Garlic lovers everywhere made the trip to Truckee’s La Vieille Maison.
Imagine it’s the late 1970s, and West Coast culinary royalty visit a legendary Truckee restaurant. Which one? La Vieille Maison. The culinary royalty? Famed sausage maker Bruce Aidells and long-time editor of Gourmet magazine Ruth Reichl, who were influenced by Alice Waters’ culinary revolution in garlic at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. The reason for the visit? Garlic. Lots of garlic.
It all started with Robert Charles, long a character in Bay Area cuisine, who ended up in Truckee. Robert (or “Ro-BEAR,” as he proclaimed in his best French style) was a two-star Michelin chef. Hailing from the South of France, he operated a couple celebrated Bay Area restaurants in the 1960s and ’70s — Charles’ Bistro in San Francisco and Maurice et Charles in Marin County.
Then, in the late 1970s, Robert and his wife, Amora, moved to Downtown Truckee, where they opened La Vieille Maison in what is now the site of the River Street Inn. Charles merged his native love of garlic with Berkeley’s mushrooming garlic subculture. The result was the first garlic-themed restaurant in America, inspired by Alice Waters’ annual Garlic Festival. Starting in 1975, in honor of Bastille Day, lovers of “the stinking rose” would rendezvous at Chez Panisse. It’s estimated each celebrant consumed a half pound of the pungent bulb. Waters was a trendsetter: Just four years later, Gilroy began its famous garlic festival. A restaurant in San Francisco, aptly named The Stinking Rose, emerged in 1991. All remain on the culinary scene today.
Media Sensation
I first encountered the story of La Vieille Maison in Ruth Reichl’s romp of a book, Comfort Me with Apples. She describes her 1979 pilgrimage, via train, to Truckee, accompanied by Aidells and Les Blank. Blank was shooting a film that was later titled Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers. Reichl claims it wasn’t hard to find the restaurant: They could smell it from the railroad station. When they finally got to La Vieille, they were met at the door by a man with a trimmed beard, black shirt, silver hair … and around his neck, on a heavy chain, a silver head of garlic. Voilà! It was Robert Charles in his iconic glory.
Inside, a typical scene awaited in the dining room. Only lit by candles, with shadows racing up the walls, a rustic bar occupied one wall. The entire center was dominated by a long wooden table laden with bottles of wine and loaves of bread. Then Amora brought out big bowls of aioli, accompanied by aromas so strong that it seemed a tangible presence was crowding the room. Charles might be seen to join in and tell stories of his native Provence, where women sat in the sun, with mortars squeezed between their fat thighs, pounding garlic into aioli.
Garlic in Every Dish
Reichl described the meal she ate that night. The stinking rose permeated the menu: garlic soup, garlic tart, and brains cooked in brown butter, with garlic and sage. Boursin, the garlic-laced cheese, was featured for dessert. The menu also included Soupe Lloyd Harris, so named for the garlic guru who produced the Garlic Times newsletter. The soupe was a basic French onion soup, made with garlic instead of onions, and enriched with cream instead of melted cheese. On the night Reichl visited, the scene definitely got out of control: Filmmaker Blank directed an X-rated segment involving Aidells rubbing aioli on the naked backside of one of Charles’ waitresses. The film has had a cult following since.
If you have a little time on your hands, I encourage you to read Reichl’s Comfort Me with Apples. If you have a lot of time, you might consider finding a copy of the film Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers (and invite me!). At the very least, open a jar of garlicky pickles, prepare a garlic-laden bagna càuda, or whip up a batch of pesto. Robert Charles would approve.
Sharon Honig-Bear was the longtime restaurant writer for the Reno Gazette-Journal. She is a tour leader with Historic Reno Preservation Society and a supporter of all things cultural and historic. She can be reached at Sharonbear@sbcglobal.net.
