Category: 05: Favorite Establishments
By Paco
Party town USA. Whenever I told people in Seattle that I went to college at Chico State, they always answered with “party town”! Well… you can certainly still have fun at Chico. But you can get a very good education too if you go to class. Anyways… had to mention some of my favs in this cool little town.
Favorite Bar – Madison Bear Garden (aka “The Bear) – This might be my favorite bar EVER. Come on… who can beat “Bingo Bango Bongo” on Thursday nights? Or the “Undy 500″ where drunk people ride trikes around the bar in their underwear? Well… Jaime and I had a humdinger there one night. For some reason Jaime came down to Chico one day when I had class. It was a Thursday… my Friday back then. And we decided we were going to hit the Chico night life… we went to Woodstocks for some pizza and pitcher of Sierra Nevada. Then wandered across the street to the Bear. It was something like 6:00, and the place was kinda empty. So we waltz up to the bar, (It was Bingo Bango Bondo night) so were got a pitcher of “Dark Wheat” from Sierra for a whopping $3. Once we hit the second pitcher, the chants kicked it from our booth… “Dark Wheat! Dark Wheat!!!” Who knows why? Probably just because we were intoxicated. I remember standing up after the 2nd Dark Wheat pitcher, and being amazed how crowded the place was. We managed to fumble around the place for a bit later… I think we were stupid, got ANOTHER beer, and walked out with the glasses in hand.
The place used to have CLASSIC restrooms. All these old nude photos from the 70′s, crazy writing on the walls, a toliet you wouldn’t sit on with someone else’s ass, and misleading front doors. The womens had “women” written on it with a arrow pointing to the men’s room. And the men’s door… vice versa. So just about every time you were in the men’s room relieving yourself, you could see a girl open the door, and turn red as she sees a bunch of guys pissing into a big urinal.
But Alas… a few years ago the Bear renovated the bathrooms. I think the health department made them. And the funny doors are gone too… what a shame.
Favorite Lunch – Burger’s at the Bear.
Favorite Dinner – Red Tavern – Probably one of the classiest places north of Sacramento.
By Guillermo
I like Shorty’s Coney Island. It is fun and they have good beer and Chicago dogs to die for! Scary clowns everywhere and some cool video games too!
I frequented the 5point cause of location so I have become rather fond of it too. I am a go-out-aholic so I really love a lot of great places on the west coast, a club called the chameleon in BC, the back door ultra lounge in SEA, red white and brew, I also did a lot of restaurants, sea star, McCormick and schmicks, tir na nog, Brooklyn, hatch cover, acorn, just about every brewery or winery I’ve ever stepped foot in, cha cha, Linda’s, Charlie’s, nightlight, art bar, desert fire, that sea food place in new Orleans I cant remember the name of, the W, nikko’s place, nara grill, golden singha, bamboo garden, pabla’s, dang, I eat and drink just about anywhere…
By Jaimenacho
I think a place that has not been mentioned but certainly deserves it is Senor Rosa’s. Senor Rosa’s is a burrito joint in Redding. I think every city of considerable size has its hip burrito joint where they make the traditional ‘big as a babies arm’ burrito. Sacramento has Gordito Burrito; I think Chico has a similar type place. Senior Rosa’s is Redding’s big burrito shop. A single family runs the place. I think the Dad mainly does the cooking, while his son’s and their friends work the front. The guy who runs the front, I think his name is Trevor, has an outstanding memory, he’s pretty much the Frank of the burrito world. If you go in there more than a couple times he’ll remember what you eat and your name. I hadn’t gone in there in about 8 months at one point, and I couldn’t remember what I normally get. He informed me what it was, and ordered it up for me. I have friends who go in there fairly often who he knows by name. It’s one of the small things that make you really like to go in there. Not enough can be said for outstanding service. If you want to eat here at a reasonable time you’d better call your order in about 45 minutes before hand. They don’t have a lot of kitchen space, and they hand make everything in the burrito, so it takes awhile. Plus from the lunch hours of 11-2 it’s hard to get in and be served quickly.
The place is decorated kind of like a high school boys room; it has a lot of sports pictures on the wall, some odd paintings, and some pictures of kids at proms and whatnot. I think the place was decorated on a budget under 75$. The food however, is great, and that’s what matters. I don’t really get to eat there too often because of my work schedule, but when I can I shell out the 8$ for lunch I do so. I would say the price has to be one of the few downfalls there. Burritos range in price from 6-8$. The price is well worth the quality, but still a bit pricey, and it seems like they raise them every 6 months.
This is one of those places that sort of keep the trend in Redding of crappy looking places serving great food.
By Eduardo
I had to mention The Capitol Tea Garden in Sacramento, mainly because this is a favorite hangout for my soon-to-be-wife and me. If you like Dim Sum (or want to be schooled on what it is), you can’t do much better than this place. If you’re ever wandering around hungry in Sac, head to 10th and T streets. For under $10, you can stuff yourself silly on some of the best chow you’ve had in a while. The place is really very cool.
Beware, though, and note that this is one of the few good Chinese places in that part of town (that don’t have ‘Kitty Chow Mein’ on the menu).
By Eduardo
For a long time, The Old Vic in Santa Rosa was a favorite hangout of Paco and I (and several of the other amigos locos as well). In fact, long after we had both moved away from the area, Paco and I once made a pilgrimage from Sacramento one evening just to go there.
I believe Paco first discovered it way back in late ’94. He took me there, the next semester, and we were both enthusiastic regulars for a while. There was almost always a good jazz or blues group playing, and the place had an air of sophisticated hipness that we dug.
…But alas, things changed in the couple of years after Paco and I both left the area. Once when we went back to check it out, we found that it had turned into a slightly more tarhead-oriented “boo yaww” type of place, apparently catering to the hats-on-backwards crowd. We were kind of disappointed, considering that the Vic had been a haven for people who appreciated good beer and good music.
In more recent years, I went there quite a few times before it closed down. It had reverted back to being pretty cool, but not quite to the level it had been originally. By this point the owners had started experimenting with allowing different types of performances there, which usually had lame results. Depending on which night you went, you might see a mediocre local rock band, some white guys playing pointless generic blues, or be tortured by a pretentious drama troupe from the local junior college. It was a total crap shoot, and toward the end that’s usually exactly what you got to see: crap.
Eventually, The Vic lost its lease and had to close its doors. It was sad, because in its heyday it was the coolest place around.
By Fernando
There are many fine establishement in the Greater Portland area where one can take a break, have a few drinks and relax. The following two are my favorite:
The Skyline Saloon: Located on top of the far north end of Portland’s West Hills (Tualitan Mountains) on Skyline road. This is a very simple, plain, no frills pub. No hard alcholol, no real food (sometimes they had chilidogs). One pool table and a couple of video poker machines. What’s important is not what is inside but what is outside – they have a large, tapered outside area with tables and chairs made of tree trunks. It is the best place to go on a summer evening and have a draft MAC while watching the sun set. It was especially a great stop at hte end of the day for mountain bikers since it is adjacent to Forest Park – which features many miles of awesome mountain biking terrain within Portland’s City Limits. Drink of choice – Portland Brewing’s Mactarnihan’s or Blackwatch.
The Red Shed Many participants have experience the Red Shed at McMennimim’s Edgefield in Troutdale. This once garbage incenarator for the once poor farm and old folks home provides a quite, cozy relaxing spot to have a drink on a cold, rainy day. Drink of choice – a fine port, bring a pipe or cigar as well.
By Fernando
There are many fine pubs in Portland, but I always have to come back to Kell’s as being my favorite non-Mcminimum’s associated. Kell’s was always a place for many occasions and moods. I had a celebratory dinner in there restaurant when I graduated from college – their broasted lamb shanks was by far the most incredible carnivorous experience I every had. It was also a great place to have a Guiness on a lazy sunday afternoon and BS, specially on a typical cold, rainy Portland day. But it also offered some of the best entertainment and socializing on Friday and Saturday night. They usually had realitively good bar band that helped pack the house. One common group was “the clumsy lovers”, I’m not a fan of music involving fiddles, but they featered this girl on a fiddle that simply was amazing. There signature song they usually closed with was a high-tempo, furious fiddle and banjo version of the “Centerfold” – It was usually played around 1am when the place was totally packed and everyone was lit up on guiness and scotch. My totally favorte performer was this drunken scottish part-time carpenter named Scotty Joe. I’m not sure if he performs anymore, perhaps he is dead or has been deported because I have not seen him advertised as a performer for years. I met Scotty Joe one Friday night during a friend’s birthday, we had the best seats in the house, with the biggest group – he decided to join our group. It was 5:30 and he was already totally wasted. He told me his life story about travelling around and getting somewhat stuck in Portland – he liked portland, it remided him of Scottland. I asked him why, if he was scottish, was such a fixture at an Irish pub – turns out there are not many scottish pubs, and he would not be caught dead in an English pub. About 9pm it was time for him to perform. He was this totally drunkard one-man band. He actually played guitar and sang and had everything else programmed in. He did a variety of english and irish performers – Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, U2 — but his absolute favorite was Pink Floyd. By 1am, it was getting ugly. He was SO drunk he started taunting the crowd, going after the girls and making a complete ass of himself. by 1:30 the owners of Kells, who are usually having to get rid of routy patrons, had to kick the performer out. It was very entertaining. Last time I saw him was at Berbatti’s Pan, across the street. He was making his rounds – I said, “hey, Scotty Joe!” as I passed by with my martini – he was not looking good, looked at me confused and painfully and managed a weak smile and blurted out “bleheeeyyy!” and stumbled onward.
