Basque Restaurants in the Silver State

If the best way to get to know a place is through a specific culinary style, then count us all the way in. Even though there are countless distinctive culinary styles that make up the Silver State’s cuisine scene, Basque food is a definite front runner with hundred-year-old boarding houses throughout northern Nevada, born with and still embodying the spirit and flavor of the old country.

To get a taste, make sure visiting a Basque restaurant is on the top of your to-do list while you’re here exploring Nevada—you’ll be rewarded with one of the best meals of your life, a history lesson you never saw coming, and you’re sure to depart with a full belly and a whole lotta new friends.

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Great Basin National Park, Baker, Nevada

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Get to Know Nevada’s Cuisine Scene with Basque Food

A vibrant culture from Basque country—a region on the northern border between Spain and France—the Basques emigrated to the United States, making the mountain ranges in California, southern Idaho and northern Nevada their new homes. Sheepherding northern Nevada’s rugged mountainous terrain for months at a time, they’d come back to the nearest cities and towns to restock on supplies, and head for the familiarity of a Basque-run boarding house where they could interact with their fellow countrymen by playing games, telling stories, and celebrating their heritage through a damn good, family-style meal.

Today, the Basque culture lives on in Nevada, at Basque restaurants in Reno, Elko, Winnemucca and Gardnerville—still serving up incredible traditional Basque dishes 100 years later.

Though there are some excellent tapas and lighter lunch options, the heart of experiencing Basque cuisine—and culture—is by getting in on a multi-course dinner affair. A true Nevada rite of passage, order up main courses like garlic-loaded steaks or lamb chops (telltale signs of their heritage), followed by a smorgasbord of courses like soup with strong onion and red pepper flavors, fresh green salad, golden french fries, green beans, spaghetti with red tomato sauce, and of course flowing red table wine. The last course are Basque desserts like ice cream or a round of excellent dessert cheeses you can wash right down with the unofficial state drink of Nevada: the legendary Picon Punch. No matter which Basque restaurant you end up at during your time here, you’re sure to go home with a new appreciation for this hearty bunch, and their divine culinary delights.

#NVEats

Whether you’re marveling at how quickly that lamb melts right off the bone, or how your first Picon punch suddenly became your third, be sure to invite us to the table by tagging shots of your Basque dining exploits with #NVEats. If we dig your flavor, you may find yourself featured here.