Snowmobile meal delivery redefines eating in North Tahoe’s backcountry
A culinary power couple has cooked up a solution to the backcountry dilemma of half-frozen energy bars, bruised bananas and smashed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Husband and wife Shane and Lara Hammett, owners of the Sage Leaf restaurant in North Tahoe, are taking flavorful cuisine beyond window seating to powder hounds touring Tahoe’s backcountry.
Their innovative snowmobile delivery service merges their craft for serving up mouthwatering food with their love for Tahoe’s winter landscape.
“It’s our two favorite things to do,” Shane said. “We created a way to do both of them simultaneously.”
A Tahoe-inspired menu
The couple has carved up a Tahoe-themed menu, pulling items from Sage Leaf’s lunch offerings and modifying them to be durable enough to travel without losing the restaurant’s “made-with-love” touch.
“For me, it’s about cooking food and putting that love and care and time into it,” Shane said, “and then watching people enjoy it.”
Having worked in restaurants their entire lives, the Hammetts use their experience to source the freshest seasonal, local, sustainable and humanely raised products.
Backcountry entrees include:
- Powder Poacher Pastrami Sandwich: A half-pound of thinly sliced hot pastrami and Swiss cheese between a Truckee Sourdough French roll with sautéed red onion and caper rosemary aioli.
- Chickadee Ridge Chicken Sandwich: A brioche bun holds soy-glazed chicken, topped with a sweet jalapeño and cilantro sauce, baby arugula and spicy pickled vegetables.
- Bluebird Veggie Sandwich: Grilled eggplant and baby peppers with rosemary hummus and feta cheese.
- Backcountry BBQ Burger: A one-third-pound butcher-cut steak patty layered with braised and fried bacon, backcountry BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese and house-pickled cucumber, served on a brioche bun.
Each backcountry meal includes a bag of chips and a choice of bottled water or energy drink. Meals are designed to minimize trash and are easily packed out.
Delivering warmth and community
The Hammetts not only want to sled delicious food into the backcountry, but also want to usher Sage Leaf’s warm, friendly and inviting service to both locals and visitors alike.
It reflects Sage Leaf’s core value of creating a space where community and family love can flourish—whether in the restaurant or on a snow-covered slope after conquering a couloir.
In addition to rendezvousing with backcountry skiers and riders, the delivery service aims to serve snowshoers, cross-country skiers and even families sledding in the Tahoe Meadows.
Whatever the recreation, Lara and Shane aim to take the stress off, lighten the load and add to Tahoe’s rewarding backcountry experience.
“It changes the way the day goes, to be able to sit down and have a freshly made sandwich and enjoy it with your friends,” Shane said. “It’s a different experience.”
A culmination of dreams
Shane and Lara met 18 years ago while working at a restaurant in Yountville, California. Shane, a kitchen mastermind who attended culinary school, aspired to become a chef and worked his way up through various kitchens. Alongside that goal, the couple dreamed of living in Tahoe.
That dream began to take shape when they moved to Incline Village in 2011 and became rooted when they opened Sage Leaf in the summer of 2020.
The restaurant’s success paved the way for the couple to fully enjoy the reason they moved to Tahoe—snowboarding. Their latest endeavor, backcountry delivery, continues to expand that dream.
“Essentially, what Shane did is he made it so he could turn what we love to do into a job,” Lara said. “So then it’s not a job.”
The restaurant’s name is a nod to Nevada’s state plant, sagebrush, a hardy and durable species that thrives in Tahoe summers and continues to grow through winter—much like a Tahoe local, the Hammetts said.
How to order your off-piste meal
To order a backcountry meal, call Sage Leaf at 775-413-5005. Requests must be placed at least 24 hours in advance (more notice for groups of eight or more). Customers should provide one of the delivery locations listed on Sage Leaf’s website and a preferred delivery time between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Orders must also include a radio and privacy channel in case customers are out of service.
Sage Leaf will call back to confirm orders, as avalanche forecasts and weather may affect delivery.
Deliveries are expected to begin as soon as there’s enough snow on the ground.
“I think it’s just a really unique, one-of-a-kind operation,” Shane said, “that gives people an experience they can’t get anywhere else.”
For more information, visit sageleaftahoe.com/backcountry-delivery-service