. 30 to Dec. 18, according to the Tahoe City Public Utility District. Boatworks is also the site of the redevelopment plans, so the market's website is the place to confirm where it will be after Oct. 22.

The final Thursday at Commons Beach this season is Oct. 22.

Liz Edmunds works out of Chase International's Tahoe City office. If you have a question about what is changing around town, or a table you think belongs in this conversation, let's connect.