Sawtooth Ridge Cafe, Tahoe City

After driving around the Lake for a few hours on Sunday morning, we dropped the hounds off at the cottage, and meandered around looking for a place to eat. As we were getting close to town, I saw a sign proclaiming "Breakfast Until 3pm Daily!"  Never one to shirk breakfast no matter the time of day, we hastily swung into an open parking spot and hopped out.

The Sawtooth Ridge Cafe is not, from the outside, what you'd call "welcoming". It's on a stretch of North Lake Blvd that houses a Safeway, dry cleaners and CPA offices. As we crept up the stairs, C said, "uh-oh... looks like the place is empty... that's never a good sign." Undaunted, we swung open the massive wooden door to find a cozy little restaurant with a gorgeous view of the lake & mountains filled to about 2/3 capacity.

Bud Davis, the proprietor, (who, at age 70 or so, looks like he's never missed a day of exercise in his life), swept us to our table and offered up menus. The moment I saw Biscuits & Gravy, I was sold.

We ordered up two B&Gs, a Fat Tire for C, Black Butte Porter for me (what, you've never had beer with breakfast?) and a side order of sweet potato fries that seemed to be going to every table.

Now, let me just state for the record that my hubby is from the South. So, Biscuits & Gravy is no joking matter... these were good. Really good. The biscuits were light and fluffy (if I wanted a doughy hockey puck, I'd bake it myself, thank you very much) while the gravy was simple and creamy (again, don't go getting all Iron Chef with my gravy... sausage, cream, flour, fat... that's really all I want in it).

The eggs were clearly fresh and simply scrambled, and the potatoes were great. Fried in a cast iron skillet with onions, bell pepper and simple seasoning, the skin-on reds were exactly what breakfast potatoes should be.

Finally... those sweet potato fries... wow... soooo simple and delicious. A hair thicker than "matchstick", fried, buttered and seasoned with real sea salt... they were crisp outside, sweet & tender inside, and needed no condiments whatsoever.

We really loved this place, and would heartily recommend it for anyone looking for great, simple All-American fare in Tahoe City.

Comments

[Fatemeh]

How so? Have you had not-such-good luck with Sawtooth? Would love to hear other recommendations for the area!

[Wallace Francis]

I was there this morning. The place reeked of pine sol and we moved down to the end away from it. I had a completely ordinary waffle with a nice large serving of syrup. Usually when you get it in the little tin cup it is enough to fill one square. My wife's eggs looked good, the fruit was fresh, and the service friendly.

When we got up to leave, I couldn't move the chair. They were aluminum chairs with no stoppers on the bottoms on carpeting, so you could not slide them. I was trapped. I managed to get up and walked behind Debbie and she jerked the chair back where it landed on my toe and ripped my nail completely off.

Debbie was signing the visa slip while I was laying on my back bleeding. It was kind of wierd. I think I woul d have offered free breakfast.

It cost me 250 at the clinic across the street to get it looked at. The waitresses admitted they had tried to put bottoms on the chairs and they just "fell off".

Ever heard of crazy glue?

I could have lectured them on business-owner duties to make the premises safe for licensees...I'm currently waiting for my bar results, but I don't know. You can't explain to people how they could lose their whole restauraunt over something like this (someone loses a toe, wife nees a shrink...can you say foreseeability?)

[Wallace's Revenge]

Wallace, you are an idiot. Your wife bust your toe up and you are considering suing the establishment. No wonder our legal system is so screwed up. Please die and don't add to the gene pool.