January 2009 Archives

This week's restaurant: Don Marcos Mexican Restaurant and Cantina, 10276 Foothill Blvd. (at Center), Rancho Cucamonga.

Don Marcos opened last week in the former Whole Enchilada/Socorro's space a bit west of Haven Avenue, an ambitious startup in a down economy. But the restaurant is said to have been hopping from day one, and on Wednesday evening, cars continually pulled in or out of the parking lot and dozens of diners nearly filled the sprawling restaurant. Depression? What depression?

A hostess kept an eye on the parking lot and came out to open the door for anyone entering, a nice touch. There was no wait when we arrived, but the waiting area is inviting and next to a station where the staff makes tortillas. Much as before, the seating area is divided into small rooms of a half-dozen booths. Our room had an aquarium.

Our table got arroz con pollo ($12), chile verde ($11) and chicken mole enchiladas ($10). The first dish, chicken and rice, had both relleno and ranchero sauce and was topped with jack cheese. The second dish was chunks of pork with green sauce. The third was two enchiladas topped with mole, a sauce of chocolate with cinnamon.

We liked all three dishes, and the corn tortillas were especially good. A margarita was half ice but, at $5.50, deemed reasonably priced. The only real complaint anyone had was about the indie rock music in the background, which brought us the Dave Matthews Band, Gwen Stefani and Fallout Boy. "I'm not here for white guy music," the Latina in our group groused.

There is better Mexican food to be had, at sitdown places like Chalio's Birrieria in Pomona or Taco Hut a few blocks west of Don Marcos (and far worse Mexican to be had a few blocks east at On the Border). But Don Marcos seems to bridge the gap between homestyle Mexican food and Chevy's, being comfortable for diners skittish about an authentic ethnic experience while offering what is actually pretty good food.

Verdict: A pleasant surprise. But ditch the lame music.

Here's what's left of Upland's gazebo, as a city rehab project has taken the structure down to the frame. There will be more on this in Friday's column. I saw this scene on Tuesday after lunch at Caffe Allegro, shot the photo and went to City Hall to find out what's going on.

The gazebo went up in 1967 and stands in a roundabout at Ninth Street and Second Avenue, in the heart of downtown. It's used as a bandstand during the Thursday Night Market, the Lemon Festival and other events.

I liked the I Remember When sign in the foreground and included it in the photo. Feel free to remember when by leaving a comment.

Neon nabobs might enjoy this museum, located in downtown L.A. at 136 W. 4th St. (at Main). The space has roughly a dozen vintage neon signs, including the ones pictured here, as well as modern art that employs neon. And there are some awesome photos in the lobby.

Founded in 1981, the museum has bounced around and is now in its fourth location, and this one isn't permanent either. But it's been there since late 2007 and will be there for the forseeable future.

I visited the previous location in 2005 after the Midway Building Materials sign in Montclair was donated to the museum, restored and put on display. The sign, formerly at Mission Holt and Ramona, depicts a brickmason wielding a trowel to lay a row of bricks. He appeared to move as the sign blinked.

Alas, the Midway man is now in storage because the sign was too large and too heavy to be moved into the new storefront location.

But if you think you might like the museum anyway, go for it. I went there Saturday via Metrolink and the Red Line subway; from the Pershing Square stop, it's about three blocks on foot. If you go, Pete's Cafe is a half-block to the east and highly recommended for a meal. The newly remodeled Cole's is two blocks south.

Museum executive director Kim Koga was working the desk when I dropped in. She used to live out here, and still visits frequently, so you won't be condescended to if you tell her you're from, say, Upland. How many L.A. attractions can you say that about?

The museum website gives hours and other details. They're doing a neon bus cruise on Valentine's Day if you want an especially offbeat, if bright, outing.

RoVal's was a steakhouse in what's now Rancho Cucamonga from the '50s through the '70s. The co-proprietor, RoVal Jones, died Jan. 23 at age 89, according to an obituary in the Bulletin today. She and her late husband, Jack, ran RoVal's.

RoVal's opened in 1955 at 8689 9th St. in Cucamonga and remained there until about 1960. (The address went on to become Red Griffin Inn, Case de Mayo and then, in '68, Cask 'n Cleaver.)

Meanwhile, a new location opened in 1959 at 11871 Foothill Blvd., on the southwest corner of Rochester, across from the old stone house and winery.

RoVal's was known for its smoker and the chargrilled steaks it turned out. The ad accompanying this post is from the 1980 Yellow Pages, perhaps the last year the restaurant was in business, although it was after the Joneses sold it. From there it became -- oh, the ignominy -- the Cowgirl Topless Theater. (The latter lasted until 1992 and was demolished sometime later. A Denny's now marks the approximate spot.)

Thanks to Kelly Zackmann of the Ontario Library's Model Colony History Room for much of the above, including the cool ad. The rendering up top came from the Jones family and depicts the first location.

I'm going to try writing a few lines for Friday's column, or maybe Sunday's. In the meantime, anyone remember the place?

The 1963 clip of then-Ontario resident Frank Zappa playing a bicycle as a musical instrument on "The Steve Allen Show" is back up on YouTube, in four parts, at least as of today:

More oddball trivia coming Wednesday from the dregs of my desktop and e-mail in-box: a silent film connection to Ontario, a novel that cites Claremont and Fontana, a celebrity sighting in Upland and a few more tidbits. Let me know if you like this sort of thing.

Remember the Noble Inn in Upland? If you were around from 1953 to 1964, you might. Joe Mannella does, and for good reason:

"I happened to come upon your blog looking for more information about my dad's restaurant, The Noble Inn, 1171 E. Foothill Blvd. in Upland. Those were the good old days. He was a baker and it opened in 1951 as a bakery. Bringing in partners they opened The Noble Inn in 1953 using freshly baked bread. A huge sign on the top of the building read 'Eat the Noblest Sandwich of All.'

"Dad sold the Noble in 1964 to a cheese company. Years later they tore down the old building and built a new restaurant with the cheese warehouse factory in the rear. Everything was torn down a few years back and I believe a hotel now exists there."

A & J Cheese Co. had the 1171 address, I think, until a couple of years ago when it was torn down in favor of a medical building.

Over the years oldtimers have mentioned the Noble Inn to me fondly. Anyone else recall it? I love the rooftop sign.

Separately, readers Archie Baril and Marilyn Varney sent me a link to this very funny Spike Feresten video clip on the confusing directions for obtaining and connecting a digital converter box.

Blogging provides a nice secondary outlet for me, but ideas and material continue coming in faster than I can use them, or figure out what to do with them. Paper tends to accumulate on my desk. And every January, I tame the pile by sifting through it for still-useful info, while filing or tossing the rest.

That's what Sunday's column consists of: anecdotes, trivia, that sort of thing. I hope you like it. Particularly since there'll be another column just like it sometime next week, with my leftovers' leftovers.

This week's restaurant: China Point, 9028 Archibald Ave. (at 7th), Rancho Cucamonga.

For my dozen years at the Bulletin, I've noticed the aging blue Inland Business Center that has China Point as a tenant -- and continued driving past. But on Wednesday I finally pulled in.

China Point's interior has a '70s ambiance and feels almost personality-free: one wall mirrored, the other lavender, with generic booths and tables and a few small pictures and hangings for a Chinese touch. If China Point ever lost favor, a taqueria or pizza parlor could take over the dining room with about an hour's notice. But that's unlikely, because the restaurant has been there for years and was half full when I went in for lunch (although not half full of Asians).

The China Point menu is separated by price points, with items listed under headings for $6.25, $6.95 and $7.95 -- I didn't see any takeout menus so I'm doing this from memory -- with a daily $5.95 special. China Point is old school Americanized Chinese, with chop suey still on the menu, and when you order from one of the no-nonsense waitresses, the default rice is fried.

I got No. 23, shrimp with garlic sauce ($7.95), with steamed rice, hot and sour soup, a wonton and an egg roll. Well, the food was a little better than expected: sinus-clearingly spicy and generous with the shrimp -- I counted a dozen, and they were decent-sized. And there was so much food I took home half the entree.

In the hierarchy of Inland Valley Chinese restaurants, China Point falls in the middle: Not truly authentic (Good Time Cafe, Peking Deli), not even moderately authentic (China Gate, Chu Chinese, Dragon Inn, etc.), but well above steam-table outfits.

Incidentally, the fortune in my cookie read as follows: "You will be called to fill a position of high honor and responsibility."

Well, Obama is still looking for a Commerce secretary...

Looks like I forgot to write a Wednesday column preview. Oops. Well, here's what's coming Friday: a report from this week's Ontario council meeting. It was the latest in a post-election string of curious meetings, capped by an angry, oxygen-sucking speech by the mayor.

I hope you all read Wednesday's column even without a teaser like this.

Somebody told me recently that the exemplary Corner Butcher Shop in La Verne (2359 Foothill) sometimes offers $1 hot dogs as a special. Days later, from another source, a coupon for same was forwarded to me. You can find it, and print it, by clicking here. You can also read more about the shop here.

I haven't done one of these "remember when" posts in a while, but with the opening this week of Don Marcos Mexican restaurant at 10276 Foothill Blvd., Rancho Cucamonga, this seems like a good time to recall the long-lived restaurant in this building: Socorro's.

Socorro's was established in 1969 at 9671 Foothill (at Archibald) and moved in 1981 a bit east to 10276, near Haven. It was a popular sit-down Mexican restaurant run by a woman whose first name (I believe) was Socorro. She closed the business in 2001, I think to retire.

The above dates are courtesy of the Ontario Library's Model Colony History Room, where Kelly Zackmann looked through phone books and Criss-Cross Directories for me. The only caveat is because of a '67-'83 gap, she couldn't say for sure if anything was in 10276 prior to Socorro's. Our guess is no, but we can't say for sure.

Sad to say, I never ate there, only visiting a year or two ago to try the Whole Enchilada, which took Socorro's place. Don Marcos, we can only hope, will be an improvement. Interesting that all three restaurants in this building have had Mexican cuisine. It's obviously what the building is associated with in people's minds.

Anyone want to reminisce about Socorro's -- the original location, the later location, the food, the ambience, the owner? To last 32 years, they must have been doing something right.

PFF Bank made it through the Great Depression but couldn't weather the current depression. One bit of fallout from their failure that hadn't occurred to me is the end of the bank's long-running series of calendars featuring vintage citrus crate labels.

Stepping in to fill the breach is Randi Marshall of La Verne, who sells labels online on his eBay store. I read about this in John Weeks' column in the Bulletin on Saturday. Marshall told Weeks he'd been selling PFF calendars for the past five years. "When I found out that the PFF calendar would not be printed this year, I took the liberty of printing one myself," he said.

Marshall's calendar doesn't appear to say PFF anywhere, but each month has an image of a fruit crate label, just like PFF would have done. You can find the calendars here for just $5.99, plus $2.99 shipping. August's art is from the King label in Claremont that appears from the thumbnail art to depict a lion. And here's Marshall's main page.

(While I was on his store, I couldn't resist buying the Newsboy crate label for my cubicle.)

But back to the calendar. Cool of Marshall to continue one PFF tradition. Alas, I don't think he's offering free checking.

Anyone collect PFF calendars or have any particular memories of getting them?

The forecast in Pomona on Saturday was chili, as in chili cookoff. Yours truly was invited to co-judge the "first annual" contest with Larry Egan of downtown's business improvement district.

It was a low-key affair at dba256, the wine bar at Third and Main, with five chilis submitted. Larry and I agreed on the top two, after a re-sample, in our blind taste test. At least three of the five were submitted by dba employees, who seem to know their chili as well as they know their spirits.

You can read a bit more about it here, as well as see a (gasp) full-length picture of me, although my head is turned.

Stores keep having closeout sales. Restaurants keep closing, but they never seem to have sales. Why not?

Menu items could be more heavily discounted as the sale progressed: 10 percent off, 20 percent, 30 percent.

You could make hard choices: "The BLT isn't worth it at 40 percent off. But when the discount hits 50, I'm all over it."

At a pizza parlor, pepperoni would be only 10 percent off, because everyone orders it anyway, while anchovies and black olives would be 90 percent off from day one.

The problem is that if you went in to one of these places on the last day, all you could get is stale bread, pepper and relish.

Echoing a couple of blog posts from earlier this week, Sunday's column is about reading for pleasure. (I hope it will be a pleasure to read.)

Reading is one of my hobbies, but I've never been very fast about it. I spend too much time lingering over sentences, my mind is easily distracted and besides, it's hard to find time to focus on a book.

Have you heard of the book "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die"? Here's the list. Well, in 2007, this inveterate list-keeper read 10 books. At that rate, it would take me 100 years to read all the books I'm supposedly obligated to read. (Last year I read 24 books, a pace that puts me on track to finish in 42 years if I start this weekend.)

Of course, nobody in his or her right mind would really use that list as a parameter, unless you have a yen to read "Aithiopika" by Heliodorus and "The Castle of Otranto" by Horace Walpole. Even the titles are boring. Heck, even the authors' names are boring.

For anyone reading this after reading that column, the link to the Sarah Weinman I-read-462-books-last-year interview that I mention is here. It's also a few blog posts down in the "Speaking of reading..." entry, preceded by a piece about "Billy Budd."

This week's restaurant: The Habit Burger Grill, 1608 Foothill Blvd. (at Chelsea), La Verne.

The Habit opened recently in a standalone building in front of the remodeled Vons center near Wheeler and was busy pretty much from day one. There are two dozen Habits, which began in Goleta in 1969, but the nearest one is in Glendale.

The operation seems perched between Fuddruckers and In-N-Out with its emphasis on fresh, quality ingredients and its somewhat stylish interior. On Saturday, when I visited, the lunchtime line stretched to the door. The menu has charbroiled burgers, some tasty-sounding sandwiches including chicken, tri-tip and albacore tuna, and salads.

I got the No. 1 Char combo ($5.95), a single burger, fries and soda, and took a seat on the patio. My number was called on the loudspeaker in a few minutes. The fries were pretty good and the burger even better, charred to perfection and served on a toasted sesame seed bun with lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickle and, a nice touch, caramelized onions.

The staff was friendly, just like at In N Out. They'll come take your tray or offer to fetch a soda refill.

The patio is the stroke of genius. Rather than an afterthought with one or two tables, theirs has 12, and the tables and chairs are wood, not molded plastic. Saturday was uncommonly warm, as it's been all week. I sat outside in short sleeves for the first time in weeks, reading the centennial issue of Westways with its pieces on two SoCal icons, '30s artist Maynard Dixon and writer Carey McWilliams, soaking up the weather and feeling mighty fine about living in Southern California.

This could become a habit.

Did you know Ontario native and bon vivant Charles Phoenix is grand marshal of Sunday's Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena?

"I don't even know what it's like to be a grand marshal," Phoenix told me Thursday. "I've never paraded before."

I gave him the benefit of my own experience, which is that the whole thing will be over before he knows it. Also, that the actual parade may be anticlimactic. Although that may not hold true for the wacky Pasadena parade, which is more energetic than the low-key Pomona parade I led in 2007.

Phoenix gave me the lowdown on his plans, an interview that kicks off Friday's column. But I found space for a crack about Bill Postmus and a few words about the Matador Salad.

The Los Angeles Comic Con *, which debuted in December in (ahem) Claremont -- leading me to think of it as the "Los Angeles" Comic Con -- worked out well enough they're having a second one this Saturday.

Co-founder Chris Peterson said more than 400 people checked out the Dec. 20 show at the Packing House, 532 W. 1st St. The event is expected to continue on the third Saturday of each month.

The Dec. 20 show had a well-known Marvel artist, a half-dozen vendors selling back issue comics, one vendor selling board games and one or two selling merchandise I couldn't readily classify. (You know how it is at vendor shows: Sometimes you just walk past quickly, trying not to make eye contact.)

All in all, the show was no Frank and Son, the Industry collectibles warehouse, but it's cool that it's here, and the venue is a good one. I spent about 30 minutes and $30. My one regret is that I missed the fan dressed as Zatanna.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and admission is free. For details: www.losangelescomic-con.com.

* On Friday organizers announced an improved name: Edge of L.A. Comic Con.

Two books items that caught my eye:

1) They're more ambitious than me over at The New Yorker, where the magazine's books staff is devoting January to reading Roberto Bolano's 900-page novel "2666" and declaring January to be National Reading "2666" Month.

2) An L.A. Times books blogger, Sarah Weinman, says she read (gulp) 462 novels in 2008. Whew. Me, I read 24 books last year, some of them art books, and was hoping to quicken the pace to 30, 40, even 50 this year, if they're short enough. How does Weinman read so quickly? Read the Q&A with her and be sure to read the comments afterward. Some fellow speedfreaks share their stories, such as the person who, at 11, read the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy in one day. Then there are those more like me, who admit to being easily distracted. I also like the occasional smart-aleck commenter, like the one who says she can't write more because she has to read all of Proust in the next half-hour.

Well, that was fast (-ish). On Saturday, 10 days into the new year, I finished Melville's "Billy Budd and Other Stories" -- having already read everything but "Billy Budd" at the tail end of 2008.

That meant I read "Billy Budd's" 100 pages in 10 days. That's far from an amazing feat, although it was slightly faster than expected. (Melville's archaic stylings and long, winding sentences require concentration.)

I liked "Billy Budd," which probably goes without saying: It's a straightforward story of law and justice, with allegorical overtones that include a hanging that seems an awful lot like the Crucifixion. Wikipedia has a good entry on the story.

As for the other six stories in this Penguin edition, they range from amazing ("Bartleby") to tedious ("The Encantadas"). The second sketch in "Encantadas," however, reminded me of "Moby-Dick"'s lyricism, as Melville describes the aged Galapagos tortoises:

"These mystic creatures, suddenly translated by night from unutterable solitudes to our peopled deck, affected me in a manner not easy to unfold. They seemed newly crawled forth from beneath the foundations of the world...

"As, lantern in hand, I scraped among the moss and beheld the ancient scars of bruises received in many a sullen fall among the marly mountains of the isle -- scars strangely widened, swollen, half obliterate, and yet distorted like those sometimes found in the bark of very hoary trees, I seemed an antiquary of a geologist, studying the bird-tracks and ciphers upon the exhumed slates trod by incredible creatures whose very ghosts are now defunct."

Whoa!

This sketch may be my favorite part of the book. As exasperated as some portions of this book made me, I'm glad I read the whole thing.

Doesn't it seem like our founding fathers are more popular than ever? Not in Pomona, where one man, fresh from having wiped James Madison's name off a local park, is now hoping to do the same with Alexander Hamilton on another park. Talk about your foundering fathers.

In other news, Tim Saunders had his first full meeting as a Pomona councilman on Monday, the Ontario City Council is taking its internal fight to the Bulletin's Opinion page and, a bit belatedly, I share a story from Thursday's earthquake.

Tried to have lunch Monday at Sansai Grill, a fast-casual Japanese place in the Mountain Green Center in Upland, but found the door locked and the interior cleaned out.

Too bad. I wouldn't have had sushi there, but they had a nice seared ahi tuna sashimi salad, and the salmon bowl, which was actually a plate, was good too.

Oh well. The La Verne location is still in business at 1263 Foothill Blvd.

A friend was asking me my top movies of the year -- I think his favorite was "Batman: The Dark Knight" -- and that prompted me to go back to my records to remember what all I'd seen and liked. Then I remembered I presented a similar list here a year ago.

So, I'll share this year's list with you.

These are movies I saw in a theater in 2008. A couple were released at the very end of 2007, but I'm just going with what I saw in the calendar year. I watched 26 movies, way down from 41 in '07, and certainly missed some good ones.

In roughly descending order, here's my Top 10:

Wall-E, Frost/Nixon, The Visitor, Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer, Trouble the Water, Persepolis, The Band's Visit, Slumdog Millionaire, Batman: The Dark Knight, The Counterfeiters.

The next 10:

Taxi to the Dark Side, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Iron Man, There Will Be Blood, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Smart People, 4 Years 3 Months and 2 Days, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Changeling, A Girl Cut in Two.

So far in 2009, I've seen and really liked "Milk" and "Gran Torino," both of which are likely to make my Top 10 list.

Have opinions on any of these, or want to come up with your own Top 10 list for 2008?

A few weeks back, when I announced the closeout sale at Virgin Megastore at Ontario Mills, reader A.S. Ashley told me he went there, found nothin' and returned home.

Yours truly, by contrast, was still finding stuff worth buying as late as this week. I must have lower standards. (Although until a few days ago, there were still copies of "Exile on Main Street" by the Rolling Stones, my choice of the best album of the rock era.)

Sunday's column is about the closeout sales at Virgin (which is set to close Sunday) and Circuit City in Pomona, which closed a while back. And that prompts a meditation on both bargain-hunting and the demise of record stores.

This week's restaurant: Johnny Carino's, 12240 Foothill Blvd. (at Day Creek), Rancho Cucamonga.

Carino's is an Italian chain with a location near Victoria Gardens. I stopped in for lunch last week while I was in the 'hood.

It wasn't packed -- is any place packed for lunch these days? -- but there were several full tables. The greeter, who turned out to be the manager, sat me in the bar area. There's a lot of wood and a moderately classy feel to the decor.

A basket of doughy hot rolls was brought out, as was a plate of roasted garlic and olive oil for dipping. I ordered the salad/sandwich combo, getting a Caesar salad and half an Italian meatball panini ($8.99).

The salad was blah, but the sandwich, loaded with split meatballs, provolone and marinara, was inhaled. Housemade potato chips, not bad, accompanied the sandwich.

Johnny Carino's is perhaps slightly better than Olive Garden, although your mileage may vary. Find the lunch and dinner menus here.

You know that story about how, at his first recording session with the Beatles, producer George Martin famously asked the boys to tell him if there was anything they didn't like? And George Harrison broke the ice by deadpanning, "Well, for starters, I don't like your tie"?

That exchange came to mind when reading transcripts of some recent depositions of Ontario council members in a Wal-Mart-related lawsuit. As the plaintiffs' attorney quizzed him, Mayor Paul Leon offered a surprising remark. Read about that and more in Friday's column.

So much for shanghaiing unwary sailors. This employment agency on Holt Boulevard just west of Euclid Avenue in Ontario appears to take a more professional approach to filling vacancies. There is, seriously, a skull and crossbones on a wall inside, but the sign was harder to read from that angle.

While I was in the Victoria Gardens area Monday, I noticed that the Drexel Heritage furnishings store at Foothill and Day Creek is closed.

But in better news, construction is going on inside the empty Drexel store to turn the space into a Fresh & Easy market, the first in the city. Two other Fresh & Easy stores have been announced for Rancho, but in brand-new buildings, which means we probably won't see them for a while.

In related news from the neighborhood, the Starbucks on Foothill immediately east of the 15 Freeway, the one by the Catholic church, has closed.

This has been your Rancho Cucamonga business report.

Did you know Neil Diamond played Ontario's arena Monday? I didn't go -- tickets were around $50, probably $60 with fees, and that's a lot if you're probably only going to appreciate the evening ironically -- but two friends gave me a report.

I also repeat some of the restaurant info from this morning's post, only with different (not necessarily better) jokes. And, more seriously, I bid adieu to an Ontario council gadfly.

Victoria Gardens has lost the three above-named restaurants recently. Nathan's closed a while back in the Food Hall. Wapango and Sisley, two sit-down restaurants, closed in the past week. (Wapango was by Gyu-Kaku and Fleming's; Sisley was by the AMC.)

Heck, Wapango, a pan-Latin restaurant, only opened in July. You can read my "Restaurant of the Week" piece about them and weep. I never wrote about Sisley but had had one meal at the Italian restaurant and enjoyed it quite a bit. Kept meaning to go back for a special occasion, but you know how it goes.

As for Nathan's, that was the cruelest blow for yours truly. I ate there a half-dozen times. It was more in the journalist price range. Good dogs, and I liked their fries too.

Our spellcheck system here was of little help in proofreading Sunday's column on restaurants. Here are some of the alternate words it suggested:

For taquerias, "daiquiris."

For Tijuana, "Tujunga."

For pho, "who."

For tacos, "togas."

And for sushi, "Susie."

This is the same spellcheck that always wants me to substitute "clarinets" for Claremont and "monocular" for Montclair.

In 2008 I ate at a grand total of 100 new-to-me restaurants in the Inland Valley, a personal best, and one I have no intention of trying to top.

Sunday's column gives a nod to as many of the good ones as I could squeeze in, including a few that never made it as a "Restaurant of the Week," the inevitable byproduct of averaging two restaurants per week.

For anyone new to the blog who reads Sunday's column and shows up here, welcome. To find accounts of any particular restaurant, type its name into the search function. If it doesn't turn up, that means it's one of the ones I never got around to writing about.

You can also click on the category "Inland Valley Eatin'" to find every piece all at once. Bon appetit!

This week's restaurant: Bright Star Thai Vegan Cuisine, 9819 Foothill Blvd. (at Ramona), Rancho Cucamonga.

A vegan restaurant in the Inland Valley? Unlikely as it seems, there is one, in an aging strip mall east of Archibald Avenue that also boasts a Korean market. Bright Star opened a few weeks ago and on a recent lunchtime was doing decent business.

Since few Thai dishes use eggs or dairy products, this is essentially a vegetarian place, but they do use soy milk rather than condensed milk in Thai iced tea, which is less sweet than what you're used to. Bright Star has soups, salads, curries, noodle and rice dishes, and some non-Asian sandwiches.

Our table had two of the lunch specials, garlic soy chicken with mixed vegetables and sweet chili soy fish ($6.95 each), which come with miso soup, salad, steamed brown rice and two dumplings. The faux chicken was indeed chicken-like, the faux fish less so but acceptable. This isn't precisely my sort of thing, but it wasn't bad, and you can't help but feel more virtuous after a vegan meal, which counts for something.

I was impressed that a niche restaurant that would seem better suited to Santa Monica appears to have found a place here, and a multi-ethnic clientele: Over the course of a lunch hour, diners included a half-dozen blacks, a few Asians, one Latino and a white couple besides yours truly. Not cutting into meat must cut across all sorts of boundaries.

(This area has just two other vegetarian restaurants, according to HappyCow's restaurant guide: Veggie Era, 903 W Foothill Blvd. in Upland, and Veggie and Tea House, 641 Arrow Highway in San Dimas.)

Happy New Year!

You may recall that last New Year's, I decided to begin an ambitious book, "Moby-Dick," a novel that turned out to well repay the hours (and days, and weeks) I devoted to it.

That gave me the idea of starting one long, classic book each Jan. 1, something to lose myself in during the winter months and to constitute a sort of intellectual self-improvement program. What is Jan. 1 for if not for outsized goals?

I was batting around the titles of various complex novels on my shelves, including "Don Quixote" (bought from a sale table at B&N circa 2001, never read) and "Crime and Punishment" (bought after seeing "Match Point," ditto), before deciding to read a shorter classic book: Herman Melville's "Billy Budd and Other Stories."

I'd meant to read this last spring, sometime after finishing "Moby," but got sidetracked. (The ambition of January gives way to the pragmatism of May.) Besides, given the alarming number of unread books piling up, this year my hope is to read more, but shorter, books, to fool myself into thinking I'm making more progress.

In a way, this choice is cheating, because I've spent the past month reading "...And Other Stories" -- "Bartleby," "The Piazza," etc., including the short novel "Benito Cereno" -- and 285 pages later, all that's left is "Billy Budd," which is about 95 pages. I'll report back when I'm done. Since Melville isn't a quick read, give me two or three weeks.

Anyone want to offer encouragement, or share their own New Year's goal?