Jacquelin S.'s Profile

Passing on a tip I received from one of those friendly Costco food sample people.   If you see an asterisk on the item number/price sign, that means once the current supply is gone, the product is gone.  If it is something you like, stock up!

It was a great day for a bike ride so we decided to ride over and check out Fat Face on a Sunday for lunch.  Good thing we were on our bikes or we might have driven right past it.  Fat Face is behind a nondescript door to the side of a warehouse looking building.  There is vehicle parking down that side driveway.

There was a very limited menu when we were there.  Two varieties of turnovers ($3.00 each) and a specialty polenta ($5 for a cup)  We tried both turnovers - mushroom herb and cheddar apple.  Both were wonderful.  Crispy crust, well filled with warm delicious interiors.  A great value.  In the shop there is one large table with 8 chairs.  It was nice very casual dining, if a little warm due to the oven.

Never having tasted her popsicles at the market we decided to share a kaffir lime/avocado.  I really enjoyed the flavor, especially the zing of the kaffir lime.  My more traditionally taste budded S.O. liked it OK.

The Whole House Fan company seems to also own Gutter Guard.

Gutter Guard has been plastering Davis with signs on public lands.  Shame on them.  I will not do business with a company that create a public nuisance.

The Whole House Fan Company  will also not get my business, and I am in the market for a whole house fan.

Gutter Guard has been plastering Davis with signs on public lands.  Shame on them.  I will not do business with a company that create a public nuisance.

The phone number also is for The Whole House Fan Company.  They too will not get my business, and I am in the market for a whole house fan.

I was reluctant to return to the Palms after lingering fears from my first experience a few years ago.  During that visit I kept thinking what would happen if there was a fire or earthquake.  The Palms is on the second floor of an old brick building.  You get to it via a narrow staircase and enter through one standard door.  That first concert may have been a sold-out crowd.

This time I took a more critical look at the venue.  There are actually two staircases.  The chairs are not laid out too close together, there was a center aisle and the back wall has exposed earthquake reinforcement.

Now relaxed, I was able to enjoy the music.  As others have noticed, most guests seem to just sit in their seats, even when the music just screams for movement.

Before the second set I moved to the back of the room where I could stand and bop to the rhythm of the beat.  

I will no longer fear returning to the Palms, though do miss the old barn in Davis.  However, Winters makes for a nice out-of-town excursion.

My old bike was stolen so I was on the hunt for a new one.  I walked over to Mike's Bikes on my lunch hour.  No one came over to me to see if I needed assistance (and I did) and the staff at the counter just talked amongst themselves, totally ignoring me and the other couple of customers.  

That weekend I went to a few bike shops in Davis.  Within 10 seconds of walking through the door someone approached me at each place, asked if I needed help and then spent a good deal of time finding a bike to fit my needs.  

Needless to say I purchased my new bike in Davis, not at Mike's Bikes.

We got to introduce my old college roommate and her family to Symposium the other night.  It's so wonderful to be able to go to a restaurant and know that everyone will leave happy and satisfied.

The best part for my partner and I was getting out of comfort zone and trying a different pizza.  We always order the Spicy Greek (#23) but my friend wanted to try the Paros Island Special (#22) which is a winner too.  

Now we have additional dilemnas for future visits.  In the past it has been - do we order Greek or the #23 pizza.   Now we will have to decide on either Greek, #23, or another pizza.  Numbers 20 and 21 sound wonderful.  And #22 is a contender too.

As others have mentioned, the service is REALLY slow.  I believe the problem is with their set up.  You order at the bar, take a number card to a table and then the servers try to find you.  The problem is there are four interior dining areas and two exterior dining areas.  The staff goes through each looking for the number cards.  With so many areas to check they really need to change the restaurant to a sit-down service.  That would also allow them to control the number of customers to  make sure they have enough staff to handle the amount of service needed.

My pizza came pretty quickly and it was tasty but his hamburger came a good 20 minutes later.  Prior to finally being delivered to our table we watched it being carried through all the dining areas two times.  I finally held up the number card and waved it and another customer pointed to waitress to our table.  He ordered his hamburger medium, but it was very rare.  We figured it was no use flagging down a server as then we'd be waiting god know how much longer for a hamburger cooked to his liking.

Having read another review I knew that we would have to get our own utensils from the service area as they weren't given to us when they served our food.

On the plus side, the French fries were really hot and crispy.

We decided to try Black Bear for Sunday breakfast.  We arrived around 9 a.m. and were seated right away.  The menu (very cute, printed on newsprint with articles from Davis in 1955) is extensive.

I ordered the vegetarian omelette with the red potatoes, and he ordered the Small Volcano (3 pancakes stacked with 1 egg on top, served with 1 piece of bacon and 1 piece of sausage)

The plates were huge and filled.   My country red diced potatoes were undercooked.  They were better as left overs- recooked.  Omelette so-so, not enough filling.  

The pancakes are a special recipe "Sweet Cream Pancakes"  They were too sweet.  He has a big sweet tooth, usually drowns his pancakes in syrup.  Luckily he poured just a little on a corner and decided he didn't need any more and still considered them too sweet.

Service was a little slow.  It was awhile before someone came around to check if we needed more coffee, on the other hand, the mugs are so large we didn't need a refill until the server showed up.

Not great food, but for a  place for when we feel like going out for Sunday breakfast and read the newspaper, it's OK.

Final note on service:  A couple of days later my guy was at the athletic club and our server from breakfast was there and  recognized him and started chatting.   Nice to see they hire local friendly people.

The Mount Shasta Brewing Company is trying out a pub menu.  It is not obvious, there are no menus or signboard.  You have to ask for it at the bar.  We found out because we asked if they are now serving food.

On the menu are hot dogs and brats and nachos.  Not on the menu, again you have to ask, were two varieties of wraps.  We ordered one of each.  Both the turkey wrap and the Thai chicken wrap were good.  The wraps are served with either potato chips or a very tasty three bean salad.  

Food is served on paper plates with plastic forks.

The wraps were $6.00 each.  The beer is great.  Thursday and Friday nights they now offer Blue Grass music starting at 7 p.m.