From KC to CA:

How one man carried a love of the Royals to this ski destination.

Every chef has a dream of owning their own restaurant. Sometimes it’s a sweet dream and everything flows in perfect synchronicity, and sometimes, well, it can be a big nightmare! To get to a successful level in any restaurant you have to earn it, it can never be bought. You have to put the miles and miles on your feet. Washing dishes, prepping and cooking on the line for hours on end.

Normally you get the pleasure of working for someone else for years before getting the unique opportunity to own your own place. That’s where I have ended up in my journey through the food industry for over 35 years.

People mostly knew me as the chef at the mobil gas station at the entrance to Yosemite national park for 16 years. I started out making sandwiches and according to gourmet magazine October 2002, turned it into one of the most interesting restaurants in the world. It has also been featured on the food network with Al Roker.

Never satisfied working for someone else, I needed to take the next step which led me to Mammoth Lakes, Ca. and the opening of "Toomey's," a name well recognized throughout the Eastern Sierras.

Since opening in 2012 we have become one of the top restaurants in Mammoth and well known for happy staff and great food with a casual atmosphere. We serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, our coconut mascarpone pancakes, smoked trout bagels w/ chipotle cream cheese are two of the many signature items you can get at breakfast.People will drive from LA just to have the lobster taquitos, the world’s greatest burger, or the marinated skirt steak salad. Dinner items that seemed to keep ‘em coming back for years are the wild buffalo meatloaf, the seafood jambalaya, grilled pork rack w/ apricot berry glaze, and the filet mignon w/ green peppercorn merlot sauce.

These are just a few of the many items that Toomey’s is proud to put on our menu along with the daily specials which always include fresh fish and wild game.

If you come to Toomey’s I promise you will find us always friendly and the food will make you happy.

-- Matt Toomey