Where to Use Taste of Truckee Before October Runs Out

Organizers of Taste of Truckee estimate there are more than 80 restaurant-type businesses in Truckee and Northstar. They believe that number may surprise even longtime residents. Most of us end up rotating through a handful of them. The town's first restaurant month runs through Saturday, Oct. 31, and its offers are priced to make that 81st place a low-risk try. The cheapest paid offer is a $6 coffee and pastry. The most expensive is an $85 tasting menu.

A month built for the slow weeks

Taste of Truckee is a joint project of the Truckee Chamber of Commerce and Visit Truckee-Tahoe. Sierra Sun reported that it is the community's first monthlong restaurant promotion. October wasn't a random choice. According to the same report, the Chamber surveyed restaurants in March about whether they would take part, when the event should run and which promotions would work. That feedback pointed to October.

Chamber President and CEO Jessica Penman told Sierra Sun that the goal is "getting our residents to enjoy our restaurants during slow time as well as bringing new visitors to the area." The paper also reported that organizers want people to try a restaurant they've overlooked or thought was out of their price range. Many owners live here, employ local workers and run businesses that are especially exposed during the shoulder seasons.

That goal explains the price range. Restaurants could choose a signature value item, a dish paired with a drink, or a three-course prix fixe. The Chamber's newsletter listed the prix fixe tiers as $35, $55 and $75. The live listings don't all follow those tiers, so the prices below are the ones each restaurant posted on the Taste of Truckee page. The newsletter counted 25 participating restaurants, and the event page now shows more than two dozen cards.

A first visit for under $20

The low end of the list is where the event does its main job. For about the cost of a drink, you can walk into a place you've driven past for years.

• Mountain Brew, 12373 Donner Pass Rd.: $6 for a medium house or mountain-blend coffee and a pastry, or $17 for a signature hot sandwich with beer or wine on tap.
• Stella, 10918 Brockway Rd.: $10 for house-made focaccia with balsamic and olive oil. Stella also offers a $75 dinner, covered below, so the focaccia works as a preview of the kitchen.
• Truckee Cookies, 11357 Deerfield Dr.: a $10 Truckee Taster Box with four cookies, including a seasonal London Fog Latte Cookie, available through Oct. 31.
• Mehfil Indian Bistro, 11421 Deerfield Dr.: $12 for two samosas or vegetable pakora plus beer, wine or a mango lassi. The Deerfield Plaza restaurant recently came under new owner RJ Kumar, according to the Chamber.
• Buoy & Trap, 10825 Pioneer Trail: $15 for a half-dozen oysters.
• Alder Creek Cafe: $15 for two tacos and a canned beer, with carne asada, grilled fish or Korean BBQ mushroom. It's inside Tahoe Donner's Alder Creek Adventure Center.
• Smokey's Kitchen: $15 for six smoked wings.
• Uncorked Truckee, 10118 Donner Pass Rd.: $15 for a ciabatta-Gruyère grilled cheese.

Pairings that show what a place pours

Several of these pairings are downtown and within walking distance of each other.

• Alibi Ale Works, 10069 Bridge St.: $15 for pork-belly bao and eggplant bao with a pint or a Hoppy Hour pour. Sierra Sun featured this pairing when the event opened on Oct. 1.
• Coffeebar: $18 for house red or white wine with house-made hummus and focaccia, which may be a side of the café some regulars haven't seen.
• Cloud Sushi: $18 for three pieces of chef's-choice nigiri with a 12-ounce Orion beer or a small hot sake.
• FiftyFifty Brewing Co., 10242 Church St.: $20 for a smoked Emmental bratwurst with caramelized onions, pickled peppers and tarragon mustard on a pretzel bun, paired with the brewery's Oktoberfest Vienna Lager.
• Buoy & Trap: $24 for the oysters with house wine.
• Craft + Logic, 10192 Donner Pass Rd.: $25 for three 5-ounce pours and three bites from the menu.
• Uncorked Truckee: $25 for the grilled cheese with a selected wine, or $38 for a wine flight with a cheese-and-charcuterie platter.
• Mehfil Indian Bistro: $28 for samosas or pakora, chicken tikka masala or saag paneer, and a drink.
• Truckee River Winery, 10061 S. River St.: $35 for an individual meat-and-cheese tapa and a wine flight.
• The Pour House, 10075 Jibboom St.: a weekly rotating signature glass for pass holders, with no price listed.

Dinners where the fixed price lets you order without hesitating

The prix fixe menus matter most for the restaurants organizers had in mind when they talked about places people consider out of their price range. A set price lets you try a kitchen without doing math over the menu.

At $35, Great Gold serves a sunflower Caesar, mushroom lasagna and cannoli. Cottonwood Restaurant offers soup or salad followed by cider-braised pork shoulder or a vegan farro-stuffed delicata squash. Smokey's Kitchen has a $35 menu with beer, soup or salad, and a Wagyu burger, chicken breast or BBQ sandwich.

Mehfil's $36 menu adds naan and gulab jamun or kheer to its pairing. Pianeta Ristorante, at 10096 Donner Pass Rd., charges $49 for house wine, soup or a Florentine salad, a choice of Bolognese, di Olio or the weekly pasta, and a bittersweet chocolate pavé.

The $55 tier is the most crowded:

• Buoy & Trap: lobster roll, chowder and oysters.
• Drunken Monkey, 11253 Brockway Rd.: pork gyoza or agedashi tofu, a High Monkey or Sierra Sunset roll, teriyaki beef or salmon, and Sapporo or house wine.
• Moody's Bistro Bar & Beats, 10007 Bridge St.: appetizer, salad and entrée, with selections that change through the month.
• The Lodge Restaurant & Pub, 12850 Northwoods Blvd. in Tahoe Donner: three courses on a menu that changes weekly.
• Rubicon Pizza at Northstar: a large salad, a large pizza, and dessert or a pitcher of soda, meant to serve four.
• Fireside Pizza: a large house or Caesar salad, a large signature pizza, and a cookie or brownie.

For four people, Rubicon's $55 comes to under $14 each, which makes it the family-dinner pick of the month. Smokey's $75 Dinner for Two also works for sharing: two beers, soup or salad, a full rack of ribs, two sides and cornbread or a biscuit.

The top of the list is short. Bar of America, at 10040 Donner Pass Rd., charges $69 for a house salad or Sierra Caesar, then prime rib, BBQ chicken or pistachio-crusted Chilean sea bass, then a sundae or Meyer lemon tart brûlée. Stella's $75 menu includes peaches, focaccia, fennel salad, duck breast and dessert, with entrée substitutions available. Trokay also lists a $75 menu. Tangerine's $85 four-course tasting menu mixes house favorites with off-menu dishes, and wine pairing is optional.

The newest room on the list

One participant didn't exist a few months ago. The Social at Matices, at 10164 Donner Pass Road downtown, was open by mid-September. Sierra Sun described it as a shared-plates restaurant with cocktails and flavors drawn mainly from Spain and South America. Owner Amié Fitzhugh told the paper that the name roughly translates to "nuances," and that the idea covers "the conversation that we hope to have with our guests coming in about the food and about the environment."

Its Taste of Truckee offer is $26 for smoked pork-belly skewers with aji panca glaze, sweet-potato purée, aji pollero, aji amarillo, crispy potato and smoked salt, paired with a Malbec or Torrontés. The Social is the first half of a two-part concept. In September, the more refined Matices dining room was expected later this year but didn't have a firm opening date. For now, the pairing is the easiest way to try the new kitchen before the second room opens.

Why your check-ins count

The digital pass is how the event tracks results. Here is how it works:

1. Sign up for the Truckee Restaurant Month Pass on your phone. There's no app to download.
2. Pick an offer from the participating restaurants and order it.
3. Take a photo and upload it through the pass to check in.
4. Each check-in counts as an entry toward $100 Sustainable Truckee gift cards. The event page lists four, and more check-ins mean more chances.

The prize is the smaller part of it. Visit Truckee-Tahoe Executive Director Jackie Calvert told Sierra Sun that the pass was built to "understand how many people checked into each restaurant and help our partners understand what really moved the needle." The paper also reported that organizers hope the first event becomes an annual one. That makes a photo of a $6 coffee at Mountain Brew a data point in the case for holding it again next October.

The last two weekends of the month give you a couple of reasons to stay out. The Visit Truckee Tahoe events calendar lists the Truck-ee-Treat Dirt Jam at Riverview Bike Park on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It also lists Halloween in the Park downtown on Friday, Oct. 30, from 4 to 6 p.m. Alibi, Moody's and Pianeta are all a short walk from downtown, so dinner can come right after the costumes. Menus can change during the month, so check the restaurant's listing before you go.

If a Taste of Truckee dinner leaves you curious about what's happening beyond downtown, from Tahoe Donner to Northstar, I'm glad to share what I know. Liz Edmunds is happy to talk Truckee with you anytime. Let's Connect.