In 2020, Ted Lasso burst onto the pop culture scene. Not long thereafter my friend Alonna Smith, the brilliant owner of My Indian Stove practically begged me to watch it. She realized that with my penchant for British comedies, I’d love the laugh-out-loud show about an American soccer coach who assumes the help at a Premiere League soccer team in the United Kingdom despite not knowing anything about soccer. Lasso is the master of the one-liner as well as the bringer of balm during heart-warming scenes. He’s warm and fuzzy…and as usual, Alanna steered me in the right direction.
On the second episode of season one, Ted began the practice of bringing freshly baked biscuits to the football club’s owner Rebecca Welton. “Biscuits with the boss” quickly became one of the show’s most endearing gags. Moreover, it’s essential to the relationship Ted wants to build with his stoic, business-like boss. Over the time, the daily biscuit fix defrosted Rebecca’s cold heart and she embraced Ted not only as integral to her team’s future, but more importantly as a friend.
Bringing biscuits to his boss also displays Ted’s efforts to assimilate with British culture. What Americans like Ted would call “cookies,” Brits like Rebecca would call “biscuits.” Indeed, the “biscuits” Ted baked himself and brought to Rebecca are shortbread cookies presented in their signature pink box. These “biscuits with the boss” are available for sale online: “These authentic English biscuits are a touch salty, a touch sweet, and always buttery and rich. One bite of these Ted Lasso™ shortbread cookies with their signature crumbly texture and you’ll realize why Ted believed in the power of biscuits.
Biscuits are another example of “two countries separated by a common language.” Tell some Southerners that a cookie is a biscuit and they’ll get almost as ornery as if you had told them the Yankees won the “Northern War of Agression.” Biscuits–“real biscuits”–as they’re baked in the South are a source of pride. Family recipes for biscuits are sacrosanct. It’s not quite unanimous, but many Southern bakers attribute the superiority of Southern biscuts to White Lily self-rising flour, a soft wheat flour. Alas, most of the flour sold in the US is made from hard wheat.
During our eight years living in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, we had our share of bodacious biscuits, some so light, buttery and fluffy we wondered if they were heaven-baked. Sure, we’ve had good to excellent biscuits since then, but none achieve the dream-worthiness of Southern biscuits. When we learned about Pine State Biscuits in Reno, we wondered if they managed to abscond with a ton or ten of White Lily flour. Our greeter told us Pine State Biscuits are buttermilk drop biscuits. Qualities of buttermilk drop biscuits are a light crust formidable enough to hold up to weighty sandwiches and thick country gravy, but still very fresh and tender. “We’ll be the judges of that,” we thought to ourselves.
Naturally Mr. Geography Bee wondered if the genesis of Pine State Biscuits is North Carolina whose state nickname (in addition to Tar Heel State) is The Pine State. Instead, we learned Pine State Biscuits got its start in Portland, Oregon way back in 2007. Today there are three locations in Portland, one in Alberta, Canada and one in Reno. The Reno location is relatively small, wider than it is deep. Most of the seating is two-top and four-top tables. You’ll place your order at a counter directly across from two coffee pots. Refills are free and the coffee is delicious.
Anyone who’s ever loved an All-American biscuit will love the menu at Pine State Biscuits (are you reading this, Lynn?). Nine biscuit sandwiches lead off the menu. One of those sandwiches–The Reggie (fried chicken, bacon and cheese topped with gravy; with or without a fried egg ) was named one of the country’s best sandwiches by no less than Esquire magazine. Three biscuits with gravy dishes are available, too. You can also enjoy such Pine State specialties as chicken pot pie, shrimp n’ grits and a classic wedge salad. A passel of sides give you more to contemplate as do the desserts (which include biscuit beignets).
Darn blue cheese dressing! Instead of enjoying a biscuit with a less assertive sauce, I had to have the first Wedgie (fried chicken, fried green tomato, wedge of iceberg lettuce, and house blue cheese or ranch dressing) since my scrawny, gangly, clumsy adolescence. I mean, how can you possibly resist blue cheese, the favorite dressing of all turophiles? My smart move was polishing off the lettuce and blue cheese first, leaving the moist and delicious fried chicken to enjoy with the biscuit. In another “deconstruction” move, I enjoyed the fried green tomato (not quite Southern caliber) with whatever blue cheese remained. The biscuit was everything you could possibly want in a biscuit. It was light, flaky, buttery…delicious. Even Southerners wouldn’t complain about them.
My Kim proved (as usual) smarter than me by ordering The Chatfield (fried chicken, bacon and cheese topped with apple butter) “deconstructed.” She wanted to slather her biscuit with butter and the wonderful apple butter (why isn’t Nevada the “apple butter state?”) That apple butter is among the very best we’ve ever had. A bona fide poultryphile, my Kim praised the fried chicken. If it passes muster with her, you know it’s got to be good. She learned how to fry chicken from my mom, the undisputed best fried chicken cook and tortillera in Peñasco. Deconstructing any of the biscuit sandwiches is actually a good idea considering it takes a Guy Fieri-sized bite to enjoy all the ingredients together.
Even better than the biscuits is a cinnamon roll topped with bourbon caramel sauce. We’ve enjoyed a plethora of bread pudding with a similar sauce, but this cinnamon roll was pure genius. That bourbon caramel sauce elevated an otherwise excellent cinnamon roll into rarefied air as one of the best pastry desserts we’ve had. Make sure to pair this dessert with the restaurant’s Coava coffee, a Portland brand tinged with chocolate though just a bit bitter.
We aren’t ready to declare Pine State’s biscuits on par with biscuits baked in the Deep South, but for a Miss Congeniality, they’re very, very good.
Pine State Biscuits
200 South Center Street
Reno, Nevada
(775) 432-2464
Website | Facebook Page
LATEST VISIT: 24 June 2024
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: N/R
COST: $$
BEST BET: The Wedgie, The Chatfield, Coava Coffee, Bourbon Caramel Cinnamon Roll
REVIEW #1406
Ever since I got food poisoning from Pine State in Reno, I refuse to go there again.
Good to know that you are not on the gravy train, Gil, as one of your critics has recently alleged. I’m glad also that you read my novel, however the title is “Fifty Flavors of Gravy.” Concerning that you mistook it for the other, more salacious tome. Not sure what you get up to after you tuck Kim and The Dude into bed at night…never mind, none of my business! Carry on seducing us, er, recommending restaurants.
Of course I read this review, Gil. You know I hang on your every word. I had to read it twice, in fact, because I could not believe that while there were biscuits being sampled, there was no mention of their frequent, some might say necessary accompaniment. In fact, “gravy” is mentioned eight times on the menu, including under the category “Sides.” Eight times! And yet not a drop of it touched your sesquipedalian sybaritic lips. I can understand how you saw and were distracted by “blue cheese,” despite the unfortunate name of the offering. Once that taste was satisfied, and oh, yes, even after the great fried chicken, then would have been the time. Or, if you needed to get back on the road right away, I imagine getting something to go might have been a possibility. Indeed, returning to the menu once again, lookee here — “Creamtop Buttermilk Biscuits
Available individually, and as a half or a full dozen” Did I already mention that gravy was available as a side?? Well my friend, there’s nothing more for me to add. Reno, Nevada is 1,000 miles away so the opportunity has passed for you to determine if Pine Street gravy does justice to their “light, flaky, buttery…delicious” biscuits. If it does, and those biscuits are as good as you claim…perhaps the road is calling!
Lynn, I totally agree with you! At the Portland location we have been to they have had a couple of options. We go there every time we are in Portland, though we haven’t been in a while as the friends we visit have moved to Sister Or. I can guarantee if we get within a hundred miles we will make a detour to sample their excellent biscuits and GRAVY.
Forgive me, Lynn. Though I’ve read your hit novel “Fifty Shades of Gravy,” I don’t always partake of such sensual pleasures. Certainly it’s not because I’m looking out for my once svelte figure. As you know, I tend to gravitate (or is it “gravytate”) toward the weird things other people wouldn’t order. That’s to my detriment. We’ll definitely try the gravy next time we visit Pine State Biscuits.
We first learned of Pine state biscuits on a 2009 episode of DDD. They started in 2006 at a weekly Portland farmers market.
Thank you, Bruce. I probably watched that episode but my enfeebled memory erased it somehow.