Rice Thai Cuisine

December 15, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Rice is now one of my TOP 10 Ventura restaurants. It’s light years ahead of what Cholada was, not just in the decor but in the flavor and freshness of the food. The menu is simple but creative and after three visits I have yet to eat anything that wasn’t delicious.

The prices are reasonable for the quality of the food. I get lunch here a couple times a week and it’s almost always under $10. The curry is very authentic and spicy… they ask you how spicy you want it on a scale of 1-4. I like spicy food so I order level 3 and it’s about as much as I can handle.

The only negative thing I can say is that they seem to be a victim of their own success… sometimes the very friendly wait staff is overwhelmed and it can take a while to get your check or a refill. Maybe time to hire an additional person?

This is what we need more of in downtown. Clean, modern restaurants with simple, reliable food and reasonable prices. Sometimes less is indeed more.

Filed Under: Restaurants

Ventura Wine Walk Gets an A for Effort

December 6, 2010 By webmaster Leave a Comment

Ventura hosted a First Annual Winter Wine Walk last Saturday and it appeared to be a success. Kudos to whoever came up with the idea! It’s a great way to pull people downtown and show them all the different shops and restaurants they may not have known existed. I sincerely hope it was successful enough to warrant a “second annual” version.

While I give the team involved an “A” for effort, I have to give a “D” for the rather poor execution. Here’s what I hope they do differently next year:

Have more than one place to pick up and purchase tickets. This should be obvious to anyone who saw the line stretching down California Street. There were advance ticket sales online so surely someone had an idea of the tsunami of oenophiles that were heading their way that night.
A little plastic cup Dixie cup… really? How about a commemorative glass, or at least a plastic cup that resembles a wine glass?
Someone needs to control the quality of the wine. While I was thrilled to see Melville involved, that was quickly overshadowed by the swill that was being poured at most of the other venues.
Make sure the store owners have enough wine. Again, advanced ticket sales info should be shared with them so they know what’s coming.

I hope those suggestions are taken as constructively as they were meant. I look forward to next year’s event and to this becoming a new Ventura holiday tradition. Cheers!

Filed Under: Events, Living Locally, Wine Tagged With: downtown ventura events, wine

Free Parking Code for Downtown Ventura

December 3, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Here’s an early Christmas gift from the Downtown Ventura Association – a code for one hour of free parking! Just use this code for your free hour through January 11, 2011:

1563297

Filed Under: Living Locally Tagged With: downtown ventura, parking

Vampire Weekend video

December 3, 2010 By webmaster Leave a Comment

One of the things I love about living in SoCal is that parts of our everyday lives show up in movies, TV shows and music videos all the time. It’s like being a part of an inside joke that the flyover states are missing out on. This video from Vampire Weekend is a great example… Familiar streets in the background and I love that they drive through In-n-Out:

Filed Under: Living Locally Tagged With: vampire weekend

Los Olivos Christmas

November 28, 2010 By webmaster Leave a Comment

I love how close Ventura is to the Central Coast wine country. On Saturday December 4, Los Olivos will kick off the Christmas Season with their annual tree lighting celebration. There will be caroling, roasted walnuts (and maybe a few chestnuts?), drawn carriage rides and of course wine tastings. Most of the downtown tasting rooms are staying open late for the event. For a list of events visit www.winecountryholiday.com.

Filed Under: Events, Living Locally, Wine

Panera Bread Coming to Ventura?

November 6, 2010 By webmaster 7 Comments

When I moved here from Dallas four years ago, one of the things I missed was the Panera Bread just down the street from my house. I enjoyed going early in the morning for coffee and danish, and I would stop there for lunch often because of the free WiFi. Even though it’s a big chain it actually fit in well in our neighborhood.

It’s been years since I thought about that place, so imagine my surprise when I saw the Panera logo while sitting in Camarillo traffic on the 101. At last! I could get that great Caprese panini close to home, and hopefully recapture that feeling I missed from Dallas. The sandwich was good, but no such luck on that latter part. This Panera is a completely different vibe from my old neighborhood gathering spot: Noisy and packed to the rim with tank-top wearing outlet mall patrons. It wasn’t pretty… kind of like being on a flight into or out of Orlando in the summer.

Just as I was losing hope I noticed this on the back of the menu: ”Coming soon to Ventura!” How great would that be? I know that there are a lot of people here who are very anti-chain restaurant and I understand that. But a consistently well-managed Panera would be awesome. It fits that huge gap we have between Jim & Rob’s Fresh Grill and Brooks for an everyday, no-brainer meal when you don’t feel like cooking. Hopefully they’ll put it behind the mall next to the new Trader Joe’s that’s going in… If you have any info about where it’s going please comment and let us know!

Filed Under: Development, Living Locally, Restaurants

They're planting trees at the River Park Mall

November 4, 2010 By webmaster 1 Comment

So it’s become an annual tradition around here… about the same time that the pumpkin patches start to show up in the fields, the weather turns warmer and the sign on the River Park Collection Mall that reads “Opening Fall 20xx” changes to another year. This year was no different. We won’t be buying any organic turkeys at Whole Foods this Thanksgiving… we’re going to have to wait until 2011 now. Although this year they actually did something more than just change the sign: They planted trees in the parking lot! Is this an elaborate hoax or a sign that they may actually be opening next year? Time will tell… Until then the biggest blank canvas for local graffiti artists remains.

Filed Under: Development, Living Locally

My favorite Fishetarian Meals in Ventura

October 22, 2010 By admin 2 Comments

In May 2010 I stopped eating land animals for humanitarian reasons. I don’t know if it will stick… it’s been 5 months now and so far so good. I know that Vegans would still think me incredibly cruel to continue to eat fish and cheese. I get it but hey it’s a sliding scale and at least I’m doing something, right?

It used to be that as soon as I opened a menu I looked right to the beef or pork dishes and stopped there. So this “fishetarian” diet has really helped me discover some good meals I would’ve otherwise missed. I wanted to share those with you here.

Grilled fajita burrito with tofu instead of meat at Sharky’s
Cheese enchiladas with green sauce at El Rey Cantina
Cabo Fish Tacos at Nature’s Grill
The unbelievably good clam chowder at Spencer Makenzie’s
Grilled cheese with fries at In-n-Out for a quick fast food meal
Eggplant Parm sandwich or the salmon tacos at Meridian’s
Yellow curry shrimp at the new Rice Thai place downtown
The shrimp capellini and scallops with fennel at Tutti’s

What am I missing? What are some of your favorite Ventura vegetarian or fishetarian dishes? Please let me know!

Filed Under: Fishterian, Living Locally, Restaurants Tagged With: fishterian, Restaurants

Melville Winery Announces New Wine Club

September 28, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

At last! Melville, one of my favorite central coast wineries, has announced they’re adding a wine club. If you haven’t had one of their light, flavorful pinots you’re really missing out. So many pinot noirs have started tasting like syrah lately as the wineries chase reviewers like Robert Parker who prefer big, full-bodied wines. In fact I just read in the October issue of Sunset that a wine only has to be comprised of 75% pinot noir grapes to be called a pinot! So it can be up to 25% syrah, mourvedre, etc. and still just be labeled a pinot noir.

This isn’t the case with Melville. Their pinots are balanced and full of delicate flavor. You can get their estate pinots at the Ventura Wine Company for around $25 a bottle, but if you really want to experience Melville head out to the winery and get a bottle of the Terraces pinot. Fantastic! Take lunch with you too as they have one of the best tasting rooms for a picnic.

Anyway, back to the wine club. According to the email they sent out today it’s free to join and they’re going to send three shipments a year. You can either receive 3, 6 or 12 bottles per shipment. I didn’t find any info on their website about this yet so it may not be released to the general public. Give them a call though and I’m sure they’ll help you out. Cheers!

Filed Under: Keeping it Local, Living Locally, Wine Tagged With: melville, wine

WooHoo! SB Zoo Brew!

May 11, 2010 By webmaster Leave a Comment

Oh Baby!!! I love beer tastings and I love the SB Zoo… and for the first time they’re combining both in what will hopefully become the annual Zoo Brew on June 5! There will be a special food menu and beers from Sierra Nevada, Island Brewery, Shock Top, Telegraph and more. Tix are $40 and you can buy them on their site: http://www.sbzoo.com/zoobrew_10.asp.

Nobody under 21 is going to be admitted so if you love the Zoo but hate sharing it with all those noisy kids now’s your chance! =) See you there.

Filed Under: Events, Get Outside, Living Locally