When I was a kid and my family drove through Bakersfield on vacation, my dad would always stop there to take us to a Basque restaurant. I have vague memories of plentiful family-style dining, a terrific bean dish, and sliced pickled tongue. I hadn’t thought about the place in years.
Yesterday, Mr. Pug and I were driving through Los Banos in the central valley of California and saw and stopped at “The Wool Growers”, another Basque restaurant. It was the same deal all over again: family style dining, massive quantities of food and a low price. I wouldn’t call the the food haute cuisine by any means; it was more like tasty outdated American chowhouse food with the merest nod towards European cooking. And the place was an old, old roadhouse restaurant with yellowed posters from 1972 curling on the walls. Dining there was to experience a typical roadhouse restaurant from the 1940’s.
The menu: vegetable soup, salad, Basque beans, lamb stew, french fries, and your choice of chicken, lamb chops or pork chops. A bottle of anonymous red jug wine is also placed at your table, refilled as requested. Price: $12 per person.
A little Googling reveals several Basque restaurants scattered through the central valley of California, because in past years the valley was popular with Basque sheep herders.
Does this style of restaurant sound familiar to anyone? Do you have any of these restaurants in your area?
I used to live in the Antelope Valley (the extreme western edge of the Mojave Desert). There was a restaurant in Rosamond, the little town next to Edwards AFB, called Villa Basque. I never got around to eating there.
The ones in Elko are excellent- there are alot of Basque restaurants in Reno, Ely, Fallon, Winnemuca (which I hear has the best). Both Toki Oni & The Star are worth visiting Elko for (one of my favorite places in the world anyways so it is great that Elko also has my favorite restaurants. )
Basically you will find Basque restaurants in Western areas where there are still Basque sheep raisers. The Basque culture is really interesting and their food is generous and delicious. If anyone goes to Elko- check out The Star’s Boarder Lunch or my favorite meal ever- marinated, slow baked lamb . The family style has always been the serving style at every Basque restaurant I’ve been too- beans, fried potatoes, salads and cabbage or lamb stew seem to be the standard- almost everything has garlic on it and lots of it! Everyone picks their own “meat” and shares all the courses- usually 2-3 before the meat arrives.
MMM>… this thread makes me want to visit Elko, somehow the Basque never made their way down to Las Vegas- might have something to do with things not being able to grow here. Luckily , I just had a cup of my own home grown, homemade lamb curry stew so I don’t feel so bad
J. Green smokinjbc@msn.com
Checked out the list and its Biltoki in Elko that is equal to The Star (some days better)- not Toki Ona- easy to get those confused :).
Oh… and stay far far away from Picon Punch, instead at The Star ask Miguel for some “43”…mmmmm (drink two and you might get “86’d” as he’ll be the first to tell you :o
Thanks for the link, QtM. Wow, Smokinjbc, except for Bakersfield, Elko and Winnemucca seem to have cornered the Basque restaurant market. If we’re ever traveling through that area of Nevada, we’ll know where to eat. In your case, Bakersfield might be just as close or closer to you than Las Vegas.
For us, the fun of the old American roadhouse experience was just as much fun as the chowdown.
There’s at least one Basque restaurant in Newark, NJ, but it seems awfully similar to the neighboring Portugese and Spanish establishments in the area.
