We were lucky. After a 45 minute drive into the middle of nowhere, my husband, Nick, and I arrived at the Gård Public House in Royal City at 4:15 PM on a Friday. Our waitress hesitated, deciding where to put us amongst all the reservations.
By 5 o’clock the dinner crowd had started rolling in. We already had our drinks (the Gård curated wine flight, all incredible!) and delicious apps on the table: a deconstructed elote (a Mexican cooked corn street) with feta, and burrata (a ball of softer-than-mozzarella white cheese) with roasted tomatoes on a bed of thick-spread, fresh, herbaceous pesto.
Gård Public House, Gård Vitner, Lawrence Vineyards and Inn at Public House owner, Lisa Lawrence, stopped by for a quick hello before running off to sell concessions at the Royal City High School football game (go Knights!). Speaking with them through the evening, Lisa and the Gård staff were as humble as we were surprised at how busy they were. The reservation list was packed, the upstairs guest rooms of The Inn at Public House were full, folks were coming in for take-out orders, and others like us were just showing up with no reservations for a full service meal.
Their success is thanks to (a lot of) hard work, attention to detail, and as always, a bit of luck. Their most recent luck came with the arrival of Executive Chef José Ulises Montero Lombera, who came to Royal City during COVID to work with family in the orchards. At the time, Lisa and husband and business partner Josh, were looking for help in the kitchen. Chef Ulises, as he’s now known, stepped in to help, and over the next couple years traveled and cooked in Seattle, Ellensburg and Royal City before the head chef position opened at Gård.
“It was 2012 when I started culinary university in Michoacán in Mexico,” Chef Ulises said, before his cooking took him to Guadalajara and San Miguel Allende in Mexico and then NOMA, one of the most famous restaurants in the world, in Copenhagen, Denmark. “I just love to cook… My food is a fusion of all the experiences I had in my life,” he said. He has the amazing ability to fuse his heritage of Mexican flavors with his education in European techniques which makes him a perfect fit for Gård, and Royal City.
“It’s [Royal City] in the middle of nowhere,” Chef Ulises said, “but you have all the amazing ingredients around. It’s the perfect spot – Tonnemaker produce, Pure Country [pork]… a lot of good ingredients, a lot of potential and a lot of good people. That’s what makes it so good.”
It has been quite a journey for Chef Ulises, and no step quite so jarring, perhaps, as the transition during COVID from NOMA to the orchards of Royal City. “My father is a super professional, hard worker… but humble man. He taught me to be the same thing. As long as you’re doing something good, something legal… then it’s not bad, it’s good,” he said. It’s this work ethic that opened the door for Chef Ulises to come work with the Lawrence family and the entire, amazing Gård team.
“Matías [Kúsulas, Gård Vitners/Lawrence Vineyards winemaker and viticulturist] is a genius,” Chef Ulises said, ”it’s incredible to hear when he’s talking about this and all the processes of the wine. They’re [the entire Gård team] all doing their job really good. It’s a motivation for me.” Others in the Gård team include: Matthew Lawrence (Josh’s little brother!), Director of Hospitality and Business Development; Hannah Coulson, Assistant Winemaker; Isidro “The Don” Mondragon, Vineyard Manager; Jennifer Cochran, Marketing Director; Riley Newman, Wine Club Manager; and Tasting Room Managers Linda Boggs, Nichol Cruz and Sydney Hurst.
While Chef Ulises’ humble and hardworking nature came from his father, his competitiveness came from his experience in the kitchen. In Denmark, he said, all the chefs he worked with had “the same mentality, trying to work really hard to work at the best place in the world. I’m trying to share that… everyday being a little bit better. Something super small, but everyday a little bit better.”
And while he is hardworking because of his father and competitive because of his experiences, Chef Ulises is inspired by his daughter, Angelina, who he shares with wife Mariah. “She is my source of inspiration and motivation. I want to be a good example for her, just as my parents are for me,” he said. This inspiration is important for a chef living so far from his peers. To stay current, Chef Ulises also reads extensively, continues to travel and takes cues from the seasonal produce of the Basin. “When you have good ingredients, the rest is easy.”
From the décor to the local connections, from the apps to the wine, from the Pure Country Harvest bone-in caveman porkchop entrée to the Old Fashioned night cap, from the friendly hug-your-waitress atmosphere to the we’re-so-lucky “yums” coming from every direction… Gård Public House is a must-do for all who live in the Basin.
The seasonal menu is about to change, with an Octoberfest-inspired cheese and pretzels, Thai Salad, Asada Cheesesteak hoagie, and Rhode-Island inspired Calamari dish, along with updates to staples like the steak dinner that among other things will now include roasted cauliflower au gratin.
You aren’t driving to the middle of nowhere, you’re heading somewhere, and that somewhere is worth the drive. Don’t forget your reservations!
