Behind the Scenes with Worm Shot as All-Female Reno Band Starts to Headline

The all-female band Worm Shot recently headlined its first show recently, after months of opening for other bands.

It’s been a rapid ascent since the group first came together during the last throes of the pandemic. Gina Hoang began playing drums only a month before the band’s inception.

“I learned to play bass and guitar when I was in high school, but I never thought I’d ever take up drums, let alone preform in a band playing drums,” said Hoang.

The band prepares a new set list for every show. For their first ever headlining show, they played nearly double the amount of songs they are used to.

Lead guitarist Liv Rogers is no stranger to the stage, having spent her high school years performing with a different local band, Aurora 1621.

“I didn’t expect to be asked to headline a show so early on into being a band. I never got to headline with Aurora and it’s a little scary. I feel really prepared though, I’m planning on just getting up there and having fun,” Rogers said in an interview before their big headlining debut.

Liv Rogers shows off the custom guitar pick she engraved with the band’s name.

In the band’s final practice before their big show, they ran through their entire set, stopping to work through every missed cue.

Liv Rogers reflected on how preparing for a high-pressure show with Worm Shot differs from her previous experiences. “We’re all friends here, so it doesn’t feel like a personal attack when someone tells me I’m doing something wrong. It’s honestly just way less stressful and I feel like I can focus on actually doing a good job with the music.”

Lead singer and rhythm guitarist Baylor Lucky also shared her nervousness about headlining. “The scariest part for me is going last,” Lucky said. “Playing with two other bands, especially ones that have been playing so much longer than us, means people might not expect much from us. I also feel like I mess up on my vocals a lot when I’m nervous, so I just hope that doesn’t happen.”

After weeks of anticipation, almost every member’s nerves evaporated after the first few songs in their set during the outdoor performance when the weather also cooperated. “The audience seemed like they were really enjoying our music and they reacted well to my corny little jokes” said Lucky.

Even after the other members relaxed, Rogers could not take a calming breath until after the final song. I Wanna Be A Cowboy, the band’s most popular song, relies on Rogers to sing alone and perform a guitar solo. Her hard work pays off and she pulls off both the solo and the vocals. “That’s the best I’ve ever played it live” said Rogers.

Reporting by Cierra Randall shared with Our Town Reno

Peter Menchetti Returns Home for a New Debauch-A-Reno

The schedule has been released and last tickets are being sold for Debauch-A-Reno 2023, coinciding with 30 years of Sticker Guy and 20 years of Slovenly Recordings.

Music and sticker entrepreneur Peter Menchetti has been scoping out music in West Africa in recent weeks, while ramping up promotion for the upcoming June 16th to 18th concerts at Cypress and the Wingfield Amphitheater, before his return to the Biggest Little City. 

There will also be an added July 14th component at Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City. 

Menchetti has organized his trademark We’re Loud Fest around the world now, and Debauch-A-Reno is part of that but just for here, every five years.  

“It's easier to organize things in your hometown than it is to in say, Istanbul or Saigon, Vietnam, or the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico, which we've done all of those,” Menchetti explained. “Here in Reno we've got a lot friends. Everybody's coming out to help us out, which is really awesome.”

Menchetti is thrilled to include local bands The Juvinals, Clarko and Pussy Velour in the lineup for the opening party at Cypress which will go until four a.m.  

“Musically, we're mostly dealing with rock and roll, punk, garage rock, there's some post-punk. You know, Spitting Image is going to play [Sunday June 18th]. We’ve got a new band from Los Angeles called Tube Alloys.  They're really cool. I saw them a couple months ago. I just choose bands that I like and people that I like to work with. They have to be good to work with.” Tickets can be found here: https://slovenly.eventsmart.com/events/debauchareno-2023-tickets/

It’s a way to reinvigorate what used to be a thriving local underground scene. 

“What my life revolves around is music and concerts and parties, rock and roll parties, punk rock parties,” Menchetti said.  “It’s also very much how Sticker Guy got its start. We rented a house with a basement on Ryland Street on the corner of Ryland and Wheeler, I guess you'd call it the original Ryland Street basement. There were other Ryland Street houses since then, which I think are gone now, unfortunately. We were having bands play from all over the world. We had, I don't know, a couple shows a week down in the basement. And, a lot of these bands became sticker customers. Some of them I ended up making records for as well. So it all ties together pretty nicely.”

Menchetti was 19 when he started Sticker Guy, dreaming up the sticker printing company concept while working at a carwash and starting it while still going to school at UNR and living at his mom’s house.

“I always really liked it when band had stickers. So I just looked into how to make them then I was involved in the music scene, so I started offering them to all the bands that I was meeting and it just went from there,” he said.

As it grew organically, he says Sticker Guy was able to remain local with production at a warehouse in Sparks and several long time employees.  He says success also came with it being the first sticker company selling through the internet.  

How does he do it all now, keeping the sticker company going, running a recording company and traveling the world to organize festivals and connect with musicians? 

“I’m overworked and I complain about it a lot, but I realize while I'm complaining that it's all of my own choice,” he said. 

Our Town Reno reporting, May 2023

From Food Truck To Its Own Place, Hand Craft Coffee Co Focuses on Community

Marissa and Travis Tidd started their company, Hand Craft Coffee Co, out of a food truck in 2017, serving coffee and pastries in the Sparks area. They opened their permanent location on Wells avenue in January of 2022, and pride themselves on connecting with the community and providing a comfortable space for customers. 

Along with coffee, they serve pastries, breakfast sandwiches and bagels, also providing free WIFI to those who sit in the plant-filled space. Hand Craft Coffee employs about 14 people, with owners Marissa and Travis working alongside their staff almost every day. 

“To me, coffee is about connection and people and food and family. That's always something that we've done growing up is kind of get together at coffee shops,” said Marissa Tidd. “I also have always worked in the service industry, so that's kind of where that started, is coffee and creating a space for people to be together.”

Owners Marissa and Travis Tidd pose inside Hand Craft Coffee Co, located on the corner of Wells and Ryland Street in downtown Reno. Left photo by Sydney Peerman. Right photo provided. 

The transition from food truck to a permanent space was a welcome one, according to Tidd, as she noted the difficulties of operating a food truck. “That industry is extremely hard because I think people forget that you have to set it up and take it down every time you use it. So it's really refreshing to be in a building where that kind of obstacle was taken out,” she said. 

The building that Hand Craft Coffee leases out of has about 13 suites with other local businesses, which was another initial selling point for the couple as they make it their priority to incorporate as many other local vendors into their store as they can. Dorinda’s Chocolates, a vendor who makes their chocolate in the same building, is one of the businesses that Hand Craft Coffee has partnered with. 

“I'm from Nevada, and it's really important for me to create connections with other people and keep jobs in Reno,” said Tidd. The couple also sells Mother of Macros doughnuts and decorates their space with plants from Sierra Water Gardens, additionally selling pastries from other small bakeries in the area. They currently get their coffee beans from Magpie Coffee Roasters, another coffee shop on Wells, who makes a special blend for Hand Craft.

Collectibles are also on sale in a space decorated with plants. Photo by Sydney Peerman.

Hand Craft Coffee’s most popular drink is vanilla lattes and they have become well known for their creative latte art. “This customer came in the other day and was like, ‘I really want latte art in my drink.’ It's fun to just be creative, and of course, not every drink is perfect, but that's the art of it,” said Tidd. The coffee shop has seasonal menus, rotating the specials in and out to keep the menu interesting and different. One of their current drinks on the menu is called the Aloha, containing macadamia and white chocolate. 

Another ideal aspect of their location in downtown Reno is the shared courtyard space with outdoor seating that the building provides. Tidd looks forward to the summer when they can have customers sit outside in the greenery and enjoy the space, additionally planning to introduce smoothies in their summer menu. 

“We just focus on creating a great environment,” said Tidd. “Bringing great people in, meeting them and connecting with the customers, and making sure that people feel at home here.”

Reporting by Sydney Peerman for Our Town Reno 

Putting the Juan in Juan 101.7 FM in Reno

Juan Manuel Briones, a Mexico City native, has lived in the United States for 11 years, making the most of his experience serendipitously, both professionally and in his personal life.

He arrived stateside at the age of 24 and his main reason for leaving Mexico was for love. He met his wife in Mexico City while working at a dance academy and he was her chambelan for her Quinceañera. She was there visiting from the United States to have her celebration. After that, they started dating and six years later the couple finished university in their respective countries. 

His wife graduated locally from the University of Nevada with a social work degree. Briones graduated from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional with a mechanical engineering degree.

After they decided to join forces, he and his wife dedicated themselves to opening a dance studio together. That dream became Stylos Dance Studio on Wells Ave. specializing in preparing participants for their Quinceañeras.

Soon after opening that business, Briones also got work translating commercials from English to Spanish for the Reno Media Group. One of their stations is Juan 101.7 FM.

“I was never going to be on a radio show initially,” he remembers. “After I started working here at the station, three months later the owner of the station asked me what I would talk about if I had my own show. I said I would like to talk about themes that interest the Hispanic community. Like services and events that help our community,” Briones says.

Briones said if he had his own show, he didn’t want to be like other radio DJs who just featured gossip. He wanted his show to be useful. One week after his response he got his show on Juan 101.7 FM.

The radio station was already named Juan long before he was there and it was pure coincidence that his name happened to be Juan as well. “I love being here, it’s like my second home. I can talk about whatever I want and my bosses don’t try to censor me,”  Briones said.

His show called Juan con Juan is on Monday to Fridays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 101.7 FM.

His goal is to be resource for the local Hispanic community and help educate people in an easy and understandable manner.

On his show, Briones tries to be as down to earth as possible and shares his experiences on the radio whenever possible,  “People without even knowing me can identify with what I say behind a microphone,” he says.

Afterward, he’ll see people on the street who will tell him they’ve never tried his favorite food, tortas de tamal or that they also go for [the] Chivas [soccer team] or that they hate the Chivas.  “I am the same Juan in and out of the radio that doesn’t change,” Briones says. His listeners seem to appreciate.

Our Town Reno reporting by Nancy Vazquez

Pub N' Sub, An Anchor on Ralston Street

Ralston Street in Reno, Nevada was named after William Ralston, a prominent businessman and founder of the Bank of California. Ralston was instrumental in the development of the Comstock Lode, a major silver deposit in Virginia City, Nevada, in the late 1800s. He also played a key role in the founding of Reno, which was established as a transportation hub for the Comstock Lode mining operations.

As I walked down Ralston St, the 1.4 mile long street that runs parallel to Sierra St and Virginia St, the street's broken asphalt and abundance of electric cables caught my attention. While it may not be the most visually appealing street in the city, it has a certain charm that draws people in. At the heart of Ralston is Pub N’ Sub, a beloved pub famous for their pizza, chicken wings, and cheap beers that has been serving the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) community since 1974.

Pub N Sub's history is as rich as the pizzas it serves. Founded by Steve Mathers, a UNR grad, the establishment used to be a grocery market run by a family. Mathers bought the place and started his business, deciding to only serve light alcohol and create a place for friends. The pub quickly became a popular hangout spot for students, faculty and locals alike. Its walls are adorned with UNR memorabilia, and the atmosphere is friendly and welcoming.

Normally, six staff work simultaneously: two people take food orders and prepare sandwiches, one person serves drinks at the bar, and three people work in the kitchen to make the food.

During my visits, I had the opportunity to speak with a few Pub N’ Sub's employees and regulars. Western, a 26-year-old former journalism student and KOLO TV employee, told me he found his true passion in creative writing, so he quit his job and has been working at the pub for more than four years. Cole, a 23-year-old engineering student at UNR, introduced me to Mitch, a longtime regular who has been coming to Pub N’ Sub for over 20 years. Mitch moved to Reno from Los Angeles to attend UNR, and he and Mathers met there. After graduation, he found a job teaching at a local school and has stayed in Reno ever since, drawn in by the area's natural beauty and abundance of outdoor activities. His favorite activities are skiing in the mountains and swimming in the summer in the Truckee River.

Ralston Street’s other notable feature is the fire station. It stands out not only for its location in the middle of the street but also for its striking blue color. The university's official colors are navy blue and silver, which are meant to represent the natural beauty of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding Sierra Nevada mountains. The fire station was painted blue to reflect the university's colors, a symbol of the close relationship between the school and the city. In contrast, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) has red as its primary color, and it's not uncommon for Reno residents to avoid using anything red as a nod to the rivalry between the two schools. The strong and palpable rivalry between UNR and UNLV is a testament to the passion and loyalty that Reno residents have for their beloved university, and the fire station serves as a physical representation of that connection.

But beyond the colors and the rivalry, Ralston St and Pub N’ Sub are emblematic of the unique character of Reno. The street may not be the most polished or glamorous, but it has a certain authenticity that can't be replicated. The people who come to Pub N’ Sub aren't there for the aesthetics; they're there for the sense of community and camaraderie.

Our Town Reno Contribution by M.G.

Coalition Snow, a Sisterhood of Shredders Going Far Out in Reno

In an industry largely dominated by men, Coalition Snow is filling a void in the snowsports industry as the first ever female-owned and operated ski and snowboard company in the U.S..

Founded in 2014 by Jen Gurecki, Coalition Snow has slowly become a household name for female skiers and snowboarders seeking performance-driven equipment that is designed with them specifically in mind.

“I started snowboarding when I was 15. I’m 45 now, so it’s been 30 years. You spend that much time doing something and dedicating your life to it, and you start to realize who it’s for and who it’s not,” Jen explains. “I’d been living in Tahoe for a while out of university and saw that there wasn’t really a strong representation of women in snowsports. Let’s be honest, snowsports focus is on CIS white men, that’s the industry. And so anyone else just kind of exists in these margins, and I was always unsettled by that. I’ve always just felt like the outdoors should be for more people, for everyone.”

For a very long time, women’s snowsports equipment suffered from a phenomenon known as “pink it and shrink it,” where companies would take a men’s ski model, make it shorter and softer, and give it a “cute and girly” top sheet design. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that skis specifically designed for women began to emerge, yet disparities between the men’s and women’s equipment lines were still abundantly clear. 

Jen Gurecki and the rest of the Coalition Snow are one of very few snowsports companies in the entire world that center their products and gear solely around women. They currently offer a wide range of skis and snowboards for different terrain types and rider preferences, sporting unique and colorful top sheet graphics. At the 2018 Olympic Games, Coalition had two female riders sporting their equipment – Rosalind Groenewoud and Britt Hawes. Their skis and boards are currently available through their retail store at Reno Public Market, and they keep stock at various host shops across the U.S..

Coalition Snow previously had a seasonal store based in Truckee, but had to close up shop in 2020 after just six months due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Around the same time, a new opportunity presented itself. Construction of the new Reno Public Market was in the works, and the developers were in search of local businesses to fill up the new community space with their goods and wares.

Jen jumped at the opportunity, opening “Far Out” – Coalition’s first year-round brick-and-mortar store and taking her business to the next level.

“It was kinda scary. It’s a five-year lease, and it’s very capital-intensive. When we started, the whole store was just sheet rock and concrete floors,” Jen explains. “I had to envision and execute this whole store from the ground up basically.”

The Far Out store at Reno Public Market has all of Coalition’s skis and snowboards, as well as new lifestyle and adventure goods. “The Far Out store is a way for us as a business to actually walk or talk,” mentions Jen. “If you look at the brands we are carrying, we have a number of women-owned, black-owned, Indigenous-owned brands. We are really trying to build the outdoor industry and community that we want to be a part of, and in doing so are able to work with really amazing brands that share our values and help uplift these communities that have been historically excluded. We buy things from these businesses and we sell them, so we’re putting money directly in their pockets. That’s how you really support others.” 

The 712 square foot Far Out store is home to both U.S. and international outdoor brands, with a few select items being one-off pieces that Jen picked up along her travels; “I travel quite a bit, so you’re always going to find things in the store that you will literally not find anywhere else in Reno. Like things I bought from a market in Kenya, items I picked up, put in a bag, and flew back here with,” Jen said.

But Coalition Snow is more than skis, snowboards, and gear. It’s a community for people to connect and grow in snow sports, while leveling up their confidence and riding ability. They offer an Indigenous Backcountry Scholarship for Indigenous communities to increase their access to avalanche training and backcountry skiing and riding.

Coalition also offers group travel excursions through ‘Far Out Adventures’, with customers able to book their spot on an upcoming trip either online or at the physical store in Reno. “Through Far Out Adventures, we run multi-day and multi-week adventure group tours for women, non-binary, and femme presenting humans,” Jen explains. “We recently got back from our Japan ski trip. We’re doing a cycling trip across Kenya soon, which I ran last summer, and a trip to Mt. Bachelor called ‘Bachelorette’ which is our next one.” Customers can sign up for an upcoming trip, and stock up on all their travel and adventure gear essentials at the Far Out store beforehand.

While at the Reno Public Market visiting the Far Out store, it’s difficult to miss the pop-up shop directly opposite which is stacked with colorful, hand-crafted baskets. All the proceeds made by the sales of the baskets are funelled into a microlending program in Kenya, facilitated by Jen’s first brain-child Zawadisha.

Zawadisha is a non-profit that Jen started even before dipping her toes into the snowsports industry with Coalition. “We provide micro-loans to women. We’re sort of like the rent-a-center of rural Kenya, I think that’s the best way to describe it,” Jen explains. “We loan products like iron sheets, solar lamps, clean cookstoves, rainwater tanks, chairs, mattresses, items that improve the quality of people’s lives. We provide the products to them, and they pay for it over time.” Zawadisha’s headquarters are located about a four-hour train ride from Nairobi, in a very rural part of the country.

“We have amazing community partners there, and we’ve worked very closely with the chief, elders, and other women’s groups and other non-profits there. We’ve been doing this work for over 10 years and have a team of 5 women who run the operations, but we work with a couple thousand women every year.” One of the Far Out adventure group tours is in partnership with Zawadisha, and participants will embark in a cycling trip across Kenya.

Our Town Reno Reporting and Photography by Gaia Osborne

The Melting Pot in Midtown Catering to Reno’s Many Eccentricities

Renoites either love or hate the final week of August going into September. Burners flood the streets, cases of water become hard to come by, and eclectic vehicles and bicycles can be seen on every corner. Regardless of how some may feel, Burning Man is an important part of Reno’s unique culture as people from all over the world flock to the playa at Black Rock Desert. 

A crucial part of Reno’s burner culture is the The Melting Pot World Emporium. Its sunfaded prayer flags and poster filled windows make it hard not to notice on Virginia street in the center of Midtown. Since its official opening in 1996 and even earlier start vending at various West Coast festivals the people behind this endeavor have established themselves as Reno staples.

“It is a multicultural, counter-culture boutique with things from all around the world,” said Lisa Martin the Melting Pot’s long time manager. Eric and Monique Baron, the couple behind the store, have traveled to different countries like India and Nepal where they have sourced some of the amazing products in the store. 

With their shop, tourists and locals can get the Burning Man vibe whenever they enter the shop, and also feel like they are traveling around the world.

A wind chime with brass bells sourced from India is one of many lining the impressively stocked walls. 

“It’s really important for us to get things that are fair trade,” said Martin. “Women who have come from a sad upbringing are getting paid a decent wage and getting treated properly to make these goods.”

One standing display case features sterling silver jewelry with turquoise gemstones. 

Sterling silver and gemstone jewelry can be found near the register and in display cases featuring ornate designs and beadwork. Martin and Monique Baron are jewelry makers themselves, meeting up two days a week at Baron’s house to create handmade jewelry for the shop. 

Cute greeting cards, handmade and ethically produced clothing, local art, vaporizers gag gifts are some of the many things available at the Melting Pot. Those searching for a last minute gift are likely to find something for nearly anyone they’re shopping for. 

The smoke shop is described as Eric’s domain and features locally made glass, rolling papers, and bongs. It’s come a long way from the days of water pipes and hushed voices. “It’s refreshing, it’s amazing, it doesn’t feel like we’re hiding anything,” said Martin of the differences running the smoke shop after marijuana became legal in the state. 

Various smoking devices and accessories line the walls and cases in the 21+ smoke room.

Our Town Reno reporting and photos by Ariel Smith

A former flight attendant becomes bouquet maker with truck

Emily MacPherson – the owner of Emmy’s Flower Truck – previously spent 25 years in the airline industry, working as a flight attendant for Southwest. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, air travel fell sharply which prompted airlines to cut capacity. “They started offering employees early outs and were paying people because they had too many flight attendants,” Emmy explains. “They were trying to cut back without ever having to lay someone off.” Emmy felt it was the right time to leave that chapter of her life behind, take the airline money, and venture into something completely new and different.

“I’m an old car girl, so I thought ‘what kind of business could I do?’ Flowers and trucks have been around for years. Since before I was born people have been selling flowers out of their trucks. So I did some research and found Daisy,” Emily MacPherson says of how she started her new venture.

Daisy is Emmy’s pride and joy – a beautiful, green 1965 Volkswagen Kombi Transporter. It took Emmy a year of searching to find the perfect vehicle to kickstart her new business, finally finding Daisy at a dealer in New Jersey

Throughout the snowy and cold winter months, Daisy keeps warm and dry in a storage unit. But as soon as the sun comes out and the temperatures in Reno begin warming up, Daisy can be spotted all over town spreading the joy of flowers with the whole community.

“We go out to businesses that invite us, and we have regular businesses that we visit on weekends once the weather gets a little warmer – like Pangolin Cafe… Perenn at Rancharrah…Too Soul Tea Co. …a lot of breakfast and coffee shop places,” Emmy said listing some of her many local partners.
Emmy also makes appearances at summer craft festivals and farmers' markets. Emmy loads up the back of the Transporter with buckets of fresh, vibrant flowers and greenery. Shoppers can pick and pull the flowers they like, and Emmy will arrange and wrap them in a beautiful bouquet to take home with them. “We add an extra wrap layer around the stems for extra hydration,” Emmy adds. “This way, you don’t have to go straight home to quickly put them in water as you do with store-bought flowers. Our bouquets can go 7-8 hours without putting them in water, as long as you keep them in the shade they’ll stay fresh and beautiful.”

Emmy also puts in the time to give back to local non-profit organizations, donating flowers to the Nevada Humane Society for their employee appreciation day and the Eddy House, among others

.Although the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of businesses to struggle – especially small, locally-owned companies – Emmy found that the pandemic actually helped her business, and she didn’t experience as much of a strain as she anticipated. “People were walking, trying to get out of the house. The flower truck was simple – we could drop these off at someone’s house, leave them at the front door and go. People would come with their friends, and they’d all stay apart and take turns picking. But yeah, I think the pandemic made people crave something. And flowers happen to be one of them,” she said.

A recent addition to the business is wedding parties. “We didn’t do weddings at first, but everyone kept asking us if we did so we started taking small weddings,” explains Emmy. “We wanted to make it less expensive for the brides, and a fun time as well.”

Emmy has a large, very welcoming showroom in Reno where she stores her flowers and the truck throughout the winter months. “We have all of the bridal party come in, and the bridesmaids and the bride make their own bouquets. Everyone has the same flowers, but they can put the bouquet together the way they like, so everyone has a different look which is kinda fun. We have their music playing, champagne, it’s like a fun get-together!” The showroom also provides Emmy with a space to host other events throughout the winter months when the weather is harsh and cold, such as tie-dye and other craft workshops.

“2023 is our third year, and we are really going try to do more regular spots instead of so many random different events in Reno. I think we are just going to try and stick with regular places and times since our biggest complaint has been not knowing where and when to expect us.” – Emily MacPherson

Reporting and Photos by Gaia Osborne for Our Town Reno

Local Theater Good Luck Macbeth Produces Powerful Show in Post-Roe Era

Advocacy Through Theater

Good Luck Macbeth is a local theater company that launched in 2009, amidst Reno’s financial recession when artistic opportunities were few and far in between. 

The mission of Good Luck Macbeth (GLM) is “to create relevant and impactful works of art that demonstrate the transformative power of theater and co-create equitable opportunities for artists to express their truest authentic selves, both on and off the stage, in Northern Nevada,” according to their website. 

GLM prides itself on producing provocative and compelling shows that use the stage as a channel to tell stories that may otherwise go untold. Amanda McHenry, the media director for the theater company, says when it comes to shows that other companies may consider too controversial or risky “we’re still willing to go there. We’re still willing to tell these stories, because it serves us. It serves us as a theater. It serves us as artists. It serves us as a community.”

Amanda McHenry has been involved with the company for several years after studying theater in college and exploring the Reno theater scene with various other groups. McHenry says that, “what makes [Good Luck Macbeth] special is that GLM really tries to break outside of the norm. They’re trying to see- like with Keely and Du- what is going to start a conversation, what is going to get people talking? What is something that’s relevant to today or the communities we’re trying to serve?” 

Paige Tatem has been involved as a stage manager in addition to her acting roles within Good Luck Macbeth. Photo courtesy of Paige Tatem with permission to reuse.

Creating Safe Spaces in Reno 

Paige Tatem, who has also been a part of the GLM team for a few years now, has been involved both behind and in front of the curtains. From stage management to acting as the lead in Keely and Du, Paige can attest to the harrowing but moving nature of some of the productions the theater company produces.

“I was involved in The Colony a couple years ago that dealt with forced sterilization; it was very similar in that it was dark and in your face about it because [forced sterilization] is still happening,” Tatem said. “And Keely and Du is a story that is still happening that now has been federally affected. So, it’s great to just put that out there for whoever wants to come listen.” 

Part of actualizing the mission of GLM, is being clear and open about what communities they hope to serve through their storytelling. 

By selecting productions that are considered transformative and compelling, the theater company aims to create safe space for artists that are underrepresented and underinvested in. Uplifting artists to celebrate their identities and talents through unapologetic authenticity is integral to the mission of Good Luck Macbeth. 

“I know for us at GLM, it’s really important to serve the LGBT community and make sure those voices are represented,” shares McHenry, “so it’s really important for us to pick shows that are going to tell the kind of stories that the people we’re trying to reach will connect with, that they know about, that they’ve also experienced.”

Tatem speaks to the value of shining “a light on the stories that people may not want to tell,” and how those connections lead to the inclusion and belonging that the company strives for. She says that, “in a town that’s really blossoming with a lot of really great art that’s going to come up in the next couple of years, having a space to be able to sit down and learn and feel like you’re included and wanted is really important.”

The poster for the current GLM production of Keely and Du. 

Keely and Du 

Running from March 10th through the 24th, Good Luck Macbeth is showcasing Keely and Du by Jane Martin after several months of hard work. Keely and Du was a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and its powerful and moving discourse on abortion and reproductive justice is just as important and relevant as it was 30 years ago. 

“Keely and Du,” summarizes Tatem, “is about Keely, who’s been sexually assaulted and is then kidnapped and taken by this Christian right to life group. And it really explores her relationship with her captor, Du, and it explores the pro-life, pro-choice topic.”

Tatem shares what it was like to play a part like Keely, who becomes pregnant as a result of her sexual assault, and then kidnapped to prevent her abortion. “I had to keep reminding myself that this could be a real person, and to just play it with conviction. She’s in an awful situation. Her whole life has pretty much been terrible, but she knows that she has to fight and that’s her only way out. Even if nobody listens, she’s gonna fight and scream until she’s listened to. And I think she has a lot of conviction. She doesn’t let anyone tell her ‘no’ or put her in a corner…”

Posing questions about female autonomy and religious realities of procreation, GLM is not unaware of the show’s impact in the Reno community and the risk that goes alongside producing such a poignant show.

The Reno arts community has been receptive to the shows produced by Good Luck Macbeth, but that does not minimize the extent of the work that is still to be done.

“I think people within the artist community are very receptive to the things we’re doing,” McHenry said. “People get really excited, really into what we are doing. But when looking at [the] community as a whole, sometimes I feel like it isn’t quite ready to talk about the things we’re trying to talk about or the things we’re trying to push. Like with Keeley and Du, Reno in general isn’t quite ready to go there. So that’s what I love about GLM, is that we’re willing to go there.”

A photo of Paige Tatem and Kathy Welch as they portray their characters, Keely and Du. Photo courtesy of Amanda McHenry.

Promoting Positive Dialogue

In such a volatile time in the United States for female reproductive rights, people with platforms have a unique opportunity to add to the conversation in a productive way, as what Keely and Du aim to do. 

Good Luck Macbeth seeks to use their platform in order to increase our capacity for empathy within the community and to allow others to have an accessible safe space in which they can come forward and get resources to learn and be inspired.

McHenry speaks to the importance of using their platform to promote healthy dialogue and contribute to a pertinent conversation currently being had all over America, “I think we’re valuing vulnerability in a way that we never have before. So it’s a lot easier for us to be like- oh yeah, I’ve been through this, or I know somebody who’s been through this, or I’m just willing to talk about this in a way that might have been more taboo or not okay in the past.” 

As Good Luck Macbeth shares their production of Keely and Du, in addition to the other projects and shows throughout the year, they work to promote equity and inclusion and invite the community to be a participant in that effort.

Reporting for Our Town Reno by Vanessa Ribeiro

The Community of Open Mic Nights in Reno by a Singer-Songwriter

Singer-Songwriter Andrew Zuker joined up with an eclectic group of musicians at Cypress Music Venue in Midtown recently to showcase the unpredictable beauty and community of an Open Mic Night:

There are few places in life where professionals and amateurs commingle joyously, where competition is absent, and where artists from all backgrounds and origins can revel in their craft and enjoy the work of others without pressure to hustle and climb, network and promote. 

Hosted by prolific Reno musician Greg Gilmore, Cypress music venue opens their stage to anyone each Wednesday evening from 7:00-10:00 p.m. Musicians put their name in a bucket and must be ready to perform at any point in the evening when their name is drawn. 

“Three songs or 15 minutes, whichever comes first,” Gilmore gently reminds each group or solo artist once they are plugged in, tuned up, and ready to go.

Music and entertainment are notoriously competitive industries and American culture at large often assumes that everyone should be trying to “make it,” or in other words, become a big star. For some, Open Mic is the first place where they get to step in front of a crowd and give it their best shot. 

For others with a rich resume of music jobs, bands, and gigs, Open Mic is a place to leave career goals behind and just share their love of music and performing. 

Ellie Bartels performing an original work, “Song for Ed,” playing her Fender Stratocaster without a pick, plucking and strumming intricate harmonies under her voice and clever, engaging lyrics.

A Place Where We All Belong

“We’re all equal here,” quips Ellie Bartels, a singer-songwriter and close friend I originally met at an Open Mic a few years back. “The community is great. It’s a funny thing, because I never even noticed until I moved to Reno 5 years ago. The people here are so supportive of each other.” 

Ellie stands tall and slender, with long hair tumbling from her winter hat. Her original songs meander and create a sequence of moods, with lots of motion and dynamic, her thought-provoking lyrics sung earnestly.

Ellie was born in the Deep South but has lived all over the U.S., most recently in Oakland, CA before moving to Reno in 2019. She is currently a student of Psychology and Music at Truckee Meadows Community College. 

With many original songs and a few albums to her name, Ellie has made music both professionally and as a hobby. She considers Open Mics a crucial forum for beginners to gain confidence and performing experience. 

“So that’s why, even if someone sounds kinda crappy to me, I won’t over-praise them, but I will always be supportive,” she said, explaining that it takes a lot of courage to sing and play in front of a crowd.

Ellie acknowledges that we all start out as beginners and that encouragement from other musicians can be an amazing confidence-builder. “Most people will never become famous or anything, but you hope they will keep creating music that you enjoy.”

That night at Cypress, we got the chance to see and support one such beginner. 

Poet and rapper Th3 R3alist R3ason took the stage and announced that this would be his first public performance of music and first time rapping in front of anyone. I would never have guessed it was his first rap performance from his passionate delivery of thought-provoking rhymes and cutting refrains.

Also known as the “Dictionary Hero,” R3ason ended his set by cutting off the mic and performing a dazzling poem of the same name, sans amplification, running through the alphabet forwards and back again with a passionate litany of social commentary. 

Poet and rapper Th3 R3alist R3ason relaxes at the bar after performing music in public for the first time in his life. Inspired by his Aunt, he began writing and performing poetry as a teenager. 

Where the Crowd Wants You to Win

“It helped feed my performance,” he said. “I’ve never done the rapping in front of anybody and to perform that in front of people was a little nerve wracking but it definitely helped calm the nerves seeing that the crowd was responsive. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

The 34-year-old R3ason lives in Reno with his three children but says he is “from everywhere.”  He says became interested in poetry as a child, inspired by his Aunt who was a poet and an influential figure in his life. It was her who pushed him to first share his poems at poetry open mic nights. 

Though this was his first public musical performance, Th3 R3alist R3ason drew from his experience reading poetry and exchanging energy with the crowd. 

British-born chanteuse known simply as Sue riles up the crowd with a rocking rendition of the Rolling Stones’ hit Paint It Black. 

Where You Feel At Home 

By contrast, the singer who goes by Sue, originally from Kent, England, is an entertainment and music veteran.

Petite and in pigtails, playing a small-sized acoustic guitar with a peace sign guitar strap, the cheerful and unassuming songstress has an enormous and energetic sound with soaring, powerful rock vocals. Sue has worked in entertainment professionally for decades, starting in the film industry as a runner and eventually working her way up to visual effects producer. Back in the UK, Sue regularly hosted an Open Mic and also toured professionally with bands and as a solo act. 

Having recently relocated to Reno with her husband, Sue is loving the mountains and beauty of nature in Northern Nevada while finding kinship among the local musicians. 

“I had lived here for about 4 months,” Sue says, explaining how she discovered the Open Mic at Cypress,  “I walked in here because I had to have live music, because my soul was craving it, and I just thought ‘I’ve come home.’”

That feeling of belonging and home was mentioned by all the performers I spoke to, especially Argyle, a cheerful and colorful singer-songwriter with smart lyrics and a lovely, honest voice. Argyle plays a rare and interesting vintage instrument called an Omnichord, which could best be described as the lovechild of an autoharp and a synthesizer, played by holding chord buttons and strumming over a sensor instead of strings. 

Reno-based singer-songwriter and all around creative force Argyle hypnotizes the audience with a stark and soothing original song. Originally from Las Vegas, they came to Reno 11 years ago for school and never left. 

A Place to Grow As a Person and a Performer

“I grew up Mormon and I was trained from a young age to go and sing with a bunch of people once a week and this kind of is a good continuation of that,” Argyle said with a laugh and wry smile. 

“But really what I started doing it for is: I sang a lot as a kid and I really miss that, but I developed stage fright and so I was like ‘If I keep going maybe I’ll stop having stage fright…’ and I think it worked!”

For Leon Neilsen, the multi-talented multi-instrumentalist lead singer of local band Enigmana, the connections created and fostered in the music community are what it’s all about. Neilson, along with bandmates Jonathan Louis, Darion Jordan, Tyler Smelich, and Salvador Garcia, wants to foster the type of supportive environment that encourages new performers to join in and experience being on stage.

“I want to turn Reno into a music town,” Nielsen says, explaining that community is a large part of what drives him to perform. 

“It’s this channeling tool where I get to take this energy that I have, and then I get to crank it to 12 because I’m really good at being an entertainer, so I can make other people feel happy and that’s a rare feeling actually nowadays.” 

Another musical performance in the books for Leon Neilsen.

Where We Can Be Happy

For me, as a full-time journalism student, father of two, husband, and former pro-musician, Open Mic is a welcome respite from daily life where I can enjoy live music, talk shop with the other players, and share my songs or favorite covers without a lot of responsibility and competition. I don’t have to promote the show, book the other bands, host and MC the show, handle payment negotiations with the club manager, bring the equipment and run sound all the while trying to give a great performance. I just get to enjoy the moment.

When I first moved to Reno in 2019, I started attending Open Mics to meet other musicians and  make some friends in town. What I found was an expansive but tight network of talented and creative people, bound together by a love of music, eager to laugh, cheer, sing, and be unabashedly happy to be together. 

Our Town Reno reporting by Andrew Zuker

Behind the Barn Doors at the Andelin Family Farm

A rich history

Andelin Family Farm is located on 150 acres of beautiful property in the middle of the Spanish Springs valley in Sparks, Nevada, and is currently operated by husband-and-wife Cameron and Natalie Andelin.

In the early 1980s, Cameron’s parents purchased the farm from the Gaspari Family. The Gasparis immigrated to California from Northern Italy and began farming in Mendocino County. When the father died, the mother moved six children, 11 cows, five horses, and some chickens to the farm in Spanish Springs.

Although the farm has changed a lot over the years, there are still some buildings, barns, and houses intact as a reminder of the Gaspari Family. “The best part of the purchase agreement was that the Gasparis could live on the farm as long as they wanted,” mentions Cameron Andelin. “We still have some houses on the farm that we actually rent out to people now, but it’s where the Gasparis originally lived.”

Changing hands

Cameron has fond memories of visiting Joe and Jenny Gaspari’s farm as a boy, exploring and collecting eggs from the chicken coop with his brothers and friends after his parents acquired the land.“Fast forward to 2010, my parents decided they were going to move to Idaho and asked me and my wife if we wanted to live on the farm with our kids,” Cameron says.

“We jumped at the opportunity. In the beginning, I was still working as an accountant full-time and did that for around four years until our festivals started to take off. That’s when I quit my accounting job.”

After a while of the family settling into their new life on the farm, Natalie – Cameron’s wife – had the idea of starting a pumpkin patch and opening it up to the public. Ten years later, the Andelin Family Farm Pumpkin Patch is a staple fall-activity for the Reno community, with thousands of families and groups flocking to the farm for all of the fun fall festivities on offer. “I know that the community likes having us here, and we are equally thankful to the community for supporting our farm and allowing us to host all of these events,” says Cameron. The Andelin Family Farm welcomes just under 100,000 visitors throughout the year.

Winter at the farm

The Fall Festival, which ended in October, is the farm’s most popular event and includes a pumpkin patch, corn maze, zombie paintball, hay rides, and so many other family-friendly activities. Since closing day, the farm has been in its “off-season”, and has been very busy preparing for the next big event – the Spring Festival. “During the winter we’re in off-season, and things are much slower,” explains Cameron. “As we start preparing for the event season, we spend most of our time outdoors, setting up for the next festival and working on projects. This winter, we’ve been working on rebuilding some of our animal pens. We always have irrigation projects on the go, and we’ve added a diaper-changing station and lounge to make the farm more comfortable for mothers. We’re always trying to proactively think of ways to make the customer experience at the farm better.”

Expanding interests

The Andelins are also expanding their farm store to make even more of their fresh, delicious produce available to visitors, as well as converting an existing shed into a playhouse for kids. Over the last couple of years, they have also been working alongside the City of Sparks, taking steps towards commercially expanding their farm in the future. “We want to build a restaurant, a bakery, and restrooms,” explains Cameron. “But in order to do that, we need to connect to all the sewage and water systems, and have all those entitlements in place to move forward.”

While in the off-season, projects and farm work can sometimes get delayed or halted by the harsh and unpredictable weather. “With farming, there’s always weather-related hurdles,” Cameron shrugs. “You never have perfect weather for growing – either it’s too hot or too cold. When it rains a lot, our fields can get pretty flooded if they get too saturated with water. One fall, we got so much we had to start pumping it out into a ditch.”

The animals

Andelin Family Farm is home to a wide variety of animals – camels, alpacas (above), ponies, chickens, horses, cows, turkeys, sheep, peafowl, llamas, kune kune pigs, emus (below), goats, and more. Each pen has an information card that provides facts and information on each animal and there are plenty of opportunities to interact with animals on a more intimate level, providing this multi-sensory and educational experience.

The farm’s next big event is its Spring Festival which kicks off in April, opening to visitors Thursdays to Sundays. The main feature is the baby animal petting zoo, a popular attraction with visitors young and old. People have the unique opportunity to snuggle up with baby goats, piglets, calves, chicks, and lambs in supervised animal pens, even getting the chance to bottle feed them. The farm also hosts an Easter egg hunt, and opens up its tulip fields to the public for “U-Pick-Tulips.” This season, the farm has planted 50,000 tulips which will soon be available for the public to come and pick themselves, a fun and unique springtime activity.

Navigating through the pandemic

In 2020, due to COVID-19 social distancing and rules concerning public gatherings, the Andelin Family Farm Spring Festival looked slightly different. Instead of simply cancelling the event altogether, the family came up with the creative idea of hosting a Drive-Thru Baby Animal Festival. Visitors booked tickets and traveled through the farm in their vehicles, passing by all the animal pens. “People loved it,” Cameron says. “My wife and I recorded ourselves for an audio tour. The kids especially loved it. They would unbuckle their seatbelts, roll the windows down, and moo at the cows as they went past.”

The pandemic also prompted the Andelins to begin hosting private group tours of the farm, which they now provide year-round as a permanent offering.

“2022 was a particularly challenging year being at the tail-end of COVID. Everything just costs more – our fertilizer, fuel, everything,” says Cameron. “But it seems like there is always some sort of unexpected challenge or hurdle we don’t anticipate. We just have faith, work really hard, and stay positive.”

A family affair

Cameron and Natalie have five children, four of whom have since moved out of the family home and headed off to college. “Our kids have been heavily involved in the farm, which has been a blessing for them, and for us,” says Cameron. “It’s a bit of a transition not having them here at home, and we do miss the days when they were all here at the farm.”

Despite not having their children around to assist around the farm as much anymore, Andelin Family Farm is not short of helping hands. In 2022, the farm employed over 300 people throughout the seasons. “We’ve become quite a big employer and provide a lot of part-time work for people – everybody from retirees to teenagers, moms, and dads.” 

What’s coming up?

Aside from the Baby Animal and Tulip Festival, the Andelin Family Farm will continue hosting educational school field trips, as well as a kid's summer farm camp. Other spring events to look forward to are the annual Mother’s Day Brunch, and a craft and vendor fair at the beginning of May.

“We’re excited for 2023. Our baby goat yoga will be coming back in May. We’ll be having painting classes, and yesterday we were just talking about potentially doing a knitting class with our alpacas,” Cameron concluded, never short on ideas.

Our Town Reno reporting by Gaia Osborne

The Grays Rebound with their Local Italian Hearts Pasta Sauce and Commercial Kitchen

Val and Sal Gray, Southern California natives, have been married for 25 years. They both previously worked in the corporate world in management positions but were unfortunately laid off when the recession hit. “When we tried to find work again, we were told that we were too old to be rehired,” Val explains. “They had gotten rid of all the upper management and hired younger people working for a fraction of what we made.” After struggling for a while to reenter the corporate world and being too young to retire, Sal and Val found themselves in a predicament. 

Sal and Val both are of Italian heritage, their grandparents hailing from Naples and Rome respectively. “Sal made this fabulous sauce,” Val boasted of her husband. “I had my own family sauce, which I thought was pretty spectacular until I tasted his. It converted me!” The pair used to host regular dinner parties for friends and family, and attendees couldn’t get enough of their sauce. When a friend suggested they consider jarring their sauces and turning it into a business, it transformed into a lightbulb moment for the Grays.

But starting a business from the ground up is no easy feat, and would take a lot of time and resources. “We were living on our 401K, cashing it in just to survive,” Val mentions. “That was at the start of our journey. We prayed a lot, because the whole idea seemed pretty far-fetched to us. We prayed that God would give us a sign. At the time, we were growing tomatoes in our garden, and the next morning we discovered a perfectly heart-shaped tomato. That was our sign.” That heart-shaped discovery not only provided the Grays with a name for their new company, it kickstarted their entire culinary journey.

At the beginning, the Italian Hearts started at craft shows, with friends and family rallying around to help them make their first batches of sauce. Val recounts their first experience selling their product vividly; “We entered a craft show that was at a high school. We hadn’t gone commercial yet and I was really nervous setting up. I went to put a jar on the table and it misses the edge, smashing and filling the entire gymnasium with the smell of our sauce. People came in and were like, ‘what is that smell?’ and we sold out almost immediately, which was a good indication.”

After making some more batches at home and finding success at local farmers and craft markets in Reno, the duo decided to take things a step further. “Our number one goal of being commercial was to sell in Whole Foods,” Val mentions. “We were loyal Whole Foods customers and at the time, Whole Foods had a different model and were all about supporting local. It took us a year to get through compliance, but we finally got into Whole Foods.” In 2011, the Grays found themselves a commercial kitchen to rent in Sparks and began their commercial journey.

The pasta sauce department is one of the most competitive sections in the entire grocery store, with rows upon rows of brands competing for the best, most visible spots on the shelf. “That was the hardest thing at the beginning, showing customers why our sauce is different from everybody else’s,” explains Sal. “At the start, we went out on the road and did demos, because unless people really taste our sauce, they don’t know why we’re really different from anybody else.”

The Grays take pride in the fact that every single ingredient put into their sauce is hand- elected by them, as well as being locally produced and sourced from various family-run farms and ranches in the Greater Reno area. Instead of mass-producing their sauces in a factory, Papa Sal and Mama Val hand-produce each batch of sauce themselves in their own kitchen, maintaining complete control over their product.

“We cook sauce all day, exactly as we would make it at home,” says Val. “We taste them, and they’re not finished until we reach perfection. Of course, our profit margin is much less doing it this way. We can’t say we’ve made a billion dollars from this business because we haven’t. But it’s our passion and our business, and it’s hugely prosperous. Not necessarily on an income level, but to us, that’s fine, because our customers appreciate what we do tremendously.”

The Grays place a heavy emphasis not only on great taste, but also health and nutrition. “For Italians, red sauce is like our secret weapon for good health,” Val reveals. “We use a good grade olive oil, mostly all our ingredients are organic. We recently switched from regular tomatoes to certified organic San Marzano tomatoes that are grown in Italy without raising the price of our sauce.” Italian Hearts is currently in the process of obtaining their certified organic seal and switching out the labels to reflect the tomato change.

The company offers three different sauce flavors; Bella Amore, Val’s Vegetarian, and a Three Meat Sauce. The Three Meat sauce is Sal’s family recipe, hailing from his origins in Naples. Link sausage, chuck roast, and pork roast cook for hours in their signature red sauce, releasing all the meaty flavor into the sauce before being jarred. The Bella Amore is based loosely on Val’s nonna’s recipe, filled with the flavor of Val’s homemade meatballs with a slightly spicy kick. The third sauce, Val’s Vegetarian, came about after one of their vegan friends complained that she couldn’t try any of their products. “We took a week off and went up to our friend’s cabin in Tahoe and totally unplugged from everything, spending the whole time creating a vegan sauce,” Val explains. 

Above, Sal’s egg recipe using Italian Hearts sauce.

Their first major commercial breakthrough was with Whole Foods. After Amazon purchased Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017 though that was not good news for the Grays.

“That changed everything for us,” Val explains. “Unfortunately, we were one of the products that got cut across the board nationwide. Whole Foods was our number one store, so it was devastating.”

Prior to the Amazon takeover, Italian Hearts had won a Whole Foods Small Producer Grant, an award whose winner was selected based on popularity, and was voted on by stores in each region. “We were unanimously picked as the number one because we demoed in there weekly, setting up a table. We knew everybody there, it was like family. So when we got cut, it was like a bad breakup quite frankly.”

After being cut from Whole Foods' product range, Val and Sal felt a little burnt out with corporate America and decided to change directions and keep their focus on the local market in Reno. They went back to setting up tables at more craft shows and farmers markets and started to meet more local food producers.

Hearing about other local business owners' struggles and issues, Val and Sal decided to open their hearts and kitchen to other local producers and help them with their businesses. They’ve been renting out kitchen space for the last ten years now and are currently at full capacity, with nine local chefs and food trucks operating out of their kitchen; Mitch’s Vegan Jerky, Italian Heart’s, Dollface Cheesecakes, Faded Apron, Mama Bear’s Vegan Foods, Just Scones, Hungry Heart’s Food Truck, Kitchen 1851 Food Truck, Mrs. Bea & Mr. Rocko’s Catering. They offer their space and use of their state-of-the-art equipment at the lowest rate possible, simply charging chefs the flat rental fee with no added costs on top, and have rented out their space and helped 50 local food businesses to date. 

Italian Hearts has plans to continue supplying the Reno market with their delicious jars of tomatoey goodness, with the ultimate goals of expanding and opening a second commercial kitchen in Reno to up their sauce production and provide more opportunities for local chefs to find affordable kitchen space. “We definitely have plans to grow, but it all takes money,” Val explains. “We got an SBA loan recently which we were really thankful to get, but that all went to buying new equipment and upgrading our electricity.”  They also have plans to implement an itern program for students wanting to learn about business operations and the food and culinary industry.

Apart from adding the sauce to a pot with your favorite pasta shape, Papa Sal and Mama Val have some other suggestions for getting the most out of your sauce:

Support a local business and follow Italian Hearts on Facebook. Their page unfortunately got hacked and they lost thousands of followers they had amassed throughout their journey. They have a new page up and running, and could use any support to get their following back.

Papa Sal: “Papa used to poach an egg in the morning in the sauce right on the stove, and then use a little Italian toast to dunk in the egg yolk.”

Mama Val: “One thing I really love is zucchini. Cut them into rounds, sautee them in the sauce and finish it off in the oven topped with a really nice cheese.”

Italian Hearts pasta sauces can currently be found in the following stores in the Reno-Tahoe area:

• Raley's O-N-E on Wedge Parkway in Reno – Italian Hearts Display

• Raleys on Caughlin Ranch – end cap display

• Raleys on Mayberry Drive in Reno – shadow box up front in the pasta aisle

• Raleys on N McCarran in Sparks – Italian Hearts Display

• Raleys in Carson City – pasta aisle

• Raleys in Gardnerville – end cap display

• Raley's O-N-E in Truckee, CA

• Whole Foods Reno – pasta aisle

• Whole Foods in South Lake Tahoe – pasta aisle

• The Urban Market in downtown Reno

• Natural Grocers Reno

• Great Basin Community COOP

Our Town Reno reporting by Gaia Osborne

Spitting Image and Austin Pratt Release 1st 775 Album with Sticker Guy’s Slovenly Recordings

After Spitting Image members went their separate ways for a while, vocalist and lyricist Austin Pratt for the Reno punk band said they all returned to the Biggest Little City.  The geographical reunion and new maturity led to new creativity.

“I went to graduate school and some of us went to Chicago and Florida. And so we came back to Reno all at the same time, sort of coincidentally in 2019 and just started right up again,” Pratt said who since also became a painting instructor and then Curator of University Galleries at UNR.

Now Spitting Image will issue their debut album Full Sun on February 3rd, which will have a vinyl release with Slovenly Recordings. That’s a record label run by Pete Menchetti, known locally as “Sticker Guy” the name of his foundational company.

Slovenly Recording has been around 20 years and Sticker Guy 30. The predecessor to Slovenly was 702 Records, also started by Menchetti, which released three dozen records, some by Reno punk bands like The Atomiks.  Full Sun will be the first Reno record for Slovenly, reviving the Reno punk connection. 

“It’s definitely in the realm of hardcore punk, post punk, sort of psych art sort of stuff,” Pratt said of Spitting Image. “There's a lot musical lineage in there, you know, thinking back to sort of eighties SST records (an independent record label out of Long Beach, California), Dischord Records (out of Washington, D.C.), sort of stuff like that. The kind of Pacific Northwest and Washington D.C. sort of eighties and nineties music stuff. So there's that. We are kind of all over the place. It’s a lot of crowd rock influence and hardcore influence.”

Slovenly’s role will be “to promote, produce, distribute, sell, and just help them out however we can, get on tour, get the records into stores, get the records around the world, as many countries as we can, and to as many ears as we can, and to help the band out,” Menchetti said.

For the local music scene to keep thriving, Pratt would also like to see a medium size, 500 capacity type venue, succeed in Reno, which he believes is missing, while giving props to the Holland Project for attracting younger fans.  

Menchetti who also runs the Reno festival Debach-A-Reno and the traveling festival We’re Loud also would like to see more options for live musical events and festivals. 

“I don't really like some of the casino spaces,” he said. “I think some of them are just too clean, you know, we need a little bit of grittiness, because this is DIY yeah, we're we're looking around.”

Pratt said gentrification and rising prices has made it difficult for artists. 

“It's extremely expensive and unaffordable for many people,” he said.  “There is a kind of white washing and gentrifying and kind of this like tech slickness that is happening in Reno. Some of [Reno’s] charm, and presence and character in the past I think is kind of getting paved over in some ways.”

Menchetti has felt rising prices for his Sticker Guy business, making custom vinyl stickers, die cuts, window decals, and roll labels. His rent on his Freeport Blvd headquarters went up by 19% in September. 

“We're in Sparks, you know, so it's pretty ridiculous,” Menchetti. 

He started Sticker Guy when he was 19, and uses that company to help musicians get exposure. “I wouldn't be able to do it without the sticker company. I mean the record label unfortunately loses money every year. Sticker Guy is the financier of the record label and also of the festivals that we're doing around the world.”

He sees the importance of giving back locally and staying rooted.

“Like back in the nineties, a lot of my friends were moving to cities that were already cool,” Menchetti said. “And you know, I was always fighting them on that. Like, why don't you stay here and make Reno cool? You know? You know Portland and Seattle are really not that different from Reno in the grand scheme of things.”

For Pratt, his work at UNR and his other artistic outlet as a painter helps him keep going. 

“It’s nice to have different outlets,” he said as our interview wrapped up. “You know, painting is so solitary and isolated and being in a band as a collaborative project, but it's also a performative project and it's also get to be verbal and I want to say literary or lyrical.”

“Start small. Don't try to grow too fast,” Menchetti said for his own closing thoughts and keys to long standing success as a Reno business person and alternative music driver.  “Things that grow really fast, fall really fast in my experience. Just do what you do and do it yourself and just keep at it.”

Our Town Reno reporting January 2023

New Made in Reno Film Rotten Apple Explores Mental Illness

Stephen George, a 34-year-old Ph.D. student in Chemistry at the University of Nevada, Reno and aspiring filmmaker, has recently made a locally produced film expected to be released in late January or early February, about “mental illness, obsession, and mania.”

George was inspired to make a film involving mental illness after his own experiences with hypochondria and after listening to a podcast on false pregnancy, a condition where someone believes they are pregnant when they are not. Soon he began writing the movie with his friend Zoë Spanbroek, and they frequently exchanged scripts. 

George worked with a tight “shoestring” $3,000 budget (the trailer is from a YouTube channel called Complicated Shoes Productions) and used local talent from the Reno Artists Guild.

This includes Ragen Locricchio (in photo below) who stars as Diana, the woman who falls into mania and delusion after watching an old tube TV, and Greg Palmer whose duties ranged from recording sound to serving as assistant director on occasion. 

George attributes his ability to make a film with such a small budget to the generosity of locals who frequently allowed him to film at locations for free, including UNR which provides free film equipment rentals and allowed him to shoot scenes in the medical school and church on campus. 

“I probably took on more than I can handle,” said George in a joking manner about his soon-to-be-released film with an estimated run time of 40 minutes. Rotten Apple will be George’s third film and will be shown locally before being pitched to streaming platforms for further distribution. George purposely left the setting ambiguous to create mystery within the film, but suspects Reno locals will recognize some locations. 

“What I really like about the Reno [film] scene is that people want to do stuff,” the director told Our Town Reno. “They want to create stuff.”

“It’s cathartic,” George said of making a film about mental illness. “You get your thoughts out, you get your ideas out. You're sharing it with people, and maybe someone sees it and they go ‘I can relate to this.’”

George does warn that the sensitive topics featured in the film might make some people uncomfortable.

Reporting by Ariel Smith for Our Town Reno with photos provided by Stephen George

Honey Plant: The Origin Story of Reno’s Faithful Funk Duo

Honey Plant started with two musicians, Matthew Nist and Robin Lowe, in separate bands splitting rent for a studio space in Southern California. They joined forces to get the most bang for their buck and they weren’t necessarily expecting a band to form, and certainly couldn’t anticipate the friendship that would result in turn. Now, with both of them based in Reno and expanding the band with other musicians, more performances, and more passion than ever, it’s clear that funk is here to stay in the Biggest Little City.

Funk: how to describe such a genre? Music that is gravitationally groovy? Rhythms that incite a bodacious boogie? Alliterations aside, Nist sums up the genre with one word: fun.

Honey Plant drummer Matthew Nist with said strong margarita in hand. Photo By Vanessa Ribeiro.

Since establishing themselves in Reno, they have performed over 35 live shows at various local music venues including Cypress Music Hall, The Holland Project, and Matador Lounge. 

“Reno has really shown up and shown out with their intimacy,” Lowe said. “Everyone that I’m meeting here, I feel like I can develop a real relationship with and it’s not just based on transaction.” 

Honey Plant vocalist and bass extraordinaire Robin Lowe. Photo by Vanessa Ribeiro.

As Nist and Lowe found their bearings in Reno- a city with a thriving rock and punk scene- the opportunities to hone the sound of Honey Plant arose with the introduction of Noah Jeffery, a Reno local with saxophone skills, who had only flirted with the funk genre before. That didn’t stop him from coming in with a bang, performing with the duo for the first time in September of 2022.

The band has plans to add more members and work towards the eventual goal of touring the West Coast- and who knows, maybe the world one day.

Honey Plant can be found @honey_plantmusic on Instagram

Reporting for Our Town Reno by Vanessa Ribeiro 

Cold Stone, How a Local Creamery Owner Finds Success

Chris Reynolds has owned and operated numerous Cold Stones in Reno since February 2003, but the one in the former Shoppers Square, now the Reno Public Market, has been his most successful.  He hopes the new space will bring in new customers without losing the regulars.

After a lengthy construction process and tough adjustments during the pandemic, he finally moved into the shiny new location across from the Sprouts supermarket, a few hundred feet from his previous location. 

The new location has more space for employees and an area for families to enjoy their ice cream on site, something Reynolds prefers to their previous location which primarily did grab-and-go orders. 

The ice cream and waffle cones are made in-house using restaurant-grade waffle irons and an industrial ice cream churner. The process to make ice cream and waffle cones often takes all morning and an employee is dedicated to each task. Multiple batches must be made to avoid running out during the post-dinner rush. 

“Who wouldn’t want to go home smelling like a waffle cone?”said Reynolds, tongue in cheek.

In the back room a community board is filled with doodles, drawings, and flyers promoting an employee's radio shows. 

Despite the difficulties of the pandemic, Reynolds appreciated how it forced him to lean into his entrepreneurial spirit while he came up with plans to rearrange the store and created new ordering methods, including a specialized phone order system and the use of delivery apps, that minimized contact between workers and customers. 

“Pizza shops and ice cream shops really flourished,” said Reynolds who suspected an increase in their sales was partly due to parents trying to calm down their cooped up kids during lockdowns. 

Reno’s ice cream habit stuck, and the last two years have been some of the busiest this Cold Stone has experienced.

Staffing was a struggle for Reynolds until just recently when people became more comfortable working in close proximity with one another again, and he looks forward to the world settling back into more normal times.

On the morning of Our Town Reno’s visit Reynolds was seen setting up chairs in the dining area and running across the parking lot to Sprouts to buy an armful of bananas to get employees through the day. 

Reporting by Ariel Smith for Our Town Reno

Recycled Records, Spinning and Sticking Around in Reno since 1978

In a continuously evolving Reno, there is one constant, Recycled Records. The store has been open since 1978 and survived a couple of locations, from Wells Avenue to Virginia Street to another spot on Virginia Street. It has been at its current location in the heart of Midtown since 2012 where it has fared well with the vinyl record resurgence of the 2010s and increased foot traffic. 

During December special bins of festive music are placed on the counter near the register

Kyle Howell and Eric Jacobson bought the store from its long-time owner Paul Doege in October 2019. The store's atmosphere and design didn’t change and neither did the magnitude of offerings.

“They really don’t exist anymore. We’re one of a kind,” said Howell of used music stores. “We got all kinds of stuff you can’t even find anywhere else, especially in Reno.”

On top of the large stacks of CDs odd knick-knacks and even more CDs can be found. Pictured here are two figure-drawing dolls in a tender embrace. 

At the front of the store, there are speakers and other equipment, posters, and a dollar wall where less popular or somewhat damaged items are lovingly c̶r̶o̶s̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ frequently on top of the artist's face. A little further in, CDs are sorted and stacked six feet high featuring genres like country & western, soul, and rock. Priced affordably at two for $12 listeners can find albums no longer in print or that are hard to find in other music stores. 

The back of the store is where the real treasures lie. Vinyl records cover the walls and every inch of shelf space. 

The main attraction is unsurprisingly their vinyl collection which features thousands of used and new records.

Recently Howell has noticed an increase in sales of cassette tapes. Visitors young and old experience days passed as they flip through wooden crates in search of musical gold. Their clientele, he says, is surprisingly diverse. 

On the day of Our Town Reno’s interview, a young teen came in and showed their friends a Dolly Parton CD. A man in his late 20s flipped carefully through the “fresh meat” section. And an older man examined a record near the cassettes. 

Reno’s one-stop shop for eclectic music is here to stay with Howell telling those interested in the store: “It doesn’t suck”

Photos and Report by Ariel Smith for Our Town Reno

Alyce Bryant Introduces Reno to Chair Yoga at the Buddhist Center

Alyce Bryant, a local yoga instructor, combats yoga’s intimidating reputation with a chair and an informal atmosphere. 

At the Reno Buddhist Center in Midtown Reno, you’ll find a large brick building with a welcoming white archway leading to a set of double doors. Inside a gray carpeted hallway leads to a large assembly room half dedicated to chairs and tables, half empty, and with a large and ornate altar at the front with Buddhist iconography. 

On Tuesdays from 10:30-11:45 a.m., you’ll also find Alyce Bryant, 33, teaching a “chair yoga” class. Chair yoga is as simple as the name suggests. Participants complete a variety of simple stretches such as cat and cow poses that involve gently arching the spine. These poses are modified to be done while sitting and in a few standing poses the chair is used to provide balance. 

 “Chair yoga allows for inclusivity, accessibility and most of all connection back to self,” said Bryant to Our Town Reno during a recent Tuesday morning session. These cozy and non-intimidating classes are funded through a donation-based system at the Reno Buddhist Center. Attendees have access to yoga blocks, mats, and blankets used to make the chair more comfortable to sit in, and to adjust poses to each individual skill level. 

“I’ve been doing [yoga] for 20 years. I started at 13 to help my scoliosis,” Bryant said of her own journey. Bryant has been teaching yoga for two years both online and in-person.

Creating a fun, informal atmosphere is an important part of Bryant’s class as she walks participants through stretches, breathing exercises, meditation, and positive self-talk.  The class is a boon to flexibility, concentration, strength and mood, while reducing stress and joint strain.

Our Town Reno reporting by Ariel Smith

Talking Biggest Little Mushrooms with Walker Sauls

GO: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what originally piqued your interest and fascination with mushrooms before your business was even established?

WS: So I’m a Reno native, born and raised. I went to UNR and got my bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science. Right after graduating, I moved up to Oregon to kind of get out of my hometown and experience more of the world, I guess. I was just up there serving tables, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my degree and my life. I noticed that there were mushrooms growing all around me, and I kind of got fascinated by them.

GO: What is it about mushrooms in particular that fascinates you?

WS: Honestly, I think it’s the fact that they have medicinal properties that can help people with their physical and mental health. When I started researching them more, I learned that they can actually be very beneficial for the environment. I’ve always loved just going out hiking in nature and experiencing the outdoors, and I found that I could go out and do all that stuff I love doing anyways, while finding and looking for these different kinds of mushrooms. It kind of turned into like an adult Easter egg hunt, you could say.

GO: Can you expand more on the medicinal properties of mushrooms and the different health benefits they can provide to people?

WS: So there are several species that have wide-ranging medicinal benefits. Several of these species are more popular and you’ll see them more widely dispersed. One of them is Lion’s Mane, which can help with memory and the nervous system, sort of like a brain support mushroom. Cordyceps is another very popular one, which helps with things like energy, stamina, and oxygenating the blood. Reishi is a very ancient mushroom that’s been used in traditional Chinese medicine for a very long time. It helps with immune support, anti-inflammation, allergies, sleep – it’s a very wide-ranging one. Turkey Tail is another really cool one, and it’s one of the first that I learned how to forage in Oregon. It’s actually an approved cancer treatment all by itself in Japan, and is being studied right now in the United States for the same thing. It has this polysaccharide that’s known to be very effective at killing cancer cells. And the last one I’ll mention is Chaga, also a kind of ancient traditional medicine. It can be great for hair, skin, nails, gut health, anti-inflammation things like that. There’s also a lot of support and studies happening around psilocybin mushrooms, which are actives that aren’t exactly legal yet in Nevada but are gaining a lot of support. It seems like states are starting to legalize them; they are now allowed for therapeutic use in both Oregon and Colorado. That also fascinated me for their potential benefits for people’s mental health. We’ll see where things go, but I’m definitely a supporter of being able to get that kind of medicine out to people who need it.

GO: How did you go from foraging mushrooms in Oregon to starting up a commercial mushroom-growing business in Reno?

WS: After living in Oregon for about four years just studying, learning and foraging for mushrooms as a hobby, I moved back down here [to Reno] and I kind of had a fresh start. I learned that you could grow mushrooms very sustainably and realized I could kind of merge my interest in mushrooms with my passion for environmental stewardship, which is what I went to school for. So I decided to start experimenting with growing mushrooms in the high desert … that was around two and a half years ago, right at the start of COVID, so I had a lot of time on my hands. I did some experimental grows for about six months, and figured out a good system that worked for me. I got my LLC and my first commercial client about two years ago, and I was off to the races.

GO: For people that don’t know the intricacies, could you give a basic 101 explanation of how you go about growing and harvesting your mushrooms?

WS: I will do my best to keep it as simple as possible! So you basically start out with a spore. Two spores will germinate and kind of mate and grow together, creating what is known as a network of mycelium which is like the body of the mushroom. If it was like an iceberg, it would be the part that’s underneath the water. Mycelium will metabolize the food that’s in the soil or dead tree for example, breaking down nutrients and absorbing them. When the conditions are right and it’s absorbed enough nutrients, it will form a mushroom. The way I do it requires me to take cultures of mycelium and inoculate sterilized grains with that mycelium, which takes about two weeks to colonize fully. Then I take those colonized grains and inoculate them into the mushroom food, what you’d call the substrate. It takes around another two weeks to inoculate, and depending on the species, it can take more [time]. Once that’s fully colonized, I put the fruiting block into my grow rooms and introduce it to the right conditions – more airflow, higher humidity, temperature change – which initiates the mushrooms to start forming. Once they start growing, it only takes about a week for them to go from babies to fully mature mushrooms. That’s when I harvest them. They’re ready to go off as soon as possible to my customers since they only really have a 3-5 day shelf life.

GO: How do you transform the freshly harvested mushrooms into other products that you sell at Biggest Little Mushrooms?

WS: So what you can do with fresh mushrooms is dry them out, and turn them into a powder. You can sell them in powder form which is probably not as tasty or gourmet, but you can still get a lot of the nutrients and benefits that way. I’ve also made mushroom jerky before, which is a dehydrated mushroom that’s marinated and has a longer shelf life. You can also ferment mushrooms, which I have experimented with, but that’s not something I sell right now. What I have been selling a lot of recently are medicinal mushroom tinctures. I take the five species I mentioned earlier – dry mushrooms of those kinds – and I will do a dual extraction using alcohol and water to extract the medicinal components out of them and then bottle them up in tincture form and sell them as a medicinal supplement to people.

GO: You mentioned previously that you grow your mushrooms in as sustainable a way as possible. What do you do differently to make those sustainable changes in the growing process?

WS: So mushrooms inherently grow on sort of like agricultural waste streams, places people otherwise wouldn’t use. I’ve used wood shavings, soybeans, and spent coffee grounds to grow mushrooms, I try to grow them on things that would otherwise go to waste. Some other things I do is using fully compostable packaging and going as low on single-use plastics as possible. It does cost a little more, but in my opinion, it’s worth it to have that lower footprint. I also won’t really temperature control my grow room, so it’s very natural in terms of temperature in there. I’ll grow different species in different seasons. So in the wintertime, I’ll grow mushrooms that thrive more in colder weather, and in the summertime, I’ll grow more warm-weather species. That’s a way I can cut back on the environmental impact. I have a lot of future plans to go more sustainable and would love to eventually get solar panels and power most of my farm on solar energy. [The grow room] doesn’t really require too much lighting, so I just use LED strips in my rooms which don’t use too much power. They’re mushrooms. They like dark, moist environments. So it’s pretty chill.

GO: How do mushrooms benefit the environment out in the wild?

WS: There are a lot of benefits, I can probably only speak to a few. The world of mycology is a very understudied science and there are so many amazing benefits that people are still discovering. But yeah, basically they are decomposers. They take things that are dead or dying and will eat them, break them down, and turn them into organic matter that can then be reabsorbed by the environment. They really help to create a healthy soil web, and mycelium also acts like fodder or food for other microbes in the soil. Another very interesting thing that mushrooms do that has been discovered recently is what people like to call the “World Wide Web.” Scientists have discovered that mycelial networks will connect entire forests and ecosystems. If you’re, say, out in the forest in Tahoe and looking around the surrounding trees, they’re actually connecting underground through a network of mycelium similar to a neural network you could see in somebody’s brain. They’ve found that these trees are actually able to transfer nutrients, and communicate in a way that isn’t quite understood. Mother trees can take care of their direct offspring, or if a tree is struggling, the surrounding trees can help that specific tree, like they have some sort of knowledge. Scientists haven’t really figured out how this kind of communication happens, the whole idea of how mycelium works is very unknown and very fascinating.

GO: Are there a lot of wild mushrooms in the Reno and Tahoe region specifically?

WS: Yeah, there are for sure. There are dozens of different gourmet and medicinal active species in Reno and Tahoe. Tahoe definitely has more mycology going on, but you can definitely still find mycelium networks in deserts. If you’re talking about mushroom activity up near Lake Tahoe and on the western slope of the Sierra, there are some pretty cool gourmet species. I’ve gone out foraging there for Morels, which grow after a big fire comes through. They make relationships with tree roots and are called mycorrhizal fungi. From what I understand, once their host tree burns down in a forest, they will make as many mushrooms as possible so they can spread their genetics to a new area and make a ton of spores. So you’ll go out to these crazy landscapes that have just been burnt. There’s ash everywhere, you’re getting soot on your face. And then all of a sudden you’ll just see these Morels, and it’s pretty cool.

GO: How do you go about foraging for mushrooms in the wild? How can you figure out if the mushrooms you find are safe to eat or even touch?

WS: There’s a really cool website that is a great resource for anybody trying to do this, and it’s how I first got into identifying mushrooms. It’s called Shroom Tree; you can post pictures on there. You definitely want to get the right kind of picture, a top picture and a bottom picture of the gills underneath. There’s guidance on the site. But you post your pictures and there are trusted identifiers on there – professional mycologists. You only want to listen to them, don’t listen to anybody else that answers your post. The trusted identifiers are vetted by the website. 

GO: Are there particular signs or environmental markers you look out for when foraging> Or do you wander around until you spot a cluster of mushrooms?

WS: You know, it’s a little bit of both. There’s part of it where you’re just going out there and trying to follow your intuition, but it’s also to do with matching that with knowing the environment that they grow in. Around here, they like fir and cedar trees. So you’ll be looking for a certain kind of tree or a certain slope of the mountain. North-facing slopes retain more water, for example, so might possibly have more mushrooms, especially later in the season. A lot of the time they’ll come out after a rainstorm, so if you go out a few days after a storm you’ll have a better chance. Again, in my experience, it’s more like the mushrooms find you, and it’s at times you least expect it. You’ll be looking all day and all of a sudden you’ll almost step on one unexpectedly.

GO: Are there any rules or regulations currently in place surrounding wild mushroom foraging?

\WS: There are rules, and you’ll have to look them up for the different counties and areas. I have gotten commercial foraging licenses. If you want to harvest more than a gallon of Morels, or something like that, you have to get a license. There are different rules for different mushrooms. I know there are some species that are more ‘prized’ and it would be frowned upon if you did take them. There’s a sort of rule of thumb that I’ve talked to other people about; you don’t want to take the baby mushrooms. My thought on it is if they haven’t had a chance to spread their spores and genetics and you should give them a chance to do their thing. There’s going to be more next year. It’s just a good rule of thumb in my opinion.

GO: Where do you source the spores to grow your mushrooms, and do you have the ability to grow species that aren’t native to this area and climate?

WS: I source my strains from commercial companies or friends that also run mushroom farms. This is because these strains have been tried and tested to perform well for commercial viability. Not every strain in the wild is going to form big clusters of mushrooms that are going to yield high. That’s what you need when you’re running a business; you need consistency if you’re looking to make money. I do everything indoors, you can’t really grow mushrooms outdoors in Nevada. Not commercially. You might be able to grow a couple of species in a shady spot in your yard, but what I do is recreate rainforest conditions inside. Humidity is a big factor in Nevada. I have indoor rooms which have humidity pumping into them, and it’s all regulated. And then they need to be super clean and sterile since you’re pretty much creating an environment for any little microbe to thrive in. You want to make sure the mushroom mycelium in happy and the only thing in there, which might be my least favorite part of the job.

GO: Have you had any batches that got contaminated and ruined?

WS: Most definitely. I think I would be a mushroom star if I didn’t. I mean, if anybody’s looking to get into mycology, expect some failures but don't look at it as a failure. Look at it as an opportunity to grow and know that it does get easier.

GO: Do you run Biggest Little Mushrooms solo as a full-time venture?

WS: After the first six months or so, I turned it into a full-time thing. I have grown it to where I’m now supplying seven different restaurants, the Great Basin Food Co-op, and Riverside Farmer’s Market which is a fantastic farmers market. I can’t recommend it enough. Everybody that I work with is great, and it’s sort of turned into this beast that I can’t control. I’m growing and selling between 100-150lbs of mushrooms a week which is crazy. It’s quite a bit of labor, cleaning and organizing all the back-end stuff. I just hired somebody about three months ago and it’s been great so far. It’s been a slow growth of the business over the past two years, it’s been a lot of work which I think you can expect when starting a business. It’s like a grind for at least a few years.

GO: What does the future look like for Biggest Little Mushrooms?

WS: You know, I see a lot of potential for expansion in this industry and a lot of people picking up on mushrooms for how cool they are, on this wave that I think is well-backed and founded. I do have plans to expand, but I’m not sure if that entails growing a ton more mushrooms necessarily. There are lots more interesting routes to explore in mycology, and I really am fascinated by making high-quality medicine and supplements. I’ve been doing a lot of research, and they have a longer shelf life so that business model makes a little more sense on my end. I’m definitely not planning on going anywhere. I love being able to supply very healthy superfoods to the community, and I would love to become more efficient and be able to grow more in the same space and continue to dial in my processes. Beyond that, I have a couple of ideas in the works. I’ve had a lot of interest from people wanting to experiment with this kind of stuff, and I want to be able to empower people to do these kinds of things on their own. 

GO: Finally, what is your favorite mushroom recipe to whip up in the kitchen?

WS: Oh man. Yeah, I’d say I definitely have a favorite recipe. It’s one I just did with my family over Thanksgiving. Lion’s Mane crab cakes. Lion’s Mane has sort of a crab texture and flavor to it, and there’s a really great recipe on foragerchef.com. You’re replacing the crab for Lion’s Mane pretty much, and it’s so good. Mushrooms are very high in protein. The oyster mushrooms I sell, if you don’t account for water content they’re around 30% protein which is super high. If you haven’t tried the oyster mushroom tacos at Estella Tacos & Mezcal, you should. They buy from me, and I know I’m a little bit biased but seriously, these tacos are the bomb.

You can catch Walker and his mushrooms at the Riverside Farmer’s Market every Saturday from 9-12, rain or shine. Make sure to follow @biggestlittlemushrooms on Instagram to stay up to date with Walker’s upcoming events and harvests.

Our Town Reno reporting by Gaia Osborne

Monica and Fernando, Trying to Reopen La Gente, a Chicano Community Store

La Gente is a Chicano themed clothes and memorabilia store located on Prater on the rebound. Media often focus on new businesses or thriving ones, but less on those trying to be able to operate after initial challenges.

This shop was open only for a short time early this year before the couple who run it say it was forced to close.

It was heartbreaking for owners Monica and Fernando who are retired from other jobs and had poured all of their savings into their new business.

They say the shutdown was due to a licensing issue. This was because the side of the street where the fashion store is located, specifically the building they are in, had never sold clothes but rather food.

“The funny thing is I can go across the street and sell there, but I don’t want to, I put all my work here,” said Fernando.

The couple hopes to reopen as soon as the licensing issue is resolved. “We’re working closely with [officials] and they’re working with us,” said Monica.

Monica and Fernando have been on the rebound for themselves before. They were actually divorced for many years and then got back together.

They are also survivors of gang violence in California, including one time when they were relaxing in front of their house and were shot at while Monica was pregnant. “Here in Reno no one bothers you,” said Fernando of preferring it here. “Back home they would pull you over for no reason just simply because you were dressed a certain way or you were driving a lowrider.”

The store is covered in all sorts of Chicano cultural memorabilia such as Teen Angel magazines and others that dedicated themselves to publishing the Chicano culture in the late ‘90s to the early 2000s.

Fernando has collected many himself but most were passed down from his family. These magazines have poetry, photos, and letters that readers submitted. “There wasn’t really a way for people to communicate or share these things back then, that’s why they sent them to the magazines,” said Monica. 

What most stands out however are the murals that cover the outside and inside of the store. These murals are drawings by Monica’s father. He was a famous Chicano artist across California who drew inspiration from his wife and other aspects of Hispanic culture.

“I have some of the original photos of my mom posing for these drawings,” said Monica. “Everyone in the ’90s had some of the posters with these drawings on them. You could get them at the gas stations and he was so well known,” said Fernando.

Monica has asked her family for some of the drawings in order to copy them and place them on products such as candles. “If we had to leave this store for any reason we’re taking the murals with us. We’d paint over them, they’re ours” said Monica. 

The store itself is like visiting a museum. Everything on the walls, even some of the merchandise, has a rich and interesting history. One could spend hours learning about each item and its history. Fernando has two beautiful paintings on handkerchiefs painted by inmates. Those handkerchiefs have symbols that are representative of the Hispanic community such as the Mexican eagle. 

Even some of the merchandise is unique and hard to come by. Fernando pointed out that La Gente sells Teen Angle t-shirts. “They only have one vendor per state,” said Fernando in reference to the brand Pocho. “They decided to name it that in irony of what Pocho means,” said Monica. Pocho is a derogatory term to refer to a Hispanic American. Monica and Fernando feel very honored that the company has chosen their store to be the one in Nevada to sell this merchandise. 

Fernando decided to name the store La Gente for the community. “This is their space, their store, it’s for the gente,” said Fernando. He represents the Chicano community in every aspect of his business including putting photos and t-shirts from local lowriders clubs on the store walls. Fernando says the Chicano community has been extremely supportive of the business and loves to visit and hang out like family. “They protect this place,” said Fernando. Monica and Fernando have many plans for the store, including turning the shop into a place for the community to be able to hang out. 
“We used to have an art gallery in the shop,” said Fernando. Monica wants to add a little library inside the store eventually and has other ideas to engage customers to stay a little while longer. The store has chairs and a table or two that certainly invite the shopper to sit down for a while and just hang out in the store.

No one is excluded. Monica and Fernando told of a time when they let a homeless man inside the shop to hang out. “I remember someone was walking by and they told me, that’s what separates you from everyone else,” said Fernando. They don’t turn anyone away because they know how that feels, they have been through it all including homelessness. 

For now, however, Monica and Fernando can’t sell anything in their store or they could get in trouble with the City of Reno. “We have boxes of merchandise just sitting there,” said Fernando. However, they both know and have faith that the community will make up for the time lost when they reopen. Fernando and Monica are hoping the store will be open early next year and back in full swing throughout 2023. 

Our Town Reno reporting by Nancy Vazquez