Café C'est Si Bon: Most Charming Desert Restaurant

This was our second visit to charming C'est Si Bon in tiny Shoshone, CA, roughly 1.5 hours from Vegas. On our way to Death Valley, we decided to drive through Pahrump versus Beatty with the sole purpose of having a late breakfast at this incredible food find. We were traveling with our very good friends Tina and Fritz from Europe, and we wanted to show them the other side of Vegas.

When we arrived in Shoshone, C'est Si Bon was closed. A few minutes later, owner David Wash um materialized, saying he'd been on vacation for a bit. We completely understood and were on our way to have lunch at say, the gas station, when David said that, since we were there, he'd be more than happy to make us breakfast.

All four of us had David's special crêpe, which we've had before. It's filled with delicious cheese, and comes with a drizzle of a Thai sauce and a portion of salad made with fresh tomatoes, lots of cilantro, pine nuts, and red cabbage (and perhaps a few other fantastic things). It was crisp, refreshing, and full of bold, unexpected flavors. Our European guests especially liked the Lavazza coffees -- lattes and espressos. The chef-owner runs his operation as green as possible, and the small restaurant is like a treasure hunt, chock-full of goodies, such as locally made items, books, brochures, carefully selected trinkets from around the workd, etc. You could just grab a book and read all day, or chat with David and anyone else who shows up about sustainable living, the gourmet food world, violence in schools, and desert living. We could use a place like this in Vegas, but doesn't look like David misses his old F&B world in the city very much...

Sure, it's not as close to Vegas as say, brunch at Simon's at the Palms, but C'est Si Bon is an truly memorable experience. As some other Austrians say: we will be back; soon.

Café C'est Si Bon
Highway 127
Shoshone, CA 92384

--By Judy Jenner