I first went to Louis Basque Corner in 1970 when I was on a work assignment in Reno. I was living in Chicago at the time. The locals asked if I liked basque food. I told them I had never had any. They told me...Louis Basque was the place to go. I really liked it. In the intervening years every time I was in Reno I made a point of going there.
Louis serves family style, which is different than regular restaurants. You sit at large tables as if you were a member of a large family having thanksgiving dinner. They serve three courses: soup and salad, entree, dessert. The salad is brought in large bowls for the table. These are passed around the table and you take as much as you want. If you want more you can ask someone to pass the bowl. If the salad bowl is emptied another will be brought. Same thing with the soup. The soup is very good, like home made by a good cook. You can have as much as you want.
You order the entree individually and its brought on a large serving dish from which you take as much as you want. What usually happens is people try other entrees by asking the person who ordered it if they're willing to share. Same thing with dessert, although some desserts don't lend themselves to sharing. There are carafes of red wine brought to the table and you can have as much as you want, when a carafe is empty they'll bring another.
The restaurant recently changed hands. We moved to Nevada six years ago and have been to Louis several times. We went back this week to see if it changed under the new owners. We went on a Wednesday. Usually you can do a walk in at midweek. When we got there the parking lot was full and we had to find a parking spot a block away. We thought we might be in trouble without a reservation. The parking lot is shared with a distillery/brewery owned by the same folks who now own Louis. As it turned out the parking lot was mostly filled with the distillery patrons.
Here are the changes the new owners have made. It's still family style but the tables are smaller, they now seat 8 instead of 12. The menu has changed, before it was almost all basque with a few American dishes, now it's mostly? American dishes, steaks and such, with some basque.
The food is still very good as is the service. It looks like the original restaurant staff was kept on.More