Kay's Coffee Shop

Kay's Coffee Shop

1124 S. Seaward Ave.

Ventura, CA 93001

In the short time that I've been blogging, this space has been Full of Beans (6/9/13, which still has it's Ojai location that I highly recommend, in spite of serving Santa Barbara Roast-unless you like Santa Barbara Roast), and La Petite Réve Cafe (6/21/13, which still exists in it's catering form), and it really is a great space. It's a block off the water on Seaward, so close you can hear and smell the ocean.

I was a bit bummed last year when La Petite Réve went out, and I wondered if another coffee shop would come in. Then, late last year I had seen Kay's, but hadn't had a chance to stop by. I didn't know if it was a coffee house or some other type of shop. With my kids in Junior Guards, it was a good time to check.

It's a tiny space, with a few tables inside and a few outside, but it's protected from the wind, so outside is comfortable even on cool, overcast June gloom kind of days. Like Django's, (8/11/13), they serve Beacon Coffee, which I really like-less acidic then Santa Barbara Roast.

It wasn't too busy the first time that I was in, and I struck up a conversation with LaDonna, the owner. She said that she'd opened in October, that the business was going well, and she enjoyed it. I asked about all the planes around the shop and in the logo, and she said that she had named the shop after her father, who built model planes as a hobby. LaDonna seemed to tear up a bit as she spoke of her father, which I thought was rather endearing. She also said that there was only so many things you could do with a surf theme.

LaDonna is very proud of her shop. I didn't ask if this was her first shop or not, but she made reference to several local businesses, giving me the impression that she'd been around Ventura for a lot longer than I have. When I commented on the use of Beacon Coffee instead of Santa Barbara Roast, which so many other local shops use, she said without hesitation that she used Beacon because they were a local business, as if Santa Barbara Roast was on another planet.

A large coffee is $2, with refills $1. Kay's is open from 7 to 7 daily, and have punch cards for frequent visitors. Since every time I've been in the last three weeks I'd just finished my run, I had only the coffee while I sat comfortably on the patio, but several people raved about the scones and other pastries she served, which are also locally made.

The perfect walking distance from my house, and great after a beach run, I now have another great place to sit and drink coffee.

The Red Pepper, Koreatown

The Red Pepper Korean Restaurant

3012 Wilshire Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90010

On a recent trip to Koreatown, on Wilshire by the old Bullocks-Wilshire building, I decided to be adventurous and try someplace different to eat. Having already paid for parking, and being in a hurry to get back to Ventura, I opted for the Red Pepper, which was across the street from where I was standing.

They had an A from the Health Department, so I figured it would be somewhat safe. I walked in at around 4, after the lunch crowd and before the dinner crowd. There were a few people inside a rather ordinary eating space, watching the World Cup in Spanish. The few people appeared to be Korean, and I don't know who was playing.

The waitress brought over a menu and had a very thick accent that I couldn't quite understand. I didn't know what to order, because I don't think I've ever been to this type of Korean restaurant before, and the waitress, though pleasant, was at best difficult to understand. 

But I was already at a table, so I looked through the menu, eventually settling on the Hot Stone Pot Bibimbap, which was both in my price range and had ingredients that looked somewhat familiar. 

It started with a miso soup, which looked a little weaker than I was used to. The waitress then brought over four small dishes. I asked what they were, and the waitress smiled as she told me, bean sprouts, egg plant, fish cake and kimchi. She didn't explain, however, how I was supposed to use these items. Do I mix them in the hot pot? Eat them on the side? Clean the palate, like with ginger at a sushi place?

Then came the hot pot, which she warned, was really hot. I could hear it sizzling and see the steam, so I had no reason to doubt her. The pot had a large fried egg on top, with rice, beef, sprouts, mushrooms and cucumbers in it. I added some more sprouts, the eggplant and the fish cakes into it, and mixed it all together. I don't know what kind of sauce was in the red bottle, but it added a bit of flavor, so I poured that on too.

I mixed it all together, and then started to eat. It was tasty to my western palate, and I found it to be like a good stir fry. There was some flavor beyond what I was eating, and it mixed together well. I've heard that Korean food can be spicy, but this really wasn't.

I don't know if it was good Korean food or bad Korean food, but it was hot, served quickly, tasted good, seemed reasonably healthy, and was filling enough. At $8.99, it might have been expensive, but I don't really have anything to compare it to.

I would no way make a special trip to the Red Pepper. But if I'm ever parked nearby, I'd not be opposed to eating there again.

What I do want to try now, though, is more of this type of Korean food. I've been to Korean Barbecues, too, and have run into a similar problem-I don't know what to order or how to eat it. I don't know if what I bought was a standard dinner type meal, or like chop suey, something only made here in the US.

I'll have to wait for a Korean restaurant in Ventura.

Harbor Cove Cafe

Harbor Cove Cafe

1867 Spinnaker Drive

Ventura CA 93001

View from the water

Sometimes you need a place to sit.

The Harbor Cove Cafe is only open from 7:30 AM until 2:30 PM. The food looked okay, and didn't seem too expensive, but I didn't try any. It's located between Island Packers and the Channel Islands National Park Visitors Center, not that I get that way more than a couple of times a year.

The coffee isn't very good, being the typical, cheap Farmer's Brothers stuff that you see at low end restaurants everywhere. It is, however, only a buck.

The reason to go is the outside patio. 

It's covered, with reasonably comfortable chairs, and looks out over the harbor.

My View

After dropping my kids at Junior Guards, and running around the harbor, I wanted to sit for a few minutes and read. I brought my own coffee cup, paid my dollar, and pulled up a chair outside. I watched the boats as they floated, tied to their berths, plopped my book on a table, and started to read.

No one rushed me, no one was overly concerned. I drank a barely drinkable coffee, and just relaxed.

The food that I did see come out looked okay, and I was vaguely interested in a breakfast burrito. I'm also curious about their Angus burgers.

But really, if I go back, it most likely be to sit and drink coffee, and read a book, thankful that I live in Ventura, where I can do those things while looking over the harbor.

The Menu. Note the convenient burrito size models

The Silvertone Acoustic H621 Pt. 4 Does Glue Really Work?

 The Silvertone Acoustic H 621 Pt. 4


So I was able to break the neck somewhat cleanly after I cracked it, and after Googling "Gluing a broken guitar neck," I ended up on the "Instructables" website, which had a tutorial on this exact thing. As he points out, the wood glue is stronger than the actual wood, so if you get is set up correctly, it should hold. The only difference is that he used Elmer's Wood Glue for his repair and I used Titebond.

Clamps and wraps

First, I poured the Titebond all over both pieces, using a small hobby paint brush to catch all the crevices in the neck. Then, using seemingly every clamp I had in the garage, as well as a strip of nylon that had just come on a patio cover I had purchased, I clamped and wrapped as much of the glued pieces as I possibly could in order to create the seal. I was extremely careful not to clamp too tightly on any single point of the neck so that it set as cleanly as possible.

It seemed to work, so I left the whole thing for a few days, resisting the urge to come out an check first thing the following morning. I had to tell myself, either it was going to work or it wasn't, and no amount of overchecking was going to change that.

The mushy part

Two days later, I unwrapped it all, and for the most part it felt okay. There was one part, however, where it seemed as though one of the glued slivers was a bit mushy. I slid my hand up and down then neck, and it seemed like my finger would catch at the mushy point. I needed to glue that part down.

The thinnest thing that I could think of to apply glue was a razor, and I had the old one that I had just used to scrape the glue from where the bridge was. Now I was going to use the same blade to apply glue into the mushy part of the neck. I covered the blade in glue, and shoved it into the cracks on the neck that it would fit into, using a paper towel to wipe any excess, and then once again using the clamps in all sorts of unusual ways to hold it together.

24 hours later, I checked again, and the mushiness was gone! There is a very slight catch at the glue down points, but not enough to really impede my playing. I'm not going to be doing any fast finger work up and down the neck on this guitar, and everything is holding.

I pulled some strings, and started to string it up. The first problem was that the ebony bridge pins that I had purchased didn't fit. A quick inspection revealed that when I glued down the bridge, some of the glue had plugged the holes. I used one of the old pins to clear it out. The tuning machines were a bit stiff, but were working okay until I got to the one for the D string that was bent. As I tried to get the string in tune, the tuner wouldn't turn. It was broken, and it prevented me from stringing the guitar up.

Bent Machine

I had been going back and forth on changing the tuners, and had finally decided that since they were working, I was just going to leave them. I had bought new ones off eBay from a vendor in China for $10, though, and just figured that I'd use them at some point in the future. And now, here was the future.

I wanted to drill pilot holes, but my drill wasn't charged, so I took the opportunity, with the tuning machines off, to add a bit decoration to the headstock. It seemed like a good time to paint my name on the headstock and on the 15th fret, as well as paint some of the areas where the headstock was chipped. I liked the way the red had looked on the guitar, so more red it was.

Who's Guitar?

Bridge attached, pins in

When my drill was charged, I drilled the pilot holes, and put the tuners on with no problems. I then put the strings on, and here's what it all sounded like.

Steak and Hoagie Co.

Great Central Steak and Hoagie Co.

410 E. Thompson

Ventura CA 93001

The Great Central Steak and Hoagie Co has been around a long time, a throw back to the hamburger stands of the 40' s, sitting just off the 101 and far enough away from California St. that most tourists miss it.

I've eaten there once before, several years ago on a quest for a good pastrami, and found it to be wanting. There's always a few people milling about, but they always look a bit sketchy, and I just haven't felt the need to try there again.

But today, my son and I were running errands and we found ourselves in the area. Actually, the Great S and H Co was our third choice. We started at Tony's, but when we walked in the guy there said that if we just wanted single slices, he wouldn't have any ready for about 40 minutes. They're always nice at Tony's, and it rates it's own entry, so I'll get back to that. Tony himself died a few years back, so I'm not sure who owns the shop. I'll have to go in and check.

So we went over to the Sandbox. I've only had coffee at the Sandbox (6/28/13), so I figured a sandwich would be nice. A dirge like band of young people was playing in the courtyard, and there was a line. The two young guys at the counter took the order of the people in front of us, and then walked away. They didn't acknowledge that my son and I were standing there, waiting to give them money for food.

I hate that. At least look at me and say, "I'll be right with you." That's all. Don't ignore me.

My son noticed that they didn't serve root beer, and that was enough for us to be on our way. So we walked down Thompson, and ended up at Great Central Steak and Hoagie. And like always, there were a few sketchy people standing around. But I must look a bit sketchy myself, because a younger guy with a shaved head, tattoos and a skateboard struck up a conversation with us about running marathons. We chatted in the way that people do who don't really have anything to say but want to chat anyways, and he highly recommended the Philly Cheese Steak.

On the window, there was a giant sign talking about a special of a 5" sandwich, fries and a drink for $6.99, which sounded perfect. At the skater guys' suggestion, I went with a cheese steak, as did my son. The old Asian guy at the counter took our order in a business-like way, and we went over to sit down at one of the small, tagged up tables.

Our order came up pretty quick. It was much more than I expected, a reasonably sized Philly Cheese with onions and peppers, a 12 oz. Pepsi (my son got his root beer) and a full bag of french fries. The sandwich was good, but the fries were excellent, and my son and I quickly dove in.

At that point, a beach woman came up to order. Wearing a dress, no bra, and looking like she could be anywhere from 40 to 60, I was trying to decide if she was homeless while she was going back and forth on her order. She finally decided what she wanted, then looked over at what my son and I were eating.

"It's the Special. It's on the window," I said when she asked, which caused her to immediately go back to the window and reorder. The guy at the counter got a bit testy, but eventually everything worked out, and she came back over to talk to my son and I.

I learned about her father, about how he used to eat there often and sometimes she would come along too. She talked about the previous owner of the restaurant and how things had changed, but our order looked good and she hoped hers would be too.

I assured her that it was good, and that hers would be good as well. Her order came up, and she wished us well as she went to her car.

You gotta love a place where everyone is friendly. And, of course, that serves root beer.

The Silvertone Acoustic, H621 pt. 3 Embellishments

If you read my other posts concerning the Silvertone, you know that I left off with the gluing of the bridge back together. I also wanted to customize the guitar a bit. I do think it sounds as good or better than every other acoustic I own, but it still didn't cost me very much. If it were a vintage Martin or Gibson, or a new Taylor, I wouldn't mess with it. In fact, I wouldn't have tried to do anything to it beyond change the strings.

But with an old Silvertone, why not have some fun?

So I started with my initials on the headstock, using some bright red paint I bought last summer. Next, using some stencils that I bought for rock painting, I stenciled a screaming skull in black.


After that, I turned the guitar around to try a flaming bush type stencil on the back. The stencil book suggested using blues and yellows, along with red, for the flame effect. I did that, but I'm not sure I like the result.

The gluing of the bridge seemed to work okay, so I painted the bridge black. Using the Titebond glue, I both glued and screwed the bridge back on the guitar. I jury-rigged my clamps and some wood to get equal pressure across the bridge of the guitar without squeezing so tight that I break it.

Then, tragedy struck.

With all the guitars I have, I've never had the next thing happen before.

My sleeve caught one of the clamps while the guitar was up on my workbench. It fell, and with the extra weight of the clamps, the neck cracked in a jagged fashion, around the truss rod.

I put all this work into the guitar, which I think sounds better than any other acoustic I own, and then I break the neck.


I wanted to cry.

When I cracked the neck, there was really nothing left to do but try to break it as cleanly as possible, and then attempt to glue it back together. It really hurt to do, but sometimes, as they say, you have to go through the hurt to get past the pain. So like digging out a splinter, I gritted my teeth and snapped the neck off, careful not to lose any of the pieces. 

I still wanted to cry.

I had all the pieces, though, so now it was time to get on the internet and find out what to do next.

I had hoped this would be a three part post, too. Oh well.

Spencer Makenzie

Spencer Makenzie's Fish Company

806 E. Thompson

Ventura, CA 93001

New Covered Patio and Outdoor Seating

There are a few places around the town that people rave about, and they just don't seem to do it for me. I like to think that I give them a couple of chances, but even then, nothing.

Spencer Makenzie always fell into that category. Opened about five years ago on the site of Kodani's, a great hole in the wall Japanese take out place that was fast and cheap, I wanted to like Spencer Makenzie from the first time I visited. But that first visit conspired against me.

It was shortly after they opened, and one of my children had some sort of thing at their elementary school. We were all hungry, and wanted to go someplace quick to eat. We arrived at Spencer Makenzie shortly before the posted closing time, and if memory serves, we were greeted a bit rudely at the door with something along the line of, sorry the kitchen is closed.

We trudged back out, and that's the memory that has stayed with me. That, and that Kodani's would serve meals as long as the owners were in the restaurant, which seemed like all the time.

I've gone in over the years since then, and it seems like things are always a little expensive, and no one is very friendly, so though the food was pretty good, I never became a regular. Lots of places to get fish tacos in this town where people are friendly and it isn't so expensive, especially if you're okay on the Avenues. The seating was always poor, the wait was long, and though it is very convenient to my house, nothing made me want to go regularly.

New Dining Area

But driving by recently, I noticed that they updated the patio seating area, and streamlined the outside. The original design mimicked a tug boat, which made for lousy seating in an awkwardly shaped dining room, and a patio area that was often too hot or too cold to sit at all. It added to the "Take your food and go" aesthetic of Kodani's, but didn't seem to fit what SMF was trying to accomplish, even though I never found them to be friendly.

But with a new look, there seems to be a new attitude. Stopping by on a recent Saturday, though it was crowded, we scored a table by the giant picture window inside. The waitress was friendly, and after taking our drink orders, our glasses were never empty-really an important part of the eating experience for me, and something that didn't seem to be the case in the past.

Though I don't generally like paying for chips, SMF makes theirs, and they were very tasty, especially with the rojo and verde salsas that come with them, and I actually ordered a second order after we polished off the first one.

I don't mind paying a little more if the atmosphere is good, and this time, it really was. My wife had the $5 Fish Taco, my daughters both Clam Chowder, and I went with an unusual choice, the $10 Poki salad, and all were quite good. The orders came up fast, and I found the service to be excellent-virtually unlike every other time I've been there.

SMF prides itself on it's hot sauces, and I found them all to be tasty and hot. Sometimes I'll try a hot sauce, and it just burns, almost for no apparent reason-hot to be hot, not to add flavor to the food.

My wife had all of us try "Little Sweet, Lotta Heat" first, and like the name says, it starts sweet, but then the heat builds in your mouth, and is touched off each time you put warm food in your mouth. It takes a minute for the heat to really build, but then it catches up. The other two offerings, "Caribbean Blaze" and "Sweet Chili Fire" also took a moment or two to develop their full flavor, but "Little Sweet..." was by far the hottest of the trio. I used a touch of "Caribbean Blaze" to spiff up my Poki Salad.

So, like Caffordite last summer (Aug. 11, 2013), I have to update my feelings on Spencer Makenzie. Maybe it just means that I'm finally-after 16 years-becoming a local. I'll be back to see if it was just a fluke, but I know there are times when I'm craving New England Clam Chowder, it it was pretty good here.