beyond riverside

Smoking Pig BBQ – 4th Street, San Jose, CA

January 6, 2017 by Ole Leave a Comment

I wasn’t going to write about this restaurant since it is about 400 miles away from Riverside, but recent Instagram posts from this place changed my mind. Now it is on my brain.

Smoking Pig BBQ Company on 4th Street in San Jose, California served me the best brisket I have ever eaten. This is not meant to take anything away from Badlands BBQ in Norco, which serves my favorite brisket in Southern California. In all honesty, if brisket from both places was sitting on a table in front of me I’m not sure I could pick a favorite. Since these two places are separated by about 400 miles, I’m not sure how I could arrange this heavenly brisket faceoff, but a man can dream.

Look at this brisket:

Why was I up in San Jose? Last July, my sons played in the USA Water Polo Junior Olympic Tournament up in Northern California. Since my sons were staying with their teams, I was on my own at meal time. Luckily, I found this place on my first night.

I ended up going back four more times.

Day 1:

I showed up at dinner time and the place was crowded. I screwed up and ordered at the counter, thinking that the food would be served at the table. Nope. I ordered take out. They were nice and set me up at a table anyway.

I also tried the Wolf Turds – jalapenos stuffed with cheese and sausage, wrapped in bacon, and smoked.

Day 2:

This time I sat at a table and ordered the right way.

I knew this was a great place when the server asked me if I wanted my brisket fatty, lean or mixed. They get it.

Day 3:

I thought about trying a new place, but ended up here again. Instead of the stuffed jalapenos, I tried the Chicken Lollipops, which are marinated mini drumsticks wrapped in bacon and smoked. A little too sweet for me, but very tender.

I finally realized they serve Cajun fries. After pondering my failure to realize this fact during my two previous visits, I enjoyed some of the best fries I have ever eaten. The brisket kept getting better with each visit.

Day 4:

My oldest son’s last game was in the morning, so we were able to enjoy a post-tournament meal. Big surprise, I took him here. He loved the brisket and Cajun fries. We reminisce often.

We then went to watch my youngest son’s last game in the afternoon. Before we hit the road for the long drive south, we decided to share our new spot with him. This time we celebrated a great tournament with some Peanut Butter Pie… and some more amazing brisket.

Smoking Pig BBQ Company
1144 N. 4th Street
San Jose, CA 95112
smokingpigbbq.net

Ed’s Place in Glendora – Amazing Hash Browns

July 5, 2016 by Ole Leave a Comment

Another water polo tournament, another new place for breakfast.

Ed’s Place in Glendora.

Bendy straws and Marilyn on the wall were a promising start.

Full stack of hot cakes:

Country Omelette (bacon, sausage and cheese):

The amazing Hash Browned Potatoes. These are the best hash browns I think I have ever had in a restaurant. They were so good that we ordered an extra side.

I liked that the bacon was lined up on the plate. The little things.

The next time we have an early game in Glendora, you will probably find us here.

Ed’s Place
141 N. Glendora Ave.
Glendora, CA

The Hat, Glendora

February 1, 2016 by Ole Leave a Comment

Water polo often takes us out to Citrus College in Glendora. The Hat on Route 66 is our usual post-tournament meal.

If you’re familiar with The Hat in Rancho Cucamonga, Murrieta or any of the other Southern California locations, then you know what this place is all about: Pastrami.

Pastrami on chili cheese fries…

Pastrami Dip…

Onion rings topped with chili, cheese and pastrami…

We are usually at the mercy of the tournament schedule, so sometimes we get to go when it isn’t too crowded. But if you want to go during lunch, expect a crowd.

The Hat
611 W. Route 66
Glendora, CA
www.thehat.com

Disneyland Passport Price Increases – Effective 10/04/15

October 4, 2015 by Ole Leave a Comment

$1,049… the new price of an Annual Passport to Disneyland and California Adventure without blockout dates (subject to capacity).

The most recent price I could find for the “legacy” Premium Passport (no longer sold) was $779, which means having access to both parks without any blockout dates will now cost you $270 more per year.

Here is a summary of the Annual Passport options:
(source: https://disneyland.disney.go.com/passes/)

I haven’t been following the prices lately since we let our passes expire a few months ago, but it appears that individual ticket prices remain unchanged since the prior increase:

$93 – one park access (ages 3-9)
$99 – one park access (ages 10+)
$56 – park hopper upgrade per ticket

Visit https://disneyland.disney.go.com/tickets/ for details.

Famous Dave’s, Long Beach

August 22, 2015 by Ole Leave a Comment

I drove out to Long Beach last weekend to pick up my packet for the Long Beach Triathlon. To thank my youngest son for being my carpool buddy, I took him to his favorite barbecue place… Famous Dave’s.

Famous Dave’s used to be my favorite place for barbecue too, until the bad visits to our local Famous Dave’s locations started to eclipse the good ones.

This was our first visit to Famous Dave’s Long Beach, and it was GREAT.

Unlike our local Famous Dave’s in Riverside, Long Beach still has the checkered tablecloths and all of the sauces on the table.

My son was pleased that he could order chips with his Devil’s Spit burger. For some reason, chips are no longer available at our local Famous Dave’s.

Most importantly to me, the brisket was awesome. Not only could I break it apart with my fork, it was so tender that it actually fell apart. This is the brisket that made Famous Dave’s my favorite BBQ place.

Thank you Famous Dave’s Long Beach for a great visit.

Famous Dave’s – Long Beach
300 S. Pine Dr.
The Pike at Rainbow Harbor
Long Beach, CA

Roberta’s Village Inn – La Verne, CA

June 13, 2015 by Ole Leave a Comment

We drove out to La Verne both days last weekend for a tournament, and explored the neighborhood around The University of La Verne to find a place for breakfast.

We ended up finding Roberta’s Village Inn on D Street.

Roberta’s Village Inn has a classic diner feel, and pretty much everyone I saw – customers and employees – seemed happy to be there. According to this article on The University of La Verne’s website, this place has changed hands a few times, but has been around since 1969.

One look at the menu and I knew what I was getting… Pancho’s Omelette.

The kid got some much needed carbs.

We ended up going here both days. On day one, I got the omelette with home fries.

On day two, I asked them to scramble the omelette and opted for hash browns. Both were good, but I liked the scramble a little more.

Despite having to pay with cash (a minor negative for me), this would probably become one of our regular breakfast spots if we lived in the area.

Roberta’s Village Inn
2326 D St
La Verne, CA

OC Fair 2014 – Orange County, CA

July 13, 2014 by Ole Leave a Comment

The 2014 Orange County Fair opened on July 11th and runs until August 10th. We spent the day at the OC Fair today.

Scroll down for our visual tour.

We took advantage of the early admission price of $3 per ticket, which saved us a total of $36, or $9 per ticket off the regular $12 price.

With the Pacific Amphitheatre right next door, the OC Fair usually has some good concerts. We might come back to see Bad Religion (one of my favorite bands) on Thursday.

We started off our day by walking through Centennial Farm.

This is Butterscotch, a 2-year-old Yorkshire mix (the piglets were born on July 3rd):

In addition to animals, there are many plants, flowers, trees, fruits and vegetables growing at the farm.

This is for my wife, since sunflowers are her favorite:

Just in case you forgot how to do this:

The OC Fair is pretty big, so you might want to get a map.

Chicken Charlie’s is one of the places to go if you are looking for the latest fried concoctions.

We tried the Totally Fried Doritos, which were OK. I would rather just have some plain Doritos.

We also tried the Totally Fried Chicken Skins, but one bite was too much.

As far as I’m concerned, Dogsville has the best fair food.

This is a chili cheese dog on steroids:

This is my favorite, the awesome jalapeno and cheese corn dog:

More choices, all covered in bacon:

Red velvet funnel cake:

The OC Brew Hee Haw:

My favorite wood carving of the day:

Cowabunga.

We took advantage of the early admission prices, but the games and rides are still expensive. Every game we tried was between 6 and 10 tickets, so even the $100 ticket card probably won’t go too far for a family.

I save the thrill rides for amusement parks, so my favorite ride at the fair is the sky ride. Here are some pictures from our ride across the fairgrounds:

For more information, visit http://ocfair.com/.

System of a Down – Hollywood Bowl – July 29, 2013

August 2, 2013 by Ole Leave a Comment

I lucked out and found last minute tickets to the sold out System of a Down concert at the Hollywood Bowl last Monday.

This concert was System of a Down’s only North American stop in 2013. This was also my 13-year-old son’s first concert.

We had never been to the Hollywood Bowl before, so my first challenge was to figure out where to park. I had read that parking at the Bowl is limited, so we parked at Hollywood & Highland and took the shuttle to the Bowl. After seeing the stacked parking a the Bowl, we knew we made the right choice.

The shuttle delivered us to the entrance before the concert, but we decided to walk back down to the parking structure after the concert. That was an experience.

The Hollywood Bowl is awesome. We scored tickets in the Garden box section, which means we were sitting on folding chairs in our own fenced off seating area.

We were surprised to find out that there are servers who bring you food and drinks before and during the concert. We even received a special System of a Down menu.

This service isn’t cheap. My son ordered a $27 burger. Yes, $27. He said it was the best $27 burger he had ever eaten. I hope so.

To sum up our night… Awesome band. Awesome concert. Awesome memories for my son.

New Slow-Roasted BBQ Pork Shank at Disneyland

June 26, 2013 by Ole Leave a Comment

On our most recent trip to Disneyland, I discovered a new treat for us caveman and cavewoman types… the BBQ Pork Shank.

I found this big piece of slow-roasted pork at Edelweiss Snacks in Fantasyland (near the Matterhorn) thanks to the Disney Parks Blog. It is also available at Big Thunder Ranch in Frontierland during the summer.

Although it was served in a bag with no grill in sight, my pork shank was hot and tender. It didn’t have a lot of seasoning, but it was glazed with BBQ sauce and served with a little more sauce on the side.