Live 2 Ride, Ride 2 Eat: Bonnie Lu's Cafe

Gary: Good Morning everyone. It is time to ride and eat once again. After taking Saturday off due to my participating in an event with my club and Hope having to catch up on ‘the house’ thing, we got together on Sunday for a ride. Hope and I talked on Saturday and we made a time of 9:30am to meet at her house. I know what you’re thinking but I was there on time. No shit, I made it with a few minutes to spare. In fact, Hope was already in the driveway warming up her bike (I sneaked up behind her without her knowing, good thing she didn’t have a weapon in hand) so we didn’t spend much time getting ready.

I rode up to Fillmore today from the 118 West thru Moorpark, then rode through Grimes Canyon. I like that ride and it seems shorter in distance. I don’t know if it is but who cares. It’s a nice ride. When Hope calmed down and decided not to harm me for sneaking up on her, she handed me a piece of paper with multiple names of cafes for us to choose from. I am really amazed at her knowledge of this area. There must have been 10 different restaurants on that piece of paper. I picked a place in Ojai called Bonnie Lu’s Cafe and yes, we actually went there. (I was surprised, but I think she was preoccupied with how to stab me and get away with it for sneaking up on her... LOL)

Hope: I’m beginning to think there’s some kind of evil conspiracy going on and no, I’m not referring to our government or world politics…but the weather! It’s beautiful during the work week but once the weekend begins approaching, the temperatures drop 20 degrees and end up partly cloudy. Of course, I remind myself I could still be living in New Jersey where winters are frigid, summers are sweltering, and it seems to rain every weekend in-between.

Gary got to my house at a reasonable time (that means he was late, but I’m getting used to it) and we headed west to the Santa Paula and then took the 150 north and headed to Ojai (for those of you who don’t know, its pronounced O-Hi). The bank in Santa Paula said it was 54 degrees at 9:51 a.m.! It was no surprise that there weren’t too many other bikers on the road! We followed the 150 through the Black Mountain Orchard area where they grow English walnuts and then though the canyon that offers orange groves as far as the eye can see.

Gary: This ‘late’ thing reminds me of one of my old bosses at 20^th Century Fox when I was just beginning in the movie industry, that being on time is late, if you’re not there 10 minutes early then you’re late and since I am the only one that wears a watch (it’s new and Hope was with me when I bought it) I think I may be getting a bum rap. Anyway, the ride to Ojai is one of the best in the country. It is a beautiful road lined with trees, green fields, horses and farms. Since we have had our share of rain this year, everything is very green right now. It is a semi-twisty road that really makes for fun riding. I don’t think I could ever get bored of it. In fact, the view of Ojai from on the top of the road before entering the valley is just spectacular. When you ride there, take your time; it is just too awesome to rush.

Hope: We parked our scoots in front of Bonnie Lu’s Café and walked in. Unfortunately, we were completely ignored as we walked toward the counter, even though I made a point of talking to one of the waitresses to let her know where we were headed. We sat down and were greeted by a smiling pig-tailed Kim. Tea for me, coffee for Gary and 2 menus kept us busy for the first 3 minutes. After about 10 more and our appetites growing ravenously, Kim returned with an apology for taking so long. Mind you, the place was not overly busy, so I was beginning to think it was one of my invisible days…

Gary: When we arrived at Bonnie Lu’s we both noticed that there was no line to get in. That is usually not a good sign. Some of our favorite places that we visit regularly have at least a 20 minute wait. Not here. We walk in and see that they have a counter (always our preference). There were plenty of seats, so we get comfortable, a waitress comes and gives us our tea and coffee, and then disappears. I mean, gone. Hope’s comment was, “Am I invisible today?” and I’m like, “I guess so.” After a few minutes, which seems like forever when you’re hungry, a waitress showed up. We give our order and just start looking around and noticed that there weren’t many people that look like regulars.

Hope: I ordered chicken-fried steak, scrambled eggs, home fries and an English muffin. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything chicken-fried about the piece of meat sitting on my plate that had not been trimmed of its grizzle and fat. In contrast, the scrambled eggs were wonderful, as were the home fried potatoes. The country gravy was nice and thick with large chunks of flavorful sausage throughout. While I continued to eat, the same waitress I approached when we first entered the restaurant (who ignored me) was seen exiting the kitchen repeatedly while chewing whatever food she was snacking on. After watching this without interruption, it really started to bug me. As a teenager, I ran a snack-bar in a local five and dime and eating while on the clock was completely unacceptable. This same waitress was void of smiling and I found it quite amusing that her restaurant-issued tee-shirt logo stated, “good fixins served with a smile.”

Gary: Today I broke from my usual and had them put together some Buckwheat pancakes, over-easy eggs, pork chops, hash browns and some sour dough toast. To many of you, that may seem like a lot of food but hey, I am trying this stuff for all you bikers out there and I am starting to look like it, too! LOL!! Now normally I don’t order hash browns but in all the places we have been to we have never ordered them, so to broaden our horizons, I got bold. Now I know why we don’t order them. Even though they were cooked the way I like them, crispy, they have no flavor. Just a potato that is crisp.

The eggs were cooked perfectly but the pork chop was a bit tough. The pancakes were not to my liking so I didn’t finish them (they were dry), and the sourdough was just store-bought. The service was just OK; not bad, but not exceptional. The coffee is the Costco brand which is good but I can get that at home and with a sourpuss waitress with food in her mouth all the time distracting Hope, I am just OK with this place. Afterward, we did talk to the manager and she offered us some insight about improving things so, I will be graceful and give her the benefit of the doubt.

Hope: On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give the food a 6, but overall and taking into consideration the poor service; the inattentiveness and absentia of our server and the non-smiling and chewing waitress, I would only give this place a 5. There are so many other restaurants with employees who take pride in their jobs and work hard to provide their customers with a good experience that I don’t feel the need to frequent or spend my hard-earned money to be ignored and be treated like I’m ruining their day.

Safe Riding,

H&G