The story behind the new fine Italian cuisine restaurant, Bruschetta, started growing roots pre-pandemic in the Bay Area. Erik Rhoades had owned and operated a restaurant for about four years before he brought in chef Victor Guerrero. After a successful run at that location, Rhoades ultimately sold the restaurant right before COVID hit, then moved to Lake Tahoe.

“After 10 years, I needed some time off and a complete reset. And COVID, for a couple years, gave me that,” said Rhoades.

So Rhoades sat, enjoyed his time off, and slowly bided his time looking for something on the Nevada side of the lake.

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“The idea was at some point to do it,” added Rhoades. “I wanted the [COVID] fallout to really shake out and see what came available. I was in no rush to open tomorrow … and then I got kind of antsy.”

He then reached out to Guerrero, who has a classic Italian training background, and lobbied him to come to Tahoe and as co-owner and chef of the new venture using Guerrero’s desire for Italian cuisine.

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The space, picked out by Rhoades, had been a longtime home to another Italian restaurant: Ivano’s.  

“We did a lot of work,” said Rhoades. “We literally gutted this place. It was a small remodel we began with. We had hoped for a six to eight month turnaround and it took a full year or so.”

After being open only a few weeks, the positive buzz is growing – especially when it comes to the food.

“I started loving Italian food and it was my passion. I love it to do it every day, so it’s always been my dream.” said Guerrero. “I do all my menus, my recipes. The year we were waiting for this restaurant, I was cooking Italian food at home every day.”

Ultimately, that every day preparation framed their current menu – a menu that not only consists of nightly specials like grilled lamb shoulder with pesto, but also staple items such as filet mignon with pan fried gnocchi and veal parmesan with house-made mozzarella and Pomodoro sauce. And, of course, all freshly made pastas.

“We build all our own pastas,” added Guerrero. “That’s the way I learned.” 

Having several different pasta dishes on the menu, Guerrero appreciated the extra time to allow him to dial in the right amounts of flour and ingredients – especially coming from sea level to the high elevation.

He joked, “The altitude was probably playing tricks with me, but I beat it.”

From their own pastas, to their own cheeses and breadsticks, the focus of the food is homemade and seasonal, but dialed in with a smaller menu.

“Menu anxiety is a real thing and if you have 50 things how do you do great at all of them? It’s impossible,” said Rhoades. “We do a small menu to do everything great, get those down, and then we start on the specials from there.”

“We make small batches because we want them perfect,” added Guerrero. “We want everybody to have a favorite dish on the menu. They’re all my babies – I love them all.”

While the food is front and center for now, their craft cocktail game and wine offerings are not far behind – as soon as their liquor license gets approved. Until then, the restaurant is allowing patrons to bring in their own bottles of wine for no additional corkage fee. To which Rhoades joked, “They can’t have good Italian food without a glass of wine. It’s just a sacrilege. You got to do it, right?”

Until then, every day is business as usual with a front and center focus on the food and their customers, whom have been spreading the positive reviews. Rhoades said that the growth they have seen since they’ve been open has been incredible – with much of it coming word of mouth from locals.

“That’s kind of what we actually built this place for. So much is built towards the tourists in Tahoe. We want the locals, sure we want tourists too, but we’re definitely built for locals.”

Being built for locals includes an industry night on Tuesday nights, as well as a locals’ night on Wednesday evenings where they will have live music and 15% off for all locals.

And while the duo are still getting used to having a small restaurant tucked away off of Kingsbury grade as compared to high foot traffic city like San Francisco, they are happy with the way things have started out.

“I’m very happy what we’re doing right now,” added Guerrero. “It’s very pleasurable for me that guests at the table call me and want to shake my hand because of the beautiful meal they had. That makes me feel good here.”

Bruschetta is located at 290 Kingsbury Grade Rd #22 in Stateline, NV. For more information you can reach them by phone at (775) 580-7037 or visit them online at bruschettatahoe.com.