Beyond turkey leftovers

Sick of turkey sandwiches, turkey noodle soup and turkey cobb salad? There's a number of new turkey-less restaurants in this city.

In today's business page, I wrote about Juanita's, which opened its third location on Archibald and Base Line on Veteran's Day. It's a rough time to be opening a new business but owner David Tucker, who also runs the Juanita's in Ontario, thinks the worst is over.

"2009 was really rough but we pulled through," Tucker said. "People still need to eat."

That's true. And people need to eat Mexican food. If you count the chains like Taco Bell and Del Taco as Mexican food, there are seven Mexican restaurants at the intersection of Archibald and Base Line.

To be clear, the Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga Juanita's, both owned by Tucker, is considered Juanita's III. The original location in Pomona, known simply as Juanita's, is owned by another Tucker relative. There is no Juanita's II; that numeral was retired by the family.

Tucker said Juanita's III doesn't necessarily designate the number of locations. The numeral signifies that he's the third generation in the Tucker family to serve Mexican food based on family recipes dating back to the 1950s.

Juanita's is cheap, think $5 burritos. Ra Pour, on the other end of the dining spectrum at Victoria Gardens, is another new restaurant that opened just last week. It's a bar and lounge offering upscale fare. Their menu ranges from fig and gorgonzola pizza to lobster mac and cheese.

Finally, there's Farrell's. The ice cream parlor on Foothill Boulevard is tentatively scheduled to open Dec. 6. The menu includes burgers, sandwiches and pizza but isn't ice-cream the main reason to go?