Evan's American Gourmet Cafe

Ski season is almost upon us and I'm sure SF dwellers will trek to Tahoe by the bus-load. In case anyone is interested in a little upscale fare in the boonies, well, you don't have to look farther than Evan's American Gourmet Cafe. I dined there a while back when the boyfriend and I were in the area for a celebrity golf tournament. After much browsing on yelp, we decided on Evan's for a romantic dinner on our first mini-vacation. The restaurant is tiny and we were required to call the day of to reconfirm the meal. I find it pretty snooty that they ask the patrons to call to confirm instead of the other way around, but c'est la vie.

We arrive at the restaurant 10 minutes early. The host told us that our table would be ready in a few minutes. While we were standing there, we saw another table for 2 ready to go. The host said that another party specifically reserved that table for 8:30. Well, we waited and waited. The other table arrived more than 15 minutes late and were sipping wine before we were seated. While we twiddled our thumbs, the staff essentially ignored us. Let's just say I was more than a bit peeved.

Finally, after more than 30 minutes, we were seated, sans any apologies or peace offerings from the kitchen. Thankfully, we got a corner table with a bird's eye view of the entire dinning room. Not that the place was much to look at. I appreciated some of the small details -- white table clothes, wines chilled on ice and freshly baked bread. I noticed the waiters would fill my water and walk to the other side of the table to fill my boyfriend's glass instead of reaching across (granted, they gave us a huge table that could seat 5). The decor of the place looked like an episode of I Love the 80's -- tacky wallpaper and overdone valances. I had to battle the urge to run into the bathroom and tease my hair.