Hoping Fumo Will Be Smoking Hot for Breakfast

 

Fumo

120 Country Club Drive Unit 61

Incline Village, NV 89451

Well, we made it to Lake Tahoe. After a long night of getting to meet all of Katie's coworkers, winning $4 in the casino, and having one or two adult beverages, we both decided to sleep in a bit before our noon boat ride on picturesque Lake Tahoe. This would be the only time that we'd be able to try any of the local restaurants, so I had to choose a spot wisely. 

Lucky for us, one of the highest-rated restaurants in Incline Village on Yelp was about a block away from our hotel. Fumo has a four-star rating with over 200 reviews written. From what I can gather online, they opened for business in February of 2019, and in that time have gotten a lot of love for their breakfast and dinner, but the main draw might be their snow globe dining, a heated plastic igloo type structure that allows them to have customers eat outside during the cold winter months. No need for that igloo when we visited here in late July, but the pictures of them look pretty cool. 

Fumo means smoke in Italian, but you'll be hard-pressed to find any Italian dishes on any of their menus. They serve breakfast and lunch from 7 to 2, and then they reopen again for dinner from 5 to 9pm. Make note that they are closed Tuesday and Wednesday. I'd describe the dinner menu at Fumo as upscale American, while the breakfast menu is a little more varied, with most selections setting you back $15 give or take a few dollars in either direction. 

We arrived at Fumo at just after ten and were seated right away, to the left of their patio in the front of their restaurant. I'm not sure if they had just not seen us off to the side, but it was about ten minutes before we were greeted. Not wanting to miss our boat ride, we quickly made our selections and waited about thirty more minutes for our food. This was fine because we gave ourselves plenty of time, but if you are in a hurry, be advised that based on our experience here, the pacing of our meal could be diplomatically called leisurely relaxed. Let's check out our meals. 

Katie went for the straightforward approach at Fumo for her first meal of the day with this Loggers Skillet ($14). Two scrambled eggs, four strips of bacon, roasted potatoes, and toast comprised this plate. She was pleased with this meal. The eggs were buttery, they were very generous with the amount of bacon included, and the cubed potatoes were nicely seasoned and fork-tender. 

Fumo has five benedicts available, and I was intrigued by the Bacon Avo Benny ($14) from the time I first saw it on their menu. This mostly traditional benedict starts with an English muffin on the ground floor and is then layered with a poached egg, bacon, avocado, and plenty of hollandaise sauce. This was executed well, with the egg poached nicely, but the hollandaise sauce was pretty overwhelming and did not share the stage with the bacon or avocado, both of which were lost here. Definitely not one of the worst benedicts that I've had though.  

Something that I've never seen and had to try was this Croissant French Toast ($12)). It's a very photogenic dish and tasted just as good as it looks. I liked that it was not overly sweet, had a pleasing texture, and was not as heavy as pancakes, which just sit in your stomach for the rest of the day. I also have to shout out to Fumo for having syrup dispensers, instead of just parceling out syrup in little containers, as I always have to end up asking for more. 

Last but not least, we had to give their Cheddar Cheese Biscuit and Gravy ($5) a whirl. I was expecting the cheddar cheese to be incorporated into the biscuit dough, but it was melted on top of this heap. The gravy had very big hunks of ground sausage included in it, which was an interesting component. The biscuit itself was fine, but I'd probably pass on this the next time I visited Fumo. It was stick to your ribs comfort food, but not at all what I was expecting. 

Fumo is a solid spot for breakfast, but it did not really blow me out of the water. It was nice to get out of the resort and eat where the locals eat though. Fumo is off the beaten track and if you are looking for a nice leisurely meal, this might be the place for you. The service was nice and personable, but it seemed like the kitchen was having a few issues on this particular morning. Just be patient. Prices are not too bad for breakfast or lunch, but entrees for dinner will set you back $30 or more, and $46 for the salmon. With a hearty breakfast, we were ready to tackle Lake Tahoe.  

Out of five elevators, (because Lake Tahoe is deeper than the Empire State Building is tall, and that building features 73 elevators), five being best to zero being worst, Fumo gets 3 elevators. 

For more information about Fumo, head to their website here: https://fumotahoe.com/