JT's Restaurant
An Early Boarding House for Sheepherders
by Matthew Berry; photos by Jenna Delaurentis
JT's Basque sign
Gardnerville, Nevada - On the side of US-395 in the heart of Gardnerville, Nevada stands JT’s Basque Bar & Dining Room. It’s a cozy two-story Victorian building that has a history dating back to 30 years after the Comstock Lode ravaged the hills surrounding the small town of Virgina City just some 40 miles from Gardnerville.
Since then, the building has seen many faces and from the mid 50’s onward the most important one being an Etxea. Etxea is a Basque word simply meaning “house” and for a lot of Basque sheepherders who occupied areas of the Northern Nevada region since the gold rush, it was exactly that.
JT's Basque is located in Gardnerville, Nevada
The building is a bar, restaurant and house all wrapped into one. On the bottom floor, you have the dining area which currently has around 30 - 40 tables, the bar near the entrance, and the kitchen in the back. Upstairs there are six separate rooms for staying.
In 1955, the Juansara and the Trounday families purchased the building, converting it into a basque boarding house from a restaurant for the Gardnerville Hotel, who then used their initials to name the bar. Five years later the JT was purchased by Jean Lekumberry who came to the United States at the age of 22 in 1947. Now, Lekumberry’s children Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Louise run the JT as a bar and restaurant.
The bar at JT's Basque
The dining room
Lekumberry was proud to continue the traditions of the esteemed JT with his brother Pete and his wife, Shirley. Jean tended the bar while Pete cooked the meals and Shirley ran the front of the house as well as the upstairs apartments. The brothers were pleased to be joining the other Basque innkeepers in town and run a boarding house.
The prevalence of a Basque boarding house in Gardnerville at the time was not novel. There were plenty of boarding houses around the area due to the prevalence of sheepherders who were coming from the Basque country. Many came because their families had already been settled there and others, hearing from friends or distant relatives came to find work and get away from the chaotic instability of the Basque country during the early 1900’s.
Not only did these boarding houses serve as a physical place to eat, sleep and drink; they were also hubs of information, culture and pretty much anything Basque related for the community. It was a communal spot that they could visit, eat and drink with other Basque members of the community and not only share but reaffirm their culture.
“What it looked like was a home connection, it was a home base a way for your community and culture to relate,” according to Jean-Baptiste.
For the sheepherders living in Gardnerville during this time, herding sheep meant you were up in the mountains for weeks on end, typically during the winter. Coming back to town, these boarding houses were necessary for a lot of young men to have somewhere to sleep but also to get updated on any new information from their loved ones.
“It was a great place to reestablish and hear word from what you’ve been missing from the last few months up on the hills,” according to Jean-Baptiste.
Really it was a course of business, but at the same time a cultural house, a family house, an Etxea.
Jean-Baptiste, son of Jean Lekumberry and current kitchen manager for JT's Basque
Entrance to JT's Basque
Interior of JT's Basque