January 2008 Archives

Although I did write about Chinese restaurants and noted therein my lunch at Foothill Bistro, I didn't have room last week on this blog for an official Restaurant of the Week. And I ate at four new-to-me places too.

Belatedly, here's where else I ate:

* Crepes de Paris, 7876 Monet Ave., Victoria Gardens: This was a pleasant surprise. They sell crepes both savory (entree-style) and sweet (dessert), plus salads, hot and cold sandwiches, French onion soup and coffees. I ordered a chicken-spinach crepe ($9.95) and, while it appears I ended up with a chicken-mushroom crepe, it was large and tasty and, the place being crazy-busy and the staff shorthanded, I had no complaints. There are cheerful French cartoon drawings on the wall. A better-than-average dining option, especially if you're tired of the same old same-old.

* Beard Papa, Food Hall, Victoria Gardens: Founded in Japan in 1999, Beard Papa outlets have been springing up in L.A. To see one in Victoria Gardens lets us know the 909 is hipper than it's given credit for. Their cream puffs are made on the spot and cost $1.95 ($2.25 with tax). The shell is lightly crunchy and the custard filling is creamy good.

* Central Burgers, 10340 Central Ave., Montclair: I went here before a Montclair council meeting. This location was Andy's Burgers No. 2 until fairly recently. This is one of those burger places (like Jim's in Upland and Terry's in Rancho Cucamonga) that has a surprisingly broad menu. For breakfast, eight omelets, eggs, bacon, hotcakes; 13 types of burgers, plus a patty melt and chili size; burritos, tacos, quesadillas, taquitos and tostadas; tuna, fish, steak, chicken and gyro sandwiches; five salads; steak dinners ($6.55!); and even a cup of chili ($3.25) and a cup of rice ($1.75). I had a burger combo ($4.37 with tax) and enjoyed it while watching "King of Queens" on the dining room TV.

So that rounds out last week's dining. I'll get to this week's dining soon -- hopefully before next week.

Responding to my column last Friday on the planned Claremont Trolley to ferry people around the Village, reader Ken Rowland says that while the trolley doesn't seem worthwhile to him, he does like Mayor Peter Yao's earlier talk of a pedestrian bridge over Indian Hill Boulevard to connect to old and new Villages.

Rowland visited Tacoma, Wash., and admired the Glass Bridge there, a structure designed by artist and Tacoma native Dale Chihuly that leads to the Museum of Glass. Artworks are displayed along the path.

Says Rowland:

"My thought was that the local art colony, located in Claremont -- both in the old village and in the village west -- would have a place to prime visitors for things to come as they cross through this novel bridge. I have no idea of cost but the $886K noted (for 3 year trial) for a 'free' tram system seems like it would be a recurring cost, as opposed to a lesser ongoing cost of maintaining an overcrossing."

Well, it does look nice, and perhaps it's adaptable to Claremont, although I remain skeptical.

Note that the Tacoma bridge is 500 feet long and "soars 70 feet into the air," linking downtown and the waterfront. After being narrowed a couple of years back to make crossing the street on foot more inviting, Indian Hill is only three lanes wide. Still. give Rowland credit for thinking imaginatively.

Comments on this blog have picked up of late, with the Chinese restaurant entry drawing an impressive 16 reactions at last count.

But what's really wild is the "things that aren't here anymore" thread topped 100 comments on Monday. Whoa!

You can find that entry, and others like it, if you click on the "Reminiscin'" button on the right.

Frankly, by this point the "aren't here anymore" entry is all over the map (literally). Its popularity hasn't been lost on me, and as you've noticed in the weeks since then, I've had several daily blog entries on specific nostalgic topics such as Buffums', with more to come. That's probably more useful, at least for people who check this blog regularly.

Feel free to continue posting to the "things that aren't" thread, and if you have ideas for more such nostalgia topics -- for instance, places or things you've always been curious about -- I'll consider doing entries on them.

And while it may go without saying, I'll say it anyway: Thanks to everyone who's posted comments.

Last Aug. 22 I wrote a column on the Seven Wonders of the Inland Valley, a silly local response to the global Seven Wonders list that had just been revised.

Like the revision, my list was made up of seven things still in existence: The Donahoo's rooster, the Montclair Mystery Tower, the Magic Lamp Inn, the University of La Verne Super Tents, the "full order" at Vince's Spaghetti, 94-year-old restaurateur Ramon Sanchez of Ramon's Cactus Patch and, to throw in a ringer, a completely faded stop sign in Rancho Cucamonga (which was replaced by a cherry red model within days of the column's appearance).

After my list broke, reader Derek Deason sent me a note with an idea:

"Hey, about your Seven Wonders of the Inland Valley, you should do a column on the Seven Ancient Wonders of the Inland Valley. One could be the Valley Drive-In sign. Or the big Christmas tree that used to be at the Pomona Valley Center mall at Holt and Indian Hill, before Sears left and it was an open-air mall."

Not a bad idea, eh? I let this sit around (in those pre-blog days)(how did we ever get along without my blog?) with the thought of following up at some point.

Well, let's do it here. Any ideas of iconic, vanished wonders that should be on the list?

And so "A to Z" careens to the letter C, with a topic bursting with Vitamin C. Pomona being the goddess of fruit, recognizing the city's citrus heritage was a must.

This column was originally published Aug. 1, 2004.

C is for Citrus: 'Pomona A to Z' finds groves aren't pulp fiction

Part 3 of "Pomona A to Z" brings us to the letter C, as we continue our countdown of the city's charms.

Making it to C, by the way, puts Pomona ahead of Katharine Hepburn, who was once famously panned by Dorothy Parker for a performance said to run "the gamut of emotions from A to B."

Trust me, Pomona's got more range than that.

Central among the city's C candidates:

* The Concert Band, which performs each Thursday night in Ganesha Park in the summertime under the direction of G. Stanton Selby, who's led the band since its first season -- in (wow!) 1947.

* The Clock Tower, a landmark at the County Fair.

* The Carousel Chorus barbershop group.

* City of Churches, Pomona's old motto, reflecting the large number of congregations.

* Cinnamon doughnuts at Carl's, a West Holt Avenue fixture since 1956.

Culling this collection was certainly complex! But my C is of the vitamin variety, because C is for Citrus.

Pomona and the rest of the valley, as you surely know, once grew some of the best oranges, lemons and grapes in the world. The sight and sweet smell of those long-vanished groves remain fond memories for longtime residents.

But here in 2004, is there any citrus left? Backyard trees and a few small lots are all you'll find.

Except at Cal Poly Pomona!

True to its roots as an agricultural school, the college still has an expanse of orange and grapefruit trees in production as a learning tool.

"We've got about 20 acres of citrus," Enrique Hernandez, Cal Poly's farm supervisor, told me Friday.

That's about 2,000 trees, producing some 180 tons of oranges and grapefruit a year in 23 varieties.

Hernandez oversees this bounty -- the largest citrus grove left in the valley.

"It's not as big as the ones that used to be here," Hernandez allowed. "But for being the last one, it's not bad."

A Cal Poly graduate who's now a full-time employee, Hernandez proudly showed me around the orange groves. Navels were recently harvested, but Valencias were still on the trees.

Walking amid the neat rows of bushy trees, dirt underfoot, I got a sense of what the valley must have been like a half-century ago.

Only the distant hum of Interstate 10 traffic, and the homes visible along the top of the hills, were reminders that this grove is more a part of the valley's past than its future.

A country boy from San Diego County, Hernandez, 33, grew up surrounded by citrus. He prefers open spaces, not tract homes on tiny lots.

I asked about the blight reputed to have killed or weakened most of Pomona's citrus trees. Pests are more of an issue today. That and urbanization -- "creeping 2-by-4 disease," Hernandez jokingly called it.

"Pretty soon the only agriculture you'll see in Southern California is gonna be greenhouses," Hernandez said.

After I dried my tears, we visited the Farm Store at Kellogg Ranch, a campus market that has sold Cal Poly-grown produce and other select items to the public since 2001.

Fresh orange juice too, in your choice of Valencia or Mandarin.

A sign on the refrigerator case reads: "Cal Poly Pomona orange juice separates because it is pure without additives."

Right there in the store, I downed a Mandarin OJ, squeezed just hours earlier. It was so astoundingly good, it knocked my socks off.

(I found my socks later, near the summer squash.)

The upscale, air-conditioned grocery resembles a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's except with more produce.

"We would like more people to know about it," student manager Melynda Holm said.

Let me help: Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week, the address is 4102 S. University Drive at Temple and the phone is (909) 869-4906.

So C is for Citrus at Cal Poly. It's great to know that despite creeping 2-by-4 disease, a sliver of the valley's citrus heritage is alive and well.

Orange you glad?

(David Allen writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, three lemons a week.)

Rancho Cucamonga's long-awaited Trader Joe's opened Friday. Joe's has had a smallish Upland store forever but no others in the valley.* The new one fills the empty Vons space in a shopping center on Haven just above the 210.

I met friends for lunch at Corky's in the same center. Just getting into the parking lot took effort, because of the crowds. I've never seen the center, or Corky's for that matter, so packed.

After lunch, we checked out Joe's. It's a 12,000-square-foot store, said to be midsize by Joe's standards, but clearly larger than the Upland store. The aisles are a bit wider and the refrigerated section looks three or four times larger. According to an employee, there wasn't more, or much more, product on display than in Upland, just more of each item.

In a cute touch, the checkout lanes are marked with street signs mimicking Rancho Cucamonga street names: Lemon, Vineyard, Archibald, Haven, Milliken, Day Creek, Base Line and Foothill.

The store seemed to be a hit on opening day and I'd say it's almost guaranteed to be a success. We don't know what took you so long, Trader Joe's, but we're glad you're here.

* Unless San Dimas counts, as two readers pointed out.

Not long ago I had dinner with friends at China Gate, the Chinese restaurant in Upland by Trader Joe's. China Gate is probably the best Chinese eatery in the Inland Valley, and one of the most popular.

We had two of the specialties, the sizzling beef plate and the seafood clay pot, plus the kung pao chicken. The food was good, as it reliably is at China Gate (although the seafood clay pot, we couldn't help but notice, did not come in a clay pot). The service was friendly and attentive. When the third member of our party finally arrived, 15 minutes late, the waiter, hands on hips, asked with perfect comic timing: "What took you so long?"

So there's a lot to be said in China Gate's favor.

But in looking over the 100-plus-item menu, it must be said that there's a 1980s feel to it, and maybe even older. Have you noticed they still serve not only egg foo yung, but chop suey? How very Yangtze of them. And China Gate may be the valley's most authentic Chinese restaurant.

What's strange is that you can get fairly authentic Thai food, or Japanese food, or Korean food, or Vietnamese food at any number of restaurants out here. Asians and non-Asians alike pack into, say, Sanamluang in Pomona or Pho Ha in Rancho Cucamonga. Nobody's catering to American tastes there by serving pho with, I dunno, pepperoni, or pad Thai with bacon and avocado.

And yet whenever somebody opens a Chinese restaurant here, they feel obliged to serve cream cheese wontons and orange chicken. Why not go for the Chinese audience? The rest of us might follow.

This isn't to say our valley has no decent Chinese food, just nothing that isn't Americanized to a greater or lesser extent.

Among the best, besides the aforementioned China Gate: Noble House and Chu Chinese Cuisine, both in Rancho Cucamonga; Chopsticks House, with two locations in Ontario; and Chinese Pavilion and Phoenix Garden, both in La Verne.

As far as chains go, Panda Inn in Ontario and P.F. Chang's in Rancho Cucamonga offer superior meals, and Pei Wei, in Rancho Cucamonga, a P.F. Chang's spinoff, has good Asian-inflected food at modest prices.

On Tuesday, I had lunch at Foothill Bistro, which two months ago took the place of Emperor's Kitchen at Hellman and Foothill in Rancho Cucamonga. (The same center has good Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese restaurants, plus a boba shop. Also, a Chuck E. Cheese.)

"Hong Kong Style Chinese Food," the banner says. Foothill Bistro was pretty good. They have Singapore-style chow fun and a menu of 137 more items. It bears further investigation. There's even a B in the window.

Still, there's no congee or dim sum or other items (my experience is fairly limited, I'm afraid) that one would find in Alhambra or Chinatown. And the name is kind of bland. At this point, though, Foothill Bistro ought to be encouraged.

Let me end with a question for you foodies:

Can anyone recommend an authentic Chinese restaurant in Diamond Bar, or anywhere else east of San Gabriel?

An anonymous (why? why?) reader writes:

"Your Jan. 2 column with nostalgic reminiscences of the Pomona/Ontario area was fascinating. I was pleased that Mr. Ruh included Buffums' in his list of once-upon-a-time stores; however, Buffums' was much more than white-gloved ladies having tea in the Palomares Room.

"Oh yes, Buffums' was the best of the best. And I am sure other former employees have more tales of this magical store. This, of course, is from a former Buffums' employee."

Nice of you to write, Former. He/she enclosed a photocopy of the Reagan book's title page, inscribed as follows: "With gratitude for a pleasant afternoon & Best Wishes, Ronald Reagan."

Buffums' was a classy SoCal department store chain -- motto: "Southern California's Most Gifted Store" -- and the Nordstrom of its day.

It was owned by the same family that produced Dorothy Buffum Chandler, without whom we wouldn't have the Music Center in downtown L.A. The Pomona store was built in 1962 on Palomares Street between Second and Third streets by architect Welton Becket (who also designed the Music Center...hmm). It marked the east end of the brand-new pedestrian mall.

Charles Phoenix's book -- you've already ordered a copy, right? -- has a full page on Buffums'. He describes the ornate interior in some detail. The store held on despite downtown's long decline, finally closing circa 1991, and as Phoenix notes, "the decorative furnishings were sold to the highest bidder."

The building was extensively remodeled and now is part of the Western University of Health Sciences, an osteopathic medical school.

Have memories of Buffums'? Share them below..

I've been bedeviled about the name of what was once the Inland Valley's grandest department store. Was it spelled Buffum's, Buffums or Buffums'?

The store was mentioned in Sunday's blog, in which it was spelled Buffum's. A recent letter to me from a former employee spelled it Buffums'. I checked some books.

Charles Phoenix spelled it Buffums. Gloria Ricci Lathrop spelled it Buffum's. The Pomona Centennial Committee book spelled it Buffums'. Sigh.

I asked the kind folks in the Pomona Library's special collections room to lay this matter to rest. After some checking, the intrepid Allan Lagumbay e-mailed me back: It's Buffums'. He attached two photos of the exterior as proof. If I could put photos on these blog posts, I'd present one of them.

This matters because tomorrow's post is about the store. Which store? Why, Buffums'! Now the name will be spelled correctly. And I've gone back and fixed Sunday's post.

Out at Victoria Gardens on my lunch hour Monday, I thought I'd buy gas before the rain started.

I pulled up at the Chevron station near Richie's Diner, Del Taco and The Hat. Above each pump was a pleasant surprise: a reproduction of a vintage (1950s?) illustrated map of Route 66.

Various cities are pinpointed, with Cucamonga obviously inserted. Route 66 attractions depicted at the bottom of the map include "Joshua Tree," "Hoover Dam," "Grand Canyon," "Indian War Dance" (!), "Will Rogers Monument" and "Mississippi River."

The maps are a charming touch, and next time I'm in the area and need gas, that's where I'm going.

I was stunned this morning to learn that singer-songwriter John Stewart, whom I interviewed in November for a column, had died unexpectedly of a massive stroke.

You can read about John on his website or in this obituary. I just wrote an obituary for us.

Too bad. I enjoyed speaking with him about "Daydream Believer," the purpose of our phone chat. I told him I'd like to talk to him again at county fair time about his song "Back in Pomona," as it's about his experiences helping his dad, a horse trainer. He said that would be fine. He also said that next time he was in the area, he'd call me to get together for coffee.

Oh well. My condolences to his family and to his fans.

Ever seen a dentist's office that looks a lot like a Taco Bell? Well, perhaps not, but new uses for dead chain restaurants do happen, and you won't be surprised to know there's a website devoted to the phenomenon: notfoolinganybody.com.

Among the more imaginative conversions pictured on the site:

* A Pizza Hut in Canada that became a funeral home. (It's enough to make pizza lovers re-evaluate their diets.)

* A KFC in Oklahoma that became a chiropractor -- but kept the bucket.

* A Waffle House in George that became a piano store with great freeway access.

What I'm wondering is if any ex-chain restaurants in the Inland Valley have been turned into something else?

Non-restaurant uses, as in the examples above, are preferred, but I'll leave it open. As long as the building is at least slightly recognizable as something else, it's fair game. Readers? The KFC bucket is in your court.

So, onward to B. For this letter I considered writing about the Barbara Greenwood Kindergarten, mentioned in passing below, but decided it was too old. After adobes the previous week, I wanted to stake out more modern territory to give readers a jolt.

This column was originally published July 25, 2004.

B is for Becket: 'Pomona A to Z' builds up famed architect

Week two of "Pomona A to Z," my series highlighting the coolest parts of Pomona one letter at a time, brings us bouncing to B.

What will be B? Among the bounty:

• B could be for Barbara Greenwood Kindergarten, the nation's first standalone kindergarten, a 1908 building on the National Register of Historic Places.

• The Blockbuster Concert Series in Ganesha Park, this year scheduled for Aug. 7, 14 and 21.

• Boxing, after championship boxer "Sugar" Shane Mosley of Pomona and the respected Fist of Gold pugilism program.

• Buffums', the beloved department store downtown that's now a medical school.

• Or, for that matter, the store on Garey whose name sums up its philosophy: Buy Two, Get One Free. (Alas, the store wasn't there the last time I checked. Perhaps Buy Two gave away too many One Frees.)

But our B isn't any of those. Instead, B is for Becket's Bold Buildings.

I'm referring to Welton Becket (1902-1969), one of L.A.'s most celebrated architects.

His firm was responsible for such mid-century icons as -- take a deep breath -- the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theater, UCLA's Medical Center and Pauley Pavilion, Bullock's department stores, the Capitol Records tower, LAPD's Parker Center, the Cinerama Dome, the Sports Arena -- still with me? -- Century City Shopping Center and the Pan Pacific Auditorium.

And Pomona's Civic Center!

In the 1960s, Becket's firm designed seven buildings in downtown Pomona: six in the Civic Center, plus Buffum's.

It's the largest concentration of Becket's work anywhere, according to the L.A. Conservancy, which sponsored a retrospective and tour, "Built By Becket," in 2003.

Stroll around the Civic Center and you feel like you're in "The Jetsons," that other 1960s-era vision of the future.

There's the Council Chambers, a round building similar to the Taper Forum that seems to float. City Hall with its thin vertical windows and glass pavilion entrance. The Library's expansive interior without internal columns.

Other Becket buildings nearby are the Police Department, Superior Courts and Public Health Building.

With its parklike setting and broad walkways stamped with the Pomona logo, the Civic Center has a Utopian feel, like something out of the sci-fi film "Logan's Run."

"Those were buildings of the future, and that's what Pomona wanted," said Mike Schowalter, founder of the Pomona Modern Committee, which dotes on 1950s and '60s architecture.

On Wednesday, Schowalter gave me a tour and the back-story.

You see, by the late 1950s Pomona was faced with a decaying downtown as shoppers fled to the glitzy Pomona Valley Center and its Sears on the outskirts of town.

In a bold stroke, the city decided to reinvent its core with a downtown pedestrian mall and a modern Civic Center.

Six of 12 buildings went up before the effort ground to a halt. But get a load of what else Pomona had on the boards: a monorail station, downtown heliport, civic auditorium, planetarium, art museum and residential high-rises.

Whoa!

The future would be so bright, Pomonans would be wearing shades.

"They were on the cutting edge," Schowalter said fondly of the era's leaders. "You've got to admire a city for doing some thing so out there."

Speaking of out there, long-time residents may remember when -- in a Mayberry-meets-"Blade Runner" moment -- the reflecting pools were stocked with trout for fishing contests. The plaza was also the site of Easter sunrise services.

These days the Civic Center is the worse for wear, and the reflecting pools have been replaced with landscaping because the homeless population used the pools for bathing.

Still, most of the grandeur remains.

Hey, it's not Victorian architecture. But if you can appreciate 1960s style, heavy on exposed aggregate concrete, the Civic Center's got it in spades.

If restored, Schowalter asserted, Welton Becket's Civic Center would easily compare to Frank Lloyd Wright's modern buildings.

"This guy," Schowalter said, "was pretty hot stuff."

(David Allen, rather tepid stuff, writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.)

Reader Mike McAlister of Rancho Cucamonga is a reliable correspondent, one who's lived here pretty much forever. Two or three times a year he'll type up and send me an actual letter. I rarely have space to excerpt them in print, but that was before my blog.

So today I'll type up his most recent one, responding to a mention in my Jan. 6 column of "Central Airport," a 1933 movie that refers to a character flying out of "the Pomona Airport." Turns out there was such a place.

Take it away, Mike:

"In about 1947, I became aware that Pomona had an airport, and that accounted for the low-flying biplanes we'd see, mostly on weekends, buzzing the walnut and peach orchards in what is now South Pomona.

"Brackett Field, west of the Fairgrounds, was a dirt strip that was privately owned but was a popular landing strip in '47."

And that's the state of Pomona-close aviation circa 1947. Thanks for the local history lesson, Mike.

This week's restaurant? Broadly, it's the Upland Center, on the southwest corner of Mountain and Foothill (the shopping center with Big Lots and Stater Bros.), which had three previously unsampled restaurants. This week I tried all three of them.

Monday: Jarritos Mexican Restaurant. The interior is large but seating is spaced apart, giving everyone plenty of elbow room. Cheerful and brightly lit, the walls are colorful. Except for one wall near the kitchen, which has a black and white mural of scenes from "Casablanca." Must've been left over from a previous tenant and nobody could bear to paint over it.

The food was above average. I had barbacoa ($7.79), which is tender barbecued beef, with sour cream, rice, beans and tortillas.

I was prepared to rule it the best Mexican food in Upland. To be sure, though, I tried the only (to my knowledge) other Mexican place I haven't eaten at, Rancho Los Magueyes at 16th and Mountain, on Wednesday. Not bad. So I'll declare it a tie.

Tuesday: Athens Gyro House. Or, as the sign and its ads put it, Athen's Gyro House. One hesitates to recommend a place as authentic Greek when it betrays uncertainty how to spell Athens. (I felt the same about the defunct Cajun restaurant in Montclair whose sign put an accent on the final e of Creole. Creo-lay?)

However, I had a very good gyro sandwich ($7.99), and the menu seems to have plenty of Greek specialties, so my recommendation is to ignore the apostrophe issue and dive in. The menu, oddly, also has spaghetti, lasagna and pizza, with gyro meat as one of the options.

If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to see the poster in the window. It features a slightly blurred photo of the owner smiling for the camera while slicing gyro off the spit. The copy reads: "Chef Michael Slicing Gyro Meat Thinly." It's a kitsch classic.

Thursday: Pho Century. Upland has a Vietnamese restaurant? Who knew? It was busy at lunch Thursday with Vietnamese, Chinese and us white folks alike. A friend had the seafood pho ($6.25), I had charbroiled pork ($5.95) and we shared shrimp and pork spring rolls ($2.99). The pho was judged to be good but not as good as Pho Ha in Rancho Cucamonga; I liked my entree quite a bit.

Pho Century's menu has 209 numbered dishes, plus 20 appetizers and 22 beverages. You could become a regular there and never get bored, that's for sure.

So, that polishes off that corner of the Inland Valley. Next!

For you "things that aren't here anymore" fans, do you all own Charles Phoenix's book "Cruising the Pomona Valley 1930 Thru 1970"?

You owe it to yourself to get one. I'm sure I consult mine every month for one research reason or another. It's a guidebook to Inland Valley places, some still here, some not, from bowling alleys and florists to burger stands and donut shops. It's an amateur press job and there's not a lot of text, but the information is priceless. It's hard to imagine any longtime valley residents not enjoying this book.

I've written about Charles, an Ontario native, from time to time over the years. You can order his book from his website for $20. Rhino Records in Claremont usually has a couple of copies on hand as well. Here's the book description from Charles' website:

"With over 160 sites and 200 vintage photos, advertisements and illustrations, Charles Phoenix takes you on a personal tour of his 'home valley.'

"Rediscover classic 1930s, '40s, '50s and '60s modern and roadside architecture, art and attractions in the Southern California cities of Pomona, Ontario, Claremont and Rancho Cucamonga. Complete with maps, this guidebook shows you the way to the best of the Pomona Valley’s landmarks, leftovers and places that aren’t here anymore."

He forgot Upland and Montclair, but they're in there too.

By no means do I see every good movie out there, but when most American adults average something like five movies a year in theaters, clearly my 41 movies seen in 2007 puts me far above the norm.

So here's my top 10 list for '07. One or two of these were actually released around Christmas 2006, and are thus considered 2006 movies. But since probably 95 percent of their eventual audience saw them after Dec. 31 of '06, I'm calling them '07 movies. Look, it's my blog so I make the rules, not the members of the Academy.

In roughly descending order:

Children of Men, Juno, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Letters From Iwo Jima, The Darjeeling Limited, The Namesake, The Lives of Others, My Best Friend, In the Shadow of the Moon, No End in Sight.

Give me another 10 and you'd get Dan in Real Life, The Savages, After the Wedding, Charlie Wilson's War, 1408, Music and Lyrics, The Bourne Ultimatum, Once, Venus and Ratatouille.

The fake trailers and ads between features in Grindhouse would make my top 20 (the two features themselves, however, were awful, aside from the turbodriven chase sequence in Tarantino's segment) and if Blade Runner: The Final Cut counts as an '07 release, it would be No. 1.

Courtesy of my mom, I have here a special 10-page section of the Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review of Nov. 11, 2007 about that city's newly restored Fox Theater.

It's quite a section, and for John Clifford and others who might be interested in getting one by mail, perhaps a call to the newspaper's circulation department would bear fruit. Either that, or maybe your mothers have copies saved for you too.

To summarize matters, the Spokane Fox opened in September 1931, just five months after Pomona's, and closed in 2000, just as Pomona's did (although movies stopped being shown here some years previously).

Spokane's Fox had 2,350 seats, compared to Pomona's 1,711. Spokane's construction budget was $1 million, Pomona's $300,000. Spokane's was called a "deluxe" Fox akin to those in St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit and Beverly Hills. A vintage photo shows the theater's exterior looked remarkably like Pomona's, only with a really lame sign on top. At least we got Spokane beat on that.

The theater, now 1,636-1,727 seats, will be home to the Spokane Symphony, which bought the building for $3 million, as well as to opera, pop and dance performances and high school graduations. Pomona's, which will also lose a few seats from the original size for access reasons, will have pop and rock performances, movies and community events.

A new life for the Spokane Fox began when word came in 2000 that the theater might be razed for a parking lot. After fund-raising, work began in late 2005 and concluded last fall. Cost was $31 million, including a $4.5 million operating endowment. As of publication the total raised was $28.5 million. "More than 1,000 donors pitched in to the 'Save the Fox' campaign," the newspaper reported.

Pomona's restoration is said to be around $8 million, financed privately and with government tax credits, with additional restoration (chandeliers, a pipe organ and other flourishes) possible later with private fund-raising. The City Council bought the theater in January 2002 for $1.1 million and it was sold to private owners in December.

Our Fox is slated to reopen in December. Can't wait.

Passing by the corner of Euclid and Foothill in Upland the other day, I noticed a for-lease sign at Nickel! Nickel!, the video game arcade in the shopping center on the southwest corner, by Coco's.

In fact, the real-estate sign covered half the sign, rendering it merely: Nickel!

A peek into the empty storefront proved that, yes, the arcade is gone. It was part of a chain of 1980s-style arcades, with 1980s games. As I understand it, you paid an entry fee and from that point, all the games cost a nickel, or maybe three or four nickels, but still cheaper than modern pinball or arcade games. With Upland gone, the nearest location I'm aware of is Covina.

This is tough news. I thought the 1980s were making a comeback.

Anyone have any Upland Nickel! Nickel! memories or lore to share? How long was the place there? What games did you like? I seem to recall hearing that a world record was set there on some game or another.

* UPDATE: An ex-employee posted a detailed history of Nickel's decline and fall in the comments section. He calls the place "a dynasty that was founded upon a radical idea that a kid could go into an arcade and play outdated games with change his Mom gave him for cleaning his room or found triumphantly under a couch cushion."

The alliterative openings for these "A to Z" columns are kind of corny, but they were my way of starting each one off with some humor. My thesaurus got a workout, that's for sure. At any rate, I'm going to resist the impulse to rewrite these pieces, other than to correct an error or two. I'll also annotate each piece with an introduction like this one. This column originally appeared July 18, 2004.

A is for Adobes: 'Pomona A to Z' starts at city's beginnings

Pomona is a cool, classic, crazy city, and that's using only the letter C. I'll be employing 26 letters to describe Pomona as I highlight one neat thing about the city for each letter of the alphabet.

Call it "Pomona A to Z," a humble attempt to shine a positive light on some of the city's most fascinating corners. As mentioned previously, this is a frank ripoff of "Pittsburgh A to Z," a marvelous WQED-TV documentary by Rick Sebak. Except mine won't have the Steelers.

Let's start with Letter A candidates, of which Pomona has an awesome array:

• Antique Row and the Arts Colony -- but who can choose between them?

• Agriculture, which gave Pomona its start and its name.

• The Arby's on Garey, built in the original chuckwagon style.

• Angelica Textiles, a commercial laundry dating to 1885 that's still in business.

• Richard Armour, a humorist whose memoir "Drug Store Days" is a fond reminiscence of his father's turn-of-the-century Pomona pharmacy.

An abundant assembly! But in this little survey, A will stand for Adobes.

Luis Guerrero greeted me last Sunday outside La Casa Primera, the first home built in Pomona. It was built from adobe brick in 1837, back when California was still part of Mexico.

Guerrero, a 23-year-old docent, led me inside the one-story home on that sweltering day.

The main room was almost chilly.

"I like to keep the door closed so when you step in, you can really feel the difference in temperature. The adobe walls really keep it cool," Guerrero said.

Although the first room is set up as a parlor, it was originally a bedroom. It slept seven.

Seven? Not so different from a lot of Pomona homes today, I said, and Guerrero agreed.

"That's why when Latino families come in, they say, 'We've been there, it happens,'" Guerrero joked.

The home was built by a man named Ygnacio Palomares, a name that rolls like the Ganesha Hills.

He and his business partner, Ricardo Vejar, were given 15,000 acres of former mission land by the governor of Mexico for their cattle operation. That's essentially modern-day Pomona, Claremont, San Dimas, La Verne and Glendora.

Quite a spread. As Palomares was reputed to have told a friend, quoted in a history by Bess Adams Garner: "All these fertile leagues of land are mine. Every smoke you see rising is from the home of one of my children or one of my friends to whom I have given land."

Lord of all he surveyed, Palomares lived for 17 years in Pomona's original starter home. In 1854 he traded up to larger digs with 13 rooms.

He gave the first home to a son, Francisco -- avoiding a test of Pomona's nascent real-estate market.

His second home is known as the Palomares Adobe, and it's still here too. Volunteer Gena Carpio gave me a tour of the gracious, T-shaped home.

Nice joint, although I can't say much for the family's taste in art. Three framed wreaths on the walls are woven from -- ugh -- human hair. (A waste of good hair, that's what I say.)

Carpio, 21, was recently involved in a "mudding party" that renovated a wall at the edge of the property. Since the wall is adobe, fixing it simply meant hurling mud at it. "Straw, water, dirt -- mix it together and you get bricks that last a lifetime," Carpio told me.

Or in the case of Palomares' two adobes, several lifetimes.

•TO VISIT: La Casa Primera is at 1569 N. Park Ave. at McKinley; the Palomares Adobe is at 491 E. Arrow Highway at Orange Grove. Both are owned by the city of Pomona and opened to the public by the Pomona Valley Historical Society. Hours are 2 to 5 p.m. each Sunday only. A $2 donation is requested. For a group tour, call (909) 626- 2198.

(David Allen writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, columns formed from straw, water and dirt.)

Last week, in wishing Pomona a happy 120th anniversary as a city, I promised we would be celebrating in this space. And I meant it.

What I'm going to do is post my 2004-'05 series of columns, "Pomona A to Z," one letter each Sunday starting tomorrow and continuing into July.

What's "Pomona A to Z"?

Over the course of a year, I devoted a column to an interesting person, place or thing in Pomona for each letter of the alphabet. Pomona was chosen because it's our most fascinating city and, in my view, the one most in need of a burst of civic pride.

That's also why each chosen subject was (at time of publication) still in existence. I took that approach to combat people's tendency to view Pomona as a lost cause, where all the good things were gone by, say, 1965. My underlying message was: "Stop pining for the glory days! There's plenty in Pomona RIGHT NOW to be proud of."

As you'll see in the weeks ahead, I tried to range across geographic and ethnic lines to present a positive but accurate portrait of modern-day Pomona. These columns were a lot of work, probably twice the work of a typical column, which is one reason I haven't repeated the experiment in another city. A 26-part series? Whew.

But "Pomona A to Z" remains one my proudest moments as a journalist and, since book publication remains unlikely, I'm happy to share it with you again in a semi-permanent format. The pieces will be archived here and accessible to all.

For those of you who were reading me back then, I hope these pieces will be welcomed like an old friend. For you newcomers, I hope you'll find "A to Z" astounding and zesty. Or at least alphabetical and zealous.

This week's restaurant: Terry's Burgers, 6709 Carnelian Ave., Rancho Cucamonga.

Terry's is the restaurant I was trying to find last week when I headed east on Base Line from Carnelian. Terry's is actually along 19th Street just around the corner from Carnelian, in the shopping center with the new Korean supermarket, Market World. I had lunch there Thursday.

Inside, Terry's looks like a sitdown restaurant (perhaps it once was?) with comfortable booths and hanging lamps. You order at the counter, they give you a number and bring the food out.

There's an extensive menu, much like Legends and Jim's, two other local burger-and-more joints. Besides the standard fare, they have hot sandwiches, salads and Mexican food. Dinner specials include roast beef, chicken fried steak, pork chops (all $6.96) and N.Y. steak ($7.50). Ambitious.

Going for the namesake item, I got the burger special ($5.55 with tax), a burger with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and Thousand Island dressing. It arrived in a basket atop a mound of fries. In my considered judgment, it was an above-average burger, at one of the valley's classier burger restaurants.

I'm glad I kept looking for Terry's.

Just an alert for anyone who knows the Saffron Cafe at Guasti: Its last day is Friday.

Saffron will be the main topic of my Friday column, but let me get the word out here a day early. If you want one last meal, beat the rush and go today. Saffron is the lunch-only spot in the Guasti Villa (the Guasti Mansion to you oldtimers). The food's pretty good and you can't beat the ambience of the 1922 building, the former home of Secondo Guasti, the head of the onetime winemaking village.

I had lunch there Wednesday, from the $20 prix fixe menu. My meal -- field greens with pears and prosciutto, bread, soup and an entree of shrimp, mussels and scallops in a coconut curry -- was filling, and if it didn't knock my socks off (the soup was a little weak), I was satisfied.

Saffron plans restaurants throughout the region, with one already open in Riverside and one likely for Upland. But it will be gone from Guasti. In fact, with Guasti under demolition and reconstruction, you won't have a chance to return to the Villa until 2009 or 2010.

Call (909) 605-7677 for directions, reservations or questions.

Unless you read the Daily Bulletin online, you've seen the change in the paper this week: Local news moved up front, national and world news diminished, Go! section gone, features placed in the B section.

Hey, I'm no ombudsman or anything, but if you have any comments on the change and don't know who to tell, why not leave 'em below?

The change doesn't affect my column, at least not at this point. But it could have.

Because features deadlines are earlier, there was early talk that my deadline for, for example, Wednesday's column, rather than the current 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, would have been 10 a.m. Monday.

So much for my Wednesday coverage of Pomona's Monday night council meetings, a favorite of many of you; that would have had to wait until Friday's column. I might not have bothered. Getting the Ontario council's Tuesday night meetings into Friday's columns would also have been problematical.

Thankfully, the appropriate editors made sure I could keep my current deadlines and continue doing whatever it is I do however it is I do it. I tip my fedora to them.

The other day, attempting once again to lure print readers to this blog, I had the notion of directing people who wanted to comment on Bill Ruh's "things that aren't here anymore" list to do so here instead of bombarding me with e-mails or letters.

Well! They've certainly done so. That entry has 31 comments and counting, a record here at the David Allen Blog (where the previous record was something like 7).

People are commenting on the column, people are commenting on other people's comments -- asking questions, clearing things up, plumbing their memories. If you haven't checked back on that post, you might do so. The whole thing is becoming a short, informal history of the modern Inland Valley.

When the Jan. 2 entry slides off my blog's home page, you can still access it by clicking on "January 2008" along the righthand side or by clicking here.

Reader Don J. writes:

"An unsung hero of 'Charlie Wilson's War' is the Stingers that Tom Hanks' character provided the muhajedin [in Afghanistan] and that were designed and built right here on the corner of Mission Blvd and the 71 in Pomona at General Dynamics."

He's right. I saw the movie and while Pomona isn't credited, its Stinger missiles are. Incidentally, it's a pretty entertaining flick, one based on actual events.

Don closes with a dismissive comment concerning the old GD site: "I don't think that outlet mall there now contributes anything to the war effort."

UPDATE: I should have noted that the outlet mall closed a few years back, contributing even less to the war effort.

2nd UPDATE: This is unconfirmed, but reader Will Plunkett says: "I'm pretty sure an early scene at an airport was filmed at our very own 'vintage' Ontario Airport curbside."

My favorite city turns 120 today. Funny, it doesn't look a day over...well, never mind.

Yes, it was on this date, Jan. 6, 1888, that Pomona was incorporated as a city, six days after voters went to the polls -- on New Year's Eve, no less -- to approve cityhood.

OK, 120 isn't typically a big milestone. But Mayor Norma wants to pump things up, and since she probably won't be here in five years, we're doing it now.

Just to play my part, I have my own pro-Pomona celebration planned; check this space next week for the kickoff.

By the way, here's a funny little historical fact. The Jan. 6, 1938 Progress-Bulletin reported that Pomona officials could not determine the date of incorporation. The city seal said only "Jan. 1888." Officials were planning a 50th anniversary celebration but didn't know when in January to have it.

Mayor Charles Short had sent a letter by airmail that very day to Sacramento asking for documentation because "all available records in Pomona, city files and old newspapers, failed to reveal a specific date." I don't know why they didn't just Google it.

The Jan. 11 Prog, which also reported the planned restoration of the Palomares Adobe, followed up with the correct date after "photostatic copies of the papers of incorporation" were dispatched to City Hall by the state. "Municipality Half-Century Old Jan. 6th," the day's top headline announced.

Since the 50th anniversary had passed -- in fact, it had occurred on the date of Short's letter -- the plans to par-tay were dropped.

"We are glad, however, to have this record for our municipal files," the mayor said.

Sounds like the "community disorganization" cited in Pomona's Youth and Family Master Plan isn't a new phenomenon.

This week's restaurant: Stuft Pizza Cafe, 7251 Haven Ave., Rancho Cucamonga.

I was heading east on Base Line on my Friday lunch hour, looking in vain for a different restaurant, when I gave up and pulled into the Haven/Base Line shopping center, the one with the Ralphs ("Double Coupons!"), Salsitas (unimpressive) and Noble House (pretty good). Cruising through, I found Stuft Pizza, a new-to-me restaurant. My friend Bob Almanzar swears by the place so I'd been anticipating going there at some point anyway.

Inside there was a small bar, lots of tables and booths, a game on the TV and two tables full of UPS drivers in brown. It was well lit, the TV was moderate in size and the atmosphere was far more restaurant than bar. I took a seat and a waitress brought out a menu. Yes, it's an actual sit-down restaurant, not an order-at-the-counter operation.

There's the usual array of pizzas and pastas, including a Cucamonga Pizza that contains "everything, including the Rancho." Several items sounded good, like the Italian sausage sandwich and the meatball sub. You can get those from the lunch-special menu with a salad and soda for $6-$7.

Figuring I should sample the pizza, I went for the cheese slice/salad/soda combo ($6.66 with tax). The salad was basic but acceptable and the pizza wasn't bad, doughy and with the cheese a little burnt, but pleasantly so.

A standout was the service. The waitress was attentive and friendly, moreso than one often finds. What with the menu descriptions, the table service and the helpfulness, Stuft Pizza tries harder, and you have to respect that.

This is a good neighborhood spot and who knows, even though it's a ways from our office, I might go back for a meatball sub sometime.

Today's column is my second annual Inland Valley dining guide, which offers a roundup of some of the more noteworthy of the 92 restaurants at which I ate in 2007.

For anyone who missed it, or who wants a refresher, here's my earlier dining guide, published Jan. 5, 2007, covering some of the 84 restaurants at which I ate in 2006. Amazingly, I think all the ones mentioned below are still in business. Now here's that column:

True, I’d developed a reputation as a fella who likes to eat out, but by the end of 2005 I realized my lunch hours were mostly spent at the same half-dozen joints.

Thus, to shake myself out of a rut, I made a New Year’s resolution for 2006: try at least one new-to-me restaurant per week.

Admittedly, it was a modest goal. But unlike your resolutions to stop smoking or start working out, I stuck with my vow all year. Nyaah!

By the end of December, I had eaten at 84 previously untried restaurants. A few were chains. Most were mom and pop places. Some looked like dumps but had good food. Some actually were dumps.

I hasten to point out that I’m not a professional reviewer, just a guy on his lunch break, so my standards aren’t exactly rigorous. Also, just so you know, I ate anonymously and paid my own way.

Any opinions below are merely observations, but they’re all mine.

And now, some results from my field research:

* Thai T (9000 Foothill Blvd., Rancho Cucamonga) and Bangkok Blue (2300 Foothill, La Verne) are in strip malls, but both Thai restaurants have a genteel ambience and good food. My favorite Thai place, by the way, is Mix Bowl Cafe in Pomona, where I’m slowly eating my way through the 100-plus items on the menu.

* The interior is stark and bare, but the carne asada tacos at Taqueria el Triunfo (1565 W. Holt Ave., Pomona) make a deep impression.

* The food was fine, but the old-school interior of the venerable New China (2006 W. Foothill, Upland) with its ornate bar, burgundy booths and carved ceiling is what makes this a local treasure.

* A colleague recommended the chili at Buckboard BBQ (1386 E. Foothill, Unit M, Upland). He was right.

* Year’s best restaurant name: Posh Burgers and Beyond. It’s the latest tenant in a former Dairy Queen (727 E. Holt Blvd., Ontario). The teriyaki bowl features charbroiled chicken and is surprisingly tasty. Not to mention posh.

* Tropical Mexico (1371 S. East End Ave., Pomona) opened in 1967 and may be Pomona’s oldest Mexican restaurant. It’s a sprawling place with a busy lunch trade, and I can see why.

* Reputation holds that Owen’s American Bistro (5210 D St., Chino) is the nicest restaurant in Chino. It’s downtown in a converted bank. Bank on a fine meal there.

* Despite the name, Guido’s Pizza (9755 Arrow Highway, Rancho Cucamonga) is really a deli. They make a fine sandwich.

* I can recommend the pizza at both zPizza (1943 N. Campus Ave., Upland) and Joe Chicago’s (711 W. Foothill, Upland). Upland, in fact, must be a good pizza town, as it’s also home to the superior San Biagio N.Y. Pizza.

* Tucked away in a business park, Angelina’s Cafe (9135 Archibald Ave., Rancho Cucamonga) is worth hunting down. The food is good, the atmosphere is cozy and the servers, Karen and Katie, are a crackup. If you’re lucky, you’ll get homemade potato chips while you wait. I know I was trying to get out of a rut, but after finding Angelina’s, I ate here every week.

* Best sushi I had around here all year was at Kuma Sushi (1905 N. Campus, Upland).

* When I paused at the menu board at Esther Tacos (1466 E. Foothill, Unit Q, Upland), the woman behind the counter asked if I’d been there before, then scurried to the kitchen to bring out small samples of all their meats. I wouldn’t have gone wrong with any of them.

* I had better than average hamburgers at Archibald’s Burgers (2685 E. Riverside, Ontario), Jim’s Burgers (969 W. Foothill, Upland) and Samo’s (1701 S. Garey Ave., Pomona). Although I still miss A&W Root Beer in Ontario and continue to dote on Golden Ox, with three locations in Pomona to serve you better.

* While it’s hard to beat the food at El Merendero, an old standby, two other Mexican restaurants within walking distance of Pomona City Council meetings are also a cut above: Sabor Mexicano (180 E. Sixth St.) and Mexico Lindo (1060 S. Garey).

* It’s “Home of the Bean Special,” according to the sign at Taco King (1317 E. Foothill, Upland), but I went for the chicken tacos. Not only was the food tasty and cheap, but three customers recognized me.

Eating there was satisfying for my appetite and my ego.

Just catching up on some news after my mini-vacation. Did you read where a drug deal gone wrong in Old Town Pasadena resulted in a shocking (but non-fatal) shooting by a suspect from ... Claremont?

Oh, Claremont. Must you export your drug and crime problems to peaceful communities?

Bill Ruh wrote me a nostalgic e-mail which became the main topic of today's column. He recalled past department stores and restaurants of his Inland Valley youth, places like W.T. Grant's, Berger's and the Rockette.

As promised in that column, today is set aside for your comments about Ruh's list or about your own recollections of "things that aren't here anymore." Click on the "comments" button below and start writin'.

If you're new to this blog, you can explore past entries by clicking on the roll call of categories or months along the righthand side. The "Eateries Past" link will be of particular interest -- you can read comments there about Ontario's old Mural House, for instance -- as will the "Reminiscin'" link, which contains another Ruh reminiscence about car dealers of the Inland Valley's past. When you're reading an entry, click on the "comments" button to read what others wrote; sometimes they added intriguing info.

As will you, I hope. Thanks for dropping by.

Happy New Year!

I'm not much of a New Year's resolution kind of guy. This may be because I'm an incrementalist, one who picks modest, achievable goals. No point in a grand resolution like losing weight or exercising, either of which would be abandoned by February, leaving the rest of the year for me to feel like a failure.

So I pick entertainment or cultural goals I can accomplish. In '07, I vowed to watch all the James Bond movies, and did, and also to watch the last nine American Film Institute Top 100 movies I hadn't seen, which I also did.

For '08: I plan to read "Moby Dick." It's past time I read what may be America's greatest novel -- especially since I've owned a copy since 1998.

Any unusual goals or resolutions, past or present, you'd care to share?