Recently in Eateries past Category

Charles Bentley writes to inquire about a fondly recalled Pomona restaurant:

"My father has been trying to come up with the name of a Pomona restaurant that was extremely popular for many years. After many weeks of pondering, he believes the name of the place was Orlando's.

"Can anyone out there help with this one?"

My files indicate that Orlando's was at Holt and Dudley, by the DMV, and was known for its steaks and its dumplings. But it was before my time. Anyone able to tell us more?

One of the Inland Valley's more intriguing building conversions is the former Ponderosa steakhouse at Arrow and Haven in Rancho Cucamonga, which became Ponderosa Dental Office. Yep, they kept the Ponderosa name, pardner.

Reader Brian Hurst tell us a bit about it:

"It was the Ponderosa Steak House back in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Had a Western decor, leather booths, dark wood tables, pretty good steaks. Not on par with Black Angus, but a big step above the Sizzler. If you look at the design of the building, you can see it was a dinner/eating place. 'Food' for thought."

Anyone ever go into Ponderosa Dental? I wonder if any reminders other than the name out front remain.

I ate at a Ponderosa or two in the Midwest in that same era. I assume the chain was an authorized spinoff from the "Bonanza" TV series, which was set on a ranch named the Ponderosa, but never knew for sure.

Personally, I think Rancho Cucamonga's Ponderosa should stay a dental office but go back to serving steaks. It would be efficient. You could eat your meal normally, then sit in a chair and have your teeth cleaned.

Heading south on Central Avenue from Foothill Boulevard on Sunday, I noticed that the late Mi Pueblo restaurant in Upland was half-demolished.

I'll admit upfront that I know absolutely nothing about Mi Pueblo. It's been closed for months, if not years, with a chain-link fence around the property. It's a large-sized, low-slung building on the east side of Central and may once have been popular. It's at 11th Street and Central.

I'll try to follow up with City Hall to see what's planned there. In the interim, anyone know anything about the place?

This was posted recently on the "things that aren't here anymore" thread, but let's give it its own blog entry. Take it away, Judi Guizado:

"I was telling my mom, Jeanette (Acuna) Holsten, about this thread, and she was wondering if anyone remembers one of the first drive-in restaurants in the '40s called Mona's Drive-In, on Holt near Campus in Ontario. Two of her aunts worked there as car hops, wearing short skirts and serving food wearing roller skates. She remembers it was owned by a man named Price Barrett."

Leaving aside the visual of "food wearing roller skates" -- sorry, Judi, I couldn't resist -- we may as well talk about drive-in restaurants.

I hadn't heard of Mona's, but I've written about McDonald's BBQ, a drive-in in Ontario on Holt at San Antonio in the 1940s. It was no relation to the McDonald brothers' operation in San Bernardino. Then there was Mel's at Holt and Palomares in Pomona, which opened in 1952, closed in 1995 and sold burgers initially for 18 cents. And let's not forget A&W on Holt near Mountain in Ontario, which closed in 2006.

Anyone want to share memories of any of these places, or others?

Ever seen a dentist's office that looks a lot like a Taco Bell? Well, perhaps not, but new uses for dead chain restaurants do happen, and you won't be surprised to know there's a website devoted to the phenomenon: notfoolinganybody.com.

Among the more imaginative conversions pictured on the site:

* A Pizza Hut in Canada that became a funeral home. (It's enough to make pizza lovers re-evaluate their diets.)

* A KFC in Oklahoma that became a chiropractor -- but kept the bucket.

* A Waffle House in George that became a piano store with great freeway access.

What I'm wondering is if any ex-chain restaurants in the Inland Valley have been turned into something else?

Non-restaurant uses, as in the examples above, are preferred, but I'll leave it open. As long as the building is at least slightly recognizable as something else, it's fair game. Readers? The KFC bucket is in your court.

The Bulletin on Saturday printed a story about construction in Ontario on Holt Boulevard just west of Vineyard Avenue, said to be the first construction there in decades. Perhaps ever?

What I'm curious about is the location of the former Mural House restaurant, which I'm pretty sure I've been told was at Holt and Vineyard. Was it where Spires now stands? Or the gas station? Or...?

Mural House always seems to prompt fond comments rating it as one of the better, and more striking, old-time valley restaurants. Share what you remember below of the location, decor and menu so we can all be edified.

* Update: Everyone (see comments) agrees the Mural House was on the south side of Holt just west of Vineyard, and thank you for that. No one has yet explained, though, why the Mural House was named the Mural House. Anyone want to tackle that?

There's a green construction fence around the Sizzler restaurant at Fourth and Vineyard in Ontario, a fact that prompts a wistful sigh on my part.

Not that I'm a Sizzler fan. Even though the restaurant was two blocks from the Daily Bulletin, I ate there only once in my 10 years here.

(I ate at Sizzlers growing up in Illinois. The Malibu chicken, which was breaded chicken with a thin slice of ham and swiss cheese melted on top, seemed like the height of sophistication when I was a boy. That's what everyone eats in Malibu, right?)

It was my sole previous visit to the Ontario Sizzler that brings back memories.

In March 1994, I accepted a job at the Victor Valley Daily Press in Victorville and prepared to move there from Petaluma, up in the Bay Area. This was the job that brought me to Southern California.

My friend and colleague Scott Manchester from the Petaluma Argus-Courier helped me load up a rental truck and drive to Victorville. We unloaded my worldly belongings at my new Victorville apartment and I drove him to Ontario to catch a plane home. My intention was to buy him a good dinner but time was running short before his flight, so we went to Sizzler. It was near the airport, which was accessed then from Vineyard.

So, that's why the closing was cause for a sigh. The Ontario Sizzler was the site of my first dinner as a Southern Californian. Not an auspicious beginning, but we all have to start somewhere.

The Cellar, 195 N. Central Ave. in Upland, is gone, which caused me to reflect on the high turnover in that building.

Sneakers was the tenant in the late '90s, the only time I ventured inside. There was at least one other restaurant or club in there between Sneakers and the Cellar, probably two (the name Penguin's comes to mind), and no doubt there were many more before Sneakers.

At one point post-Sneakers an operator had (I think) Jello wrestling matches in a desperate attempt to get customers in the door, until police cracked down.

And yet year after year, optimistic entrepreneurs keep leasing the building, sure they can make something work. In fact, another business already appears to be moving in to replace the Cellar.

Anyone remember previous tenants there?

My column today on Cafe Montclair, the latest restaurant in the building that once housed the Plum Tree, the Majestic, Ginger's Place and, originally, Lizzy's, prompted a note from Bob House:

"Today's column about the new Montclair restaurant got me thinking about Valley restaurants and bars that are no more. Would readers find that an interesting thread? I nominate two from Claremont's past: Stinky's, a burger place on Foothill that lasted into the '60s, and The Midway, an iconic dive bar, also on Foothill, that made it into the '70s. The Midway is featured in Kem Nunn's first book, 'Pomona Queen.'"

Feel free to add to the list, readers.

Two further notes I left out of the column: The hostess at Cafe Montclair, who held the same job at Plum Tree, is Pia Jackson, whose family owned the fondly remembered Di Censo's Italian Restaurant in Upland. And Joanne Boyajian of the Ontario Library discovered there was a Tin Lizzy restaurant on Holt Avenue in Pomona from 1968 to 1970, of unknown relation to the Montclair Lizzy's, which also had a Tin Lizzy theme. Huh!

I wrote recently in my column about Inland Valley mom-and-pop restaurants where you can reliably get a slice of pie: Roady's in San Dimas, the Village Grille in Claremont and, most notably, Flo's Cafe in Chino, where two employees work full-time baking pies, cobblers and other goods for the two Flo's locations.

Co-owner Donna Hughes, who with her husband Paul bought Flo's from founder Flora Slack in 1976, told me post-publication that the bake shop was his idea: "My husband is a big sweet eater. He wanted to have desserts put in, so we did."

What of pie places past? Charles Bentley recalls a few: Chavens in Montclair, which was near the old Holiday Roller Rink east of Montclair Plaza, and the Pie Place in Ontario, on Mountain Avenue in the building now occupied by Home Kitchen.

Then there was Wag's on Ontario's Euclid Avenue and the Hollander Cafeteria at Montclair Plaza, Bentley says. I can add Katie McGuire Pies at Base Line and Archibald in Rancho Cucamonga, now occupied by Dairy Queen.

Any memories of pies past, readers?