Comstock's magazine 1119 - November 2019 | Page 30

n MAIN STREET
FINE DINING IN THE FOOTHILLS
Mark and Tracey Berkner have made Taste Restaurant a destination
BY Tom Couzens
TASTE RESTAURANT
Owner: Mark and Tracey Berkner
Where: 9402 Main St., Plymouth,
Amador County; [phone]
Website: restauranttaste.com
Founded: 2006
Business: Restaurant and wine bar
HOW DID TASTE COME ABOUT?
Tracey and Mark Berkner opened Taste
Restaurant in 2006 and the nearby Rest, a
16-room boutique hotel, in 2016.
PHOTO BY TOM COUZENS
30
comstocksmag.com | November 2019
In 2002, when Mark Berkner was driving
back from Sacramento to bring a new hot
water heater to the St. George Hotel in
Volcano he owned with his wife, Tracey
Berkner, he decided to drive down Main
Street in Plymouth. He spotted a for-sale
sign on the side of an old building that
used to be the Sportsman Club bar. “It
had been shut for many years, the build-
ing was listing to one side and was a
mess — my kinda place,” he says. He and
Tracey bought the building about eight
months later and sold the St. George —
they bought it in 1997 — in 2004, freeing
them to focus on extensive renovations
needed to create Taste Restaurant. “Mark
is a visionary,” says Tracey. “He sees the
potential in these wonderful old build-
ings. The St. George (built in 1862) was
our first project.” Tracey says renovating
the Sportsman Club (built in 1918) also
was challenging. “The bar ... was painted
black and had a very, very thick coat of
veneer,” she says. “This was my project.
It took months to get to the other side of
the paint, and we were rewarded with a