Recently in Loma Linda Category

We all know how Loma Linda feels about McDonald's, but how will food trucks affect their "Blue Zone" status?

We'll find out tomorrow (January 14) as Spreen Honda hosts three food trucks: Rancho Cucamonga's Suite 106 Cupcakery, Me So Hungry and Coolhaus.

The event will take place from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the auto dealership, 25050 Redlands Blvd.

Something tells me that cupcakes and ice cream sandwiches aren't so good for the "Blue Zone"...

I can't believe it's been three years since the completion of the Loma Linda fresh & easy (at Redlands Boulevard and Mountain View Avenue), and it still isn't open.

But at least we're not the only ones waiting.

There are also two locations in Moreno Valley that were completed years ago and have yet to open.

And a third there that opened for a while and then closed.

But seriously, Loma Linda?

You would think that a market that prides itself on having no high fructose corn syrup, added trans fats, artificial colors or flavors and preservatives only when necessary in its own line of foods would do well in a city where the proposal of allowing a McDonald's within its borders caused wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Sigh.

Click here to read business reporter Andrew Edwards' update on the unopened market.

Regular readers of this blog know how we geek out when it comes to the Coca-Cola Freestyle 100-plus flavor soda fountains.

We've driven to Orange County to experience it when it was first available.

We wrote about the first Freestyles being installed in the Inland Empire.

We've mentioned new locations as we discover them.

On Tuesday, Coca-Cola announced that Burger King will roll out Freestyle machines to its company-owned restaurants nationwide.

Wow.

That's more than 850 restaurants, according to an article from Nation's Restaurant News. Burger King already has already installed about 120 machines.

That makes them the third (and largest) chain to announce chain-wide rollouts, following Firehouse Subs (which are not in the Inland Empire) and Five Guys Burgers and Fries (the Redlands, Mira Loma and Moreno Valley locations have one).

It's a quadruple celebration as four Inland Empire Farmer Boys restaurants will be celebrating grand re-openings on Saturday (June 25).

The events will take place at locations in Rancho Cucamonga and Loma Linda (both of which will also have festivities through Monday (June 27)), Highland and San Jacinto.

Hmm...I swear the Highland restaurant just opened a couple of years ago. Oh, well.

Follow the jump to see what's in store at each location.

We've run a couple of food-related items on The Sun and Daily Bulletin business pages in the last two days.

In today's papers, we had a story regarding the long-completed, but still-unopened Loma Linda fresh & easy.

Guess what?

Still no opening date, but we knew that already, didn't we?

Click here to read the story as it appeared in this morning's Sun.

And in yesterday's paper, we had an item on the impending opening of a Chipotle Mexican Grill and the discussions of opening a Panera Bread in the city of Montclair.

The Chipotle will be east of Montclair Plaza, while Panera would be on the western edge of the mall.

Now, how about something to fill in the location north of the mall vacated by Islands last month?

These things take time, I guess.

Click here to read the Montclair restaurant story.

Cuca's fans, you've got another reason to celebrate!

The new Cuca's Mexican Food is open at 11221 California St. (at Barton Road) in Loma Linda.

The restaurant joins their other locations in Redlands, Highland, Rialto and Mentone. (It's actually their seventh location -- they formerly had one in Ontario.)

The full-service restaurant opened Sunday (November 28).

The restaurant will hold an official grand opening on December 14.

The Loma Linda Market and Campus Store, 11161 Anderson St., will host an open house from 10 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. on Thursday (December 17).

The event is open to the local community and Loma Linda students, faculty, and staff.

The open house will showcase the market's newly renovated appearance as well as the many new products, brands, and services now available. Showcased products at the Campus Store include computer hardware, software, and accessories, the complete line of Apple computers, and new Loma Linda University apparel.

The market will be showcasing healthful cookware by the Culinary Institute of America, and premier brands such as Food Should Taste Good, Knudson, and Vibrant Life. The market will also have chefs and nutrition experts available to kick off its recipe and ingredient advice service. The open house will feature discounts, food samples, demonstrations, recipe activities for children, hourly prize drawings and more.

So, feel free to stop by and pick up some FriChik or some Swiss Stake, or even some textured vegetable protein pepperoni.

Who knows? You might decide that they're so good you want to go veg.

On the cusp of Wednesday's grand opening of a new Inland Empire fresh & easy (in Rancho Cucamonga), Dine 909 has discovered via fresh & easy's Web site that their San Bernardino store (1631 E. Highland Ave., at Del Rosa Avenue) is opening one week later, on October 7.

Hooray!

This is of little consolation to Loma Linda city officials, who have written a letter to the folks at fresh & easy requesting that they be considered when picking opening dates, according to a story appearing in tomorrow's Sun.

The Loma Linda location (Redlands Boulevard and Mountain View Avenue) has been complete for, oh, about ten months. Work started on the San Bernardino store only a couple of months ago.

Other completed-but-not-yet-open Inland Empire markets include Rialto (2015 N. Riverside Ave., at I-210) and Moreno Valley (22985 Cottonwood Ave., at Frederick Street). The Calimesa location (Calimesa Boulevard and Myrtlewood Drive) looks complete from the freeway.

Don't know what fresh & easy's strategy is, but I'm glad I'll no longer have to drive to Fontana to shop there.

As is customary, fresh & easy is donating $1,000 to a local charity at their grand opening. To nominate a charity for the San Bernardino opening, click here.

To read Stephen Wall's story regarding Loma Linda's fresh & easy-sized advertisement for fresh & easy, click here.

In other Inland Empire fresh & easy news, according to their Web site, both the Riverside (4080 Madison Ave., at Arlington Avenue) and Ontario (2645 E. Riverside Drive, at Archibald Avenue) are hiring.

So I was poking around the Dine 909 Twitter account, seeing who was following us, and ended up wandering over to fresh & easy's Web site.

I went, as I usually do, to their Inland Empire locations page to check on the status of their long-delayed stores in Loma Linda, Rancho Cucamonga and Rialto.

Nothing new on those sites: The Loma Linda store is completed and is basically a fresh & easy-sized advertisement for fresh & easy. The Rancho Cucamonga store is hiring, but I know for a fact that they're still working on the interior of the store. The Rialto store is also complete and it looks like the nearby Walgreens is ready to open.

The surprise? They're opening a store at Highland and Del Rosa avenues right here in San Bernardino. The actual address is 1631 E. Highland Ave.

Apparently, it's going in the same center as dd's discounts, another lower-cased corporate entity.

As with the Rancho Cucamonga store, they're hiring.

Normally, I don't like surprises. This one I was all in favor of.

Ladies and gentlemen...in this corner we have Pepito's, a longtime Riverside establishment with a not-so-storied past.

And in this corner, we have Kool Kactus Cafe, offering a fresh take on your standard Mexican fare.

Who will win? We'll leave that decision up to you.

I'm referring, of course, to this week's reviews...first up is Elaine Lehman's lunch review of Kool Kactus in Loma Linda. I've been to Kool Kactus, but not for a very long time. I seem to recall that it was a bit pricey for what you got, but that their focus was on freshness and being perhaps a little healthier than your typical Mexican standard.

Just glancing over their menu here, it appears that very little has changed over at the cafe. They're a dollar or two above what you might find elsewhere, and they have a number of items (Squash burrito? Sounds intriguing!) that are approved by the San Bernardino County Department of Health as being healthier for you.

Elaine seemed to enjoy her chicken quesadilla special, commenting favorably on the accompanying beans. You can read her entire review here.