Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Pine House Cafe & Tavern: Knotty, but nice tree people

“Tables reserved for Pacific Crest Trail walkers”

Sierra and tree friend
Sierra and tree friend

‘Bobcat!” says Mag.

This hairy-tailed thing pads across the Sunrise Highway and up into the trees. Bobcat? Fox? Raccoon? Or just someone’s big hairy pet kitty? Mag and I stare across the gravel lot outside this old log cabin ranch house.

“What was that?” asks Mag. She doesn’t undo her safety belt. “They say that above 6000 feet, Bigfoot…” `

My chili

Actually, we’re at 6271 feet. Okay, it had big feet. But Bigfoot? For sure, big’s the word up here: big old forest, big sky, big lungsful of air you feel you need to get your fill of oxygen. Above all, big hunger and need for comfort food. Here. Now.

Place

Pine House Cafe

9849 Sunrise Highway, Mt. Laguna, CA

“Open,” says the wooden sign dangling from the main notice that reads “Pine House Cafe & Tavern.” We’re among stands of lofty Jeffrey Pine Trees sweeping across this mountain valley, a San Diego I have never seen before. Only regret: would love to have seen it a few weeks back when they had a foot or two of snow.

Sponsored
Sponsored

No chance of that today. It feels like 75 Fahrenheit. Still, the bluejays are chattering, red-tailed hawks cruise overhead, and the wind is sifting through trees that sprout skyward like square-riggers’ masts.

“I’m worried,” says Mag. “Not sure we have enough gas to get back down to civilization.”

Great. One more thing to worry about. But first things first. We walk into this, like, giant log cabin. And first thing you smell is not food, but timber. Rich. Pine. Varnished knotty boards cover the walls and the ceiling, with tree trunk pillars holding it all up. Even the tables are pine plank. One mighty trunk seems to grow right up through the ceiling.

Mike the cook - chili secret’s in the cocoa

“Knotty, but nice,” says Mag. “Ooh, look. Tree people!”

And hey, on one trunk a face emerges, like a garrulous wood spirit.

“I’ve never noticed that,” says Sierra, the gal who’s taking us to the table.

Huh. Sierra. Perfect name for up here.

“Maybe he’s just appeared,” says Mag.

We sit down beside a ginormous stone fireplace. I notice cards by the salt and pepper cellars on each table, “PCT.”

“Tables reserved for Pacific Crest Trail walkers,” says Nate, who’s sitting drinking a beer. “It’s what I’m doing. Mexico to Canada. Takes about six months.”

Six months? “How long have you been walking?”

“Two days.”

Man. A ways to go. Sierra puts a menu in front of us. “This is our regular cut-down menu, for the hikers. About 8 am, we always get a long line outside.”

Menu starts off with $3 fries, but its main thing is burgers. The Pine House 1/3lb burger goes for $10. Veggie patty’s 95 cents more. The Blackened Burger (“covered in blackening seasonings, seared on cast iron”) is $12, and the Garlic Parmesan Burger also goes for $12. Then “Pasta of Weekend or Mac & Cheese” (in “thick creamy” cheddar cheese béchamel sauce), $10.50 for a half, $14 for a full plate. A chicken sandwich in BBQ sauce on a toasted bun’s $10, and salad’s $5.50 and $7.50. That’s pretty much it.

Nate - Two days down on Pacific Crest Trail, six months to go

Mag straightway goes for the Blackened Burger and fries. But I flip the page, and right at the top, I spot a “beef and bean” or “3-bean vegetarian” bowl of chili ($7.25, or $5.50 for a cup), and also a soup of the day, same prices. It’s a little, uh, chilly in here out of the sun, so chili and soup sound like good warmer-uppers. Mag agrees to share the veggie and bean soup. I order the bowl of chili.

But this fireplace! You can smell the ashes. Which is fine. Huge logs half-burned in its maws. It looks straight out of medieval days. Sierra says this used to be a ranger station, back in the day.

When the food comes, we’re both like winter-starved wolves. All fangs. Mag attacks the burger and fries. I steal a bite just to see what the blackened thing is all about. It gives a dark tang to the meat.

But I am definitely a happy camper. To look at, it’s hard to tell the soup from the chili. They’re both full of beans. The soup is like loaded veggie. But for me, the chili is the really interesting discovery. It has a rich, peppery, slightly sweet flavor to it. I load it up with flaked cheese and chopped onion, toss on a bit of Sriracha, palliate it all with the delish toast, and we have ourselves a luscious, filling, mountain man meal.

“What’s in that chili?” I ask Michael, one of the two cooks in the kitchen. “You got some secret ingredient?”

“Well Jonathan, the chef, just puts in red chili. And cocoa.”

Cocoa! So that’s it. That, yeah, dark chocolatey taste. Maybe everybody does it, but this is the first I’ve heard, and I’m already addicted.

By now a singer has come in. Robert Warren, the “King of Pain.” He’s singing “Pacing the Cage,” by Bruce Cockburn, Canadian. Painfully good song. Place is filling with cowpokes and trail walkers and a gentleman biker heading back to Poway the mountain way. They all have a beer in their hand and a dreamy look in their eye. I can see that none of us wants to leave.

But Mag is nervous about the gasoline situation. She asks Sierra. “Nearest gas is Pine Valley,” Sierra says. “Good news is all you have to do is coast your way down the mountain.”

Me, I’m thinking of Nate, who left a while back, facing months on the trail. He said he liked walking at night, because there’s less chance of stepping on a rattler. I didn’t even want to ask him about black bears or bobcats. Or mountain lions.

Or, now I think about it, Bigfoot.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader readers sound off about Encinitas cliffs

Not much sympathy for victims
Next Article

Live Five: Greyboy Allstars, Acoustic Revolt, Scary Pierre, Thee Sacred Souls, Glass Spells

Anniversaries, record releases, and fundraisers in Solana Beach, Ocean Beach, Little Italy, and Midway District
Sierra and tree friend
Sierra and tree friend

‘Bobcat!” says Mag.

This hairy-tailed thing pads across the Sunrise Highway and up into the trees. Bobcat? Fox? Raccoon? Or just someone’s big hairy pet kitty? Mag and I stare across the gravel lot outside this old log cabin ranch house.

“What was that?” asks Mag. She doesn’t undo her safety belt. “They say that above 6000 feet, Bigfoot…” `

My chili

Actually, we’re at 6271 feet. Okay, it had big feet. But Bigfoot? For sure, big’s the word up here: big old forest, big sky, big lungsful of air you feel you need to get your fill of oxygen. Above all, big hunger and need for comfort food. Here. Now.

Place

Pine House Cafe

9849 Sunrise Highway, Mt. Laguna, CA

“Open,” says the wooden sign dangling from the main notice that reads “Pine House Cafe & Tavern.” We’re among stands of lofty Jeffrey Pine Trees sweeping across this mountain valley, a San Diego I have never seen before. Only regret: would love to have seen it a few weeks back when they had a foot or two of snow.

Sponsored
Sponsored

No chance of that today. It feels like 75 Fahrenheit. Still, the bluejays are chattering, red-tailed hawks cruise overhead, and the wind is sifting through trees that sprout skyward like square-riggers’ masts.

“I’m worried,” says Mag. “Not sure we have enough gas to get back down to civilization.”

Great. One more thing to worry about. But first things first. We walk into this, like, giant log cabin. And first thing you smell is not food, but timber. Rich. Pine. Varnished knotty boards cover the walls and the ceiling, with tree trunk pillars holding it all up. Even the tables are pine plank. One mighty trunk seems to grow right up through the ceiling.

Mike the cook - chili secret’s in the cocoa

“Knotty, but nice,” says Mag. “Ooh, look. Tree people!”

And hey, on one trunk a face emerges, like a garrulous wood spirit.

“I’ve never noticed that,” says Sierra, the gal who’s taking us to the table.

Huh. Sierra. Perfect name for up here.

“Maybe he’s just appeared,” says Mag.

We sit down beside a ginormous stone fireplace. I notice cards by the salt and pepper cellars on each table, “PCT.”

“Tables reserved for Pacific Crest Trail walkers,” says Nate, who’s sitting drinking a beer. “It’s what I’m doing. Mexico to Canada. Takes about six months.”

Six months? “How long have you been walking?”

“Two days.”

Man. A ways to go. Sierra puts a menu in front of us. “This is our regular cut-down menu, for the hikers. About 8 am, we always get a long line outside.”

Menu starts off with $3 fries, but its main thing is burgers. The Pine House 1/3lb burger goes for $10. Veggie patty’s 95 cents more. The Blackened Burger (“covered in blackening seasonings, seared on cast iron”) is $12, and the Garlic Parmesan Burger also goes for $12. Then “Pasta of Weekend or Mac & Cheese” (in “thick creamy” cheddar cheese béchamel sauce), $10.50 for a half, $14 for a full plate. A chicken sandwich in BBQ sauce on a toasted bun’s $10, and salad’s $5.50 and $7.50. That’s pretty much it.

Nate - Two days down on Pacific Crest Trail, six months to go

Mag straightway goes for the Blackened Burger and fries. But I flip the page, and right at the top, I spot a “beef and bean” or “3-bean vegetarian” bowl of chili ($7.25, or $5.50 for a cup), and also a soup of the day, same prices. It’s a little, uh, chilly in here out of the sun, so chili and soup sound like good warmer-uppers. Mag agrees to share the veggie and bean soup. I order the bowl of chili.

But this fireplace! You can smell the ashes. Which is fine. Huge logs half-burned in its maws. It looks straight out of medieval days. Sierra says this used to be a ranger station, back in the day.

When the food comes, we’re both like winter-starved wolves. All fangs. Mag attacks the burger and fries. I steal a bite just to see what the blackened thing is all about. It gives a dark tang to the meat.

But I am definitely a happy camper. To look at, it’s hard to tell the soup from the chili. They’re both full of beans. The soup is like loaded veggie. But for me, the chili is the really interesting discovery. It has a rich, peppery, slightly sweet flavor to it. I load it up with flaked cheese and chopped onion, toss on a bit of Sriracha, palliate it all with the delish toast, and we have ourselves a luscious, filling, mountain man meal.

“What’s in that chili?” I ask Michael, one of the two cooks in the kitchen. “You got some secret ingredient?”

“Well Jonathan, the chef, just puts in red chili. And cocoa.”

Cocoa! So that’s it. That, yeah, dark chocolatey taste. Maybe everybody does it, but this is the first I’ve heard, and I’m already addicted.

By now a singer has come in. Robert Warren, the “King of Pain.” He’s singing “Pacing the Cage,” by Bruce Cockburn, Canadian. Painfully good song. Place is filling with cowpokes and trail walkers and a gentleman biker heading back to Poway the mountain way. They all have a beer in their hand and a dreamy look in their eye. I can see that none of us wants to leave.

But Mag is nervous about the gasoline situation. She asks Sierra. “Nearest gas is Pine Valley,” Sierra says. “Good news is all you have to do is coast your way down the mountain.”

Me, I’m thinking of Nate, who left a while back, facing months on the trail. He said he liked walking at night, because there’s less chance of stepping on a rattler. I didn’t even want to ask him about black bears or bobcats. Or mountain lions.

Or, now I think about it, Bigfoot.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Time’s up for Doubletime Recording Studio

Owner Jeff Forrest is trading El Cajon for Portugal
Next Article

Issa aide collaborates with Ukrainians

Carlsbad's Tracy Slepcevic, Warrior Mom, and her ties to RFK, Jr.
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader