A traditional California roadhouse and a Nevada County institution

By Mike Byrne and Nancy Wilson, Owners, The Willo Steakhouse

Driving from Nevada City on Highway 49, you can’t miss The Willo’s luminous neon sign with its green martini glass and bright-pink olive bidding you welcome. This quintessential California roadhouse is a well patronized local haunt that boasts quite a history.

The Willo. Not, WilloW- it’s Willo, or to be precise, The Willo Steakhouse, but most folks simply call it The Willo. Why no “W?” Here’s the story, but a bit of history to begin:

The Willo started as a bar inside a refashioned World War II-era Quonset hut, purchased by Bill Davis in 1947. The hut was brought from Sacramento and set up at its current location at 16898 State Hwy 49 in Nevada City.

He opened it as Bill Davis’s Hut, a watering hole favored by the lumber and mining workforce. In 1950 Wilma Kenney leased the Hut from Bill and renamed it Wilma’s Hut. Wilma sold sandwiches, hot lunches, beer, and soft drinks to the logging truck drivers as they roared up and down Hwy. 49. Later she purchased the property and leased the hut to a local couple.

Peggy and Bob Tucker bought it in 1963 and called it Tuck’s Hut. With a truckload of lumber from a local mill, they enlarged the bar and added a covered structure on the east side where they built a grill pit and served hamburgers through the window to the bar patrons.

In 1969, the Tuckers leased the property to a local tavern owner, Frank Williams. Frank owned the Willo Bar on East Main Street in Grass Valley but was forced to relocate to make room for the freeway.

Now, onto the name: The Willo is a blend of Frank’s last name (Williams) and Lola, his wife’s given name. The Willo was expanded to its current size by partners Williams and Veda Folden, who, with the help of her husband and brothers, converted the covered structure into the main dining room, and the Willo Steakhouse was born. They added the banquet room in 1973.

Ken and Jeannie Hiebert bought The Willo in 1976 by combining the bar and restaurant operations and purchased the property (still owned by Peggy Tucker). They operated it for 26 years then decided it was time to sell.

Mike and I had come up from the Bay Area and were looking for some type of business to buy. My parents had a cabin in Colfax, so I’ve been coming to this area since I was a little girl. For more than three years, we looked all over the foothills, from Truckee to La Porte, at everything from bed and breakfasts to hydro-electric plants. When a friend told us about Ken wanting to sell, we inquired, “How much?”

He named his price and we said, “OK, we’ll do it!” We wanted something outside of town with some historical value; that’s what we loved, the old roadhouse. We just fell in love with it. We’d never been in the restaurant business before but figured we could handle it. Our friends told us, “OH! You’re making a mistake, and you’re CRAZY to buy a restaurant and bar and CRAZY to work together!”

Over the years, we’ve really worked to have The Willo remain “The Willo.” We’ve kept the same flavor but made lots of improvements. Most you can’t see, like to the building and infrastructure, but we’ve really improved the quality of items on the menu. Those improvements and upgrades add to dining enjoyment, and it’s gratifying that the community has shown its appreciation — they’ve voted us the Best of Nevada County — Best Steak House for twenty-three years running.

This spring, we’ll be unveiling another upgrade to The Willo experience.

During COVID, when we were limited to outdoor dining, we decided to take advantage of the outdoor dining mandate and add a patio. We’re excited that this coming spring you’ll be able to enjoy outdoor drinks and dining on The Patio at The Willo.

And to those friends who scoffed at us buying The Willo and working together — it’s now more than twenty years later, we’re still doing fine, and we still like each other!

The San Francisco Bay Guardian called the Willo a “roadhouse extraordinaire” and rated it as the 2nd best reason to “love Nevada City.” They describe the Willo as “part redneck party in the rowdy bar, part retro dream with neon sign shining like a beacon from the dark...”

Chef Vincent, Lisa, and Ryan Alexander have opened Alexanders Station Steakhouse and Event Center in Nevada City.

Chef Alexander began his culinary career in Hawaii on the island of Oahu working as a pantry cook at the famed La Terrace restaurant in Waikiki. Chef then moved back to his hometown of South Lake Tahoe and began working at The Summit Restaurant at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe. After a year in the kitchen, he moved to the Front of House and was promoted to Captain. He then began his formal culinary training at the prestigious California Culinary Academy, where he graduated first in his class, earning the Founders’ Award for Culinary Excellence. After graduating, Chef took on an externship at Fleur de Lys under the direction of the famed Chef Hubert Keller. While working dinners at Fleur de Lys, he also trained under Wolfgang Puck at his restaurant Postrio.

Chef Alexander’s journey then brought him to the Sacramento area, where he joined Slocum House in Fair Oaks as Executive Chef. After seven years at Slocum House, he opened his first restaurant Alexander’s Meritage, earning a four-star rating for five years straight. Chef then moved to teach at his alma mater CCA in San Francisco, before becoming the Lead Instructor at Le Cordon Bleu in Sacramento.

Returning to Hawaii, Chef accepted a position at the world-famous St. Regis in Kauai, later transferring to the Sheraton Grand in Sacramento as Executive Chef.

When Chef and his wife Lisa moved to Grass Valley in 2019 and began searching for a location to start a restaurant, they were ecstatic to find the former location of Trolly Junction in Nevada City. The location was perfect; a park-like setting with a beautiful waterfall and wall-to-wall windows to enjoy the view. In October of 2021, Alexander’s Station Steakhouse and Event center was born.

The Alexander’s have a seasonal farm that supplies produce to the restaurant bringing real Farm to Fork to Nevada County.

The best part of the restaurant is the wedding and special event locations; the property boasts two wedding sites, one can accommodate up to 100 and the other up to 500, and there is lodging on-site. Inside, the restaurant has two dining rooms and two trolly cars off the deck for Private dining.

The team of Chef Vincent Alexander, Lisa, and his son Ryan and their staff are dedicated to hospitality, bringing the residents of Nevada County a first-class dining experience.

There’s just so much here that I’m passionate about — that we’re passionate about — I think all that kind of adds when you’re here as much as I am, and this is basically a child of mine.

My parents moved up to Lake Wildwood in 2015. I came up to this area, thought it was beautiful. We weren’t even really talking about opening a restaurant at that time but had a space become available for us, and we rebuilt up the whole restaurant, so it felt like “us.”

And here we are, coming up on our six-year anniversary at the end of this month.

Twelve 28 Kitchen

This is my 23rd year professionally cooking, started at 15 years old back in Glen Ellen outside of the town of Sonoma where I grew up. Held positions in my life as baker, private chef, morning cook, prep cook, lunch cook, dinner cook, banquets, a sous chef. This will be my first executive chef position here at Twelve 28.

Everything we put out on a plate is what we are excited about. We don’t just throw together a plain green salad, and throw it on the menu just so we can have a “plain green salad,” there’s love in every single dish that goes out, as well as…it’s kind of cliche to say that everyone’s “family” but from the moment you step in, greeted by one of our staff, or usually my father, my mom with all of her own house-made desserts…my sisters are here working, my brother was here working, my fiancé works right next to me. Everyone that’s here is passionate about food, and excited about food, and it really shows in our end product.

I definitely feel like our service here is unmatched with a lot of places that I go. It just goes back to caring, and everyone here does.

We’re in a small area in Nevada County, especially in Penn Valley, or Penntucky as some people call it, but we pull people from our neighboring community in Lake Wildwood, uptown Grass Valley, Nevada City, all the way down to Auburn. We get people come up here from Roseville, Sacramento, Granite Bay, Truckee, Reno, the Bay Area, or San Francisco, or the East Bay, just to dine here.

“We are honored that hundreds of our guests tell us they have eaten at some of the finest restaurants in the world and still feel Twelve 28 Kitchen is better or just as good.”

We’ve pretty much been dubbed one of the special occasion restaurants, fine dining restaurant, but what we try and portray, every day, is that we are a fine dining restaurant, just without the pretentiousness. Just as long as they’re here to have a good time and not worry about using the wrong fork, or if they want to lick the plate, lick the plate! Enjoy yourself while getting to enjoy an amazing product here at Twelve 28 Kitchen.

Experience

I worked my butt off for everybody else for my whole life, and now, that it’s for me and my family, it’s our “everything” so we put our everything into it, and feel that that shows on every plate, every staff member and every experience that everyone gets to have here.

Going out to eat for people is a special occasion for the most part, and we try to make that one occasion be a memorable one.

It’s the little, tiny details that over the course of a night that make the difference. It’s not just going out to eat, sustaining yourself with food, it’s an experience.

You come in here to try something beautiful or different and exciting, it’s like entertainment. It’s like going to a show; going to see a movie, or a concert, it’s an experience here at Twelve 28 Kitchen.

530-446-6534