July 2011 Archives

Loving Hut, 175 N. Indian Hill Blvd. (at 2nd), Claremont

Loving Hut is a chain of vegan restaurants. There's one in Upland (903 W. Foothill) and one opened this month in Claremont's Village West. Each Loving Hut is united by its name and concept but each, interestingly enough, has its own menu.

Claremont's location is next to Le Pain Quotidien and the Laemmle Theater facing the public plaza. I'm a proud meat eater but one open to vegetarian or vegan cooking. For a better test, though, I brought along a vegetarian friend.

The menu has veggie lasagna, penne pasta, fajitas, tacos, salads, pizza, sandwiches and smoothies. (For comparison's sake, here's Upland's menu, which is indeed quite different: some fried items, a heavier Asian influence, cheaper beverages and more desserts.)

I had the Gardein burger ($12; photo at upper right), which puts a chicken-flavored soy patty on a wheat bun with tomato, lettuce, avocado, onion, pesto and spicy mayo, with a small salad on the side. My friend had the tacos diego ($12; photo at lower right), with beef-flavored soy strips in corn tortillas with lettuce and flour-based Daiya cheese, with beans, salsa and avocado on the side.

My sandwich wasn't as dense as chicken but did taste similarly. (Of course, doesn't everything taste like chicken?) My friend thought his tacos were fine if bland, and his beans were dry.

Because most of the beverages are $7 or $8, we stuck to water.

So, eating here is a bit more expensive, and whether it's worth it is an individual decision. My friend's opinion is that vegetarian options are fairly easy to come by anymore, usually for less than Loving Hut was charging. Still, Loving Hut is a nice alternative to almost every other restaurant in the Inland Valley.

Tableside service was pleasant and helpful and the dining room is mod-ish and comfortable in a fast-casual way. Surprisingly, days after its opening, a B grade from the Health Department appeared in the window. *(By Aug. 5 it was an A.)

The pedestrians aren't walking under a ladder or in any danger of knocking the man from his perch. As you can see at right, the realistic-looking man and ladder are merely a painting.

This trompe l'oeil mural graces the exterior of Sign-Wize in Pomona at Park and Monterey, but it appears Sign-Wize itself is no more. (It may have relocated to Rancho Cucamonga.)

The painting of a man on a ladder adjusting a letter in a sign that no longer exists may not be long for this world, so I thought I'd better document it while I could.

Photo by Will Lester

Gilbert "Magu" Lujan, a groundbreaking Latino artist dating to the 1970s and a sometime Pomona resident, died Sunday at age 70 of cancer.

Magu got his nickname in childhood when his nearsightedness led friends to compare him to the cartoon character Mr. Magoo. Lujan's colorful paintings and sculptures often used cartoonish forms to explore how Mexican and American cultures overlap: lowriders, pyramids, altars. "I think humor softens people's view of my culture," he told me in 2004.

Magu represented the letter M in my "Pomona A to Z" series of columns in 2004-05. Here's a link to that piece, and here's one to the LA Times obituary.

The dA Center for the Arts in Pomona is readying a Lujan exhibit, "Cruisin' Magulandia," for Aug. 13 to 30. Friends are sharing their thoughts at the artist's website, magulandia.com.

Lujan's work can be seen in the Hollywood and Vine subway stop, which has benches with car-shaped forms and painted wall tiles with Hollywood iconography.

An LA Weekly food writer, following up her "30 Burgers in 30 Days" project, downed "30 Scoops in 30 Days," bingeing on ice cream and gelato. Unlike her meat marathon, this one brought her to the 909.

Elina Shatkin visited Handel's in Upland and concluded: "If all you ever know of Upland is this strip-mall ice cream shop, it's well worth the trip." (I hope she visited San Biagio's too while she was there.)

Shatkin also visited Farrell's in Santa Clarita; a Farrell's has been proposed for Rancho Cucamonga, and longtime residents will remember the long-defunct one at Montclair Plaza.

Her wrapup gives Handel's an honorable mention and lists Dr. Bob's at the L.A. County Fair as a bonus -- while giving the Fair's location as Claremont. Has the Fair moved from Pomona? This might be her 31st scoop.

Great writeups, though. Her visits -- see the full list here -- even included Rite Aid for its delicious Chocolate Malted Krunch flavor.

For Sunday's column item about the new Norms restaurant sign in Claremont at the Indian Hill exit of the 10 Freeway, I needed a photo to illustrate the sign's height. I shot a few from Auto Center Drive, seen above, and from across Indian Hill Boulevard.

Unsatisfied with the results, though, I took my life in my hands and tried a few from the freeway itself. I headed west and pulled over onto the shoulder for this slightly askew shot out my window.

Exiting at Towne, I turned around to head east on the 10 and, near the Indian Hill exit, pulled over to the shoulder for this shot, below, through my windshield.

Continuing down the exit ramp and then up the onramp eastbound, I pulled over to the shoulder, leaned out the window and shot the one above that also includes the Hotel Claremont sign.

I don't know if all this was worth it, but these attempts ought to get the idea across: It's a tall sign. And my pulse rate was likewise elevated.

Sunday's column will mention Pomona Sprout, one of the more minor characters (but one with a catchy name!) of the Harry Potter book and movie series. I searched online for info, found this absurdly informative wiki page about her and decided it had to be shared.

Grinder Haven, 724 W. Holt Blvd. (at San Antonio), Ontario

Opened in 1958, Grinder Haven, which specializes in the sandwiches known variously as grinders, subs and heroes, is among the oldest restaurants in Ontario. You walk up and order at a window and dine at a picnic table under an overhang. A large neon sign with beckoning arrow stands by Holt, which was once akin to the Route 66 of Ontario.

I've written about Grinder Haven's history in my column; it began as D'Elia's Grinder Haven and was sold in 1973 to John Goble, who shortened the name and owned it until 2005. The Haven used to be famed for baking its own bread and for its attention to quality.

Two subsequent owners no doubt meant well but stopped baking bread and cut corners. I stopped eating there. But I gave it another shot recently with a Grinder newcomer after hearing the place had improved.

They have hot and cold sandwiches, $4.50 for a half and $7 for a whole. A half is plenty for a normal appetite. Hot sandwiches are pastrami, meatball, BBQ beef, sausage and BLT; cold sandwiches are ham, salami, turkey, tuna, capocolla and beef. They also have burgers and fries.

I had the pastrami and my friend had the meatball. The pastrami was okay, better than my last visit but not as good as I recall from better days, and my friend said the meatball sandwich was bland and tasteless. He didn't finish it. The restaurant continues to buy its rolls instead of baking them.

Grinder Haven is still a classic, and there's something unique about dining there on a warm day. For those who remember its quality-conscious era, though, Grinder Haven isn't "back." But it's been worse.

A post here about restaurants that had formerly occupied a building on eastern Foothill Boulevard in La Verne, inspired by a question by reader Tom Gay, brought a note of (intended) correction from reader Tom Meader.

Meader wrote: "Cattleman's Wharf was on the west end of La Verne. Currently the 99 Cent store is in the approximate location. Nowhere near what was at that time Liberty Ford."

Meader is mostly right, partly wrong. Cattleman's did spend most of its life in western La Verne, but it evidently did move to the Ford property in eastern La Verne for a brief period before closing, according to Eric Scherer of the Planning Department.

Cattleman's began at 1504 Foothill Blvd., near Wheeler Avenue, in a building fashioned like a lighthouse, with beams and pulleys, as if the cattle boat had just pulled up at the dock. Everybody into the kitchen! The menu cover gives a date of 1975; click on the thumbnail version for a larger view.

In the early 1980s, Cattleman's seems to have moved to the Ford property before vanishing, according to Planning Department files. So Cattleman's Wharf existed in both locations, making both Toms correct. I love splitting the difference. Everyone's happy (or unhappy).

The Cattleman's lighthouse later housed the La Verne Cattle Co., as seen in the photo below, and Toppers, a restaurant that morphed into a night club and was shut down in the late 1980s. The building was demolished in the 1990s and the site became a Pep Boys and a 99 Cents Only store.

Undated photo of the La Verne Cattle Co., courtesy La Verne Planning Department

Four months after my own visit to Mexico City (or Distrito Federal, as it's known), reader Elizabeth Casian went there herself. And while there, the Pomona resident found not one but two Pomonas. Heck, i didn't even find one.

The first was a street sign (at night, where it didn't photograph well), and the other was this stained glass image of the Goddess Pomona in the castle in Chapultepec Park, finished in 1865. The name confirms it, even though it's facing outward: "Pomone."

Two Pomonas while on vacation? Casian must have felt right at home.

Above: Person Ford, 2011; Below: Augustine's, 1991, courtesy of city of La Verne: "Top Sirloin Complete Dinner for $6.95."

The former Person Ford car dealership at 2777 Foothill Blvd. in La Verne is set to be redeveloped into apartments and retail. But reader Tom Gay remembers when the building at the west end of the dealership was a restaurant -- or a series of restaurants -- from the 1970s into 2004.

"The building at the west end was at one time a Cattleman's Wharf. It was something else before that and I believe it was once called the Torch," Gay said, "but I also think that the owners of the Torch actually tried to burn it down. Anyway, thought you might want to research it a little more as I'm sure that there are other locals who would be interested and might remember more than I do."

Good idea. I contacted Eric Scherer of La Verne's Planning Department and he was kind enough to research the files. Information isn't complete, but he found that the building in question went up in 1976 and housed Lizzy's.

The Torch followed and did indeed catch fire, possibly by arson. (Presumably firefighters were able to douse the Torch.)

"In 1981, the Original American Dinner House opened," Scherer wrote. "This restaurant was unique in that every room was designed and decorated in a different Americana theme (Betsy Ross Room) and the waiters and staff all wore costumes of famous Americans. It must not have been very popular as it became a Cattleman's Wharf later that year."

Just think, you could have dined in the Betsy Ross Room, then headed east and gotten dessert at Betsy Ross Ice Cream in Claremont.

In 1985, the restaurant changed to Chateau La Verne, replaced in 1987 by Augustine's Hi Jinx Restaurant before 1991 brought Diamond International Buffet. (It was briefly painted bright green and red.)

Finally, 1992 brought a stable restaurant: Phoenix Garden. The Chinese sit-down eatery lasted in the building until 2004, when it moved downtown and Person Ford took over. The building was used for fleet and truck sales rather than kung pao chicken, then closed out its life in 2009 as the location of Foothill Hyundai.

"With the new mixed-use development approved for the site, all of the buildings will be torn down," Scherer reports.

Let's hope the mixed-use development doesn't have a revival of the Torch.

Anyone remember more about these past restaurants?

People assemble Thursday for the night's concert at Ganesha Park's G. Stanton Selby Bandshell by the Pomona Concert Band. More about the evening in my Sunday column. The band's website has a schedule.

La Creperie, 3968 Grand Ave. (at Spectrum East), Chino

Currently the Inland Valley's only French restaurant, after the demise of La Provencal, Brasserie Astuce and others, La Creperie is -- sacre bleu! -- a chain, with two locations in Long Beach. Its third and sole other location is in Chino, of all places, where it opened early in 2011 in the Spectrum Marketplace center.

La Creperie Bohemian Bistro and Bar, as it's called, took over a former Black Angus steakhouse that has street frontage on Grand Avenue. There's an outdoor patio and copious floor space inside, faux chandeliers, a bar, comfortable booths and French murals. The vibe is casual.

I met three friends there for lunch recently. The menu has savory and sweet crepes, omelets, quiches, soups, salads, paninis, and a half-dozen dinner entrees. You can get escargot as an appetizer. Chino will never be the same.

Three of us had crepes -- the Parisian (chicken, spinach, red peppers, mozzarella, basil and feta cream sauce, $11, pictured), the Crepe Monsieur (ham, cheese, bechamel sauce, $11) and the Ratatouille (tomatoes, onion, roasted red peppers, zucchini, pesto and herbs, $10) -- and the fourth had an omelet, the Belmont (spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, Feta and ricotta cheese, $10).

Well, we all liked our meals, although the Parisian's sauce didn't agree with me, making me the least enthusiastic of our group. The one who added a cup of French onion soup ($7) pronounced it fantastic. (Or perhaps "fantastique.") Service was fine and water glasses were refilled frequently. The desserts, by the way, sounded delicious (one passed by, bound for another table) but we were too full to try one.

La Creperie isn't great French cooking, but it's okay, and far better than no French restaurant at all. It's a nice, not to mention unexpected, addition to Chino.

A mural in the bar area.

Back in February, reader Glenn White asked for our help in determining the identity of a Polynesian restaurant that once operated in Covina. A bunch of you weighed in and, five months later, someone got it right and White confirmed it: The Warehouse Restaurant on Garvey at Barranca. Read the original post and comments here.

Lesson: This blog can get to the bottom of any mystery...eventually.

Robert Alderete forwards this photo from Base Line Road and Sierra Avenue in Fontana, where the gas pricing was apparently caught in mid-alteration. "A sign we'd like to see," Alderete says with a sigh.

A Comedy Central sitcom, "Workaholics," is set at a fictional telemarketing firm, TelAmeriCorp., in nonfictional Rancho Cucamonga.

The stars, Adam DeVine and Anders Holm, recently produced a short spoof video for Fuel TV in which they mock-tout the attractions of Rancho Cucamonga, described as "conveniently located 38 miles east of Los Angeles." (The video must contain the single most unattractive angle for Victoria Gardens.)

Proving there's no hard feelings, the city's redevelopment agency posted the video on its website, despite the description by the Fuel TV host of Rancho Cucamonga as "an industrial working-class city." Uh, really?

Watch the video here.

"Rancho Cucamonga? It's Cucamongo!!" the duo exclaim at the end.

An unexpectedly classical name graces an Upland minimall at Arrow Route and Central Avenue. These days Upland's political fortunes would give the philosopher plenty to think about. A can of Bud Ice might help.

Molly's Souper, 388 N. 1st Ave. (at D Street), Upland

Is there a more charming restaurant in Upland? Molly's, located cater-corner from the library, is in a 1912 house with dining inside in one of several first-floor rooms, one of which has a fireplace and all of which look like grandma's house, or outside on an L-shaped patio surrounded by a white picket fence.

They serve breakfast and lunch daily. Breakfasts include all the staples, plus relatively rare items including apple pancakes and mimosa. You can also get green eggs and ham, but I've never dared. Pictured is bacon, eggs and country potatoes.

Lunch is salads, sandwiches and, of course, soup (it's Molly's Souper, after all). A half sandwich and cup of soup is $8.50 and comes with a tiny cup of apple crisp. Awww. Pictured is egg salad and tortellini soup, both fine.

On a warm or hot day, the patio is recommended. The wooden tables and chairs are quaint, the umbrellas big enough to shade everyone and keep you reasonably cool.

The house was converted to a restaurant in 1972 named the Souper and has been owned by Molly Brouse since 1990. I've been an occasional customer for years. The food is good, the ambience is better and the service is always friendly.

"Learn to Fly Here!" reads the sign by the kiddie plane ride at La Verne's Brackett Field. An impressed Dwight Siebert, who shot the photo, says: "Only 50 cents!"

Pat and Joel Wiese of Alta Loma took a 12-day cruise of the British Isles, but only one day was required to find both a Pomona Cafe and a Victoria Gardens, both conveniently located on Kirkwall, one of Scotland's Orkney Islands.

Books acquired: "Surf Beat," Kent Crowley.

Books read: "The Rough Guide to the Velvet Underground," Peter Hogan; "Captain Blood," Rafael Sabatini; "A Touch of Infinity," Harlan Ellison; "Run for the Stars/Echoes of Thunder," Harlan Ellison/Jack Dann, Jack C. Haldeman II.

June was a four-book month, with no theme, just a few things I wanted to read. I got off to a slow start, reading "The Velvet Underground Companion" (Albin Zaks, ed.) to page 57 before deciding its collection of mostly amateurish writings about one of my favorite bands was too obscure. First book I've abandoned since starting these reading chronicles.

Then I smoothly transitioned to my bookshelves' third and last unread Velvets tome, "The Rough Guide to the Velvet Underground," which was a good basic biography and discography. I bought this at Rhino Records in 2009. Didn't finish it until June 20, which didn't bode well for June's reading.

"Captain Blood," acquired from a friend in May, was timely as I'd just seen the 1935 Errol Flynn-Olivia de Havilland adaptation. The 1922 novel, about an Irish physician in the 17th century who ends up commanding a pirate ship in the New World, is great fun. The movie sensibly compressed the action and is recommended in its own right.

I closed out the month with two Harlan Ellison books. "A Touch of Infinity," from 1960, was his first science fiction story collection. It's never been reprinted in full, perhaps because it's short and only passable. I bought it off eBay in 2008. It's an Ace Double, with a second Ellison book, also unreprinted, on the other side, but I didn't read that. (Titled "The Man With 9 Lives," it seems ripe to be read some month with other books whose titles begin "The Man...," of which I have four or five.)

Instead, I read "Run for the Stars," an Ellison novella about a junkie who is implanted with a bomb against his will to thwart, or at least delay, an alien invasion. It's paired with an unrelated, American Indian-focused SF story by other authors. Neither was all that hot. I bought this maybe five years ago at Bookfellows in Glendale and read it in one day last week.

(There was a minor amount of cheating here. A slightly shorter version of "Run for the Stars" was included in "A Touch of Infinity." I opted to skip that and read Ellison's 1985 revision instead, rather than read virtually the same novella twice. Sue me. Life is short and I have too many unread books to observe all the niceties.)

So, four books for June. This puts me at 36 books for the year to date. Getting to 50 by Dec. 31 shouldn't be a problem. Do I hear 60? Or 70?

July will be devoted to books with traffic-related titles (even though most aren't really about traffic). It'll be like taking a road trip from my armchair.

Enough of my reading. What have you folks been reading?

Also breakfast and dinner. Shot at Ontario's Liberty Burgers.

Happy Independence Day!

Upland City Manager Stephen Dunn shows off his office, or at least what will become his office once the paint is dry and he gets somewhere to sit. Read more about it in my Sunday column.

These 198-foot-tall Edison transmission towers are being erected in Chino Hills, as described in Friday's column. For those of you who don't get our print edition (tsk, tsk), here's the photo that appeared with my column. This tower is immediately south of the street Paseo del Palacio.

Wood Ranch BBQ and Grill, 3335 Grand Ave. (at Peyton), Chino Hills

Wood Ranch is a chain, and while I rarely spotlight chains here, I do so on occasion when one has only a few Inland Valley locations. Such is the case with Wood Ranch, which has a spot in the Shoppes at Chino Hills and otherwise nothing closer to us than Corona.

There's an outdoor patio, covered, a bar with copious seating and a spacious dining room with a beam ceiling, lots of wood and ample, comfortable booths. It's not overly light and not overly loud. Upscale and tranquil for a barbecue restaurant -- which will be either a turn-on or a turn-off, depending on your tastes. At least it's not hoked up.

The menu has beef ribs, tri-tip, chicken, burgers and salads. I got the immodestly named America's Best BBQ Tri-Tip Sandwich ($12) and a side of smashed sweet potatoes. Those could be America's Best Smashed Sweet Potatoes (they were excellent) but the sandwich was more like America's Most Adequate BBQ Tri-Tip (it was fine but didn't wow me, and the sauce was sweeter than I'd like).

My lunch companion, who eats there all the time, had the pulled pork sandwich (price forgotten), also with potatoes, and enjoyed it.

Later a foodie friend told me she loves the salmon. Well, maybe another visit. I'd give the edge to Lucille's (which also has a Chino Hills location, as well as one in Rancho Cucamonga) for chain barbecue, but I've got no beef with Wood Ranch.