My buddy Ross flew in from the UK the other day. We met a few years back at the Davison Hostel and have stayed in touch ever since. He returned last winter to get a week in on the hill and surf our Los Angeles couch for a very, very long time.

But we had forgotten about all that and after his afternoon arrival cruised up to Gomez’s. For the uninitiated, it would by easy to write off Mexican food in a mountain town. That would be a mistake in Mammoth.

The Gomez family entered the restaurant business in the late ’70s in Southern California, serving up traditional family recipes of carne asada, machaca, chile verde, chile Colorado and carnitas. In 1993, a few family members packed up their recipes and headed north to Mammoth. Shortly after arriving, they ordered a few cases of tequila and cerveza and opened up shop on Main Street.

Located in an A frame behind the 76 gas station and complete with a restaurant, bar, wacky ring toss game, they have one of the best happy hours in town.

“Happier Hours” run everyday from 3pm – 6pm and features screaming deals on big, 23 oz. beers ($4.75 for Dos Equis and $4 for Bud) and delectable Mexi Fries ($2.95), which are a mix of regular and sweet potatoes served with Rene’s Dipping Sauce that will take down any secret sauce in the land.

In addition to beers and fries (or “chips” when Ross is ordering) we ordered a shrimp taco ($3.25), cheese quesadilla ($2.50) and a beef chimichanga ($3.50) from the Happier Hours menu. The pain-in-the-arse, always understated Brit declared the food was “definitely all pretty decent” (translation: great bar food), that the “fries ruled” (translation: watch your fingers, they may end up in the dipping sauce and in Ross’ Shepherds pie hole) and that it “wasn’t overly stodgy” (we have no idea.)

Ross also says that Mexican food “sometimes feels like a lump in your gut after you’ve eaten it.” He appreciated that he didn’t feel stuffed after our light meal.

Oops, we almost forgot that chips and salsa are also on the menu for $2. Although we’ve been here a number of times, I’m not sure we’ve ever been charged for spicy salsa and stand-up chips. Maybe that’s because we always luck out and sit in Josh’s section, who we don’t know personally, but always makes sure there’s a fresh drink in front of us and chips are in the bowl.

Even better, he’s a solid server. The last time we popped in, it was a zoo and we ended up with the wrong taco. We were eating it anyway when he popped over, realized that we had been served the wrong item and quickly re-appeared with the correct one. This was all done without prompting and we were only charged for the taco we had ordered.

Which was a pleasant surprise, unlike finding out that that bloody Brit on our couch is staying indefinitely.

PS. We also popped into the snowboard shop with the best reputation in town yesterday and found out that all boards are 10% off. They still have a wide selection of high-end, mid-range and entry level decks by some of the best companies in the game.