To the community,

Working the serving line at Bread & Broth’s Monday meal on Sept. 25 were members of the Tahoe Douglas Elk Lodge No. 2670. J.J. Clause, Steve Kurek, Jim Plamenig and Gary Wendt came prepared to represent their fellow Elk Lodge members at the organization’s Adopt of Day of Nourishment.

This enthusiastic group did a fine job hosting the 94 dinner guests who arrived at St. Theresa Grace Hall for the evening’s meal. 

“So gratifying to see the hungry being fed,” said Steve Kurek.  “We feel lucky to be able to help.” 

B&B is so very fortunate to have the Elk’s organization be so involved in partnering with us to help ease hunger in the Lake Tahoe South Shore community. For the past several years, the Elks have been hosting three or four adopt a days annually, which means that they are providing meals to 300-350 people in need yearly through B&B’s Monday meal sponsorship program.

In addition to the Monday meal, B&B also provides soup and a simple entrée at Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church on Fridays, weekend food for LTUSD students during the school year and a Summer B&B 4 Kids food program thanks to a very generous donation dedicated to feeding children throughout the summer.

All of these programs which support the food insecure are only possible due to B&B’s generous sponsors and donors who so generously give of their time and monetary donations. Thank you to all of the members of the Tahoe Douglas Elk Lodge No. 2670 who help us in our mission to ease hunger in our community.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

The Sage Room at Harveys is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Photo/Jessie Marchesseau

By Jessie Marchesseau

STATELINE – Frog legs sautéed with tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, Kalamata olives and white wine; mushroom raviolis with a portabella-black truffle Marsala sauce; Steak Dianne, flambéed tableside with filet mignon, mushrooms, demi glaze and flaming brandy. These are just a few of the everyday delicacies served at the Sage Room inside Harvey’s Lake Tahoe.

Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, the Sage Room has been adorning tables with fine Tahoe cuisine since 1947.

Just walking into the Sage Room feels like a step back in time. The lighting is low, wood graces the walls and ceiling, and deep burgundy covers the tables and chairs creating a warm and intimate atmosphere. The hand-hewn wood beams crisscrossing the ceiling came from the original Harvey’s Wagon Wheel Saloon and Gambling Hall opened in 1944 by Harvey and Llewellyn Gross. Just a few years after the Sage Room opened the local Washoe tribe gave the Grosses a gift of beautiful hand-made Native American lampshades which still hang from the ceiling today.

Sage Room maitre d’ Ozzie Sanchez makes a show whipping up some Cafe Diablo. He has been with the Sage Room for two decades. Photo/Jessie Marchesseau

Diners are offered a selection of traditional steakhouse fare and unique gourmet dishes. Several of the signature dishes are prepared tableside including the Steak Dianne, the Caesar salad with house-made croutons, a flaming cherries jubilee, and the crowd-pleasing café diablo, where blue flames of Grand Marnier travel up curling rinds of lemons and oranges. The servers preparing these dishes are both skilled and entertaining, often joking as they pour and sauté, eliciting applause from throughout the dining room with their showy preparations. But it’s not just the food, the ambiance and tableside shows which keep diners coming back year after year.

“We strive big time to make everyone feel like family,” said Ozzie Sanchez, matre d’ for the restaurant, who said on any given night he gives out a plethora of hugs to regular customers and sometimes even new ones.

The Sage Room’s staff is attentive, knowledgeable and experienced, many of them having been part of the team for decades. “We look for solutions, no matter what,” Sanchez said.

The Washoe tribe donated these chandeliers to the Sage Room nearly 70 years ago. Photo/Jessie Marchesseau

Teddy Herrera who prepared a tableside Caesar salad and Steak Dianne for a room of hungry media representatives last Thursday has been working at the Sage Room for 30 years.

“This is my second home here,” Herrera said. “I have so many customers and so many experiences here. They take care of me.”

And it’s not just lip service. Herrera named his youngest son Sage, in honor of his “second home.”

“That’s how much I love this place,” he said.

As he squeezed fresh lemons, fired up steaks and served up tapa-sized dishes for his afternoon guests, Herrera’s skill and enjoyment in his task was apparent.

The same could be said watching Evan Derdowski cooking up the sweet-tart cherries jubilee: setting the pan of juicy fruit aflame, then sprinkling in some cinnamon to make sparks fly. And the show was, of course, topped off with a luscious dessert of cherry caramel drizzled over vanilla ice cream alongside warm, juicy cherries.

The Sage Room, after 70 years, is offering up more than just food, it’s a true dining experience.

In celebration of this 70th anniversary, the Sage Room is has put together a special fixed-price dining option in addition to its regular menu which will be available through the end of the year.

By Jane E. Brody, New York Times

I have no argument with people who adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet for health, religious, environmental or ethical reasons. But I object vehemently to proselytizers who distort science or the support for dietary advice offered to the more than 90 percent of us who choose to consume animal foods, including poultry and red meat, in reasonable amounts.

Such is the case with a recently released Netflix documentary called “What the Health” that several well-meaning, health-conscious young friends have urged me to watch. And I did try, until I became so infuriated by misstatements – like eating an egg a day is as bad as smoking five cigarettes, or that a daily serving of processed meat raises the risk of diabetes 51 percent — that I had to quit for the sake of my health. While the film may have laudable goals, getting the science wrong simply confuses the issues and infuriates those who might otherwise be supportive.

Read the whole story

Stateline casinos were without water for part of Saturday night because of a water main break.

The flow of water created a sink hole on Highway 50 in the casino corridor. Workers for the departments of transportation from both states are handling traffic flow around the problem area.

The pipe belongs to Edgewood Water Company. The problem was at the connection on the Harrah’s Lake Tahoe bullnose near Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel. It’s at the crosswalk on the Nevada side.

“Water was being lost faster than the pumps (could handle it),” Eric Guevin, spokesman for Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District, told Lake Tahoe News. “There was almost an emergency.”

He said Harrah’s was impacted the most. No one from the hotel-casino was available for comment.

Guevin credited Edgewood crews for locating the valve quickly to stop the flow of water.

The cause is not certain, but it could be old pipes.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Charlie Heller, Food & Wine

Fewer people may be going to the movies, but popcorn sales are exploding like, well, popcorn. Between February 2016 and 2017, sales of ready-to-eat popcorn and caramel corn rose 16.9 percent, in what expert corn-poppers are calling a potential “third golden age” of popcorn.

While popcorn is still the most popular food for moviegoers, a spokesman for the National Association of Theater Owners told the Guardian that the snack’s traditional home saw its worst summer box office totals in a decade this year. While this could be an obstacle for the continued rapid growth, it’s possible that newer venues and reasons for consumption of the ancient treat could help make up for it.

While it’s been eaten since the Aztecs were popping corn 4000 years ago, popcorn saw two more recent booms.

Read the whole story

Dick Young

Richard Carroll Young died in Roseville on Aug. 6, 2017, with his family by his side. He was 85.

He was born in Sacramento on Feb. 8, 1932, to Jacob C. and Anne C. (Petersen) Young.

Dick married Joan Bosworth in 1954 in Reno.

His college education was interrupted for two years while serving in the Army at Fort Belvoir, Va. When he received his degree from the University of Nevada in Reno he and Joan were raising three children.

He followed in his dad’s footsteps as a civil engineer.

Moving to Yuba City, Dick worked 38 years for Division of Highways/Caltrans in Marysville.
He is remembered by Don Lane of the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit for his collaboration and Caltrans grant preparation for the Pope/Baldwin recreation/bike trail to Spring Creek.

Dick was a full-time dad, supporting their son Pete’s football, Boy Scouting and hunting interests; their daughters Sherry and Christy’s Camp Fire Girls, school orchestras, band and high school musicals. The family camped, backpacked, skied, boated, and traveled extensively and enjoyed family reunions.

Dick taught boating safety with United States Power and Sail Squadrons. He was on the Yuba City Planning Commission, then City Council, then was mayor of Yuba City in 1969. 

With children grown, Dick and Joan moved to South Lake Tahoe and enjoyed 12 years in their beloved Sierra. They volunteered with Barton Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, Lake Tahoe Historical Society; Sheriff’s Team of Active Retirees (STAR-El Dorado County) and Oregon California (Emigrant) Trails Association. Dick served as president of most of the foregoing organizations. 

Life in the idyllic Tahoe setting suited him well, but with diminishing health they returned to the Sacramento Valley.

Dick is survived by his wife, Joan; daughters Sharon Wonder and Christy Estabrook; son Pete
Young and their spouses; five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren; cousins Norma Jean
Rogers and Christine Heal and their families.

A memorial will be Oct. 22 at 2pm at South Lake Tahoe Senior Center, 3050 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe.

Stacee Etcheber, who was a part-time resident of Incline Village, died in the gun rampage in Las Vegas. She was 50.

In honor of her memory, the annual United Blood Services and Incline Village Recreation Center blood drive on Oct. 13 is being dedicated in her memory.

Stacee Etcheber

The community remembers Stacee as a loving wife, dedicated mother and loyal, caring friend.

SFPD Police Chief William Scott on the department’s Facebook page said, “Stacee was taken in a senseless act of violence as her husband, SFPD Officer Vinnie Etcheber, heroically rushed to aid shooting victims in Las Vegas on Sunday. Stacee was a beloved mother of two young children and a well-loved hair stylist in Marin County. As we grieve, we ask the public to keep the Etcheber family in their thoughts, along with all the victims of this tragic incident.”

Stacee was a master hair stylist, having worked in Novato for more than 20 years.

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “She was tough, her family said, someone who knew how to pull horse trailers with a truck, a real cowgirl as well as a devoted soccer mom. She was a hairstylist who took care of her husband’s aging parents and someone the grocery store clerk remembered as funny and kind, even after seeing her just a few times.”

Stacee was one of 59 people who died in the country’s worst mass shooting, where more than 500 others were injured.

A GoFundMe account has been set up for the family. She is survived by her husband, a 12-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.

The blood drive in Stacee’s name will be from 8am-4pm in the gymnasium of the Incline Village Recreation Center, 980 Incline Way in Incline Village.

United Blood Services reports that Las Vegas is currently doing well with their blood supply; however, they are concerned that in the wake of this event, they will see a tremendous response at first, then a dip in donations in the weeks to come. In emergencies, it is the blood on the shelves that save lives.

To schedule an appointment, call 800.696.4484 or go online. Use sponsor code INCLINEREC.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

October is library card sign-up month at the South Lake Tahoe Library.

Showing an existing library card or sign up for a new one to be entered into a drawing for a chance to win prizes.

Elementary school students who visit the library to use their cards or sign up for a new card during the month of October will be entered into a drawing. The winner will earn a Jamba Juice Party for their class and $50 for their teacher to use on classroom supplies.

Teens and adults who sign up for a new card or use their existing card will be entered into a drawing for various gift cards and movie passes.

For additional information, call the library at 530.573.3185.

California State Parks will kick off the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team fall prescribed fire program Oct. 10. 

If conditions are favorable, prescribed fire operations will take place in D.L. Bliss State Park. 

Smoke may be visible and is expected to last through the week. To receive prescribed fire notifications, send an email to pa_ltbmu@fs.fed.us. 

Each prescribed fire operation follows a specialized prescribed fire burn plan, which considers temperature, humidity, wind, moisture of the vegetation, and conditions for the dispersal of smoke.  This information is used to decide when and where to burn.

As part of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest’s hazardous fuels reduction efforts, the Carson Ranger District, in cooperation with Alpine County, Alpine Fire Safe Council, Alpine Watershed Group, and Sierra Nevada Conservancy, has begun a fuels reduction projects. The mastication project is located in Alpine County, approximately two miles southwest of Markleeville.

Alpine County secured funding for the fuels reduction project through the Sierra Nevada Conservancy.

The project will consist of mastication of brush and ladder fuels on approximately 235 acres adjacent to Forest Service Roads 094 (Pleasant Valley Road) and 071 (Thornburg Canyon Road), and the Shay Creek residential area. Machinery will be operating in these areas for approximately one month, weather depending.

Motorists are asked to follow all warning signs posted in the area. The machinery being used in this project can throw debris up to 300 feet at high rates of speed. In order to reduce the time residents and recreationists are impacted, crews are working to complete work near high use areas first.