Foothill Flavors 7746 words

Glenn Bruno is back in Pioneer

By Antoinette May Herndon

John Takucs has just returned to the foothills from New York. You know John, the novelist-entrepreneur who pens action tales about car chases and murders and things like that.

Having recently confronted his Big 6 oh!, John has temporarily shifted to non-fiction. The new book, which he’s busy pre-selling, will be called “Doing a 180 @ Sixty.”

“Sixty is the youth of old age,” he believes, “and you-turns are allowed.”

Following his own advice, John shed 38 pounds in three months and then set off to seek a book deal in New York. Out of 50 pitches, he has 20 agents and editors seriously interested.

On a recent Saturday evening, Charles and I celebrated John’s success with the author and his lovely partner (and cheer leader) Monika Facustle, an ER nurse at Sutter Amador Hospital in Jackson.

Our venue was Creekside, a brand new bistro in Pioneer. The owner is Glenn Bruno, a bungee jumping buddy of John’s. (Bungee jumping is one of John’s you-turns. It was fun at 30, why not revisit it at 60?)

Creekside, which some of you may recall from its former incarnation as Franco’s, is set back from the road in the manner of a vacation retreat. The dining room’s many windows face into the surrounding forest. Green, green, green everywhere.

Owning the restaurant is a déjà vu for Glenn who operated the place for two years in the late 90s until partner trouble caused him to move on to a career in private investigating.

“It was very private investigating,”

he recalls ruefully. “Theft and fraud is interesting, but my assignments most frequently involved identifying marital cheaters. Nobody likes the messenger. I got tired of being the one delivering the bad news.”

Glenn went on to work in a supervisory capacity at the Jackson Rancheria. Still ferreting out cheaters, one might surmise.

Throughout these vicissitudes, Glenn has sustained an ongoing passion for bungee jumping. Over the years he has leaped from bridges, cranes, hot air balloons, towers, trees and hangars. And, as a safety and technical to commercial bungee jumpers, Glenn has supervised more than 40,000 jumps.

Sounds scary to me, but then who is to say that opening a restaurant in this economy isn’t an even greater risk. Whatever the prevailing opinion, Glenn launched Creekside with a “soft” opening in mid-October. None of the staff had worked together before and he wanted to give them plenty of opportunity to get to know each other and the restaurant itself.

A month later, it appears to this customer that they are all doing just fine. Glenn is determined to bring his restaurant back to its 1998 standards. There are new specials every day and fresh fish (from his brother’s boat) on Thursdays.

“My goal is to provide great food at reasonable prices,” Glenn told me.

Our party was very pleased. We started off with shared plate of roasted garlic, warm Brie, and tomato chutney with toasted croutons. ($7.95) It was a generous portion— more than enough for the four of us—and very good.

I enjoyed a tasty cup of butternut squash soup ($1.95) Very tasty. John and Monika shared a romaine

salad with red onions, spiced pecans and blue-cheese dressing ($6.94) and Charles enjoyed a Creekside house salad with carrot, cucumber and tomato ($2.95). We were all well pleased with our choices.

Charles ordered prime rib for $21.95. It was turned out to be huge and was as good as it was gorgeous. I know because I had some of it cold the next day. Yum!

John and Monika ate nearly every bite of their New York pepper steak with cognac sauce, green beans and parsley garlic fries. It, too, was $21.95. Portions were ample and must have been good because John and Monika were very careful to take the leftovers home with them.

I loved my grilled salmon beurre blanc—cooked just right—and was well pleased with the sautéed spinach, roast tomatoes, rice pilaf that came with it. The dish was reasonably priced at $18.95.

We all enjoyed our Stevenot cabernet sauvignon so well at $7 that we each had two glasses. Yes, of course, we should have ordered a bottle, maybe two, but sometimes you just don’t know. One glass has a way of slipping into two when it tastes so good and you’re having fun.

VITALS: Creekside is located at 24144 hwy. 88 in Pioneer. Phone: 295-5111. creeksidepioneer. com. Hours are from 5 to 11 Wednesday through Sunday. Credit cards accepted. Glenn has entertainment planned for weekends with pianist Michael Barrett and the Sun Kings slated for Nov. 25 and 27th.

Pictures:

The interior of Pioneer’s Creekside is a work in progress but still manages to be warm and inviting.

Lacey Laird is an asset to the newly opened Creekside Restaurant in Pioneer