I returned to an Upland City Council meeting for more drama, and I was not disappointed. The result is Wednesday’s column.
Vacation was fab, by the way, and will be the subject of, I hope, Sunday’s column. Had to get some news out of the way first, and another locally based piece is coming for Friday.
A long-lived local nursery, Mt. Fuji Garden Center, will be closing up shop soon after its owners decided to sell the property on Upland’s Foothill Boulevard. I’ve passed by for years. But this week I visited for a tour and a visit. I write about Mt. Fuji (and how it got its name) in Friday’s column. Above, business owner Lindsay Shiba.
In a rare visit these days to the Upland council chambers, I attended Tuesday’s City Council meeting to watch the council majority censure one of their colleagues. Drama, thy name is Upland. That story is told in my Friday column.
A longtime Upland favorite is for sale and its future as a restaurant is not assured. An extended family gathered last week at Taco King — you’ve probably seen the neon sign along Foothill Boulevard if nothing else — for the proverbial “one last meal” and invited me. I used that as an excuse to learn about Taco King’s history and its owners’ retirement plans, which I write about for Wednesday’s column.
Mike Stewart, namesake owner of Maniac Mike’s Cafe at Upland’s Cable Airport, died April 16. The cafe burned in a freak accident four days later. The popular cafe will be rebuilt, his family vows. I write about him and the restaurant in Wednesday’s column.
The Bookworm operated at 229 N. 2nd Ave. in Upland from 1974 to 1996. That means it closed a year before I showed up in the area, alas. Above is the storefront today, which sells antiques and architectural salvage. From 1997 to 2015, it was the Sideboard.
It was launched by nine women who had experience at the hospital auxiliary: Jo Ann Chalfant, Mary Gattas, Marge Melillo, Mary Ann Robinson, Barbara Rusche, Marilee Wake, Georgia Westphal and Robbe Wilcox, according to a Daily Report article about the opening.
What prompts this blog post is a recent article in the LA Times by Thomas Curwen about the closing of Caravan Books in downtown LA after 64 years due to the owner’s retirement. Curwen wrote:
“The landscape of Southern California is littered with memories of lost bookstores: George Sand on Melrose, the Bookworm in Upland, Fahrenheit 451 in Laguna Beach, Papa Bach in Santa Monica — shops that reflected a more idiosyncratic city.”
In an email, Curwen told me he was trying to hit the four points of the compass with those four stores. He never visited the Bookworm, but he said, “I do know that it had a good reputation.” That someone outside the area knew about the store and would think to mention it two decades later is impressive.
Here’s everything I know, or think I know, about the store.
A bookworm was the mascot, the idea of Robinson’s daughter Tricia and rendered by Westphal in images around the store and on employee smocks, according to the Report.
The store sold new rather than used books. Ray Bradbury signed books there at least once, but probably more, part of his mission to support small bookstores and libraries. A friend remembers the store as Jo Ann’s Bookworm, a hint that perhaps Jo Ann Chalfant, one of the founders, became the store’s face.
“We wanted to open a store with soul,” Chalfant said in the 1974 story. And perhaps they did, at least until the soulless chains took over bookselling.
If you remember anything about the store, feel free to chime in in the comments.
Kristine Konefat boxes up a strudel for customer Jack Cohen at Upland German Deli, the area’s sole German restaurant. (Photo by David Allen)
They’ve been serving up German food at Upland German Deli since 1977. And the owner loves kidding her customers — although she’s so straight-faced, sometimes they don’t know it. (Ask for a to-go box and see what happens.) I’ve been meaning to introduce myself to the owners and interview them ever since I got back from Germany last August. Last week I finally got around to it, a story that is told in Wednesday’s column.
Sometimes ideas get stashed away until the time is right: a local woman whom I knew had a connection to Mahatma Gandhi. I had hoped to pursue that last August, the 70th anniversary of India’s independence, but ran out of time. But the 70th anniversary of his assassination was another milestone. The woman behind the Upland angle is the subject of Sunday’s column.
San Antonio Heights hasn’t lighted its Christmas star this year, but Upland City Hall has put one up for the pleasure of Euclid Avenue motorists. I write about that in Friday’s column, along with the demise of a favorite eatery in Chino Hills and more.
After the police chief’s ouster, I attend my first Upland City Council meeting of the year as they approve a contract with an interim police chief, who promises to calm the waters. In the, er, interim, I offer my take, and a few jokes, in Wednesday’s column.