There is a growing craze that is a twist on a traditional restaurant dinner. Known as a “farm dinner,” the concept is a modern take on an old idea: eating food that was grown right there on the ground on which you’re standing, served by the hands that tended the soil, prepared the dish or made the wine.

Mrs. B and I were fortunate enough to partake in the excellent “Outstanding in the Field” farm dinner on a recent Saturday at Rio Gozo Farm in Ojai. OITF, founded by noted artist and Renassiance man Jim Denevan, has grown from a few dinners per year to nearly 100 in the US.  They’ve even expanded into Europe.

It’s a thoroughly unique experience.

The dinner is outside, in the fields.

Patrons bring their own plates.

OITF arrives in a large bus and brings linens, chairs and table to seat about 200 diners.

The table is generally hidden and revealed later in the evening.

The farmer gives background on the farm and food.

Seating is tight and communal.

A local chef cooks and his/her restaurant provides service on site.

Wine is paired and served by a local winemaker, made from grapes from a local vineyard.

Lighting is natural and dinner ends at sunset.

All who contribute to the meal, from beginning to end, are thanked by the patrons.

But unlike a restaurant experience where consistency is prized, each farm dinner is different – leveraging the food and talents that are distinctive to the area.

Interactions with farmer, winemaker, chef, Jim and fellow diners are intimate.

Everyone who partakes is genuinely passionate about the event.

The food was, in a word, incredible.

Rio Gozo farmer John Fonteyn provided fennel, avocados, tangerines, squash, carrots, beets and mulberries that integrated beautifully in Chef Tim Kilcoyne‘s menu.  There wasn’t even a hint of chloride in the berries!

Tickets are exclusively sold online and they go quickly.  The Ojai dinner sold out within 15 minutes of release (we were fortunate to procure the last two!).

Fonteyn said it best: “We want to show you that great food is more than just picking a good restaurant.” In SCV’s sea of chain restaurants, that’s a surprisingly encouraging thought.

My brother went to a recent OITF farm dinner that was hosted by Santa Monica’s community gardens and it got me thinking: perhaps this is one use for our own fledgling community gardens that were announced this week.  We just need a world class chef, a fitting venue (Lombardi Ranch?) and a few interested parties.  Think of it.  A farm dinner, right here in Ess-Sea-Veee, on our own steam without the crutch of our VeCo neighbors.

Here’s to the start of something beautiful with our Community Gardens project.

And thank you Jim, Leah, Tim, John and team for an amazing dinner.  It was inspiring.

Query: What’s a group of young, internet-savvy SCV food connoisseurs to do with themselves in a town that pines for a Cheesecake Factory above all else?

Answer: Un-Think SCV and get the hell out of town on the Sandwich Train to Los Angeles

That’s just what I and about 11 others did last weekend. After some extensive planning by SCVTalk reader and fierce BBQer Mike D. and Lady Ducayne, the 12 of us boarded a Metrolink train Saturday morning in Old Town Newhall and left with empty stomachs, fat wallets and high expectations of finding some good eats in urban Los Angeles.

Metrolink: An Eco-Friendly link to LA

We are very fortunate as a community to have Metrolink services at three train stations throughout town. On Saturdays you can buy a round-trip ticket to downtown Los Angeles for only $11, a bargain when you consider the cost of gasoline and parking at various spots in LA (also, a Metrolink ticket also allows you free transfers on MTA’s rail system).The trip south only takes about 43 minutes from Old Town Newhall to Union Station in downtown LA during which time you can enjoy chatting with friends aboard a clean and comfortable Metrolink train.

The SCV Sandwich Train crew at Union Station with MTA Headquarters in the background

Langer’s Deli

Our first stop was Langer’s Deli near MacArthur park. To get there and try their world famous pastrami sandwiches, we hopped on board MTA’s Red Line and got to experience that most un-LA like sensation: riding an east-coast style subway.

No, we didn't get mugged

Now ask any of my friends and they’ll tell you I’m not generally known to be very knowledgeable or critical about food. Generally I look at food as fuel: the relationship between taste and quality is inversely proportional to my hunger levels. In other words, the hungrier I am, the less I care about taste and quality.

But on Saturday, I had no choice. The whole day was programmed out in advance by skilled food strategist Mike D, so I arrived very hungry at Langer’s and enjoyed a pastrami sandwich (extra lean) and pickles that were, to put it mildly, an extravagant feast for my ignorant taste buds:

Not just lunch, a veritable Sandwich Experience

The rest of the Sandwich Train crew, experienced and critical eaters all of them, enjoyed Langer’s too.

Next Stop : Fancy Ice Cream

What better way to wash down delicious pastrami than with some fancy gourmet ice cream at a well-known indy ice cream shop in a hipster neighborhood?

Enter Scoops, reportedly one of LA’s better ice cream stores, and just a scant few blocks away from another Red Line subway stop.

Delicious: I chose Orange, Merlot Sorbet and Oreo Vanilla crunch

The neat thing about Scoops is that they change the ice cream flavors constantly. In fact, they make fresh ice cream daily, and when they run out, that’s it. They close. That means you have to get there early to enjoy the good stuff. Scarcity, it turns out, is sometimes good for business.

After enjoying that tasty treat, we checked out a nearby bicycle shop then walked the few blocks back to the Red Line station for a trip back to downtown LA.

Bottega Louie

Next we stopped at a ritzy place named Bottega Louie. This fancy restaurant took so long serving us simple foods (I ordered a salad) that we left out of frustration. The Sandwich Train crew are currently savaging it on Yelp.com (Southland restaurants, beware their wit!), so I won’t pile on here, but sufffice it to say, this restaurant was a disappointment, though their tarts looked amazing.

But we had an ace up our sleeves, a sandwich place that never disappoints, and we headed there post-haste onboard the Red Line once again.

Phillipe

How to describe Phillipe? I suppose one could say Phillipe is to Downtown Los Angeles as Saugus Cafe or Waystation is to Santa Clarita: a veritable eating institution, over 100 years old. Serving delicious French dip sandwiches to people of all incomes, races, nationalities and statuses, Phillipe French Dip and delicious lemonade never leaves you wanting

My double-dipped French Dip served with melted swiss cheese and lays chips added in for extra crunch

Post Script

Sufficiently fattened and satisfied, the weary Sandwich Train crew hopped back on board Metrolink for an easy ride home. The trip was a total success, and more are planned in the future, but you don’t have to wait for us! The Metrolink and SCV stations make exploring LA a snap; you can even bring your bicycle along if you want.

With a message on their website, Longhorn’s BBQ of Castaic has announced that they are closing, and with that, the SCV loses its lone authentic barbecue restaurant.  I’m going to miss them dearly.

With a Mexican eatery in Newhall teasing that they will start serving authentic Texas barbecue “soon” and a new placed called the “Q Spot” is gearing up in the former space of the drive-through coffee shop near Costco, it seemed that we were about to enter a barbecue renaissance in the SCV.

For a town that likes to proclaim its love of barbecue, for most that means “food with barbecue sauce”.  We flock to places like Rattlers, Stonefire and Wood Ranch, but purists will tell you that these places don’t serve real barbecue.  They’re right.

Authentic barbecue has had a tough go in the SCV. Most places don’t last very long.  I’m reminded of the short-lived BBQ Club on the corner of Soledad and Bouquet that served delicious Louisiana barbecue and fried chicken. Rayfield’s Ribs on Sierra and Soledad was my favorite.  It tasted like some backyard Texas barbecue that was passed on from generation to generation.  By all appearances, they actually did cook in a backyard somewhere, as there was no pit on sight, but the food was undoubtedly authentic.

Even Dickey’s, the Texas-based chain, served something that on a good day would be considered both authentic and delicious. It usually was neither, and both SCV locations closed before they could remove their “Grand Opening” banners.  T-Bo’s on Soledad made a splash when they opened, but never found its voice, so to speak. Too expensive, and frankly, not all that tasty.

For a time, a Famous Dave’s BBQ was expected in the former Applebee’s on Valencia Blvd., but that never came to be.

Longhorn’s had its faults, but it did a lot of things right.  The space felt like something right out of central Texas and they quickly formed a cult following. They never managed to make much progress on their sides or their chicken – weaknesses from day one. But everything else was great.  They managed to stick around much longer than most and even expanded to include a location inside of Magic Mountain, where they remain.

Ultimately, it was a victim to its location – a sprawling strip mall in the Castaic industrial center (errr…Valencia Commerce Center) that still has many unfilled spaces, several years in.  They had a busy lunch hour and a following from a nearby church, but the bad economy led to lots of nearby office vacancies and delayed housing developments.  Even with the Cross-Valley Connector, it was a long drive for almost everyone in the valley.  The center was a ghost town on the weekends, so much so that the Jack-in-the-Box would sometimes close before its posted hours.  Recently, the nearby drive-through coffee shop closed as well.

But beyond that, I think there is a cultural disconnect that makes it difficult for authentic barbecue to thrive in the SCV.  Local patrons are often put off by things that are commonplace in barbecue-friendly areas: the slice of Wonder bread, the sauce held in Crock-Pots, day-to-day inconsistencies in texture and taste, the visible fat in the brisket or pulled pork and the occasional unavailability of a meat or two.  Elsewhere, that just goes with the territory, but too many locals find it unacceptable.  Worse still, we’re spoiled by the consistency of the assembly-line faux-Q that SCV is famous for.

Longhorn’s hopes to re-open in a more central location soon.  We’ve heard that before, but hopefully this will pan out.  Meanwhile, barbecue fans are holding their breath in anticipation of the new options coming this summer.

I’d just like to throw my hat in the ring and say that, yes, this is the best coffee house in Santa Clarita. Here’s my reasoning:

1. Location: it’s pretty much central to all of Santa Clarita, except perhaps Canyon Country.
2. Free WiFi: for an hour at least, with purchase of any drink
3. Decent selection of coffee. I’m by no means a coffee snob, but I really enjoy the joe they brew there
4. Yummy pastries and foods, at least comparable to Starbucks
5. Lots of seating, both indoors and outdoors
6. They don’t blast the music
7. They offer used coffee grounds for your compost heap, if you’re into that kind of thing
8. Friendly staff

And another thing. I’m in a graduate program right now and I need a place to study that’s away from the distractions of home.  Since just about every library in a 20 mile radius is closed on Sundays and has limited hours on Saturdays, Peet’s has become my preferred study spot. I spent about five hours there on Sunday studying for my class.

Finally, and I’ll admit bias here, many many cyclists stop by Peet’s because it’s so central. Everyone from road cyclists to commuters to husband and wives out on their hybrids to hipsters with skinny jeans, tatoos, emo haircuts and fixies stop by Peet’s for cup of coffee. It’s sort of become a post-ride hangout for many cyclists in Santa Clarita, and it’s great to see friends roll up on their bikes.

If Mitch’s new Java ‘n Jazz and the new Coffee House in Newhall want to compete, they ought to look to Peet’s in Valencia for ideas and inspiration.

After a mere 5 months in their Valencia location, word is Swirly’s Frozen Yogurt is set to expand to Stevenson Ranch, possibly near Barcelona’s restaurant on The Old Road near McBean.  That would put it in easy biking distance of a certain someone we all know and love.

In other news, I spoke with one of the owners of Swirly’s tonight who shared they enjoyed reading the feedback from this humble blog and made a couple of changes accordingly.  To put things in perspective, while the young SCVMomsBlog wielded the power of social media to extract an apology from our Congressman in ‘girl-gate,’ SCVTalk couldn’t get our local City Council member to do the same for using the term ‘racist.’ But all is not lost, dear readers, The Humble SCVTalk somehow convinced Swirly’s to add more breakfast cereal toppings.  As of at least this evening, yours truly noticed Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Froot Loops and Cap’n'Crunch added to the wheelhouse of the Swirly’s topping section.  Huzzah!

The Bristol Farms market in Valencia’s Bridgeport Marketplace is set to close Feb. 25, a store official confirmed Wednesday.

The high-end grocer opened in November 2008 as the anchor tenant for the shopping center.

Questions about the closure of the store, which employs roughly 100 people, were referred to Bristol Farms’ corporate officials, who could not be reached Wednesday afternoon.

SIGNAL

I wanted to like Bristol Farms. They had a good selection of foods, tools and utilities. But they weren’t that different than say, Pavilions, and they were more expensive. Whole Foods is expensive too, but some people value its selection of organic and local products.

I wonder if the closure is a result of high prices in this bad economy, location, competition or some combination thereof?

What’s the big deal about Sprouts? Well, Sprouts isn’t just another lame grocer. They’re not high-end like Bristol Farms (which carries all the name brand foods at higher prices), they’re not solely going after the organic/locavore segment like Whole Foods either. No, instead, they’re shooting directly for the “funky budget grocer” segment that’s currently dominated by Trader Joe’s.

Anyway, I thought I’d steal some pictures of Sprouts from Flickr to sate your appetite until they open in August and to see how the store might differ from other grocers in town (click the photos to visit the owner’s Flickr picture):

Hmmm. Where have we seen chalkboard signs before? Also, notice the nice-sized produce section (other Flickr pictures show more produce)

They appear to sell products with their own branding, just like Trader Joe’s. And many of the shots show organic products.

Also, the pictures show that like Whole Foods, Sprouts allows you to buy things like coffee and other items in bulk. This is certainly cool; Trader Joe’s, as my friend Mike says, isn’t necessarily for people who like to cook, it’s for people who like prepackaged meals at a good price. But Sprouts may offer the best of both worlds.

There also appears to be a lunch/deli counter at Sprouts, which will add to the lunch time dining options available to us in the central valley. This is one of my favorite features of Whole Foods: buy lunch and get some shopping done at the same time. It appears we’ll be able to do the same thing at Sprouts.

Another shot of the produce section. This just puts Trader Joe’s to shame!

Some five months after Trader Joe’s moved to their new location near Best Buy at Bouquet & Newhall Ranch Road, I’m still hearing complaints about how difficult it is to get there. Some have told me that they no longer stop there after work (even if they live in Saugus), while others say they now visit just a few times per month whereas they used to go every week. There’s no doubt that TJ’s is enjoying big success at its new place, but people still find it hard to get to.

Sprouts’ central location will be a major asset for it, I think.  And it could be a major asset for the River Oaks shopping center, which has quite a few vacancies right now.

Thanks to Flickr user Lisa Bergeron and digitalnomad for the pics!

A child of the 80′s, I remember when frozen yogurt hit paydirt.  Soon, the local haunts were replaced with forgettables like Penguins, Frogen Yozurt, and Hogi Yogi.  It went on something of a hiatus (right around the time of the now-classic Seinfeld episode), then re-emerged with a red banner and a Golden Spoon.   Other franchises popped up with a self serve twist, and there are a few good options in our valley.

Amidst a sea of familiar storefronts in Valencia, there’s a new family-owned, SCV-only yogurt joint.  ”Swirly’s” in the Tesoro Village shopping center has become something of an addiction in the NickelDime household; the location, hospitality, self-serve setup, and flavor variety are a sweet combination.

You’ll see T-shirt clad owners Aliza and Joseph wiping down the counters or working the cash register most visits.  ”We fell in love with the area,” Aliza recalls after an initial visit, “and there aren’t yogurt places on every corner!”  I’m not sure about that last part, but it’s a thrill to see yogurt shops come full circle with something authentic and local.

Tip: Swirly’s has a ‘happy hour’ from 4-6pm, 20% off.

Click for larger

I asked Janet Little, Henry’s spokeswoman, whether they “planning on opening a market in Santa Clarita.” I also asked if they were in discussions for any spaces in Santa Clarita.

Here’s her reply:

Hi Jeff:

Yes we’re looking within the greater LA area for new stores; however, we have not signed an agreement in the Santa Clarita area.  Once anything has been signed, we will post it on our website at www.henrysmarkets.com.

Janet Little CN

Henry’s Farmers Market

I asked her for clarification; pending that, this reads like a classic non-denial denial. They are looking for stores in “Greater Los Angeles,” but haven’t signed an agreement in Santa Clarita yet. Which means they could be in discussions for part of the Mervyn’s space.

On the other hand, recall that in Josh Premako’s original article, the city says part of the space has already been leased out to the “specialty grocery store.”

Maybe I’m speculating too much but it’s easy to get excited about new grocery stores in town, especially one that might compete with Trader Joe’s hegemony and is closer to us Newhallians.

I’ll post more when I know it!