Erica B.'s Profile

So the boyfriend and I have a ritual of going to IHOP for breakfast when he's in town. We went to IHOP yesterday and wanted to try something new today so we scouted out a new place on Yelp. Based on most of the reviews for Hobees and the fact that its down the street, we headed there.

Best decision ever. When we got there (about 11am) the place was pretty busy but not extremely crowded. We didn't have to wait to be seated so we immediately got our table and the hostess took our drink orders and brought them right out. This set the tone for the rest of the service. The waiters were EXTREMELY attentive and the BF never had an empty cup of coffee.

I ordered the chicken apple sausage scramble (eggs, chicken apple sausage, gouda cheese, onions, normally comes with mushrooms but i got without) with banana-toffee coffeecake and the BF ordered an eye-opener (scrambled eggs, pork sausage, and home fries). The food came out in about 10 minutes and was nice and hot but not "just got nuked" hot. I really enjoyed my scramble and the BF said his food was "as expected." I also got fresh squeezed orange juice which tasted great, much better than the from concentrate stuff that most other places serve.

The real standout of the meal was the coffeecake. It was huge and also tasty. The pile of butter they put on top would make Paula Deen proud. I'm not normally a coffeecake kind of person but this was pretty good. I was expecting it to be dry based on how fluffy it looked but surprised at how moist it was. Boyfriend agreed on this point.

Overall the experience was great and the boyfriend and I have decided Hobees will be our new breakfast spot. Sorry IHOP. Some pointers for those of you reading this review wondering if you should go or not:

- On Sunday, the crowd gets a little dense around noon. After church traffic I think.
- Don't expect the typical hip brunch crowd. Lots of families and older folks.
- There is more parking on the side of the building, don't be fooled by the small number spots in the front of the building.
- Check the pictures I posted for the type of food to expect.

My mom and aunt wanted to go to this soul food store that was next to our hotel in Virginia. I was skeptical but happily surprised to find good food for relatively cheap. We went to lunch which was a pay by the pound situation ($4.99/lb). I really wish they served breakfast on the weekday as I was craving some fish and grits (which is on their menu) but I settled for meatloaf, greens, mashed potatoes, collard greens, and cornbread.

Pros: Yummy yummy soul food! The greens rivaled my moms (I wasn't going to say that in front of her though) and the fact that they cook without pork was great news to my non-pork eating eating taste buds. Mom said the liver and onions were good and I really enjoyed the cornbread. It's very hard for people to make moist cornbread but Soul Delicious gets it done.

Cons: Styrofoam dishes and instant sweet tea! The instant mashed potatoes weren't too offensive but instant sweet tea in the south is just bad.

I'm a believer.

Since my arrival in the Bay area, I've been going to Deepa "the Threading Queen" and never quite felt comfortable going to an unlicensed threading outfit masquerading as a video store. Ask Paula Abdul about what unlicensed work will get you. I digress.

I decided to check out Sumi about 3 weeks ago and was so/so on the eyebrow threading I received. I don't know the ladies name who did my first one but it was nothing to write home about.

I went back today and there was another lady there who had just finished some gorgeous henna art when she noticed I'd been waiting a while and did my brows and upper lip.

Holy wow. I'm pretty serious about my eyebrows and haven't had this good of a thread since I left NYC. Quick, nearly painless (cannot say the same about the experience with Deepa, her work brought tears to my eyes) and my brows are *perfect* (see picture and check for yourself).

I'm only giving a 4 star rating because the lady who did my brows didn't give her name when I introduced myself. I wish she would have so I know who to ask for when I go in!

My dad called me on a Saturday stating this: We're having a surprise 50th birthday party for your mom next Saturday.

My first thought: WTF

My second thoughts: Must get decorations, must make travel arrangements, MUST GET CAKE.

No, I could not trust the cake to my dad so I looked on Yelp for some bakeries. To be completely honest, Ettore's wasn't the first place I called. I asked one place how much a simple two tier cake with some white rolled fondant and a couple flowers would be. Their response? "We need to treat it like a weeding cake so you need to come in for a tasting." I explained to them that I lived in Sunnyvale and couldn't make a 2 hour drive for a cake tasting. They didn't care. Jerks.

I called Ettore's next but hung up after the 2nd ring (sorry about that Ettore's) when I realized you could order cakes on their website. Cake ordering without interacting with asshole people was right up my alley. Not to say the staff at Ettore's are assholes (they are perfectly AWESOME) but the first place left a bad taste in my mouth.

Where was I? Oh the website! So I checked out the cakes on the website and the princess cake looked PERFECT. I nearly bought it right there but thought I would check with dad first. He said he wanted me to get the carmel pecan cheesecake.

I scoffed. Who gets a cheesecake for a birthday cake? I decided to go for 2 cakes to appease dad and Ettore's prices made that not so painful. The 10" cheesecake and the 10" Princess caked ended up running me about $75 together.

Mom ended up loving both cakes (the princess cake made her jaw drop) and everybody kept asking where we got the cakes from. The cheesecake was super rich and the princess cake was just heavenly.

Overall, I'm glad that other place ended up being difficult as I couldn't have imagined a better birthday for mom.

No. Just no. If you're thinking about holding any event at this place, think again.

My dad booked a "private space" for my moms surprise birthday party. I didn't see the place until time for setup.

I walked into a room with tables of different sizes that were all shoved together. These unmatched tables were covered by wrinkled unmatched table cloths. The room had a strange odor that smelled vaguely of feet and old food. We Febreezed the hell out of the room to no avail.

After we covered up as much of the smell and as much of the ugly decor as possible, we noticed people walking in to the area. Much to our chagrin, it seems the walkway to the bathroom went right through our private room. Random people lollygagging and gawking while walking through my moms party was quite distracting.

The one saving grace of this place was the wait staff. Seriously, they were too good for the place. The one star is for the wait staff.

I know options are limited in Yuba City but exhaust them all before you even think of this place. In fact, try some place in Sacramento before this place. Stay far, far, FAR away.

A friend asked me to compare the Sprinkles cupcakes to Magnolia Bakery cupcakes. I'm pasting that comparison verbatim since I am too lazy to write another review. Enjoy (or don't):

I am never one to pass up an opportunity for a good cupcake so I went to sprinkles today. While Sprinkles is a good cupcake place in their own right, they are no magnolia.

On the plus side, the cupcake at Sprinkles is moister. On the minus side, the cupcake is much more dense, almost bread like. I like my cake to be cake, not sweetened bread. While the frosting at both places is sweet, the Sprinkles frosting is gooey as opposed to the rich stiffness of the Magnolia frosting.

I have to say that when I walked in to Sprinkles, I was instantly put off by the odor of pretentious. I wonder if the extra dollar difference in cupcake price is paying for that silly sticker they put on the box at Sprinkles. Magnolia feels homier and you get the sense that Magnolia would still be Magnolia had they not gotten a mention in SATC. Unrelated to cupcakes, Magnolia has other baked goods, including the rare to find perfect magic cookie bar. Winner == Magnolia Bakery.

Earth and Water rules the world. Kevin makes the best seafood known to man and I hope he never ever leaves. However, he's far too good to be kept in one place where the world cannot experience his awesomeness. *sigh*

Chelsea Grill will be the cause of my premature heart attack and the Home Station is to be blamed for my Google umm....15. Err..yeah 15, thats the ticket. If you happen to know a Googler, ask them to bring you in the next time we have the Mac -n- Cheese bar on the menu. You will not be disappointed.

Danita and her desserts make my tastebuds sing. The different varieties of Hot Chocolate on cold winter days were pure heaven. So rich, so good, but oh so bad. *sigh*

I love my job.

Far too hip for my tastes but really good food. I went here with a group of coworkers who were all pretty impressed at how straightforward the menu is. Good drinks, good food, wish it wasn't the sort of place you might expect to see a filming crew for The Hills.

I'm hesitant to write a review about this bar for purely selfish reasons. I want it to remain a secret hideaway that the droves of super hip people won't overcrowd every weekend. However, thats not fair to the business so I grudgingly write this review. Dammit.

After walking around Williamsburg for a while, my companion and I were pointed to this bar by a guy smoking outside the Alligator Lounge. We asked for something quiet, he said try Macri Park. He gave directions and we went on our way. When we got close, we realized that the smoking guys idea of quiet is probably a few decibels above ours. It started drizzling as we approached the place so we stopped in to have 1 drink anyhow. 1 drink ended up turning into 5 hours.

The first hint that this place was something special was the cool Julia-Roberts-if-she-dyed-her-hair-dark-brown look alike bartender. When I asked for a margarita, she smushed some limes for the juice in a manner that would put a Hot Dog on a Stick employee to shame. When my companion complimented her fine grinding skills, she laughed and continued to make me one of the best margaritas I've had in a while.

After the 2nd drink, we migrated from the bar to one of the very cozy booths. I don't mean cozy in the real estate sense (tiny) I mean cozy in the wow I have leg room and the seat is padded sense. A few more people started trickling in as the rain started pouring outside. The pretty decent DJ had to leave so the bartender put in her iPod and played a nice mix of different genres of music.

3 drinks later, mother nature called. I mentally steeled myself for what I thought would be the typical bar bathroom experience. You know, dark, dirty, smelly, gross. I was pleasantly surprised by the clean, decently lit, much bigger than the average bathroom. Never underestimate the importance of a good bathroom.

At around 3am, the rain stopped and the crowd thinned. When there were only about 10 people left in the place, we all did a complimentary shot together. It was quite tasty and I'm not sure what it was called so I'll call it Liquid Camraderie. 4 am brought the close of the place and my companion and I headed out not realizing how late it was. After saying good night to my companion, I got into one of the many cabs to be found outside and headed home.

The only reason I left off a star was because there were moments when I was freezing in the place and sometimes the smoke from outside found its way inside. Please note that the 2nd bartender (owner?) offered to shut the door when he saw me all bundled up.

I liked this place. I'm a fan of low lighting and strong drinks. The music was appropriately low key yet still there. Loud enough that I couldn't really hear the people at the table next to me yet not so loud that I couldn't hear my companions. They would have gotten 4 stars if not for the ginormous roach crawling across the wall one of my companion was leaning against. Can't really hold that too much against them, what with a restaurant next door and being in an old building in New York.