Sample Menu

• Appetizer: rice-flour tempura vegetables with spicy peanut dipping sauce
• Entrée: free-range spicy jerk chicken breast with honey, mangoes, and pickled red onions
• Dessert: vegan, dairy-free chocolate peanut-butter mousse pie
• Beer on tap: Pliny the Elder

Where to Sit: on the the 16-seat patio, which is open from Memorial Day through Labor Day, that offers lakefront views from a vantage lined with flower pots and greenery.

Who’s Cooking? Chef Erik Ulman, who founded the restaurant with his wife Melodie after working in kitchens since 1979. Since 2000, he’s applied his decades of industry knowhow to running Freshies, his first venture as owner.

Who’s Sewing? Chef Ulman’s mother, Christina. She makes all the the restaurant’s placemats, tablecloths, and curtains herself. You can also thank her for Freshies’ key-lime cheesecake recipe.

Behind the Dishes: The cooks make just about everything, including the pasta and desserts, in-house, except for the tortillas and bread sourced from Truckee Sourdough Co. What’s more, the restaurant’s fryers (and dressings) use trans-fat-free rice bran oil, a vitamin- and antioxidant-rich oil that more than complies with the American Heart Association’s recommendations for saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats.

If You’re a Plant-Based Eater: don’t worry about coming up with a Plan B—they’ve got you covered here. the majority of meat dishes on the menu accommodate vegan and vegetarian substitutions such as tofu, tempeh, and portobello mushrooms. The cooks even use separate fryers for meats and vegetables to avoid cross contamination.

When Not To Go: between Halloween and Thanksgiving, when they annually close their doors. It also shuts down on other major holidays, so be sure to glance at the calendar before planning a visit.