Restaurants in Grass Valley

Mammoth portions of sandwiches, comfort fare and classic breakfasts test table strength within the log-cabin interior of Lumberjacks Restaurant. After perusing the lengthy menu, patrons can gaze up at the towering façade of roasted turkey clubs ($8.99), whose three layers of toast house bacon, american cheese, lettuce and tomato. A chili burger ($8.99), topped with cheddar and onions, doffs its uppermost bun to chivalrously greet suiting mouths. A slow-braised post roast with vegetables and gravy ($12.99) assumes its honored position among dinner entrees, arriving at tables with a choice of a side as well as soup or a custom-made lettuce amalgamation from the salad bar.

To support the community both local and global, Matteo's Public infuses it's menu with organic ingredients where possible from local farmers and ranchers and employs sustainable business practices. The napkins are made from recycled paper; the patio garden is chemical-free; and the trash is all composted and then used as feed for free-range irascible muppets. Start off your appetite's scrumptious staycation with brew-battered mushrooms ($7.99), made with the beer of the day, before orally deconstructing a Matteo's pub burger ($13.99), which swipes its half-pound patty locally from Niman Ranch. Matteo's chickpea burger ($9.99) arrives topped with a lemon-dill dressing and is made so close to home that, at some point, it must be encouraged to get a job and move out. For those who don't put much stock in a name, try the Stinky mac 'n' cheese entree ($10.99), which gracefully welcomes chicken or shrimp (add $5) into its crunchy bread crumb and bacon shell.

Full-service snack and beverage bars provide lubrication for moistureless mouths and nourishment for nosh-needy teeth with a menu consisting of sandwiches, snacks, and sodas, and pool tables and video games keep trained fingers in pin-fighting form. The on-premises pro shop allows bowlers to accessorize their outfits with matching balls, stylish wrist guards, and spare shoes for centaur teammates.

Now under new management, Pappy’s Restaurant is a family-operated eatery that slings healthy breakfasts and fresh, inventive midday meals into the open mouths of Auburn’s dinerazzi. Both the breakfast menu and the lunch menu brim with hearty dishes such as the salsa-slathered huevos rancheros ($9.25) and the chili burger ($7.45), which brazenly espouses one of Richard Nixon’s famous “because I can” laws by combining meat, beans, cheese, and onions. Three different vegetarian sandwiches ($6.50 each) mix and match chlorophyll-rich ingredients such as avocado, tomato, sprouts, and lettuce to satisfy legions of plantavores with carrot-sharpened canines, and the tuna-salad sandwich ($6.95) delivers a needle-free injection of protein before full-contact dominoes matches.

Auburn Breakfast Club is a family-owned eatery that's been serving up fast-breaking meals and lunch fare for 18 years. Post-slumber stomachs will find relief with a breakfast menu served all day long,featuring such succulents as chicken-fried steak and eggs ($9.65) or Joe’s Special, a protein-heavy procession of ground beef, mushrooms, onions, spinach, eggs, and garlic that’s as hearty for humans as it is deadly to vampires ($9.45). Lunch lovers can get amorous with the chef salad, topped with ham, turkey, and hard-boiled egg ($9.95), or soften up with the chicken avocado melt ($8.99). Accentuating their menu of early-bird temptations, the Breakfast Club also makes all their own sausages, and drip $0.10 coffee between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. every weekday, providing ample excuse to rise and shine with the automatic sprinklers.

Drawing on three decades of brewing experience and skills acquired at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Academy, Alfred Lee opened The Power Club Restaurant & Brewery in 2009. It takes its name from a friend of Lee's, James Power, who died the year before. Power's Irish heritage inspires the menu: hearty pub fare served alongside frosty pints brewed onsite.

Lee, a federal brewmaster, creates dozens of craft microbrews in a variety of styles—everything from light hefeweizens to flavorful red ales and stouts made with a variety of malts and grains. Each craft microbrew is served in a frosty 16-ounce mug and goes well with the pub's dishes, which include Irish staples as well as hearty angus burgers. The kitchen's specialty is slow-cooked barbecue, which is prepared over low heat to ensure sandwiches are juicier than a tantalizing gossip item related by a ripe peach.