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Another Cookbook Dining Adventure! It's hard to tell that this hotel is 126 years old. The fresh yellow paint makes the colonial style hotel look pretty young.  It's actually a pretty swanky place that we couldn't afford. We were staying in a cabin, down the road. Dinner Options We were staying at Lake Lodge Cabins. (not Hotel) The cozy rustic lodge had cafeteria style dining, which sounded less appealing.
Plus, there were no recipes from Lake Lodge, featured in the amusing 1950 Ford Treasury Cookbook, that we were traveling with. Lake Hotel did have a page in our book, so it was an easy decision! Down the Road In the early afternoon, we grabbed our cookbook and headed down the road to check out Lake Hotel and its dining room.  The parking lot already made us feel like we might be out of our league. The Front The ritzy lakeside entrance was made extra snazzy with the yellow tourist car, resting in the shade of the modern (added 1928) porte cochere.  When looking down from the hotel towards at Lake Yellowstone, it was fun to imagine the wealthy guests arriving by ship. This was much preferred, since stage coach travel was bumpy and dusty! The Lounge Don and I only traveled 2 minutes from our lodge, but we needed to sit and settle our nerves for a bit in the lovely lounge, surrounded by windows.  We sipped on lemon water and pretended we were guests until we got up nerve to peek at the menu and ask about reservations. The Pre-Happy Hour Crowd We wandered past the small crowd gathering early at the tiny bar near the dining room entrance.  After a quick look at the menu we realized the prices weren't much steeper than most National Park Lodge dining rooms. The earliest reservation opening was 9:30. "We'll take it!" Back Again We headed back to spend some time at our lodge, enjoying our porch rocking chairs. We returned later in the evening to the lounge. There were indeed some snooty guests, giving the poor bartender a very hard time.  But there were some delightful and possibly sober guests, who were enjoying live piano music. Some sang along while others danced. We finally entered the dining room, only a little famished by 9:30. Sharing the Book After being seated I hoped we would have an older server who could appreciate the silly nostalgia of an old cookbook and who could laugh at the old illustration which revealed the same yellow paint in 1950.
Most National Park lodge employees are international students, which could make my "cookbook encounter" extra tricky. But we lucked out with a young and relaxed American student named Dominic.  He was chatty and comfortable and made no attempt to hide the fact that he was glad his busy night in the dining room was almost over. He seemed pretty happy that his long work season was about to come to an end. He seemed to be the kind of unfiltered guy that could handle a lady and her cookbook. Time to Order It was time to order, so I casually asked for the Barbecued Spareribs, which was featured in the cookbook. Dominic laughed and said, "I wish." I teased, "Well, you should serve them. This book says you do!" I pulled out the book with the recipe. He frowned at the page for a split second, then his jaw dropped, "What the...!" He caught himself, politely. I handed him the book and he propped it open on the back of a chair and leaned in to study.
"Where did you get this?" He seemed utterly perplexed. And so was I, because young people don't generally care a bit about an old cookbook. He continued to explore the book. He studied the copyright date and flipped through pages. Then I announced, "Now you know you're going to have to be in a photo with that book? Is that okay?" He shrugged like there would be no problem, but then asked to take the book for a minute first. He returned with the manager and two servers. The Pose Jim took our photo while Dominic held the book.  A few diners seemed to be wondering what was going on, but no one bothered to ask. We placed our order and teased about the spareribs we couldn't have. Dinner We did eventually eat. It was late so we didn't order big, or linger long. Don's bacon cheeseburger with truffle fries, was just about perfect.
My spinach and cold rice salad was the excellent choice, after over 2 weeks of road food dining. My meal tasted even more perfect when I added a stolen piece of Don's crispy bacon. Happy Dining I'll add two more photos as a reminder, that cookbook dining adventures bring out the fun in all of us. Wait a minute? I really am not sure what those expressions are about.. on my face!
I only wanted to capture the smile on the Adam's (the manager) face. And the other photo shows Dominic, when he finally smiled!. I guess I could have just cropped myself out... but cropping can sometimes remove part of the story! It was a fun dinner and evening.
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The Dining Blog
This is a blog about Dining Adventures. Sometimes, I talk about food. Below, you can read how this started. On July 4th 2011, I set a goal to try 50 culturally diverse restaurants in one year! (I knew that was possible, living in the Houston area) I spent the year pulling in friends and family to join me, on some unusual dining adventures. I met some curious people, tried some scary foods and explored places and cultures I never would have otherwise. Even though I met my goal, I learned too much to end my adventures in dining. I have continued blogging about memorable dining adventures of all kinds, near and far... and all the discoveries and funny things I've learned along the way! Locations and types of dining adventures, are listed further down. Archives
June 2026
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