By bringing in food trucks the Three Rivers Brewing Co. near Sequoia National Park was able to stay open this summer/Three Rivers Brewing Co.

Nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, Three Rivers is the last stop on two-lane Highway 198 before the southern entrance to Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. It’s a quaint place. Vintage motels, highway diners, and art boutiques pepper the forested road. The occasional Best Western or Comfort Inn pops up now and again.

Here, in this historically white census-designated place, too small even to be incorporated as a town, a brewer is redefining multicultural dining so his beer hall can survive the Covid-19 pandemic.

In March, when Tulare County health officials mandated that bars close to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Matt McWilliams, owner of Three Rivers Brewing Co., thought of a creative and safe solution to stay open. Invite food trucks to the brewery’s back patio. 

Serving food was a requirement to keep operating, public health officials told McWilliams. Although his pub did not have a kitchen, it sported a successful track record hosting food trucks on holiday weekends when big crowds came from the national parks six miles away.

“Everybody’s happy when they have food and beer,” McWilliams observed.

Once a dirt lot, McWilliams transformed the patio behind his brewery into a trendy, socially distant outdoor dining area. Replete with teak patio furniture and ambient string lighting, the patio makes for enjoyable beer sipping while gazing into the woods and listening to the Kaweah River trickle by. 

And now customers can bite into a riquísima pupusa, too, if they desire a savory snack with their pint. The savory, cheese-filled griddle cakes come courtesy of Pupusas La Sabrosa, a food truck owned by husband-and-wife team Jose Duarte and Carmen Hernandez.

Mama Rita's food truck made stops at Three Rivers Brewing Co./Three Rivers Brewing Co.

When the pandemic struck, one of the first calls McWilliams made was to Duarte. Hernandez, who is Salvadoran, handles most of the cooking. But Duarte, from the Mexican state of Michoacán, will step up to the grill whenever anyone requests tacos from his “secret Mexican menu.”

In addition to the truck, Duarte and Hernandez own a brick and mortar pupusería by the same name in the next town over, Woodlake. Sales there have declined significantly since the pandemic began, according to Duarte.

The food truck at Three Rivers Brewing Co. has been their lifeline not unlike the way they have been a lifeline for Three Rivers, whose tourism economy has staggered through the jab-hook blow of the pandemic and recent wildfires. Back in August, well into the pandemic but not yet into what would be the state’s worst fire season on record, I dropped by for a pupusa. Unfortunately, I couldn’t have a pint to wash it down, as I still had 315 miles to go on my drive to San Diego.

It was a warm Saturday night, and Duarte was patrolling the patio with a gregarious swagger, offering beer drinkers free samples of food. He estimates that 50 percent of McWilliams’ customers have never heard of a pupusa before trying theirs.

“Po-po-saw? Po-pa-so?” customers asked, struggling to nail down the correct pronunciation of the national dish of El Salvador. Duarte finds these efforts endearing. And, the customers almost always enjoy the samples, often ordering two or three of the savory corn griddle cakes to accompany their next round of beers.

While McWilliams offers nearly a dozen seasonal brews on tap, Duarte and Hernandez cook up nine varieties of pupusas, several of which kept me warm the whole drive down to San Diego. Revuelta – stuffed with shredded pork, Monterey Jack cheese, and refried beans – is the heftiest option on the menu and the most popular, too. From the first bite, the hot, melted cheese creates a
stringy mess as it resists being pulled away from the thick corn cake and toward the eater. But, ultimately the Monterey Jack succumbs, folding gingerly on the tongue like a warm and cozy bed custom fit for crackling bits of pork and masa.

The smooth consistency of the refried beans gives every bite the same homey texture while salsa roja -poured to taste – adds a spicy kick here and there.

If Hernandez’ homemade salsa is too pungent, as it might be for many newcomers to Salvadoran cuisine, a swig of McWilliams’ full-bodied hefeweizens or summer lagers will expediently cool off the chops. Lighter beers tend to pair better with vegetarian pupusas, such as my favorite, queso con flor de calabaza – cheese with squash blossoms. The sautéed orange flower petals deliver a subtle earthy taste and pack a noticeable crunch not unlike biting into crisp lettuce on a hamburger.

Each order of pupusas is served with curtido, a tart Salvadoran cabbage relish somewhere between American coleslaw and Korean kimchi on the scales of fizziness and fermentation. Its effervescence goes hand-in-hand with a hoppy brew.

Meanwhile, the customers that night were as diverse as the fare. “They’re an unusual mix,” Duarte said in Spanish. “Hay un poco de todo.” Some of everything.

According to the 2010 census, 90 percent of Three Rivers’ 2,000 residents were Caucasian. Their median age: 57 years. Over the last 10 years, however, an influx of foreign-born people and agricultural workers from the Central Valley has changed the face of the community. Now, about 10 percent of the population is Hispanic.

The nearby town of Woodlake, where Duarte and Hernandez live, is 87 percent Hispanic. Tulare County as a whole is about 51 percent Hispanic, according to Census Bureau estimates. In a normal year, McWilliams says that most of his summer business comes from Europeans, Australians, and tourists from Back East who visit the Parks, which typically draw over 1.5 million annual visitors.

“Most of them are not going to know what a pupusa is,” he said.

But this year due to travel restrictions and health concerns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, McWilliams has banked on local clientele – some middle-aged white people and many young Hispanic families.

McWilliams, who moved to Three Rivers eight years ago to live closer to the mountains, has embraced his community’s change and has even experimented with brewing a michelada beer. Like Duarte with his pupusas, McWilliams sometimes has to explain to European and Australian patrons what that michelada flavor entails. But at the end of the day, customers return to Three Rivers Brewing Co. year after year to try his newest experimental brews.

“It’s great to have a place in this small community where people from nearby and around the world can feel comfortable to meet up and casually appreciate something I created," he said.

Duarte echoes him. “We look different, but we’re a family – a big beer-drinking family.”

McWilliams’ invitation to food trucks might have helped his bar avoid closure due to the pandemic, but nothing could prepare him or his pub for the 2020 wildfire season.

On September 15, the Tulare County Fire Department ordered a mandatory evacuation of part of Three Rivers as embers from the Sequoia National Forest Complex Fire rained over the town. Now, residents can return home, but authorities warn against it. As of writing this story on October 5, the fire is only 65% contained. So far, it has burned nearly 160,000 acres – an area the size of Chicago.

The Three Rivers Brewing Co. had to shut down for more than a week. On September 26, the day after reopening, McWilliams celebrated the beer hall’s third anniversary under a cocoon of smoke and haze.

“Business was very slow, but it was better than nothing,” he said in a recent phone interview.

He sounded tired, but he expressed gratitude for his home and restaurant spared in the fire. Like so many of us Californians, McWilliams is ready to turn the page on 2020.

“We’ve gone through quite a lot this year,” he said.

Haven’t we all.

Jonathan Horwitz is an Annenberg Graduate Fellow in journalism at the University of Southern California and a former Fulbright-García Robles grantee in Mexico. Jonathan is a California native and an avid backpacker. Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks are his favorite getaway spots