Driving up the hill to Lake Tahoe is scenic, sure. But it can be an incredibly long haul. Whether it’s a trip up to the vacation home, a rental or just a couple days at one of the resorts or casinos, the hours before arriving at the 6,200-foot-high Shangri La can be Pure, Unadulterated, Living Hell. Think Fourth of July Weekend. How about Friday afternoon heading out of the Bay Area? Or Sunday afternoon coming home? Can’t forget the chaos of the season’s first major storm. Crawling up that last leg of Highway 50 behind a big rig. That’s when its time to pull over and take the Big Chill. Even when it isn’t the Ninth Ring of Dante’s Inferno, stomachs growl, bladders fill, kids fidget and legs cramp.
While the Golden Age of roadside attractions may be past, there are still plenty of joints along Highway 80 and Highway 50 where a body can refuel, reboot and regroup.
The following spots are a largely arbitrary and unscientific compendium – although one based on empirical research.
Interviews with Tahoe locals, weekenders and regular visitors created the first cut of candidates, which, in turn, were winnowed to the list below.
Keeping with its unscientific and arbitrary nature, this list includes no places below Placerville on Highway 50 and Auburn on Highway 80. The rationale is that, generally speaking, those spots are where campers young and old start to get antsy or hungry or both.
Regrettably, such a yardstick instantly banned Poor Red’s in El Dorado and Que Viva! In Cameron Park from consideration. Probably shouldn’t be quaffing a lot of Gold Cadillacs and margaritas en route - at least the driver shouldn’t.
With those caveats, which also should include the author’s capricious whim, the interviews and investigation led to this range of options on either route where a break and a bite can be had.
Starting with Highway 80:
Friends from the Bay Area routinely take the sting out of a Tahoe commute with an overnight at the Rocklin Park Hotel & Spa, 14 miles above Sacramento. Its restaurant recently closed, but there are plenty of nice neighboring ones. Early to bed, some aerobic exercise, and wake refreshed for the final leg. Rocklin Road exit. rocklinpark.com.
For roadside attractions, Ikeda’s in Auburn is the gold standard. Ask about places to stop on the way to Tahoe and the number of first responses of Ikeda’s is downright Pavlovian. Maybe that’s partly because they’ve been selling their breads and pies for more than 30 years.
If there are kiddos in the car, Ikeda’s has what they need to either knock them out or give them a sugar high to last up the hill.
There are burgers, veggie burgers, milk shakes and fruit freezes of all stripes. Sample the plank of Ikeda sauces and marinades while you wait or grab some fresh produce, a Razzleberry pie, fresh baked muffins and a few $5.99 frozen chicken potpies for an easy meal at the cabin.
Right on the Bowman Exit past the junction with Highway 49, neighboring Lou La Bonte’s used to be the righteous place to stop. Present management has not restored it to past glory.
More appealing to the parental palate is Carpe Vino in Old Town Auburn. The wine bar, built in 1855, is just off the freeway at Exit 119A Maple Street. Visit carpevinoauburn.com for directions and some interesting wine and food suggestions. The food is locally grown and smartly prepared. Dinner, Wednesday through Saturday starting at 5 p.m. The wine bar is open from noon to 8 p.m., same days. Not too much wine tasting, though – at least for the driver. Snag a bottle for a cocktail hour on the deck.
Up the road in Colfax is Giovanni’s. Two miles off the freeway on Highway 174, this Mama-must be-back-there-in-the-kitchen-cooking restaurant has swell Italian food – go figure – a $7.99 kid menu and attentive service. There is a reason it’s still going strong after a quarter century. Lunch and dinner Thursday through Saturday. giovannisincolfax.com.
Dutch Flat wins typecasting for a Gold Rush ghost town. Just take the Dutch flat exit and find out. There are fine dinners to be had at the Monte Vista Inn, which is impossible to miss, just like everything else, on Dutch Flat’s main drag. Warm, woodsy dining room.
The redoubtable Rainbow Lodge with its glorious stonework isn’t what it once was – at the moment at least. This summer they offered no rooms for rent. It’s closed a fair chunk of the week – open Friday through Monday, noon to 8 pm – and although the wine list is impressive the food is basic light fare: shrimp cocktails, veggie burgers, quesadillas and the like. Chicken tenders for the small fry. Neighboring Ice Lakes Lodge offers lunch and dinner. Great cross-country skiing. royalgorge.com.
Even though close to trip’s end – or just past if the trail stops at Donner Lake – there is nothing quite like the eclectic and aptly named Squeeze In in Truckee.
A fixture since 1974 – Gee, why is there a peace sign next to the most popular items? – the joint gets its name from being 60 feet long and 11 feet wide.
Atmosphere is way casual, service is fun and it’s hard not to love a joint with 63 different omelets and 43 sandwiches sporting names like “Uncle Fester” – fat free turkey breast, avocado, cream cheese and spinach – and “Screamin’ Beaman” – carrots, green chilies, mushrooms, spinach and Swiss cheese. They go through 156,000 eggs a year and 17.4 tons of potatoes.
And, as the waiter happily points out, you can write on the walls. Taste the craziness at squeezein.com.
Coming Up Highway 50:
Kickback but conscientious is Z-Pie across from the City Hall parking structure in Placerville. Take the exit past Highway 49 and turn right to cruise Old Town. Pass the Hang Tree Tavern – impossible to miss with the manikin swinging from a rope above the sign. It’s an historic site cum dive bar.
Catty-corner (kind of) from the Hang Tree is Tomei’s with a fairly eclectic menu but hours not terribly in sync with Tahoe commuter time. Lunch Monday through Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Z-Pie has a potpie for every taste. Indian Chicken Curry, Tomatillo Stew, Italian Sausage. Yummy salads too. Like Ikeda’s, snag some for later. z-pie.com.
St. Pauli Inn, a Highway 50 fixture since 1986, is no longer an inn. Nor do the original owners who stamped the cuisine with their German heritage, operate the place.
While schnitzel, German potatoes and red cabbage washed down with an on-tap Spaten might be a heavily hearty lunch, it can be the perfect running-a-little-late-don’t-want-to-cook-tonight-dinner.
The service is deliciously old school. How often do waitresses call women folk “honey” and girls “sweetheart?” It’s got a small septic tank so a pit stop will cost you something. There’s a nice coffee stand at the front door if a meal isn’t on the agenda. Open year-round but a bit lonely in the winter, the staff says. Make them less lonely. Can’t miss it – on the side of the road a couple miles after Highway 50 narrows to two lanes.
BONUS RECOMMENDATION: The St. Pauli staff plugs the Kyburz Lodge that serves food although it’s hard to tell when the same sign says both “Welcome to Kyburz” and “Now Leaving Kyburz.” (Not investigated by this intrepid reviewer but passed along for the reader’s consideration.)
Dante’s, just before Whitehall, is a delight, starting with its owners, Nancy and Kevin Cairns. Nancy makes the chocolate; Kevin the Italian fare which runs the gamut from Chicken Saltimbocca to Angel Hair Arugula. The place was formerly Alioto’s and had been empty for a decade. The Cairns fell in love with it three years ago when one of Kevin’s favorite expressions was written on the mantel of the dining room fireplace: “He who chip his own wood warms himself twice.” Lunch and dinner Thursday through Monday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Dinner starts at 4 p.m. Nine tables. Fourteen parking spots.
The Historic Strawberry Lodge, in operation since 1858, has breakfast lunch and dinner. Its “famous” burgers are perfectly pedestrian and the service is not exactly snappy. But the knotty pine wainscoting, log columns and oxen yoke light fixtures of the “new” dining room – finished in 1940 – are way cool. strawberry-lodge.com.
