Month: October 2007

Your Unofficial Apple Hill Guide: New, Updated, Now With More Apple Flavor

It’s that time of year again when the leaves start turning, the kids go back to school and the Eats household celebrates anotherNo, the other kind of apple. birthday.  In what is becoming an annual tradition, the Mrs. and I played hooky and headed up the hill midweek to sup full of apple flavored delights.  In the process, we found some new delights, and wound up finding out a few new things about our old favorites.  Follow me, won’t you, as we trip the apple fantastic to find the best of the ‘Hill for 2007.

Rainbow Orchards– There are few reason to hang around Rainbow Orchards other than to consume the finest doughnuts you will ever have, apple cider doughnuts, that is.  Freshly made, piping hot, covered with sugar, and crisp yet chewy, these doughriffic bites of heaven are the main attraction in the cavernous barn that makes up the whole of Rainbow Orchards commercial enterprise.  They sometimes have bluegrass music in the orchard, which is a nice offering, and the Mrs. and I found a beautiful selection of decorative pumpkins in a kaleidoscope of shades (including blue) but really, we’re all just going there for the doughnuts.  Did I mention the doughnuts?  And yes, I still refuse to spell it “donuts.”  Caution:  Mill View Farms produces and sells a similar apple cider doughnut, but be warned, this is an inferior product and not worth your doughnut calories.  The proprietor is very sweet though, bless her heart.    Continue reading “Your Unofficial Apple Hill Guide: New, Updated, Now With More Apple Flavor”

iFeliz cumpleanos a ‘Comidas de Sac’!

Our very own sac-eats is 31 years old today — such a pup!

May the coming year bring him a new restaurant that features gourmet mayonnaise sandwiches; all-you-can-drink Pellegrino; and live music in the stylings of Django, Cannonball Adderly, JJ Johnson, and Bill Dendle/Eddie Erickson.  

*Note to any native speakers of the Spanish language, please forgive my loose translation of “sac-eats,” and please feel free to offer your own translation.

Mix-n-match fusion at Three Monkeys

Today I passed a new establishment next to the Starbucks at St. Rose of Lima called Three Monkeys. Tagline: Saloon – Broiler – Sushi. Finally, you’re thinking, a place where I can get my chop and my sasparilla with a California roll on the side.

This raises several questions. First, is there a county or city office somewhere that when you walk through the door you are automatically granted a license to open a restaurant or bar? Second, how much is too much with the gimmicky restaurants? I would say that mashing up a 19th century term for a watering hole with sushi means we’re at least 80% of the way to the bottom of the barrel. What do you all think?

They Kind of ARE Giants

For me, the first indication of what the evening was going to be like came whilst arriving at the back of the line with TMBG ticket in hand. As I neared the doors, taped to the wall was a sign on paper that could have popped out of any printer you or I bought proclaiming, approximately “This show 14+, by request of THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS.” Which goes to show what kind of guys TMBG are. These are the guys who managed to put out children’s albums and not lose their fan base because their regular albums sound a bit like children’s albums – if the child in question is the baby from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. That the heavily adult audience gave an extended “yeah!” when the band launched into “The Alphabet of Nations” only goes to show that fans found the children’s albums another acceptable entry in the TMBG discography. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Continue reading “They Kind of ARE Giants”

New Arena, New Traffic Problems

Poppy is on board!In today’s Bee, writer Tony Bizjak reports on a number of traffic concerns from folks in-the-know concerning the new Cal Expo arena plans.  The piece pretty fairly andd succinctly addresses the concerns of a number of agencies, groups, and individuals, as well as putting forth a fledgling solution, even at this early stage:

Bartosik and other area business officials, in fact, already have been studying a potential traffic reducer — a streetcar that would run on tracks on or off the street.  It could bring people into the area from a nearby light-rail station, looping them to the Cal Expo gates and the Arden Fair front entrance.

Amazingly enough, not one of the so-called experts mentioned the futuristically fantastic solution staring them right in the face.  It’s a solution so singular it only needs one track, so simple it’s already been built, so elegant it only takes one word to express it: Monorail!  (From now on, any mention of the Monorail! will use a capitalized “M” and an exclamation point.) Continue reading “New Arena, New Traffic Problems”