The Blind Onion, Sparks, Nevada

 The Blind Onion

824 Victorian Ave.

Sparks, NV

Yes, I know, the site is called "Rick's Ventura," and my mission is to talk about things in Ventura, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm not in Ventura today. I'm in Sparks at a conference, and I was tired of eating hotel food. Strolling through Victoria Square brought me to the Blind Onion. Someone was sitting in the window, eating their pizza, and I thought it looked pretty good.

It's a tiny space with a handful of tables and a bar. A wide variety of beer were available, as well as other cocktails. The friendly girl at the counter asked if I needed a menu, which I took and quickly scanned.

Since I'm not kissing anyone on this trip, I saw something called the "Breath Buster," a pizza that featured both onions and garlic, along with pepperoni, mozzarella, linguica and red sauce, and knew that was the order. A small with a soda set me back $9, pretty reasonable for the size pizza I got.

I filled my fountain drink with Dr. Pepper and sat down at one of the tables. Interestingly, there was a large bottle of honey at each table. The Blind Onion serves neither hot tea nor biscuits, so I was left to wonder.

The counter girl brought my pizza over in about ten minutes, but left before I asked about the honey. Still, being the smart guy that I am, I tried just a touch on my pizza. The contrast between that  and the pepperoni, garlic and onion was really quite good.  When the girl came back to check on me, I asked, and she said that many people like to use it on their braided crust. She continued that the crust is made with a touch of brown sugar, and the honey brought that out.

What I discovered through experimentation was that too much honey overpowered the pizza, but just a touch really brought out the flavor. The braided crust was really good, with or without the honey, too, and on the whole is was a good pie.

The Blind Onion has a handful of shops around this part of Nevada, as well one store in Oregon and two in Washington. If in the area, certainly worth a visit.

Tacos Jalisco, Independence CA

Tacos Jalisco

Highway 395

Independence CA

There are several great things about driving up Hwy 395. The drive is truly beautiful, and right now (Late April) the weather is perfect. Crisp and clean, in the 60's, it's easy to see what fascinated people like John Muir. The Owens Valley is a whole different California than the So Cal beaches and cities I grew up with-though the city and county of Los Angeles would not be the same without the Owens Valley. Towns like Lone Pine and Independence have some very good family run restaurants, and even the big town of Bishop has for the most part avoided the plethora of chains that pollute most larger cities.

I was thinking about a sandwich after spending some time at Manzanar (which will probably be another post), and was looking for an interesting place when I saw Tacos Jalisco. Now it seems that every city that has more than one taco stand has a "Tacos Jalisco," so before you start to think it's some sort of secret national chain, "Jalisco" is a region of Mexico and generally denotes a particular type of cooking, the subtleties of which escape me.

What I thought was interesting was that the Tacos Jalisco trailer occupied the parking lot of a former gas station. Nothing unusual in that, until I noticed that TJ used the former gas station office as their dining room, with a sink and food prep and storage area on one side. If there was a 'mini-market' selling groceries on the premises, it was so mini that I missed it.

I asked about the taco size, unsure if they were using the 4" or 6" tortillas. The $2 price would be a bit high for the smaller, but I was a long way from Ventura, so I was unsure as to what the going rate in this area would be. The guy at the window just said, "You know, regular size." I really didn't know what that meant, so I figured I'd order three. They had a variety of meat, but as always, I ordered asada and lengua, two of the fist and one of the second. I was pleasantly surprised when I was given the larger size, stuffed full of meat.

Inside the office were the taco fixin's, and for some reason, a pot of pinto beans. I loaded my tacos with onions, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pinto beans, along with a touch of salsa. I found the tacos to be moist, not overdone and dried out, which can sometimes happen, and overall pretty good. Not so good that I would drive up from Ventura or anything, but exactly what they were supposed to be, and in a truly amazing setting. 

I'd recommend them.

Added Note:

When I passed by a second time, a few outdoor tables were set up and filled with people. It really is a spectacular setting to chow down on a few tacos.

Hot Dog Factory, Ventura

Hot Dog Factory

Lowes Parking Lot

500 Mills Road

Ventura

So it works like this. Sometimes, I'm a little hungry. Not a lot hungry, like a hamburger hungry, but a little hungry. And sometimes I'm a little hungry because I've been working on some household project that has caused me to work through my normal lunch time, but it's pretty close to dinner. And sometimes I'm a little hungry because I've been working on a project through lunch, and I'm at Lowe's to buy something and I want to get something to eat that won't spoil my dinner.

And though there was a lot of sometimes in that last paragraph, those sometimes can occur frequently, which makes the Hot Dog Factory perfect.

There are daily specials, and I've had a few of their more exotic sausage offerings-smoked chicken apple, smoked chicken garlic and the polish were all tasty, but the last time I was there, I wanted something basic. I got the Hot Dog special, which was a hot dog, small soda and small bag of chips. At $5, it was perfect! Filling, but not overly so, and it didn't spoil my dinner.

Clean even after lunch.

Note the menu board and daily special.

The Hot Dog Factory uses Hoffy hot dogs, which are boiled, meaning they have a nice pop when they are bitten, and steamed buns. On the side of the stand, there is a full variety of self-serve condiments. And the whole area is spotless, the counter tops, the tables, even the trash can looks to have been wiped clean. Inside the cooking area, things look very clean too. And though that shouldn't seem unusual, the stand has been there for a number of years, and still looks new. There's no sense of "clean enough," and since it's outside a home improvement store where the customers might be coming in with dirty hands, the fact that the tables and chairs outside are still clean becomes unusual.

So, I'd have to say that the Hot Dog Factory has the best hot dogs in the city, especially when the price is factored in. Not as cheap as Sam's Club or Costco, but both of those are in Oxnard and sometimes the line negates the value of the food. And though neither Sam's or Costco are necessarily dirty, they also aren't anywhere near as clean.

I haven't tried their other menu options, like their coffee or smoothies, but I might someday. But why get those when the Hot Dog Factory has a delicious dog ready to order?

Simone's Coffee, Ventura

Simone's Coffee

7818 Telegraph

Ventura, CA

Hidden in the corner of the lot.

I'm sitting at a table in Simone's as I write this. In the background is coffeehouse music, acoustic guitars, tasteful drums, and vocals with harmonies, and the small space is painted coffeehouse brown. There are small tables, funky chairs and large windows which face out into the CVS parking lot here at the corner of Kimball and Telegraph. 

I spent $1.95 on a 16 oz. medium sized coffee, and it's not bad. Rich, full bodied without a bitter aftertaste, and most importantly, it is hot. Not because it's a cold day or anything, but because coffee brewed with hot water, (as opposed to warm water), tastes fuller and richer. I believe they use the right temperature for their coffee. 

I used to come here quite often 6 or 7 years ago, when my son was being tutored at a tutoring center around the corner, and I remember it being a friendly place then. Open until 8, this place will become a regular stop now that my daughter works out at Kimball pool.

Full Menu

They also serve ice cream and tea, and sell various knick-knacks. They have current issues of the LA Times and the Ventura County Star, as well as several magazines to thumb through. 

When I was in two weeks ago, the coffee machine was acting up, and they gave me an Americano for the same price. It was good, too.

Though I hate to mention Starbucks when talking about these independent places, Starbucks is a good reference. I'd say that the coffee here is at least as good, and the chairs and such are far more comfortable. 

Free wi-fi as well as data ports at almost every table for the coffee/computer crowd.

4/23/13 Update

I'm sipping their butterscotch toffee flavored coffee, and it's quite good. I asked who the roaster was, and the girl at the counter said it was a local woman, but she couldn't remember the name. Most of the small shops in this area use Santa Barbara Roast, which is okay but not great.

Ty Warner Sea Center, Santa Barbara

Ty Warner Sea Center

Ty Warner Sea Center

Stearns Wharf

Santa Barbara

If I were to win the lottery, along with doing a lot of traveling, I would consider moving to the hills above Santa Barbara. Not Montecito, but the hills above the city, because I like Santa Barbara and all of the things that you can do there.

Still, my Mid-Town Ventura location means that Santa Barbara is only half an hour away, so I still find a way to skip up there on a regular basis. It's far enough to seem like an adventure, but not too far away to make the drive when tired. In fact, the drive up the coast from Ventura to Santa Barbara and back is actually rather invigorating. Sometimes, it's just a beautiful trip.

The ceiling whales

It's Spring Break for me and the kiddies. Last year, we were able to swing a trip to Kona, Hawaii. This year, we can't do anything like that. But to get into the Hawaiian spirit, I threw on a Hawaiian shirt and drove the family to Santa Barbara, for an afternoon at the Ty Warner Sea Center and lunch at Lilly's Taqueria, (See my very brief Oct. 2011 post. Looking at Lilly's website now, I beat the rush).

Shark Petting Zoo

If you have a family of 4 or more, and you live close enough where going twice to this place in the same year is reasonable possibility, I always recommend becoming a member, (over the years, my family has been members of the Santa Barbara Zoo, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, The Aquarium of the Pacific and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, though not all at the same time). The Ty Warner Sea Center is part of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, also a nice day trip, and membership to the museum is a tax deduction.

Upstairs

The Ty Warner Sea Center has a shark petting tank, a small underwater exhibit, some research type facilities and generally some traveling exhibit. This time, they had a small exhibit with live jellyfish, which was kind of cool. For a first time visitor, set aside maybe 90 minutes. We've been there so much, an hour seems to do it.

Sign on Stearns Wharf

I got lucky on parking, and was able to find a spot on the street at the end of Stearns Wharf. There is parking on Stearns Wharf, too, which is free for 90 minutes with validation. There are restaurants and gift shops on Stearns Wharf, but they can be a bit pricey, and Lilly's Tacos is cheap. Plus the idea was to burn some of the kids' energy off, so walking to Lilly's was part of the plan. It took half an hour or so to make the walk, where we powered down a ton of tacos.

We strolled State Street to do some window shopping. A side note, Santa Barbara has an electric shuttle for a quarter running up and down State Street, and another running the length of the water front.

It took the edge off the kids energy, which was the goal, and was a nice day as well.