In stark contrast to the backyard barbecues of Hobart, the “don’t even bother to put your shoes on” comfort of a home meal surrounded by friends and neighbors, there is something about the wide open spaces of the west coast, the valleys that extend to the horizon, the sky that is everywhere and yet can’t hold you in, that make it a normality to drive miles and miles for a meal.
The city of Sacramento is, to me, Reno’s cousin in California. Flat and smog laden, temperatures in the summer routinely go from hot to miserable. This and other unfortunate attributes are the kind of things that make you want to grab a citizen and shake them, pointing towards San Francisco yelling, “There is a much cooler city, in many ways, right over there! Why are you still here?!”
Just off I-80 (i.e. a short stop off the highway on your way to a much better destination) is the wonderful Tower Café, a literal monument to great food. Located at the site of the original Tower Records, it has a colorful, busy, artsy interior, a great baked good selection and a superb breakfast.
The café’s menu makes you want to start at the beginning of the month and make your way through the choices daily. The Carnitas con Huevos (my choice today), is succulent slow cooked pork, scrambled eggs, tortillas and potatoes just the way you want them, crispy and crunchy on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth creamy on the inside. That you can get slow cooked Mexican style pork for breakfast is another reason to love the west coast, and indeed the Tower café serves the kind of food that makes traveling miles and miles, and then ending up in Sacramento, well worth the trip.
Somebody stepped up the game. I like it. :) And now I want carnitas. Yum. btw next time I visit my sister you have to come out so you can try that Mexican breakfast spot I keep talking about.
ReplyDelete