Holly W.'s Profile

This place is definitely experiencing some growing pains.  

Apparently just reopened, all the bartenders stare at you with a scared look in their eyes and the lines are NUTS.  My cousin order a Mai Tai and was served a tequila with cranberry juice -- I'm just not sure  any of them know what's going on.  

On the upside though, the bouncers are fantastic and act quickly when drunken douchebags go throwing their drinks around.  Music selection was interesting on the night I was there (Saturday)-- but maybe  it varies from night to night.

If you are there during the day, grab a beer (beware they serve Blue Moon but have no oranges) and sit by the window.  It's great people watching right above Cannery Row.

Apparently I am picky about sushi. Who knew?

If I am having sushi, there are a few things that I need to have an enjoyable experience:

-Fish that does not smell fishy
-Low Sodium Soy Sauce
-Amenable servers who can answer my questions (after all I do NOT claim to be an expert)
-Rolls that are creative (This does not mean I only enjoy rolls that are doused in sauce and deep fried -- but I would like the roll menu to expand beyond California Rolls and Spicy Tuna Rolls)

You would be surprised by how hard this is to find outside of Sacramento.  I mean, I AM SURPRISED how hard of a time I have had finding good sushi when we are out of town on the weekend.

Enter Sapporo.  

Friends promised us that we would have an enjoyable experience and lo and behold -- it was great!  Fantastic environment, beautiful views of the wharf, and delicious and fresh fish along with creative rolls that I had never seen or tasted before -- including a roll with grilled white tuna that absolutely tasted like a juicy stead -- except it was fish.  It was like nothing I have ever tasted.  And I was relieved.  

A few people told us, "oh that place is so touristy" -- and maybe so.  But we had no problems getting a table on a Friday for lunch, our server was a delight and made great recommendations, I tasted something new, and THEY HAD LOW SODIUM SOY SAUCE!

Finally.

I love this Lowe's and even though I live in Carmichael, it is worth the drive!

The store is always tidy and the employees are incredibly helpful. Recently I bought a barbecue as a gift for my boyfriend at the Lowe's in Lincoln that came as advertised with a free cover. Because the free cover wasn't obvious I asked the guy helping me if I had to go get it from somewhere or if it was in the box.

"It's in the box." he said.

Convinced, but just double checking I asked the cashier who was ringing me up.

"Yeah, I think it's in the box, do you want me to double check with my manager?"

Sure.

The Manager comes over:

"It's in the box."

Great. I'm convinced. Now may I add here, I'm not obsessed with the free cover or anything, frankly I could care less if it was free or not, I just wanted to make sure there was a cover. I was planning on buying one anyway. But as three separate people assured me...it was in the box.

WELL GUESS WHAT WASN'T IN THE BOX????

I was really pissed when, on his birthday two weeks later, my boyfriend opened up his barbecue and there was no cover in sight.

GRR.

We headed over the Lowe's in West Sac and I could already imagine how this was gonna look --

"Um...there was supposed to be a free cover...I bought this at a different location....yeah, a couple of weeks ago...so whaddya think can I have one now?"

Riiiight.

I just thought it was going to be a giant pain in the ass, but at this point, I was so pissed at all 3 associates from the Lincoln Lowe's that I was determined to get my free cover.

I walked in, relayed the situation, the girl at the Returns Counter called her manager, who then walked me right over to the covers (which, btw, were NEVER in the box) and grabbed one for me. And I was on my merry way.

I just REALLY appreciate this kind of customer service!

Randomly, the morning after Thanksgiving, my boyfriend and I decided we wanted to head down to Berkeley.  Being from Sacramento, we wanted to avoid all the Black Friday madness, but were kind of in the mood to do a little music shopping.  With a plan to head to Rasputin and Amoeba and then head over to Blondie's for a delicious slice of pizza for dinner, we were on our merry way.  

Fast forward a few hours...

We are totally shopped out,  have walked up and down Telegraph Ave. reminiscing about our youth and the piercing mistakes of yesteryear, are headed to dinner and freakishly we both stop with the exact same thought on our mind:

WHERE THE HELL CAN YOU GET SOME HAND SANITIZER UP IN THIS TOWN...IT IS FILTHY!  :)

Luckily we were asking that question to each other in front of Raleigh's and thought, sneakily, that if we go in and order a beer we could ACTUALLY WASH OUR HANDS WITH REAL WATER AND SOAP!  

(weekends are wild around our house, I swear.)

So needless to say our expectations of this place were low, but Raleigh's TOTALLY delivered in a way that was amazing enough to make me want to go back there again when I'm in the area.  First of all the beer is super cheap -- if I can get one of like fifty beers on tap for $2.50 -- I'm gonna leave a place smiling.  Between the two of us we enjoyed a Fuller's ESB, Great White, Scrimshaw, and some other beer that I can't remember but all for $10 bucks!  Holy smokes!  

And being that it was the day after Thanksgiving and all and we wanted to keep it light, we ordered the onion rings and the cajun fries and they were DEEP FRIED DELICIOUSNESSS!  

Don't worry, we still headed over to Blondie's afterward for pizza, which kind of makes me wanna barf now that I'm saying this all out loud -- but Raleigh's was definitely the highlight of the night.  If I was a student up at Cal, this would definitely be a go-to joint!

I am the opposite of a water baby.  

It's not that I don't like water per se, it's just that I have never met an aquatic sport that I liked -- and it sure hasn't been for lack of trying.  I'm an awful water skier, I've been thrown off a jet-ski in more ways than you can imagine, I love the beach but am not so thrilled about the whole "swimming in the ocean" part and have seen way too many JAWS movies to try anything involving a board.  Not to mention I'm sure I've pulled a muscle just trying to hold on for dear life while tubing on the back of a boat, and swallowed more Delta water than is probably healthy -- if  my kids come out with gills or webbed feet I'm totally filing a lawsuit.

So with that in mind, when my family decided that Labor Day kayaking was going to be the Best! Thing! Ever! you can imagine that I held my breath a little.  I'm a good sport though, so my boyfriend and I packed our picnic, swimsuited up, lathered on the sunscreen and I timidly rented a kayak and secured a life jacket ($9 an hour, btw -- how cheap!?! and a discount for Sac State alums -- so take that Aggies!)  

Let me warn you of one thing ahead of time though -- getting in a kayak for the first time is not graceful so if you are planning a fun first date -- I don't know, account for straddling things in beachwear and odd noises while you are splashing around trying to get comfy on your boat.  Getting out is about the same routine.

In my opinion, it's nice to have a little mini-lesson before you head out in the water.  My cousins had a cute older gentleman instruct them about how to row, how to stay balanced, and how to get back in the boat if you fall out.  Unfortunately, when I finally got down to the dock to pick up my kayak, the tank top clad college kid that was helping me just basically watched me get in (awkward!) and then pushed me out into the open water and walked away.  As I glided off into the abyss I  shouted, "Hey wait...what do I do if I fall out?" and he looked over his shoulder and shook his head a little bit and said "Get back in."  

Thanks for that, buddy.  You get NO stars, for your extra helpful service!

HOWEVER, I totally didn't fall out, and it was easy for me once I got the hang of it.  (This is Me, were talking about, with the opposite of mad! watersportz! skillz!)  I had a great time rowing to my little heart's content.  There were tons of beautiful sights to see, calm water, places to dock and swim, and generally people of all ages having fun -- and afterwards, I got to relax by the water and have a picnic with the fam and delight in a beautiful summer afternoon.  

Hello, fun!

I would do this again in a heartbeat, but next time I would avoid the college aged employees if at all possible.

One of my favorite things to do is to go to a movie alone during the first showing of the day and have popcorn for breakfast. (Ok, brunch.  Whatever.)  Yeah, it's kinda nerdy, but that's okay because I'm kinda nerdy.

Anyway, Big Spoon is kind of my dinner equivalent to that phenomenon.  I love to cook, but on a hot Summer night if I have had an exceptionally rough day, you can bet I'm having FroYo for dinner.  

(And by the way, I hate the word FroYo.  You have to admit you shuddered just a little bit when you read that sentence?)

Nevertheless, Big Spoon is cold, cheap, and delicious and the options for yogurt flavor as well as toppings are vast and can pretty much curb any craving.  I love that people just show up and chill there on Summer nights, sitting out on the patio or on the curb, and I've never really had a bad experience there.  

As far as service goes, I've never had a great experience there either, but you know what, it's self serve -- so I'm okay if the girl at the cash register isn't doing pirhouettes for me.  

I know Pinkberry-esque yogurt is all the rage, but Big Spoon can truly hold it's own.

Let's be real -- you will see two types of reviews for this establishment:

1.  5 Stars -- "excellent food when I'm wasted."

2.  1-2 Stars -- "The food is totally awful, who even wants to go here?"

I'm inclined to lean towards the latter, but luckily for Hot Rods the answer to the age old, "Who even wants to go here?" is drunk people.  And boy, do they come out in droves night after night.  

Hot Rods is:
a.) Open Late
b.) Conveniently Located to numerous watering holes and
c.) Serves Deep Fried Food

For you teetotalers out there, this is the holy trinity of post-intoxication sustenance .

The food is probably decent greasy fare if you are stone cold sober, but frankly it's doesn't go above and beyond any other chicken strip and onion ring serving establishments , so why bother dealing with a rowdy and compromised crowd unless you have also been out tying one on? Oh wait, or unless you are a bad music video connossieur.

If you are out late (or jonesing for a Eurotrash dance remix of Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl"), stop by and get your fill -- but otherwise, I'd keep my distance.

The first time I visited this fine establishment I walked out onto their outside patio and the DJ was pumping "Return of the Mack" as a 50+ year old woman was being escorted out of the place while fumbling with her spaghetti straps .  

With the smell of hot beer and garbage in the air, I realized that the aquarium is not Monterey's only fishy smelling attraction.  

This place is a real sight.  Almost worthy of 5 stars just for the experience, except I hit my head so hard on some protruding planter box while trying to order a beer that I almost gave myself a concussion.  Who puts protruding objects on a wall right next a bar??????

Anyway, more annoying was my whole cell phone fiasco  It was ringing off the hook all night because 1996 wouldn't stop calling and asking for their music back.

BLECH!  Ikea!

Shopping here reminds of my first dysfunctional boyfriend in college.  You start out all excited at what's in store, secretly hoping you will uncover something fantastic and beautiful -- full of excitement, potential, and lust!

But then you show up and it's all "Yeah, I kind of just want to play Xbox and get faded with my frat bros.  Wanna come back later?"

Oh wait.  

But in all seriousness, every time I go there I'm always excited to find something fantastic and cheap! (Oh god, I love the cheapness!)  But to find that stuff you have to walk through a veritable fun house of crap furniture.  I'm always ending up in the bedroom area when I'm trying to find more useless gadgets for my kitchen -- and yeah, can I get a real basket for this shit? Not your plastic-y yellow trash bag that 20,000 other people have used before me?

And speaking of bags -- BYO at the cash register unless you want to pay a nickel (preferably with the names and logos of other, nicer furniture establishments).  It's not the price that kills me, it's the principle that I have just finally navigated my way through a maze of very authentically named Swedish tinker toys that I'm about to have to go home and put together with an effing allen wrench, so can you cut me some slack and bag up my stuff with a smile on your face so I don't have to walk out to the parking lot with my hands full and a POANG chair in my armpit? Thank you.

CRIMONY!

Thanks to Ikea I now have anxiety attacks every time I see an umlaut.

I need to make a confession -- I don't LOVE Zelda's -- but it is one of those places around Sactown that you hear people raving about so I almost feel guilty saying that.  Like I'm mocking an institution, or thumbing my nose at Sacramento history or something.  

The dinginess didn't immediately turn me off -- it's sort of like if the Pirates of the Carribean ride served food --- but the pizza was only so-so and Y'ALL IT'S EXPENSIVE! (That was my best Britney Spears accent there for ya.)  I'm sorry, my pizza budget normally runs closer to Papa Murphy's prices or my favorite supermarket frozen brands so when I'm going to go out and sit down to have a pizza I want it to HIT! THE! SPOT!  and this just didn't.  

Perhaps I ordered the wrong thing, but this is pizza -- and we all know that even when it's bad it's supposed to be pretty good, right?  

I give it 3 stars for it's prideful identity and for the cheap beer on tap and RIDICULOUS selection of liquor (looking for Absolut GrapefruitBlueberryPassionKiwiBerryFruit -- they've got it) but I'm disappointed that there was no part of my visit that made me really excited to go back again.

I want to love you passionately and effusively, Zelda's -- I really do.  But right now, we're kind of just making awkward small talk in line at the DMV.