May 2011 Archives

...Deb Corey and Cheterra Hall!

Congratulations to both of you!

Thanks to random.org for helping pick the winners and thanks to all of you for entering...we enjoyed reading all your comments.

It seems like a lot of people are looking forward to checking out the Grilled Cheese Truck, as well as both Suite 106 and My Delight cupcakeries.

Also, lots of you seem to be having birthdays right around June 18.

And those of you suggesting stretchy pants are evil geniuses!

I hope those of you who didn't win will still get tickets and show up with empty bellies!

Tickets are available at Ticketmaster and at the Citizens Business Bank Arena box office, if you want to avoid some of those pesky "convenience" fees.

Pre-sale tickets are $8 now, but remember...they will go up to $10 a week before the event. A limited number of VIP tickets, which will grant you entry into the event an hour early, are available for $25.

For more information, click here.

We've included some of our favorite comments after the jump.

Original Tommy's continues its 65th anniversary celebration with yet another Tommy Tuesday special next Tuesday (May 31).

Just by uttering the secret phrase, "Memorial Day", you'll be able to get a chili dog for only 99¢ with any purchase at any Original Tommy's. You can order up to five at that price.

As usual, the deal is good from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

You'll find four Original Tommy's in the Inland Empire:

• Chino: 12205 Mountain Ave.
• Barstow: 2610 Fisher Blvd.
• Riverside: 7504 Mission Grove Parkway South
• Corona: 2280 Compton Ave.

For more information, click here to see Tommy's Facebook event page.

Looking for that special restaurant to celebrate that once-in-a-lifetime event?

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar (recently voted "Best Steak" by Daily Bulletin readers) has created a "Prime Celebrations" three-course meal designed for young adults to celebrate prom season and graduation in style.

The complete dinner includes an appetizer salad or soup, an entrée, a side, dessert and beverage.

Cost is $50 per person, $100 per couple, and includes tax and gratuity. For convenience, parents can even pre-pay for the meal.

Fleming's can be found in the Inland Empire at:

• Rancho Cucamonga: 7905 Monet Ave., 909-463-0416
• Rancho Mirage: 71800 Highway 111, 760-776-6685

Reservations can be made online here or by calling Fleming's directly.

The "Prime Celebrations" meal is only available through June 30. For more information, click here.

Follow the jump to see the menu selections.

Where's Jordan?

Well, at noon tomorrow (May 27), 66ers Account Executive Jordan Smith will be at Qdoba Mexican Grill in Redlands for lunch.

Why do you care?

He'll have plenty of 66ers tickets (and several pairs of Angels vouchers) to share.

Free baseball tickets sounds like a pretty good way to start your extended weekend!

The Redlands Qdoba is at 9990 Alabama St.

What's the most inventive and fun way you could come up with for mashing potatoes?

For nine-year-old Faith Joiner of Twin Peaks, the answer was: Hippos!

Faith's imagination garnered her the grand prize -- $5,000 in cash -- in the national Ore-Ida Steam n' Mash "Mash Destruction" contest.

The contest was used to promote Ore-Ida's new Steam n' Mash frozen, pre-scrubbed, pre-peeled, diced potatoes, which are ready to microwave and mash in minutes.

Her winning entry, titled "The Hippo Smash", shows hippos lining up to hop on a palm tree to catapult onto a pile of Steam n' Mash potatoes to create mashed potatoes.

All 35 SoCal Chick-fil-A restaurants (including the ten in the Inland Empire) will honor those who have served in the service with a Military Appreciation Night from 4 to 7 p.m. tonight (May 25).

All active military personnel and those who have honorably served, along with their immediate family members, can go to any Southern California Chick-fil-A for a free meal.

There will also be family-friendly activities and entertainment.

Chick-fil-A's Military Appreciation Night is presented by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation and United Services Automobile Association, in conjunction with the VFW Foundation's Return the Favor campaign.

The details: The free offer is only valid with a military ID or proof of service in-restaurant. The offer includes the Original Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich Meal, Chick-fil-A Spicy Chicken Sandwich Meal or Chick-fil-A Nuggets (four-count) Kid's Meal.

You'll find Inland Empire Chick-fil-A restaurants in the following locations:

• Redlands: 27520 W. Lugonia Ave.
• Upland: 1949 N Campus Ave.
• Rancho Cucamonga: 12190 Foothill Blvd.
• Ontario: 4350 Ontario Mills Parkway
• Chino Hills: 3640 Grand Ave.
• Riverside: 2885 Canyon Springs Parkway
• Corona: 3555 Grand Oaks, 450 Hidden Valley Parkway
• Temecula: 40531 Margarita Road
• Murrieta: 24794 Madison Ave.

So the Best of... special sections came out this Sunday for The Sun, the Daily Bulletin and the Redlands Daily Facts.

I have mixed feelings about the winners. I agree with some of the chosen "bests," but not with others. Some just left me scratching my head.

Lets's start with the ones I thought people got correct:

Asian cuisine, Daily Bulletin: I like P.F. Chang's. Sure, it's Americanized, but it's also consistently good. My sister-in-law got the entire family hooked on P.F. Chang's, and I remember driving all the way out to Fashion Island in Newport Beach just to eat there. And wait hours to do so. Now we can just head to Riverside or Victoria Gardens. The wait is also much less.

Brunch / Romantic restaurant, The Sun / Daily Facts: The Castaway has the best view of all the restaurants in San Bernardino...and probably the whole east valley. The good thing is that the view isn't the only good thing about the Castaway. The food quality is also quite good -- you get what you pay for, and having Sunday brunch there is like taking a little vacation.

Buffet, The Sun / Daily Facts: Kudos for going out on a limb here. Choosing an Asian buffet like Open Kitchen in Highland over the usual suspects (Hometown Buffet, Souplantation, Sizzler) shows some spirit. And Open Kitchen's food is indeed better than 90% of those Asian buffets out there. My favorites are the spicy chicken, made with jalapeno, the salmon sushi and the jin deui (sesame seed ball pastry).

Italian cuisine, The Sun / Daily Facts: I recently revisited Isabella's Ristorante Italiano in Redlands. Unsurprisingly, the food was just as delicious as I remember it. Of course, the last time I went to Isabella's, they still had a restaurant in San Bernardino. It's good to know some things stay the same.

Here's where we differ:

Buffet, Daily Bulletin: While I think The Sun and Daily Facts readers were spot on with their buffet choice, I think the readers of the Daily Bulletin were way off. Are there no other buffet restaurants in the west valley than Hometown Buffet? Have all the Sizzlers closed? (Oh, wait a minute, I believe they might have!) Have they never been to the Rancho Cucamonga Souplantation? Apparently not, or maybe they're just fond of bland food.

Mexican cuisine, The Sun / Daily Facts: I've never understood the appeal of San Bernardino's landmark Mexico Cafe. The few times I've been there over the years, I've been seriously underwhelmed. And yet, year after year, it tops our "Best of" list. Of course, a friend went there recently and said his meal wasn't too bad. Perhaps it's time to revisit the Mexico Cafe.

Sandwich shop, Daily Bulletin / The Sun / Daily Facts: I think the lowest common denominator for sandwich places is Subway, which is probably why they were chosen as the top sandwich shop for all three papers. I know there are better sandwich shops out there. Let's start with Matano's Little Italy in Yucaipa, which surely must be the best-kept secret out there, despite my loudly singing its praises.

Yogurt / Ice Cream, Daily Bulletin: Golden Spoon over 21 Choices? Over Pinkberry? Over Burt & Rocky's? Over Dine 909 favorite Handel's? You've got to be kidding me!

The big winners:

Queen of all Redlands Martha Green came out on top in several categories. For The Sun and Daily Facts, Dough'Lectibles won for both bakery and desserts, while The Eating Room was chosen best restaurant to take out-of-town guests.

In-N-Out won for best burger in both surveys. We'll see if that changes next year with competition from Five Guys Burgers and Fries and The Habit.

Now for the head-scratchers:

Can someone please tell me where Armada, The Sun / Daily Facts Asian cuisine winner is? I've tried Google, Yelp, Bing...all to no avail. The closest match I can find is Armada Towing in San Bernardino, but you won't be getting egg foo young from them.

Pronto Pizza over Dine 909 favorite the Gourmet Pizza Shoppe? Seriously? I have to admit that I haven't yet tried Pronto, but how good can it be for $5? Perhaps that's the sole reason it topped The Sun / Daily Facts survey.

Just one more thing: Who is the joker who voted for Olive Garden for best Indian cuisine (The Sun / Daily Facts)?

Follow the jump to see the full list of restaurant winners and losers favorites.

Offering a great deal like a 65¢ chili cheeseburger and Coke combo is one way to get people to notice.

However, just because they served 10,000 people last Sunday (May 15) at the original Original Tommy's doesn't mean they're through celebrating.

Next Tuesday (May 24), you'll be able to get an order of chili fries for only 99¢ with any purchase at any Original Tommy's, just by saying the secret phrase: "Recession relief"

The deal is good from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

You'll find four Original Tommy's in the Inland Empire:

• Chino: 12205 Mountain Ave.
• Barstow: 2610 Fisher Blvd.
• Riverside: 7504 Mission Grove Parkway South
• Corona: 2280 Compton Ave.

Not only do you get a free $10 FunCard for yourself, but you'll be helping the fight against cystic fibrosis.

Here's how it works: Print out this coupon, take it to John's Incredible Pizza Co., give them the coupon, purchase an adult buffet and beverage, and you'll get a free $10 FunCard.

John's will also donate $1 to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Great Strides 2011.

Unfortunately, today (May 20) is the last day to get in on the deal and help out.

John's Incredible Pizza has three locations in the Inland Empire:

• Victorville: 14766 Bear Valley Road
• Montclair: 5280 Arrow Highway
• Riverside: 6187 Valley Springs Parkway

This week another Baker's Drive-Thru opened in the fair city of Riverside, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday (May 16).

The latest "twin kitchen" is at 6686 Indiana Ave.

The new restaurant replaces one just across the street (6681 Indiana Ave.) that had been in business nearly two decades.

The old location will razed by Caltrans.

They've sent along a photo of the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Check out the guy in the checkered coat on the right. Wow!

We like Baker's well enough here at Dine 909, and love their egg burritos especially, but would like them even more if they stopped charging for soda refills.

Although...I really can't complain too much when they're only charging 25¢ for a 16-ounce soda right now (or a small fries -- limit two per order, one order per person or car) and $1 for a 32-ounce Coke Zero (or Gold Peak black or sweet green teas).

Or that they even have Coke Zero, for that matter.

Thanks to the folks who are running the Inland Empire Food Truck Fest, we have two pairs of tickets to give away!

To enter, just make a comment below. Feel free to say something pithy, or mention the name of the food truck you're most excited to check out.

The festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 18 at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario.

More than 50 food trucks are scheduled to participate.

There will also be live music, skate demos, a kids' area, food samples and the proverbial "more."

If you don't win tickets here, you can purchase them at the arena box office or at Ticketmaster.

Pre-sale tickets are $8 now, but will go up to $10 a week before the event. A limited number of VIP tickets, which will grant you entry into the event an hour early, are available for $25.

Follow the jump to read the rules and leave your comment!

The drama at Nena's Mexican Restaurant continues.

The longtime San Bernardino fixture shut down a while back, and has struggled to reopen.

First, the restaurant was slated to reopen April 25. That date came and went.

Next, there were announcements on Facebook that the restaurant would reopen on Monday of this week.

That, too, came and went.

They'd still been operating a nightclub -- La Cama -- at the location on Friday nights.

I was tipped off by a reader that the restaurant's liquor license had been indefinitely suspended.

Sure enough, it had, on May 12. A giant suspension notice was plastered to the building's front door.

It's possible to operate a restaurant without a liquor license, but you certainly can't run a nightclub without one.

Let's hope they get things straightened out with the ABC and get back on track.

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical that the promoters of the Inland Empire Food Truck Fest would be able to coerce 50 of Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties' food trucks to come all the way out to the Inland Empire.

I watched on Facebook, Twitter and the festival's website as the number of participating food trucks slowly crept up and up.

They've now got 54 trucks lined up and have not finished yet.

The latest announcements?

• Grilled Cheese Truck: Grilled cheese sandwiches
• Seabirds: Vegetarian fare
• Waffles de Liege: Made with real Belgian pearl sugar
• Longboards Ice Cream: Ice cream on a stick
• The Lime Truck: California beach cuisine
• Don Chow Tacos: Chinese Mexican fusion
• No Tomatoes: Indian street fare
• Swinging Kitchen: California cuisine
• Yalla: Falafel and more falafel
• Great Balls on Tires: Meatball sliders
• Stella Pierre's Gourmet Grub: Representing the I.E.!

Also announced are both Rancho Cucamonga's Suite 106 Cupcakery and Ontario's My Delight Cupcakery. Just for fun, they should put them just opposite each other. Mwa-ha-ha-haaaa!

The festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 18 at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario. Tickets (including a limited number of early-entry VIP tickets) are available now at the arena box office and at Ticketmaster.

Oh...and get ready for a special announcement from Dine 909 regarding the Inland Empire Food Truck Fest!

It's been open a couple of months now, but the Chino La Crêperie Café will be celebrating its grand opening on Thursday (May 19).

The best part? All menu items and alcoholic beverages will be half price!

That bears repeating: All menu items and alcoholic beverages will be half price!

The restaurant, 3968 Grand Ave., will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., will close for an hour in preparation for the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce Monthly Mixer from 5 to 7 p.m., when they'll have a ribbon cutting.

The mixer is open to chamber members and non-members alike.

Regular restaurant seating will resume after 7 p.m.

And if you decide to have dessert, I wholeheartedly recommend the Martinique crêpe. It's delicious!

Inland Valley Hope Partners, which helps people in need by providing food, shelter and supportive services, is having another restaurant fundraiser next week.

This time, they're teaming up with the Ontario El Torito.

The fundraiser will take place all day (11 a.m. to 10 p.m.) Wednesday (May 18) at the restaurant, 3680 Inland Empire Drive.

El Torito will donate 25% of your check to Inland Valley Hope Partners when you present this flier when you dine on Wednesday.

The money raised will be put to good use:

• Inland Valley Hope Partners serves Chino, Chino Hills, Claremont, Diamond Bar, La Verne, Montclair, Mt. Baldy, Ontario, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, San Dimas, Upland and Walnut.
• They serve around 75,000 men, women and children annually.
• They operate four food banks (in Ontario, Pomona, Claremont and San Dimas) and a family residential shelter.
• They sponsor the Pomona Valley Certified Farmers' Market.

Bring the whole family, and don"t forget to bring the flier!

Lovers of Greek food, rejoice! Your time has come.

That's because this weekend is the annual Greek Festival on the Hill at San Bernardino's Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church.

The festival runs from noon to 10 p.m. tomorrow (May 14) and from noon to 9 p.m. on Sunday (May 15) at the church, 1035 Inland Center Drive.

The event costs a mere $2 per person, or an even merer $2 per couple with the coupon available by clicking on the graphic to the left.

In addition to Greek food (and pastries!), the event will feature Greek folk dancing, live music, a kids' play area, beer, wine, art, jewelry and church tours.

There will also be a raffle, with a total of $7,000 in prizes to be won.

For more information, click the graphic for the flier or click here for the church website.

This Saturday (May 14) marks the annual National Association of Letter Carriers' Stamp Out Hunger food drive.

You can help the hungry without even leaving home.

Just gather up some non-perishable food items (canned meats, fish, soup, juice and vegetables, and pasta, cereal and rice that don't require refrigeration -- nothing that's expired or in glass containers, though), bag them up and leave them at your mailbox early on Saturday (before your letter carrier usually visits).

Your carrier will pick up the food and it will be distributed to a local food bank or pantry.

Of course, if you plan on visiting the market to buy items to donate, you can click here for coupons from Campbell's, who happens to be a co-sponsor of the drive.

Another co-sponsor is Feeding America, which operates in Riverside as the Second Harvest Food Bank, so you know your donations will be distributed right here in the Inland Empire.

Thanks in advance for your donations!

Things have been fairly quiet on the Inland Empire Food Truck Fest front since last week's big announcements, but there have been a few more names mentioned.

Their website is slowly taking shape and Indian street food truck India Jones is now among those listed.

On Facebook, they've announced a few more, in addition to last week's list:

• Me So Hungry: Sliders and other small bites
• Komodo: Gourmet tacos, burritos and sides
• Ahn Joo: Korean pub food
• Short Rib Taco: Korean fusion tacos
• Tango Mango: Italian ices
• Maui Wowi: Hawaiian coffee and smoothies
• Organic Oasis: Organic smoothies

By my count, that's 43 trucks...just a handful more 'til they reach their advertised 50 trucks. Very nice, indeed!

The festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 18 at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario. Tickets (including a limited number of early-entry VIP tickets) are available now at the arena box office and at Ticketmaster.

For those of you who aren't chili'd out after Saturday's fest at the National Orange Show, or if you just want a rematch, you won't have to wait long.

The 17th annual Redlands Optimist Car Show and Chili Cook Off (as they call it, but we know which is more important) is Saturday, May 21.

The event runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sylvan Park, Colton Avenue and University Street.

Suggested donation is $3 if you're over 18 and $2 for those 12 to 18.

The Optimist Club of Redlands is hoping to raise $30,000 from the event. The proceeds will be used to plan, run and finance nine major youth events throughout the upcoming year.

The entry fee for the chili cook off is $35. The entry fee for the car show is $20 (or $30 if you want a T-shirt) before Sunday (May 15) and $30 at the door.

For more information and links to registration forms, click here.

Arby's is offering a free Market Fresh sandwich when you purchase a 22-ounce Pepsi, although they're featuring the Grilled Chicken and Pecan Salad sandwich and wrap.

The offer is good until Sunday (May 15) at participating locations -- one per customer, and the offer is not valid with other discounts. But you knew that already, didn't you?

To get the coupon, click here.

As a bonus, if you have a smartphone, you can save paper and ink and just show the screen to the cashier after clicking the link.

Arby's are located throughout the Inland Empire.

And for those of you who didn't get the reference in the headline, follow the jump. But don't say I didn't warn you about the earworm.

It's that time again...time for a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf open house!

From 4 to 7 p.m. tomorrow (May 10), you'll be able to sample a complementary 12-ounce Ice Blended drink.

You'll have your choice of Mocha Mint Chip, Cookies & Cream or Espresso Cream.

Of course, the usual caveats: One per customer at participating locations, not valid at locations inside Ralphs supermarkets, can't be combined with other offers, etc.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf can be found throughout the Inland Empire, including Redlands, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Claremont, Chino Hills, Riverside, Temecula and Lake Elsinore.

Click here for more information.

So, the other day I went to the Colton Wal-Mart and was surprised to find that they now have fresh produce, meats and other refrigerated items along with the frozen goods and non-refrigerated groceries they used to carry.

Only now, they carry a lot more groceries than they used to.

They even have a small deli and a small bakery.

A friend told me that the Redlands Target is also gearing up for fresh produce and meats. They're remodeling now -- and have already expanded their non-refrigerated grocery selection -- and are expecting to have everything available June 1.

The Upland Target has already been reconfigured and is selling fresh groceries.

The best way I can describe it is that they are mini versions of their "Super" counterparts.

East Highland eatery Mi Cocina, which had been in its location at 7223 Church St. (at Base Line) for 20 years, has moved to a new location at 27961 Highland Avenue (at Boulder Avenue), in the San Manuel Village.

The new location opened Monday.

Click here to read reporter Andrew Edwards' story on the move, San Manuel Village and other San Manuel ventures.

A week ago, the Inland Empire Food Truck Fest folks began announcing the names of trucks that they've booked for the event.

They've been averaging two trucks per day. As of the writing of this post, they've revealed 15 trucks. At last report, 25 trucks have already been confirmed, with 50 planned for the festival.

The Inland Empire Food Truck Fest will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 18 at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario. Tickets (including a limited number of early-entry VIP tickets) are available now at the arena box office and at Ticketmaster.

Update: Earlier today (May 5), they announced 20 more trucks, for a total of 35.

Head to the jump to see the list.

While working on my day job, I happened to stumble upon reporter Wes Woods' Claremont Now blog post about Redlands-based Eureka!Burger planning to open in the former Three The Forks location in November or December...last year!

I had lost track of that story and I hadn't seen them post anything on Twitter, so a quick search online revealed that they did finally open about a month ago.

The Claremont location is the restaurant's third, after Redlands and Fresno.

So, West Valleyans, if you've been wanting to try Eureka!Burger, the wait is over!

The Claremont Eureka!Burger is at 580 W. First St.

Update: Eureka!Burger was David Allen's Restaurant of the Week just last week. Great minds, etc. Thanks to Facebooker Carl for lookin' out.

Bakers Drive-Thru is offering its Facebook fans a little something extra today.

A free Fiesta Salad!

They're claiming it's in honor of National Salad Month, but I think they just wanted to get a jump on Cinco de Mayo.

And besides, shouldn't every day be a fiesta?

Head to their Facebook page to "Like" them and print out the coupon, which is good today (May 4) only.

Bakers Drive-Thrus can be found throughout the Inland Empire.

Saturday (May 7) marks the return of the California State Chili and Inland Empire Menudo championships to the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino.

The International Chili Society event will run from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Chili and menudo tastings begin at 11 a.m.

Admission is free, and proceeds from the contests will go to the Friends of San Bernardino City Parks.

Teams will compete in several categories, including: Chili, chili verde, salsa, People's Choice chili, best restaurant chili, and menudo.

In addition to the cook-offs, there will be Ms. Chili Pepper, Mr. Hot Sauce and the "World Famous" Shoot and Holler contests.

There will also be chili-eating and karaoke contests, folklorico dancers, a Western stunt show, craft vendors, live music and games and rides for the kids.

This is the 38th year for the chili contest and the seventh for the menudo cook-off.

For more information, click here to read Michel Nolan's article from back in February.

As mentioned a few weeks back, the Tillamook Cheese Loaf Love Tour has returned yet again to the Inland Empire.

At the time, it was making stops in Beaumont, Calimesa and Yucaipa.

This past week, there were stops in Redlands, Highland, San Bernardino, Riverside, Norco, Chino, Fontana and Ontario.

This week, there'll be stops in San Bernardino, Bloomington and Rialto.

Follow the jump to see the schedule for the last I.E. leg of the tour.