May 2011 Archives

Happy Memorial Day!

As noted in Friday's column, I'm off this week on furlough/vacation, so this is probably my only blog post this week, and there won't be any columns. See you back here on June 6.

Senor Baja, 405 E. Mission Blvd. (at Elm), Pomona; also in Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Chino, Chino Hills, San Dimas and elsewhere

Senor Baja, which took over several El Taco Nazo locations a couple of years ago, specializes in fish tacos. On Wednesdays, its fish tacos, normally $1.65, are only 99 cents. I went to the downtown Pomona location recently with a friend who raves about the tacos and the price.

This Senor Baja is in a converted Taco Bell, constituting a distinct improvement. I got three fish tacos and a horchata for precisely $5, a cheap dinner.

The tacos arrived fresh and hot. The fish was crisp, not soggy, and there was plenty of it. One taco had two pieces of fish stacked up. As my friend put it, "Sometimes when they feel like they're not giving you enough they give you a second piece of fish." There was probably more fish on that taco than on any three combined from Rubio's. Even better, the tacos were delicious, perhaps the best fish tacos I've had.

This was my first Senor Baja visit. My friend has been to most of them in the area and says the Pomona location may be the most consistent. The seating is on 13 stools inside and at tables outside.

The menu has tacos, burritos, sopes and tortas, most of them fish-based. A shrimp cocktail, at $9, is the most expensive item. Here's a link to a list of locations.

The Friends of the Claremont Library will hold its semi-annual book sale at the Claremont Library from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. The library is at 208 N. Harvard Ave.

Says book sale chairwoman Barbara Musselman in her email to me: "We would appreciate any mention that you might make in your wonderful newspaper column and on your blog!"

Flattery will get you everywhere, Friends of the Claremont Library.

(Except the newspaper, but that's only because i forgot about your event until a few hours after deadline Thursday.)

The cake at Wednesday's retirement party for Pomona Library Director Greg Shapton, who retires today after 44 years. Like Shapton himself, the cake was unassuming, but a delight.

As those who keep a sharp eye on the "Recent Comments" section below may know, a 2008 blog post here about a long-gone boarding school for girls in Pomona that had an emphasis on horseriding reliably gets a new comment every few weeks. It's up to 29 comments, largely because if you Google the school's name, that blog post is the No. 1 hit.

Someday I may have to write a column about the place. In the meantime, a former student emailed me three photos, which I've incorporated onto the blog post. Check it out here.

The Inland Empire (specifically the San Bernardino-Riverside-Ontario metro area) is ranked as the fifth most dangerous place for pedestrians in America, after four metro areas in Florida. Here's a story about it.

I was immediately reminded of the "I'm walkin' here!" scene from "Midnight Cowboy."

Let me be among the multitudes wishing Bob Dylan well on his 70th birthday today. I heard my first Dylan song on the radio in 1979 ("Gotta Serve Somebody," then brand new), having up to that point only encountered his name in print, which I had assumed was pronounced Dye-lan.

Anyway, at 15 I was immediately intrigued by his way with words and became more fascinated after reading about his stubborn determination to go his own way as an artist even when that proved unpopular. Not a bad role model. I went on to buy all his albums, see him in concert a dozen times (including last year in Ontario) and demonstrate my fannish devotion in many other ways.

Question: What's your favorite Dylan song or album?

Mine would depend on my mood but I'll go with "Most of the Time" and "Blood on the Tracks," respectively.

Supposedly the world was going to end at 6 p.m. Saturday -- 6 p.m. no matter what time zone you were in (saving a lot of bothersome math).

Given the impending demise of the planet, I realize I should have been, say, frantically reading "King Lear" while listening to Beethoven's Ninth and eating mint-chip ice cream, but in reality I was on my computer reading about Looney Tunes and drying a load of laundry.

What were you doing when the world ended?

Pho(to) above: John Valenzuela

Pho Ha, 9319 Foothill Blvd. (at Hellman), Rancho Cucamonga; also 695 Indian Hill Blvd. (at Keystone), Pomona

Pho Ha is reputed to be among the best Vietnamese restaurants locally, and none of my experiences there would refute that. The one in Rancho Cucamonga is in the Chuck E. Cheese center. At busy times it's like a food hall, every table lined up in rows and occupied, a few diners standing and waiting for a seat, waiters scurrying.

They do a very good version of pho, the beef noodle soup that is a Vietnamese staple. There's also an extensive menu of appetizers and entrees, which are what I usually opt for. I've never had a bad meal there.

The Pomona location is also good, albeit a notch below the Rancho Cucamonga location in ambience. At last count there are 128 reviews on Yelp.

This clip will give you a fair idea of what you'll get if you see the Repertory Opera Company's production of "La Boheme." I saw the May 7 show and was especially impressed by the two leads. Give 'em a listen.

The production ends this Saturday with a 2 p.m. matinee at First Christian Church, 1751 N. Park Ave., Pomona. Tickets are $30 and can be bought at the door or online.

Remember how Ontario has been seeking (for almost two years now) a liquor license for its library cafe? One retired Ontario cop likes to reverse the idea of a bar in the library, joking: "Let's put a library in the bar."

I was reminded of all that on Sunday when I met friends at downtown LA's Library Bar.

LA's version isn't really in the library -- the Central Library is a block away -- but this gastropub has a wall of books in a cozy area with couches, rugs and a fireplace, akin to one of those personal libraries in a country estate, and drinks have literary names: the Scarlet Letter, the Tequila Mockingbird, the Odyssey, etc. My friends liked the drinks (I stuck to cranberry juice) and we all liked the food: burgers, fries, beet salad, edamame and pork belly sandwich.

The Library Bar. What will they think of next?

Robin and Bob Porter have most of a Metrolink car to themselves Monday night for the 11 p.m. train home from a Dodger game.

Wednesday's column (read it here) is about getting to a Dodger game by public transit. Metrolink is now running 11 p.m. trains on weeknights home from Union Station, and the Dodger Stadium Express shuttle is back that takes fans between the station and the stadium.

You can buy tickets from the Dodgers site and read more about the service on the Metrolink site. The train schedule is here.

Metrolink also has a train to Angels games, but that's no good for us, except perhaps for day games, because by the time you get back to Union Station, there's no train to take you back to the 909.

You can read about the Dodger Stadium Express shuttle here. This is an MTA operation. It seems to be popular; the 40-foot bus was standing room only on our two trips Monday. Last year the shuttle carried 120,000 fans.

Would you try a Metrolink trip to and from a Dodger game, especially after reading my column and knowing about the time constraints? I wouldn't be opposed to doing this again, feeling that the pluses outweigh the minuses, but I can see how it would be more trouble than it's worth for many.

Below, fans board the Dodger Stadium Express at Union Station at 7:15 p.m. Monday.

Expect the unexpected in this farewell video from the outgoing University of La Verne president, Steve Morgan. I don't want to spoil it, so let me just say your 4 minutes will be well spent.

Our primary area code, like everything else in life, has its own Wikipedia page.

I ate at Freddie Mae's Southern Cooking, in the food hall of Victoria Gardens, on April 22, eating a not-bad fish po'boy sandwich ($7.95). Freddie Mae's was in the first slot on the west side of the hall, where Nathan's Hot Dogs had been. I took photos and expected to share them here today.

Because I didn't get a menu and felt I didn't know quite enough about the place, I decided to try another lunch on Thursday, three weeks later. Perhaps my spidey sense was tingling. When I walked into the food hall, the Freddie Mae's space was vacated!

I had already filed Friday's column with a mention in my weekly blog report that Freddie Mae's was my Restaurant of the Week. Oy. So I used my new cell phone to email my boss to ask him to hold my column until I could rewrite the last item.

The Freddie Mae's website says they have a location in Fontana. Well, maybe I can go there sometime.

So what did I do for lunch? I went back to Crepes de Paris, already the subject of a Restaurant of the Week in 2008. But this time, I took photos, which I've added to that post.

On the occasion of Fresh & Easy's opening in San Dimas a few weeks ago (Feb. 23, to be precise), Gene Harvey sent me this vintage photo, circa New Year's 1991, of himself and wife Judy atop their Canyon Theater sign on the same site. The Harveys (both doing well, I might add) were known for performing ballroom dance moves together prior to starting each film, hence the pose.

"If a picture were taken today from that exact vantage point (it is facing east) there is only ONE item that would still appear," Gene says. "No, it's not the Holy Name of Mary sanctuary in the background. Even that was later replaced with a new building. It is the yellow fire plug!"

I visited the place myself last weekend and confirmed Harvey's assertion, shooting a photo on Bonita Avenue looking east toward San Dimas Canyon Road, highlighting the hydrant while working the store into the frame.

Concerning the older photo, Gene adds: "One note of trivia. On the car, the Canyon Theatre phone number is a reminder that the good ol' 909 was once the 714."

You can read more about the shopping center in a previous blog post with many entertaining comments.

For Monday's council meeting I parked on East D Street near Upland's old City Hall/Police Station, an Art Deco gem built in the 1930s, and noticed anew the motto above the door.

City Hall moved a block away in 1969. (This building is now owned by the Scheu Companies.) If certain Upland officials had had to see this motto while walking into work every day, the city might be better off.

(Having the motto on the County Government Center might not be a bad idea either.)

The quote, by the way, is from Virgil.

From "10 Minute Clutter Control Room by Room," page 174:

"Productivity expert David Allen recommends keeping your drawers no more than 75 percent full."

If that's true, I'm going to need 25 percent larger drawers.

Here's an interview with the guy.

The intersection of Harrison Avenue and Indian Hill Boulevard in Claremont is finishing up a revamp. The turn lane west, accessible from southbound Indian Hill, is being closed off and converted into green space. A year or two ago, the turn lane east, accessible from northbound Indian Hill, was closed off for the same purpose.

I don't know if these were good ideas from a traffic flow standpoint, but City Hall must think so. At any rate, the porkchop-shaped green space on the east side is nice, albeit small, and probably welcome to pedestrians.

There's a bench, a water fountain, grass, a sidewalk, mature trees that were part of the previous median and parkway, and a sculpture. Presumably similar amenities will be part of the new west side work.

By the way, the horse sculpture on the eastside green space was recently returned to sculptor Barbara Beretich and a new piece put in. It's titled "Patricia," perhaps impishly (um, unless it's a good likeness?), and it's by Christina Cassaro.

One reader calls it "a weird white plastic thingy." What can i say? I like it. (And it's probably not plastic, although i didn't handle it to find out.)

The view in the second photo is on the east side of Indian Hill, looking northwest, with "Patricia" in the foreground and the construction work on the west side in the background.

Photo above: Jeff Malet

Cassie's Soul Food Kitchen, 200 E. 1st St. (at Locust), Pomona

Cassie's opened in April in downtown Pomona, in the Antique Row space off 2nd Street vacated by Pomona Baking Co. There's no indoor seating but you can eat at a table out on the plaza, as I did last week for lunch. It's open daily except Sunday.

I had the smothered pork chop ($11), which came with a corn muffin and two sides; I chose mac and cheese and collard greens. The food arrived in a foam tray about five minutes later. Soul food isn't one of my specialties, but the pork chop was tender and the sides were comparable to other versions I've had. I would go back.

Cassie's also has baked and barbecued chicken, a few sandwiches and homemade desserts including banana pudding, 7-Up cake and lemon cake.

The New Diner got to Cassie's before I did and filed this ambivalent report.

Jeff Malet, who contributed two of the photos here, says owner Cassie Edwards, below, is a native of Mississippi and that her son owns Groom City barbershop next door. Bet I know where he eats lunch.

Photo: Jeff Malet

My recent few days in the Phoenix area encompassed more than posing with a Daily Bulletin under a Baseline sign. Among the sights:

The men's room at the retro Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert has a GI Joe theme and features a TV over the urinal. Here's a writeup. I believe the video is the movie "Team America World Police."

I also saw an Arizona Diamondbacks game at Phoenix's Chase Field. A friend and I traveled there via (be still my heart) light rail.

This Dairy Queen (629 E. Main St., Mesa) caught my eye during a drive past. I went back one night for 1) the neon cone and 2) a Dilly bar.

I have a soft spot for the Cracker Barrel chain of restaurants, which have a theme that might be described as "corporate folksy."

Rocking chairs out front, a gift shop of nostalgia items, a dining room with farm implements on the walls and pretty good food. There are no Cracker Barrels in California but I stopped at the westernmost one, west of Phoenix, on my drive back. A cactus in front of a rural-themed restaurant? Whatever works.

That evening I had dinner at the Wheel Inn in Cabazon, a very good diner, and despite the strong winds and threatening weather (a far cry from the sun in Arizona) took a photo of Claude Bell's famed Cabazon dinosaurs.

2011 is the 50th anniversary of an early Hammer horror film, "The Curse of the Werewolf" -- who knew? -- and Pitzer College, of all places, will commemorate the achievement with a free screening Saturday at 5 p.m.

"Curse" can be seen in Avery Hall's Benson Auditorium, 1050 N. Mills Ave., Claremont. Here's a map.

Books acquired: Too many.

Books read: "There's a Country in My Cellar," Russell Baker; "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," Mark Twain; "California Crazy and Beyond," Jim Heimann; "The Computer Connection," Alfred Bester; "Comic Book Culture," Ron Goulart; "Confessions of a Crap Artist," Philip K. Dick; "A Case of Conscience," James Blish; "Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress," Candacy A. Taylor; "10 Minute Clutter Control Room by Room," Skye Alexander; "The Batcave Companion," Michael Eury and Michael Kronenberg.

Nurse, give me 10 cc's of books. Or 10 books with two C's in the title. Yes, from my groaning shelves of unread books, for April I chose 10 books with a couple of C's in the title. No real reason, other than to make a game of it and to entertain you here. Most were books I'd been meaning to get to and a theme sort of coalesced.

Ten books in one month is also a personal best. Woo-hoo! (Maybe for "Books read" I should also have written "Too many.") The first two, by Baker and Twain, were the longest, and they were 99 percent read by the beginning of April; in fact, I started Baker's collection of columns in January. The rest were read throughout April.

Ten is too many to discuss here individually, but they include newspaper columns (Baker), a literary classic (Twain), science fiction (Dick, Bester, Blish), architecture (Heimann), comic book analysis (Goulart, Eury and Kronenberg), nonfiction (Taylor) and (gulp) self-help (Alexander). (It wasn't all that helpful, either.)

Readers of this blog, i.e. you, might particularly enjoy "California Crazy and Beyond," which is about mostly L.A.-area roadside architecture -- restaurants, gas stations and such that resemble a recognizable object. The 909 example pictured is the Wigwam Motel in Rialto, in which the standalone rooms look like tepees.

(The book's bibliography, by the way, cites a 1997 article I wrote for the Victor Valley Daily Press, days before changing jobs to come to Ontario, about a building in Victorville shaped like a lighthouse. This book was published in 2001 and I bought it at Powell's Books in 2007. Nearly four years later, I find my name in it. I've really gotta catch up on my backlog.)

Another book some of you might like is "Counter Culture," an ode to "lifer" waitresses at coffee shops and diners around the country. Turns out many of them love their jobs and keep working into their 60s, 70s and 80s not because they have to (in most cases) but because they think the activity keeps them young. It was illuminating and touching.

Some of these books I've owned a long time. The Blish and Dick novels date to my teenage years, the Twain to my college years and the rest to various later dates, the Batman book, from December, being the most recent.

The letter C must be fairly common in titles because even after reading almost 2 percent of my backlog in one month, I still have four unread books with a couple of C's in their title. If April had had 31 days (or maybe 40), I might've gotten to them.

For May I'm returning to a smaller number of books with a greater variety of letters.

So what have you been reading, readers?

It might look like I'm catching up on the latest news close to home in, say, Rancho Cucamonga, but this photo was taken in Tempe, Ariz., during a recent vacation. Baseline Road isn't an interstate route. Arizona has its own version of the street.

Photo: Tom Gibbons