Grizzly City Pizza and Pub - dinner review

After seeing a few friends post photos from here, and the article in the paper, we finally made some time to check out Grizzly City Pizza.  We went after 6 to avoid paying for parking, but I wouldn't let that stop me from going any other time.  It was a Friday night, and they had a pretty decent crowd, with most tables full.

For dinner, we chose to order the Spinach & Artichoke mozzarella sticks and did the build your own pizza option - although we were super basic and just had pepperoni.  I'll check out one of the specialty options on another trip.  Both items were pretty good tasting.  Honestly, the pizza looked better than anything you'll get at most Me & Ed's in town.  We were pretty happy with the taste as well.  The crust was sort of bread-y, but in a good way.  It was in between a thin crust and the average crust pizza.  Good taste, not too chewy.  The cheese was a good blend, pepperoni normal, but yes, like most pepperoni pizzas it was a bit greasy.  Whatever.  The mozzarella sticks were pretty nice.  I liked the variation of them being spinach & artichoke. That really balanced out the flavor, and kept it from getting all solid and gross like mozzarella sticks can get when they cool off a bit.

The place has a few drawbacks, and I would guess some of it has to do with them being fairly new.  It took a half hour for the pizza to come out, which seems a bit long.  Also, the mozzarella sticks came out at the same time and I would have loved to have them before, as an appetizer.  Last thing, it was quiet in there - no music or anything.  There was a tv on, and it wasn't super loud, which was nice, but it could have used a little atmosphere noise.  None of these complaints were that major to us, but I could see how some people could really get bent out of shape, especially the wait.

Overall, I look forward to going back and think it's a nice addition to downtown.

weekend dreams burgers and grills lunch review

i posted a photo on instagram last night.  it was not food related at all, and somewhat randomly, it was liked by a place called weekend dreams burgers and grill.  this intrigued me, so i checked their profile, and then looked them up on yelp.  the photos of food looked pretty good, the reviews were positive, so i decided to check them out for lunch.

in fresno, they are the located in one of those weird, where is that spots.  west ashlan.  you look at the address, it doesn't help.  you check the map, and get a general idea, but still aren't sure.  which side of 99 is it on?  to answer that, it is west of 99.  it is in an unassuming little strip mall.

on to the food.  when i saw they had a pastrami burger on the menu, i knew i would be ordering that.  i'm a sucker for a pastrami burger i also saw they had chicken wings, so i thought i may give them a try.  the wings come in regular, spicy, and i think teriyaki.

the prices are pretty consistent with other local burger spots.  their menu is pretty big, with a lot of variety.  honestly, if they didn't have some items that are no brainers for me, i might have had trouble figuring out what to get.

the pastrami burger was very good.  the bun is pretty standard, and it comes with mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato and onion.  i had mine without the onion and tomato.  i thought the burger was nicely cooked, the pastrami was good.  together it all worked well.

when i was ordering, i had to choose between the regular and spicy wings.  the counter person told me the spicy was pretty hot, but she also said she is kinda wimpy with regards to spiciness.  i figured i would give the spicy a try.  yep, they were spicy.  nose running spicy.  and while they may be more than some people can handle, i thought they were good.  the spiciness was there, but it also had a good hot wing flavor that was more than just 'oh crap, that's spicy.'

overall, i had a good experience at weekend dreams.  i would definitely go back, and i hope that as fresno grows around that area they check this spot out.

West Coast Fish N Chips

I ate here years ago, and had a rather average experience and didn't post a review.  Went back today and had very nice experience.  The facility is clean, smells nice, and the staff was very friendly.

I ordered the 2 piece fish + 4 prawns, which comes with 1 side.  For my side, I went with the fried okra.  I had a side order of pickle fries.  After an appropriate time for a chip shop, my food came out and I was pretty sure I may have ordered a bit much.  Everything tasted great - fish & prawns had a nice breading on them, not too thick, and it didn't pull away when you started to eat it either.  The fish fillets were a good size, too.  The breading on the okra was a little different, and it was also well prepared. Not super greasy, which sometimes fried okra can be.  I think my favorite part of the meal was the pickle fries.  I've had pickle chips before, and enjoyed them, so I figured this would be about the same.  These were pickle spears that were sliced down a bit to fry size.  They weren't as thin as like a shoestring fry, with a little more thickness.  The breading was similar to the fish.  Tasted great.  Still had some snap to them, and weren't all floppy like a sliced pickle can be.

My only drawback to the meal was the plastic fork.  If I was getting my order to go, fine, give me a plastic fork because I may need it, or I may have a better fork where I'm headed.  But if I'm eating there, give me a real fork.  Really, this fork struggled to cut the breaded fish - that's good on the fish, bad on the fork.

Overall, very good experience.  I'm stuffed from my meals, and I'm writing this like 2 hours later.  I'll definitely go back.

fresno distributing

fresno distributing, aka fresno d, has always been a little odd to me. i liked the idea of supporting local businesses, but as a distributor type store i found it a bit off putting as a customer. the show room seems like an afterthought, and if i want to get a new faucet or whatever, i probably would hit up the easy display and multiple options of lowes.

around the fourth of july, we had an issue with our shower. the divertor, which allows the change from bath to shower to happen, wasn't working properly. we also had a long-time leak on our cold water handle, but that was a nagging concern and had their not been a problem with the divertor i would have let it keep dripping. my go - to spot for home repairs is fresno ag, so i headed over there. they had the right parts to fix my problems, and things were reasonably priced. while we were there, we inquired about other handles for our price pfister, 1970's looking set up. unfortunately, for the set up we had there were only a few, equally ugly options.

on our way home, we decided to pop in at fresno d, and see if they had other options. we spoke with one of the parts guys, discussed what we had, and he let us know a few options. eventually, we realized that we could switch out the stems behind the handles, and found these real sweet, sleek brushed nickel handles. we placed an order and started waiting. now, it's a little scary that their paperwork says that orders can take up to three months to come in, but they told us that it should be in three or four weeks. after just about a month, our new handles and parts were in.

today, i drove over to pick up the parts. the original guy we worked in wasn't in (i think he was on lunch break) but that wasn't a big deal because we were just picking up a unit. i got my box, and headed out.

this is where things went wonky. i looked at what i had, and it was only a two handle set up, according to the box. i popped the box open, and while they were the right two handles, we were missing the third. i went back in, and waited to be helped. after a minute or so, i was able to explain my issue to someone, and he began to investigate. he looked up the faucets and what not in their books, and what we wanted (finish wise) didn't come in a three handle. was i going to be stuck with two sweet handles, and one ugly one?

the guy i worked with, whose name i sadly didn't catch, was amazing. essentially, he found all the appropriate pieces from other sets or packages. all of the parts. and, even more cool, they did it for free. i was figuring that i would have to shell out for the additional stuff. i wouldn't have been stoked about that, but i would have had my parts. nope, they said that because there was a miscommunication they were going to give me the parts i needed since i'd already bought the other parts. freaking awesome.

thanks a ton, fresno d. you may not have all the things that lowes, home depot or even fresno ag have, but you do your thing well. and, your customer service is awesome - seriously, i was able to watch several customers treated very well, and the employees go out of their way to figure out people's needs/problems and do their best to help. great work.

fresno and detroit

so, meg whitman made some remark comparing fresno to detroit. of course, it's getting a lot of press in fresno. we have a chip on our shoulder, and since the statement was part of an interview to a newspaper in san jose, it feels sorta like the big city snobs looking down their noses at us again, taking shots.

now, honestly, there are some parallels that we could actually discuss. detroit is an economically depressed area, and fresno county/the central valley is an economically depressed area. and, we can talk about the fact that it was just a sound byte we're hearing and there is a bigger context we can talk about. but, it's not like we're getting any concrete plans from whitman on how we can change our economic situation here in the valley or here in california. i mean, her commercials tell me that her #1 priority is to bring jobs to california, but nothing about how. and that bugs me.

but i'm not interested in having a huge political discussion here. what it made me thing was, "i wonder if fresno will become a hipster hotbed like i've heard about detroit becoming."

i heard about this blog and a documentary about detroit being somewhat revitalized by hipsters, artists, and other people of that sorts. i'm intrigued.

if you have a long time, watch these segments. or, watch one part, and come back and watch the others as you have time.

skating vacant fresno pools

every so often a new video pops up with skaters draining pools in or around the fresno area. some are good, some are bad. i was perusing laughing squid today, and saw this one and was really impressed with the production of the video.

Cannonball from California is a place. on Vimeo.

it also got me to click over to the source of the video, california is a place. i tweeted their video honey pie, but hadn't seen their other vids. rather nice site, and i'm curious how many more videos they'll do.

and, demonstrating my short memory, mike oz posted this very video back in may. stupid brain.

talking about fresno

ah yeah. was watching american dad and caught this beauty in the first few minutes of the episode. wait for it...



yep, there it is, "you look like you should be holding up round cards at a dog fight in fresno."

i love fog

fresno has gotten a lot of negative press lately. over the last few months we have been slammed as the dumbest city by one group, had a negative article in the usa today, have been jokes on conan and jay, and even sent out some invites on youtube to the aforementioned comedians. if you follow the fresno blogosphere you've probably seen reference to some of those things.

in response, several fresnans have tried to be much more proactive about pushing the good things of fresno. james collier and barry falke are two guys i've met and are doing good work on their blogs. of course, there is also the fresnan and the beehive, all doing good things promoting fresno. and, yes, i'd like to think that adam and i do a fair share on our own blogs as well as on our podcast, the view looks good from here, fresno. but, new voices are also popping up on the scene. one that really intrigues me is 31 days of fresno, which is a facebook group (and a blog page). here is the description "31 Days of Fresno is a challenge to all Fresnans to post something they love about Fresno every day during the month of January. There has been a lot of talk about how to improve Fresno, and one of the things that always comes up is that in order to make Fresno a great place to live and to visit, we need to change how we view Fresno ourselves. I challenge you all to join me in this! If you're coming up short on things to love about our city, check out our links- you might find something you didn't know about before! Feel free to post your Fresno love on our page, it would be great to see what everyone else loves about living here. Please keep rude comments to yourself. We're trying to create a Fresno-positive community here"

cool idea. i doubt i'll post something every day there (i've already missed the first two days) but i'll check it regularly. and, i'm going to try and post more fresno positive stuff here right now. honestly, i haven't really put up too many posts lately that hyped or reviewed shows, or talked about stuff going on. i just haven't done too much. but, i'm getting to it. i promise.

so, here's something i love about fresno: the fog. now, i don't love it when i can't drive because it's soooo thick, but i enjoy a good fog (especially if it breaks up later in the day). i was in vegas for the n.y.e. holiday, and enjoyed their nice, clear skies. as we flew back i napped a little but awoke for our descent back to fresno. as we dropped in, i was greeted by the fog. it was strange, i couldn't tell how thick it was or how low we were. it was actually sorta frightening, since i was in a plane and had a slight worry we'd smash into the ground, but once we dropped through the layer of fog and i saw city lights (not the strip club but actual city lights) i looked fondly on fresno. i was glad to be back home. later in the night i stepped into my back yard and again looked up to enjoy the fog. the moon was pretty full and was shining through the mist. beautiful.

enjoy fresno over this next month.

best of fresno

last night i had the pleasure of going to fresno magazine's "best of fresno" awards party. and, it was a very pleasurable event. now, i'm not going to go into too much detail here, but you can listen to a podcast featuring three guys that went to the event. we talk about the event in detail, and we also talk about the best of fresno list. (you can also go over here and read other thoughts on the list)

what i do want to say is that the event was fun. it reminded me of sudz in the city or a wine tasting event. it was packed while i was there, so that's good. and, i enjoyed the food vendors, and i would even say that some of them could go with a smaller sample portion size (shocking!). whether or not i agree with their list, they throw a pretty good party.

one big complaint - this comes up in the podcast, but i'll bring it up here, too. why did they have a journey cover band?

espn takes notice of fresno

over at the beehive the do a re-occurring post called 'did they just say fresno?' it's a good little feature, and often highlights ways that fresno is being noticed by the world at large. well, they missed one, and i thought i'd post it.

i was watching espn's e60 on tuesday, november 3rd, and one of the stories near the end really caught my attention. here it is:



that's right, mutton bustin @ the big big big big big fresno fair. take notice fresno, we are on espn's radar.

*cross posted @ wideworldoffresnosports

picture fresno

so, a friend of mine, and some other people i've met, have started a new blog that is tons of fun. it's called picture fresno, and it's found at picturefresno.blogspot.com. the premise of the blog is that they show a partial picture of a fresno landmark and the goal is to leave a guess in the comments. if this sounds familiar, it's because two of the authors were recently on our podcast.

i'll be honest, it's pretty tough. i managed to guess a few, but some have got me, and others, stumped. you should click on over and try your hand at guessing fresno spots. a few new go up every day.

re:fuse festival recommendations

(click the photo to go to the re:fuse fest artist & line up page)

hey, the re:fuse fest is upon us. tonight is the opening party @ full circle brewery and the rest of the festival takes place tomorrow. with seven venues you might be struggling to figure out who to see. or, you might not. but have no fear, i'm hear to help you with some suggestions. i'm even going to put an * to the shows that i think are a don't miss, you'll kick yourself if you do shows.

-the festival kicks off @ 3 w/yesterday's chonies playing the spiral garage. go to the garage and buy your pass, and then head over to joe's steakhouse for buffalo guns. now, you probably would have to work to really hit all these, or at least hustle between spots.
-3:30 buffalo guns (joe's steakhouse)
*-4:00 wewalkanddrive (spiral garage)*
-4:30 down word (joe's steakhouse)
*-5:00 the escorts (club one)
-6:00 black pennies (spiral garage)
-7:00 this one's a toss up - blake jones & trike shop (spiral garage) or motel drive (club one)
*-7:30 populus (joe's steakhouse)*
-8:00 40 watt hype (club one) - this is a toss up with wheels of fortune (spiral garage) but i haven't seen 40 watt hype in a while so i'm saying them.
*-9:00 the sleepover disaster* - this is the last sleepover show for a while, and possibly ever. do not miss it as they close out the shows @ the spiral garage.*
-10:00 after show @ tokyo.

now, i realize it will be tough to hit all these recommendations. if nothing else, hit my * don't miss shows. if you don't trust my recommendations, hit up the website and pick your own re:fuse fest route.

whatever you do, don't miss this festival. $15 for a ton of good bands.

fresno water meters

i was excited to come home and see this in my yard.



can't wait until they actually start using the meters.

riverpark word assocation

let's do a little word association for my fresno based and fresno familiar readers. what's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word, "riverpark?"

please leave an honest answer of your first thought as a comment.

tower community meeting

i'm pretty impressed with fresno right now. you all know i love this city, but sometimes they do things that really make me hopeful. the other day the city held a meeting about downtown improvements. i didn't go to it, but i'm hopeful that those that did contributed to a healthy discussion.

this weekend the city is having a meeting to discuss my neighborhood, the tower district. what can we do to improve olive, van ness and the surrounding streets? will more bike racks help? should we have more public art? something else?

you have an opportunity to add your voice.

TOWER STREETSCAPE PLANNING MEETING, 10A.M.-2P.M.

A TOWER COMMUNITY VISIONING AT COOL ROGER ROCKA'S,

A CHANCE TO BRING IDEAS FOR A MASTER PLAN UPGRADE OF THE OLIVE AVENUE COMMERCIAL AREA.

(sadly, i have a previous commitment on saturday and won't make it to the meeting myself. but i'm for bike racks!)

61 year old man killed over bicycle

i don't have much commentary to bring to this story, but you're a real piece of crap if you kill a 61 year old over a bicycle.

cowards.

tower community garden

an interesting story is brewing in my neighborhood. several people have planted crops, but the crops may not remain. why? well, they've planted them on land that is not theirs. here's an interesting report done by the local news about the issue

(i wanted to embed the video but it wasn't working properly so just click on the link above)

now, i want to keep following the issue, but here are my thoughts so far:
-i like that the city is willing to work with community gardeners.
-i like that the city is willing to enforce code.
-i like that the city is willing to take stances that are unpoplular.
-if these gardeners did not have persmission of the owner, they shouldn't be allowed to just set up shop, even if it is nicer to see veggies than weeds.
-if they had permission, then the city is willing to work with the farmers, and that's good.

seen today in fresno

sadly, i saw this guy walking in my beloved tower district today



if you can't quite read it, his hat says keep a bitch broke.

stay classy, fresno

fresno culture

today i was talking about culture to two groups. we discussed what culture was in general, what characterized american culture, and what characterized the culture of fresno/the valley. two interesting lists developed. i didn't prod, or prompt the lists, although i did condense some phrasing. these lists basically developed on their own, from the group.

list one (typed version below):



for those of you that have trouble reading my chicken scratch handwriting, that's:
ag/farming
immigration
std's (specifically chlamydia - i guess we lead the nation in that)
teen pregnancy
-bulldogs
-fresno state athletics + band
-"aggressive" police
-poverty/unemployment
-tacos
-meth
-violence/crime
-fulton mall (okay, i suggested this one)
-segregated
-distinguished high schools
-swap meet/malls
-religious variety but also bible belt
-casinos
-the chuck (even if they called it grizzlies stadium)
-tower district


list two:



-dirty air
-ag/farming
-diversity
-unemployment
-immigration
-gangs
-nothing to do
-teen pregnancy
-drugs
-graffiti
-arts - arthop, tattoo expo
-music
-hot weather, cold weather, fog
-fresno state school + band
-the chuck' (once again called grizzlies)
-crime/violence
-aggressive/model police
-farmer's market
-rodeo
-"hick"/small town mentality
-cruising
-rules
-fresno fair
-raisins
-riverpark
-hospitals
-casinos

i thought it was interesting that two groups would have some similar visions of fresno. both groups were around 20 in size and most are under age 25. both lists tend to be a little more negative, but they're also pretty frank assessments. but, they started me wonder, what are the positive elements of fresno culture? what's your take on the lists?

the fay wrays @ starline

looking for something to do this evening? want to re-aggravate your post st. paddy's headache? well i've got something for you: fay wrays @ starline.

they're playing tonight as a part of the regular show that aesop fables puts on over there. should be nice. fun. loud.