A friend of mine recently made a comment on The Hamblogger Facebook page that I should try the burger at Rancho Nicasio in Western Marin County. He said that they have amazing food “cuz it’s a real ranch”. I have heard about Rancho Nicasio, but had never been. I was envisioning a working ranch with cowboys and cattle and a fire that people sit around eating BBQ and singing songs. Yeah, I thought, that does sound pretty good. I called up a fellow burger aficionado and we headed west to see what this ranch was all about.
O.k., maybe I was daydreaming a little bit. It isn’t an actual working ranch, but it is in the middle of nowhere and there are cows that wander around the nearby straw-colored hills. Close enough. Located on the former site of the Hotel Nicasio, Rancho Nicasio was built in 1940 after a fire had wiped out the popular hotel. It sits on the town square of Nicasio, a small rural town with only a few buildings that has the appearance of a spaghetti western set. It doesn’t seem like much has changed in Nicasio since the 40’s.
Rancho Nicasio’s multi-room dining room is big, dimly lit and full of rustic charm. Wagon wheels and old-timey artifacts from the frontier days adorn the walls alongside stuffed animal heads that look over the dining room. The lunch menu is comprised of soups, salads, burgers and sandwiches. There are three burger options, well, four if you count the Dungeness Crab Burger. Both my dining partner and I went for the Rancho Bacon Cheeseburger ($9.95, includes fries) and a nice cold pint of beer.
When our burgers arrived, we both looked at each other with a puzzled look. Served open face, the patty topped with bacon and cheese was there and next to it a pile of lettuce and tomato. Where was the bun? Did I not read the description correctly? For a minute there I thought I got suckered into some kind of Atkins diet low-carb burger or something. It wasn’t until I lifted up the lettuce that I discovered two slices of toasted sourdough bread. While not my first choice of bread for a burger, I guess this was how they do it here and was going to have to roll with the out of the ordinary “bun”. Remember the kid from your neighborhood whose parents wouldn’t spring for hamburger buns and they had to eat burgers on square pieces of untoasted Wonder bread? Well, I now know how that kid felt.
I had ordered my burger medium and my friend asked for his medium rare. Mine was just under medium but his was nowhere near medium rare. That thing was cooked through and pretty dry. After a few bites he couldn’t go forward and had to send it back. The drama continued when his new burger arrived. Closer to medium but nowhere near medium rare, he just sucked it up and ate it anyway. I’m not sure if his burger came from a different cow or what, but he likened the flavor to meatloaf. The burger gods were not shining on him.
My burger was just the opposite – juicy and did not taste anything like meatloaf. I added lettuce, tomato, mustard and mayo the burger that produced so much juice that the bread pretty much disintegrated halfway through. Overall, the burger wasn’t anything special. The bacon was so-so and the bread thing was bumming me out. The handmade patty, which was close to one half pound, had decent beef flavor– probably because it was pretty high in fat content. At times it tasted a little like a bite of steak with a little bit of charred fat. I’m not usually a fan of steak cut fries, but these actually weren’t bad. They were a little on the greasy side with the right amount of crispness.
It is hard to enjoy a meal when your dining partner isn’t having a good experience. While my burger wasn’t terrible, I was a little turned off by the sourdough bread situation. It definitely wasn’t a very memorable burger but it also wasn’t the worst thing I have ever had. It was cool to visit the small town and I will definitely be back for a beer at their colorful bar if I am ever passing through the area. If you like seeing live music, bands play on most nights and outside on the lawn on a number of Sunday afternoons during the summer – that could be a fun thing to do. When we were leaving, I noticed a big BBQ pit on the side of the building. Maybe they fire that up sometimes and do a burger with a proper bun. I’d be up for trying that, just no more sliced bread.
RATING: 2.5 out of 5
Rancho Nicasio Restaurant & Bar
1 Old Rancheria Road
Nicasio, CA 94946
(415) 662-2219
http://www.ranchonicasio.com
Hours: Lunch 11:30AM – 3:00PM Monday – Friday
Dinner 5:00PM – 9:00PM Sunday – Thursday
5:00PM – 10:00PM Friday – Saturday
Brunch 11:00AM – 3:00PM Sunday
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
You don’t go to Rancho Nicasio to eat…you go to drink and listen to the fantastic live music! Their food is nothing special, about average for places that have music. But who cares — have you checked their music lineup? We went to see Ray Wylie Hubbard a couple months ago, just fabulous. Dave Grisman did a two-day run there just a week or two ago.
Hey Bob, I agree on the music and bar at Rancho Nicasio. Thought I would give the food a shot too. I will stick with the drinking and tunes next time.
And don’t think about stopping in if you are riding your bicycle out there in Western Marin – despite the fact that it’s the only food for 10 miles in either direction. They have a very bike-unfriendly attitude, and no place to lock them up outside. Keep on going to the Pine Cone Diner in Point Reyes Station instead.