"We're trying to keep all of these reasonably priced and focusing on both getting our residents to enjoy our restaurants during slow time as well as bringing new visitors to the area," Truckee Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jessica Penman told the Sierra Sun in September.
Residents come first in that sentence. Taste of Truckee is the town's first monthlong restaurant promotion, run by Visit Truckee Tahoe and the Chamber from Oct. 1 to Oct. 31. It lands in the quiet stretch between the last summer visitors and the first chairlift. The listed offers go from a few dollars up to a $95 tasting menu. Until Oct. 31, that makes this the cheapest time to try the Truckee restaurant you keep driving past.
October Was the Restaurants' Choice
The timing wasn't set by a tourism calendar. In March the Chamber surveyed restaurants about whether they would join a restaurant month, when it should happen and what kinds of offers would work. That feedback is how October was picked.
The organizers' reasoning was practical. Many restaurant owners live in Truckee and employ local workers, and their businesses can be especially vulnerable during the shoulder seasons when visitor traffic slows. They also counted more than 80 restaurant-type businesses across Truckee and Northstar, a number they think may surprise even longtime residents. As they described it to the Sierra Sun, part of the challenge is getting residents out of their usual dining routines and into places they may have overlooked or assumed were out of their price range.
That explains the flexible format. Restaurants pick one of three options. The "Experience" is a three-course, fixed-price meal. A signature value item goes by "Taste of Truckee," and some menus list it as a Truckee Bite. "Pour & Taste" pairs a signature drink with a dish. Because there are three formats, a coffee counter and a tasting-menu dining room can sit on the same roster.
The Roster, Sorted by What You Want to Spend
These are the offers as listed on the Visit Truckee Tahoe Taste of Truckee page. Some menus change during the month, so check that page for the current version before you go.
Under $20, good for a weekday stop
- Mountain Brew: a medium coffee and pastry for $6, or the signature hot sandwich with beer or wine on tap for $17.
- Truckee Cookies: a four-cookie Taster Box for $10, available to order through Oct. 31.
- Stella: focaccia for $10, the cheapest way into a restaurant whose full Experience runs $75.
- Mehfil Indian Bistro: a $12 Truckee Bite.
- Drink Coffee Do Stuff: a seasonal pumpkin latte with a prosciutto-pepperjack bagel sandwich for $15, which the listing describes as a $5 saving.
- Alibi Ale Works: pork belly and eggplant bao with a pint or Hoppy Hour for $15.
- Alder Creek Cafe: two tacos and a canned beer for $15, with carne asada, grilled fish or vegan Korean BBQ mushroom.
- Buoy & Trap: six oysters for $15.
- Uncorked Truckee: a $15 grilled-cheese Truckee Bite.
- Smokey's Kitchen: six smoked wings for $15.
- Coffeebar: house red or white wine with housemade hummus and focaccia for $18.
- Cloud Sushi: three chef's-choice nigiri with an Orion beer or small hot sake for $18.
$20 to $40, a drink and something to go with it
- FiftyFifty Brewing Co.: a smoked Emmental bratwurst with the Oktoberfest Vienna Lager for $20.
- Craft + Logic: three 5-ounce pours with three menu bites for $25.
- Matices & The Social: smoked pork belly skewers with a glass of Malbec or Torrontés for $26.
- Truckee River Winery: a cheese-and-meat tapa with a three-brand wine flight for $35.
- Cottonwood Restaurant: a $35 Experience with soup or salad, then cider-braised pork shoulder or vegan farro-stuffed squash.
$49 to $95, the full dinner
- Pianeta Ristorante: $49 for wine, soup or salad, a choice of pasta and chocolate pavé.
- $55 Experiences at Drunken Monkey, Moody's Bistro Bar & Beats and The Lodge Restaurant & Pub at Tahoe Donner.
- Bar of America: $69 for salad, prime rib, BBQ chicken or Chilean sea bass, and dessert.
- Stella's $75 Experience with duck breast, and Trokay at $75. Trokay's menu details were still marked "coming soon" on the listing.
- Great Gold: an $85 four-course, family-style meal.
- Tangerine: a $95 four-course tasting menu with optional wine pairing.
The Fine Print Shapes the Night
Several of the higher-priced listings come with conditions that decide who you bring. At Great Gold, the whole table has to order the Experience. Tangerine has the same rule, though young children are exempt. Both are dinners to plan with friends who are already in.
Two listings work well for families. Rubicon Pizza offers a $55 Experience for four: a large salad, a large pizza, and dessert or a soda pitcher. Fireside Pizza has a $55 meal of a large house or Caesar salad, a large signature pizza, and a cookie or brownie. At Smokey's Kitchen, you can spend anywhere from $15 for wings to $75 for a ribs dinner for two.
A few menus reward going back. The Lodge at Tahoe Donner changes its three-course menu weekly. Moody's selections change over the month too. The Pour House pours a different signature glass each week for passport holders.
Hours matter at the Tahoe Donner spots. Tahoe Donner lists The Lodge at Wednesday through Sunday, 5 to 8:30 p.m. Alder Creek Cafe's fall hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with happy hour from 3 to 5. Both are closed Monday and Tuesday.
The Passport Shows Organizers What Worked
The digital passport works on your phone, with no app to download. You sign up with your name and email, eat at a participating restaurant, and upload a photo to check in. According to Visit Truckee Tahoe, each check-in is an entry for one of four $100 Sustainable Truckee gift cards, and every additional restaurant you check into adds another entry. Those gift cards work at more than 70 participating retail, food and beverage, guide and service businesses around town.
The check-ins also tell the organizers how the month went. Visit Truckee Tahoe Executive Director Jackie Calvert told the Sierra Sun that the goal was to make the deals easy to find and to "understand how many people checked into each restaurant and help our partners understand what really moved the needle." This is the first year. Whether a restaurant month returns next October, and which restaurants sign up, will partly depend on those numbers. Each photo upload between now and Oct. 31 counts as a vote for the event.
From the Last Week of October Into Ski Season
Taste of Truckee ends on Halloween. Between late October and Dec. 11, the calendar fills with events and ski openings. The resort dates below are the targets each resort gave the Sierra Sun in late September, so confirm them before you plan around one.
- Oct. 24: The Truck-ee-Treat Dirt Jam at Riverview Bike Park, according to the Visit Truckee Tahoe events calendar.
- Oct. 30: Halloween in the Park in Downtown Truckee.
- Oct. 31: The last day of Taste of Truckee offers and passport check-ins.
- Nov. 20: The Truckee Downtown Merchants Association lists its Downtown Holiday Festival and Bud Fish Tree Lighting for 4:15 to 6 p.m. More than 600 local elementary students decorate small trees around downtown, and Truckee Rotary brings Santa and hot cocoa. Northstar is also targeting Nov. 20 for opening day.
- Nov. 25: Palisades Tahoe's targeted opening.
- Nov. 27: Sugar Bowl's targeted opening, the first winter for its new eight-person Village Gondola and two new restaurants, Yarrow and The Terrace.
- Dec. 4 and Dec. 11: Festive Fridays in Downtown Truckee, 5 to 7 p.m., with holiday lights, carolers and Santa visits.
- Dec. 11: Tahoe Donner Downhill Ski Resort's targeted opening, with its new Kids' Ski School and Indoor Learning Center. TART's fall schedule also ends that day, according to Moonshine Ink.
Boreal had not set an opening date as of the Sierra Sun's Sept. 25 roundup.
When we talk with clients about life in Truckee, it often comes back to its local places, like a warm table on a cold Wednesday night in late October. If you have a favorite from this year's roster, or want to talk through how Truckee's seasons shape everyday life here, Ricki Manahan would love to hear from you. Contact Ricki.
