The Space
The Sawtooth Ridge Café is a family homestyle restaurant with home-cooked comfort food. The name was created to capture the spirit of the outdoor community and an outdoor adventure destination. If one knows the area, the Sawtooth Ridge rolls through Sierra forests here in the Tahoe Basin, offering plenty of outdoor playground adventures.

The “homey” feel is created from a combination of vintage posters and old-time saws hanging around with wooden interior, along with the decorative kitchen wall in the center of the space with colorful teacups and pots hanging. With a partial view of the lake, it is a place to go read a newspaper and enjoy breakfast and coffee or bring in friends and family to enjoy a traditional home-cooked breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is like being at home, only with full service.

Located off North Lake Blvd. in the entrance to Tahoe City (coming from Dollar Hill) it is in a central location with plenty of parking and lots of seating inside and on the deck.

The Food
The dishes are very generous portions. For breakfast enjoy a variety omelettes, biscuits and gravy, breakfast burritos (served with fresh homemade pico de gallo), quiche, skillets of all kinds and waffles — just to name a few. The breakfast menu is traditional and will please any palate. Side dishes include a fruit cup, eggs, Asiago cheese and grilled tomatoes, sautéed spinach with lemon, corned beef or veggie hash, home fries, chicken apple sausage or pork sausage, bacon and toast. There are many combo dishes already created so if you can’t decide what you would like, try one of those.

For lunch and dinner, choose from a variety of salads including a classic Caesar a Teriyaki or Calamari chicken salad, fruit salad and house salad with a shallot-zinfandel vinaigrette. Hot and deli sandwiches are made to order and served with your choice between a house salad, French fries, sweet potato fries or a pasta salad. Soups and specialties of the house are offered daily (Wednesday through Sunday for dinner). The same goes for lunch and dinner, where half-sandwiches and soups can be arranged along with substitutions.

Sawtooth uses completely biodegradable to-go containers, so you can take out orders and enjoy a delightful Sawtooth meal in the comfort of your own home.

The Drinks
There is a full bar with beer and select wines and specialty coffee drinks can be made to order. Fresh squeezed orange juice is not on the menu, but it is available. Be prepared for the bottomless coffee because prompt service on a fill-up is inevitable.

Gotta Try
The sweet potato fries are one of the most popular items on the menu. While there is no special recipe for them, they have a higher nutritional value than regular home fries and are a bit sweeter. The veggie lasagna is a must try for dinner with plenty of vegetables and a great size portion.

Tidbit
Sawtooth Ridge Café offers many special events including live music. For something different, Wednesday nights are open mic night. Bring a musical instrument and get on stage at the open mic night, hosted by Jim Baldwin, or just come to listen to music. There are dinner and drink specials served Wednesday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. with specials on fish or chicken tacos for $6.25, vegetarian lasagna and a house salad for $8.25 and $3 pints of Sierra Nevada pale ale.

On Thursday nights, local band Wound Up Hear, mixes bluegrass and roots, starting at 7 p.m. The band is very knowledgeable about traditional bluegrass music and will continue to play every Thursday night. Renegade Productions continues to bring in live music shows on Friday and Saturday nights and an occasional mid-week night.

Ballroom Dancing lessons are available at Sawtooth on Sunday nights with instructor Judy Lee. Learn how to swing dance, tango and many other ballroom style dances.