Erica B.'s Profile

My review is a little unorthodox  but its warranted. This will give you an idea of my outstanding experience at Independence. http://www.youtube.com...

Thanks so much guys!

5pm Dinner before the movie. Went to this McCormick and Schmick's because the husband and I had our rehearsal dinner at the one in Baltimore.

Limited menu. I like more, but whatever.
Ordered crabcake, risotto, and california rolls. Food was passable, nothing amazing but not disgusting.

FRUIT FLIES BUZZING THE GODDAMN TABLE THE WHOLE NIGHT!!

Overall, the experience wasn't worth the money. We won't be returning to this particular McCormick and Schmick's.

Here was my experience with Braids by Betty. It's long but I wanted to make sure I got everything in since it is the first and only review of the business. I gave 3 stars since I'm kind of so/so about the entire experience.

On NYE and at the last minute before I had to go on a work trip, I decided I wanted to get some new hair so I wouldn't have to deal with mine on the trip. I called some other places and one wasn't opening again until the 4th (after my departure date) and the other didn't answer the phone. Someone in a review mentioned how they should have gone to Braids by Betty so I took that as a positive indicator of the business.

Having not had my hair braided in a while, I researched what the new styles were and decided I wanted cornrow tree braids (like this: http://www.flickr.com/...). I called and asked if they had availability to do tree braids on the 3rd and yes, at 9am was the answer.

When I arrived, I was confused because the place was just an empty storefront. I called the business number to figure out what I was supposed to do and the answering machine gave me the correct address. The address listed on yelp and other places is incorrect. I drove to the correct address (about a mile down Telegraph) and proceeded to drive around for a while looking for parking. All the parking is street parking and the spots directly in front of the business are metered. After no success finding an unmetered free space in a 3 block radius, I parked in a metered space and fed the meter quarters.

I then went in and began talking with Betty's daughter (I think?) who was opening the shop. This was at about 9:10 am. I told her the style I wanted and showed her the hair I purchased. It was Beverly Johnson 18" spanish wave braiding hair (I'd been unable to find the straight hair I wanted). She told me this hair wasn't long enough then sent me across the street to buy different hair. The place across the street had more hair than I've ever seen in one place. I was overwhelmed by the selection given that I've not had braids since I was in my teens. After much searching I settled on some packs of straight 22" hair. I was paying and on my way out when Betty's daughter came to see what was taking me so long. When she saw the hair I purchased, she told me it was the wrong hair and proceeded to have the sales people get 3 packs of 22-24" wet n wavy hair. Since they are the professionals, I purchased the suggested hair and made my way back to the salon. Found a parking ticket on the front of the car as the meter expired while I was hair hunting. They are aggressive with the ticketing in the area.

In the shop, I found Betty waiting. Her daughter told her what I wanted (there was a lot of this translating to come) and she asked why I didn't want individual tree braids as cornrow tree braids don't last very long, only 3 weeks. Several places on the internet stated that this style is supposed to last between 4-6 weeks. She told me I should get individual tree braids around the perimeter of my hair and a weave in the crown area. I wasn't open to the idea since the whole idea of the cornrow tree braids was to a) give my hair a rest and b) have something relatively simple to deal with. Having never had a weave, I didn't feel into learning the care and maintenance routine. I requested we stick to the cornrow tree braids. After some back and forth about it, Betty agreed to the style.

The braiding commenced, as did the talking. There was a lot of talking between Betty and her daughter and Betty and someone on the phone in a language that was not English. Perhaps Haitian Creole? I wasn't too concerned with this as I was listening to an audiobook the whole time.

At about 3/4 of the way through, I was told I'd need another pack of hair and was sent across the street to buy more. Once Betty was done, I mentioned that the hair was really bulky. I was told that once I wet it, it would be fine. I found that not to be the case. There is a massive amount of hair on my head, an almost unmanageable amount. Think Donna Summer circa 1978-1980 (http://maurycio.files....). Of note, once I left I noticed a large amount of shedding that hasn't ceased. Today tugging one piece of hair and having it almost come completely led me to the revelation that end of one of the cornrows is unraveling, 2 days after getting the hair done. Perhaps this is what was meant about this style not lasting.

Cost of 4 packs of hair: $380
Cost of style: $200
Tip: $40
Grand Total: $620
Total satisfaction level: Not very.

I think its safe to say that I won't be experimenting with braids again in the near future. My wallet and my husband wouldn't be able to handle it.

Sumi is the place I regularly get my brows done and normally they are wonderful.

Recently I let someone do my brows that had never done them before. I'd seen her on prior visits but never sat in her chair. I don't recall her name but she's a younger person. When I last went there were 4 people waiting ahead of me but none of them let her do their brows. I should have taken notice of that.

She takes forever and my brows didn't turn out well. When I got home I had 3 marks on my eyebrow where she'd pinched off pieces of skin. Ouch! Be wary!

Ugh.

My boyfriend and i went to this place in search of hush puppies. Alas, they had no hush puppies, even though they were on the menu. -1 star

I ordered grilled salmon with rice and mixed vegetables. The salmon was overcooked and the rice was clearly some sort of prepackaged situation. -1 star

Boyfriend ordered fried oysters and "fries." The fries turned out to be potatoes cut into fourths and dropped in some oil. Literally. Not an ounce of seasoning to be found on them. The oysters themselves were "fine but too greasy" according to boyfriend. -1 star

The place was clean and there was plenty of seating.  They clearly dropped a nice amount of money on the menus and website. Alas the shiny website did not live up to the actual establishment.

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.

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 wedding 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.