For Piper Stremmel, opening The Jesse has been a homecoming rite, the former San Francisco-based hospitality maven finding a story in the bones of the 1907 pile on the corner of Evans Avenue and 4th Street – the former address of the old Royal Hotel and Lincoln Lounge – worth retelling. Under the watchful eye of Studio BBA, what was once the boarding house for transients and, quelle horreur, divorcees in the midst of Reno’s Brewery District has been transformed into a handsome, light-washed three-storey, six-bedroom boutique hotel.
On every metric, The Jesse stands apart from the city’s cache of mega gaming and smoking resorts, unfolding its interiors through a sequence of rooms swathed with original brickwork, drooping wisterias, ceramic tiles, terrazzo, and sunny yellow cabinets.
Across the brick paved courtyard is Estella Tacos y Mezcal, a casual Mexican diner housed in the original blacksmith and wagon shop where head chef Harrison Cooper sources local and organic produce from nearby farms and ranges to produce modern takes on Mexican standards, such as vegetarian tacos. The bar, meanwhile, features only agave flavours in its menu of mezcals and tequilas – though if you’re indecisive, may we suggest the 50/50 version of mixed mezcal and tequila, a particularly lethal brew that’s barely leavened with prickly pear and citrus.§
