Jack Ranch Cafe Chalome CA.

Jack Ranch Café, Cholome CA

The Jack Ranch Café stands alongside California route 46 about twenty miles East of Paso Robles. It is probably the only building that is visible in the town of Cholome and is a landmark for all fans of the 1950's movie idol James Dean.

The Jack Ranch Café stands only a few hundred yards from the intersection of route 41 from Fresno and Route 46 from Bakersfield. The intersection today forms the James Dean Memorial Junction and is the scene of the fatal motor car crash that took the life of the movie star.

 

Approaching Jack Ranch Café from CA 41, Fresno

 

 

The café is built in a Log Cabin Style and is very clean. As we walked in we were directed to sit anywhere we liked, having arrived a little after 11am the café was a little quiet but as we ate it quickly filled with other diners, some of whom were travelling towards the coast for an afternoon at the beach. Some were making their way home from church.

Jack Ranch Café Interior
 

 

 The Café serves a wide range of meals from Breakfast, sandwiches, Lunch, Dinner and snacks. The prices are good value too. Lunch for us cost $25 including coffee and a tip.  The most expensive items on the menu are steaks from Hearst Ranch, also known as Hearst Castle, about fifty miles away to the West near to San Simeon. The food which we ate included soup and a chicken sandwixch all the food tasted very good and portions were large too.

 

 

 

 

Some of the great food available at the Jack Ranch Café Cholome CA

 

 

The Farnsworth House: Gettysburg PA

One of my greatest abiding memories of my visit to Gettysburg PA. will be dinner at the Farnsworth House on Baltimore Street.

The Farnsworth House stands across the street from one corner of the Gettysburg National Cemetary, on the wall outside the loft window you can see a myriad of bullet marks where during the three day battle Union troops had fired upon the Confederate snipers who had occupied the attic room to fire down upon the Union troops across the street.

 

The food is delicious, and the dining room, though a little dark for my tastes is full of atmosphere with its heavy wood paneling and wooden floors.

 

Reservations are a must and the restaurant is often booked a few days in advance so please remain flexible on the daate for your dinner.

 

The Farnsworth House has a reputation for hauntings, a regular place for ghost hunter programs to visit. I would also recommend one of the Ghost Tours beginning from the Farnsworth House at dusk. They are very entertaining but wrap up warm as temperatures can fall quickly after dusk.

 

 

 

 

Gettysburg Battlefield "Ghost" Card

 

William Elliott on Zazzle

 

Dockside Too: Morro Bay CA

/the Dockside Too in the Heart of Morro Bay Califfornia

 

Morro Bay is a small  city on Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, it lies justt North of San Luis Obispo the city is dominated by two major features, the man made and natural.

 

The man made features are the three chimneys of the Morro Bay power plant. The natural is a massive mound of granite rising from the sea, known as Morro Rock. Morro Rock is all that remains of a great volcano which must have dominated the region in prehistoric times. The rock is actually the plug which formed in the heart of the volcano as it died. 

 

 

Morro Rock



To get to Dockside Too drive off Highway One down towards the chimney's of the power plant, if you keep going downhill you are heading the right way as the restaurant is as it name suggests right on the dockside.

This area is filled with several fish restaurants, all of which are pretty good.

Dockside Too is unique in that it is totally a dine outside restaurant. Very nice on Spring and Summer days. Though I would advise maybe taking a jacket and sun lotion with you as it can be cold by the Ocean inlet and the sun is also very intense.

 

Among my favorite foods at the Dockside Too are  their fish and Chips. Fish are caught fresh, This cod had been swimming in the Pacific that very morning.

Staff are very friendly and special to their ordering is that you go into their fish market to order. As your meal comes ready you are called back to collect your meal, a little like a fast food restaurant, but here you can choose your own portion which is cooked to order.

Also the owners of the restaurant are dog lovers, if you have your dog with you he or she can drink a cool bowl of water before you all go for a walk on the beach and a basket of dog treats are kept available for your pet.

 

Salaam Seafood - Fresno CA.

Restaurant Address, Salaam Seafood, 841 F Street Fresno California.

As you may know I like to find some little known special places to eat. Salaam Seafood is one of those little gems that you can easily miss.

Not far from the downtown business district of Fresno but on a small side street in what looks like a lost part of town near the Southern Pacific railroad tracks.

A friend of mine pointed the way to this great little diner.

Salaam Seafood specializes in fish as the name might suggest. On this visit I took the option to have fried Catfish.

The batter was a cornmeal batter so very nutty to the taste and wonderfully crunchy. Every piece of the fish was cooked to perfection and tasty. I have had some catfish in the past that had a slight muddy taste but this fish was succulent and sweet.

Prices were great value. This is a workplace sort of diner, not a fancy downtown restaurant. The staff were extremely friendly as were the regular customers at other tables. There was lots of cross talk across the various groups around the diner and the staff which gave the place wonderful atmosphere.

If you are near Downtown Fresno, take a trip to 841 DF Street and enjoy a taste of Southern style fish.

Phil's Fish Market - Moss Landing CA

For a small town Moss Landing has several good places to eat.

Drive North from Monterey on Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) after about forty minutes you will come to a large power station on your right( (left if your are heading South from Santa Cruz) . This is Moss Landing, turn left onto the street which will take you into the town itself. Drive about two hundred yards and you will see a bridge over the inlet to the harbor, turn right immediately after crossing the bridge and you will see a series of grey warehouses to your left, the landing to your right. The third of these warehouse buildings is Phil's Fish Market.

Don't judge a book or restaurant for that matter by its cover. Phil's may look like an industrial warehouse but the full parking lot should tell you that this is definitely the place to eat.

Phil's and its owner has even appeared on an episode of Bobby Flay's Throw-down Challenge. Phil did win the challenge with his tasty Chipinno (Fish Soup). Despite its Italian sounding name Chipinno is a Californian dish/ The name is said to come from San Fransisco fishermen "chipping in a" bit of fish or clams for the soup.

The soup has a tomato base and is full of good parts of fish caught out of Moss Landing, it is also full of crabs legs, shrimp and clams. Definitely nott a meal for a first date, but delicious and filling anyway.

Phil's also maintains a fish market beside the restaurant and you can buy the best quality fish there for reasonable prices, then take them home to cook for dinner.

As an addition if you get home from a trip to California and must have some more Chipinno, Phil's does send buckets via mail order across the U.S.

Phil's is an experience besides their chipinno you can buy a wide variety of quality seafood dishes.  Seating is family style on benches in some areas, small tables in other areas. The food is always delicious and well priced varying with the season and what the local fishing fleet has brought in that day.

Well worth a visit.


For more information here is a link toPhil's Fish Market Website

Haute Enchilada - Moss Landing CA

If you take Highway 1 South from Santa Cruz CA, towards Monterey, CA you will pass through the small town of Moss Landing.

You cannot miss Moss Landing, the tall chimneys of the power station dominate the surrounding region. A few hundred yards south of the entrance to the power station compex, on the ocean side of Highway 1 there is a turning which takes you into Moss Landing itself. This road then forks turn left and The Haute Enchilada is on the right side of the road opposite a small gift/antique shop.

The Haute Enchilada serves excellent food, particularly seafood and seasonal vegetables and fruit from the Moss Landing, Watsonville and Castroville areas.

They also serve an excellent Mole (Mexican chocolate sauce)

Meals are well portioned a meal for two will cost about $20 but it is quality food and whether you choose to eat outside in a pretty garden or inside in this richly proportioned bar/restaurant you will have great memories.