You’re the cook when you order a steak at the popular Palo Cedro Inn.
So if you mess up, it’s on you.
But grilling your own juicy ribeye or other quality cut of beef is part of the allure that’s been drawing diners — and even an occasional horse — through the restaurant’s front doors since it opened in 1972.
Trisha Lande took over as owner in 2014 after starting as a waitress there in 2000. She borrowed money from her mom to buy the place and is proud to say that after nine years, she was able to finish paying off the loan on Jan. 1.
“I’m completely done with the loan. I’m just paying her the interest right now,” she said.
Lande’s past restaurant experience includes being a server at the former Grady’s Steak and Seafood House in Redding, where she worked for 11 years.
The grill is where it’s at
The Palo Cedro Inn's dining room features a pecky cedar décor, with beams repurposed from an old barn. The all-important indoor grill gleams at the far end, near an electronic jukebox and a full bar with 11 taps. There’s another grill outdoors on the patio with more seating.
Lande and her kitchen staff cook the daily specials. They’ll also grill your half-pound cheeseburger and other à la carte items until 4 p.m. After that, you’re mostly on your own for the steaks, which are Grade A choice supplied from R&R Meats in Redding.
“It’s fun to cook your own steaks. A lot of people know each other because it’s a small-town and it’s fun," Lande said.
She added: “It’s just an interesting concept. When we get people that come in and they’re, ‘Oh, we don’t want to cook our steak,’ we’re like, ‘Just come on and give it a try.’ And then they’re like, ‘This is the best thing' and then they’re back.”
For steak fans, servers will bring out the salad and ask customers what cut they want, ranging from top sirloin, New York and T-bone. Ribeye, with its marbling, is the most popular. A meat thermometer is available for those who need one, along with a selection of spices.
“We also have bourbon-glazed salmon and chicken. We have hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken strips,” Lande said.
She charges competitive prices for the steaks, partly because she does a lot of the daytime cooking herself and there’s no main chef or sous chef on the payroll.
“We don’t have a cook like in the evenings, so that cuts out a lot. It makes it a little bit easier for me to keep our prices lower,” Lande said.
Staff help with the grilling, if you ask
The restaurant's regulars are a mix of people from all walks of life, including ranchers, contractors and other locals to guests from out-of-town. Customers can range in age from toddlers to those in their 90s. Older folks can get special treatment if they need help with the grill.
“Sometimes the girls will (cook) if they have time and there’s a senior citizen that’s on a walker or oxygen, something like that. We’ll cook (for them) or I’ll come out and cook in the evening. But usually, once the gals show them how to do it, they’re in and go,” Lande said.
Lande oversees a staff of 16 and an inside capacity of 103 customers who can choose from a dozen tables and a back room with a longer table for groups. The outdoor patio is ideal for summer days and nights.
Lande recommends reservations for parties of 10 and more. When there’s a crowd, diners might have to wait for their time on the grill. But two people can cook at once from either side.
“If we have a party of 12 and then two people come in right behind them, we try to sometimes squeeze the two in. But if they’re already cooking, you’ve got to wait for that party to get through. And if they order filets, they take a little bit of time,” Lande said.
Where memories are created
Better known to locals as the PCI, the restaurant is a go-to spot for birthday parties, baby showers, wedding receptions and other events. “I’ve done it all,” Lande said.
One time, back in 2018, the staff created a romantic atmosphere with candles at sunset for a marriage proposal.
“I’ve had a couple people meet here that have later gotten married,” she said.
Another special time was in September 2021, when customer Jerry Hill bought a round of beers in honor of 13 U.S. service members who died in a terrorist attack.
“It was 13 beers that we sat in the corner with the plaque he bought for all the troops that were killed when the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan,” Lande said.
'Flexible food' ordering
PCI offers a simple, one-page menu with weekly specials such as fish and chips or pulled-pork tacos. Recently, customers could choose a corned beef-and-cabbage meal to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day.
“Every week it’s something different," said Lande. "Last week, it was chicken-fried steak, which went amazingly,” she said recently.
The PCI has a secret menu, which includes fish and chips and grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids. Lande said she can bring out her skillet to whip up special requests.
“I can make stuff work because we make our own desserts, too — bread, pudding and pies. So we always have eggs for the bread pudding. I always keep bread here. I can make grilled cheese sandwiches and a ham-and-cheese-and-egg kind of thing,” Lande said.
PCI offers salads for vegetarians or other non-meat variations.
“Some people don’t like lettuce, so we’ll make a tomato, cucumber, mushroom plate kind of thing," she said. "We work with what we have."Lande also can prepare protein-packed salads with a mix of steak, chicken or salmon.“So it’s not on the menu, but if you want, I’ll make a New York, we’ll put it on a salad and you can have a New York steak salad,” she said.
Testimony from a fan
Frequent customer Jon Ruiz of Redding was at a table with a group of regulars on a recent Thursday for lunch.“Oh boy. The first time I came here was probably 22 years ago. Something like that,” Ruiz said. “Then me and some of my friends have been coming here on Thursdays almost regularly for close to 10 years now.”
Ruiz praised PCI while deciding on whether to order a cheeseburger with pepper jack cheese or chicken strips. For dinners, he’ll usually order the ribeye dinner that comes at a wallet-friendly price of $21.99.
“I don’t think you’re going to beat the price anywhere in town as far as what you get for the buck,” he said. “Cook it yourself — but still.”
Ruiz has a history around the PCI because he’s a retired Shasta County sheriff’s deputy who used to patrol the Palo Cedro area on the graveyard shift. He’d drop by the restaurant around closing time and make sure everything was OK. Ruiz retired in 2017.
He’ll recommend PCI to others, but always warns ahead of time they’ll have to cook their steaks.
“You have to be aware of that. You can’t expect to go out there, be seated and have somebody bring your food. You cook your own meal, which I think is part of the charm of this restaurant,” Ruiz said. He said he prefers a steak medium rare, “The way steak was meant to be eaten.”
A nosy horse and other tales
Although “inn” is part of the restaurant’s name, some outsiders might mistakenly think it’s also a hotel.
“We get a few calls saying, ‘Can I get a room for the night?’ And the younger girls are like, ‘Why would they do that?’ And I say, ‘An inn used to be a tavern where you’d have a bar and you could stay the night back in the day,” Lande explained.
The PCI’s rustic nature seems like a natural for hitching horses outside. In fact, Lande said she has an old picture of horses tied up to the telephone poles, when there was a dirt road before Highway 44 was built.
Back in the day, she said a hamburger stand stood at the spot.
Lande also has her own modern-day horse tale from a half-dozen years ago.
“The horse came with the rider looking for Danielle (Ross),” a bartender and longtime employee, Lande explained. “The horse just kind of nudged its way inside. The guy opened the door on his horse and it came looking for Danielle. She must’ve done something nice to the horse,” she said.
While the novelty of the PCI is grilling your own steaks, remember that customers are spared from the customary clean-up.
Don’t worry, Lande said. “We do the dishes.”
What to know if you go
Cost: Five steak entrees: 8 oz. top sirloin ($15.99), 10 oz. New York ($18.99), 12 oz. T-bone ($20.99), 12 oz. ribeye ($21.99) and 6 oz. filet ($24.99). Other entrees: Chicken breast ($12.99), prawn dinner ($15.99) and bourbon-glazed salmon ($17.99). Entrees come with house salad (with house-made croutons and dressing), baked potato and sliced sourdough. Grilled chicken sandwich ($12.99), half-pound cheeseburger ($11.99) and hot dog ($9.99). A la carte ranges from fries ($5.99) to prawn cocktail ($12.99). Daily specials start Thursdays and run around $12.50.Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a weekWhere: 9191 Deschutes Road, Palo CedroContact: (530) 547-2022Social media: Photos on Instagram but no website.
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