TRUCKEE, Calif. – After a long stint of operating Mountain Brew out of a trailer, co-owners Stacey Larson and Jaime Legare, who also own Zander’s The BottleShop in Truckee, opened their doors of the brick-and-mortar location on Donner Pass Road at the end of 2024. After a few months of operation, things are moving along quite nicely.

“We really just transferred the menu from the trailer for the first few weeks and then started to build out the menu,” said Larson. “Every day we have new customers come in and we have great feedback. Very positive community support.”

That community support is important for the café and restaurant to reciprocate. With a background in working with companies to build new revenue lines, Larson stressed the importance of working with other local companies.

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“Everything is made here. We work with Jenny at Cornerstone on our croissants. We have since we opened the trailer. We’ll never get into making croissants. That’s not our jam, not at 7,000 feet – so let the French-trained baker do it here in town. We sell her chocolate croissants, almond croissants, plain croissants, and we love that.”

In addition, Mountain Brew also works with Wild Cherries on all their breads and Men Wielding Fire par-smokes their meats before they are brought up to temp as they are cooked to order.

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“I want people to know we work with other companies. I want people to know that we are supporting other businesses,” added Larson. “As we grow, everybody grows.”

That drive to raise the tide for all boats and provide the best possible experience for their customers can also be felt across their food menu. With a focus on consistency and delivering great meals every day, diners can enjoy popular items like their breakfast burritos, grilled cheeses, homemade chicken noodle or lasagna soup, and a sudden riser to the best-selling list: coffee cake, which they are selling out of every day.

But perhaps the menu item that the restaurant is most excited about is their salad station, which Larson says has a list of 35 toppings in which to build out your perfect pairings.

“We really worked hard on that. They’re huge and they’re beautiful and they’re fresh and so to me if you’re going to feature anything, I think that’s such a different thing than what is available in our town anywhere. They’re hand-tossed everything’s made fresh. I literally pick the produce every day and it shows in the food that comes out.”

What’s also important to the restaurant is having an affordable menu.

Larson added, “We’re trying to be reasonable in our pricing. That’s super important for us, for people to know. We have a very local presence here and it was important for us to build a menu that was affordable, too, so it wasn’t just good tasting.”

Their approach to coffee is the same way and their tagline is “tastes great naked” referring to the idea that it tastes great with nothing in it.

“And that’s kind of the basis for everything in the café. We just want everything to be able to be enjoyed in its natural self,” said Larson.

For quick and easy convenience, the café and restaurant give you grab-and-go options by either pre-ordering through their app or a drive-thru for convenience. And whether it’s serving the needs of the locals and visitors on the west side of town, or just providing a hand-curated food and beverage experience for the greater Truckee region, Mountain Brew is a great new option for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Mountain Brew is located at 12373 Donner Pass Road in Truckee. For more information about food and beverage options visit them online at mountainbrewcoffee.com or reach them by phone at 530-580-7954.