Food Stuff

The road to Tahoe is paved with good intentions, but Highway 80 on a busy ski weekend can be a highway of hell. Traffic, chains, ice, cold—and, after you survive all of that, lift tickets are just $58 a day! Fortunately, awaits at the halfway point, in the town named after the right honorable Schuyler Colfax (U.S. vice president from 1869 to 1873). Buzz Thru Joe’s allows one to exit the Highway 80 maelstrom quickly for a jolt of decent coffee, a fresh-baked treat, a fruit smoothie or a light meal, without having to leave the comfort of the sport-utility vehicle. The menu says that “tourists are treated like home folk,” and we were impressed by the friendly manner in which we were received. Of course, this being an interstate highway, there are the usual fast-food joints nearby, for the purists who prefer their hell undiluted. 504 S. Auburn Street, Colfax; (530) 346-7977.