Have you ever been to Verona? The ancient city, nestled in Northern Italy, is the setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Many lovers visit the legendary (albeit symbolic) balcony where Mr. Romeo lured Miss Juliet. I too tumbled into a great love affair while in Verona … with the fabulous food. I always assumed a revisit to Italy would be necessary to again devour pasta made with such luxurious finesse. Ristorante Donatella, in Rancho Mirage, reminded me of one of The Four Agreements … “Don’t make assumptions.� Owner, Donatella, is a native of Verona and has successfully re-created her towns cuisine on American soil, twice. Tucked away in an inconspicuous location, next to mainly retail and office space, the Italian gem sparkles with a warm inviting ambiance oncinside.             

The extensive menu reads in traditional Italian style, beginning with antipasti and moving through pasta, carne, pesce etc. My parents and I spent at least 30 minutes poring over the menu, pre-tasting with our eyes. Risotto alone is prepared in six different ways! The wine list is formed from both Italy and California with many reasonably priced options. We sipped on a bottle of Tormaresco Chardonnay from

Puglia. The insalata choices seemed endless so we decided to share three of them. (Many of the salads can be ordered small or large which I liked.)The Caesar was classic, creamy, and crisp, resonating with garlic and parmigiano cheese. They raise the bar with their “house salad;� chopped red leaf, fresh mozzarella, pepperoncinis, olives, cherry tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, and proscuitto. This was a mansion of a salad to me!
 

We all ordered our own entrees, but next time I would order one or two pasta dishes, one meat, and one fish and share family style since the portions are large.

 

I indulged in the fettuccine zucchini gamberi, but replaced the fettuccini with pappardelle. The wide ribbons of satiny pasta, perfectly al dente, dallied in a light white wine sauce along with long rectangular slices of wholesome zucchini and a copious amount of plush pink shrimp.

 

My dad went the way of meat and ordered veal scaloppini in a rich, velvety tomato sauce dotted with porcini mushrooms and served with penne. While the pasta and sauce were quite good, the veal itself was a bit dry and lackluster.

 

My mom had the fish special, Sand Dabs swimming in a shallow lagoon of luscious white wine butter sauce. The fish was so deliciously delicate, that it vanished in your mouth almost instantly. Emerald green spinach sautéed in garlic and olive oil was the perfect simple accompaniment. Unfortunately, we were too satisfied (aka full) to pamper ourselves with dessert, so we’ll just have to make a return visit to Ristorante Donatella. Thankfully, it’s but a 2 hour drive from my home in Los Angeles; a far more manageably trek than returning to Verona on a regular basis and every bit as authentic.

Ristorante Donatella
71511 Hwy. 111 Ste. A-B
Rancho Mirage, Ca 92270
760-773-6434

Me, I’m crazy. Its broiling hot in LA so where do I go? Where it is even hotter!

Anyway, all these years in LA , I’ve never been a tourist in this little oasis a mere 2 hours drive away. Thus, I had no idea where to eat and on this occasion, I did not research food options in preparation for the trip.

Thus, my question for our dear gentle LAFB readers is this: how do you decide where to have a meal in a town where you don’t know anything about the options?

Ask a local

Was in the mood for fish and there are plenty of swanky upscale places that would have fish on the menu but what about something more affordable?

I was told to check out Fisherman’s Market and Grill.

The quality of food to price ratio was very good. As you can see the setting isn’t fancy but it was cool which is what you are looking for when it is 90F+ outside!

One can order any number of fresh fish on the chalkboard and have it grilled. I asked the lady at the counter to suggest something and she liked the fish tacos and that is what I ordered.

Fisherman’s Market and Grill
235 S. Indian Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA 92262
Phone: (760) 327-1766
Fax: (760) 416-8641
Mon-Sat 11:00 am-9:00 pm
Sunday 12:00 pm-8:00 pm

After dinner, I walked up Palm Canyon Drive to check out the downtown Villagefest. It was their weekly street fair which occurs every Thursday night. There were many arts and craft vendors, food carts and musicians.

If I hadn’t had the delicious fish tacos, I would have had some of the grilled meat from this vendor below …

The crowd wasn’t very large as the sun was still out. I went back to walk by all the booths again when the sun went down and the crowd was much larger. All the tourists ventured out from their air conditioned hotels and lot of the local kids were buzzing about in packs of their friends.

What to have for breakfast?

Ask a local

Plenty of hotel dining options but why not get out and away from the main hotel and restaurant row? The local recommendation I got was Rock Garden Cafe.

I bet this locale with ample outdoor seating is really packed when it isn’t broiling out! But even with the misters going, most people went inside for breakfast/bunch that morning.

I enjoyed the omelette!

And reasonable prices too.

Rock Garden Cafe
777 S Palm Canyon Dr
Palm Springs, CA 92264-8126
(760) 327-8840

Unfortunately, for the next two other places, I didn’t bring the camera.

Where to go?

One can go where there is a huge crowd… they must know something!

Had a wonderful burger from Hamburger Mary’s. It is more expensive (variable up to $10) than your typical fast food burger but it was really good and good sized (bigger than your typical fast food burger) with all the fixings. Also, the fries were terrific!

Hamburger Marys Bar & Grille
415 N. Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA 92262
Phone: 760-778-MARY
Fax 760-322-7466

Go where there is a modest sized crowd

It was a Friday night and some of the restaurants had people spilling out into the streets. Didn’t want to wait forever for dinner. Some restaurants looked way too swanky inside for my budget. Came across Backstage Bistro which was somewhere between overflowing and empty. I suppose everyone was inside the showroom for the evening event so the streetside dining was not too crowded. The prices on the display menu showed most entrees in the teens as far as price. Go for it.

Olive oil and balsamic vinegar was provided for dipping the pre-main course bread. Bread was good. Good sign! Bread is often a good indicator of things to come in my experience. I had a delicious salad with cheese and fruit. But, I must say though that the slices of beef layered on top were a tad overcooked.

Backstage Bistro
200 S. Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA 92262
(760) 864-9293

One observation I have to make about all the restaurants I visited was that I found the customer service to be a bit under-whelming. It was not the most attentive nor friendly. But I wonder if the fact that it was 90F+ at 9pm and 100F+ the rest of the time had anything to do with it? With that in mind, all us diners should cut them some slack?

For those who know Palm Springs well, what are your recommendations?

To see a post that includes tourism aspects of my Palm Springs trip, go here.

Now I was born and raised on the Central Coast, so I am shamelessly biased when I say that trip up to the middle of the state, winding my way through the second-tier wine country, is my favorite way to escape. In a few days you can easily taste your way through a barrelful of wine and stop in such a variety of places that you may feel like you just took a full-fledged vacation.

There is a plethora of options for a trip up the coast, but this is a blog post, not a book so I’m going to highlight just three stops as visited by me on a recent trip up north for my littlest (and only) brother’s wedding: Los Olivos, San Luis Obispo, and Paso Robles.

Los Olivos: If your driving up the 101 from Los Angeles, all Central Coast natives know that you simply have to get off the 101 in Santa Barbara and take Highway 154 over the San Marcos Pass until it meets back up with the 101. Not only is it 12 miles shorter, but you’ll see some amazing scenery, have a much more interesting drive, and you will get to stop at Los Olivos. Highway 154 winds its way through mountains and past a lake in a way that is often beautiful and sometimes a little frightening, and just before it meets back up with the 101, there’s a storybook town called Los Olivos. You won’t see it from the road, but when you get there you’ll find a quiet town with a flagpole smack in the middle and every other storefront is a tasting room for a different winery.

Los Olivos is always my pit stop on my drive up. It has an overwhelming peacefulness and it has Panino. Right near the flagpole, Panino is a little sandwich shop that seems to have every combination of sandwich topping you might possibly want, with vegetarian options helpfully grouped together on their neatly chalked menu. There are salads and soup as well, plus chips and the biggest cookies I have seen in my life.

I almost always order the same thing: prosciutto, mozzarella, red peppers, basil, and tapenade on focaccia. You might as well call this the KT, because this sandwich was made exactly for me. If I am being good, I will get their brown bag special which comes with only a half sandwich, plus a salad. I choose their harvest salad, which contains the pleasantly different ingredient combination of nuts and dried apricots along with goat cheese crumbles.

You sit out on the patio and eat surrounded by the smell of honey and grapes with only the pleasant murmer of fellow travelers to break the calm. It’s a great way to gain strength for the next part of your journey.

Other Los Olivos destinations include: the market/deli about two blocks back toward the highway from Panino. On sunny weekend days they pull out the barbecue and cook up tri-tip sandwiches that you can have with BBQ sauce or salsa (I choose salsa). This is what the Central Coast is all about and you must try it sometime during your visit. Unless you are a vegetarian. There is also a store called Global Gardens that specializes in artisan olive oils and vinegars along with other gourmet food items and gadgets. They have a tasting bar where they’ll let you sample a multitude of olive oils and vinegars and teach you about each one.

San Luis Obispo: San Luis Obispo is the next stop on my mini-tour. There’s a little bit of everything here and it’s a good place to spend a night. If you want to be amazed by something completely crazy, choose one of the many themed rooms at the Madonna Inn. If you would rather have a tranquil stay, try The Sanitarium, a place of health and restoration since the 1880s, it re-opened in 2005 as a 7 room bed and breakfast and spa.

After a good night’s sleep, I recommend a big breakfast to prepare you for whatever you plan to do during the day.

Big Sky Cafe has had the best breakfast in town for years on end, and has been doing organic, seasonal, local-produced since well before it was trendy. It can be crowded on weekends, but for an L.A. native the wait will seem negligible compared to the many minutes we’ve spent lolling on the sidewalk outside the mainstay L.A. brunch spots.

The menu mainly consists of egg dishes, but if you ‘re in the mood for something different, and are starving (maybe you had an action-packed night?) I highly recommend the pozole. This time around, however, I just went for the standard egg breakfast. Two eggs - fried to order; double smoked, thick sliced bacon; fruit salad; and corn bread. Notice that the fruit salad contains a variety of fruits, and is not simply a melon medley. Bonus points for that. $8.50 for the above breakfast, $6.95 without the bacon.

The best day of the week to be in San Luis Obispo is Thursday. Thursday nights, the entire downtown becomes a pedestrian zone for the Farmer’s Market. Along with the farmers you will find a multitude of local products represented. The best dinner in town is some barbecued tri-tip from McClintock’s and then a Cowboy Cookie for dessert. If the crowds overwhelm you, you can slip down Garden Street and hop into Linnaea’s cafe for a coffee or tea out in the back garden.

Paso Robles/Templeton: My final destination is Paso Robles. Paso Robles is hot wine country right now and on a visit here you can taste wines of both large, well-known and small boutique wineries. I prefer the boutique wineries because you can taste and purchase wines that aren’t available in stores, and some of the better wines may only be available to the winery’s club members. For a description of a few of the hundreds of wineries you can visit, check out my post from last year on Paso Robles Wineries.

Paso Robles is interesting because it’s a place in transition. In many ways it’s still a cowboy town and I hope it doesn’t lose that. I may not like country music or country fashion or even country interior decorating, but I LOVE cowboys and cowboy cooking and cowboy fun (even if cowboy music is involved).

Paso Robles is the home of the Mid-State fair where you can see Bob Dylan or Aerosmith on the cheap. But if you’re a local you will know to scope out the hidden gems playing for free on the side stages. Hello, this year you can see Joan Jett, the Bangles, and Chubby Checker all for free! You can also lose your lunch on the carnival rides, eat all the fried food and food on a stick you can stomach, and check out the prize-winning foods and animals in the exhibition hall as well as check out the wine and beer competitions.

As far as food goes, there is McPhee’s, a steakhouse that’s surprisingly modern and innovative, and there’s the new-ish Artisan, which seems like a refugee from further north.

On my most recent trip, I went to Buona Tavola. Buona Tavola serves traditional Northern Italian food and I have been going to the San Luis Obispo location of the restaurant since I was a wee tyke. Nothing here is going to wow you with it’s inventiveness or creativity. It’s just solid (delicious) traditional Italian cooking.

Paso Robles doesn’t have much night life, so the only activity I can recommend for after dark is to find yourself a cowboy bar. We stayed at the Paso Robles Inn, which happily comes with its own cowboy bar, The Cattlemen’s Lounge. The great thing about being in a wine country is that even the cowboy bar has decent wine as their house wine. And there’s cowboy dancing! And this particular bar has a balcony that is particularly nice on a warm evening, especially if you do not desire to do cowboy dancing to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s greatest hits. Just a warning however, my vodka gimlet was all vodka and very little gimlet so might as well go for the good stuff.

If you can handle it after your evening at the cowboy bar, the perfect Saturday morning excursion is to the Templeton farmer’s market. Templeton is only about five minutes away from Paso Robles and the farmer’s market there is excellent. It takes place around the edge of the park and local farmer’s and producers supply everything you could want: fresh produce, meat, fish, cheese and baked goods.

I happened to be at the market when Blenheim apricots were in season, so I had to take advantage of that. Blenheim apricots are members of the Slow Food Movement’s Ark of Taste, which seeks to preserve endangered foods. Due to its late maturation period and especially its fragility, which makes the fruit difficult to transport, Blenheims are in a decline. Which is too bad because they are intense in flavor and in addition to eating raw are wonderful for cooking.

One of my favorite booths was the mushroom booth, where I purchased some dried morels - hard to get in L.A. - and learned how to grow my own mushrooms from the friendly salesperson, who was also selling the growing apparatus.

Other purchases included juicy boysenberries, a gingerbread cookie with an added touch of white pepper, and a bread stick to round out my lunch. The park made a nice atmosphere for the market, as we were surrounded by grass and trees, and children and dogs played in the center of the park, and there was a band that was … interesting, to say the least; kind of like a cross between “Up With People” and Captain and Tenille.

There once was a time when I couldn’t wait to get out of town. After years of hard city living, though, I look forward to a weekend at home, and even when my weekend is packed with activity, I come back refreshed and ready to face the traffic and smog. And the beauty of California is, that our state is so varied  in its landscapes that a trip up the coast is really a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure.