Restaurant of the Week: Stuft Pizza Cafe

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Stuft Pizza Cafe, 7251 Haven Ave. (at Base Line), 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.

Update: I’ve since had the meatball sandwich (very nice) and the mini-pizza/salad/drink lunch special ($6.95 and plenty of food for the price), the pizza from which is pictured.

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Two years of eating dangerously

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, Id 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 Years 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 Im not a professional reviewer, just a guy on his lunch break, so my standards arent exactly rigorous. Also, just so you know, I ate anonymously and paid my own way.

Any opinions below are merely observations, but theyre 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 Im 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.

* Years best restaurant name: Posh Burgers and Beyond. Its 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 Pomonas oldest Mexican restaurant. Its a sprawling place with a busy lunch trade, and I can see why.

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

* Despite the name, Guidos 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 Chicagos (711 W. Foothill, Upland). Upland, in fact, must be a good pizza town, as its also home to the superior San Biagio N.Y. Pizza.

* Tucked away in a business park, Angelinas 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 youre lucky, youll get homemade potato chips while you wait. I know I was trying to get out of a rut, but after finding Angelinas, 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 Id been there before, then scurried to the kitchen to bring out small samples of all their meats. I wouldnt have gone wrong with any of them.

* I had better than average hamburgers at Archibalds Burgers (2685 E. Riverside, Ontario), Jims Burgers (969 W. Foothill, Upland) and Samos (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 its 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).

* Its 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.

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Things that aren’t here anymore

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.

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Hereby resolved

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?

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