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The JT is basque at its finest.
My family has been going here for 30+ years. I remember growing up hearing stories about the JT. As a result, it has a sort of mythical status in my mind and for good reason. There's more than reputation here, though. There's great food and a great atmosphere.
Not only do you get great food, you get tons of it. The sides are so good and so plentiful you could make a meal out of them alone. I gotta say, I can't stop eating their fries. They are perfect. After stuffing yourself with soup, salad, stew, beans, fries and bread you get your entree. When they've got it, I go with the rabbit which is absolutely divine. Otherwise it's normally lamb or steak, both of which are incredible.
The JT is the type of place where you really can't go wrong. Reasonably priced, great atmosphere, great service and great food. Definitely well worth the trip if you're in the Tahoe area.
First, I am biased. I've been eating at the place for over 20 years and my daughter has worked there for the last several years.
The JT is simply "The Place" in Gardnerville. They have consistently been doing what they do for the entire time I've lived in the Carson Valley. Today for lunch my wife and I had the steak sandwiches and they were, as usual, great. They come with French Fries and a salad and this simple fare is best enjoyed with the extra garlic, which is the way we like it. There house wine is a great side with this dish, but if you're looking for fine wine, this is not the place. You need to know your time and place, and thus the five stars from me, but it's not about the wine here. For the Christmas season they are serving a great set of holiday drinks, and the 'Hot Buttered Rum" hit the spot today.
They have recently been adding burgers to the lunch menu, and they are out of this world. I've had the 'blue cheese burger' on two occasions and I'll enjoy it again. It's also served with the fries and salad.
If you're thinking about dinner, be hungry and pace yourself. They'll bring you all the sides you want, and you could be reenacting a bad scene from a Monty Python movie if you're not careful. This is a family style meal with each person ordering the entree of their choice. The sides are delivered and shared by everybody. My daughter's favorite is the Oxtail Soup, which is not available everyday of the week.
This is also a great late night bar spot on Friday's and Saturday's. Midweek they don't quite get the same traffic, but you do get the chance to enjoy their very unique environment. It features hats from locals to visiting dignitaries, ranging from Douglas High product Sean Estes to Vietnam General Westmoreland. Be sure to check out the dollars stuck to the roof, and ask about it, there's a story here as well. If you're real adventurous, be sure to ask about a Picon.
So, in a nutshell, tasty filling food, a great bar scene, and the locals favorite spot in the Greater Gardnerville area.
It all depends if you like eating like the Basques serve it up.
Food 2
Ambiance 1
Service 1
cleanliness .8
I've driven by the JT for years, but was never directed to it until August 2009. Family style. Lots of meat. Bread, soup, beans, stew and finally the main course.
The rest of this review is on Yahoo! Local:
http://local.yahoo.com...
We were on our way to the Emigrant Wilderness via Sonora Pass and decided to drop in on JT Bar and Dining Room for dinner. One of my backpacking buddies had been eating in this joint for 40 years, since he was a kid.
The ambiance is nothing like a Basque restaurant in SF -- the dining room is characterized by well-worn retro formica tables and chrome and naugahyde deco chairs, and the place looks like it's been there for every one of its 50 years. But JT has something that most SF Basque places lack -- workers and customers who are Basque, speaking Euskara (the Basque language) to one another. In fact, the waitress and the three of us were the only folks in the place who weren't speaking Euskara. So cool.
The food is served family style. We had Picon punches (the standard Great Basin Basque cocktail) from the bar along with the "Dago red" chilled wine that came with the meal. That night the menu was salad, soup, bread, beans (about one-third of which was delicious and tender spare ribs), and three large lamb chops. Ice cream and coffee came with the meal as well.
I'm not going to claim that the food was as good as Iluna Basque in SF, but JT isn't trying to be a gourmet Basque joint. It is what it is. It's an example of a wonderful cultural heritage that's disappearing from the Great Basin. Every town in the Great Basin used to have its family-style Basque joint, and JT is one of the few that are left. If you're heading up or down Hwy 395 in eastern Calif., check it out before it's too late.
Side note: The Basques came to the Great Basin to herd sheep in the basin and range country of Nevada, Utah, Oregon, and eastern CA. A former colleague of mine once had a contract to catalogue the carvings that Basque shepherds made in aspen trees -- the aspen groves of the Great Basin are full of these barktographs. Basque shepherds were lonely guys, apparently, and a large proportion of the carvings are tree porn.
This will sound a little strange, but we discovered that we don't really care for Basque food, but we loved the experience of eating here (And yet we probably won't be back.) The experience was slightly exotic, and, to our novice tastebuds, the food was good. We LOVED some courses, were a little too whimpy for others, and just couldn't eat anywhere near all the food that was placed in front of us.
As I mentioned, we were a little freaked out about some dishes; the tongue, for example, looks exactly like a sliced cow's tongue on a plate. Also, my wife isn't a big fan of meat, but the main dishes are based on lots and lots of meat.
Additionally, we LOVE wine, and the wine here is essentially served in a bottomless fashion, but we now get headaches from too much wine. This was another bizarre twist: all this wonderful Basque wine in front of us, but we had to keep putting the brakes on.
The historic building is beautiful inside and out, the service was wonderful, the portions were too big, and the ambiance - especially folks speaking Portuguese - was fabulous.
I think that we would return in a heartbeat, if we could order ala carte.
The bottom line is that this is one fabulous restaurant for anyone that has any tendancy to like Basque food AND has a large appetite. It's not exaclty our cup of tea, but it's a fantastic restaurant for those so inclined.
This is my new favorite restaurant in Nevada. 5 courses, wine included, $22. Can't beat that. Great spot to stop if you're driving between Tahoe and Mammoth.
This is one of the last family-style Basque restaurants among the (literally) hundreds that used to be all over California, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho. Most are long gone; of the remaining few, JT's has to be one of the best.
On any day of the year, JT's is packed with locals, skiers, tourists and pilgrims who travel hours to stretch their stomachs beyond reason with a five course dinner. Arrive early (they open at 4:30 pm) if you don't want to have to squeeze through the crowd at the bar to make it back out the door. The bar itself is wonderful, with plenty of old-time and contemporary photos, a tin ceiling encrusted with dollar bills, witty t-shirts and caps for sale, and a great assortment of locals and visitors for your people-wathing pleasure. The wait staff are all dressed in traditional Basque colors -- black pants/skirts, white shirts and red kerchiefs. The dining room has more photos and Basque paraphernalia, including striking graphic posters from annual basque festivals. If you want to celebrate with a crowd, there's a big back room that's always the scene of a celebration every time we go there.
Don't expect a dinner menu. Instead, be seated and peruse the short wine list on each table. The plonk that comes with your meal is just what it is -- plonk: cheap red wine, served cold. If you're a wine snob, go with something from the list. The quality of the plonk is not indicative of the quality of the meal.
First comes a bowl of soup, a tomato/pepper/onion/beef based broth with lots of vegetables and chunks of meat (a little chicken here, some beef there, it's all good). Don't have more than one ladleful unless you're starving: there's lots more to come. Do use the soft bread to soak up some of the broth, though. And put a little hot sauce in your serving of soup -- it really wakes up the flavors.
After the soup comes a pile of a simple salad of lettuces (not baby lettuces, this ain't no fancy joint) dressed in oil and vinegar, always cold, light and refreshing. I am a fan of plain, well-dressed greens, and I always have an extra helping.
Next comes the beef stew and beans. Tender chunks of beef in a thick sauce with carrots and onions, and mighty tasty pintos on the side. Don't be fooled into thinking you can polish off these smallish dishes - they're rich and meaty, and can easily spoil you for your main course, which you ordered right around the time the salad was served.
On the Saturday we had dinner last at JT's, the main course selections were beef steak, garlic shrimp, tripe and pig-foot stew, lamb chops, sweetbreads and lamb shoulder steak. Many is the time I have vowed to order something else besides the lamb shoulder steak, but I fail miserably. I love it too much. I can taste it for days before I have it: three gorgeously caramelized slices of lamb with the shoulder bones intact, done rare as I like it, topped with grilled garlic (also caramelized). I always suck the meat and marrow off the bones when I'm through, and I usually wipe up the juices left on the plate with more bread and some of the perfectly cooked french fries that come with the main course.
If you don't want lamb, you'll be happy with one of the other selections. And if you like tripe, do not miss it if it's on the offerings. JT's tripe is tender and beefy, full of the flavor of the Basque seasonings it's cooked in. If you're trying to persuade someone to try tripe for the first time, JT's is the place to do it.
Dessert is always ice cream, with a choice of at least two flavors, everything from rocky road to orange sherbet, depending on the night. But what do you care what flavor you get? You'll still be buzzing happily from the gorge sesh you just indulged in.
In summary: even if you don't love lamb, you'll love JT's. And if you love lamb, you will die and go to heaven.
Very good, very busy restaurant, plenty to eat, great price. Love the family style.
We have eaten at the JT a dozen or more times and it's always a great experience and great food. Bar drinks are good and reasonably priced. Try the Picon or Margarita rocks. Can't miss here, always good and plenty of food served family style. Menu varies daily, specialties are lamb prepared a couple different ways, steak, rabbit, tongue stew, outstanding french fries, soup, beans and their chilled red table wine.
Came here for dinner after a day of skiing. The place was crowded and buzzing with people. The wait for a table of 2 was 40mins on a Saturday evening.
The wait was well worth it! I would classified the food as comfort food-simple tasting, but made with care. All you can eat side dishes of soup, bread, baked beans, fries sprinkled with paprika and beef stew. A simple green salad dressed with oil and vinegar that just tasted excellent!
We chose Basque scampi and Basque chicken as our entree. The Basque scampi was stir fired onion and green pepper shrimp, served in a bowl of tomato based broth. The shrimp was firm and sweet, and the broth had great depth of flavor. We savor every bit of the broth.
The Basque chicken was a boneless, skinless chicken breast, stir fired with onion and green pepper as well, with a thin tomato based sauce. Given the preparation of 2 dishes were so similar, the scampi was obviously better.
After entree, vanilla ice cream and almond chocolate ice cream was offered as dessert. It was a satisfying end to a great dinner.
The dinner also include unlimited red wine. The wine served here was a little too sweet for my taste, but still enjoyable.
Dinner for 2 was $51 before tips.
My mom works as a bartendar here, so I am a little biased. I have to say the owners truly take care of their people, they treat them like family.
The food is amazing everytime I come here. I am not familiar with the terminology, but they serve many courses, and everything is always fresh. Some of the things I remember eating: soup, beans, salad, bread, entree of choice, and something else -- can't remember. Anyway the salad is fresh, crisp with the right amount of dressing and always yummy. The bread is always fresh and tastes amazing when dipped in the soup broth. I can't remember but, I think the soup is vegetable or something close to that. The beans are tasty too. The service is always impeccable, no matter how busy they become. Marie, one of the owners, is amazing with her PR skills - makes everyone feel important and remembered.
I have to say, this restaurant has white table cloths and A+ service -- better service than many places I experience on a regular basis in the bay area, including San Francisco. The cost is significantly less at the JT Bar and worth every penny.
The Pecon drinks, I personally think are disgusting. My mom says she has her regulars that love them. I think it is an acquired taste. I don't like the local red or white wine they serve at the bar, but many people like that too...makes me actually gag as it is very bitter and tastes like an old bottle of wine sitting uncorked. I believe the bar have a contract with the owners of the winery -- again it may be an acquired taste. The atmosphere, ambiance, people (staff and customers) are worth the trip.
The real thing. Come hungry.
Plenty of popular options like stews, steaks, etc, but I go for tongue stew when they have it, or sweetbreads.
a french basque restaurant WELL worth the 20 minute trek over the mountain. next time you're in south lake tahoe and want a full, tasty meal... go here.
our dinner was complete. and by complete, i mean "dude, i can't even walk outta this joint."
food quality was top notch, something somewhat unexpected in this old, retro small town. dinner started with all you can eat salads, breads, soups, and a wonderful ox tail stew. entrees included lamb shoulders, lamb cops, organic and local steak, chicken, and fish (i forget what type). then, you get free ice cream for dessert and coffee. the house red wine was included.
dinner for 4 = $110 (including 4 cocktails)
service was top notch, in a small town homely sort of way.
i will be back.
This place brings back so many memories. The oldtimers that were here back in the 70s have gone to their reward but the place still turns out some great food,and there's no better place to savor a picon punch than the bar at the J&T. Worth a drive from Reno or Tahoe any day. Not sure if they take reservations. It would be advisable to make sure before making the trip to Garderville.
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