LAKE MARY CABIN DINNER SERIES
Written by Jessica Santina
Photos by Dave Santina
It’s been a really long time since I went to a restaurant and licked my plate clean. And I don’t recall ever having cleaned my partner’s plate, too.
I did both last night at Sugar Bowl Resort during a Lake Mary Cabin Dinner, one in a 13-dinner series offered from July through September.
I’d never been to Sugar Bowl before (I’m ashamed to admit it, but no, I’ve never skied), and had no idea the Lake Mary Cabin even existed until a few weeks ago when I heard about this dinner series. The place is enchanting…and trust me, I don’t usually just throw that word around. It had rained all day (and stopped just minutes before we arrived—how’s that for perfect timing?) and that clean scent of fresh pine hung heavy in the air. The rustic cabin’s best feature is the large, glass-fenced deck overlooking Lake Mary and the four rocky peaks comprising Sugar Bowl. But the large fire pit area and the winding trail leading down to the boat dock ain’t so bad either. It’s all tucked away carefully, sitting off a gravel trail near the main resort entrance; we nearly drove right past it.
Once privately owned by an East Coast family, the cabin was purchased about 10 years ago by Sugar Bowl, and is used primarily as a wedding and special event venue now, as well as for this exceptional dinner series held each summer. As if the relatively affordable menu and spectacular scenery aren’t enough, a portion of each dinner’s proceeds benefits an area nonprofit. On the night we attended, the recipient was Arts for the Schools. Upcoming charities include Sugar Bowl Academy, Excellence in Education, Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe, Tahoe Nordic Search & Rescue, and Sierra Avalanche Center.
The deck, adorned with strings of lights and heaters to keep diners toasty on cool Donner Summit nights, is where dinner is served. Chef Alan Davis, who in winter can be found at Sugar Bowl’s fine dining room, Four Peaks, serves up French-inspired California cuisine with a focus on in-season, local produce, accompanied by an extensive list of wines hailing mostly from California.
I ordered a glass of 2010 Husch pinot noir from Anderson Valley, California, and my husband chose a Bollini pinot grigio from Trentino, Italy.
We tucked in with our wines and pored over the menu, then decided on two starters: pan-seared diver scallops and shrimp spring rolls.
Scallops can be hit or miss with me, as they’re often too chewy for my liking, but this one hit the bull’s eye. They are seared delicately, atop a carrot confie—a carrot roasted in a lavender reduction until it’s sweet and buttery, like no carrot you’ve ever eaten. The scallops are then drizzled in a pancetta buerre noisette, a brown butter with diced, sautéed pancetta, giving a nod to the classic bacon-wrapped scallop. The result absolutely melted in my mouth.
The Togarashi shrimp spring rolls are made with rice noodles, scallions, avocado, and carrot, all wrapped in thin rice paper and served with two dipping sauces: a sweet ginger sauce and a satisfyingly rich and salty sesame black bean sauce. On their own, the rolls are fresh with bright, summery flavors, but the dipping sauces make it feel complete. Both are delicious, but that sesame black bean is something special.
For dinner, I went with something I never get to have at home and is one of my favorite foods: pan-seared Alaskan halibut. Seared to a perfect crispness outside and perfectly soft and flaky inside, the halibut is only lightly seasoned, so that the pure perfect flavor of the fish shines through. It’s served over asparagus and Israeli couscous, a side dish I’ve never eaten before but loved for its lemon-chablis broth and in-season cherry tomatoes and corn. It’s summer on a plate. When I was finished with the food, I literally cleaned my plate with part of my roll, wiping up all the remaining broth so as not to waste a drop.
My husband, a pure Italian at heart, went with his go-to: pasta. He ordered the Dungeness crab linguini, served with roasted eggplant, heirloom cherry tomatoes, and oregano butter broth. I managed to bat my eyelashes and convince him to share a few bites with me. It reminded me of cioppino, with its briny, tomatoey, buttery broth. Once he was done with the meal, the two of us looked forlornly at the remaining sauce, begging to be sopped up with the rolls remaining in the basket. So we gave in and did it, despite being full.
Our responses to our meals were so greedy, in fact, that the couple at the table beside us figured they needed to have what we were having, and they ordered the exact same meals. They were not disappointed.
Finally, dessert. There was a Belgian chocolate mousse—a gloriously rich confection with just a hint of orange peel to add depth to the dark chocolate—as well as a French yogurt cake topped with pineapple compote. The cake, simple as a pound cake but much more moist, is prepared in the French style, drizzled with a syrupy pineapple compote that was as light and fruity as the mousse was dark and rich.
Finished (painfully stuffed, actually), we sat back in our chairs, rubbing our satisfied bellies and enjoying the view. Oh, and planning our next visit to Sugar Bowl’s Four Peaks restaurant to savor more of Chef Alan Davis’ culinary artistry.
The Lake Mary Cabin Dinners begin at 5:30 p.m. and at at 9 p.m. They are open to the public but they fill up quickly. Reservations are highly recommended. For reservations call 530-426-7002 or visit www.sugarbowl.com/lake-mary-dinners.
