Star Hotel Carries on Basque Tradition in Elko, Nevada

The Star Hotel, at the corner of Third and Silver streets in Elko, Nevada, is one of the most popular eateries in not only Elko but all of northeastern Nevada. The Star specializes in Basque food served family style.

What's Basque food? It's essentially wholesome meats grilled or stewed in red bell peppers and garlic. The Basque people are from the Basque region of northern Spain in the Pyrenees Mountains on the border with southern France.

Basque chicken is served with a peppery Spanish tomato sauce. Their steaks are the best in the area, simply seasoned and grilled to perfection. If you want your steak medium-rare, you'll get the steak medium-rare. A meal is served with homemade vegetable soup, green salad with buttermilk dressing and freshly baked bread and butter. The main dish comes on its own plate, and is accompanied with a plate of French fries, some kind of vegetable, some beans and spaghetti. Other items to check out are the lamb chops, pork chops and king crab. Lunch features an awesome steak sandwich, Basque chicken sandwich and seafood salad sandwich made with real Alaskan king crab.

Why spaghetti? Nobody really knows. For some reason it's the one thing everyone complains about, yet nobody says anything to the owners of this and other Basque restaurants in the area because they don't want to seem insensitive. The problem is, spaghetti has no place in Basque, Spanish or French kitchens. What's worse is that it's obviously canned spaghetti that they've attempted to jazz up with fresh cut tomatoes and ground beef.

Spaghetti aside, though, The Star does it right. Because of this, it's hard to get a table of any size around peak lunch and dinner hours, so I suggest showing up at 11 a.m. or between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. If you call a day or so in advance, you may be able to make a reservation in the side room for a sizeable group.

The service is typically good and fairly prompt, but in a peak lunch of dinner hour be lucky to have your drink refilled once, if at all. That's where the reliance on the pitcher of water at each table comes into play.

For those looking for an extra zing with their meal, try their picon punch. It is an alcoholic beverage made with brandy and a mixture of other secret liqueurs. It's very tasty and just the thing to help warm you up on a cold Elko night.

The prices are a bit steep, but keep in mind lunch includes salad, soup, bread and French fries. Dinner includes all that one more with veggies, beans and that lovely canned spaghetti.

At one point The Star Hotel was indeed a hotel, but that was a long time ago. There are still elements of Elko's Basque history adorned about the restaurant, and there's even a story on the menu of how the Basques have contributed to not only the United States, but the whole world.