Koming Suryani, co-owner and chef of Bali Express in Carson City, prepares chow mein in her location she owns with husband Barry Williams and shares with restaurant Fuego Tacos at 4600 Snyder Ave., suite B.
Restaurateurs new to Carson City’s dining scene are joining one of the area’s larger events to get their name and food out to the public.
Advocates to End Domestic Violence’s annual Taste of Downtown fundraiser on June 20 gives established chefs a chance to feature new items. But it’s also a time for incoming businesses to entice potential customers.
Christina Giordanella of Dayton, a caterer and owner of Little Chef Giordanella, previously worked in a hospital kitchen for about 20 years. She recently opened her restaurant Stone and Skillet inside Dayton’s Odeon.
“Last year, I started as a private chef, and I’d go to people’s houses and cook upscale private cooking, and I also was doing children’s event cooking, and I did that for a year,” she said.
Thanks to a connection through the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, Giordanella said Odeon owner Chris Pattison offered her the opportunity to create a business and assume a space within his historic saloon. Pattison reopened the community’s oldest bar in July 2025 and welcomes guests and events with a bar, live music and pool.
Pattison helped Giordanella establish the concept for her venue, she said.
“We went through a lot of names and Chris actually had the idea of ‘Stone and Skillet’ and we liked it because we can dish out of skillets,” she said. “I never thought I would open a restaurant, and he offered me the space and I jumped on it. I was excited, not really thinking it was for real, but it is.”
Giordanella uses cast iron to create signature burgers and skillets, including house wings, macaroni and cheese, Gochujang sticky meatballs, flatbread tacos, Greek chicken nachos and apple pie crepe. She offers a special Tuesdays through Saturdays. She plans to offer her crepes at Taste in a machine she’ll plug in and create on the spot, she said.
She still caters, recently working at the Carson City Community Center kitchen, but added she felt Taste is a chance to publicize her new business and try what others will offer as well.
Jessica Garcia/Nevada Appeal
An assortment of Balinese and Indonesian plates, including teriyaki beef, chow mein and pan-tossed shrimp are among some of the favorites on the menu at Bali Express.
LOVE AT FIRST BITE
At Bali Express, open for less than a year, couple Barry Williams and Koming Suryani opened Carson’s first Balinese and Indonesian cuisine location, sharing a space with Fuego Street Tacos at 4600 Snyder Ave., suite B.
Suryani is in charge of the cooking. The restaurant’s unique Indonesian attracts primarily Tahoe residents for now but Williams said they are still making themselves known at food truck or other social events.
“A lot of people are scared to try her spicy food because they think she’s like a real crazy spicy cook, but that’s not the truth at all,” Williams said. “It’s only salty and spicy to open your tastebuds.”
Suryani imports her ingredients, such as the lemongrass, from Indonesia, with her sister meeting a friend in the airport to receive vacuum-sealed food that remains fresh for a while, she said.
Williams called Suryani rare, offering actual cuisine from Bali’s approximate 17,000 islands.
“There’s only three places in the entire United States that you can find it,” he said. “So we showed up here in Carson City.”
Williams said he quit his career as a pipe welder after randomly meeting Suryani when she was a hostess at Brew Brothers. They began dating, she grew tired of his daily diet of chicken and rice and prepared her own meals for him. The smell of her food made his coworkers’ mouths water, and Williams encouraged her to start her own restaurant and food truck.
Williams said some of her “world-class meals” to be seen at Taste will be her rendang and spicy coconut beef, one of the biggest selling items on the menu. She also creates lemongrass pan-tossed shrimp, teriyaki beef and other dishes that come in spicy or non-spicy options.
After opening in October, the business has garnered multiple awards. Williams said they already are eying a bigger restaurant in a bigger city.
Joining in on Taste will be an enjoyable way of meeting new members of the community, he said.
“I knew we needed to connect around here a lot more,” he said. “I have a lot of Instagram ads, a lot of Facebook ads because I’m literally just looking for something that doesn’t exist. But yeah, we do have way bigger plans. I do want to take bigger leaps.”
