Reno Food: Tournant Pop-Up at Pignic Pub & Patio

My breath will smell like fresh onions for days, I’m certain.

I’ve just come from the Tournant Pop Up and two toothbrushings later, my tongue still has a coat of onions from the four course gourmet taco dinner dished at Pignic Pub and Patio for Tournant Pop-Up.

Not to say that it had left a bad taste in my mouth. It is the opposite, rather. It is more like a souvenir. A hangover. A remembrance of remarkable food in the most surprising of places.

The mileu was a surprise. I’m not a pub-goer. Heck, I don’t even drink beer. But Pignic Pub and Patio, a cozy restored home a stone’s throw from Great Basin Food Coop, is a revelation - about this city I’ve lived in for a decade now, about the people who chose to make a different gamble - a gamble on their community. Yes, there are a smattering of TV’s all over and it is places like these I’m predisposed to avoid. But it is not your regular sports bar patronized by your typical tight tee, backwards cap wearing chunky testosterone pumped alpha males.

Instead, you’ll find bespoke haircuts, beards (of course there will be beards), vintage hats and suspenders. I suspect they too are testorone pumped alpha males, just in a different form.

And people who run places like these (and who wear suspenders or sport beards) make damn good craft cocktails made with bespoke ingredients they are obssessed over. They're architects and artists.

Chefs Ben Deinken and Rigoberto Rivera masterminded gourmet version after gourmet version of the Mexican streetfood – the humble taco. Served on unassuming bamboo boats, wrapped in grilled soft taco shells (and an invisible film, at one point), were a wild assortment of obscure animal parts – skin, tongue and cheek, belly – and accoutrements such as pickled radish, micro-cilantro, avocado foam, and yes, plenty of raw chopped white onions. I couldn’t decide which were my favorites because each one is pretty darn spectacular.

Each of the four taco courses was meticulously paired with a craft cocktail meant to complement the flavors of the food. I never had this much appreciation of cocktails up until this point. I never realized how cocktails, much like food, can be an art form of its own. The “margarita” was an easy, safe hit, but the last cocktail of, and I quote, "Jalisco Old Fashioned: Feria De Jalisco Anejo, Simple Syrup, Xocolatl' Mole' Bitters, Orange, Jalapeno" (in other words, a delicious cocktail with flavors of cinnamon and citrus with a pickled jalapeno) was a bittersweet ending to a beautiful night of degustation.

But I must say that Chef Ben’s “invisible taco” made with sous vide shrimp, chili oil caviar, micro cilantro wrapped in an edible transparent film of a taco shell is the most mind blowing in terms of alchemy and taste. Molecular has arrived in Reno.

And this is my conundrum about my first Tournant Pop-Up. I’m not sure which is the star – the food or the cocktails (and the playlist made a pretty badass supporting role, I must say). But maybe I’m missing the point if I put one over the other, because the truth is, what makes this genius is this nexus of gastronomic wizardry and an elevated mix of elixirs in a little glass. Both of which might have just been flukes at experimentation at one point, but that evening, it was a winner.

What I hope isn’t a fluke is the transformation of this biggest little city where hidden in its sidestreets are speakeasies for food and drink alike. And while this resurgence in Reno might be old news now for a while, the food of Tournant Pop-Up and cocktails of Pignic Pub have just upped the game.

Tournant Pop-Up

Tournant Pop-Up's next appearance is a vintage-themed five-course on May 14, 2015. For more information on Tournant, click here.

PIGNIC PUB & PATIO

Pignic Pub & Patio is located at 235 Flint Street, a stone's throw from Great Basin Food Co-op. You can find them on Facebook here. There's a lot of fun events lined up leading up to the weekend, and an event coming soon in April: a night of Champagne and Junk Food.

#renotahoe #food