September 2025

SEPTEMBER 2025

Read the RN&R online at RenoNR.com!

EDITOR'S NOTE

LETTERS

Savor September; be a good ally

Help improve funding and care for Parkinson’s patients

September brings a lot of wonderful things to Reno.

For starters, the Great Reno Balloon Race, Sept. 5-7 this year, is always a marvel. Meanwhile, Burning Man ends on Sept. 1. While those of you who justifiably want the Burner traffic in your grocery-store aisles to subside will take delight in the “end” part of that statement, as of this writing, I’m fixing to pack up and go enjoy all of the dusty merriment for a few days.

But I understand why you’re annoyed, grocery shoppers. The sudden increase in playa travelers competing for parking as you’re trying to go about your daily business is no joke.

On the matter of whether to enjoy or decry Burning Man, I say, to each their own.

There’s another matter on my mind, however, for which it is impossible to say “to each their own.” LGBTQ+ rights are getting utterly trampled by the Trump administration. This bothers me for multiple reasons, and the biggest one is this: A snarky or derisive comment about a gay or transgender person is not just a snarky comment.

It’s the tip of a rapidly expanding iceberg; at the base of that iceberg is hatred and actual violence, which is increasing. And people are dying as a result—innocent people, including kids, who are not hurting anyone by being gay or queer or transgender.

So, what can you do about it? I posed that question to a few locals and ended up with some good advice for allies. You’ll find it on Page 8.

There’s another thing I like about September, and I bet you’ve already guessed what it is—our Best of Northern Nevada issue! To me, there are few things more heartening than spreading around some well-deserved recognition to all the hardworking people in our region who help make this a great place to live. Enjoy our 33 pages of accolades, profiles and highlights!

—KRIS VAGNER krisv@renonr.com 2

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Email letters to letters@renonr.com | September 2025 | Vol. 31, Issue 7

This past February, I lost my father to Parkinson’s disease. As a physician, I have cared for patients with Parkinson’s. But walking beside my dad as he faced the daily challenges of this disease made it deeply personal.

Right here in Northern Nevada, an estimated 5,000 people live with Parkinson’s.

Their families, friends and co-workers are affected, too. Parkinson’s doesn’t always shorten life, but it changes how you live— from the tremor that makes holding a cup of coffee difficult to the stiffness that makes walking across a room exhausting.

Parkinson’s is now the fastest-growing neurodegenerative disease in the world, and in the next decade, the number of people living with it is expected to double. Nationally, the cost already is estimated at $62 billion annually, from medications and medical care to lost work and caregiver strain.

Sept. 9 is the National Day of Action for Parkinson’s. I urge our community to use this moment to speak up. Contact your representatives in Congress and ask them to expand funding for the National Institutes of Health. Encourage Nevada lawmakers to make Parkinson’s a priority when they

Mailing address: 31855 Date Palm Drive, No. 3-263, Cathedral City, CA 92234 • 775-324-4440 • RenoNR.com

Publisher/Executive Editor Jimmy Boegle Managing Editor Kris Vagner Editor at Large Frank X. Mullen Photo Editor David Robert Cover and Feature Design Maria Ratinova Distribution Lead Rick Beckwith Contributors Matt Bieker, Alex Cubbon, Loryn Elizares, Bob Grimm, Helena Guglielmino, Matt Jones, Matt King, Kelley Lang, Chris Lanier, Michael Moberly, Steve Noel, Alice Osborn, Dan Perkins, Carol Purroy, Sitara Reganti, David Rodriguez, Sarah Russell, Jessica Santina, Jason Sarna, Max Stone, Delaney Uronen, Robert Victor, Matt Westfield, Leah Wigren, Susan Winters The Reno News & Review print edition is published monthly. All content is ©2025 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher. The RN&R is available free of charge throughout Northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe portions of California, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $5 by calling 775-324-4440. The RN&R may be distributed only by authorized distributors.

The RN&R is a proud member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, the Nevada Press Association, and the Local Independent Online News Publishers. Coachella Valley Independent, LLC, is a certified LGBT Business Enterprise® (LGBTBE) through the NGLCC Supplier Diversity Initiative.

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return to Carson City in 2027. Together, we can show lawmakers that the Parkinson’s community in Nevada is strong, united and ready to be heard.

Dr. Mindy Lokshin Founding chair of Parkinson Support Center of Northern Nevada Reno

Tax-aide volunteers needed

The Nevada AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program is looking for volunteers to provide tax preparation for anyone, free of charge, with a focus on taxpayers 50 and older, and/or low to moderate income. Tax-Aide is the largest free, volunteer-based tax assistance and preparation program in the U.S. The U.S. tax code is complicated. Many taxpayers overpay, use services they can’t afford, or don’t file—missing out on earned credits and deductions. Our goal is to help change that.

For the 2024 tax season, Nevada Tax-Aide’s 250 volunteers prepared more than 9,600 tax returns, providing Nevada citizens with upwards of $7.6 million in federal tax refunds. We need volunteers to provide tax preparation and filing services, as well as welcome taxpayers for their appointments, provide tech support, recruit volunteers, translate and more. Anyone interested can visit nvtaxaide.org or aarpfoundation.org/

taxaide for details. Volunteers are trained in January for the upcoming tax season. Volunteers come from a variety of industries, ranging from retirees to college students, and do not need to be AARP members. During February through April, volunteers will assist taxpayers at one of Nevada’s 26 sites. This is an excellent way to give back to your community. Please consider giving us some of your time.

Ann Conlin Reno

Urge officials to deter Trump’s authoritarian actions in D.C.

In his relentless march toward authoritarian rule, President Trump has again invoked the Emergency Powers Act and sent federal officers (National Guard, FBI, Secret Service) to clear out the homeless people in Washington, D.C. Under Section 740, the president’s action cannot exceed 30 days without Congress’ approval.

Congress has stood by for too long and allowed free rein of a lawless president. It is time to reassert congressional power. Please call or write Rep. Mark Amodei and urge him to re-assert congressional oversight and decline any requested extensions. Call his Reno office at 775-686-5760.

Wendy Buxton Reno

GUEST COMMENT

BY JESSICA FRY

My friend died while navigating weak public-assistance programs; now those programs are being cut further I am writing with a heavy heart to share the story of my friend Phillip, someone who fought every day to survive in a system that repeatedly failed him.

Phillip was a severe epileptic, a condition that resulted from an allergic reaction to chemotherapy when he was a child battling a rare form of leukemia. He survived cancer but was left with lifelong seizures.

Despite his disability, Phillip never wanted to rely on the system. He lived off his small Supplemental Security Income and food stamps, finding odd jobs online to afford necessities like clothing and a bus pass. If he couldn’t afford the bus, he walked. He believed in making his own way, no matter how difficult.

For 6 1/2 years, I watched him struggle to gain financial independence. During this time, he moved in with me, and we became close.

Our goal was to help him reach an independent life where he didn’t have to rely on anyone else for support. He wanted to work, but finding an employer who would accommodate his epilepsy was nearly impossible. When Nevada Vocational Rehabilitation helped him get a job at McDonald’s, the company assigned him to the drive-thru during the busiest hours. The high-stress environment triggered frequent seizures at home. He began experiencing grand mal seizures at least once a week.

These episodes could last up to five minutes, leaving him convulsing on the floor, unable to speak and struggling to breathe. Still, he was determined to keep the job, hoping it would be his path to independence. But one weekend, he had three major seizures. The last one ended with him hitting his head on the washer while home alone. I found him bleeding, arriving just as he was coming to.

That night, we had a long conversation, and he finally accepted that, for the sake of his safety, he had no choice but to quit.

Still, he never stopped trying. He volunteered with advocacy groups, cleaned up roadsides and encouraged others to use their voices to create change. But the financial burden of surviving on his SSI payment of $750 a month became unbearable. When our rent jumped from $775 to $1,325, his income remained the same. He was stuck in a system that did not account for the rising cost of

living, and I had no choice but to take on second jobs to cover his portion of the increase.

He eventually accepted that he needed more help and applied for housing assistance, but as a single, middle-aged male, he was placed at the bottom of the priority list. He waited more than two years for an interview with the Reno Housing Authority for Section 8 assistance.

Two years—just for an interview. But he never made it. Three months before that appointment, Phillip died.

He had been saving furniture for the day he finally had a place of his own, collecting discarded but usable items. When he suffered a seizure in his small room, he became trapped in his belongings and suffocated to death.

At the time, he was studying to become a pharmacy technician.

He was still trying to build a better life for himself.

Phillip’s death was not just a tragedy. It was the result of a broken system that continues to fail the most vulnerable.

He needed affordable housing, job accommodations and sufficient medical care. Instead, he was given endless waitlists, impossible choices and no real solutions.

Now, as lawmakers slash budgets for our assistance programs even further, I ask: How many more people will be forced to live—and die—like Phillip? How many more lives will be lost to bureaucracy and indifference? Phillip would be appalled that there is even a discussion about reducing these programs when they were already inadequate.

I have been told that losing these programs is “never going to happen,” but I think it’s time that we all realize that “never” is no longer a possibility. It’s real. I have sat in on the public Nevada Medicaid meetings, and there are cuts coming in 2026 that make everyone nervous.

This isn’t just about numbers in a budget. It’s about real people who need real help. Cutting assistance programs is a death sentence for those who are already fighting to survive. If we truly value human life, we must fight for policies that protect and support people like Phillip.

We owe them more than just our condolences. We owe them action.

STREETALK What are you best at?

What are you worst at?

BY DAVID ROBERT

Asked at Keystone Square, 561 Keystone Ave., Reno Connie Belden Retired

I’m best at communication, as I have great communication skills. I’m very upfront, personable and non-judgmental.

I’m an all-around good girl. I’m worst at lying. I’m a bad liar, and I always get caught in my lies. I’m also the worst at getting things done. I’m a procrastinator. I’m shopping today, and I should be at home packing and saving up my money.

Anthony Cross

Finish carpenter

I’m best at my carpentry skills, especially doing countertops.

I make custom countertops, and I have to be very precise in my measurements to make them fit. It’s a dying art. I’m worst at my plumbing skills. Actually, I’m OK at plumbing, but I’m better at carpentry. Plumbing stinks. It really does stink, especially when you’re working with sewer stuff.

Luke Opperman Civil engineer

I’m best at enjoying the outdoors. I love finding the hidden nature spots in Northern Nevada. I like to camp and hike; it keeps me young. I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager, so I’m pretty good at it. I’m worst at understanding my teenage children. Until they were 12, they used to like hanging with me in the outdoors, but now it’s all about the mall and movies. I don’t understand it.

Nicole McCaskill Teacher

I’m best at teaching theology. I spend most of my time in prep for lessons. It takes four hours to prep for a one-hour lesson. I’m worst at finding time for myself—time for me to decompress. I want all the noise and buzzing in my head to go away. I need to find time to turn off my mind.

Randy McCaskill Pastor

I work with international students, scholars and visiting professors. I’m really good at introducing them to Reno, finding them housing and transportation, introducing them to churches and getting them settled. But I’m worst at managing my time. I’m always busy and sometimes overwhelmed. I need to stop saying yes to everyone.

Jessica Fry (widely known as JFry) is a Nevadan who has spent her entire life working in the service of others. She continues to care for Phillip’s dog, Maddie, taking her on many adventures that he was never able to.

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A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

| BY JIMMY BOEGLE

The unconstitutional, un-Christian motives behind many ICE raids An Aug. 20 story in The Orange County (Calif.) Register really got to me. The lede: A father was briefly detained by federal immigration agents Tuesday morning, Aug. 19, after dropping off his child at a Garden Grove elementary school, district officials confirmed.

The incident happened at about 7:50 a.m., before school started, when families alerted staff that a group of masked, unidentified individuals in unmarked cars had surrounded a man on the corner near campus. The man, who had just dropped off his child, was handcuffed and taken away in one of the vehicles, Garden Grove Unified spokesperson Abby Broyles said Wednesday morning.

“This incident understandably caused fear and confusion among the many students and families who witnessed this terrifying event,” Broyles said.

Broyles said the father returned to school later that day and told district officials he had been held inside an ICE vehicle parked at a lot near the school and released within the hour after showing documentation and confirming his identity. He asked that details not be shared to protect his family and the

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wider school community, Broyles said.

Following safety protocols, the school went into a “Secure Building” alert—a precaution used when immigration enforcement is occurring near campus with the potential to impact students, she said. During this alert, students and staff go indoors, doors are locked and classes continue.

The specifics of this story are deeply troubling—as is the fact similar stories have unfolded in the Reno area.

Why was this man stopped and detained?

He had just taken his kid to school. Was it racial profiling, as has been the case in many ICE raids in the West? How is it that agents— masked, in unmarked vehicles, and unidentified—are plucking people off of the streets in the United States of America?

Was the fear and confusion this caused the students and families at the school necessary?

Can you imagine how the detainee’s child felt, knowing their father had been detained?

Many of the people in the MAGA movement like to wax poetic about the United States Constitution, and the Bible. Let’s look at several passages from these two works.

The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution:

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“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” (Emphasis mine.)

The 14th Amendment of the Constitution: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

(Emphasis mine.)

Luke 10: 30-37, as Jesus responds to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”: “Then Jesus

answered and said: ‘A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, “Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.” So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?’ And he said, ‘He who showed mercy on him.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’”

The people responsible for these actions aren’t following the Constitution. They’re not being Christians.

They’re just being cruel.

ON NEVADA BUSINESS

| BY MATT WESTFIELD

Getting off the ground The gener8tor helps startups gain national traction with local outreach Building a company from scratch is hard.

Which parts are hard? All of them!

Most importantly, you need to find customers and fund the business to keep the lights on.

This is all while you simultaneously figure out your value proposition, develop proper pricing, engage in benefit-based messaging, and on and on and on. All of these things keep founders up at night (or they ought to be!).

My preferred method for funding startups (early on) is customer revenue—get those early customers/partners as soon as possible when you have a minimally viable product (MVP) to offer the marketplace. This validates the model, proves value and attracts investment … cha ching! Getting early customers can be easier in a service business than a product biz because of all the upfront work needed to get a product ready for distribution and sale.

So … what funding mechanisms are there when we don’t have the money to build the MVP? My old software company raised $3 million to build our product, which led to major revenue, which led to a $56 million sale in less than three years. We were both lucky and good.

Today, however, unless you are developing proprietary AI, machine-learning engines or novel bio-pharma, it is really hard to get outside funding. When your new company is really risky—meaning that you don’t have a product built out and/or a customer to buy it yet—you should rely on the old fallback, the three f’s: friends, family and fools. They are the most forgiving to an unproven business, and the most likely to lend/invest in your startup without severe consequences (beyond, perhaps, an awkward Thanksgiving dinner).

In Nevada, we have a few angel investor groups, some programs through the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (like the Knowledge Fund, the Battle Born Venture fund, etc.), and conventional Small Business Administration bank loans. All of these can have strict guidelines, rules and requirements, including a need for collateral.

Various organizations help startups by mentoring and accelerating growth. These organizations can be for-profit or nonprofit, but most will want a small equity piece of your company once it starts gaining traction.

Some charge to be part of their network, and others have money to actually invest. Convertible notes and SAFEs (simple agreements for future equity) are often the mechanisms in today’s investment climate to protect the investors and the founders. Do your research, and understand the fine print.

In Reno, we have a great recent addition to the startup ecosystem—a business accelerator called gener8tor. Gener8tor expanded to Reno in 2022 and is part of a national network that has shown that great companies can come from anywhere in America, including Reno—but we knew already knew that!

There has long been a stigma that to be innovative, your startup had to be located in the Silicon Valley, New York, Austin, Chicago, etc. But the folks at the gener8tor understand what many of us in mid-major cities have long known: Innovators are everywhere; we just need to find and nurture them.

Gener8tor has opened offices in many of the major and mid-major cities in the U.S., most which have colleges and universities in their ecosystem. It represents the triple helix model: government, universities and business all together for a successful startup ecosystem, one which incubates talent and nurtures business models while providing resources for success.

According to Jessica Halsey, gener8tor’s Reno accelerator managing director, they are relatively “industry agnostic,” which means they are more receptive to innovative consumer products and non-tech than the Silicon Valley bros, who don’t traditionally invest in or accelerate consumer-product companies or service-based businesses. But Gener8tor had a huge success with, of all things, a kitty litter company! Yes, there is still innovation in kitty litter. PrettyLitter was bought by Mars Inc. and has Martha Stewart as its spokesperson. Apparently, they are doing many things right.

Gener8tor’s model helps regional companies nationalize and accelerate growth, sales and market expansion; because they have offices in many cities, they have a built-in scaling mechanism throughout the U.S. and beyond. They have several specialized accelerator programs— by sector, by region and market by market.

Disclaimer: I am a volunteer for gener8tor and am mentoring a battery logistics startup out of Atlanta. I can help them gain some traction on the West Coast; those of us in Nevada about know rare-earth materials, battery technologies, EVs, drones, etc. On the flip side, a startup here in RN&R-land can get plugged in to the Midwest market or southeastern market relatively easily with gener8tors’ reach, reputation and network.

I asked Halsey to tell me about some of the local startups that excite her. She discussed UNR Prof. Melinda Yerka, a plant-breeding and plant-genetics expert and researcher, who has new technology that prevents cross-pollination of organic with non-organic seeds in farmers’ fields. This is a really big deal in agriculture, because companies like Monsanto have patent-

Jessica Halsey is gener8tor’s Reno accelerator managing director. Photo/David Robert ed seeds. Winds carry seeds across fields, so farmers may not know these patented seeds are on their property—but if a farmer gets caught with a GMO seed without a license, that creates big legal issues.

Halsey and her network of mentors are helping Yerka with the language of business and finance while honing the message about her revolutionary technologies. Scientists and researchers know about their respective fields, of course—but the business side can be foreign to them. The same

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can be said for many creative people who have come up with the next great thing, but don’t know how to wrap a business model, message or pricing around their innovation.

I’m glad we have gener8tor here, pitching in to help Nevada’s entrepreneurs garner success— and you should be too.

Learn more at www.gener8tor.com/ investment-accelerators/reno-tahoe.

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UPFRONT

NEWS

| BY FRANK X. MULLEN

Reno Little Theater and Good Luck Macbeth announce merger Reno Little Theater—which will soon start its 91st season—announced plans to acquire Good Luck Macbeth Theatre, founded in 2009, in an Aug. 25 press release.

Reasons for joining forces, according to the press release, include “funding cuts, affordability and infrastructure challenges.”

As an example of affordability issues, Melissa Taylor, RLT’s executive director, said in a phone interview that her group budgeted $25,000 for materials for sets and costumes this season—“paint, nails, wood and all of those things.” The actual costs have been $6,000 more than budgeted.

“We’ve never run into that before,” Taylor said.

Eric Boudreau, RLT’s community engagement manager, mentioned another financial hurdle.

“Corporations, because their prices are going up for tariffs and all of that, they’re not giving as much support as they used to,” he said.

Said Taylor: “Part of why this merger makes sense is that we are in need of more space, because our programming has grown so much, and they (at Good Luck Macbeth) are in need of more structural support.”

As of 2019, RLT owns its building on Pueblo Street free and clear—an unusual arrangement for a performing-arts group in a city of this size.

GLM leases a space on Taylor Street, in fast-appreciating Midtown.

Boudreau spoke about what the new arrangement will look like.

“For time being, RLT’s full-time staff is taking over operations of both spaces,” he said. GLM will dissolve as a nonprofit entity, and GLM board members are invited to join RLT’s board.

Boudreau said both theaters will remain in operation. “RLT is like the organizational structure, and then we have the GLM stage under the RLT umbrella,” he said.

The two groups have a longstanding relationship. “We share costumes; we share artists,” said Boudreau. RTL already handles GLM’s ticketing.

“We do find that collaborating over competition is what’s going to get us through these unprecedented times,” said Boudreau.

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Displaced residents of Chinatown stand among the ashes of their homes in this Reno Evening Gazette photo from Nov. 11, 1908. Photo/courtesy Nevada Historical Society

Facing our darker history As the feds censor narratives about racism, local officials tell the truth about Reno’s Chinatown and its destruction A bustling Chinatown once stood across the Truckee River opposite what is now the National Automobile Museum in Reno.

At the turn of the 20th century, the land on the north side of the river was a place of community and commerce. Clothing, flapping like flags in the wind, hung on ropes and fences to dry. Men hurried through dirt alleys, balancing shoulder poles with baskets of vegetables or boxes of tools dangling from each end. The air was thick with the smells of roasted pork and garlic, merging with the scent of incense smoldering in a joss house, a building that served as a temple and a community center. Men conversed in dialects of Cantonese, making deals and wagering in the gambling houses. Horsedrawn delivery trucks navigated narrow streets. Chinese doctors treated patients with remedies created centuries before Europeans reached the New World.

There is no trace of that enclave today, but a recently installed historic marker now commemorates the site of Reno’s lost Chinatown. For generations, it was a place of hard work, hope, celebrations—and despair.

Its buildings and shacks were set aflame in 1878, most likely by anti-immigrant

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thugs. Residents rebuilt on the north side of the river near Lake Street, where 30 years later, men with axes and firebrands destroyed many of their homes and businesses—by order of city and county officials.

Nevada, as historian Wilbur Shepperson observed, was never a promised land for the Chinese. “Rather, it became a land of heartbreak and defeat,” he wrote.

After 1908, a small Chinese population remained in Reno. By the 1950s, a new wave of Chinese transplants worked in many trades and professions, built businesses and served in government posts. The struggles of their predecessors became a dim memory.

A new interpretive panel on Lake Street, historians said, has great relevance today, as the Trump administration’s immigration policies and harassment of immigrant communities haunt the headlines. The administration also is censoring websites, libraries and museums to erase mentions of civil rights struggles, discrimination and other darker aspects of the American experience. To dwell on such things, Donald Trump’s executive order says, “deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame.”

The policy is an attempt to replace facts with propaganda, some historians say.

“History is rhyming, if not repeating,” said Michael Green, associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “Sometimes you don’t see violence against people, but what happens is violence against history, against language, against feelings.”

When we fail to acknowledge our history, Green said, “We open the door for more of the same—or worse. We ought to be adult enough to face our past. … The xenophobia never goes away. The issue is whether you feel comfortable voicing it and displaying it. And lately, people have increasingly developed that comfort.”

With the Chinatown marker and others around the city, Reno acknowledges its history, warts and all.

‘Homes for the heathen’

The Chinese called Nevada yin shan, the “Silver Mountain.” Some immigrants who arrived during California’s Gold Rush traveled east to Nevada to prospect for gold. In the 1850s, Chinese crews dug irrigation ditches in Dayton and Genoa. After the Civil War, about 12,000 Chinese laborers built the western leg of the transcontinental railroad.

By 1870, 3,000 of those workers had settled in Nevada. They lived in segregated communities in Reno and across the Silver State. They started small businesses, became cooks or gardeners, or carved irrigation ditches. In 1870, the Census counted 3,162 Chinese people in Nevada (including just 306 women), accounting for 7.4% of the state’s population.

The immigrants planned to make their fortunes and send money home to their families.

Most wanted to eventually return to China.

Wherever they settled, they faced low wages, discrimination, racism and xenophobia—and in Reno and elsewhere in the West, they were driven from their homes.

In Reno, animosity against immigrant workers reached a boiling point in 1878, after a Chinese firm won the contract to dig the 33mile Steamboat Ditch. Anti-Chinese groups, including the Workingmen’s Party, the Order of Caucasians, the 601 Vigilance Committee, and the Anti-Coolie League, called for the expulsion of Chinese residents. On Aug. 3, 1878, the Workingmen’s group held a meeting to discuss “the Chinese problem.”

That night, a fire raged through Chinatown, then located at First and Virginia streets. The blaze leveled 50 houses and killed two people.

Newspapers reported that the cause of the fire was either an accident or was “impossible” to determine. Many Nevada historians—including

the late Phillip Earl and others—placed the blame at the feet of the anti-immigrant groups.

Reno newspapermen, with casual racism baked into their stories, documented the conflagration and its aftermath. A week after the fire, the Reno Evening Gazette reported that a new Chinatown was planned along the river at Lake Street: “Homes for the heathen will shortly be erected … hardly as far out (from downtown) as could be wished, but the location is infinitely preferable to that swept over by the fire. The Chinamen themselves do not regret the change of locality. They can accumulate all the filth they want without being disturbed.”

Over the next 30 years, the residents endured discrimination, but there was no major violence against the community. But Reno’s city core continued to expand, and the land along the riverbanks became more desirable.

In 1908, a Washoe County grand jury and the Reno Board of Health decided that Chinatown was a health hazard. On Nov. 2, a crew with axes and sledgehammers “got busy tearing down every Chinese shack and shanty that bears the least evidence of unsanitary conditions,” according to the Nevada State Journal. They burned the ruins and the contents of homes.

“The central location of Chinatown made it valuable property, and the anti-Chinese lobbyists tried various ways to take over the land,” wrote Sue Fawn Chung, emerita professor of history at UNLV and author of The Chinese in Nevada. The residents were unprepared for the destruction, and “150 Chinese were left homeless in the snowy winter and had to seek housing with friends,” she wrote.

Some structures remained. Fragments of Chinatown endured for decades, but the population of mostly single men dwindled.

“Following the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, there was minimal to no Chinese immigration, so those in Reno’s Chinatown were probably becoming quite aged,” said Fred Frampton, a former U.S. Forest Service archeologist who has excavated Chinese sites in the West. “Following all the various federal anti-Chinese laws, it is a wonder Reno had any Chinese at all.”

In 1880, there were about 400 Chinese in Washoe County. A decade later, there were 217.

By 1910, the Census recorded 927 Chinese in Nevada, including 51 females.

In time, exclusion laws were repealed, and Chinese immigrants and second-generation Chinese Americans came to the Silver State. Some, like William Fong, who operated the New China Club in Reno from 1952 to 1973, prospered in the gaming industry. Others worked in many trades and professions, founded businesses, became respected educators, and served in appointed and elected government positions.

The 2020 Census revealed that Asians were the fastest-growing ethnic group in Nevada, accounting for 8.8% of the state’s population.

History in 150 words

The Chinatown marker is among seven new interpretive panels funded by a grant from Nevada Humanities. The project also received discretionary contributions from Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve and Ward 2 Councilmember Naomi Duerr. The other new markers are at the Washoe County Courthouse, Reno City Hall, McKinley Park School, the California Building, the Lear Theater, and Douglas Alley. Photos of the panels are part of the city’s historic markers map, accessed through the Arts and Culture link at www.reno.gov. The signs join scores of other historical interpretive panels around the city.

The new marker is on Lake Street and the Truckee River. Photo/David Robert

Tom’s Laundry, photographed in 1904, used to stand on Second Street, between Lake and Center streets in Reno. Photo/courtesy Nevada Historical Society Melissa Hafey, management assistant at Reno’s Arts and Culture Department, did the research, consulted with local historians and wrote the text on the new markers. The verbiage was discussed and eventually approved by members of the city’s Historical Resources Commission. Professional historians or interpretive sign experts weren’t part of the team.

“Hiring a historian to write all seven markers would have been a different project,” Hafey said. “That happens as well, but for this project, we went in-house.”

Drafts of the markers’ texts were sent to independent historians, she said, and to scholars at the University of Nevada, Reno, the Nevada Historical Society, the Historic Reno Preservation Society and Our Story Inc. Commission members and Hafey read and discussed their critiques, which sometimes led to changes in the text. Some reviewers were concerned about vague language, accuracy or the omission of what they considered relevant facts. For example, the Chinatown marker notes that in 1908, public health officials who ordered the area razed were afraid the Chinese, who often lived in unsanitary conditions, would “spread disease.” There’s no mention of the land along the river becoming more valuable.

The 1878 fire also isn’t mentioned, although the text on the panel notes that: “(1908) was not the first time Reno’s Chinese faced discriminatory actions that led to their eventual displacement.”

Hafey noted that the cause of the 1878 fire is a matter of debate. A reference to the blaze would also require context about the anti-immigrant groups and their fears of cheap immigrant labor.

“It has some nuance and context that would have taken a lot of words to describe,” Hafey said.

The texts, she said, were limited to about 150 words so that photos could be included. In addition, the 1878 fire happened at the previous location of Chinatown rather than the Lake Street site, the focus of the interpretive sign.

“We did our best to include all of the comments we received, but, of course, the editing could go on forever, and text can always be revised and improved,” Hafey said. “We came to a point where we thought the text is communicating the main points, is accurate, and we sent it off for publication.”

Frampton, who didn’t review the panel’s text prior to its placement, said the verbiage isn’t perfect, but the marker does its job—providing a glimpse of a vanished community that current residents may not know existed. At a time when some politicians are erasing references about the historic struggles of minorities and discrimination against ethnic groups, “We should be impressed that Reno is even putting up a sign,” he said. “That should be a tribute to our city.”

He noted that the land across the river from the marker, where Chinatown once stood, is now vacant. “Someone ought to be doing some archeological test excavations in that lot,” Frampton said, before the site is entombed in concrete and asphalt. The contributions of the Chinese immigrants is a major part of the city’s history, he said.

They provided essential labor and fresh produce to sustain Reno and nearby towns. “(Chinese laborers) cut 40 cords of wood, per day, for the V&T Railroad, provided firewood for communities’ stoves, and were immensely important, especially around Truckee, in burning wood down to charcoal for Virginia City’s smelters,” Frampton said. “One could rightfully argue that the Chinese were the labor force that built and fed the early West.”

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NEWS

| BY KRIS VAGNER

always asks people’s pronouns. She’s just very empathetic, very understanding. She doesn’t assume things about anybody. She always asks a lot of questions, which I think is really important. … A lot of people don’t understand pronouns, and so they make judgements instead of trying to learn on their own.”

Garcia and other good allies, Smith added, “make people feel seen and heard and welcome and comfortable.”

beth Theatre Company. He identifies as queer.

“When I look at 2025, I see the interconnectedness of it all,” Daniels said.

Some previous LGBTQ+ activism has focused on a single issue—marriage equality, for example—and Daniels said that needs to change.

“I think to face 2025 and beyond, we have to look at the systems. We need to see the intersectionality of our collective struggle,” Daniels said.

LGBTQ+ rights, Daniels said, are closely related to the struggles of immigrants and others.

“Denying people basic rights, access, wages, health care—I think those are the issues that impact all of us and where we should put our attention and focus,” he said.

Stand up against casual bigotry

Patronize queer-friendly businesses

Heidi Smith: “A lot of people don’t understand pronouns, and so they make judgements instead of trying to learn on their own.”

It’s Pride month in Reno!

Here’s some advice from locals on how to be a good ally LGBTQ+ Pride Month “officially” occurs in June to mark the 1969 Stonewall uprising.

But here in Reno, Northern Nevada Pride moved to September a few years ago—because it’s the month with the best chance of comfortable weather.

The list of reasons to fight for LGBTQ+ rights was long enough to begin with, and in 2025, it’s grown longer. For starters, the Trump administration has banned transgender people from military service, and is even denying long-serving transgender service members retirement benefits. His administration has ordered the removal of LGBTQ+ (and other “DEI”) content from government websites and exhibits, and even re-named the USNS Harvey Milk. This fall, the Supreme Court could re-consider nationwide gay marriage rights. And, according to the GLAAD Alert Desk, incidents of violence against transgender people—already disproportionately high—have increased by another 14% this year.

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With all of this in mind, the RN&R asked a few locals for their thoughts on how to be good ally in 2025.

Be alert to surging intolerance

Heidi Smith is a hairdresser, a DJ who uses the stage name Heidalicious, and a proud lesbian. A few months ago, a woman in a public restroom warned Smith’s girlfriend that she was in the wrong bathroom, apparently assuming she was a man or a transgender woman. She is neither.

The interaction left Smith worried about growing intolerance.

“It’s just the attitude of people that it’s OK to shame people or put people down for who they are, and then they’re teaching their kids that,” Smith said. “It’s just becoming OK.”

Make people feel seen and welcome How can someone be a better ally, in Smith’s view? Be like her colleague, Krissy Garcia, at Sanctuary Boutique Salon.

“She’s an excellent ally,” Smith said. “She

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Allen Ratliff is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Nevada, Reno, and an Our Center board member who uses they/them pronouns. Ratliff is in favor of you writing to your officials to voice your support for LGBTQ+ rights—but that’s not all.

“I think, in some ways, it’s almost more important to be standing up for communities at the micro-individual level—that when we have friends or co-workers or family members who are making statements that are derogatory toward queer or transgender people, that we should be standing up to those people, that we are past the time of trying to make nice with our neighbors and our family members,” they said. “What we’re talking about is the lives and well-being of queer people.”

Ratliff added: “We should be calling out hatred and bigotry against transgender people in every context that we hear it in.”

Mind your own business

Ratliff has provided therapy to transgender youth and their families for more than a decade, and is considered by many to be the foremost expert on transgender health in the state.

“We’re seeing increased rates of transgender youth experiencing suicidal ideation and even experiencing loss of life,” Ratliff said. “We know that the loss of gender-affirming health care does impact the life expectancy of youth.

Gender-affirming health care saves lives.”

To those who question “whether or not gender-affirming care is necessary or transgender identities are necessary,” Ratliff said: “We should be making sure that everyone has access to the health care that they need access to. …

We are not experts in other people’s experiences. … Unless you are literally a parent or a child or a doctor or a therapist of a transgender young person, you don’t have any right to say what’s best for that person.”

Think intersectionally

Chris Daniels is a certified life coach, a drag performer known as Miss Ginger Divine, and the interim artistic director at Good Luck Mac-

The website PublicSquare was originally billed as a place for MAGA-inspired consumers to support like-minded businesses. It also served more left-leaning shoppers—as a list of businesses to boycott.

Daniels recommends that local shoppers “put their money into businesses that support people, and take their money out of businesses that don’t share those values, because those have really big impacts.”

There does not appear to be a comprehensive list of queer-friendly businesses in and near Reno, but a quick search on Google or Yelp will get you off to a good start.

Watch people’s backs

As a drag performer who has read stories to children at Washoe County Library events in recent years, Daniels has seen a rise in “vitriolic violence” close up. While it’s always been the case that an occasional driver would shout a slur as they passed by, such incidents have felt more threatening in the last year or two, as haters have become more emboldened.

“I was recently at a mall, and somebody drove by my friend and screamed, and then drove around, like, aggressively, made a loop and came careening back toward us and screamed it again,” Daniels said. “You always think about safety— but now even more so, as you hear reports of increasing violence. Suddenly, you are even more cognizant of being in public.”

If you witness a situation like this one, and you have an opportunity to speak up, to set an example, or to help someone find safety in numbers, do it.

Northern Nevada Pride will take place on Saturday, Sept. 6. Admission to the parade, which begins at 10 a.m. on California Avenue between Arlington and Virgina streets, is free. Admission to the festival, which take place from noon to 8 p.m. in Midtown, along and near Virginia Street, starts at $10. For tickets and for information about these and other Northern Nevada Pride events, visit northernnevadapride.org.

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

FAM Fest on Sunday, Sept. 14

Be part of the solution for 600 Washoe County children Six hundred children … is that a lot?

Consider this: The U.S. House and Senate combined is only 535 strong.

The NBA … only 450 active players at any given time—and 600 children would pack 25 school buses.

Six hundred children … not just a number— that’s the size of an entire elementary school.

Picture it: classrooms filled, every desk occupied, a playground echoing with laughter, questions and dreams.

Now imagine this: Each of those 600 children is in foster care. With support, encouragement, and love, each child could be tomorrow’s teacher, artist, scientist, leader. They are not broken —they are becoming.

Right here in Washoe County, approximately 600 children experiencing foster care wake up each day wondering what their future holds. Some are waiting to reunite with moms and dads, and others are awaiting adoption. Some need mentors. All need a community that sees them, supports them, and believes in their potential.

This is where you come in.

At this year’s FAM Fest—Foster, Adopt, Mentor—at Sparks Marina, the entire community has the chance to come together in a joyous way to wrap around these children and the families who care for them. Whether you’re a neighbor, business owner, teacher, grandparent, student, or

someone simply wondering how you can help—you are part of the solution.

Hosted by Washoe County Human Services Agency, this event isn’t about pressure or paperwork. It’s about possibility. It’s about learning how we can all play a role—big or small—in changing the story for local children and teens in foster care.

At FAM Fest, you’ll meet foster and adoptive families. You’ll hear from mentors making a difference in a child’s life with just a few hours a month.

You’ll discover that there is room for everyone in this village: • Maybe you’ve thought about becoming a foster parent.

• Maybe adoption has crossed your mind.

• Maybe you’d love to mentor a teen who needs a role model.

• Or maybe you just want to show up and support those who do.

Every action matters. Every heart counts. Every child deserves to be seen and supported.

When our community shows up with open minds and open hearts, hope grows. Children see they are not invisible or forgotten. Families

feel encouraged. Potential foster and adoptive parents find courage to take the next step. Mentors realize the incredible impact they can have.

FAM Fest at Sparks Marina—a day of fun, food, community, games, and most importantly—purpose.

Bring your kids, your friends, your neighbors. There is something here for everyone who believes every child in Washoe County deserves a safe, loving and supportive future Because no child walks this journey alone—not when a whole community stands beside them.

Learn more at bethefam. washoecounty.gov.

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End of an era On Saturday, Aug. 16, at the Reno Public Market, Mayor Hillary Schieve presented a proclamation to Eric and Monique Baron, honoring their innovative business, The Melting Pot World Emporium, and their promotion and support of Burning Man. The shop opened in Midtown in 1996. It quickly became a counterculture hub, selling clothing, accessories and festival wear, attracting Burning Man shoppers, locals and travelers alike. It closed on July 26.

Some of the remaining merchandise is for sale at a Melting Pot booth at Junkee Clothing Exchange and Antique Store in the Reno Public Market.

—David Robert

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OUTDOORS

| BY HELENA GUGLIELMINO Samantha Szesciorka packs her horse, Fremont, with supplies for a training session in advance of their 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail tour. Photo/Helena Guglielmino

Have horse, will travel

Meet solo equestrian Samantha Szesciorka and her horse, Fremont “Who rides across Nevada in the modern era solo?” Samantha Szesciorka asked as she hitched a saddlebag to her horse, Fremont.

She’s done it several times, with her dog, Juniper. Saddling up in the parking lot at Heavenly Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe, she talked about the new adventure she was preparing for—riding the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail.

This ride around the Tahoe Basin will be one of Szesciorka’s shorter adventures.

She’s ridden through all 17 of Nevada’s counties, across central Nevada (about 500 miles), from Las Vegas to Reno, and to 15 different state parks. She’s even circumnavigated the state (about 1,100 miles).

“You know, my goal is to ride as much as possible,” she said.

Szesciorka grew up riding horses. She did her first long ride in 2013, wanting to see more of the state while being with her animals.

“It’s a very intimate way to learn about the land and understand it, and because you’re going three miles an hour, you see everything,” she said. “You really begin to

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understand the nuances of the landscape much more than you do driving across Nevada. And when you live with your horse 24 hours a day, never more than a few feet away from each other, that is a bond that you just can’t get doing anything else. That’s such an amazing part of it. … As I got done riding across Nevada, I came home and started thinking about the next ride … something longer and even harder.”

Szesciorka hadn’t always been so eager to experience Nevada close up. When she moved here 20 years ago to accept a job offer, she was skeptical.

“I really fell in love with it,” she said. “The open space, the public land, the wildness of it is really special.”

She’s become an advocate for the land, even serving as the state coordinator for the American Discovery Trail, a coast-to-coast trail for hikers, bikers and equestrians.

Szesciorka added various items to Fremont’s saddlebags. This was a training hike—a way to get the horse acclimated to the new terrain, environment and long miles required of their upcoming hike.

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She pointed to two red, soft-sided bags on each side of Fremont’s back and listed items that would go in them: her camp kitchen, firstaid supplies, a bear bin, toiletries and Juniper’s food. (It’s incredible that all of the supplies will fit into bags that look much smaller than my own overnight pack.) Her goal is to keep the weight on Fremont less than 200 pounds, including her, the saddle and all supplies. She’ll be able to achieve this by relying on two resupply stations along the trail, for hay and food.

“I spend over a year planning each long ride,” Szesciorka said, although the trek itself will only take 15 days. “I have this crazy spreadsheet that I build with my detailed route itinerary so that I know where I’m going to need volunteers to meet me, where I’m going to cache supplies, and where I’m going to have resupply bins, if there’s water there.”

She pulled out her phone to show a detailed, day-by-day plan. “The planning is almost like a full-time job, (but) I feel like it’s just as fun as the ride,” she said.

These meticulous preparations are mainly for the animals’ sake, she said.

“I can choose to go do the Tahoe Rim Trail,

but they can’t,” Szesciorka said. “They’re just along, so I want to make sure they’re happy and healthy, and we end the ride happy and healthy.”

Her planning has paid off in the past. She said there have never been any major injuries or other issues during previous long rides.

Fremont bobbed his head and stomped his feet every so often. He looked impatient to ride, clearly not scarred by past adventures. He is a beautiful, brown mustang—a tamed wild horse.

Szesciorka adopted him at a public auction held by the Northern Nevada Correctional Center Wild Horse Training Facility in Carson City.

Horses I’ve seen on the Virginia Range can be erratic and scary. But Fremont makes little objection to wearing a saddle, having his shoes brushed, or even Juniper as she bounds around him with effervescent, puppy-like energy.

“I really like their bravery,” Szesciorka said of wild horses. “They’re more hardy, because they’ve had to adapt to surviving on the range, and I think that makes them really good horses for what I do, for the challenges of long riding and crossing the desert.”

These challenges include heat, food and water availability, long miles and wild horses.

“People ask me a lot about wild animals, and they’re surprised when I tell them it’s actually wild horses that are the biggest threat, because they can be really aggressive and territorial,” she said. “… We get charged (by horses) on the trail, in camp, in the middle of the night.”

Along the Tahoe Rim Trail, though, the main challenge will be the technical terrain. Slick, clunky granite slopes in Desolation Wilderness worry Szesciorka the most.

“There are some really gnarly spots, and the hoof placement for the horse has to be so precise to navigate the rocks or the obstacles safely. But training,” she said, pointing up to the mountain in front of us, “that’s all we can do to prepare for it.”

Another major difference between this ride and previous ones is the popularity of the trail.

“I rarely see anyone on my other rides, but for this one, I am really excited to hopefully meet other people on the trail. I like hearing what other people’s adventures are,” she said.

As of press time, Szesciorka, Fremont and Juniper were scheduled to start their journey from Spooner Summit on Aug. 27, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 8. You can cheer her on via Instagram @nevadadiscoveryride, where she plans to post updates from the trail, or follow along in real time on her website, www. nevadadiscoveryride.com/trt2025.html.

Planets and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight For September, 2025 This sky chart is drawn for latitude 40 degrees north,

but may be used in continental U.S. and southern Canada.

ASTRONOMY

| BY ROBERT VICTOR

N

September’s evening sky chart.

Illustration/Robert D. Miller

Deneb Vega

E

W

8

Arcturus

15 22

29 Saturn

1 8 Mars 15 22 29 Spica

Altair

Fomalhaut

Evening mid-twilight occurs when the Sun is 9° below the horizon.

Sept. 1: 45 minutes after sunset.

15: 43 " " " 30: 43 " " "

Antares

S

Stereographic Projection Map by Robert D. Miller

September skies

The month brings a harvest moon, a resurrected turtle, and a morning lineup of five planets The sky at dusk on Sept. 1 features the moon crossing just 21° above the southern horizon, 5° lower than the midday sun on the winter solstice, Dec. 21.

The brightest stars in September’s evening twilight are Arcturus, well up in the west, and Vega, nearly overhead. Altair and Deneb complete the Summer Triangle with Vega.

Look for the first-magnitude zodiacal stars Antares in the south-southwest, 20° west of the moon on Sept. 1, and Spica in the west-southwest, 33° to the lower left of Arcturus. Fainter, 1.6-magnitude Mars on Sept.

1 is 8° to the lower right of Spica and closing the gap between them by 0.6° per day. On Sept. 12 and 13, use binoculars to watch Mars pass 2.2° above Spica in the twilight glow.

At the start of September, you must wait until nightfall, when full darkness descends, to catch Saturn a few degrees above the hori-

zon, just south of due east. For an excellent view, wait another 4 1/2 hours until Saturn ascends to a position high in the south-southeast, about an hour before Saturn reaches its high point directly south.

Aim binoculars at the 0.7-magnitude planet, and you will then notice, in the same field below it, four stars forming an approximate rectangle, just less than a degree wide, with its vertical, longer sides nearly 3 degrees tall. Both top stars of the rectangle are near magnitude 5.0, and the two lower stars shine near magnitude 4.5. These four stars mark the shell of now-obsolete asterism Testudo, the Turtle. Two additional stars extending in a straight line from the upper right corner of the rectangle, of magnitude 5.9 and 5.5, define the Turtle’s neck and head. In 1754, the British botanist and author John Hill selected these stars in Pisces to form a new constellation, Testudo (the Turtle). The proposal was largely ignored.

It’s time to bring back the Turtle! You can

easily notice the motion of Saturn against the background of the Turtle asterism. On morning of Sept. 7, Saturn passes within 0.5 north of 29 Piscium, marking the northeast (upper left) corner of the rectangle. On the morning of Sept.

14, Saturn forms an isosceles triangle with the top stars of the rectangle, and you can use these stars to find faint Neptune nearby, as described below. On the morning of Sept. 19, Saturn passes 0.6° north of 27 Psc at the northwest (upper right) corner of the rectangle.

On Sept. 7, the moon, full earlier that day, rises shortly after sunset, with Saturn following 8° or 9° to the moon’s lower left. The next evening, Saturn and the moon rise more or less together, with the moon about 7° to Saturn’s left. These nights with a bright moon nearby are not good for seeing the Turtle! For several evenings, the moon comes up farther north and not much later each evening—the harvest moon effect!

Wait until at least Sept. 12 for a good look at the Milky Way in a dark evening sky for a short while after evening twilight ends.

September’s morning planets: About one hour before sunrise, Venus, shining at magnitude -4 in the east, begins this month 17° up, and drops 5° lower by month’s end. Jupiter, of magnitude -2, is in the east to east-southeast, to the upper right of Venus, by 20° on Sept. 1, increasing to 51° by Sept. 30. Venus in September moves east against background stars by about 1.2° per day, compared to Jupiter’s eastward crawl of 11’ (arcminutes) to 7’ (0.18° to 0.12°) per day. The other bright planet in the morning sky is Saturn, of magnitude +0.7 to +0.6, sinking through the west-southwest toward the western horizon as the month progresses. At opposition as Earth overtakes it on night of Sept. 20-21, Saturn sets 45 minutes before sunrise at month’s end. Saturn is also visible in the evening, rising within an hour after sunset on Sept. 1, and within a few minutes of sunset on the 20th.

On Sept. 14, one hour and 40 minutes before sunrise, the last quarter moon will be almost directly ahead of Starship Earth. Also on Sept.

14, we have a panoramic view of the four giant planets spread out in a 111° arc ahead of us, and we’ll overtake each in turn within an interval of 111 days: Saturn on the night of Sept. 20, Neptune on Sept. 23, Uranus on Nov. 21, and Jupiter on Jan. 9, 2026.

Use binoculars before twilight to locate 5.7-magnitude Uranus, 4.4° south of 2.9-magnitude Alcyone, or Eta Tauri, the Pleiades’ brightest star. It’s helpful to first locate the pair of stars 13 and 14 Tauri (magnitude 5.7 and 6.1), 21’ (arcminutes) or 0.35° apart, 4.5° to 4.6° south and slightly west of Eta Tauri. On Sept. 14, Uranus is 2.9° to 3.2° east of the pair.

At magnitude 5.7, 13 Tauri is a close match to Uranus in brightness.

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Neptune on Sept. 14 is just 2.3° from Saturn.

First note the two fifth-magnitude stars 27 and 29 in Pisces (the top of the rectangle marking the Turtle’s shell), 0.95° apart and each about 0.7° from Saturn, forming an isosceles triangle. The star 29 Psc is the one farther east. The 6.3-magnitude star HIP 417, 2.65° north-northeast of 29 Psc, is a good stepping stone to Neptune. On Sept. 2, Neptune passes 0.4 south-southeast of HIP 417. On Sept. 29, magnitude 7.8 Neptune is 0.5° south and slightly west of HIP 417, almost on the line back toward 29 Psc. Return your attention to Venus, and note the star Regulus 6° to its lower left on Sept. 14.

With Venus included, the arc of five morning planets expands to 145°.

Follow the moon in the morning sky Sept.

7-20. Catch the waning moon near Saturn on Sept. 8 and 9; near the Pleiades cluster Sept.

12; widely north of Aldebaran and the Hyades cluster on Sept. 13; and very near 1.7-magnitude Elnath or Beta Tauri, tip of the northern horn of the Bull, on Sept. 14. On the morning of the 16th, the waning crescent moon will appear near Jupiter, Pollux and Castor, and on the 17th, near the Beehive cluster (use binoculars).

On Sept. 18, the moon will appear 11°-12° above the closing Venus-Regulus pair.

Regulus will appear 0.5° to the lower right of Venus on Sept. 19, while the moon stands about one degree to the lower left of Venus. That’s a 6 percent waning crescent moon with earthshine, a brilliant planet, and a star all within a field less than 2° across—a spectacular sight!

The waning moon will appear for one additional morning, Sept. 20. Look for the 2 percent crescent rising in twilight, 12°-13° to the lower left of Venus. Regulus will then appear 1.1° to the bright planet’s upper right.

The moon returns to the evening sky on Sept.

23, when the 5-percent crescent will be very low in bright twilight, within 3° to the lower left of Spica and 6° to the lower right of Mars.

This may require binoculars, and for observers farther north, it will be an even more difficult challenge. On the next evening, the 10 percent crescent will be 8° to the left of Mars. On Sept.

26, the crescent will be 8° to the lower right of Antares, and on the next evening, the 32 percent crescent will be 4° left of Antares.

On Sept. 28, this month’s second far southern moon appears 16° to the east (left) of Antares.

On the last two evenings of September, the moon appears in the constellation Sagittarius— on the 29th within, and on the 30th east of, the asterism of the Teapot.

Saturn on Sept. 30 at dusk can be spotted low in east to east-southeast. We must wait until Oct. 5 until the nearly full moon pulls alongside it.

Robert Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968 and still helps produce an occasional issue.

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Community Is Our Priority.

Since 1993, the Reno News & Review has been telling the community’s stories. Our mission is to inform readers like you— and to help you build stronger connections with your community.

However, advertising revenue is down, and the future of our monthly print edition is at stake. Help the RN&R meet this moment!

Please consider becoming a sustaining supporter, or make a onetime donation, by visiting RenoNR.com/support-our-publication, or by sending us a check using the coupon to the right.

You can support the RN&R directly (non-tax-deductible)—and now can make a tax-deductible donation via our fiscal sponsor, the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation (ANF). Via ANF, we can accept cash, grants and donations from donor-advised funds. We can even accept stock or crypto!

Questions? Email jimmyb@ renonr.com, or call 775-324-4440.

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I

t is time for Northern Nevada’s annual victory lap.

Welcome to the Best of Northern Nevada issue!

This month, we’re here to celebrate the hundreds of people, places and things that people in our region love about our region. We hereby tip our hats to the dancers, chefs, doctors, artists, realtors, DJs and many others who put their heart and soul into doing what they do best.

Our readers have cast their votes—111,060 votes in 224 separate categories, to be exact.

The results are all right here, and we’ve also sprinkled in a dozen or so of the RN&R team’s own recommendations, along with write-ups on three winners we thought you might like to get to know a little better.

As always, we learn a lot as we’re compiling the Best Of issue. It’s pretty exciting to be able to see the ebb and flow of local trends from a bird’s-eye view. A few examples: • There’s always fierce competition in the Best Taco category, given how many great taco shops we have around here, and how diverse they are. This year, a relative newcomer (it’s only been open about five years) rose to the top of the poll!

• Personally, I really like all of the Korean restaurants in town. This year, one of them won in both the Best Korean and Best Reno Restaurant categories.

• If you’re looking for recommendations for some good family fun, you’ll find them here. An escape room establishment placed for the first time ever, to my knowledge.

• I admit that, as a Reno Gen-Xer, when I saw the word “Zephyr” on the list, I first thought of the sticky-floored dive bar of legend with the heavily graffitied bathrooms—that Zephyr. In a split second of nostalgic wishful thinking, I imagined perhaps there had been a write-in campaign for the long-gone institution (which is now the more-upscale Z Bar).

Alas, it is a different Zephyr entirely that placed in the poll—the Zephyr Wine Bar in South Reno, one of several new-ish wine places mentioned in this issue.

No more spoilers from me! It’s time to dive in.

If you see a representative of one of the Best Of winners or finalists while you’re out and about, pat them on the back; buy them a drink; and let them know we all appreciate them for being a cornerstone of our hometown pride. There’s nowhere else like Northern Nevada.

— Kris Vagner

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BEST FARMERS’ MARKET

Riverside Farmers’ Market

BEST BOBA

Bubble Tea Station Cafe

Runners up: 2. 1, 2, Tea 3. Golden Tea Cafe 4. Honey Bakery 5. Oddcha BEST TACO

Ana’s Taqueria

Runners up: 2. Daddy’s Tacos 3. Jimboy’s Tacos 4. Mexcal 5. Taco Shop BEST CENTRAL AMERICAN

El Paisano

Runners up: 2. Bistro Habanero 3. A La Parrilla 4. El Pulgarcito BEST KOREAN

Arario

Runners up: 2. Ijji 4 Korean Bar-B-Que 3. Step Korean Bistro (closed) 4. Hana Garden BEST LOCAL FARM/ PRODUCE GROWER

Andelin Family Farm

Runners up: 2. Reno Food Systems 3. Ferrari Farms 4. Prema Farm

Runners up: 2. Sparks United Methodist Church Farmer’s Market 3. Shirley’s Farmers’ Market at the Village on California Avenue 4. Carson Farmers’ Market 5. Shirley’s Farmers’ Market at Tamarack Junction BEST MIDDLE EASTERN/ AFRICAN RESTAURANT

Aladdin’s Market & Kitchen

Runners up: 2. Suri’s Mediterranean Kitchen 3. Zagol Ethiopian Restaurant BEST WINE LIST

Whispering Vine Wine Co.

Runners up: 2. Craft Wine & Beer 3. Marcolino’s Italia 4. Zephyr Wine Bar 5. Blackrock Wine Co. 6. Wild River Grille BEST WINE BAR

Whispering Vine Wine Co.

Runners up: 2. Craft Wine & Beer 3. Zephyr Wine Bar 4. Blackrock Wine Co. 5. Archive Wine + Beer

BEST WHISKEY/BOURBON/ SCOTCH SELECTION

Chapel Tavern

Runners up: 2. Death and Taxes 3. The Emerson 4. Craft Wine & Beer 5. Shim’s Tavern BEST VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT

999 Phở

Runners up: 2. Pho 777 3. Golden Flower 4. SF Kitchen

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BEST VEGETARIAN FOOD

Great Full Gardens

Runners up: 2. TIE Thali The Fix 4. Laughing Planet (closed) 5. Elixir Superfood & Juice BEST VEGAN FOOD

BEST TAHOE RESTAURANT

Gar Woods Grill & Pier

Runners up: 2. T’s Mesquite Rotisserie 3. Jake’s on the Lake 4. Chart House 5. Soule Domain BEST SUSHI

Tokyo Sushi

Great Full Gardens

Runners up: 2. Hinoki Sushi 3. Sushi Pier 4. Umi Sushi 5. Sushi One

BEST TRUCKEE RESTAURANT

Western Village Steakhouse

Runners up: 2. The Fix 3. Laughing Planet (closed) 4. Two Chicks 5. House of Mexica Bar of America

Runners up: 2. FiftyFifty Brewing Co. 3. Jax at the Tracks 4. Cottonwood Restaurant & Bar 5. 1882 Bar & Grill BEST THAI RESTAURANT

Moo Dang

Runners up: 2. Bangkok Cuisine 3. Thai Lotus 4. Thai Chili 5. Thai Corner Café

BEST STEAK

Runners up: 2. Ruby River 3. Biggest Little Steakhouse 4. Anthony’s Chophouse at the Nugget 5. Wild River Grille

Staff Pick BEST INFLATION-PROOF MEAL

The chicken enchiladas at the DC Café, inside the Tamarack Casino 13101 S. Virginia St., Reno

The prices at restaurants, you’ve surely noticed, have skyrocketed as of late. Inflation, tariffs and other debacles (like the bird flu) have caused food prices to spike, and restaurants have had to pass those price increases on to customers.

As a result, it’s nigh impossible to find a meal anywhere that doesn’t surpass the $10 price point—which is why I’m always shocked when I open the menu at the DC Café, the coffee shop at the Tamarack Casino. As of this writing, there are about a dozen meals on offer for less than $10, and nothing on the menu costs more than $19.99 (for short ribs or a 12-ounce New York steak).

Even more shocking: These meals are legit, both in terms of quality and size. On one recent visit, we ordered the chicken enchiladas, with house-made chicken machaca, salsa verde and pico de gallo; the two enchiladas were accompanied by a heap each of Spanish rice and beans. The cost for this full plate of tasty eats: $7.99.

Just a few other members of the DC Café’s under $10 club, as of this writing: spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread ($8.99), grilled pork medallions with mashed potatoes and veggies ($8.99) and a ham and cheddar omelet with hash browns and toast ($7.99, available all day).

How is this possible? I have no idea—but both my stomach and my wallet are thrilled.

—Jimmy Boegle

BEST SPARKS RESTAURANT

Western Village Steakhouse

Runners up: 2. Great Basin Brewing Company 3. Sparks Water Bar 4. Sparks Coffee Shop 5. Nugget Oyster Bar

Since 1948, we’ve been committed to serving the freshest, highest quality burgers and shakes around.

While our standards are high, it’s what you think that makes all the difference. Thank you!

For location information, visit In-N-Out.com

There are still plenty of late-summer patio vibes to soak up at Wild River Grille, voted Best Outdoor Dining. With good food, live music and quality people-watching, this pleasing patio is no secret—so you’ll be better off with a reservation. Photo/David Robert

In-N-Out.com

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©2025 In-N-Out Burgers

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BEST SOUPS

Süp

Runners up: 2. 999 Phở 3. Great Full Gardens 4. PJ & Company BEST SMOOTHIE

Keva Juice

Runners up: 2. Jüs (closed) 3. Jamba Juice 4. Elixir Superfood & Juice 5. Crush Nutrition BEST SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

Atlantis Oyster & Sushi Bar on the Sky Terrace

Runners up: 2. Oceano at the Peppermill 3. Land Ocean 4. Nugget Oyster Bar 5. Mr. Crab Seafood Boils BEST SANDWICH SHOP

THANKS for voting us Reno’s best burger and fries!

Full Belly Deli

Runners up: 2. Michael’s Deli 3. Deli Towne USA 4. Port of Subs 5. Rubicon Deli

Staff Pick

BEST SALAD BAR

Toucan Charlie’s Buffet & Grille at the Atlantis

Runners up: 2. Churrasco Brazilian Steakhouse 3. The Grand Buffet at the Grand Sierra Resort 4. Bone Appetit Bar-B-Que Grill BEST SALAD

Great Full Gardens

Runners up: 2. Süp 3. The Cheese Board 4. Marcolino’s Italia 5. Wild River Grille

BEST ROMANTIC RESTAURANT

Beaujolais Bistro

Runners up: 2. Western Village Steakhouse 3. Marcolino’s Italia 4. Atlantis Steakhouse 5. Land Ocean BEST RESTAURANT WORTH THE LONG WAIT

Western Village Steakhouse

Runners up: 2. Royce Burger Bar 3. Two Chicks 4. PJ & Company 5. Wild River Grille

BEST PLACE FOR A THREE-DRINK LUNCH

Von Bismarck

805 S. Wells Ave., Reno

115 Ridge Street

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The art of the three-drink lunch is a delicate balance of enjoying cocktails during lunch, and remaining productive afterward. Too few or too many drinks may send you into the hard-nap trajectory. You must have a combination of excellent and refreshing beverages, with food that is hearty but not too heavy.

Von Bismarck has mastered the art of the three-drink lunch, offering bright, easydrinking cocktails, smooth classic German beers, and a menu that provides enough protein to soak up the alcohol while still being light enough to get on with your day. The Helen Går—made with house aquavit, cardamom, grapefruit and ginger beer—is like a refreshing, afternoon desert breeze.

Split a schnitzel sandwich and a gem salad with a friend, and pair that with the openair vibes of this Reno institution, and you get the perfect storm for a midday buzz.

—Michael Moberly

BEST RENO RESTAURANT

Arario

Runners up: 2. Wild River Grille 3. Two Chicks 4. Kwok’s Bistro 5. Marcolino’s Italia BEST PIZZA

The Blind Onion Pizza and Pub

Runners up: 2. R Town Pizza 3. Noble Pie Parlor 4. Dopo Pizza and Pasta 5. Boulevard Pizza 6. Eclipse Pizza Company BEST OUTDOOR DINING

Wild River Grille

Runners up: 2. Stone House Café 3. Sparks Water Bar 4. Noble Pie Parlor 5. The Fox Restaurant & Brewery BEST MINDEN/ GARDNERVILLE RESTAURANT

J.T. Basque Bar and Dining Room

Runners up: 2. Great Basin Brewing Company 3. Minden Meat and Deli 4. TIE Cowboy’s Cafe Francisco’s Mexican Restaurant BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANT

Miguel’s Mexican Restaurant

Runners up: 2. TIE El Adobe Cafe Murrieta’s Mexican Restaurant 4. Casa Grande 5. Mexcal 6. Daddy’s Tacos BEST MARTINI

Roxy at the Eldorado

Runners up: 2. The Emerson 3. Fireside Lounge at the Peppermill 4. 10 Torr 5. DTension Bar & Lounge

BEST MARGARITA

Los Compadres

FIRST PLACE 25

Runners up: 2. El Adobe Cafe 3. Mexcal 4. Casa Grande 5. The Emerson 6. Mr. Margarita

BEST LATE-NIGHT DINING

Noble Pie Parlor

Runners up: 2. Gold ’N Silver 3. Bully’s 4. The Parlor 5. Coach’s Grill and Sports Bar 6. Wing King

Thank you, Reno!

BEST JUICE/JUICE BAR

Jüs (closed)

Runners up: 2. Keva Juice 3. Jamba Juice 4. Elixir Superfood & Juice 5. Nekter Juice Bar BEST JAPANESE RESTAURANT

Ijji 2

Runners up: 2. Kauboi Izakaya 3. Haru 4. Kei Sushi BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT

Johnny’s Ristorante Italiano

1565 S. Virginia St. • 775-420-4267 • Thaimoodang.com

Thank you for voting us

Reno’s Best Indian Food

every year since 2007!

Runners up: 2. Casale’s Halfway Club 3. Marcolino’s Italia 4. Zozo’s 5. Mario’s Portofino 6. The Kitchen Table

BEST INDIAN RESTAURANT

India Kabab & Curry

Runners up: 2. Thali 3. Royal India Cuisine 4. Taste of India 5. Maharaja Royal Bites

India Kabab & Curry 1091 S. Virginia St. 775-348-6222 indiakababcurryreno.com RenoNR.com

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BEST HOT DOG

BEST GLUTEN-FREE DINING

Costco

Great Full Gardens

Runners up: 2. Sinbad’s Hot Dogs 3. Scoopers 4. Beefy’s 5. Coney Island Bar

Runners up: 2. Laughing Planet 3. Wild River Grille 4. Marcolino’s Italia

BEST HAWAIIAN RESTAURANT

Kenji’s

Runners up: 2. L&L Hawaiian Barbecue 3. TIE Aloha Shack Loco Ono 5. Kika’s All Kine Grindz BEST GREEK RESTAURANT

Niko’s Greek Kitchen

Runners up: 2. Nick the Greek 3. Nick’s Greek Deli 4. The Great Greek 5. Claio

BEST FRENCH RESTAURANT

Beaujolais Bistro

Runners up: 2. Bistro Napa 3. Belleville Wine Bar 4. Le Bistro BEST FRENCH FRIES

Royce Burger Bar

Runners up: 2. PJ & Company 3. The Fix 4. The Emerson 5. Silver Rush Grill

BEST FOOD TRUCK

Daddy’s Tacos

Runners up: 2. Slater’s Ding-a-Wing 3. Marcolino’s Italia 4. NOLA Sliders 5. Silver Rush Grill

FIRST PLACE 25

BEST DESSERTS

Josef’s Vienna Bakery and Café

Runners up: 2. Black Rock Desserts 3. Dorinda’s Chocolates 4. Dolce Caffe 5. Atlantis

BEST COFFEE ROASTER

Hub Coffee Roasters

Runners up: 2. Blind Dog Coffee Roasters 3. Laughing Cat Coffee 4. Wood-Fire Roasted Coffee Company 5. Rising for People Coffee Co. BEST COFFEE

Hub Coffee Roasters

Runners up: 2. Coffeebar 3. The Human Bean 4. Bibo Coffee Co. 5. Laughing Cat Coffee

BEST CHINESE RESTAURANT

Kwok’s Bistro

Runners up: 2. Palais de Jade 3. CJ Palace 4. The Wok Chinese Cuisine 5. Chin Chin 6. Chinese Duck House BEST CHICKEN WINGS

Noble Pie Parlor

Runners up: 2. Slater’s Ding-a-Wing 3. Wings Korean Chicken 4. Wing King 5. Aloha Shack BEST CHEF

Mark Estee

Runners up: 2. Jonathan Chapin 3. Sean Studds 4. Colin Smith 5. Jacob Gordon

BEST FINE DINING

Western Village Steakhouse

Thank you for voting us “the best” year after year!

(Since 2010)

Runners up: 2. Johnny’s Ristorante Italiano 3. Marcolino’s Italia 4. Bistro Napa at Atlantis 5. Lulou’s 6. Churrasco Brazilian Steakhouse BEST DOUGHNUTS/PASTRIES

DoughBoys Donuts

Runners up: 2. Perenn 3. Beloved’s Bakery 4. Jelly Donut 5. Sprinkle Donuts

When late-night munchies strike, visit Burgundy and the rest of the staff at Noble Pie Parlor, who won the Best Late-Night Dining award for creative pizzas like the backyard chicken—with rotisserie chicken, barbecue sauce, pepperoni and other delights. On weekends, they serve until 1 a.m.

Photo/David Robert

777 S. Center St. #100 775.323.1494 noblepieparlor.com 20

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BEST CHEAP EATS

In-N-Out Burger

Runners up: 2. Jimboy’s Tacos 3. Gold ’N Silver 4. Beefy’s 5. Aloha Shack

BEST CATERING COMPANY

Roundabout Catering

Runners up: 2. Marcolino’s Italia 3. Two Chicks 4. Aloha Shack 5. Blend Catering

BEST CARSON CITY RESTAURANT

Thank you

'24

Red’s Old 395 Grill

TO EVERYONE

Runners up: 2. Sassafras Eclectic Food Joint 3. Great Basin Brewing Company 4. Nashville Social Club 5. Villa Basque Cafe 6. L.A. Bakery Cafe

WHO AGAIN VOTED US THE BEST BARBECUE RESTAURANT!

BEST BURGER

Royce Burger Bar

Runners up: 2. In-N-Out 3. Beefy’s 4. Juicy’s Giant Hamburgers 5. Ryan’s Saloon & Broiler

Celebrating 39 years of business this year!

B R E A K FA S T • L U N C H • D I N N E R BJ’s Nevada Barbecue Company 80 E. Victorian Ave., Sparks 775-355-1010

BJSBBQ.COM

Thanks for 10 great years, Midtown.

Here’s to 25 years in Galena— and many more!

18130 Wedge Pkwy 775-851-8855 truckeebagelcompany.com RenoNR.com

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BEST BASQUE RESTAURANT

Louis’ Basque Corner

BEST BRUNCH

Stone House Café

Runners up: 2. Two Chicks 3. Squeeze In 4. The Shore 5. The Emerson

BEST BREAKFAST

Two Chicks

Thank you for keeping us No. 1 for the past four years!

We appreciate you more than you know!

BEST BLOODY MARY

1537 S. Virginia St. • 775-686-6360 Dance lessons + entertainment seven nights a week! purecountrycanteenreno•

Runners up: 2. Peg’s Glorified Ham and Eggs 3. PJ & Company 4. Squeeze In 5. Big Ed’s Alley Inn 6. The Cup Cafe Two Chicks

Runners up: 2. Chapel Tavern 3. PJ & Company 4. Squeeze In 5. Shim’s Tavern 6. The Emerson

purecountrycanteen

Runners up: 2. J.T. Basque Bar and Dining Room 3. Villa Basque Café BEST BARBECUE RESTAURANT

BJ’s Nevada Barbecue Company

Runners up: 2. Brothers Barbecue 3. Carolina Kitchen & BBQ Co. 4. Butchers Kitchen Char-B-Que 5. Famous Dave’s BEST BAKERY

Perenn Bakery

Runners up: 2. Beloved’s Bakery 3. Basic Batch 4. House of Bread 5. Franco Baking Company BEST BAGEL

Truckee Bagel Company

Runners up: 2. My Favorite Muffin 3. Desert Sun Bagel Co. 4. Einstein Bros. Bagels 5. Off Center Bagels

Staff Pick

BEST UNEXPECTED STEAK DEAL

The Cowboy Steak at The Parlor 7689 S. Virginia St., Reno

The fact that I’m writing this may very well upset some friends of mine, because they’re worried about this secret, which they recently shared with me, getting out. But my duty is to inform you, dear readers—and you really need to know about the Cowboy Steak at The Parlor.

Yes, I am heartily recommending a steak at what is, at its heart, a sports/video poker bar. But the food coming out of The Parlor’s kitchen has always been a notch or three above that of your typical sports bar. It’s long been my go-to place when I’m craving French onion soup, and both the “Royal Poutine” (pro tip: sub the fries for tots) and the nachos are near-perfect sharable appetizers.

But the steak? I’d never have thought of ordering it until my friends endorsed it. It’s a hand-cut 29-ounce bone-in rib eye, with sauteed mushrooms and onions, potato puree and vegetables. As of this writing, it costs $57—much less than you’d pay for a similar meal at a steakhouse, and the steak is better than you’d get at many of them. My friends say it’s always cooked perfectly, usually with just the right amount of seasoning, and the bites I had with these friends on a recent visit confirmed that they’re correct.

A stunning steak at a sports/video poker bar … who knew? Well, my friends did—and now you do, too.

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Sunday

Max Sarabia enjoys a kimchi Bloody Mary. “We have people who tell us they wait all year to come in after Burning Man and have a kimchi bloody Mary to bring them back to reality,” said co-owner Jessie Henderson. Photo/David Robert

revival

Readers have again deemed Two Chicks’ Bloody Marys to be the best in town

By Michael Moberly

I

t’s Sunday morning. Your brain is a wet pile of garbage, and your memories of last night are hazy, at best. As the blazing light of day sears into your eyes, you become lost in waves of nausea, and there is only one hero to save you: a Bloody Mary.

The Bloody Mary is the ideal postparty companion for several reasons. First, lycopene, an antioxidant found in tomato juice, is known for its ability to combat inflammation and reduce oxidative stress.

Second, the bold spices in a Bloody Mary can help increase blood flow and distract from the sour stomach produced by a night of drinking.

Lastly, getting slightly drunk again may not cure your hangover, but it will for sure make you start to forget about it.

For the past 11 years, Two Chicks has been serving Boody Marys with big, bold flavors that are equal parts comfortable and crushable, and for the fourth year in a row,

RN&R readers have voted them the best in town. I chatted with co-owner Jessie Henderson about the magic of her team’s Bloody Mary, and what makes it a Reno classic.

“What we love most about owning Two Chicks is looking up from the kitchen and seeing people’s faces change after that first sip of Bloody Mary or bite of breakfast; it brings us back to why we started this in the first place,” Henderson said.

With two locations in Reno, Two Chicks sells roughly 200 Bloody Marys every weekend. The recipe-testing started back in 2013, before Two Chicks, when Jessie and her business partner, Haley Moseley, owned the beloved food truck GourMelt.

“We would get together every Wednesday, and after a lot of testing, we landed on recipes we loved,” Henderson said.

There are many theories out there about where this beloved brunch beverage originated. According to one of the most cited

Tabasco, Petiot created the blueprint for the vodka, tomato, savory, spicy and citrus flavors that we use today.

Other styles of Bloody Mary were born shortly after, like the gin-based red snapper, and the Canadian classic, the Caesar, made with Clamato.

Two Chicks offers four different Bloody Mary options: the classic, featuring a blend of the salty and savory house Bloody Mary mix and vodka; the Hawaiian, which adds a splash of pineapple juice; the spice lovers’ favorite, the chipotle Bloody Mary; and the cult classic, the kimchi Bloody Mary. The kimchi version is so beloved that it has become a part of many people’s postBurning Man rituals.

“We have people who tell us they wait all year to come in after Burning Man and have a kimchi Bloody Mary to bring them back to reality,” Henderson said.

During the dark days of the pandemic, people especially needed that perfect morning sip.

– Jessie Henderson, “People were coming in once a Two Chicks co-owner week and buying big containers of Bloody Mary,” Henderson said. “It sets the tone for the stories, the original father of the Bloody Mary day, for sure.” was Fernand Petiot, while he was a young For the last 11 years, the team at Two Chicks bartender at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in has set us up to survive the Sunday scaries— the 1920s. The recipe would not be complete or, at the very least, ushered us into some until Petiot moved to America; legend has it Sunday funday shenanigans. that Russian Prince Serge Obolensky asked for a little extra spice. With a few dashes of

“We have people who tell us they wait all year to come in after Burning Man and have a kimchi Bloody Mary to bring them back to reality.”

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BEST MONTHLY EVENT

Drag Brunch at The Emerson

Runners up: 2. First Thursday at the Nevada Museum of Art 3. Reno Wine Walk 4. Ferrari Farms Barn Dance 5. Ritual at Dead Ringer Analog Bar BEST LOCAL TV NEWS

KOLO 8

BEST SPECIAL EVENT AT LAKE TAHOE

Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival

Runners up: 2. American Century Celebrity Golf Championship Tournament 3. Lake Tahoe Reggae Festival 4. Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance BEST SPECIAL EVENT IN DOWNTOWN SPARKS

Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook Off

BEST MOVIE THEATER

Galaxy Theatres Legends

Runners up: 2. Cinemark Century Summit Sierra 3. TIE Cinemark Century Park Lane 16 and XD Galaxy Theatres Victorian 5. West Wind El Rancho Drive-In BEST SPECIAL EVENT IN MINDEN/GARDNERVILLE

Genoa Candy Dance Arts & Crafts Faire

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BEST SPECIAL EVENT IN DOWNTOWN RENO

Artown

Runners up: 2. Northern Nevada Pride 3. Hot August Nights 4. BBQ, Brews & Blues Festival 5. Biggest Little City Wing Fest BEST SPECIAL EVENT IN CARSON CITY

Nevada Day Parade

Runners up: 2. Carson Valley Days 3. Hot Air for Hope (Carson Valley Balloon Festival) 4. Eagles & Ag 24

Runners up: 2. Hot August Nights 3. Hometowne Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting 4. Star Spangled Sparks

Runners up: 2. Carson City Ghost Walk 3. V&T Railway Polar Express 4. Rockin’ Rib-Fest at Casino Fandango 5. Mark Twain Days Festival

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BEST RADIO STATION

KUNR Public Radio

Runners up: 2. KWNK 97.7 FM 3. TIE 103.7 The River Ten Country 97.3 5. 105.7 KOZZ 6. Alice 96.5

Runners up: 2. 2news (KTVN) 3. News 4 (KRNV) BEST LOCAL THEATER COMPANY

Reno Little Theater

Runners up: 2. Good Luck Macbeth 3. Brüka Theatre 4. Sierra School of Performing Arts BEST LOCAL PODCAST

Worst Little Podcast

Runners up: 2. Renoites 3. Ballot Battleground: Nevada 4. The Wind 5. The Garden Show

BEST OPEN MIC

Open Mic Poetry at Shim’s

Runners up: 2. Red Dog Saloon 3. ZenDen Open Mic & Jam at Polecat Tavern 4. BeatNic Vibe Night at Pignic 5. Slieve Brewing Company BEST NONPROFIT GROUP

Eddy House

Runners up: 2. Holland Project 3. Reno Philharmonic 4. Note-Able Music Therapy Services 5. Mom Prom of Northern Nevada

Galaxy Theatres Legends in Sparks is our readers’ favorite movie theater yet again.

Photo/David Robert

BEST LOCAL DANCE COMPANY

Ballet Folklorico Flor de Castilla

Runners up: 2. Sierra Nevada Ballet 3. Reno Dance Company 4. Nevada Dance Company BEST LOCAL BAND

Reckless Envy

Runners up: 2. Rick Hays & American Steel 3. JeNes N the Juice 4. Nevada 445 5. Ranger BEST DOG PARK

Rancho San Rafael Regional Park

Runners up: 2. Link Piazzo Dog Park at Hidden Valley Regional Park 3. Plumas Park 4. Idlewild Dog Park 5. Black Hills Dog Park

BEST CHARITY RACE OR WALK

Moms on the Run

Runners up: 2. Reno/Sparks Walk for ALS 3. Dirty Wookie Run 4. TIE Leprechaun Race Scheels Turkey Trot BEST ART GALLERY

Nevada Museum of Art

Runners up: 2. Holland Project 3. Sierra Arts Gallery 4. Potentialist Workshop 5. Pitch Black Printing 6. Savage Mystic

Delicious Authentic Greek Cuisine THANK YOU for voting us — 14 YEARS in a row!

BEST ANIMAL SHELTER

Nevada Humane Society

Runners up: 2. SPCA of Northern Nevada 3. Canine Rehabilitation Center & Cat Sanctuary 4. Kitty Kisses Cat Café

Serving traditional Greek foods for lunch & dinner WEDNESDAY - MONDAY 11 - 7

171 Disc Drive, #105, Sparks • 775-499-5777 • nikosgreekkitchen.net

Staff Pick BEST YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO HELP YOU IN THE ‘RENO HISTORY’ CATEGORY AT TRIVIA NIGHT

The Reno You Know

www.youtube.com/@SteveTRYK

I’m a Reno history nerd, so when I stumbled onto local renaissance man Steve Ellison’s YouTube channel, The Reno You Know, my interest was piqued.

He takes a fascinating dive into stories and places from our region’s colorful past, including some things you may have wondered about, and many things you may never have even considered. He closes each video with a tasty beer—another obsession of mine—so I was hooked.

Steve—a painter, photographer, musician, beer geek and Harold’s Club documentarian—creates his videos with a love of history and the type of casual presentation your eccentric neighbor might give. This is no Gen-Z influencer; there are no politics and no rage bait, just a Reno guy doing Reno stuff.

Yes, some of the video titles, like, “We’re GOING INSIDE a casino building that was ABANDONED for 40 years” (the River Inn) and “We’re GOING INSIDE a vacant 1908 building—see evidence of the underground tunnel system in Reno!” are a little sensational, but a guy’s gotta draw views somehow. You’re curious now, aren’t you?

Subscribe to Steve’s channel, and spend afternoon catching up on his content to change the Reno you don’t know into The Reno You Know.

—Marc Tiar RenoNR.com

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BEST CASINO HOTEL

Peppermill

Runners up: 2. Atlantis 3. Grand Sierra Resort 4. Silver Legacy 5. Eldorado BEST CASINO BUFFET

Toucan Charlie’s Buffet & Grille at the Atlantis

Runners up: 2. The Grand Buffet at the Grand Sierra Resort 3. The Buffet at J Resort BEST CASINO BAR

Roxy at the Eldorado

Runners up: 2. Peppermill Fireside Lounge 3. Peppermill Terrace Lounge 4. Chandelier Bar at Legends Bay BEST CASINO TIE Legends Bay Peppermill

BEST POKER ROOM

BEST CASINO-RESORT POOL

Peppermill

Runners up: 2. Grand Sierra Resort 3. Atlantis 4. Nugget Casino Resort BEST ECO-FRIENDLY CASINO

Peppermill

Runners up: 2. Grand Sierra Resort 3. Atlantis 4. Silver Legacy BEST SPORTSBOOK

Peppermill

Runners up: 2. TIE Circa at Legends Bay Grand Sierra Resort 4. Atlantis 5. Caesars Race and Sportsbook at Silver Legacy

Peppermill

Runners up: 3. Grand Sierra Resort 4. Atlantis 5. Silver Legacy 6. Eldorado

Runners up: 2. Grand Sierra Resort 3. Atlantis 4. Nugget Casino Resort 5. Silver Legacy BEST CASINO-HOTEL FOR A ROMANTIC GETAWAY

Peppermill

Runners up: 2. Atlantis 3. Grand Sierra Resort 4. Carson Valley Inn 5. Silver Legacy BEST CASINO RESTAURANT

Western Village Steakhouse

Runners up: 2. Atlantis Steakhouse 3. Bistro Napa at Atlantis 4. Oceano at Peppermill 5. Roxy at the Eldorado 6. Manhattan Deli at Atlantis

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BEST TRIVIA NIGHT

Final Draught

Runners up: 2. Parlay 6 3. Sierra Tap House 4. 10 Torr Distilling & Brewing 5. Piñon Bottle Co. BEST STRIP CLUB

Men’s Club

Runners up: 2. Peppermint Hippo 3. Wild Orchid 4. Fantasy Girls BEST SPORTS BAR

Bully’s

BEST CRAFT COCKTAILS

Death and Taxes

Runners up: 2. The Emerson 3. DTension Bar & Lounge 4. Chapel Tavern 5. TIE Pele Utu Rum Sugar Lime BEST COCKTAIL MENU

Death and Taxes

Runners up: 2. The Emerson 3. Rum Sugar Lime 4. Chapel Tavern 5. DTension Bar & Lounge BEST ROMANTIC BAR

Fireside Lounge at the Peppermill

Runners up: 2. TIE Rum Sugar Lime The Emerson 4. Amari 5. Piñon Bottle Co. 6. Pelé Utu 28

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Runners up: 2. South 40 3. Dubs Sport Lounge 4. Coach’s Grill and Sports Bar 5. Brew Brothers at the Eldorado 6. Wing King BEST PLACE FOR A FIRST DATE

The Glass Die

Runners up: 2. The Emerson 3. Piñon Bottle Co. 4. Pure Country Canteen 5. Wing King BEST LOCAL BREWERY

Great Basin Brewing Company

Runners up: 2. Parlay 6 3. Revision Brewing Company 4. Lead Dog Brewing 5. The Brewer’s Cabinet BEST KARAOKE

West 2nd Street Bar

Runners up: 2. Polo Lounge 3. Shim’s Tavern 4. The Library 5. Wing King

BEST GAY HANGOUT

The Emerson

Runners up: 2. Five Star Saloon 3. Carl’s The Saloon BEST DIVE BAR

40 Mile Saloon

Runners up: 2. Abby’s Highway 40 3. Ceol Irish Pub 4. Alturas Bar 5. Coney Island Bar 6. Alibi Lounge BEST DISTILLERY

10 Torr Distilling & Brewing

Runners up: 2. Frey Ranch 3. The Depot Craft Brewery & Distillery 4. Ferino Distillery 5. Underworld Distillery BEST DANCE CLUB

Pure Country Canteen

Runners up: 2. Ritual at Dead Ringer Analog Bar 3. DTension Bar & Lounge 4. The Alpine 5. Coyote Saloon BEST CONCERT VENUE

Grand Sierra Resort

Runners up: 2. Nugget Event Center 3. Holland Project 4. Cypress 5. Cargo Concert Hall 6. Virginia Street Brewhouse BEST COMEDY CLUB

Laugh Factory

Runners up: 2. Reno Improv 3. Pioneer Underground 4. Shanty Dolan’s

Of course you can just sit and chill while bartender Savannah Rush fixes you an elegant cocktail at The Emerson, voted Best Bar and Best Gay Hangout. You can also partake in far more expansive options like drag brunches on select Sundays, Grilled Cheese Night on Tuesdays, or Northern Nevada Pride pre- and after-parties on Sept. 5 and 6. Photo/David Robert

BEST BOWLING ALLEY

Coconut Bowl at Wild Island

Runners up: 2. Grand Sierra Resort 3. High Sierra Lanes 4. National Bowling Stadium BEST BEER SELECTION

Piñon Bottle Co.

Runners up: 2. Craft Wine & Beer 3. Beer NV 4. Final Draught 5. Sierra Tap House 6. Pure Country Canteen

BEST BAR

The Emerson

READ ME

Runners up: 2. Chapel Tavern 3. DTension Bar & Lounge 4. Pure Country Canteen 5. Piñon Bottle Co. BEST ALL-AGES SPOT

Holland Project

Runners up: 2. Greater Nevada Field (Aces Ballpark) 3. Reno Public Market 4. Pure Country Canteen 5. South 40 6. Eldorado

CHEERS TO YOU! THANKS FOR VOTING FOR BULLY’S.

FIRST PLACE 25 BULLYSSPORTSBAR.COM RenoNR.com

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a d n e c e h t e l g e n m i g e n n i t r B Ballet Folklorico Flor de Castilla, voted Best Dance Company, keeps traditional Mexican culture alive

By Jason Sarna

I

sabel Gomez, 32, and Melissa Camargo, 29, have been dancing together for the vast majority of their lives—they met at the International Folkloric Ballet company in 2001.

Under the direction of Dolores Castillo Burnett, they honed their ballet folklorico (traditional Mexican dance) skills while also developing a friendship.

In 2015, Castillo Burnett retired; Gomez and her mom, Veronica, along with some friends from the dance group, took over. They rebranded the company as Ballet Folklorico Flor de Castilla (BFFC), which was voted Best Dance Company this year by RN&R readers.

Gomez, who has served as president and co-founder since 2021, said the company was doing “pretty good” at the start of the rebrand, but it really took off the 2017 release of the animated Pixar film Coco, which was inspired by the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. The company got another boost after the COVID-19 shutdowns ended.

Camargo started teaching at BFFC in 2018 and became artistic director in 2021. “Our company has grown from about 30 dancers to about 70 now,” she said.

The dancers, also known as folkloristas, range in age from 3 to their late 40s. Dancers are placed into one of four levels, depending on their experience and skillset. Advancement to the next level is based upon instructor discretion.

As a company, BFFC strives to be inclusive by teaching children, teenagers and adults from all walks of life while providing education regarding Mexican and Latinx culture.

“For us, the best way to share your culture is through food and dance—and we bring the dance element,” said Camargo.

Gomez explained how the dances vary in dress, footwork and style, and tell stories of the different regions of Mexico.

“Sinaloa is very popular for the banda music,” she said. “Jalisco would be the mariachi music. In the north part of Mexico, they do more of the polkas, like the German polka and stuff like that.”

As far as live performances go, BFFC performs at events both large and small. They also perform during Cinco de Mayo, at church events and at multicultural nights. The group performed at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., in 2023, and at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2024. Watch BFFC’s social media accounts for information on local performances during National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15Oct. 15).

Gomez was actually out of state when we spoke over the “Right now, “For us, the best way phone. we’re actually in Los to share your culture Angeles, because we got asked to be is through food and part of a Día de dance—and we bring aLos Muertos parade the dance element.” scene for a big hit TV show,” she said.

– Melissa Camargo, “So that should be Ballet Folklorico Flor de airing soon.”

Castilla artistic director As longtime friends and dancers, Gomez and Camargo are both passionate about growing the company, keeping traditions alive, and sharing their culture with the Reno community.

Gomez said that even though she’s been dancing for 29 years, there is still a lot to learn.

Ballet Folklorico Flor de Castilla dancers perform at multiple local events each year. “I just would like to continue to grow and keep the youth involved, and keep our traditions and culture involved in our community,” she added.

“We start having them come into the other, Camargo said that anyone who is interested more-advanced classes and see how they do,” in learning the art of ballet folklorico can join Camargo said. “And then, the same thing when the company. our teens age out, they move on to the adult “Our doors are always open,” she said. class.”

As artistic director, Camargo organizes Ballet Folklorico Flor de Castilla will perform performances, choreographs new dances, puts at the Biggest Little Latin Festival, taking together set lists, and assists with costuming place from 6 to 10 p.m., Friday, Sept. 12; and stage management. and 4 to 10 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 13, on the “I also help with the headpieces, like the ones that we wear with our dresses to kind of Mezzanine inside the The Row in downtown match everyone,” said Camargo.

Reno. For updates on Ballet Folklorico Flor de She also acts as Gomez’s assistant.

Castilla shows and events, follow @bffc_reno “Anything she needs help with, I’m there to on Instagram and @bffcreno on TikTok. For help or help her manage,” she said. more information, email info@bffcreno.org.

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BEST WEDDING RECEPTION SITE

Lavender Ridge

Runners up: 2. The Elm Estate 3. The Virgil 4. Tannenbaum Events Center 5. McKinley Arts & Culture Center

BEST LANDSCAPING COMPANY

Moana Nursery

Runners up: 2. Cory’s Lawn Service 3. All Seasons Lawn & Landscaping 4. All City Lawn & Landscaping 5. Green Diamond Landscaping BEST GARDEN NURSERY

Moana Nursery

Runners up: 2. Rail City Garden Center 3. Sierra Water Gardens 4. Old Stone House Gift and Garden 5. Greenhouse Garden Center BEST FLOWER SHOP

Sparks Florist

Runners up: 2. The Florist at Moana Nursery 3. Bumblebee Blooms Flower Boutique 4. The Garden of Reno 5. Devonwoods BEST MOVING COMPANY

College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving

Runners up: 2. Atlas Van Lines 3. Wolf Pack Moving 4. Move 4 Less 5. Two Men and a Truck

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BEST PLACE TO BUY SEXY UNDERWEAR

Chocolate Walrus

Runners up: 2. Victoria’s Secret 3. Adam and Eve 4. Kohl’s

BEST SKATE SHOP

Classic Skate Shop

Runners up: 2. Sierra Nevada Skateboards 3. WheelHouse 4. Blissed Out Skate Shop BEST YOGA STUDIO

Juice Box Yoga

Runners up: 2. The Studio Reno 3. Temple Yoga 4. YogaSix 5. The Yoga Center

BEST VETERINARIAN CLINIC

Klaich Animal Hospital

Runners up: 2. VCA A Plus Animal Hospital 3. Mount Rose Animal Hospital 4. Peavine Animal Hospital 5. Pinion Veterinary Hospital 6. LuxPet Vet BEST VAPE SHOP

Smok’n Ray’s Smoke Shop

Runners up: 2. Sunny’s E Cigarettes 3. Slushees Vapor 4. Yum Yum Vape Shops 5. Pyramid Vapory and Art Studio BEST USED CLOTHING STORE

BEST WORKOUT WEAR SELECTION Junkee Clothing Exchange Runners up: Scheels 2. SPCA of Northern Runners up: Nevada Thrift Store 2. Lululemon 3. FreeStyle Clothing Exchange 3. Patagonia 4. Bad Apple Vntg 4. Kohl’s 5. Labels Consignment Boutique BEST WINE SHOP BEST USED CAR DEALERSHIP Whispering Vine Wine Co. Dolan Auto Group Runners up: Runners up: 2. Total Wine and More 2. Carmax 3. Craft Wine & Beer 3. Bill Pearce Motors 4. Grocery Outlet 4. Reno Auto Warehouse 5. Blackrock Wine Co. 5. AutoMax

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BEST THRIFT STORE

SPCA of Northern Nevada Thrift Store

Runners up: 2. Junkee Clothing Exchange 3. Savers 4. FreeStyle Clothing Exchange 5. Assistance League Thrift Store

Staff Pick BEST SECRET NOOK

River School Farm Art Garden

At Aspen Glen Drive and the Truckee River, Reno

Grassroots Books—where Rowen Garcia, Brian Takemoto, Jenn Frievalt and Roy King work—was voted Best Bookstore. Photo/David Robert

BEST TATTOO PARLOR

BEST SHOE SELECTION

Evolution Tattoo

DSW

BEST SPECIALTY FOOD STORE

Holland Project

Runners up: 2. Aces Tattoo 3. Black Cat Tattoo 4. Good Boy Tattoo Parlor 5. Marked Studios 6. Uchiha Tat House Trader Joe’s

Runners up: 2. Great Basin Community Food Co-op 3. Sprouts Farmers Market 4. The Wheyfarer 5. Natural Grocers BEST SPA

Peppermill Spa Toscana

Runners up: 2. Spa Atlantis 3. Dolce Vita Wellness Spa 4. Siren Salon and Spa 5. The Refuge Spa at the Renaissance

Runners up: 2. Dillard’s 3. Scheels 4. Famous Footwear 5. A Proper Fit

Tucked away along the Truckee River, not far from Dorostkar Park and directly across from where Hunter Creek empties, lies one of Reno’s hidden treasures. River School Farm’s permanent art garden transforms this quiet riverside spot into a secret outdoor gallery that somehow feels both intimate and expansive.

This contemplative space features more than a dozen art installations, including unique Burning Man pieces and works by local artists. Whether you’re drawn to the sculptures or simply seeking a peaceful riverside retreat, the garden offers multiple spots to pause, reflect and take in views that capture Reno’s unique character.

What makes this space truly special isn’t just the art—it’s how naturally the pieces sit along the water, with the ever-changing river as backdrop. The light and texture change seemingly every few minutes.

In a city known for its energy and excitement, this quiet corner offers something different: a chance to experience art, nature, and that distinctly Reno spirit all in one magical, tucked-away spot.

—David Rodriguez

BEST SELECTION OF LOCAL ART

Runners up: 2. Sierra Arts Gallery 3. Artists Co-Op Gallery of Reno 4. Brewery Arts Center 5. Pitch Black Printing Co. BEST PRINT SHOP

Pitch Black Printing Co.

Runners up: 2. Laika Press 3. GeekHead Printing 4. DigiPrint Corporation 5. Allegra Marketing Print Mail

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BEST PLACE TO GET PIERCED

Black Hole Body Piercing

Runners up: 2. Evolution Tattoo 3. Under Your Skin Tattoo & Body Piercing 4. Black Widow Ink 5. Spear Me BEST PLACE TO GET AN AUTO SMOGGED

BEST PLACE TO GET A CAR REPAIRED

Runners up: 2. Q’s Quik Smog 3. GK Smog Inspection 4. The Smog Place 5. A+ Automotive and Smog

Runners up: 2. A1 Body Shop 3. Reno Vulcanizing Auto Care and Tires 4. Greg’s Garage 5. Monkey Wrench

Runners up: 2. Junkee Clothing Exchange 3. Savers 4. The Nest

Runners up: 2. Scheels 3. Bizarre Guns 4. RAC Guns & Ammo 5. Willey Brothers Firearms

BEST PLACE TO BUY CDS OR VINYL

BEST PLACE TO BUY VINTAGE CLOTHES

Recycled Records

BEST MUSIC LESSONS TIE

CoAuto

Runners up: 2. Bad Apple Vntg 3. FreeStyle Clothing Exchange 4. Betty’s 5. The Nest 6. Savers

THANK YOU FOR NAMING US THE BEST. Best New Car Dealership Winner Best Used Car Dealership Winner

FIRST PLACE 25

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BEST PLACE TO BUY A FIREARM

Mark Fore and Strike

Junkee Clothing Exchange

Smog Monkey

BEST PLACE TO BUY PLAYA GARB

The Melting Pot World Emporium & Smoke Shop (closed)

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Runners up: 2. The Radical Cat 3. Discology 4. The EP Listening Lounge BEST PLACE TO BUY A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

Bizarre Guitar

Runners up: 2. Absolute Music 3. Guitar Center 4. Blue Note B’s Horn Shop 5. Mountain Music Parlor

Bijou Bell It’s All About Music

Runners up: 3. Mountain Music Parlor 4. Moises Padilla Drumming 5. Play Your Own Music BEST PILATES STUDIO

Club Pilates

Runners up: 2. Perfect Fit Pilates 3. Juice Box Yoga 4. Infinity Fitness Studios 5. Tremble

BEST PET SUPPLY STORE

Pet Station

Runners up: 2. PetSmart 3. Healthy Tails 4. Good Pup Food Co. 5. Petco BEST PET BOARDING

Pet Play House

Runners up: 2. Fantasia Pet Resort 3. Animal Oasis 4. Cozy Cattery Cat Boarding & Cat Grooming 5. Camp Bow Wow BEST OUTDOOR GEAR SELECTION

BEST MORTGAGE COMPANY

Gold Star Mortgage

Runners up: 2. Guild Mortgage 3. All Western Mortgage 4. PrimeLending 5. iServe Residential Lending BEST CANNABIS DISPENSARY

The Dispensary

Orange Theory Fitness Spanish Springs

Total Wine & More

BEST OPTICAL SHOP

BEST NEW CAR DEALERSHIP

Dolan Auto Group

Runners up: 2. Bill Pearce Motors 3. Corwin Ford 4. Lithia Chrysler Jeep of Reno 5. Champion Chevrolet BEST MOTORCYCLE DEALER

EuroCycle Reno

Runners up: 2. Big Valley Honda 3. Reno Harley-Davidson 4. Anderson Powersports Reno

The Home Depot Carter Bros. Ace Hardware

BEST LIQUOR STORE

Michael and Son’s Jewelry Co.

Runners up: 2. Arlington Eye Center & Eyeglass Gallery 3. DeMers Family Vision Group 4. Downtown Vision 5. Falcon Vision

BEST HARDWARE STORE TIE

Runners up: 3. Big R Sparks 4. Lowe’s 5. South Meadows Ace Hardware

Runners up: 2. Lee’s Discount Liquor 3. Ben’s Fine Wine & Spirits 4. Craft Wine & Beer 5. Pyramid Fine Wine & Spirits

Costco

Runners up: 2. Smok’n Ray’s Smoke Shop 3. Yum Yum Vape Shops

Runners up: 2. Rise Dispensary 3. Silver State Relief 4. Thrive Cannabis Marketplace 5. SoL Cannabis

Scheels

Runners up: 2. Gear Hut 3. REI 4. Sportsman’s Warehouse 5. Cabela’s

BEST HEAD SHOP

Art Dogs and Grace

BEST GYM

Runners up: 2. South Reno Athletic Club 3. Eagle Fitness 4. Swët Fitness 5. Infinity Fitness Studios

BEST GROCERY STORE

Trader Joe’s

Runners up: 2. WinCo Foods 3. Great Basin Community Food Co-op 4. Raley’s 5. Sprouts Farmers Market 6. Smith’s Food and Drug BEST FRAME SHOP

Nevada Fine Arts

Runners up: 2. Michael’s 3. Frame Shop at Lakeside 4. Eagle Framing and Art Gallery 5. The Framery

BEST JEWELRY STORE

Runners up: 2. BVW Jewelers 3. Midtown Diamonds 4. Goldilocks Jewelry & Coins 5. Jared

Staff Pick

BEST HOUSE CLEANING SERVICE

Regional Connector

Molly Maid Reno Sparks

Runners up: 2. Reno Custom Cleaning 3. Affordable House Cleaners 4. Spring Fresh Cleaning Service 5. All About Cleaning Service BEST HOME FURNISHINGS STORE

RC Willey

Runners up: 2. The Find 3. Ashley Furniture 4. COA Collective

BEST HANDS-FREE, BRAIN-FREE COMMUTE

Rtcwashoe.com

Imagine snuggling into an upholstered seat, cracking open your book, and relaxing while someone else drives you to work. It’s dreamy, right? It’s why I typically take the Regional Transportation Commission’s Reno-Carson Regional Connector bus from Reno to my job in Carson City each day.

On my way to and from work, I listen to an audiobook on my headphones while I knit and watch the beautiful landscape go by, making my commute not just relaxing, but productive.

There are a handful of us, mostly people with state jobs, who use the Regional Connector every day. (I am sure there are Carson City residents who work in Reno and take the bus going in the other direction on a daily basis, too.) We love the quiet, comfortable ride, avoiding traffic, being freed from the monotony of the same daily drive, escaping wear and tear on our own vehicles, and feeling safe in the winter weather.

The Regional Connector line runs three electric buses each morning and afternoon. Reno riders can catch the bus at the three primary stops: the Fourth Street bus station, Meadowood Mall, and Shayden Summit mall; the Carson City stops are at Carson Street and College Parkway, and the Nevada Department of Transportation on Little Lane. The first morning bus arrives in Carson at around 6:45, and the last one arrives at around 7:45. The first afternoon bus returns to Reno at about 5 p.m., and the last one arrives at about 7:30. The full schedule and route map contains more information about times and stops. A single ride costs $5. A10ride pass is $42.50. You can purchase tickets through the Transit App. —Sarah Russell RenoNR.com

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BEST CARPET CLEANING COMPANY

Evergreen Carpet Care

THANK YOU, NORTHERN NEVADA! You’ve named us Best Credit Union/Bank four years in a row and we’re just feeling a whole lot of gratitude.

BEST EVENT PROMOTER

Amplified Entertainment

Runners up: 2. Heather Hughes 3. Design On Edge 4. Jeremy McGuigan

BEST DRY CLEANERS

Bobby Page’s Dry Cleaners

Runners up: 2. Mia’s Professional Cleaners 3. King Dry Cleaners 4. Lakeridge Cleaners 5. Save On Cleaners

Runners up: 2. Camp Bow Wow 3. Pet Play House 4. Spanish Springs Pet Resort BEST CREDIT UNION

Greater Nevada Credit Union

Runners up: 2. Great Basin Federal Credit Union 3. United Federal Credit Union 4. One Nevada Credit Union 5. Sierra Pacific Federal Credit Union

Runners up: 2. Bad Apple Vntg 3. Dillard’s 4. JaDa Loft Boutique 5. Sierra Deene Boutique BEST CHILDREN’S CLOTHING BOUTIQUE

Once Upon a Child

Runners up: 2. Biggest Little Baby 3. Sparkle & Sprout Co. 4. Baby Bleu

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Sierra Express Car Wash

Runners up: 2. Surf Thru Express Car Wash 3. Buggy Bath 4. Hutch’s Car Wash 5. Jimmy’s Express Car Wash

BEST PET DAYCARE

BEST CLOTHING STORE

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BEST CAR WASH

Fantasia Pet Resort

Freestyle Clothing Exchange

BEST CREDIT UNION/BANK

Runners up: 2. TIE Five Step Carpet Care New Sunrise Cleaning and Restoration Robin’s All Out Carpet Cleaning 5. Sterling Carpet Care

Staff Pick BEST DOWN-TO-CLOWN MERCH PRINTER

TM Print Co.

35 N. Edison Way, No. 3, Reno

Every town needs a print shop that knows how varied groups, from garage bands to local sports teams, need merchandise made. You want to show the world who you are, and what you do, with awesome hats and shirts.

The folks at TM Print Co. have become one of Northern Nevada’s “if you know, you know” print shops, serving everyone from local bands like Bug Bath to the internationally recognized ski company Moment Skis.

Their cult status is in part due to their down-to-earth attitude, offering great sales during peak band-touring season, and being willing to track down precisely what you are looking to print or embroider.

If you are looking to get your son’s first drawing printed on a hockey jersey, they are the shop for you.

—Michael Moberly

BEST BRIDAL SALON

Swoon

Runners up: 2. Blue Garter Bridal & Tux 3. La Di Da Beauty Salon 4. Studio Inspire Bridal BEST BOUTIQUE CLOTHING STORE

BEST BICYCLE SHOP

Reno Bike Project

Runners up: 2. Great Basin Bicycles 3. Black Rock Bicycles 4. Sierra Cyclesmith 5. College Cyclery BEST BEAUTY SALON

Bad Apple Vntg

Runners up: 2. Sierra Belle Boutique 3. JaDa Loft Boutique 4. Concepts Reno 5. Sierra Deene Boutique BEST BOOKSTORE

Grassroots Books

Runners up: 2. The Radical Cat 3. Barnes and Noble 4. Thistle & Nightshade

Siren Salon

Runners up: 2. Jensen & Co. Salon 3. BLEACH 4. Caliber Hair & Makeup Studio 5. Shear Pearl Salon BEST BARBER SHOP

Derby Barber & Supply

Runners up: 2. D’s Cutz 3. Maxwell’s Barbershop 4. Gentlemen’s Barber Shop 5. Heyday Barber Co.

BEST BANK

Greater Nevada Credit Union

Runners up: 2. Wells Fargo 3. Great Basin Federal Credit Union 4. U.S. Bank 5. Nevada State Bank

Staff Pick BEST CEVICHE

Yellowfin ahi ceviche at La Condesa Eatery 1642 S. Wells Ave., Reno

BEST ANTIQUE STORE

Junkee Clothing Exchange

Runners up: 2. Midtown Antiques 3. The Nest 4. Antiques and Treasures ROCK 5. COA Collective BEST ADULT THEMED STORE

Chocolate Walrus

Runners up: 2. Adam and Eve 3. Suzies Adult Superstore 4. HUSTLER Hollywood

The first thing you’re likely to notice when La Condesa Eatery’s yellowfin ahi ceviche arrives at your table is the sheer beauty. The bowl is full of bright, bold colors—red and orange from the thinly sliced radishes, green from the avocado, and yellow from the leche de tigre sitting at the bottom. Seriously: Where do they get such a variety of gorgeous radishes?

It seems impossible that the ceviche will taste as good as it looks—but after you take your first bite, you’ll realize that it is indeed quite possible. The fresh, delicious tuna pairs perfectly with the creamy avocado, with the flavors of both enhanced by the tart, citrusy marinade.

I’ve never had a bad bite of food at La Condesa Eatery, where chef Sergio Romero playfully fuses Mexican food with Asian, Italian and other influences. I’ve had dreams about the steak in Black Angus rib eye tacos … but it’s the ceviche I can’t go without ordering during every visit to La Condesa. Yum. —Jimmy Boegle

THANK YOU

to our loyal customers for once again voting us

BEST DELI

The

BACK DOCTOR S experience gonstead chiropractic 550 W. Plumb Ln., suite A Reno, NV 89509

775-825-0608 phone 775-825-0606 fax

Arlington

W. Plumb Ln.

• Plumgate Center

office@thebackdoctorsonline.com www.thebackdoctorsonline.com

3064 Mill Street• Reno 517 Forest Street• Reno 775.657.8448 RenoNR.com

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Strength in numbers Strength in numbers Strength in numbers Federal public media cuts are about to hit KUNR, our readers’ choice as Best Radio Station—but the team marches forward

By Kris Vagner

K

UNR Public Radio, Reno’s NPR affiliate—voted Best Radio Station by RN&R readers— will no longer receive the $350,000 in public funding that it has traditionally gotten from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting each year.

After Congress rescinded $1.1 billion in already-allocated funds for public media in July, the CPB, which has funded NPR and PBS for almost 60 years, is slated to be mostly defunded, de-staffed and defunct by Sept. 30.

At KUNR, the rescinded funds amount to around 15% of the station’s operating budget.

“We are keeping our services as intact as we possibly can,” said Brian Duggan, KUNR’s general manager.

On the day that Congress voted on the rollback, July 18, Duggan was as ready as anyone could have been. Twice a week all year, he and more than 150 other station leaders around the country had been meeting remotely to plan for the likely rescission. Duggan said the group mulled over questions like: “How do we build a future of public media starting today?”

“What kind of infrastructure do we need to start sharing and building together?”

“How do we build a network, knowing that there are very real threats on the horizon?”

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more than what we normally see this time of Even with these supplemental funds, Those conversations, however, didn’t year, between May and August,” Duggan said.

Duggan said there’s still a lot to be done just start in 2025. In recent years, as media “So we’ve seen a really significant increase to shore up the station permanently. He’s outlets across the board have struggled against in support for the station—which we will be particularly concerned about making sure systemic threats to sustainability, they’ve putting aside for the next fiscal year, when we that partner station KNCC in Elko can keep been teaming up with each other in various finally hit the federal funding cliff.” broadcasting local news there for two hours ways to share content and resources. KUNR each morning, and that the satellite was already part of several such studio at the University of Nevada, collaborations, including one Reno’s Lake Tahoe area campus in via the Mountain West News Incline Village—new this year— Bureau, a partnership between We’ve seen a really significant can keep broadcasting Tahoe-area local public radio stations in six news, as those two regions are Western states. increase in (listener) support for the underserved, news-wise.

“This regional hub model is station—which we will be putting “We are working our butts off becoming kind of a new way for to ensure the continuity of those all of us member stations to work aside for the next fiscal year, when we services across our entire listening together and collaborate—share area,” Duggan said. “As far as journalism, share resources, finally hit the federal funding cliff.” programming goes and what our share editing, share digital listeners have come to rely on resources,” said Duggan.

–B rian Duggan, and expect from us, we are fully Arrangements like these KUNR general manager committed to maintaining the can make producing news high-quality programming that our noticeably more efficient. community expects from KUNR.” “There’s a lot of work that’s Also helpful, said Duggan, is that “NPR is already been happening for many years,” offering something called a rescission relief he said. “Thankfully, we have some of that program for stations, which means they’re infrastructure in place.” going to be cutting their programming fees for Strategizing with peers from other Header photo: KUNR employs student interns member stations, based on size.” The size of stations also readied KUNR to spring into each semester as reporters. Over the years, many have advanced to be full-time reporters. this reduction is yet to be announced. action quickly back in May, when Trump On a recent afternoon, Lucia Starbuck—a Yet another life raft: In 2024, before the announced his intention to defund the CPB. political reporter who was once an intern— CPB’s demise became imminent, it awarded The station launched an emergency fundraiser was working in the studio with current interns KUNR a two-year, $200,000 grant to pay for immediately.

Ally Ibarra, Alejo Cruz and Mariel Day. state government coverage through 2026.

“Since May, we have raised about $200,000 Photo/Kris Vagner

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X X O O B B Y Y O O E E G G C C I I A A U U JJ VOTED VOTED BEST YOGA BEST YOGA STUDIO STUDIO IN IN NORTHERN NEVADA NORTHERN NEVADA

We are so thankful for our AMAZING community for making this possible!

Make sure to check out our Local Intro Special and get two weeks of unlimited yoga and fitness classes at all locations for only $20!

Thank You, Reno-Sparks!

We’re thrilled to be voted BEST CASINO in Northern Nevada!

We are so grateful to our fantastic Legends Bay Casino team for providing legendary service every day!

Voted Your Favorite for

Best Casino L E G E N D S B AYCA S I N O.CO M 40

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BEST INDOOR ACTIVITY FOR KIDS

The Discovery

Runners up: 2. Coconut Bowl at Wild Island 3. Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park 4. TIE Deadline Escape Rooms Scheels 6. Bundox Bocce BEST WEEKNIGHT ACTIVITY

Magic Carpet Golf

Runners up: 2. Coconut Bowl at Wild Island 3. Lake Tahoe 4. Deadline Escape Rooms BEST TOY STORE TIE

Learning Express Toys N More

Runners up: 3. TIE Scheels Tooti Frooti 5. Biggest Little Baby

With its miles of trails—not to mention its disc golf course, spacious dog park, playground and wide, grassy areas for kites and frisbees—the 580acre Rancho San Rafael Regional Park was voted Best Park, among other honors.

Photo/David Robert

BEST FAMILY OUTING

BEST PARK

Reno Aces

Rancho San Rafael Regional Park

Runners up: 2. Lake Tahoe 3. Coconut Bowl at Wild Island 4. The Discovery 5. Press Start

Runners up: 2. Idlewild Park 3. Pah Rah Mountain Park 4. Cyan Park 5. Mira Loma Park

BEST ARCADE GAMES

BEST LIBRARY

Coconut Bowl at Wild Island

Downtown Reno Library

Runners up: 2. Spanish Springs Library 3. Northwest Reno Library 4. South Valleys Library 5. Sparks Library

Staff Pick

Runners up: 2. Press Start 3. Fun Quest at the Grand Sierra Resort 4. Peppermill 5. Skywalk Arcade at Nugget Casino Resort

BEST SOMETHING-FOR-EVERYONE FAST FAMILY DINNER

Tasteful Tangle

3683 Kings Row, Reno

Tasteful Tangle is a family-run takeout place, ensconced in the corner of the nondescript strip mall at McCarran Boulevard and Kings Row. The menu is a culinary conundrum, with an eclectic selection.

The somewhat Cajun/Southern-inspired offerings include avocado egg rolls made with black beans and corn; Scotch eggs with honey mustard dressing; trendy smash burgers on a brioche bun with house-made pickles; and comforting mac and cheese. The fried chicken po’ boys are served on fluffy bread layered with coleslaw and remoulade sauce. You can get a quick afternoon pick-me-up snack of PB&J with Nutella, along with an espresso shot, and breakfast is served all day. Check the online menu for a rotating selection of monthly specials.

I’m getting hungry just writing this!

—David Robert RenoNR.com

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BEST MASSAGE THERAPIST

Tony Avila

Runners up: 2. Alexandra Voss 3. Johnnyper Zearfoss, Massage Solutions 4. Mike Fronk, Haven Salon Studios BEST LOCAL TV NEWS ANCHOR

Joe Hart, KRNV

BEST PERSONAL TRAINER

Sherilyn Cabanting Allen

BEST TATTOO ARTIST

Melissa Varney

BEST ORTHODONTIST

Dr. William O’Gara

Runners up: 2. Pitts Orthodontics 3. Dr. Adam Welmerink 4. Dr. Andrew Leland BEST WEDDING PLANNER

Mikayla Slack, Amplified Entertainment

Runners up: 2. Kayla Lewis, That Blissful Moment 3. Karen Steele, Tahoe by Design 4. Annie Magera, Event Planning by Annie BEST VISUAL ARTIST

Nathaniel Benjamin

Runners up: 2. Joe C. Rock 3. Rowena Piñero 4. Eric Brooks 5. Bryce Chisholm

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Runners up: 2. Ron Rash 3. Brandon Collins 4. Joe Zeigler 5. Chris Melzo 6. Mike Irons BEST REAL ESTATE AGENT

Kyla Bevel

Runners up: 2. Leslie Smith 3. Michelle McCormack 4. Kirsten Childers 5. Ginger Marphis 6. Cristy Silverman BEST PLASTIC SURGEON

Dr. Tiffany McCormack

Runners up: 2. Hall & Wrye Plastic Surgeons 3. Dr. Kyle Yamamoto 4. Dr. Louis Bonaldi 5. Dr. Nichole Joslyn BEST PHOTOGRAPHER

Jeramie Lu

Runners up: 2. Melody Ricketts 3. Holly Faulk 4. Melissa Faith 5. Neil Lockhart |

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Runners up: 2. Mena Spodobalski 3. Ryan White 4. Erik Underwood 5. Maryssa Rosenbaum

BEST NAIL TECHNICIAN

Riley Catt, Catt’s Claws

Runners up: 2. Bri McClellan 3. Falicia Watkins, Buckin Nail of a Time 4. Adina Pearl, Shear Pearl Salon 5. Devon Biancalana, Look Nook Salon 6. Falicia Watkins

Runners up: 2. Kristen Remington, 2news (KTVN) 3. Rebecca Kitchen, KOLO 8 News Now 4. Taylor Burke, KOLO 8 News Now 5. Kyle Lowder, 2news (KTVN) BEST LOCAL SONGWRITER

Rick Hays

Runners up: 2. Canyon White 3. Greg Gilmore 4. Billy Lassi 5. Jenes Carter BEST LOCAL RADIO DJ OR DJ TEAM

Chris Payne, Rock 104.5

Runners up: 2. JJ Christy, K-Bull 98.1 3. Robbie and Cat, Ten Country 97.3 FM 4. Bill and J Lynn, Sunny 106.9 5. Kevin Smith and Jay Slater, 105.7 KOZZ BEST LOCAL POLITICIAN

Hillary Schieve

Runners up: 2. Alexis Hill 3. Beth Smith 4. Naomi Duerr 5. TIE Devon Reese Joe Rodriguez

BEST LOCAL MUSICIAN

Rick Hays

BEST LOCAL ACTOR/ACTRESS NOT NAMED JEREMY RENNER

Runners up: 2. TIE Bijou Bell Virginia Evans 4. Canyon White 5. Jenes Carter 6. Rick Metz

Mary Bennett

BEST LOCAL AUTHOR

Alicia Barber

Alicia Barber

Runners up: 2. Bill Brown 3. Marie Navarro 4. Mikalee Byerman 5. Mark Maynard

Runners up: 2. Angelo “Lily” Perez 3. Luis Galvez 4. Jessica Coxxx 5. Michael Davanzo BEST LOCAL ACTIVIST

Runners up: 2. Lily Baran 3. Meredith Tanzer 4. Stacey Spain 5. YeVonne Allen

BEST LOCAL ATHLETE

David Wise

Runners up: 2. Brandon Aiyuk 3. Anna Costello 4. Aisena Allen 5. Gabriel Galvez

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Staff Pick

BEST GYNECOLOGIST

BEST INDEPENDENT OPTICIAN

BEST INTERIOR DESIGNER

Eyeglass Repair

Jessica Davis, FiveWest Studio and Designers

141 Vassar St., Reno

Reno native Mike Grover (aka Margarita Mike in some circles) has been serving the Biggest Little City’s visually impaired at his cozy shop in Midtown since before Midtown was Midtown.

Mike always has a wacky story or a hilarious anecdote to tell about Reno life. He serves up advice and stories like a bartender—from recommendations on what type of guitar strings to use to philosophical meanderings about life in general—only with eyeglasses instead of shot glasses. And, oh yeah, he does repair eyeglasses, and has a line of frames from which to choose. He also creates custom lenses.

I’ve brought in emergency rush jobs, or rather “crush jobs.” The work was finished quickly; the repairs have lasted.

—David Robert

Runners up: 2. TIE Amy Gail Chloe Mackintosh, Boxwood Avenue Interiors 4. John Ludwig. Hedwig Ludman Interiors BEST HAIR STYLIST

Meggan Gonzales, Salon Bobby Pin

Runners up: 2. Katie Catt, Siren Salon and Spa 3. Sarra Karlowicz 4. Jamee Hudson 5. Sarah Vohland, Haven Salon Studios

Dining on Tahoe.

Dining in Truckee.

Gar Woods and Bar of America thank Reno News & Review readers for naming us

#1 in Tahoe and Truckee!

“Drink whiskey with me—go to Bar of America.”

–Mark Twain

Voted #1 oVer

10 times www.garwoods.com | 530.546.3366

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www.sparkswaterbar.com 775.351.1500 September 2025 |

www.rivagrill.com 530.542.2600 RenoNR.com

BEST DANCE INSTRUCTOR

Dr. Susan DiGrazia Perry

Vaquera Vikki

BEST FAMILY DOCTOR

BEST CLUB OR EVENT DJ

Runners up: 2. Dr. Sherrie Hald 3. Dr. Sara Working 4. Dr. Kenneth Poppen 5. Dr. Mariko Rajamand Dr. Shannon Zamboni

Runners up: 2. Dr. Thomas O’Gara 3. Dr. Randi Grinsell 4. Dr. Andrew Pasternak 5. Dr. David Fiore BEST DENTIST

Dr. Melinda Kuhn

Runners up: 2. Brandon Dabu 3. Sara B Dancin’ 4. Keely Cobb 5. Monique Manzo Ken Allen, Amplified Entertainment

Runners up: 2. Max Kronyak, Forever the Weekend 3. DJ Jeremy McGuigan 4. Vaquera Vikki 5. Rick Garska, DJ Ricky Rick

Runners up: 2. Dr. Robert Vong 3. Dr. John Bocchi 4. Dr. Kai Funke 5. Dr. Harry Fry 6. Dr. Scott Futch

Staff Pick BEST WAY TO ENJOY LAKE TAHOE WITHOUT SPENDING A SECOND STUCK IN TRAFFIC

Mount Rose Peak Trail 24750 Mt. Rose Hwy, Reno

Many locals already know about the top-of-the-world, 360-degree view from Mount Rose Peak. Many locals also know that, even though the trailhead is just a half-hour drive from south Reno, the trek starts at a lung-challenging 8,900 feet and ascends more than 2,000 feet from there, and is a 10.7-mile roundtrip hike—oh, and the wind at the peak can be ferocious.

What you might not already know is that the same trail also offers lowercommitment options with some surprisingly satisfying payoffs. If you hike just the first half of the trail, 2.4 miles to picturesque Galena Falls, you’ll look down to lakes large and small; lush, verdant meadows; and the same Virginia Range we look up at from the Truckee Meadows.

Even easier: This trail’s best-kept secret is that you can just saunter up the first mile of the trail—or half-mile, even—and the view opens almost immediately. From here, Lake Tahoe is glassy and serene, free of road rage, and framed by summer wildflowers, reminding me just why it attracts the crowds it does.

If you find yourself as charmed by the area as I am, and you don’t want to leave, the forested Mount Rose Campground is across the street, so you can upgrade this modular hike into a quick staycation.

—Kris Vagner

BEST CHIROPRACTOR

BEST ATTORNEY

Amanda Rammel, The Back Doctors

Emily Mansoor

Runners up: 2. Shawn Oliphant 3. Richard Harris 4. Cliff Young 5. Frank Gilmore

Runners up: 2. Todd Stevenson, Peak Performance Chiropractic 3. Daniel Barlow, Westside Chiropractic 4. David Berg, North Hills Chiropractic 5. Reid Brecke, Brecke Chiropractic Center

BEST AESTHETICIAN

Butterfly Esthetics

BEST BARBER

Vincent Gravallese, Derby Barber & Supply

Storyteller extraordinaire and hostess with the mostess Mary Bennett has been at the helm of Brüka Theatre in downtown Reno for longer than we can remember. She is a veritable Swiss Army Knife of theater jobs—she writes, directs and acts in plays for kids and adults. No wonder you voted her Best Local Actor/Actress Not Named Jeremy Renner! Photo/David Robert

Runners up: 2. Swade Malloy, Studio B Salon and Barbershop 3. Trea Oberhansli, Derby Barber & Supply 4. Derrick Smith, D’s Cutz 5. Jimmy Deem, Heyday Barber Co.

Runners up: 2. Jayden Zeigler 3. Stephanie Butler, Plumb + Pine 4. Ashley Grove, Plumb + Pine 5. Sara Coder, Glow Esthetic Lasers and Spa

Dr. McCormack, a Stanford-trained and board-certified plastic surgeon, is committed to creating elegant, natural-looking results that enhance your existing features. Her surgical specialties include:

THANK YOU RENO! Voted Best Plastic Surgeon

I’m deeply honored to have been voted Best Plastic Surgeon for 2025 by the readers of Reno News & Review!

This recognition reflects the incredible support from the Reno and Lake Tahoe communities, and on behalf of our entire team, I want to express our heartfelt gratitude.

We are excited to continue delivering exceptional care and outstanding results to meet all of our patients’ aesthetic needs. Thank you!

Tiffany McCormack, MD Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon

BREAST ENHANCEMENT

BODY CONTOURING

FACIAL REJUVENATION

PROCEDURES FOR MEN

Our practice is also home to the award winning MSpa, the premier choice for high-quality medical spa services in the Reno and Lake Tahoe areas.

PLASTICSURGERYRENOTAHOE.COM RenoNR.com

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Our readers have spoken!

And so have hardcore cyclists, little kids with training wheels, and people skipping class or work on a beautiful afternoon: The Truckee River Bike Trail, voted Best Bicycle Ride Path/ Destination, is the place to be if you want to be on two wheels. Photo/David Robert

BEST SNOWBOARDING

Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe

Runners up: 2. Northstar California Resort 3. Heavenly Ski Resort 4. Palisades Tahoe BEST BICYCLE RIDE PATH/DESTINATION

BEST PLACE TO SWIM

Lake Tahoe

Runners up: 2. Moana Springs Community Aquatics and Fitness Center 3. Pyramid Lake 4. Idlewild Pool 5. Red Hawk Golf and Resort

Truckee River Bike Trail

BEST HARVEST FESTIVAL

Andelin Family Farm

Runners up: 2. Ferrari Farms 3. Fallon Cantaloupe Festival & Country Fair BEST HIKING TRAIL

Galena Creek Trail

Runners up: 2. David Walley’s Hot Springs 3. Steamboat Hot Springs 4. Spencer Hot Springs 5. Kyle Hot Springs

Runners up: 2. Heavenly Ski Resort 3. Palisades Tahoe 4. Northstar California Resort 5. Sugar Bowl Ski Resort

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Runners up: 2. Rancho San Rafael Regional Park 3. Galena Creek Regional Park 4. Oxbow Nature Study Area 5. Windy Hill Carson Hot Springs

BEST SKI RESORT

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Idlewild Park

BEST LOCAL HOT SPRINGS

Runners up: 2. Hunter Creek Trail 3. Thomas Creek Trail 4. Chickadee Ridge Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe

BEST PICNIC SPOT

BEST GOLF COURSE

Red Hawk Golf and Resort

Runners up: 2. Lakeridge Golf Course 3. Washoe County Golf Course 4. Sierra Sage Golf Course 5. Sunridge Golf and Recreations

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Runners up: 2. Tahoe East Shore Trail 3. Incline Flume Trail 4. Sky Tavern 5. Veterans Parkway Bike Path

Staff Pick BEST HIKE THROUGH AN AREA BURNED BY WILDFIRE

Brown’s Creek Trail 3585 Joy Lake Road, Reno

If you’re looking for soothing forest scenery, Brown’s Creek is not the place. This five-mile trail in the Carson Range lies in the footprint of the Davis Fire, which burned 14 residences and almost 6,000 acres in September 2024 and, at one point, seemed poised to cut a deep swath into south Reno.

A year out from the fire, the area still looks blasted, with manzanita, tobacco brush and aspen turned into skeletal forms, and pines charred to blackened poles.

Why am I recommending this trail? Well, despite first appearances, it’s actually great for appreciating living things, because many local plants and animals have evolved to deal with wildfire. On a hike in June, almost every skeletonized shrub and aspen I passed had fresh green sprouts coming up from the roots. And among the many wildflowers and birds were “fire-following” species, such as coyote tobacco and hairy woodpecker, that thrive in burned areas.

Most hikers don’t seek out charred landscapes, so the Brown’s Creek Trail will give you the solitude to fully appreciate the life flourishing in this seemingly apocalyptic place.

In that solitude, though, you may also find yourself wondering whether climate change, which has ratcheted up the frequency of wildfires, is hurtling us toward a true apocalypse.

Basically, it’s a hike for contemplating both the beauty of life and the horror of the Age of Humans.

—Alan de Queiroz

Molly Maid of Reno Sparks

DOUBLE SCOOP’S ANNUAL FESTIVAL

775.359.1503

OU R T Y T E ME AL ARIONS LOC ANIZAT OR G FR

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• Bob Grimm’s movie reviews every Monday • More theater reviews • Western lit book excerpts • Free online archives going back to 2000 All of this, and much more, can be found online—only at RenoNR.com!

NOON — 4 PM THE HOLLAND PROJECT / 140 VESTA ST., RENO RenoNR.com

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ARTS

| BY JASON SARNA Fil Corbitt—seen here giving a live reading of episodes of his audio series, The Wind, at the Bristlecone General Store in Baker in June—is slated to do a live broadcast on KWNK as part the Nevada Humanities Lit Crawl. Photo/ Michael Branch

Lit Crawl lives on

Despite severe federal cuts, supporters and artists step up to make this year’s Nevada Humanities Literary Crawl a reality In April, the Trump administration terminated grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This, according to George Tsz-Kwan Lam, assistant director at Nevada Humanities, put the 2025 Nevada Humanities Literary Crawl on pause.

The Lit Crawl has been an annual tradition in Reno for more than a decade. A daylong celebration of ideas and the written word, the crawl is open to participants of all ages and free to attend.

Tsz-Kwan Lam explained how the Lit Crawl is similar to Reno’s pub crawls (Santa, Leprechaun, Zombie, etc.)—but rather than walking into a local business to order a drink, participants walk into a local business (which may well be a bar!) to listen to a poet or attend a writing workshop.

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million in emergency funding. This funding was distributed to all 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils across the United States, including up to $250,000 for Nevada Humanities.

With that help, along with contributions from various donors, and some grants that are specifically for the literary crawl—including a city of Reno arts and culture events grant—Nevada Humanities, according to Tsz-Kwan Lam, “made the decision to move forward with a literary crawl with a very, very limited budget.”

As such, the 2025 Lit Crawl will take place as scheduled on Saturday, Sept. 13.

He said that the event’s budget, typically above $200,000, has been reduced this year to $83,293. Less than half of this year’s Lit Crawl budget, 46%, is in the form of cash. The remaining 54% comes in the form of in-kind donations of time, expertise, services and facilities.

“This demonstrates incredible community

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support for this event,” Tsz-Kwan Lam said.

“I’m just so grateful for all of the artists who we are contracting who are essentially agreeing to, you know, do it for less.”

Tsz-Kwan Lam said the crawl’s main purpose is to give back to the community, celebrate the humanities and showcase the literary talent in Northern Nevada.

“We’re supporting people who tell Nevada stories,” said Tsz-Kwan Lam. “We have a lot of folks who work in nonfiction and research—for example, academic research—but also in poetry and creative writing.”

While this one event has been funded, the future of humanities funding remains uncertain, according to Christina Barr, the executive director of Nevada Humanities. She pointed out that while the Mellon Foundation grant helped, the termination of the federal grants cost Nevada Humanities 75% of its annual funding.

There is some reason for hope. On Aug. 6, a federal judge in Oregon ruled that the federal cuts in April were “unlawful” and allowed a lawsuit filed by Oregon Humanities and the Federation of State Humanities Councils to proceed.

Whatever happens, this year’s Lit Crawl is a go, and on Saturday, Sept. 13, more 100 authors, artists, presenters and performers will appear at nearly 40 events throughout downtown Reno. Events include panel discussions, book-signings, workshops, performances and family-friendly activities.

The keynote speaker is Reno-born author and musician Willy Vlautin, a 2025 winner of the Joyce Carol Oats literary prize, in conversation with former Nevada Poet Laureate Gailmarie Pahmeier. A moderated Q&A session and a book-signing will follow. (Tickets, which are free, are required to attend the keynote.)

Other events include: • A performance with opera singers from the University of Nevada, Reno, performing and discussing “the art of the unamplified human voice.”

• A reading of a new play by Sandra Neace in partnership with Good Luck Macbeth Theatre Company.

• A live broadcast on KWNK of a radio performance by Fil Corbitt on the music of classic Westerns.

• A showcase by Spoken Views Collective, a local group that builds community through spoken-word expression.

• A workshop for young songwriters hosted

by J Vineyard and Casey Bell of G.I.R.L.S. Rock Reno.

• A discussion with Richard Bednarski, John M. Glionna, Sydney Martinez and Mark Maynard about their latest nonfiction projects and how they tell the story of Nevada.

In addition, Kris Vagner, the managing editor of the Reno News & Review and the editor and publisher of Double Scoop, will be part of a panel on arts writing.

The Nevada Humanities Literary Crawl will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 13, at the Nevada Museum of Art, the Downtown Reno Library and other businesses and venues in and near the California Avenue corridor. For the complete schedule, visit www. nevadahumanities.org/literarycrawl. Nevada Humanities is also seeking volunteer stage managers, session guides, survey ambassadors and information booth greeters. Visit the Nevada Humanities volunteer page to learn more.

ARTS

| BY JESSICA SANTINA Wendy Feign, Alexandra Jobe and Rachel Douglass in The Taming. Photo/David Robert

Forcing a more perfect union Restless Artists Theatre’s production of ‘The Taming’ is an acutely American farce A political strategist and a social-media influencer find themselves trapped in a hotel room with a beauty-pageant winner.

No, it’s not the setup for a joke; it’s the premise of Lauren Gunderson’s play, The Taming, which is currently running at Sparks’ Restless Artists Theatre through Sept. 8.

The play would appear to have been inspired by Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, just as Gunderson—a rapier-witted, prolific playwright who is a master at parody—has done with some of the other plays by the Bard. But aside from the title, really nothing about this political farce resembles the Elizabethan play. For starters, it’s acutely, painfully American.

Written in 2013, during the 16-day federal government shutdown that occurred that October, this play does what many of us who remember that time wanted to do: Force the two warring factions to sit in a room together and work out their nonsense.

Set at a Washington, D.C., hotel where the finals for the Miss America Pageant are taking place, the story opens as Katherine Chelsea Hartford (played by Alexandra Jobe), the reigning Miss Georgia, introduces herself and performs a rousing, full rendition of “America the Beautiful” to the dismay of the judges who are concerned with brevity.

Katherine’s overly loud and enthusiastic display of love for her country, made visible with her handmade cape of stitched-together flags, is the catalyst for the conflict ahead.

Contrasted against this utter devotion are Patricia (Wendy Feign), a domineering political operative working for an increasingly powerful and corrupt GOP senator; and Bianca (Rachel Douglass), an insufferable, far-left social-media influencer with a penchant for activism on behalf of little-known (and little-cared-for) species—in this case, the rare panda shrew.

(OK, so there are two nods to the Shakespeare play.) In short, the women are archetypes who represent everything abhorrent about today’s political parties.

The two women, who have come to the Miss America Pageant to take advantage of the platform for personal gain, wake up the next morning in an unfamiliar hotel room, missing certain items of clothing and their phones. The room is locked on the inside, and to make matters worse, they’re both stuck listening to the ridiculous political ideas of the other. Then, out pops Katherine, Miss Georgia herself, to explain: She roofied them. It was the only way to get them to shut up and do what she wants them to do. It’s simple, really— just call a constitutional convention (perfectly legal and provided for by the founding fathers), and fix everything that’s outdated about the trou-

blesome document (and that’s a lot), so Katherine can win the Miss America crown. Once that’s done, they’re free to go.

As you can imagine, Patricia and Bianca are too outraged by their circumstances and each other to give this loon what she wants, but Katherine is a lot cleverer than she seems. And she seems to know a lot more about the Constitution than anyone else in the room.

This soon leads us to a dream sequence in which the three women become founding fathers themselves: Patricia is James Madison, considered the father of the Constitution; Bianca is his foil, Charles Pinckney, a slave-owning Southern gentleman; and Katherine is Ben Franklin, whose influential intellect brings reason to an otherwise confounding process.

Though the stereotypes are strong in this one—eye-rollingly so—and somewhat dated, they’re still, sadly, relevant. The hypocritical conservatives preaching family values can’t keep it in their pants, and the liberals fight so hard for the most trivial issues that they look ridiculous and accomplish little of real importance. Yet the character of Katherine turns the blonde-beauty-queen-from-rural-Georgia stereotype on its head as she manages to outmaneuver Patricia and Bianca with her keen wit, relentless optimism and sound logic.

As Katherine, Jobe is a wonder, managing to somehow be both a dimwit and a genius at once, and delivering some of best lines of the play with razor-sharp accuracy and comedic timing. Feign is a nice choice for the part of Patricia, with her raspy voice that nicely conveys the character’s masculine energy and accustomed pushiness and intolerance. Douglass makes Bianca more annoying than necessary, and she struggles to deliver lines effectively— clumsily racing through them by rote rather than conveying the words’ meaning—though it’s only fair for me to say that I caught a final dress rehearsal, while the kinks were still being worked out.

Despite the play’s age, its ideas about creating the America we want bring a fresh and interesting perspective to the chaos of today’s political showmanship. I left feeling strangely optimistic about what could be—if only we could all care as much as Katherine does.

Restless Artists Theatre Company, at 295 20th St., in Sparks, presents The Taming. Shows are at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Sept. 5 and 6; and 2 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 7; and 6:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 8. Tickets are $25 at the door, or $20 (plus fees) in advance with discounts. For tickets and information, visit rattheatre.com.

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ART OF THE STATE

| BY DELANEY URONEN Dorothea Lange's 1942 photograph "Grandfather and Grandson of Japanese Ancestry at a War Relocation Authority Center." Photo/ courtesy Nevada Museum of Art

History repeating Dorothea Lange’s century-old photographs—depicting real people experiencing poverty and racism—still resonate today What I saw at the museum is what I see on the news.

Inside the Nevada Museum of Art, three black-and-white photographs, taken in 1942 by documentary photographer Dorothea Lange, are lined up in a row on the wall.

In the first one, Japanese Americans are huddled in a dense mass on a San Francisco street as police stand guard. They are waiting to be relocated to prison camps under order of the U.S. military. In another photo, a man at an internment camp in Manzanar, Calif., gazes back at us, his expression resolute against the grey sky. His pudgy infant grandson hangs on his neck, piggy-back style. In the third photo, there are no people, just the eerie façade of a grocery store bearing a sign that reads “I AM AN AMERICAN” beneath another announcing that the store has been sold.

Outside of the museum, my laptop and smartphone screens display high-resolution color images of the same process of dehumanization, on repeat. In one, Donald 50

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Trump, Ron DeSantis and Kristi Noem tour a hastily constructed migrant-detention center in Florida. They are sweaty and pompous over the punishment this warehouse full of 5,000 empty metal bunk beds could dole out to a largely Hispanic immigrant population in the coming months.

The photos in the museum are part of Dorothea Lange: Seeing People, a retrospective exhibition curated by Philip Brookman of the National Gallery of Art. Seeing People was already highly relevant when it debuted at the Washington, D.C., gallery in 2023, and the impact of has only appreciated since it traveled west to Nevada in April as part of the National Gallery’s Across the Nation Program. As an aggressive second Trump administration attempts to make good on its campaign promise to conduct the largest deportation program in U.S. history, Lange’s iconic photos have become even more significant.

The way Brookman has ordered Lange’s photos helps construct an important visual narrative. The Japanese American man and his

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tiny grandson could be two of countless people in that first faceless crowd, and they are what is missing in the final storefront still-life. This central photograph individualizes those imprisoned en masse by capturing a moment of tenderness and strength that is completely incompatible with the internment camp setting. By providing this humanizing insight into the lives of those depicted, Lange provides viewers with essential context amid cruelty.

Although Lange was commissioned by the War Relocation Authority to document the forced internment of Japanese Americans, the federal government did not release the photos she produced until after the end of World War II. As the exhibition text notes, authorities feared that Lange’s images would elicit too much sympathy from the rest of the American public.

It is difficult to garner support for mass violence when people are intimate witnesses to the humanity of its victims.

In Seeing People, Brookman frames Lange’s long career, and the social issues she photographed, through the lens of portraiture. According to Brookman, Lange’s past experience as a studio-portrait photographer taught her how to capture the unique character of individual people as a documentary photographer.

“What you see in Lange’s studio portraits is serious attention to lighting, place and her subject’s pose, often with particular attention to their hands,” said Brookman. “She incorporates these same strategies in making her documentary pictures in the field, bringing that empathy and connection with people out of her studio and into the homes, streets and fields of America.”

As a portrait photographer in her San Francisco studio, Lange photographed prominent, wealthy figures until in 1933, when she was compelled by the worsening conditions of the Great Depression to take her cameras out into the city. There, she documented breadlines, strikes and organized labor demonstrations. She was later commissioned by the Farm Security Administration to document the conditions of unemployment and poverty.

Lange continued to document social issues in the field, and as her career progressed, her work was influenced by the field of sociology.

She conducted interviews with her subjects and often made long captions that relayed the information they told her about themselves. By including their perspectives, Lange conveys to her audience details that we couldn’t read in the images alone.

Lange’s photos—which documented the effects of economic inequality, racism, labor, migration and climate change—have remained

relevant since she first made them almost a century ago. But by mid-2025, Seeing People makes strikingly apparent the ways in which the history Lange documented in the 20th century is, as photographer Carolyn Drake put it, “playing out right now almost 100 years later in a very different image-world.”

While Lange’s work often showed us the invisible character of her subjects, other images make the individual humanity of entire groups of people invisible. Photos and videos, like the ones that came out of the Trump administration’s tour of “Alligator Alcatraz,” circulate alongside images and language that attempt to criminalize Hispanic immigrants. While the work of some contemporary photographers—like Victor J. Blue’s recent photo essay in Mother Jones—provides us with empathetic perspectives akin to Lange’s, it is conspicuously absent from anti-immigrant messaging. In our present, image-oversaturated world, it is easy for documentary work like Blue’s to be drowned out by narratives that attempt to obscure the whole story.

On this front, Seeing People may be able to offer wisdom for the digital age. “Media literacy … understanding how to read photographs … that’s really important in the culture now,” said Brookman. “In some ways, that’s what museum exhibitions like this one can do—help ask questions about ethics, and about what’s true and what’s not true in the pictures you’re seeing.”

Prompting questions about ethics, truth and how we may learn from historical mistakes is an essential responsibility of institutions like museums. Our social-media feeds do not have the same responsibility. Trump has cut federal funding for the arts and humanities precisely because the lessons these programs and institutions offer undermine the authoritarian narratives he is attempting to construct.

In January, the National Gallery of Art, which receives the majority of its funding through Congress, ended its diversity, equity and inclusion programs. This came as the result of a Trump executive order that ended DEI across all federal agencies and institutions, and referred to such programs as “illegal and immoral discrimination programs.” When asked if measures like these have made his work as curator at the National Gallery more challenging, Brookman said, well, not exactly.

“There’s so much scrutiny of what cultural organizations are doing now, and it’s always been that way,” he said. “So for me, it’s not different … it may be more out in the open now, but it’s always been there.”

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People is on view at the Nevada Museum of Art, at 160 W. Liberty St., in Reno, through Feb. 16, 2026. Learn more at www.nevadaart.org.

This article was produced by Double Scoop, Nevada’s source for visual arts news.

ART OF THE STATE

| BY JESSICA SANTINA Jonathon Keats’ Centuries of the Bristlecone, recently unveiled at the Nevada Museum of Art, is a clock that serves as a 5,000-year calendar, built with long-lasting materials such as brass dials and pendulums made of invar, a nickel-iron alloy that can withstand extreme temperature changes without contraction or expansion. Photo/Sarah Russell

Telling time by trees The Nevada Museum of Art’s new expansion contains a clock that runs on ‘bristlecone time’ One idea upon which nearly all humans agree is that the clock is in charge.

Time is a thief, a cruel mistress, and we will contort ourselves madly to meet its demands. Yet time, as we know it, in the modern day, is actually an arbitrary idea conceived by ancient Egyptians, enabling the earliest industrialization to occur. Since then, humans have been fixated on containing and somehow controlling time.

It’s this idea that has preoccupied Jonathon Keats, a conceptual artist and self-described experimental philosopher based in San Francisco, and fueled his latest creation, a new permanent installation at the Nevada Museum of Art, Centuries of the Bristlecone.

“It seemed to me that one culprit (of modern life), arguably, is time—not time itself, but the way in which we keep and master time,” Keats said. “The clock has allowed us to master the planet, which has ultimately led to unsustainable practices and a system

that is completely incapable of supporting the actions and activities we take for granted in terms of how we live our lives.”

Other living things, on the other hand, follow their own rhythms and pacing, responding to their environmental cues, oblivious to the ways in which we attempt to make nature conform to our schedules. Perhaps the greatest example of this is the Great Basin bristlecone pine tree.

At the summit of Mount Washington in eastern Nevada is a grove of these trees dating back nearly 5,000 years.

“Bristlecones only exist between 9,000 and 11,000 feet of elevation, so they occur in very unusual, pretty extreme environments,” explained Colin Robertson, senior vice president of education and research for the Nevada Museum of Art. “They have evolved to thrive at that altitude and elevation, despite extreme weather, a very dry climate and inhospitable soils.”

Bristlecones—gnarled, windblown trees with crooked, pointy branches that resemble

something from a Tolkien novel—have the longest life span of any living organism on Earth, according to some scientists. This makes them natural calendars and, as Robertson pointed out, the canary in the coal mine—an indicator species that, if the climate warms sufficiently, could cease to exist.

The number of rings in a tree’s trunk not only reveal a tree’s age, but also the environmental conditions: the thicker the ring, the more precipitation that year; light rings indicate early summers, whereas dark rings signify late falls.

Thus, in 2015, came the seed of Keats’ idea.

Thanks to a co-commission by the Long Now Foundation, a nonprofit that fosters long-term thinking, and the Nevada Museum of Art, Keats would create a clock would draw upon data collected from five selected bristlecones of various ages and altitudes, from Long Now’s own preserve, as extrapolated from core samples.

The finished clock would become a permanent installation in the Institute for Art + Environment at the museum—which finally came to fruition this summer, a decade later.

The 11-foot-tall dual pendulum clock juxtaposes traditional Gregorian time and bristlecone time. In the center is a plate that serves as a perpetual calendar, making plain the time gap between the two. The pendulums’ movement and finely crafted mechanisms were designed, engineered and fabricated by horologists Phil Abernethy and Brittany Cox. One pendulum measures time by the second; the other marks the passage of time based on data from the trees periodically collected by University of Nevada, Reno, researchers Scotty Strachan and Adam Csank. A life-size image of a Great Basin bristlecone tree is installed behind the clock, based on a photograph

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by artist and photographer Ian van Coller.

Intended to serve as a 5,000-year calendar, the clock is built with long-lasting materials such as brass dials and pendulums made of invar, a nickel-iron alloy that can withstand extreme temperature changes without contraction or expansion. Specialized electrical mechanisms ensure that the clock continues working despite minor disruptions such as power outages or daylight saving time.

The clock greets guests entering the south-facing museum door to the newly opened 50,000-square-foot, $48 million expansion that houses the Charles and Stacie Mathewson Education and Research Center. Here, guests will find classroom spaces, additional commissioned artworks, and the aforementioned Institute for Art + Environment, a focused research center and library with archive collections from more than 1,500 artists and organizations working on all seven continents. Centuries of the Bristlecone is the center’s showpiece.

As I write this, bristlecone time is running slightly ahead of standard time, a gentle reminder of the increasing effects of climate change. But Keats strives not to make a statement, but to present an invitation to reimagine our sense of time, reframing it as ecological rather than industrial.

“Ultimately, if I had a dream for this, it would be that the clock becomes unnecessary,” Keats said, “that ultimately, we are no longer consulting it, because we are sensitized to the ways in which time manifests, and time is signified all around us, in everyone and everything we encounter.”

Centuries of the Bristlecone by Jonathon Keats is on view in the Institute for Art + Environment, located in the new expansion of the Nevada Museum of Art, 160 W. Liberty St., in Reno.

Keats will join the institute’s William Fox for a conversation about the project as part of the Nevada Humanities Literary Crawl on Saturday, Sept. 13, from 2:15 to 3:15 p.m. in the museum’s Nightingale Sky Room.

This article was produced by Double Scoop, Nevada’s source for visual arts news.

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WESTERN LIT

| BY SARAH RUSSELL Sydney Martinez has spent the last decade adventuring in Nevada’s remote wonderlands, like the ghost town of Metropolis, near Wells.

Not exactly a guidebook Sydney Martinez’s book, ‘Finding Nevada Wild,’ is packed with stories of Silver State sights and sounds Just south of Highway 50, right smack in the middle of Nevada in Big Smoky Valley, is Spencer Hot Springs. About 10 years ago, Reno author, photographer, adventurer and turquoise-jewelry-maker Sydney Martinez was there with her husband.

“We arrived and got in an old metal cowboy tub or cattle trough,” she said. “And I remember sitting there and watching the sunset and seeing the wild burros in this amazing valley with the sky on fire and just being like, ‘Whoa.’”

Martinez fell in love with rural Nevada right then and there, leading to adventures all over the state, during which she took pictures, collected stories and watched the desert sky. That sense of “whoa” is what she tries to share with readers in her new book, Finding Nevada Wild.

Martinez believes Nevada and its diversity of beautiful landscapes don’t have the reputation they deserve. She hopes her book helps people see how Nevada is just as gor52

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geous as its neighbors. One thing she wants the book to do is “compare iconic world-renowned destinations across the West to what is in Nevada”—Lamoille Canyon compared to Yosemite Valley; Gold Butte National Monument to compared to Arizona’s Monument Valley, and so on.

“There are lush experiences in the Jarbidge Wilderness that are just as lush as some places in the Pacific Northwest,” she said.

Finding Nevada Wild collects the best of what Martinez, her husband and their dog, Elko, have found on their adventures. The 300-page book is organized into chapters by interest or activity, on hot springs, camping, beautiful drives, rural bars, dark skies, rockhounding and more.

Martinez arranged the book so readers looking for information about an area of interest would discover related things.

“Somebody could pick up the book and want to know about a hot spring and learn about the way a sage grouse sounds, or want to know about a really cool ghost town and … realize that there are some of the darkest skies of the

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world in rural Nevada, and find pictures that can inspire them to learn how to do astrophotography,” she said.

It’s a large-format book chock-full of color photos, so it could live on your coffee table for constant inspiration. While the book is full of ideas and inspiration, it isn’t a guidebook.

It won’t tell you where to go or what roads to take, but it’s packed with information about places to go, things to see, streams to fish and sounds to hear.

Martinez reflected on how much she and her husband love the remotest parts of Nevada.

“I think that some of our happiest days have just been the three of us out in the middle of ultra-rural Nevada, hiking, rock hounding, going to hot springs, playing cards and making good campfire food,” she said.

Her research included the usual resources— books, maps, websites, interviews—and the secret sauce: Nevada locals.

“There were so many times when I would be out in the middle of the state, and someone would pull up in a pickup truck and ask, ‘Hey, wanna see this cool thing?’ … Or, we would be in a bar and somebody would say, ‘Hey, you’re Sydney. Let me tell you the coolest thing that I know.’”

Martinez didn’t share all the secret places she discovered, but she encouraged her readers to find them themselves.

“Go out there; you might find something even better than the places I’ll tell you about by name,” she said.

Martinez credited three local creatives who inspired and supported her, and who became mentors and friends: author Michael Branch,

Kingston Canyon, south of Austin.

podcaster Fil Corbitt and photographer Scott Mortimore. Mortimore, Martinez said, knows more of Nevada’s rural roads than anyone. Corbitt inspired her to pay attention to the unique sounds of Nevada and to include a chapter called “Sounds From the Sage.”

“There are not many places in the world where you can go and not hear a power line reverberating or a neon sign or some kind of modern-man evidence out there, and Nevada is one of the places that you can,” she said. “Fil has really inspired me to think differently about places I had visited in a new way.”

Once she finished the book, Martinez began researching the Nevada legends she had heard about on her travels and wrote about them via a blog called “Legends of Lost Nevada.”

“The thing I like most is finding stories where there are multiple interesting things that thread together,” she said. “I really enjoyed the one I wrote about Josie Pearl, who was a badass woman prospector up in the Denio area. She was wearing diamond bracelets and ragged jeans and living way the hell out there in the middle of nowhere, and in that same area is one of Nevada’s first National Wildlife Refuges, the Sheldon, which is where the black fire opal was discovered. I love focusing on regions where people think there’s nothing out there, but if you look a little bit closer … you’ll find amazing things.”

Finding Nevada Wild will be released on Sept.

28. It can be preordered via Martinez’s website, findingnevadawild.com. At 10 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 13, she will appear at a book signing at Barnes & Noble. Also on Sept. 13, she be part of a panel discussion with Richard Bednarski, John M. Glionna and Mark Maynard as part of Nevada Humanities’ Literary Crawl at the Nevada Museum of Art, 160 W. Liberty St., from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

FILM & TV

| BY BOB GRIMM Bob Odenkirk in Nobody 2. cooks (that’s a Mr. Show reference), I’m in.

I’m happy Odenkirk got to play the role again.

It was pretty clear the first film was one of the best experiences of his career, and as a fan, I get a big kick out of him punching people and bleeding a lot onscreen.

Odenkirk has teased possible additional sequels. I hope he gets to do them. The box-office receipts for Nobody 2 will determine that—but if this is the conclusion of the Hutch saga, it’s ending on a decent note.

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Fight show Bob Odenkirk is back to kick more ass in ‘Nobody 2’; fantastic performances make ‘Weapons’ a new horror classic Bob Odenkirk takes—and throws—a lot of punches again as Hutch Mansell in Nobody 2, a fun follow-up to his surprise turn as an action star in the 2021 original.

Until he let the fists fly in Nobody, Odenkirk was best known as a comedy writer/performer—and, of course, Saul the lawyer from the Breaking Bad universe.

Lighter in tone and a lot sillier than the first venture, Nobody 2 is a good-enough sequel in that it doesn’t tarnish the reputation of the original, but it doesn’t improve upon it, either. Odenkirk, who had a serious and well-publicized heart attack after the original was released, says “heart trouble be damned!” as he doubles down on the action and ass-kicking for this one. He’s still got it, and he can throw down with the best of them. With two action films under his belt, Odenkirk is now a legit, extremely credible action star.

Hutch is working as an assassin to pay off a large debt incurred in the last film.

When that gets a little too taxing, he opts to take his family on a vacation to a dumpy but somewhat endearing waterpark resort, with his father (Christopher Lloyd) in tow.

Of course, somebody mistreats Hutch’s daughter (Paisley Cadorath) in an arcade, and a nasty butt-kicking is dispersed upon

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The summer brings us yet another fantastic horror film—continuing a banner year for the genre.

Weapons—director Zach Cregger’s stunning follow-up to Barbarian, his totally crazy 2022 horror pic—has everything you want to see in a classic horror pic: A great mystery, effective scares, good yucky gore, and surprising moments of hilarity make this a film for the ages. With Weapons, Cregger shows he’s part of the pantheon of awesome modern horror directors, alongside Robert Eggers, Ari Aster, Jordan Peele and Osgood Perkins.

The story—told in non-linear fashion, Tarantino-style—involves a group of children in the same class who mysteriously disappear one night, except for one kid (Cary Christopher).

Julia Garner plays Justine, the teacher of the class, who is targeted by townspeople in the aftermath of the disappearances as a witch, or at least as somebody who had something to do with the disappearances. Garner, whose efforts were wasted in a rather terrible horror film earlier this year (Wolf Man), counters with what turns out to be the performance of her career.

The film unfolds in multiple chapters, each focusing on specific characters and their parts in the proceedings. Josh Brolin is excellent as the most vocal parent, who finds himself unraveling with the disappearance of his child, yet he keeps it together enough to conduct his own investigation. Benedict Wong is a standout as the school principal, who really likes hot dogs, and

the offender. This angers a local sheriff (a solid Colin Hanks) and his crooked boss (John Ortiz).

However, that crooked boss isn’t the real baddie in town. That would be Lendina, played by none other than a ridiculously over-the-top Sharon Stone. Stone is fun here, even if she does chew the scenery a little too much in spots.

It’s her most memorable onscreen turn in more than a quarter-century. Heck, it might be her best performance since Total Recall (1990).

Connie Nielsen is fine as Hutch’s patient wife, Becca. She’s kind of had enough of Hutch’s shit, but, heck, in a dark sort of way, she digs Hutch’s tendencies to mash faces. Gage Munroe is good as son Brady; he’s prone to violence like his papa, but keeps things relatively cool. One last, extra shout-out to Hanks, son of Tom, who perhaps does his most memorable work yet as the sleazy sheriff. It’s a role we’ve seen a thousand times before, but he puts a good spin on it.

Director Timo Tjahjanto, veteran of quite a few horror films, shows he can handle an action set piece, including a very memorable one on a “duck boat”; it’s a watery variation of the infamous bus fight from the original. The final showdown between Hutch and Lendina, staged in an amusement park, is another winner. Yes, a river of blood does cascade down a waterslide.

While the mood is a little lighter than in the original, this film isn’t quite as funny, but perhaps that’s because a bit of the novelty has worn off. This one is sort of like Vacation meets Walking Tall with a little bit of Jackie Chan thrown in.

Anytime I get a chance to see FF Woody-

Austin Abrams plays one of cinema’s all-time most-memorable junkies.

Alden Ehrenreich, who was a so-so Han Solo in Solo, gets the sort of role he’s always deserved after his fine work in the Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar! As Paul, a cop entangled with both Justine and the investigation into the disappearances, Ehrenreich, like Garner, gets the role of his career.

Amy Madigan, who annoyed the shit out of me as the wife so many years ago in Field of Dreams, re-invents herself as a spectacular horror movie actress as Aunt Gladys. Wow. No further details on Gladys will be shared here. Go see what Madigan has done to earn the raves she is getting.

Not only does the mystery play out in a satisfying way; the climax is the sort of shocker you simply won’t be able to predict. Cregger has made a movie that will keep you guessing and doesn’t disappoint with the payoff. It’s a great-looking movie as well, although I will be anxious to watch this on home video when it becomes available. The theater I saw it in seemed to be a little dim on the projection side, making some of the night scenes a bit difficult to see.

While all of the horror elements are so well done, this movie also works as an exemplary piece of drama; the performances are top-notch throughout. As is often the case in the best horror films, there are a lot of great, uncomfortable laughs to be had, especially in the film’s final act.

Weapons is a reminder that not all films in the summertime need explosions or dinosaurs rampaging or comic-book characters flying around to provide stellar entertainment. Interestingly, the film’s cast is a virtual who’s-who of Marvel movie and Star Wars performers; Brolin (Cable and Thanos), Ehrenreich (Han Solo), Garner (Silver Surfer) and Wong (whose Marvel character name is actually Wong!) all played significant parts in those blockbuster franchises.

It’s slightly disheartening to see that Cregger’s next directorial effort will be a reboot of Resident Evil. Actually, upon second thought, maybe it’s a good thing. If anybody can put a much-needed darker spin on that franchise, it’s Cregger.

Julia Garner in Weapons.

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THE DISH

| BY DAVID RODRIGUEZ

Ruth Ibarra Owner and chef, Tacos de Canasta Jalisco food truck

Business owners and startup founders: What’s keeping you up at night? We can help you with those challenges—for free!

9-11:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 13 @ The Innevation Center 450 Sinclair, Reno BizAssembly.org

Ruth Ibarra and her husband, Francisco, opened Tacos de Canasta Jalisco in 2021, looking to re-create and share the flavors of their native state of Jalisco, Mexico.

Serving from their red truck, they quickly gained a reputation for authentic, Guadalajara-inspired specialties like tacos, mulitas and tortas ahogadas (a dipped version of the Mexican sandwich). As the truck’s reputation grew, so did the lines of customers. On any given Saturday, Ruth and her family, including her two daughters, serve hundreds of plates to regulars and newcomers. The truck is parked on the corner of Wells and Capitol Hill avenues on Saturdays and Sundays, open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but hours may vary.

I conducted this interview in Spanish, and Ruth’s daughter, Alondra Ibarra, helped confirm my translations were correct.

Photo by David Robert

am reminded of her as I make food for my family and for others.

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten locally in the last month?

Birria. It’s my favorite, and I could eat it all the time. Lots of birria is available in Reno now. It’s so good.

What’s the most unusual thing you have in your refrigerator right now?

Nothing unusual, just delicious Mexican food!

Your kitchen is on fire— metaphorically! What are you cooking?

Tacos de canasta! They are my specialty, and I love to make them. (Author’s note: Tacos de canasta, also known as “basket tacos,” are typically made with corn tortillas and filled with various ingredients like refried beans, potatoes or chicharrón/pork cracklings, then layered and steamed in a basket. This steaming process results in a unique, soft texture and allows the flavors of the filling and tortillas to meld together.)

Who is/was your greatest culinary influence?

My mom. She was an excellent cook, and I 54

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What’s your favorite midnight snack?

A jericalla! It’s a dessert similar to flan but served individually in cups or ramekins. It’s something that reminds me of home.

What local restaurant deserves more attention and why?

Mariscos El BarCo. It’s one of my favorites, and not too many people know about it, which is a shame. It’s delicious and authentic.

How does food contribute to our community?

As people, we like to share our experiences, to express comfort and joy through food. In our case, we also like to share the feeling of our native city of Guadalajara— one of the most beautiful in the world.

Please share your favorite food memory from when you were a child.

The torta ahogada. I have loved eating it from a bag since I was a child. I’ve eaten it like that ever since.

What’s the kitchen tool you can’t live without?

Because my job is as a cook, I cannot live without my gloves.

If you could have dinner anywhere in the world tonight, where would it be, and why there?

I would immediately go to Guadalajara and simply walk around eating the food of my youth, the food of my family, the food of my history.

WINE

| BY STEVE NOEL Whispering Vine Wine Co.’s Fourth Street location includes plenty of seating options, where you can enjoy one (or more) of 2,500 different wines. Photo/David Robert

Which wine bar is for you?

Highlights, vibes and bites at readers’ favorite wine bars RN&R readers have spoken, and Reno’s top wine bars have been named in this Best of Northern Nevada issue.

I love that Reno has developed a rich wine-bar culture. We are seeing more wine bars open, offering increasingly diverse selections. There are no bad wine bars in Reno; it’s a matter of finding the one that fits your vibe—whether that matches your personality in general, or simply the mood you’re in that night.

Here’s a closer look at the top vote-getters, along with some of my favorite things about each one.

Whispering Vine Wine Co.

The winner again in the Best Wine Bar category is Whispering Vine Wine Co., which has two Reno locations—4201 W. Fourth St. in the northwest part of town, and 85 Foothill Road in south Reno.

Both locations carry an enormous selection of wine—more than 2,500 different bottles—so you’ll have no trouble finding something you like. Both also offer wine flights to help you decide what to purchase.

The staff includes many experts who can guide you in choosing the perfect bottle.

There are plenty of seating options—at the bar, group tables or quieter corners.

The Fourth Street location features a kitchen, while the Foothill location allows you to order food from nearby restaurants.

I especially love the extensive by-the-glass list. No matter what I’m craving, I know I’ll find an option. My favorite food item at the Fourth Street location is the grilled cheese with tomato soup. The sandwich has a great crunch and a perfectly balanced blend of cheeses that pairs well with crisp whites, structured reds or sparkling wines.

I’ve never had a bad glass of wine—or a bad day—at either Whispering Vine location.

Craft Wine & Beer

The first runner-up, Craft Wine & Beer, is both a specialty bottle shop and a bar. Its carefully curated selection includes wine, craft beer, spirits, sake, cider and nonalcoholic beverages, with a strong focus on small production and environmentally responsible makers.

Located at 22 Martin St. in Reno, Craft Wine & Beer offers both indoor and outdoor seating.

Because there is no kitchen, many customers bring in food or order delivery. The shop hosts frequent tasting events; you can get the latest information in-store or by joining the mailing list.

What I love most about Craft Wine & Beer is its Midtown location and its fun, young, eclectic clientele. The energy here is contagious, and browsing the shelves feels like wandering through an international wine shop.

Zephyr Wine Bar

Located at 15415 Wedge Parkway in south Reno, Zephyr Wine Bar is a neighborhood spot

with elegant décor and a welcoming, relaxed atmosphere. It offers unique wines (including some on tap) and a distinct tapas menu.

Zephyr also provides private event space for 25 to 100 people. With indoor and outdoor service, it hosts winemaker events and live music.

The website has the most up-to-date schedule.

Highlights—beyond the wines, of course— include the warm hospitality from owners Jenn and Andre Walker, the live music and, of course, the food. My go-to favorite is the brie, pear and prosciutto crostini, which pairs beautifully with nearly any wine on the menu. The patio is especially inviting on cool evenings.

Let the Washoe Zephyr breeze carry you in!

TASTE OF THE TOWN TASTE OF THE TOWN

Events

Saint Anthony’s 2025 Reno Greek Festival is taking place Friday and Saturday, Sept. 5 and 6, at Saint Anthony Greek Orthodox Christian Church, at 4795 Lakeside Drive, in Reno. The event will feature Greek dancing, live music by the Helios Greek Band, and traditional food and desserts. Menu highlights include souvlaki, spanakopita, roasted lamb, gyros and baklava. The church will be open for history and theology tours. Festival hours are 5 to 10 p.m. on Friday, and noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday. Details, including a full menu, are at renogreekfest.com.

Blackrock Wine Co.

Blackrock Wine Co., located south of McCarran Boulevard at 6135 Lakeside Drive, bills itself as the only wine and beer bar in Reno led by a certified French wine scholar, sommelier and sake professional. Unsurprisingly, the wine program is excellent.

The menu features bottles and by-the-glass options, along with light bites. The bar also hosts winemaker events, blind tastings and live music; check the website for dates.

Among the food offerings, I especially enjoy the duck rillette toast—herbed bread topped with smoked duck and goat cheese. It’s a fantastic bite to match with wine. Their selection includes more than 280 bottles, with around 160 whites and rosés already chilled and ready to pour.

Archive Wine + Beer

Archive Wine + Beer, in the Riverwalk District’s West Street Market, at 148 West St., offers wine by the glass, half-glass or bottle. While Archive does not have an in-house kitchen, food options are available steps away.

Open Wednesday through Sunday from 4 p.m. to close, Archive includes a private gathering room for up to 30 people. The retail selection features more than 100 wines, with about 60 reds and 30 whites available at any time, along with sparkling wines, rosé, beer, cider and seltzers.

A highlight is owner Steve Boyer; he makes every guest feel welcome. The casual space is great for people-watching, and his wellsourced selection always surprises with both quality and value.

Reno’s wine bar scene is thriving, and I hope you visit these Best of Northern Nevada winners and finalists—as well as the many other bars enriching the city. Supporting them helps the culture grow stronger.

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The Wheyfarer is offering special treats in coordination with the Northern Nevada Pride parade on Saturday, Sept. 6.

The specialty cheese shop will open early at 9:30 a.m. to serve mimosas, sangria, pastries and “Pride cheese and charcuterie cups” (pictured). Pre-ordering is encouraged. Ten percent of proceeds from Pride cup sales will go to Northern Nevada Pride. The Wheyfarer is at 24 California Ave., Unit B, in Midtown. Learn more at thewheyfarer.com.

Sample the Sierra, an event celebrating regional culinary culture, is happening at Bijou Community Park, at 1201 Al Tahoe Blvd., in South Lake Tahoe, from noon to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 6. Tickets are $75 to $85. The event will highlight restaurants, wineries, breweries and distilleries, and feature an artisan market and live music. Full details are at samplethesierra.com.

Newly Open

Reno Public Market, at 299 E. Plumb Lane, recently welcomed three new vendors: Honey Treat Yogurt, Pink Poke and Mami’s Tequila Bar. Honey Treat serves an assortment of frozen yogurtbased treats including smoothies and shakes. Pink Poke serves customizable continued on next page

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TASTE OF THE TOWN TASTE OF THE TOWN

LIQUID CONVERSATIONS

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poke bowls. Mami’s (pictured) offers a variety of tequilabased drinks. For menus and more information, visit honeytreatyogurt. com and follow @ pinkpoke51 and @ mamistequilabar on Instagram.

Little Truckee Ice Creamery, a known quantity in the Lake Tahoe region, opened a new location at 1650 Robb Drive, Suite B4, in northwest Reno. The shop offers at least a dozen flavors each day, including nondairy, coconut-milk-based, and sorbet treats. The menu includes everyday flavors, among them salted caramel, and seasonal ones such as lemony lemon bar.

Learn more at truckeeicecream.com.

“I think the big, motivating factor for me is that I like passing the knowledge on to these young cats,” said Dylan Evans, owner of 1864 Tavern, who launched a bartender competition series two years ago. Photo/ David Robert

Coming Soon

Country Creamery, based in Fallon, is bringing its ice cream to the Reno Experience District (RED). The owners broke ground in July; the shop is scheduled to open in the fall and will be located at 2020 Red Drive, No. 3. Owners Kyle and Carly Sipherd purchase local cream from Fallon’s Cottonwood Dairy, a fourth-generation family farm. Country Creamery’s established flavors include campfire s’more, mix berry cheesecake and white mint chip. Seasonal flavors will also be available. For a look at the options, visit countrycreameryco.com.

Also coming to RED: Electric Pickle, a restaurant with an eclectic menu and pickleball and bocce courts, is slated to expand to Reno early 2026. According to planning documents filed with the city, Electric Pickle will be located next near the intersection of Red Drive and Element Lane. “In Reno the venue features nine pickleball courts, an indoor-outdoor restaurant with bold menu offerings, and a variety of activities like golf simulators, bocce, live music, and cornhole,” the plan reads. Learn more at electricpickle.com.

Closings

Jüs has closed all of its locations after 15 years in business. The last day of operations was July 26, per a note on the door of the Midtown branch at 740 S. Virginia St. Step Korean Bistro has closed, per a note on its door at 2855 N. McCarran Blvd., in Sparks.

Have local food, drink or restaurant news? Email foodnews@renonr.com.

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Friendly competition Bartenders face off monthly at 1864 Tavern to hone their recipes and earn their stripes I’m not a historian, but according to the 2001 movie A Knight’s Tale, medieval knights would joust not only for money, but also for glory.

These days, it is not as easy to find ways to joust with your peers, but down at 1864 Tavern, owner Dylan Evans has been setting up friendly bartender competitions for the past couple of years. These contests feature local bartenders from all over the area coming together to make cocktails in a head-to-head format. While the stakes of a drinks competition are not the same as with most medieval feats of sport, the idea remains the same: Give it everything you’ve got for the glory.

“One of my favorite and most terrifying experiences coming up bartending was competitions,” Evans said.

We both started bartending in the 2010s, a time when local bartender competitions

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were more common than they are today.

Bartenders would come together to showcase sponsored alcohol brands and compete headto-head to win prizes, with the best recipe and charisma ultimately emerging victorious.

These contests were an excellent way for bartenders to gain confidence, test recipes and earn recognition for their skills.

“We got to grow up competing in front of our peers,” Evans said. “We put our creations out there to be appreciated, and somewhat destroyed, but we’re always putting ourselves out there just to say, ‘Look, I belong here.’”

Over the past eight or so years, the competition landscape has shifted mostly online, removing community and showmanship from most contests. And, as in many communities after the COVID-19 shutdowns, the Reno bartending community has fewer opportunities to gather and share. So two years ago, with the help of sponsored brands, Evans and his team

started hosting competitions again—first a couple of times a year, and now every month.

“I think the big, motivating factor for me is that I like passing the knowledge on to these young cats,” Evans said.

He and his team ask local beverage-industry veterans to judge the competitions, giving newer bartenders the opportunity to showcase their skills in front of some of Reno’s most discerning drinkers. Past judges have included owners and bartenders from some of Reno’s most award-winning bars, like Death and Taxes, Rum Sugar Lime and Chapel Tavern.

The themes and format for these cocktail showdowns depend on the sponsoring brand; some brands may want a focus on more austere, stirred drinks, while others may want a wild, tropical flair.

Evans said the competitions involve varying levels of difficulty. “Some are easier; some are harder, but I don’t want to always keep raising the stakes, so the competition can remain approachable,” he said. His competitions have brought together bartenders with diverse skill sets, coming from workplaces ranging from dive bars to high-end cocktail lounges.

The competition jitters can be a considerable factor while competing. When the spotlight is on, it’s common to see bartenders who make drinks every day sweating with nerves.

“It helps you when your peers are cheering you on, and you see them having the same nervousness,” Evans said. “Everyone shares that same drive and those same feelings that you’re having in the room. It levels the playing field”.

Some thrive under the pressure of competition, challenging themselves to create in ways they never would have otherwise. “I think that competitions can give people real-world exposure to their concepts, to see what real people think of their drinks,” Evans said.

Once every quarter, Evans invites the public to join these normally industry-only events.

The public events are ticketed, and proceeds go to charity. Evans also pays the bartenders—and for some, these public showcases are the first time they are being paid for their skills, rather than just their labor.

1864 Tavern is located at 290 California Ave., in Reno. If you are interested in joining these contests, either as a participant or as a person who loves cocktails, follow 1864 Tavern on Instagram @1864tavern to learn about upcoming events as they’re scheduled.

MUSICBEAT

| BY MATT KING North Mississippi Allstars. Photo/Michael Emanuele

Mixing things up North Mississippi Allstars are set to bring their folky, soft-rock, sometimes psychedelic jams to South Lake Tahoe Blending gospel, roots music and bluegrass, brothers Cody and Luther Dickinson have been crafting an expansive sound rooted in the sounds of the South for nearly three decades.

Their project, North Mississippi Allstars, started with them making music with friends and collaborating with talented artists—and it has grown into one of the highlights of the modern jam-band scene. Every show and every new release has pushed the band into further creative territory, infusing modern and classic sounds from a vast array of genres into the band’s patented twangy music. Their latest album, Still Shakin’, was released in June.

North Mississippi Allstars are set to perform at The Hangar in South Lake Tahoe on Sunday, Sept. 21.

“We started with this idea—the concept of having a loose collective of musicians from

our community who liked psychedelic Mississippi music,” Luther Dickinson said during a recent phone interview. “It was almost like an art project more than a band, in a way, and the fact that guys are here 30 years later, it’s mind blowing.”

Dickinson said he’s always liked the idea of a collective.

“Our father’s band and business was like that,” he said. Their father, Jim Dickinson, fronted Mud Boy and the Neutrons. “It was a core group, and the rhythm section was always different people. It’s really good that we set it up this way, because the lineup has always been moving around, for various reasons over the years, but right now, with Joey (Williams) and Ray Ray (Holloman), it’s just a wonderful lineup. These guys are such a joy to work with.”

Dickinson had nothing but praise for those aforementioned musicians.

“Joey Williams, he plays guitar and sings in the Blind Boys of Alabama, and he’s with us most times, and will be with us then (in South Lake Tahoe),” he said. “He’s just a fantastic singer, guitar player and bandmate. Ray Ray Holloman, his main gig is playing guitar for Eminem and Ne-Yo. Eminem doesn’t work a lot, but when he does, Ray Ray’s the guy. He’s got a show coming up with Pharrell (Williams), so he works at a super high level, but when he’s got time off, we’re so fortunate that he comes to play with us.

They both play every instrument, so with these guys, we have the freedom to do what we call ‘the switcheroo.’ They each get on drums; they take turns on bass and guitar. It’s really fun.”

Across 30 years, North Mississippi Allstars have explored many musical spheres, branching away from their gospel-heavy roots into more psychedelic and country periods. Dickinson said a departure catalyzed an experimental RenoNR.com

period for the band.

“When our longtime, historic bass player, Chris Chew, left the band—he was a Mississippi gospel bass player—we didn’t hire any gospel musicians for a while, so we went to different rock and psychedelic areas, which is cool to explore,” he said.

However, with their current lineup, Dickinson feels the gospel vibe has returned.

“It really has been good to work with Joey and Raymond, both who come from the church, and it really adds a special ingredient to what we do,” he said. “Our brand is Mississippi rock and roots, and when you put that church element in it, it’s just so funky and soulful. That’s really been an important ingredient from time to time.”

No matter the genre, North Mississippi Allstars always embrace the art of the jam. Their blues numbers, country jams, gospel tunes and more all get transposed in live settings, as the musicians stretch out segments and experiment with the songs. Dickinson said the band has avoided burnout by mixing things up.

“It’s funny: We’ll record a record, and then even when we tour that record, we don’t try to play it like the record,” he said. “The record is a record, and every night, we reinterpret everything. It’s just an indulgence we allow ourselves. It might be fast; it might be slow; it might be short; it might be long. Who knows what will happen?

“It really does help. I wouldn’t be interested in just playing the same exact arrangement, the same exact way, every night. If you have huge hits thousands of people want to hear, then you have to do that, but we’ll cross that bridge when and if that happens.”

For Dickinson, this is a natural way of performing live.

“We grew up with the Allman Brothers Band and Jimi Hendrix, and then later, we worked with Phil Lesh and studied the Grateful Dead music,” he said. “Those bands are all wildly interpretive. It’s another tradition we learned from our father—the concept of taking American roots music as platforms for improvisation.”

This era of the band is so good, Dickinson said, that he’s eager to put it to tape.

“I hope to record again, and really soon, because these musicians we’re working with are so inspiring, and I just want to take advantage of that while we’re together,” he said.

North Mississippi Allstars are set to perform at 7 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 21, at The Hangar, at 2401 Lake Tahoe Blvd., in South Lake Tahoe. Tickets are $40.12. You must be 21+ to attend. For tickets and more info, visit www. thehangarlaketahoe.com.

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JONESIN' CROSSWORD

| BY MATT JONES

THE LUCKY 13

| BY MATT KING

Sarah LaBarge Bassist/vocalist of Reeking Slug

“A Little Outside”—four notable characters.

By Matt Jones Across 1. Johnny formerly of The Smiths 5. Straight Outta Compton co-star ___ Jackson Jr. 10. Pop group with 40 years between albums The Visitors and Voyage 14. ___ d’amore (Baroque instrument) 15. Matilda author Dahl 16. It’s a square number in German 17. Began eagerly 19. Knitting festival material 20. He played opposite Burton in Becket 21. Go head-to-head 23. “Dear” group 25. Night in Madrid 26. Like some relationships 30. New Orleans pro team 33. “___-Pah-Pah” (Oliver! tune) 34. ___ de Torquemada (Spanish Inquisition

leader) 36. Feedback 37. Short cut 39. “Little” literary characters that can be found on the outside of the four longest answers 41. Young Frankenstein actress Teri 42. Kickoff 44. Middle East desert region 46. “We’ll say later,” on a schedule 47. Mudslide liqueur 49. Subject of an upcoming cancellation, with “The” 51. Capital of Guadeloupe, ___-Terre (literally, “low land”) 53. Big ripoff 54. Walking loudly in armor, maybe 57. Sci-fi visitors 61. The Avengers costar Diana 62. Supplement that may assist cognition 64. Motivate 65. Electric toothbrush maker 66. Made shinier, perhaps 67. Delivery time,

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usually 68. Ballot box bundle 69. Smoked fish Down 1. Supernatural charm 2. Share a boundary with 3. Former Cowboys quarterback Tony 4. Share again on social media 5. Infomercial’s urgent request 6. “___ says to the guy ...”

7. Poker holding 8. “Candle in the Wind” name 9. Philippine meat dishes 10. Whatever 11. Familiar route 12. “A Holly Jolly Christmas” singer Ives 13. Breathing Lessons author Tyler 18. Middlemarch novelist George 22. Source of antioxidants 24. Four-color toy of the 1980s 26. The Chosen author Chaim

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27. ___ Doone (Nabisco cookie) 28. Slow-moving vehicle in parts of Pennsylvania 29. Oasis animal 31. Prefix with prop or charger 32. Takeout bag item 35. Some consoles 38. Spice mixes 40. Measurement in some diets 43. Mammoth protrusion 45. Calflike 48. Prolific author Isaac 50. Little bit 52. Febrero preceder 54. Icky stuff 55. Italian money, once 56. Bus. school entrance exam 58. Detroit River’s lake 59. Void’s partner 60. RCMP ranks 63. Shout after a score © 2025 Matt Jones Find the answers in the “About” section at RenoNR.com!

RenoNR.com

Reno trio Reeking Slug craft a brutally disgusting mix of stoner rock, punk and metal. The tones are heavy; the drums are fast; and the vocals are guttural, combining three necessary ingredients for a nasty doom-rock band. Sarah LaBarge handles bass and vocal duties, bringing a fuzzed-out flavor and an emphatic rasp, respectively, to each role. Reeking Slug recently released their debut EP, We Are the Wave, featuring six songs with hard riffs, mosh-heavy energy and slow breakdowns. For more information, visit www.instagram.com/ reekingslug. Photo by David Robert What was the first concert you attended?

Three Days Grace, Seether and Breaking Benjamin at the Pepsi Coliseum in Indianapolis when I was in the eighth-grade.

What was the first album you owned?

Meteora and Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Recently, I have been listening to Chat Pile and BbyMutha.

What’s your favorite music venue?

Healer, a DIY venue in Indianapolis. It’s a venue that took over an old strip-mall office, so there are still cubicles, and they all have some sort of art installations in them! It’s super-cool. I highly recommend it if you are ever in the area.

What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?

“I wanna see your grill / You wanna see my what? / Ya, ya grill (uh), ya, ya, ya grill / Add a whole top diamond and the bottom row’s gold (Come on!),” Nelly, “Grillz.”

I’ll never NOT know these lyrics.

What band or artist changed your life? How? I would say early Nightwish. I listened to that band as a kid and got a burnt CD of their greatest hits, and it honestly opened my mind to different kinds of genres at an early age—which leads me to Korn, ha ha.

They have been a big influence on picking up bass.

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?

Miley Cyrus.

You have one question to ask one musician.

What’s the question, and who are you asking?

BbyMutha: How do you achieve your flow state?

What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?

Kittie at Ozzfest in 2000.

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“Take da Charge” by Project Pat.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

Hmmmm, that’s kind of hard to answer. I like a lot of different kinds of music, and it’s funny when they all end up on a playlist of mine—from anime soundtracks to trap to sludge-y stuff.

Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?

Evidence of Immortality by Conan.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

“Why” by Chat Pile.

15 MINUTES

Jason Williams

Best of Northern Nevada illustrator

Jason Williams’ drawings for this year’s Best of Northern Nevada issue portray a changing Reno while highlighting the many ways in which locals seek out fun— ubiquitous blue scooters and all. Williams has contracted with clients like Microsoft, Patagonia and the U.S. Air Force, and now works full-time designing and illustrating online games for Crazy Tooth Studio. He also draws caricatures. If you want a funny, quickly drawn cartoon version of you and yours, you can occasionally find him set up at the Riverside Farmers Market on a Sunday, or at other local events. To learn more, visit www.jasonillustrations.com and @artof_jasonwilliams on Instagram.

Photo/Kris Vagner What kinds of imagery were you looking at and enjoying when you were growing up?

My favorite artist always has been, since I was a kid, Norman Rockwell. I grew up near Boston. He was in Massachusetts.

And cartoons—Hanna-Barbera and Looney Tunes are my favorites. I always wanted to be a comic strip artist in the newspaper, and then that kind of evolved into comic books, which I’ve done—and realized that’s a horrible industry to be part of.

Why? Because it’s so much work and so little pay.

So the process of getting into illustration was maybe a process of elimination? You knew you liked the field, but not every part of it.

It has narrowed itself down over the years, but I’ve always been good at drawing, and I always got, luckily, a lot of support.

I wasn’t great at school, so my parents really supported my art. My grandfather was a phenomenal painter—never did anything with it, died very early—and then my dad was a wonderful illustrator, and again, never did anything with it. My grandmother always told me if I loved it, I should just try to make it my life, and it has been.

Tell me about a milestone you’ve reached in your career.

I got to draw official Star Wars art about

| BY KRIS VAGNER a decade ago for Topps trading cards, and posters and storyboards for Nickelodeon—and quickly realized that “making it” was not what I had pictured. You do it for a few minutes, and then you move on. The industry has changed so much.

Everybody’s being laid off, and you just work on one episode and then get your season, and you get laid off. So changing my expectation for what success was—I think that was my “a ha!” moment, like, “Oh, I am doing my art for a living; I have a studio at home, and that is really good enough. I’m happy.”

When you were conceiving the Best of Northern Nevada illustrations, did you go out and do any firsthand research?

I did. I did a lot of walking downtown, and I saw a lot of new art that I hadn’t seen before. A few pieces made it in. I’ve lived right downtown … and I’ve lived in Midtown, so I love walking. I’ve just been walking around and doing caricatures and character design for the last 20 years. I recognize things and write them down, so there were actually a lot of sketchbooks that I went back to.

In your drawing for the “Food and Drink” section, the name of your imaginary restaurant, “La Gentrifique,” sums up a lot about the zeitgeist. What is your process of distilling something as complex as a rapidly changing Reno down into a word or a gesture like that?

It really isn’t even a thought process anymore. It’s that gut feeling. … This is all stemming from caricature work, where I have to recognize somebody in all their features, in under a few seconds. Seeing a certain car go by, or the way somebody’s dressed, or a restaurant—everything has a vibe, and it’s just something that I’ve, over 30 years of being a professional artist, honed in on. … Those moments and the environment around me and politics and all of that—the more I’ve let that in, the more it’s become part of my art.

If somebody who had never set foot in Reno were to ask you to describe Reno culture, what would you say?

Eclectic. What I enjoy about Reno is it doesn’t have a singular vibe. If you go to Boston, which I just spent time in, it has a vibe that you can feel immediately.

Portland, Seattle—all of it has a very distinct feeling about it, and I don’t get that.

Every 25 feet down the block is a different feeling to me in Reno. It’s very ragamuffin, and I love that about it. The architecture, the people—everything comes from somewhere else, for the most part. So, “eclectic” is definitely the word I would use.

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This rare exhibition brings together the iconic work of the famed weaver Louisa Keyser (known as Datsolalee) and other talented Washoe artists-on display for the first time in nearly two decades.

SCAN THE QR CODE OR VISIT CARSONNVMUSEUM.ORG

600 N. Carson Street, Carson City, NV 89701 60

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