Louis’ Basque Corner

Louis’s Basque Corner is the home of traditional cooking. Known for its Basque influence, Louis’ Basque Corner is notorious for its family-style cooking and its hearty food ranging from rabbit to lamb to the yummy Basque Burger. After finishing up with Outreach, my team and I were driving down Fourth Street and while we were driving down, I saw right on the right of me, Louis’s Basque Corner. Now, I have never eaten there but I have eaten at a Basque restaurant south of Reno and it is very different from your usual restaurant. You are usually served several courses—appetizer, soup, entrée, and desert—and it usually takes about a couple of hours to eat because, different from here in America, meal time is the time where you socialize and relax and to really just spend quality time with friends and family.

In Northline by Willy Vlautin, Allison walks by Louis’ Basque Corner: “After a while, just being in the apartment frightened her so she got dressed and headed downtown. She passed Louis’s Basque Corner and Last Dollar bar, St Vincent’s thrift store, and the Fireside Liquor Store” (Vlautin 83). Frightened by her own loneliness, Allison decided to get out of her apartment and back into Downtown Reno which could also be a frightening place but in a different way. The danger of hanging around in the area by oneself, especially if you are a female, can be quite frightening but for Allison, it was her source escape. But to think of Allison’s solitude, left to her own thoughts to overlook any dangerous possibilities she may face being out and about by herself on Fourth Street on top of it all must express a glimpse of how afraid she really was to take the risk anyways.

Passing by Louis’ Basque Corner felt different, though, from the rest of Fourth Street. While doing Outreach, I walked along the area and I saw a different side of Reno that I am not used to, yet when I stumbled across Louis’ I felt a warmer side, a side that I am more used to and I wonder if this is how Allison would have felt if she had walked in. The feeling of closeness, of family, of warmth. This escape in comparison to the rest of her life could have been a very positive one that could have potentially changed her outlook on certain aspects of her life. Something as simple as walking into a welcoming environment can mean a whole lot to someone even if they are feeling down in the dumps.