On Lake Tahoe’s Northern Stateline, An Elusive Restaurant Cooks Japanese-Californian Cuisine Using Local Embers

Driving across state lines along the Northern bend of the American treasure that is Lake Tahoe, it’s hard to miss the obnoxiously-iconic signage that welcomes visitors from California the exact way anyone traveling to Nevada would expect: “Casino.” As that distracts you in one direction, probably getting lost in the Tahoe landscape in the other, you’re likely missing a discreet portal that transports you to an edible entertainment experience which instantly turns North Lake Tahoe into a renowned dining destination.

Technically in both states, underneath the Nevada welcome sign sits a black and wooden facade, reflecting what’s inside: a ‘saryo’ called SMOKE DOOR. The saryo, or boutique fine dining establishment, is the creation of chef Tyler Burges, a California native who developed the primitive concept of cooking with embers to accentuate the natural flavors of each ingredient in his refined and artful dishes.

The Culinary Philosophy Of Chef Tyler Burges

Burges’ fine dining philosophy began to form after dropping out of business school to work in the restaurant industry. A Bay Area native, Burges was ambitious from the start. The first restaurant he ever worked at was Del Mar’s fine establishment, Market Restaurant + Bar. “I picked the best restaurant that I knew of in San Diego,” he tells me. Even though he was mainly just chopping vegetables, his feelings towards becoming a chef were validated, and he continued enhancing his food IQ. He graduated from the preeminent Culinary Institute of America and would land a gig at Meadowoods Napa Valley, which went from two to three Michelin stars during his tenure (the restaurant unfortunately burned down in a wildfire this summer). Burges, along with his culinary director in Lake Tahoe, Fernando Recio, also worked at San Francisco’s two Michelin-starred Saison. “Every single thing matters [in fine dining],” Burges says. “It’s never good enough…I love that aspect.”

He found a new muse in chef Ron Siegel, the first American to win the original Japanese Iron Chef, while working at San Francisco’s flagship Michael Mina restaurant. Siegel would regularly return from trips to Japan with ingredients that enticed the burgeoning young chef. Burges would start to take his own trips to Japan, finally gaining clarity on the style of restaurant he felt destined to open himself. “It was about using Japanese ingredients and exploring Japanese culture and techniques…maybe applying them in a different way,” he says. “The stress they put on every single nuance of everything is so interesting to me.”

Finally, Burges felt ready to carry the responsibility of servicing diners through his own unique gaze. In 2019, Burges met restaurateur Ryu Amemiya, who is also an exporter of Satsuma wagyu beef. The two were both ready for a new venture and agreed to open a restaurant in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, together, which Amemiya owns. “We wanted to try to fuse wood-fire cooking with California cuisine and a little bit more Japanese influence,” says Burges. SMOKE DOOR Yokohama is considered more of an elevated casual restaurant, SMOKE DOOR in North Lake Tahoe, which opened in 2023, is the second iteration of the restaurant, which they co-own. Although this location is upscale, you can come in wearing a t-shirt and shorts and chat up the staff, creating a fine, but also informal, environment.

California cuisine is very unspecific–as Burges puts it, “there’s no textbook.” But there is one undeniable similarity between California and Japanese cuisines: Seasonal produce.

With summers on the lake and winters on the slopes, Tahoe understands seasonality. SMOKE DOOR’s menu changes as the seasons do. “We really wanted to be the pioneer in developing this dining experience in this area,” Burges says. “[Tahoe has] good ingredients and a good atmosphere…the perfect wood, vegetables, protein.” It’s a sort-of homecoming for Burges, who spent winters growing up snowboarding in Tahoe, which is more known for its cozy, après ski-type restaurants. “Guests tell me Lake Tahoe needed a place like this,” Recio says. “[At SMOKE DOOR], I can use my creativity. I don’t have limits.”

The Aroma Of Intense Almondwood Embers

While traveling throughout Japan, Burges and Amemiya found inspiration when they saw sanma, a seasonal East Asian fish, cooked between layers of volcanic ash. “You get a really high, intense heat where it burns the outside and gently cooks the inside,” says Burges. They would then decide to put their own spin on that technique, known as ‘haiboshi’ (“ash-dried”), applying it instead to beef, and using embers from a variety of wood to achieve a robust crust. In Yokohama, the restaurant sources Japanese oak trees, and in Lake Tahoe, it sources California almond trees, the aromas of which seep into the food.

Embers are the hottest part of the fire before the wood turns into ash. Cooking with embers requires the chefs to create a ‘hearth,’ almost like a small campfire, but the results are very different from those of open-flame cooking, which results in harsher flavors. The hearth is built with a cast iron box, which elevates the wood logs. “As the wood burns to the point where it’s no longer breaking down all the carbon, it drops into these golden embers, then you scoop them out and cook over that directly,” Burges explains. The heat from the embers can reach about 2,000 degrees fahrenheit.

“When you cook over embers, you have more of a sweet barbecue or smokey flavor. In a pan, you’re usually putting butter inside of it. [With embers] you don’t need any of that. You have the pure taste of whatever you’re cooking.”

Burges and his small team of talented chefs utilize the embers in multiple ways, including indirectly. For example, the golden-charred sky-grilled cauliflower that they serve is hung above the hearth to slowly roast. “It’s getting smoked from all the wagyu fat…it gets this really meaty aroma and flavor.” The entire cauliflower, served on a bed of crispy shallots, comes out soft, yet firmly intact, and tastes like sweet and smoky candy.

The motif of smoke is unavoidable throughout the experience. Another dish that the embers take to another level is the Japanese eggplant, the flesh of which is mixed with miso and thrown into a pile of coals at the bottom of the hearth to achieve an enchanting earthiness that feels all too appropriate in the heart of Lake Tahoe.

Golden osetra caviar, served on top of a creamy homemade tofu and sourced from a local caviar farm, introduces the experience, arriving on a plate of embers that are still smoking; the almondwood aroma billowing into your face.

Lunch service offers enoki mushroom tempura which looks like a crescent-shaped spider web, a grilled romaine caesar with Hokkaido miso which mimics the umami of anchovies, and ember-charred edamame which impart an intense smokiness that wakes up your nostrils as the pods approach your face.

Desserts include a tart green apple wasabi sorbet with an apple skin consommé, red miso coconut cake, and a smoked miso soft serve ice cream. The beverage program includes spirits like a house-smoked vodka and wagyu fat-washed bourbon.

Sourcing Grade A4 Wagyu

The visibility of wagyu (literally, “Japanese beef”) is exponentially increasing in the States–particularly A5 Grade wagyu, the highest grade, indicating exceptional marbling or fat content. “The American public really perceives grade A5 as the best. But in Japan, you might get a differing opinion,” says Sheila Patinkin, President of the American Wagyu Association. “I’ve heard from some Japanese butchers that there is an evolution of rethinking if grade A5 is better than grade A4.” The US currently accounts for 16% of Japan’s wagyu exports. According to this IMIR report, the wagyu market is currently worth over $15 billion, up from $10 billion from 2020.

When served wagyu at SMOKE DOOR, diners receive grade A4 wagyu with a Beef Marbling Score, or BMS, between 6 and 8 (out of 12). The reason for this “downgrade” is so that the rich, fatty flavor does not overpower the natural taste of the beef. “One of the reasons why I’m not a huge fan of grade A5 Japanese wagyu is that it can taste slippery and slimy to me,” Patinkin says. “The higher the marbling, the more it will oxidize and turn grayish…less palatable.” Seasoned only with salt, SMOKE DOOR’s almondwood embers add another layer of tasting natural wagyu flavors.

SMOKE DOOR serves wagyu in multiple ways, including a wagyu katsu sandwich, dressed with Japanese mustard, katsu sauce and some cabbage between two faintly toasted hunks of milk bread from Reno’s Perenn Bakery. “We wanted to do a wagyu sandwich to show its versatility,” says Amemiya. There’s also sliced wagyu plated aside tiny mounds of condiments like smoked salt, green yuzu kosho, and tableside-grated wasabi (sourced from Half Moon Bay Wasabi Farm).

Most of this wagyu is sourced from Kagoshima prefecture, located at the southern tip of Kyushu. This southernmost island of the main Japanese islands produces more than 35%, the most, of Japan’s wagyu. Burges and Amemiya select a handful out of thousands of wagyu producers there who individualize the diets for each of its cattle, which they view as the most important aspect for good wagyu. “The feed is all local. In Japan, that’s very rare,” Amemiya says. “The region is also famous for shochu and sake. So they use all the leftover rice used to make those [to feed the cattle].” This practice of rejuvenating compost heightens the sustainable aspect in raising this cattle.

SMOKE DOOR provides residents and tourists a brand new experience that has organically stitched itself into the mesmerizing fabric of Lake Tahoe. Amid the backdrop of pines, firs, and the cerulean lake, a wooded affair paying homage to its natural surroundings is bound to leave a mark on diners who come to the lake for an escape.