Halfway House Cafe

Hope:    And so the adventures continue…

I woke up this morning feeling like I was hit by a freight train. I live on a pretty large piece of land with avocado, orange, and pomegranate trees, gardens, 11 pets, and well, an abundance of other trees, plants, etc. I declared yesterday to be tree cutting day, so armed with my chainsaw and an ego the size of Arizona, I made my way into the backyard to get rid of some trees that had grown into (what appeared to be) power lines. Of course, not wanting to be a complete idiot and cut down something that would cause me (or anyone else) serious problems, I called my local SCE office and a representative pointed out the fact that the two wires I was describing were for cable and telephone service, none of which I currently have (or want).  I learned these are cables, not live wires and although they were thoroughly embedded in my trees, Time Warner or the local telephone company would not trim the trees to protect their cable.              

So, taking matters into my own hands (this could be potentially dangerous for everyone), I decided to rid my backyard of these eyesores. Anyone who has ever been within close proximity of me when I decide to take on a project such as this pretty much anticipates it being one of those situations that will have you laughing so hard you’ll wet yourself. And well, this was no different.

I really like the fact that I am pretty self-sufficient and have lots of tools to do whatever needs doing around my house and yard. But by this time, I was utterly sweaty and exhausted, I decided to call it a day…and the only thing on my list was a nice hot shower! I took it easy the rest of the afternoon and called it a day around 9:00 p.m., celebrating with 3 Advil.

Fast forward to this morning, at 6:00 a.m., when I realized that every inch of my body hurt. A LOT. And so, the texting began around 8:15 and we decided on the restaurant to visit today. Of course, I had suggested this place in the past, but he wanted no part of it. Go figure. We agreed to have him be at my house at 9:30 and I specifically told him NOT to show up early. Of course, he reminded me that that probably wouldn’t be much of a problem for someone who is perpetually late. Oh yea, huh??  It’s a really good thing I was hungry, because truth be told, I would have been just as happy sitting in a nice HOT Jacuzzi for the entire day!!!

Gary:  Good Morning. Ok, first off, I am NOT perpetually late. In fact, I am never late. I arrive precisely when I intend to (LOL) but today I decide to get up early, get ready, have some coffee and I haven’t heard anything from Hope yet, so I text her at 8:11 and ask her if she is ready. It was a reasonable question, or so I thought. Her reply said, “Ready to take a nap. Its way crappy looking here, no sun whatsoever.” Damn…another weather report. I have been outside and I know it looks like that, but so what? You would think we would be use to it by now since every damn weekend has been this way! She calls and we decide to go for it as usual but tells me, “Don’t rush, don’t leave yet, give me an hour and if you come early I am not letting you in the door!” So, I take that literally and don’t leave my house until 9:17, since I don’t really want to wait outside her door like some delivery boy while she gets ready. It was a bit surprising that she asked me to take my time so I asked her if she knew who she was talking to. She stated, “Oh yea, I must have bumped my head.”

Hope:    At about 9:20 a.m., I remembered that I was supposed to tell Gary to expect delays on the 126 for a bike (bicycle) race of some kind, but completely forgot to do so. Oh Well. It’s now 9:37 and coincidentally, Gary just sent me a text informing me he was just leaving. Yea, like I believe that!! He’s probably stuck in Piru watching men and women in bright colored spandex peddling away!! The weather is w-a-y crappy looking…no blue skies to speak of, low 60s and a forecast of only 73 and cloudy . The entire sky was gray and gloomy. Now, there’s the possibility that the weather is different in Northridge, so I try to let Gary know what it’s like north of the Valley. He assures me the sun will begin to emerge around noon, but I’m doubtful.  Nevertheless, I’m all suited up and ready to ride…..and EAT!!

Gary:     Sunday morning was a tough one for me since I was out until 2 am on Saturday listening to my kid’s band and then up early for a Union meeting. And it didn’t end there, as I also had to get to help a brother pick up a new bike at Glendale Harley, attended an event at Barger Harley, and then had dinner with a friend that night. By the time Sunday came around, I was totally exhausted but ready to leave on-time Sunday morning. It was Hope’s decision to tell me to take my time, though I don’t think that will happen again.

Hope:    It’s now 10:05, so I guess Gary’s text wasn’t a joke. When I said don’t show up before 9:30, I meant it, but an hour later? What the fuck? I think my stomach lining is eating itself….                At about 10:15, Gary pulls up and explains his logic behind not leaving his house until 9:30… yea o.k., whatever… so we pull out of Fillmore and head to civilization…

Gary:     When I arrive, she calls me an ‘asshole’ for being late! What??? You told me to take my time, don’t rush, all that and now I am an asshole for being late! Of course, I misunderstood (yea, right) and she meant not to get to her house before 9:30, so I didn’t. LOL. Anyway, we get on the road and head to a place called ‘The Halfway House Cafe’. Hope will tell you about our ride to what she refers to as ‘civilization’.

Hope:    I have eaten at the Halfway House Café many times and loved it. It’s a quaint and cozy little place on the side of Sierra Highway with nothing around. In the past, the staff has always been attentive and the food consistently good, with quite a nice selection for another hole-in-the-wall place. Different than most other restaurants we have written about, this one was east of me, meaning a 20-mile ride down the 126 and hopping over to Sierra Highway by way of Bouquet Canyon and Valencia Boulevard, which turns into Soledad Canyon. After a quick left onto Sierra, the Halfway House Café is only a few minutes down the road. Unfortunately, we have to enter civilization to get there which means cars, traffic lights, asshole drivers, lots of concrete, etc. The good part is, once you live through all that, Sierra Highway takes you from ‘civilization’ to the beginning of horse property and large ranches and is quite beautiful.

We arrive about 45 minutes later and apparently became invisible during the ride. After taking our seats at the counter, we observe every waitress walking past us unnoticed several times, so I politely ask for a tea, a coffee, and some menus. Not a good start! It’s a simple breakfast menu…eggs, meat, potatoes (country style or hash browns), pancakes, etc. But they also offer linguica, a slightly-spicy Portuguese sausage, prime rib, T-bone steak, pork chops, etc. We finally order, me deciding on an omelet of linguica, onions, Ortega chile, and avocado with country style potatoes, with an English muffin and a side of country gravy.

Hope:    According to their coffee cups, the place has been around since 1931, but there is no historical information offered at the restaurant. Their website indicates that in the 1920’s, the place started out as a trading post and named appropriately so, as it was half way between Los Angeles and Palmdale, and became a restaurant years later. Sadly, the décor doesn’t offer any photos of ‘remember when’ or of the lay of the land back in the day. Instead, it has lots of posted signs saying things like, “I am Woman, I am Invincible, I am Tired,” Beer is part of the Food Group, but Food is not part of the Beer Group,“ and “Getting teenagers to listen to you is like trying to nail jello to a tree” and crap like that. The plates are of the plastic variety, they don’t believe in turning on the heat lamp to keep food warm until picked up by the waitress(es), and if you peek at the right time, you can catch one of the cooks eating while in the kitchen cooking your breakfast. 

Gary:     I ordered the linquicia sausage with over easy eggs with country potatoes, a side of biscuits and gravy and coffee. First off, Hope tastes her side of gravy and notices it is cold. Cold, not even warm but cold. Not a good beginning. We inform the waitress of this and she got us a new order each. Well, to tell you the truth it was not worth it. The biscuits were like bad pancakes and the gravy, well, was just OK. The one thing that was good though was the sausage. I had never tried this type, it was Hope’s recommendation, and I have to say it is tasty. It was a little spicy but very meaty. I liked it. The eggs were cooked properly but nothing was hot. The food was just warm and then Hope noticed the warmer on the food counter was not on. So it was just sitting there waiting for the waitress to pick it up getting cold. Very odd. The coffee tasted like they hadn’t cleaned the pots in a while. You know the taste that happens when you don’t clean the pots often. It gets a metallic flavor to it. Blahhh…. Although I am such a coffee addict that I still had 3 cups. Yes, I know what you must think, he is not quite right. Soooo, your point??? LOL

Hope:    The food arrived after what seemed like an eternity and went downhill from there. My omelet was certainly not the ‘fluffy’ variety offered by the menu, had no avocado and the country gravy was cold; not lukewarm, but COLD. Truth be told, it wasn’t so great to start with and it’s MUCH worse cold. The potatoes were so-so. We finished up and unlike being out in the Ventura area where we have a pattern of walking around downtown and planting ourselves at Palermo’s Coffee House, we’re out of our surroundings and aren’t quite sure where to go. We cruise down Davenport Road for awhile and then back to Newhall Ranch Road and the 126. On the ride home, the sun made a bit of a debut, but it remained rather chilly and if I didn’t know better, would swear it was going to rain.  We split off in Fillmore with Gary heading to Simi Valley Harley to hang out with his club brothers and I rode out to catch the tail end of the Strawberry Festival in Oxnard.

Gary:     All in all it was just an OK day. The weather never really warmed up, the food was just OK and riding though ‘civilization’ was just like everything else. OK, so we learned our lesson, we were just trying to give you enthusiasts, Sunday riders, a closer place to go without venturing out too far into the wilderness. Don’t get used to it, as I think Hope will agree, we are done with the urban ‘Breakfast for Bikers’ experiment…lol… The service here is just OK. It is another one of those O.K. Café’s. In fact we decided to start a new rating system. ‘Off the charts’, ‘OK Café’, and ‘Don’t bother’.

Halfway House Café                                                                                       15564 Sierra Highway                                                                                 Canyon Country, CA                                                                         661.251.0102

 

DW's Country Cafe

Hope:    Today was indeed a day of surprises…

As I started to check the weather forecast for the day, it seemed that every time I did so, there was a 2-degree loss and an increase of the chance of rain. Shit! Regardless, we decided to defy the odds and ride. Surprise #1-Gary was on time! No kidding, huh? In fact, he was actually 2 minutes early!! In fact, he did me a big favor and changed my spark plugs while I was locking up the house (never use cheap spark plugs). While throwing my stuff in my saddlebags, he told me a funny story about a friend who seems to think that putting your bike on a Dyno(meter) has something to do with breaking in a new/rebuilt engine. How lame is that?!?!

Gary:     I actually woke up this morning about 6:30AM and when I walked outside to get the paper, it was raining. I could not believe it. The previous evening, I got caught in drizzle as I was riding back from a club event in Banner (yes, I rode 400 miles after being up till 2AM Friday night, watching my kid’s band perform in Hollywood. See--I am a tough old biker… LOL!), so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. I got back inside, made some coffee, and said ‘fuck it’ and got in the shower and got ready to go. In the meantime, Hope called and was wondering about the weather. By the time I was done getting ready, the sun was shining in the Valley as she was informing about the cloud mass in Fillmore, thinking it was going to rain again. But as we have done before, we decided to defy the odds and ride anyway. (She is as tough as any dude I have ridden with and rides better than most of them; especially the guy that thinks a dyno-tune breaks in a bike…lol.)  I got on my bike at 8:40 and was in Fillmore at 9:28AM... Surprise, surprise…on time and ready to go.

Hope:    Not wanting to venture too far from Heritage Valley in case the skies opened up, we headed down Telegraph Road through Santa Paula and into Ventura. The beautiful 2-lane road brought the amazing smells of lemons and strawberries, and picturesque views of the mountains, miles of orchards, and a flower farm. We took a left onto Victoria Boulevard and hung close to the right lane, not wanting to miss the quick right-turn into DW’s County Café. There was plenty of parking available and upon entering the restaurant, lots of empty booths (they don’t offer a counter).

Gary:     Even though we have ridden this road many times before, I never tire of it and because their early-morning rain made the air especially crisp and clean. With the crops being wet, it brought out some of the most incredible aromas you can imagine. Hope actually slowed down (surprise) so we both could enjoy the scent of the strawberries.  You know it must have been great for her to slow down. With the clouds in the very blue sky, with all the flowers just going crazy and the lemons, well, just close your eyes right now and picture it. Beautiful, right? You have to take this ride people! DW’s Country Cafe is another place Hope has found. I am amazed (surprised) at her ability to keep coming up with these places.

Hope:    The menu was filled with usual breakfast foods-eggs, bacon, sausage, French toast, pancakes, etc., but also featured original skillet breakfasts, machaca and eggs, chicken-fried steak, and rib-eye and eggs…Surprise #2. I had a really hard time choosing just one, so I chose the ‘Nine Juan Juan’-a wonderful combination of grilled potatoes, onions, peppers, Ortega chiles, chorizo, scrambled eggs and cheese, served with a side of tortillas, corn or flour.

Our waiter, Joseph, was great. I asked him to rate the country gravy and he offered to bring us some..which turned out to be a half-order of biscuits and gravy. It was a perfect way to start the morning meal and stopped our stomach from rumbling. After gobbling it down, both of us decided it was very, very good and Joseph informed us it was on the house…Surprise #3!

Gary:     We both had a hard time ordering and spent some time drinking our coffee and tea (along with digging into the biscuits and gravy appetizer) before making a decision. I ordered the Rincon Hash and Eggs which is a combination of ham, bacon, onions, green peppers and sausage, mixed with grilled potatoes and served with over-easy eggs on top. The eggs were cooked perfectly, and the rest was, well, just great. It was all very tasty and fresh. I ordered raisin toast but they were out of it and Joseph recommended cinnamon toast. Cool with me and a great choice, the toast was very good. This was a pleasant surprise because not many cafes offer this kind of variety of toast. There menu is vast as Hope has stated with many of our favorite breakfast foods. Again, and I can’t say this enough, this is another one of those places with personality and to us, it is just as important as the food. This place delivers.

Hope:    As our meals were served and we dug in, the restaurant started to fill up f-a-s-t. The service was wonderful—we were attended to by three different waiters and one waitress at different times. They were cheerful, attentive, and very friendly.

After an hour and a half, with our bellies full and still no appearance of raindrops, we headed to Ventura to hang at our regular stop at Palermo’s Coffee House for some sorbetto and people-watching.  After a few more hours, we decided to hit the road, stopping on the way home to photograph a local flower farm.

Gary:     We also visited the Ventura Museum which to my surprise is quite nice with some amazing art work. The sculptured dolls show the history of the Czars of Russia and makes for an amazing exhibit. There is also mosaic tile art in the courtyard that you have to check out. And let’s face it--we needed to walk around to make room for the sorbetto. LOL

Hope:    As we made our way back into Fillmore, the temperatures were dropping, but we still hadn’t encountered any rain…Surprise #4. 

I would highly recommend DW’s Country Café with a ‘9’! Bring your appetites and enjoy!!

1985 S Victoria Ave
Ventura, CA 93003

(805) 642-9841

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J & M Cafe

Gary:   Man, I got up this morning to the sound of my cell phone text messaging beep going off starting at 7:10AM. I am like, “Who the hell is up this early that needs to talk to me?” So for about an hour I tried to ignore it, but to no avail. Finally I had to see who this was... Guess who? You’re right, it was my darling partner-in-crime, Miss Hope, who was up and raring to go and you know what the text message was? The frigging weather report and she is telling me how shitty it was going to be for the ride today. So as I am starting to get ready to actually be there on time Hope reminds me (another text and she used to hate texts) that it is Mother's Day and to call my mom. So instead of procrastinating, I just made the call, wished my 83-year old mother a Happy Mothers Day and then started to get ready. I did text Hope back letting her know that I would be delayed due to the amount of communications I had to do this morning and her reply was ‘yes dear’. Now our way of saying that to each other is far from endearing. It is actually our way of being sarcastic to one another. It’s like ‘whatever’... Anyway, with that out of the way I finally made it to the garage. The weather report was correct though and it was again, overcast and drizzling. Hope calls it a conspiracy..

Hope:   After a trip out of town and an incredibly busy week, I was soooo ready to get out on the bike. The temperatures this week were on the warm side, and what should have continued into the week took a nose dive and lost 20 degrees somewhere in the transition. Crap! Again with the damn weather conspiracy!! Gary went on to tell me about how in the 60s, there was actually talk that the Russians were controlling our weather patterns. Of course, that makes no sense whatsoever, since Russia has MUCH worse weather than ours. You would think that if they could pull off a stunt like weather control, they would start in their own country and turn Siberia into a summer resort! Or maybe Gary consumed too much of that Russian vodka back in the day…lol…

Surprisingly, the one who would have forgot to call and wish his mother a Happy Mother’s Day arrived on time. And for the record, “yes dear” is just another way of saying, “fuck you!”

Gary:   When I arrived in Fillmore, Hope was already out the door but amazed that I was on time. Her bike being ready, we take off. Now, I just rode 45 minutes to get there and didn’t even get a chance to pee and I needed gas so we didn’t get too far that one part of me is about to overflow and the other part is about to run out; strange dilemma.  Hope had already had some places picked out and as usual I just let it go. The funny part is she changed her own mind. I will let her tell you about the ride there and what changed her mind...

Hope:   Nonetheless, we decided to ‘pick a place’ and headed out to enjoy the day. My first thought was to check out the Cajun Kitchen Café, but after riding a few miles down the 126 in what turned out to be a sunny day in the mid 60s, Gary decided he had to stop in Saticoy. It was at that point that we decided to head all the way to Oak View to the J & M Café. Unfortunately, we were both already hungry, so we had to fight the urge to stop at Allison’s Café for a cinnamon roll and coffee. We headed to Ventura by way of Foothill Boulevard, took a quick left at Seward, a right on Main Street, and another right into the Boulevard and followed that into Oak View.

Gary:   This restaurant is a pretty discrete joint. If you didn’t pay attention you would drive right past it. I would anyway because I never know where the hell I am going. We walk in and we sat at our favorite spot, the counter. Here we are always able to get a good vantage point of the action in the place. The service was not exactly what I would say exceptional but there were only a couple of waitresses working so they were pretty busy. Once we got our coffee/tea, we settled down a bit.

Hope:   Gary tells no lies…this is a non-descript place and if you didn’t know it was there, you’d miss it. We walked in and although there were a few people waiting to be seated, the counter offered 2 empty seats begging to be occupied. Despite the place appearing pretty full with customers, I could only count 3 people working in the dining room, so it looked like they were a bit short-staffed. And this was Mother’s Day!! We also appeared to be invisible, as there was no one to greet us, ask us if we wanted coffee, or provide us with place settings or menus.

We finally let the waitress know we’d like one coffee and one tea and while studying the menu, I picked up part of Friday’s local newspaper and low and behold, Sharon, our waitress at the Vagabond Coffee Shop is featured on the front page in an article about raising the retirement age.  It seems that many of the Vagabond’s waitresses are well, seasoned. Sharon is 68 years young, Yvonne is 71, and there’s another who will be 85 in September! But I digress…

With coffee and tea served, I headed to the closest booth to grab some silverware. The waitress returned after a little while and with my stomach rumbling, I ordered the chicken-fried steak with scrambled eggs, and homefries. And again the waiting continues…

Breakfast was served about 15 minutes later and well, it was o.k. The service improved somewhat but overall, everything was just o.k. In fact, I’d call this place the O.K. Café.  The chicken-fried steak was formed into a perfect patty and probably previously (store-bought) frozen, the scrambled eggs were not fluffy, but rather flat and well done; the homefries were good but nothing to write home about.  Let’s face it—one cannot live on homefries alone!

Gary:   My food was OK. I ordered pork chops and eggs (over easy of course), with sourdough toast and home fried potatoes. The eggs were cooked exactly right, the pork chops were good but a little dry which can make them tough and the potatoes were OK. The coffee was OK as was the service, the look of the place, the parking and the jam which was of the packaged sort. So, to tell you the truth, it is hard to write anything bad or good. It was just OK. Would I go back again? Yes, because it wasn’t bad. But with so many other great places around I would have to have a really good reason. I will let Hope tell you about dessert.

Hope:   Truth be told, the ride was the better part of the morning and luckily, we still had to get back home.  And since we were already talking about Sharon and the Vagabond Coffee House, we decided to head there for some homemade berry cobbler for dessert. How sick is that????????????????? And to make matters worse, after we finished the berry cobbler, Gary decided to order a double-order of their apple cobbler. Now THAT’S sick, doncha’ think??

J & M Café (The O.K. Café)

490 Ventura Avenue
Oak View, CA 93022-9615
(805) 649-4712

The Vagabond Coffee Shop

Gary:     I woke up this morning ready to ride.  I walk outside and notice it is drizzling. Man, not another Sunday of damn rain. So I text Hope with options; Ride, shine it, or cage it. She, with her way with words, reminded me that she is not a sissy. So, not to be outdone by a ‘girl,’ I got on my bike and headed north. When I left Northridge, it had stopped drizzling but as soon as I approached Valencia it was lightly raining. At this point, the bike I just spend hours detailing is now getting wet. Damn it, I had to keep telling myself, I am not a sissy, I am not a sissy. I arrived at Fillmore a little after nine and Hope was ready to go. We are bikers so weather is just an annoyance, not a deal breaker. We ride to eat and we were both hungry in spite of the weather.

Hope:    Our ride started out quite miserably, for a Southern California day. Temperatures were supposed to reach 70, but they were still in the 50s when we left Fillmore. A few miles down the road, it started misting. Misting turned into heavier misting, and by the time we reached Ventura, I was riding by Braille, as my glasses were completely fogged up and the rain hitting my eyeballs was downright painful. My jeans were wet from the knee down, as was my facemask (thank god I wore one).The roads were miserable and well, the ride just sucked.  We found the place easily and walked into another world….

Gary:     When we arrived our only agenda was parking the bikes, getting inside and having some breakfast. Of course, it is never that easy. There is a hotel next to the restaurant, so we both tried to negotiate parking under the eve by the entrance of the hotel. The lady inside wasn’t buying our story so we just did a little u-turn and parked on the restaurant side under the eve.  It turned out to be no problem and no one bothered the bikes but on a nice day there is ample parking on the street and in the parking lot. I was still concerned about my detail job on my bike, like it mattered anymore. Upon entering the restaurant Hope heard this…..

Hope:    “Wake up and be happy,” were the words of wisdom offered by our exceptional waitress, Sharon, at The Vagabond Coffee Shop. The Vagabond Coffee Shop boasts, “Home of the BEST breakfast,” in the Ventura County Star and well, I’d have to agree with them!

This place is huge! It’s a big L-shaped restaurant which offers 2 long counters! So, we headed through and claimed our area. Sharon greeted us and did me a favor and reprimanded Gary, who was already acting a-fool. As we watched all the activity in this place, it was remarkably well run, like a well-oiled machine. Waitresses as well as kitchen staff were not only smiling and laughing, but joking with the customers and each other. Our waitress has been there 13 years, and compared to some of the others, she’s a newcomer! Some have been there 35+ years!

Gary:      Sharon actually smacked me in the kisser to straighten me out. It was a love tap mind you and it made me really laugh. Sharon is quite the character and I really enjoyed the ‘motherly’ attention.  The owner of this place, Jolene, has been running this place for 35 years. Her husband, who is no longing with us, used to manage the place for the original owners, who gave him free hand at running it like it was his. He must have done a great job for them because he eventually wound up owning it. Jolene has taken the reins and I must say this place is fantastic. She is quite the lady and super nice.

Hope:    Everyone was friendly and obviously having a good time. Being Easter Sunday morning, there were the regulars, tourists, and people just looking for good eats on a holiday morning. The volume of food churned out by the kitchen staff was remarkable. It was non-stop Again..this is a huge place, probably seating 200 people. Accommodating a party of 20 or so would be a piece of cake!

Gary:     Hope is right, this place can accommodate any large group for breakfast and the way the staff hustles, there would be no problem getting good service. I marveled at the old school way of how the waitress’s handled the plates of food. No trays here. They stacked the plates on their arms and these are no kids doing this. These are experienced waitresses that take pride in their jobs. What a pleasure to see. 

Hope:    There is the regular menu, a separate menu for breakfast specials and more specials posted on the dry erase board by the entrance. We chatted, goofed around, and did our ordering. I settled on chicken-fried steak, home fries, scrambled eggs, and (you guessed it) an English muffin. Our food arrived and we continued to be doted on by Sharon and the others. The chicken-fried steak was really chicken-fried and fork-tender! The potatoes were seasoned, crisped and yummy. The eggs were scrambled perfectly and served with some very good homemade salsa as well as a couple of fried yellow jalapeno peppers. The English muffin was buttered (with real butter). My only problem was that I knew there was no way I could fit all this food into my belly.

Gary:     I ordered the T-bone steak with over easy eggs (you get 3 here), country potatoes and rye toast. The steak was 16 ounces of delicious meat, cooked just the way I like it, the eggs were close to over-easy but you know what? I didn’t give a shit; this place was just too much fun and they were close enough for me to be perfectly happy. I have to really point out that because of the service, the joking, the care, the constant refilling of the coffee for me and the tea for Hope, there are some things that are not that important to be picky about. The way the eggs were cooked was one of those things. 

Hope:    Looking around, the place was decorated by ‘40’ pin-ups and when I asked what it meant, I was told the restaurant is over 40 years old, but they couldn’t find any plus signs! The waitress told us, “We’ll be 40 ‘til we’re 50” and at the rate they’re going, they will have no problem reaching that milestone.

As if the fun, laughter, and full stomach weren’t enough, Gary finished his breakfast and went in search of what the restaurant had for dessert. We were informed by the owner, Jolene, they used to serve homemade pie, but now only offer cobbler. I am very hesitant to order dessert, as I’m really picky. I do not consume pie filling out of a can! However, Jolene informed us it is homemade and it is made from real fruit, not the gloppy stuff sold in a can! True to her word, it is real fruit topped with a flaky crust dusted with sugar, served warm and with real whipped cream. It is out of this world.

Gary:     I loved the cobbler. Hope was real hesitant because of what she just stated but I knew if it was good we would be battling for the last bite. She won. In fact, she actually scoured the dish with her spoon so well that I don’t think the dishwasher had to clean it. I loved this place and would go back anytime.

Hope:    Two hours later, with my jeans still wet from the knees down (and fitting a bit more snug than when we started out), we finally said our goodbyes and thanked everyone for a wonderful time. I got a hug goodbye from Jolene and we promised to return! Great service, great food, and despite the crappy weather, this place was FUN! I HIGHLY recommend The Vagabond Coffee House!!!

The Vagabond Coffee Shop

760 E. Thompson Blvd.

Ventura, CA

(805) 643-1390

 

 

After our review of Bonnie Lu's Cafe

After we posted the review of Bonnie Lu’s Café, we received a response from Jenny, the owner. Oue review illustrated many problems with the staff and service at Bonnie Lu’s Café and it was even more evident with the prevailing attitude of Jennie’s response which was mean-spirited, immature and terribly unprofessional.  Personally, we both feel that as a business owner, especially in today’s shitty economy, one would choose one’s words very carefully so their business is not negatively impacted by their temper but hey—everyone is different.

Gary & I both responded, offering our reasons as to why we wrote what we did and pointed out that if you have a problem, the objective should be to correct it, not get ugly with the people who are pointing out that a problem exists. We gave her the option of re-writing her e-mail but have not yet heard from her. We both feel very strongly that posting her malicious e-mail would do more harm than good and if she wants to shoot herself in the foot, she’ll have to use her own gun; we’re not going to let her use ours! What we will offer you are our responses to her e-mail and you’ll get a pretty good idea of what she wrote.

Gary’s response:

Hi Jenny,

I am sorry you didn't like what we wrote and as you will notice, we both have different opinions of what we experienced. I did not find your restaurant that bad, in fact, I thought it was good and as you will read in my side of the story that I was willing to give your manager the benefit of the doubt. The rating is based on a total experience. Not just the food, not just the service, not just the coffee but its total effect on the dining experience. We do this review for bikers, like us, who are just looking for really good food, service and a smile on their face. While you were full of smiles and very nice, your waitress/manager was not that sharp in the service area, which she admitted to us. The other waitress with the, 'I don't want to be here' attitude can affect your customers. She apparently affected Hope's experience which she honestly wrote about. Just because we didn't have the best experience this time, we would certainly be willing to try your restaurant again and revise what we have said. Everyone has an off day, it could have been you or it could have been us. Your steady customers surely disagree with us which is fine. You probably treat them differently and you should, they are your bread and butter. But remember, if we are to recommend your restaurant to bikers like us, I don't want them coming in there and expecting something that didn't happen to us. That would be unfair to them. Let me just ask you this. What would have happened on this day if 20 of us walked in? What would have happened if your ' I don't want to be here' waitress was to serve them? Probably not a good experience. I could be wrong but from that particular day, I don't think I would be.  You must remember also, that the bar is held very high by our previous experiences at a couple of other places, namely Pete's Breakfast House and Allison's which are exceptional restaurants. Anyway, Jenny, I will sign off by saying, if you can convince your staff to be as you were that day our experience would have been totally different.

I wish you the best in your business and hopefully someday we can try your place again and have a different opinion.

Gary

Hope’s response:

Wow! Talk about wanting to shoot the messengers! I guess not everyone deals with criticism in a mature manner.

Most importantly, we have no incentive or motive to give a bad review versus a good review. We have no advertisers, no sponsors, and absolutely no reason to offer false information. After all, these reviews are read by our friends!

The food, service, and dining experience are what they are and speak for themselves. Again, we have no motive or gain by offering untrue information.

Human nature being what it is, we have learned that when most people are confronted with a truth they would much rather not hear, their first impression is to get angry. Very angry. They want to lash out and hurt the person(s) who are pointing out their flaws and touching on their sensitivities and insecurities. They resort to (what we call) bad behavior and it most often includes mud-slinging and our favorite, name calling. This is a classic example of misplaced anger; not being able to change the “problem,” and projecting all those “yucky” feelings on the other person(s).

Sad, but true…

Moving on, you can either stay stuck in the problem or use this experience as a learning tool to improve the quality of customer service at your establishment. That gives you a few choices...

1. I can post your awful e-mail to our blog, which will most likely draw negative attention to you and your restaurant. Everyone knows that staff has bad days and good days. However, an owner who goes out of her way to write and send the type of message you did can only do more damage than good. In turn, I would also post the responses offered by Gary and myself. 

or

2. You can re-write your e-mail, perhaps keeping in mind the power of the written word and the attention, either positive or negative, it can draw to your restaurant and we can post that. Perhaps you would consider apologizing for our dining experience and acknowledging that we should have received better service (perhaps you were understaffed or just too busy to pay the attention you would have under normal circumstances). You could even extend a complimentary invitation for a return visit so we could offer another review. (On a side note, we discussed our impressions in great detail with Kim and she informed us that the 'waitress without a smile' was a relative and greatly resented the fact that she had to work, compounded by the fact that she was not getting paid. That in of itself speaks volumes. Kim also apologized to us for 'disappearing' when we first arrived, acknowledging the lapse in customer service, so one would believe this is not an isolated event). 

The choice is yours...

Sincerely,

Hope-Carolyn

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

Bonnie Lu's Country Cafe

328 E Ojai Ave., Ojai CA 93023
805-646-0207