Portola: River, rails run through it
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We began our journey from Reno at noon, heading up U.S. Highway 395 north about 35 miles to Hallelujah Junction then west on California Highway 70 for another 15 miles or so. On the way, we passed Chilcoot, Vinton and Beckwourth, which are heavily populated with cattle ranches but light on people.
The Middle Fork of the Feather River and the Union Pacific Railroad intersect at Portola, Plumas County's only incorporated city. From Highway 70, we turned south on a bridge that spanned both the river and the railroad, leading us to Commercial Street, the business center for Portola's 2,500 residents.
Commercial Street looks like a typical American main street from the 1950s. It has a neighborhood bar, a couple of grocery stores, a pharmacy, a book store and a myriad of other small businesses.
It was about 1:30 p.m., and my friends Brad Mangin and James Ray were ready for lunch. We decided to stop at the Good and Plenty Railroad Cafe because the name reminded all of us of a Good and Plenty candy commercial from our childhood. The commercial depicted a cartoon character shaking his box of Good and Plenty to make it sound like a train clapping along the rails.
Opening the door and entering the Good and Plenty Railroad Cafe in historic downtown Portola, Calif., was like taking a step back in time.
Music popular in the early 1970s played in the background -- Shannon, Beach Baby and One Tin Soldier. Nine men sat at tables, each equipped with a 12-ounce bottle of Tabasco sauce. One of the men, who has lived through seven or eight decades, sat alone at a table, sipping coffee and staring out the front window at two teenage boys huddled under the awning sharing a cigarette.
My friends and I
were the only ones not wearing ball caps, cowboy hats or
plaid shirts. We were greeted with a room-full of stares
where a sign with bold red letters read "We have the right
to refuse service to anyone." I'm sure waitresses have
pointed to that sign a few times in the past.
Photo by Joe Gosen
The walls in the restaurant were lined with mirrors, blue lattice and paintings of trains. Our waitress was all business. She wasn't one for small talk or friendly smiles, but she juggled food and drink orders around the room with great efficiency.
We looked over the well-worn, flimsy, 10-page menus, which listed items for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When we were done making our selections, we had some time to learn about Portola's history that was conveniently printed on the back of the menus.
Marren Anderson, apparently a local history expert, had thumbed through history books and spelled it all out for us: Portola was named after the discoverer of San Francisco Bay, Don Gasper de Portola. During the 1800s, the area was a camp for miners, loggers and the Utah Construction Co. In 1910, the town was named Portola by the Western Pacific Railroad Co.
Back to the food. The Good and Plenty offers standard fare prepared in many ways. For instance, the lunch menu listed about a dozen hamburgers.
Ray had the Dave Burger -- three slices of bacon, two kinds of cheese and an ortega chili, along with the usual lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle. We weren't sure who Dave was, but he should be proud of his namesake burger.
"It was three burps good," Ray said.
Mangin had the barbecued burger, I had the cheese burger with home fries. Despite the fascinating tidbits offered by Marren Anderson, the fries, not the history of Portola, became the topic or our converstion. My friends tasted my home fries with envy. The potatoes, cut into spears and not much smaller than a railroad spike, were crispy, and I salted to taste.
"I had the shoe-string fries and felt dejected after tasting one your home fries," Mangin said.
As we finished up lunch and paid the bill, we asked the waitress how to get to the railroad museum.
True to form, she was all business: "Just follow the railroad tracks painted on the street," she said without making eye contact.
Small town. Easy directions.
Posted
Dec. 11, 1998
Copyright 1998 Nevada Outpost