Visitors journeyed from Palm Springs’ Modernism Week to Rancho Cucamonga’s Sam Maloof Home via charter bus on Sunday, lured 75 miles by the chance to see the home of the late woodworker. I joined them, sheepish about never having seen the house myself. It’s quite the place. It’s the subject of my Wednesday column.
Category Archives: Around Rancho Cucamonga
Column: A tip of the hat to Toby Keith’s bar and grill
Toby Keith’s death reminded me (eventually) that his name had been on a bar and restaurant at Victoria Gardens until 2015. I refresh everyone’s memory about this local tie-in to the singer who died earlier this month. Also, as the downtown Pomona Starbucks serves its last customers, I’m there to bear witness. And, finally, theater seats are there for the taking at Palm Springs’ Plaza Theatre before the space is renovated. All this is in my Sunday column.
Column: Bullet train would speed change in RC
I delve into the local impacts of the Brightline West project linking Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga by high-speed rail. It’s akin to “adding a small airport,” one city official says. I also make some wisecracks, under the theory that if we, as a nation, can’t joke about a bullet train to Cucamonga, what can we joke about? All aboard for my Sunday column!
Column: Sculpture of dog in RC has critics sniffing
A sculpture of a 12-foot dog, made of steel, slightly abstracted and painted bright yellow, stands outside Rancho Cucamonga’s new Bark at Central Park dog park. It’s got its detractors, both online and at the dog park, but some admirers too, including me. I round up opinion, speak to the artist and tell the tail, er, tale in my Sunday column.
Column: A coffee origin story, as Klatch marks 30 years
Klatch Coffee started in Rancho Cucamonga 30 years ago (as Coffee Klatch — do you remember?). For its anniversary, I talk to the family behind the seven-shop chain to hear how they got started in 1993, before coffee was a thing and before people carried phones and laptops into coffeehouses with them. See what’s brewing (zing!) in my Wednesday column.
Column: Hoyt’s to close hardware store after 97 years
Hoyt’s Ace Hardware in Rancho Cucamonga will be closing next month. The family has sold the property and is having a sale the next few weeks. Opened by S.M. Hoyt in Ontario in 1926, Hoyt’s moved to Rancho in 1979 and was a survivor among mom-and-pop hardware stores in the age of big-box retailers. Read about it in my Friday column.
Column: Twilight of the gas station as RC limits new pumps
In the future, new service stations in Rancho Cucamonga will have to install at least one alternative fuel pump for every four gas pumps. That’s a new, forward-thinking rule adopted by the city. I tell you more in my Sunday column.
Column: For fans, Shake Shack’s arrival in IE is a smash
I’m one of those fans, and I ate during a preview event Sunday with a few others at Victoria Gardens. The NYC-based chain opened to the general public the next day. I write about my love for its food and why Rancho Cucamonga gets first-in-the-IE chains in my Wednesday column. (I feel like I’ve been preparing to write a pro-Shake Shack column my whole life…or at least since 2014, when I first ate at one.)
Column: Spagnolo’s seat to remain vacant until election
I attend a Rancho Cucamonga City Council meeting (my first since 2019) to see what the council would do with the vacant seat left by the death of Sam Spagnolo. (Spoiler alert: See headline.) Some fun or wacky stuff took place too, as tends to happen at council meetings. It’s the subject of my Friday column.
Column: Sam Spagnolo laid to rest after ‘incredible career’
The 35-year firefighter and 18-year councilman in Rancho Cucamonga was mourned Thursday. I attended the funeral and mingled afterward, where I got a funny item. I also plug my Saturday book stop in Ontario and a Sunday event in Pomona, all in Friday’s column.