When I’m up here I turn kinda mountain-mannish. Meaning I escape the hustle-bustle churn ‘em & burn ‘em exhaust-fume-inhaling SF (yeah, it’s harsh livin’ here in SF), and return to my simple roots. Burgers, beer, beer can chicken, blowing deer to smithereens in Wii Cabela Big Buck Hunter, burping, farting, stuff like that. So when I strap on the ‘ole feed bag, it usually follows that type of laid-back, simple routine -

• Veggie Breakfast Burritos (hold the avocado) at Dam Café
• Deep-fried Zucchini and the Kobe Burger at Sunnyside. Yeah that’s right. I said Kobe. Just ‘cuz we’re taking it down a notch doesn’t mean we don’t have standards
• Chicken Tacos and Chips & Salsa at Calienté
• Slice of thin pizza pie from Peluso’s
• Ginormous Spring Roll at River Grill (review coming soon)
• A bowl of Mexican Tortilla Soup and a Grilled Cheese Sando at Fat Cat (yeah yeah, to be reviewed soon)

So when we couldn’t get into Fat Cat the other night, my baby suggested Wolfdale’s right across the road. For the aforementioned reasons, I usually shy away from Wolfdale’s. And I was in the mood for a burger. Bottom line.

Plus, Wolfy’s is pretty fancy…by Tahoe City standards anyway. Which means, what? They have fresh linens on the tables. I dunno, just stuff like that. A nice deck. Plus a fancy name that says ‘Cuisine Unique’. So ya figure it’s highly doubtful they’d be serving a hamburger. Especially on this very special of all nights V-Day. Anyhoo, since it was right across the street and I didn’t wanna fire up the rented hooptie, I reluctantly agreed. Oh yeah, and because it was Valentine’s Day, anything the other J wanted, she got. Just 364 more days to go until next time that happens;)

We mosied in there and damn, this place was hustlin’ and bustlin’ as well. Valentine’s day in TC, I guess it just brings out the romance in people. But us being VdV, we score the last 2 bar seats and got down to business. The full name of the joint is Wolfdale’s Cuisine Unique, and they live up to it.

The menu here is mainly seafood based with a predominant Asian influence. So I’m saying to myself, “Self, there is no burger in your future tonight unless they’re serving a Teriyaki Cod 1/4 Pounder”. We scan the menu and see a pretty nice selection of stuff, and start to bark out our order to the bartender, basically just starting at the top of the menu. We start with the Smoked Trout ($5), which is an appy of course. Whatdya want for $5 ya greedy bastard?! Anyway, it was excellent and just the way I like it. It’s smoked in-house, and is thick, not those paper thin slices. Meaty. Smoky. And not slimy. Excellent, and a good value to boot!

Next, the Seafood Chowder ($5), with Bass, Shrimp and Clams. Five Bucks! Yeah! It’s not a cauldron of chowder, but a nice serving and quite tasty, might I add. The seafood was nice, fresh and chunky, served in a semi-thick stock with some nice heat. Bravo, Wolfy!

Then we ordered the Thai Noodle Bowl ($10), a nice large serving of spicy chicken-based broth with some spice – lemongrass, serrano pepper, sweet onion with wheat noodles.

Then back to seafood with the Ahi Poke Rolls ($8), 4 semi-puny rolls that kind of resemble a kid’s ice cream cone. If you fed your child raw fish that is. Maybe I should call the CSD. Although these puppies were a little small, they were yummy. Again, very fresh fish on top with a spicy wasibi-ish cream sauce in the bottom of the crunchy cone. Makes for a very nice couple bites.

And then…no shit, people. My beady eyes make it to the bottom of the menu and spy a…BURGER!  And this being fancy-shmancy Wolfdale’s not just any old dead cow on a patty burger, either. Knock-knock. Who’s there? Burger. Burger who? Filet Mignon Burger, bitch! You heard me.  A Filet Mignon Burger ($14) that will knock your tube socks off. Holy crap. yeah, I hear a few of you chef wannabes wondering how a meat so lean could make for a great burger. Dunno. can’t help ya. I can help the other 99.999% of you though, and tell you to drive your asses up to Tahoe and get this burger. It came rare but still charred enough to hold a good shape and have a subtle grilled flavor. The texture was tender, the taste was fan-f’ing-tastic and was served on a house-made bun with the perfect accompaniments of condiments and a very thinly sliced pickle.

Oh, and a bonus I didn’t know about? They serve take-and-bake Peluso’s Pizzas!

So we’re sitting at our now defunct favorite Mexican restaurant in Tahoe City complaining like whiney little bitches about how bad WC Pizza usually is, as we do, when our Tahoan friend Jason exclaims “Wait a minute, that means you guys have never been to Peluso’s!” “Excuse us? Could there actually be a great pizza place in, of all places, Kings Beach?” I mean we did just add a “West Shore” category to the VdV blog.

He tells us a campfire story of a place not far away in a land where good EC style pizza is lovingly hand made by people who know pizza, right outta…New Haven! You thought I was gonna say Brooklyn huh? Nope! After all, if you’re not a Pole in CT, you’re a Wop (and I found out it doesn’t mean ‘without papers’ btw.  And those New Haveners even got their own yummy style. Jason goes on to tell us it’s so small you can drive right by it. It’s a tiny room with one sign on the front and a window you order through. Cash only. You wanna go inside on a cold day to warm up and wait? NO! Git inside your car sucka there ain’t no “inside” here.

So we make our way around the lake, drive by it once, turn around, drive up, park. Try to go inside, wait, it’s a nail place. The pizza window wasn’t open. Bummer! How could they be closed, it’s only 28 degrees out and snowing. So we head out to a crappy place to eat up the road for acky wings.

Were we gonna give up? Were we gonna let this stop us? HELL NO! Back to the elusive Peluso’s we go. Pull up, and bang on the closed window. It opens! We ask the cool, stoner guy inside if they were open and he proceeds to tell us the rundown of their weekly hours in each season. NO, ARE YOU OPEN NOW? Yes? We’ll take a sliceapepperoni and a sliceacheese.

This pizza is music to your mouth. Big huge slabs of slices, looked like they coulda been a quarter of a 16″ pie, very different from the gourmet style you scarf at Pizza Nostro, A16 or Pazzia but equally as good. We couldn’t even wait to take the picture before we started in!

PUT THE PIZZA DOWN AND BACK AWAY FROM THE BOX FOR ONE F-ING SECOND. CLICK! OK BACK AT IT.

Overkill on the pepperoni? Bring it. Killer sauce and cheese all the way to the edges? Yes. Want some real New Haven style? Order the white clam slice, it’s amazing! Hold the pineapple and ham please.

VdV Rating: 3.5

Hours:
Basically when they want to be! Call.

Peluso’s Pizza
8160 N. Lake Blvd
King’s Beach, CA
(530) 546.2301

If you’ve ever been to Tahoe City there is no way you don’t know about the Dam Cafe. Yes it’s right next to Fanny Bridge where tourists lean over to look at enormous trout, and all you see is a bunch of ass crack. Oh and yes, a dam. And then you can debate what’s bigger – the fish or the grotesquely huge ASS CRACK. I got two bits on the A.C.

Anyways, this place is very cute, kitschy, very tiny but very freakin’ good. Jen & Glenn are the absolute coolest most laid-back happy people ever born. That’s right, I said it. They Live It. And, the people that work there are super charming too, all super granola straight outta Eugene Orygun if ya didn’t know any better. But they have amazing stuff here, kick ass b’fast and lunch grub. We hit it EVERYTIME we’re here for b’fast at least one mornin’. And you should too.

Here’s the skinny:

• They serve Illy coffee here. I’ll have a double non-fat, half caf, extra foam, 3-shot…wait…what the hell am I even
  saying?
• They bake cookies and pastries, don’t ship ‘em in from some offsite pastry farm where this stuff is cooked by oompa loompas. They Cook Them On-Premise. How official…and tasty.
• Kick-ass bagels, with so many options you KNOW there was some funny shit gettin’ smoked when the menu was created.
• Sandwiches are OTH, very fresh. Cold, hot, room temp. Whatever. It’s all guuud.
• They serve wine and beer. Nuff said.
• Yummy smoothies.
• Best breakfast burrito around – meat or veggie. We get our veggie sans
  avo. Why the hell is avo on everything in California, isn’t it pricey?

Funny thing: A Tahoe 2nd homeowner (BTW, prolly with a big pine branch up her ass) once wrote into the Tahoe City Newspaper about how all of the people that live here are a bunch of “Low Life Locals”. Ouch. Tahoe folks went mad. Rightly so since so many of them work at establishments that make this biotche’s home valuable.  Now it’s an official local movement empowering the community. So the folks at the Dam Cafe had a ton of ‘I’m A Low Life Local’ t-shirts printed up!

Stop in and get one! Tell them “Veggie burrito, no avocado, large drip + caramel syrup” sent ya! And oh yeah, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.

VdV Rating: 4

Hours:
Sun-Sat 7a-3:30p

Dam Cafe
55 West Lake Blvd.
Tahoe City, CA
(530) 581.0278

Since Tahoe City is our 2nd pad why the hell don’t we have a freakin’ category for it yet on VinDivine? You KNOW we ain’t holed up in our place all day eatin’ crudité. Sunnyside shines bright in the mountain of cafes, restaurants and waterin’ holes around the lake tonight, around the lake tonight, oh, that’s a Toadies song. I digress.

Sunnyside how do we love thee, let us count the ways, we’re feeling in a “loving” mood today:

1. It’s smack dab on the lake with an ass-kickin’ view and a gynormous back deck for hangin’ in the sun. You’ll also find Donzi dicks rollin’ up to the dock with their screamin’ loud boats but don’t knock Sunnyside cuz the idiot’s from Fresno. Grab an order of Deep Fried Zucchini and the adult beverage of your choice, get a little sun on your face, a little buzz in your noggin and do some serious people-watching.

2. Hands down some of THE BEST people (who just happen to be bartenders, shocker!) we know. Dana, Scotty (fames owner of snow removal business “Snow Job”), Rafe, Bryan, Derrick, you rock it!

3. It is home to the annual silent auction to raise money for the ski school at Alpine Meadows where
instructors teach instructors how to teach people with disabilities to ski. Whew…try saying that sentence in one breath. Crazy cool. Even crazier? Ole’ Johnny beat out some snot-nosed spoiled 10-year old for Darren Rahlves skis one year. Made him cry. Boo Hoo. Learn a life lesson, punk!

Then we rubbed a little more salt in his wounds and got Darren to sign them for us! John’s ski: “You schooled me in the bumps – (yeah right)” (Darren just couldn’t bring himself to write it without the caveat). Janine’s ski: “Nice bumps”. Watch it Rahlves! Sweet. Too bad for the kid, if only granny felt like coughin’ up a cool four-hundy you’d have ‘em now and there would be something far less childish written on the skis than our meager minds would want. Hey the ski school was the real winner.

4. Close to the best burger we think we’ve ever had, RARO bien sur. Hey that’s Spanish AND French for you single-language speakers. Oh it’s the Kobe burger, spend the extra 3 bucks, don’t cheap out. Comes loaded with bacon and gorgonzola cheese. We go sans both as that is some strong-tastin’ toppins!

5. Chili – Winter-only, made with FILET mignon!!! Are you kidding me with that chili? Once John offered a taste to some dude sitting next to him who was drooling over the sight of it and the dude took him up on it! Who does that? Anyway, we actually got the recipe but you need to make like 20 gallons of this crack. RAFE – Break it down to a few servings for us cooking neophytes.

6. Fish tacos – 2 huge ones, get them Cajun style. It’s not on the menu but tell ‘em we said ya could. And on Wednesday nights they have taco night! I think the deal is 2 tacos and a Dos Equis for $5 or some crazy deal. Woo Hoo!

7. The Major Margarita. Words can’t really describe it. Just get it, on the rocks, salt, float of Grand Marnier. Nuff said.

8. After only one of #7 you can walk around the corner, rent a waverunner and kick it on the lake! Insider tip: hmmm…”should I give this up?”, I ask myself as my fingers float tentatively above the keyboard…shit I can’t stand it, here goes! Rent at 3PM or so, cuz the Tahoe Gal - a big fake paddle-wheel boat – comes through and throws out a hella-big wake. Crank that throttle and catch some air, bitches!

9. People Watching – We once saw some dude from Stockton with his brother on the deck. Both pretty tanked on pints o’ beer. One bro turned to the other to do the ‘cheers’ thing. Anyway, as timing would have it, Bro #2 was taking a swig and he got his own glass ‘cheers’d’ right into his face! Ouch. I think we both peed our pants laughing. Now that’s a solid watch. Ya don’t get that every day.  Note to y’all: Cheersing is like the tango. It takes two. Bonus sighting: You’ll usually see some chick’s pants that are WAY too low in the back sitting down gettin’ ass full-o-air. Can’t she feel that wind? Dang gurrl pull ‘em up!

10. A wine list a shwank SF restaurant would envy. We’ve usually been too heavily beaten over the head by the buzz fairy to get all wino up there, but we do know a solid list when we see one. Word. Plus they have some fancy wines by the glass. So all ya cheap drunks, you can actually make believe you have class and only have to buy a single glass. Rock on!

11. It is a straight shot of 3 miles to our chez J&J. Now that’s worth lovin’!

So if that’s not enough to persuade you to hang at SS winter or summer, you have a serious aversion to fun. Go away. Unsubscribe. All you others, we expect to see you up there pronto!

VdV Rating: 4

Sunnyside
1850 West Lake Blvd.
Tahoe City, CA 96145
(530) 583.7200