Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Worldcon: the food

The Atlantis and the Peppermill resorts are both filled with restaurants, assuming you can find them. The themes overlap: each has a coffee shop, a steakhouse, a buffet, an oyster bar, a NY-style deli, etc. The Atlantis deli was more than passable, the pastrami sandwich almost as good as, and bigger than, at Max's (the deli chain around here), and the matzo ball soup actually better. One huge breakfast at the Peppermill's coffee shop (a Joe's special, high-quality ingredients but not well constructed) was enough to convince me that it was too huge a breakfast for me. That day for lunch I visited the quickie counter at the convention center, which was doing good business. A fruit cup suited me, and it was an excellent mixture of fresh fruit pieces. I understand the next day they didn't have any.

Outside restaurants were geographically scattered, but good, and with the inestimable advantage of not being in casinos. Peg's Glorified Ham & Eggs serves hearty but not overwhelming breakfast, and service is fast and friendly. Naan & Kebab, across the street from the Peppermill, claims to be Mediterranean but is actually Middle Eastern. One of our dinner party reported undercooked chicken, but everyone else was happy. I tried Louis', the Basque restaurant downtown, for lunch. Lamb roast, whole beans, and vegetable soup, plain, fairly tasty. The social dynamics of seating customers at the family-style trestle tables was the most interesting part of the restaurant. And a hankering for Mexican took us to Bertha Miranda's near the baseball field (Did you know Reno has a baseball team? They were playing a game while we were there) south of downtown. Quite decent food and excellent service, but the best thing about this restaurant was the big comfy leather chairs, low enough to sink in, but not too low to make eating from the table awkward. I could have happily stayed there all day.

A small farmer's market way out in south Reno on Sunday morning, found while wandering around after taking B. to church down there, produced a big basket of succulent blackberries and a small bag of caramel toffee.

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