There’s a new venue in downtown Truckee and like many local establishments, it’s got a philosophy all its own: Locally sourced, from top to bottom.
“We’re looking to bring in some new acts from Reno and other places while continuing to support local artists.”– Libby Sullivan
“We wanted to create a space with an elegant, yet approachable feel where people can come for one of the best healthy, local food, beer, wine and menus in the area,” says the first-time restaurateur Hayden Pruitt of his new venture, Philosophy.
Pruitt has so far contracted with regional food providers Tahoe Food Hub, Produce Plus, Liberty Food & Wine Exchange, Sierra Bakehouse, Lobo Baking, Truckee River Winery and local breweries FiftyFifty, Alibi Ale Works, Knee Deep, Revision and Moonraker to provide the grub and suds for his establishment
“Our philosophy is about giving back,” he says. “These days, we’re all caught in our own worlds. I wanted to create a place with more of a communal atmosphere where we can all get together. It’s less about creating restaurant and more about designing a unique concept for the people of Truckee.”
Philosophy opened on May 18 on the west end of downtown Donner Pass Road in the building that used to house Stephen Rembert’s cabinetry shop, Sash and Door. As it so happened, Pruitt hired Rembert’s daughter and former Cottonwood waitress Libby Sullivan to be his general manager.
“It all just kind of fell into my lap,” he says of the partnership.
They installed a kitchen, a bathroom and a crescent moon bar with wood built-ins climbing up into the wide-open, well-lit space before adding a stage, sound system, fireplace and family area. The one-of-a-kind lighting design across the ceiling took three days to hang. There will also be artwork arranged by Blue Wolf Studio and a newly commissioned centerpiece by artist Earl Christiansen.
Gina Rose
June 1 | 7:30 p.m.
Lost Whiskey Engine
June 8 | 7:30 p.m.
Darabello
June 9 | 7:30 p.m.
Sullivan dove headfirst into summer booking with more than 20 acts already on tap in genres in jazz, folk, bluegrass, classical world and avant-garde. There will be live music at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays this summer
“I think eventually we’ll get an identity as far as the music scene goes,” she says. “After working at Cottonwood for three years, I saw a lot of the same bands that play everywhere around the lake. We’re looking to bring in some new acts from Reno and other places while continuing to support local artists.”
One of the bands scheduled to make its Truckee debut on June 9 is Darabello. This eccentric duo from Reno features Joseph Tatum laying down string-looped cello riffs for percussionist Ethan Gray to expand on with bowed cymbal and radiating toms over a shimmering backbeat.
“We’ve always gone against classical norms,” says Tatum. “Both Ethan and I have tried to push our representative instruments as far as we can. We’re kind out there with new innovative sounds. Everything is groove-centric and rhythmic with a lot of improvisation and interactive play.”
According to Tatum, للاضراب in Arabic — pronounced dar-uh-b — means to strike. Gray often plays a darbuka, a Middle Eastern goblet drum during his multi-faceted work with Darabello.
Tatum is a member of the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra who studied at Indiana University before earning a graduate degree in cello performance from University of Nevada, Reno in 2015 where he met Gray.
“Just about everything we do is an original composition written through collaborative process,” says Tatum. “I’ll come to Ethan with my various loops stacked up and ask him if he thinks anything is missing. Then we discuss together the momentum of the piece and how to lay out songs in terms of energy.”
Darabello plans to record a debut LP in August at Imirage Sound Lab in Sparks, Nev., with producer and UNR professor Tom Gordon who has previously worked with Dr. Dre, The Beach Boys, Boyz II Men, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, Ozzy Osbourne, Collective Soul and Whitesnake. | truckeephilosophy.com
