great place for hot meals. the picnic sandwiches are overpriced and not as good. had some fine elk in a wine reduction sitting at a picnic table outside watching the sunset. the sky was clear and mono lake was at its best. I’d eat there in a ny minute! (and I did another night, too, before we headed down to yo’valley!"

quote:

Originally posted by steveindurham

I went through Tioga Road from Yosemite Village to Lee Vining 12 years ago. Tioga Road is one of the most beautiful places in the world. All that was in Lee Vining back then was gas at $ 1.71 a gallon which was then outrageous! I bet it’s $ 3.70 now.

And last time I passed by (3 weeks ago), gas was at $3.49.

I climb in the Eastern Sierras a lot, so I pass this place all the time. It’s usually too close to the beginning or end of a 7 hour drive for me to go in regularly, but the food there is quite tasty, even the generic stuff, like a slice of BBQ chicken pizza, was really good. Can get very crowded on week-ends, but worth a stop.

I second the "must-do" nature of 395 from Lee Vining to Lone Pine. Some other good roadfood places on 395 are Mountain View BBQ in Walker and Burgers at the Whitney Portal store outside of Lone Pine.

I went through Tioga Road from Yosemite Village to Lee Vinning 12 years ago. Tioga Road is one of the most beautiful places in the world. All that was in Lee Vinning back then was gas at $ 1.71 a gallon which was then outragous! I bet it’s $ 3.70 now.

I’m really disappointed—–just got back from a trip to mammoth for a week and if I’d known about this—–it would have been on my "must go" list! Looks great!

My Lord, if only I had that kind of view in Wisconsin!!!!!!!![:p]

The Mango Margaritas, Fish Tacos, and Lobster Taquitos are Great!

Egg White Smoked Trout Omelettes are really good, choose your own ingredients.

The setting is beautiful, a great way to start your day or end it.

Originally posted by BT
I agree with you the scenery on the Mono Lake side is not as spectacular as the scenery actually going through Yosemite, but it’s still pretty interesting (especially the Lake if you know anything about it–history, mineral deposits, brine critters and all that). Anyway, I think if I were going there now I’d take 80 over Donner Pass and then drive south on 395 to this area. It’s longer, but the max elevation is only about 6000 feet.

************************

80 and Donner Pass is the lowest route and so the least scenic – other good alternatives are 50 and 89 or 88, 4, etc – none are nearly as high as Tioga Pass – all are beautiful –

But while in the area, a side trip to Bodie is worthwhile – a real ghost town, in a state of arrested decay – go mid-week, off season (not winter – roads will be snowed under) when it is not crowded and you can appreciate the atmosphere – when I first went there many years ago, the road in was unpaved, there was no parking lot, and we were the only people there – it doesn’t quite come up to that anymore, but is still pretty unspoiled –

Chris

I agree with BT on the rating of the ride down (or up)395 and then over the Mountains on 120. Everyone should do it at least once. 120 is a very seasonal road. When they say it is only open in summer that could mean that on JULY 20th it is still closed due to the high snow on the upper slopes! Always check ahead to see if it is open before basing your travel plans on crossing using it.
395 on the other hand is a wonderland. Mono Lake and the ski areas are one major area to visit, but even down in the Owens Valley and the Panamint Mtns you cross some great scenic country. If you have never stopped at Manzanar, just north of Independence, you need to. Manzanar is the site of one of the internment camps that was used to house the Japanese-Americans who were interred during WWII. Then a bit further south , in Lone Pine, head up the side road to Whitney Portal. A really lovely place with great views of the mountain, and even into Death Valley 90 miles east of there. Driving the Alabama hills near there is also interesting. They have place markers out where the famous movie sets were located–GUNGA DIN and several classic Westerns were filmed there.
http://www.sparks-photography.com/landscapes/ns-alabama-hills-dir.html#%5B/url%5D
All in All US 395 is one of my favorite roadtrips.

I’ve eaten here twice and the food was pretty good both times. I’m not all that excited about the views, the Eastern Sierra’s aren’t my thing except that there is some really good trout fishing in this area. I always loved the drive up through Yosemite on 120 to get to the high Sierra’s and this area for some great fishing.

MikeS.

OK, OK–I’m posting this mostly because I’m fascinated. In my little town in AZ there’s a combo gas station and steak house that some claim is actually good (I’m not a fan of steak anywhere but on a backyard grill). But this sounds wild. Has anybody eaten here?

quote:

Lee Vining (Mono County) — One of the most popular roadside attractions of the Sierra Nevada turns out to be a gas station where the gas almost seems like an afterthought.

Ask anyone within a 50-mile radius of Mono Lake to recommend a restaurant, or suggest a place to meet, and odds are they will start gushing about the Tioga Gas Mart near Lee Vining, where the Whoa Nellie Deli offers filet mignon specials most weekends and "insane soups daily."

Perched on a low hill at the junction of Highway 395 and the Tioga Road through Yosemite, "The Mobil," as it’s known locally, comes off as a misplaced Fellini set carved into the edge of Mono Basin, dust devils skipping around in the distance like extras on the floor of Owens Valley.

It’s as much a circus as it is a filling station.

Co-owner Dennis Domaille, a 54-year-old contractor, decided to indulge his lifelong love of high-wire acts by rigging a professional-quality trapeze just beyond the gas pumps, giving customers a chance to tempt fate while stretching their legs — until insurance hassles spoiled the fun a couple of years ago.

The trapeze is no longer open to the public. Now, the main attraction, besides the killer views, is the food — the likes of wild buffalo meat loaf with Port au jus, "legendary" lobster taquitos on Brazilian black beans, and grilled pork tenderloin with apricot-wild berry glaze.

It’s overseen by head chef Matt "Tioga" Toomey, a ne’er-do-well San Diego dude and beach-volleyball aficionado, who showed up one day on his motorcycle when Domaille and his wife, Jane, happened to be looking for somebody to handle the deli side of the business.

Toomey, recently married, is a doting father and clearly no slouch. But he also is avowedly "anti-corporate," a wise-guy refugee from cookie-cutter ski-resort restaurants down the road in Mammoth Lakes. He prides himself, he says, on "stretching the bounds of what’s considered normal."

At the Whoa Nellie Deli, he built a menu around traditional roadhouse fare, but then took off from there, sprinkling in just enough spike and dash — like sides of mango salsa and ginger coleslaw — to make even the burgers, pizza and barbecue interesting.

Clad in classic cook outfits, Toomey and his kitchen staff go out of their way to insult one another and anyone else who gives them an opening. They perform in full view of the diners, who place their orders at the counter and carry their own meals, competing for spots with the best lake views in a large outdoor seating area.

Nearly everyone seems to have a roaring good time in a place where much of the clientele is on vacation and wandered in expecting little more than cheese puffs and Gatorade.

Instead, they get St. Louis-style ribs with huckleberry barbecue sauce, pitchers of mango margaritas, gigantic slabs of homemade cheesecake, and a head chef joking about having to go home early — a short bike ride uphill from the gas station — when he’s "too drunk to cook."

Just reading the menu can be dizzying, full to bursting with puns, rhymes, even a surreal plug for the cellar-dwelling Kansas City Royals. Toomey, a big- time namedropper, seems to have become best friends with every celebrity he has ever fed, including Royals slugger Mike Sweeney.

If you walk in tired with many more miles to go, the incessant hijinks and odd flavor combos can get on one’s nerves. And not everything works. Some sandwiches were disappointing; the "Ragin Cajun" jambalaya, ,20,156329,0,20349,69.3.235.20
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