Week of April 12, 2023

From the editor’s desk

The COVID-19 pandemic created chaos for local fitness centers and killed some gyms, including the popular Saint Mary’s Fitness Center. Reporter Taylor Harker takes a look at the Truckee Meadows’ new exercise-center landscape and how gym rats are adjusting to the changes, post-pandemic.

Other businesses that survived the COVID-19 disruptions also had to evolve. The Flocchini family’s Sierra Meat and Seafood, for example, expanded the retail arm of its operation, which offers natural and sustainable meats and fish. And a startup company, Don’t Drive—founded as an app to get both bar-goers and their cars home safely after a night out—made several pivots before the pandemic made it so nobody was going out. The entrepreneurs then changed gears and created Vistro, a late-night gourmet “ghost kitchen” with free delivery of gourmet meals until the wee hours of the morning. “These guys have flipped the script and have UberEats delivering food for them instead of competing against them,” Matt Westfield explains in the RN&R’s On Nevada Business column.

Steve Noel, our man on the wine beat, spotlights charcuterie, a selection of prepared meat products and cheeses, along with other foods that complement them. Charcuterie boards, Noel notes, “are often associated with wine,” and he offers a primer for those flavor pairings.

Pinball, once banned as the “devil’s game” in some states, is making a comeback in Reno as digital gamers venture out to local bar-arcades to test their skills at a mechanical game that was old when their grandparents were born, Charlotte Italiano reports.

In this month’s Lucky 13, Matt King profiles Snail Mail and the band’s front woman, Lindsey Jordan, who will take time off between Coachella festival weekends to play a gig at the Cargo Concert Hall on April 18.

Outdoors writer Maggie Nichols advises trekkers to start training for summer hikes as the snow melts from local trails and wide-open spaces beckon.

Film reviewer Bob Grimm gives high marks to Air, starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, a breezy movie that tells the tale of Nike’s pursuit of the great Michael Jordan, and a shoe deal that made history in the 1980s. Grimm also raves about Beef, a flick about a road-rage incident that escalates into an all-out war. Grimm began watching the Netflix series the day it was released and finished all 10 episodes less than 24 hours later. “It’s one of those shows you just can’t switch off,” he reports.

These stories and more are featured in the RN&R’s April print issue, available now at newsstands across Northern Nevada.

I’ll see you in the funny papers.

Take care,

—Frank X. Mullen, Editor