If a restaurant cannot cover its rent, it is not long for this world. According to a 2005 study, more than half of all restaurants close in the first three years of operation, so this is not a small problem. You can lay off kitchen staff when times get tough, or substitute the cheaper tilapia for the fancier and scarcer Chilean sea bass. But rent is a fixed cost, meaning that you have to pay it every month no matter how many customers walk through the door and no matter what ingredients you are serving.

Low-rent restaurants can experiment at relatively low risk. If a food idea does not work out, the proprietor is not left with an expensive lease. As a result, a strip-mall restaurant is more likely to try daring ideas than is a restaurant in, say, a large shopping mall. The people with the best, most creative, most innovative cooking ideas are not always the people with the most money. Many of them end up in dumpier locales, where they gradually improve real-estate values.

Whoa! I’ve never thought of it like that. But he’s right! There’s only a few Spago’s or Geoffrey’s, and they are highly expensive, extraordinary affairs. They have incredible food, of course, but they are few and far between, and you’re not likely to visit them very often.

Mmmmm. I'll take my Thai food with a side of pawn shop and massage parlor please

Best to explore the dirty strip malls in far-flung places like the SCV for great eats, Cowen argues:

It is especially common to see good ethnic restaurants grouped with mid-level or junky retail outlets. When it comes to a restaurant run by immigrants, look around at the street scene. Do you see something ugly? Poor construction? Broken plastic signage? A five-and-dime store? Maybe an abandoned car? If so, crack a quiet smile, walk through the door, and order. Welcome to the glamorous world of good food.

It’s like Cowen visited the Greatest Strip Mall in all of Suburbia and dined at Mom Can Cook Thai restaurant!

It strikes me that I’ve been particularly unfair and harsh on the SCV food scene while running this blog. Because truly, even here in the SCV, for every Macaroni Grill there’s a dingy but decent Maria’s; for every Taco Bell a Las Lomas; for every Kung Fu Panda Grill, a Mom Can Cook; for every Burger King, a Cousin’s or Kona Burger; for every Rosie’s BBQ, a Stone Fire Grill, for every Maru Sushi, a Love Sushi. Just about every other industry in modern America has been big-boxified, but strip mall restaurants like the ones in the SCV might just be the best culinary laboratories around.

So my apologies to the SCV’s food entrepreneurs, who, according to a smart guy like Cowen, may offer more bang for the buck and better taste than the cosmopolitan-types in LA. Maybe we’re not in such a food desert after all?

Naturally she had me (Jeffrey the Giraffe she calls me) pluck a few olives and even grab a loose branch or two so that she can produce home made olive oil.  Here’s part of our haul:

My wife is not the first to appreciate olive trees, nor am I the first to steel from them. Olive trees and the fruit they produce have been cultivated and appreciated by man for 7,000 years according to Wikipedia. We use the fruit of the olive tree to make olive oil, and it’s no exaggeration to say that wars have been fought to secure land favorable for olive tree growth.

The Bible mentions olive trees dozens of times, and olive oil is thought of as sacred. We use it to “annoint” people and, in the Catholic tradition, send them off to meet their maker. In Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather,” a young Don Vito Corleone’s first business (legitimate or otherwise) is the Genco Olive Oil Import Company. In ancient Greece, triumphant armies and victorious warriors and fighters were crowned with wreaths of olives. War and peace symbolism extend even further: when people write of making peace, they say one side is extending the “olive branch” to the other.

Even the Great Seal of the United States has olive symbolism in it. The Bald Eagle clutches in his right talons an olive branch with 13 olives (for the 13 original colonies), while in his left talon he holds 13 arrows. The Bald Eagle’s head is always pointed to the left, towards the olives and the peace they represent. Though you wouldn’t have guessed that if you’ve been reading the news lately.

The SCV, with its semi-arid, Mediterranean climate, probably would have made a wonderful place to grow olive trees. Had our community existed in the time and place of Greek nation-states, we would likely have been very wealthy indeed, and one can imagine the floor of the valley covered in row upon row of coveted olive trees. That’s something to think a bout the next time you stroll through a local park or along a paseo in the spring and see loose olives scattered everywhere.

Or maybe you have some uptight family members visiting you from a place like Santa Barbara, or Brentwood or Laguna Beach. You want to dine out with them, but where to go? You know they already have an attitude about the suburbs, and taking them to Islands burgers just isn’t going to do, because they would laugh at you and mock your dining habits as “stereotypical” and “pedestrian.” You would feel dejected and begin to resent their elitist attitude, causing intra-family strife for years. *

I’ve been in this situation many times. When I worked as an IT drone for a local tech company, vendors from LA would come up and as part of their sales pitch, offer to take my team to lunch. Given that they were LA snobs as well as sales people, I could only think of one place that was tasty and original and therefore reflected well on Santa Clarita: Wolf Creek.

But that was 5 years ago. The situation has improved since then, hasn’t it?

So what do you think? Where do you take out of towners to eat?

* Of course the opposite could be true as well. If you hate your in-laws, you could just take them to Denny’s, or Red Robin, or Olive Garden. This would tell them they are not that special to you and would discourage them from visiting you in the future. In that case, Santa Clarita has plenty of options for you.

I now see what all the fuss was about.

And it’s not just good food either. Ordering and eating at Chick-Fil-A can be fun too. You know how the staff there reflexively says, “My Pleasure,” everytime after you say thank you?

Well, next time you are there, have a little fun with them and don’t say thank you. You will see they still say “My Pleasure.” Here was my conversation at the drive through last night:

Chick-Fil-A:“And how are you this evening? What can I get for you?”

Me: “Yeah, uh, can I get a spicy chicken meal, some nuggets, and two lemonades?”

Chick-Fil-A:“Why you most certainly can. That’ll be $15.37 at the first window.”

Me: “Awesome!”

*pause*

Chick-Fil-A: “My Pleasure.”

Me: *chuckle*

Seriously, you have to try it out. It’s uncanny and it works. The staff there is just…delightful!

It wasn’t long ago north SCV-ers lamented the closure of Starbucks in this very center.  Now Pick-up Stix, something of a bridge between the Panda Express and New Moon gap, has suddenly shut their Tesoro doors.  The Stevenson Ranch store on The Old Road remains open.

With the expansion of Walmart’s grocery section and the opening of Sprouts and Valley Produce, some SCVTalk contributors (myself included) have begun to question the viability of Tesoro anchor Albertsons.

As of August 2010, the Tesoro Marketplace itself was for sale by commercial property owner Hanley Investment Group.

What is it? What is this thing that threatens (to some) and promises (to others) to change life in the SCV?

Food.

Consider what we’ve been witness to in the last few weeks and the last several years. Farmers Markets are spreading all around town. Chief among them is the popular Sunday COC Farmers Market, where regional growers are met week after week by thousands of loyal SCV shoppers who peg their culinary adventures to the growers’ calendars and get to know farmers and growers by name. But it’s not just there: the Newhall Farmer’s Market, once panned as a false farmer’s market, is now enjoying legitimacy and increased traffic in our revitalized Old Town Newhall.

And then last weekend: a food truck bonanza. I never thought 8,000 Santa Claritans would gather in the same place for anything other than a classic Hart vs Valencia football game, but we did on Saturday night in Bridgeport, not for football but for food. A full 3.2% of the SCV’s population came out to Bridgeport just to try some food from LA food truck operators, and while the event was somewhat poorly planned and the logistics weren’t well thought out, it turned out to be a great social occasion for many. Friends met friends. Hell, even SCVTalk’s old ideological nemesis Petz broke gourmet bread with regular SCVTalk readers and contributors. And families enjoyed time together and famous chefs came out to cater to us in a shared, outdoor, social environment.

And now, the next wave: Community gardening. Fast forward through Councilwoman Laurene Weste’s State of the City video (and her lovely, simply fabulous costumes) to about 3:35 in the video where she talks about the future half-acre Central Park community garden:

Now to many SCVers, particularly the Tea Party set, a “community garden” might smack of collectivist agriculture. And well, it is (we’re even going to give excess produce to the poor!). I don’t deny the irony here: in a place owned by a single capitalist farming-turned-development company (Newhall Land & Farming, we forget the last part it seems) which was built on the land-holdings of an old-school California land baron, we’re now coming together to open up space to the public so that gardening hobbyists and amateur farmers can attempt to grow their own beets, avocados, tomatoes and tangerines. Why?

Just because.

Wait a minute. Collectivism. Here? Did I fall asleep and wake up in Venice? No, it’s true. This is happening in SCV. And Laurene Weste says it is but the first of several in Santa Clarita.

In this brave new SCV, we don’t just go to the old Ralphs and Vons supermarket to buy shrink-wrapped, pre-packaged foods trucked in from America’s prairie lands. Hell, we don’t even go to Whole Foods. We go out and seek after our food, ideally from someone who has grown it themselves in Ventura County or points north. In this new SCV, we’re adventurous enough to stand & socialize with our neighbors for an hour as we wait for Ludo’s latest creation or pine for the cupcake truck’s tasty deserts. And in the not-too-distant SCV, people will gather to plant, cultivate and harvest their own food on land whose title reads, “We the people.”

The point is we’re sharing and socializing together over food, often times in public, outdoor places. We are connecting with each other and creating communities online and off, and we’re investing time, money and energy in our town. This is a big change from the SCV I grew up in, where acquiring food amounted to a solitary trip in the car to the grocery store and later, boxed mashed potatoes and canned green beens enjoyed in front of the television.

In a place designed to isolate people from each other, procuring and eating food is becoming social and even cool and we are now seeing the SCV grow up and become more mature as it develops its own unique shared culture, a culture beyond youth sports and the PTA, a culture that everyone can enjoy. And I think it’s pretty neat and tasty.

In the days leading up to this weekend’s Awesometown food truck festival, I had a sense that the crowds were going to be massive.  A lot of my friends are the type to seek out the better trucks in LA and/or stand in a snaking, hour-long line when one of these trucks makes it into our city. Of course we would go — it’s that second and third layer of friends, family and acquaintances that had me worried.

On paper, this looked to be the coolest thing to happen in Santa Clarita in a very long time. To a food-nerd like myself, this wasn’t to be missed. I arrived 30 minutes early, parked steps away from the trucks and made fast conversation with friends I spotted.  There were some twenty trucks, but many of us had come to the independent conclusion that the crucial trucks would be Ludo and Border Grill, in that order.  So there I stood, about fifth in line for Ludo.

What’s Ludo?  I think you mean “Who’s Ludo?”  Ludo is Ludovic Lefebvre, one of the most forward-looking chefs working in America, and certainly one of the top five chefs in all of Southern California.  A few years ago, he hit reset on his stratospheric-trending career and same up with new ways to present his food.  The most notable being LudoBites, soon in its 6th iteration (I could go on and on, but it’s a very big deal, and so is he).

Recently, Ludo joined the food truck game, but from an unlikely direction: fried chicken.  He offers three different types of fried chicken and a few sides. The chicken, the slaw and the fries are all delicious and accessible. Easy to eat and easy to share.

Please, enjoy this picture.  I remarked to my friend who took this picture, “these fries, and that béarnaise, it’s like being transported to Paris… nothing this good has ever been made in Santa Clarita.”

Ludo, making fried chicken, in Valencia. That just about says it all: one of the very best chefs in the game, using expert preparation and great ingredients to serve humble street food, right on our door step.  That’s the attraction.  Los Angeles might be, as the great food critic proclaimed, “…the best place in the world to eat now.” The truck scene, as we know it, began in Los Angeles and is both a reflection and an addition to its culinary landscape. But they don’t need these trucks like we do.  I agree with Jeff: let’s do this again. A thousand times over.

A good friend of mine spends much of his time traveling the world, eating things both delicious and unspeakable.  Arriving at 6PM, he left just as quickly. The lines were insanely long and he had his kids. I get that. (note: I’ve learned the hard way that kids do not pair well with food trucks) It wasn’t for everyone, but it was great for enough of us to declare it a success.  Just about every truck either sold out of served continuously through the event, without interruption.

And that, I suppose, is my retort to the complainers.  It was a complete success.  If you planned ahead and arrived early – or had some patience and stayed late – you likely had a chance to eat as much as you could handle. I had to leave at about six, but not before scoring from two trucks, all while having great conversation and running into about half the people I know.

I know a lot of you love Santa Clarita for its Yacht Rock tribute bands in the park.  And I’m happy for you. But on Saturday, the rest of us had our chance, and we had a blast. Just as I suspected, it was coolest thing to happen in Santa Clarita in a very long time.  I’ve found that those who came and stuck around had a great time. The naysayers seem to be those who missed out. (For next time, check out Lady Ducayne’s pro tips for food truck festival enjoyment)

It’s worth noting that this was really an event for the purpose of selling the remaining group of homes in Valencia. I’d go into why and how, but that’s another post. The City, by all appearances, had nothing to do with it. (For one, they wouldn’t have hired an company named “Cluster Truck” to make it happen). Much respect is due to team Awesometown. They did a great thing for this community.  But soon enough, these homes will be sold and their incentive to throw such a bash will be gone.

I hope this event made truck operators give our town another look.  I’m aware of a well-repected truck that was blown away by the turnout, and is seriously considering a return trip.  I also hope that this event inspires others in the valley to facilitate festivals like this. Already, Brave New World Comics in Newhall hosts trucks regularly.

Final bit: this picture speaks a thousand words. I can scarcely think of two people I know whose views differ more than the guy on the left and the guy in the center. Look at those smiles!  It was that kind of night. All I can say is the guy on the right is a helluva diplomat.

(excellent) photo credits: Main photo: R.E. via flickr; Fried chicken: Lady Ducayne; Three guys and a bag of coffee: Steve Petzold.

And you know what that means. If there’s one thing SCVers like more than bitching about traffic, it’s bitching about crowds. Take it away Signal commenters:

Yeah.  The Awesometown Gourmet Food Truck event was just like the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake. Of course. And it’s totally logical to extrapolate one foodie event into a hackneyed rant against “overdevelopment” (read: too many people, of which you are necessarily one.)

But not all complainers are equal. I will give huge points to this complainer who created a cute bear animated video to kvetch about the crowds:

The complaining was so intense that none other than Marlee Lauffer, a victim of her own successful marketing campaign for the event, publicly apologized for the lines:

“I’m sorry there were lines,” Lauffer said. “This just shows how much people out here love doing things together.”

Actually I think it shows -shockingly- that SCVers want more than chain restaurants in the SCV. Last winter a poll found that we wanted a Cheesecake Factory above all else, but -go figure- when Newhall Land throws a gourmet food truck event, 8,000 people show up, with many thousands leaving happy and satisfied and many others leaving bitter, disappointed and angry.

I think the solution to this problem is simple. More events like this! All around town. Weekly if possible!

But first, a word about how the list is organized. The way I see it, if you read SCVTalk, you’re already invested in this place more highly than people who simply rest their heads here at night. So I’m going to list activities and things that elite SCVers know about but that normal, run-of-the-mill SCVers might be ignorant of. Enough of that, let’s get to the list (and I encourage you to add your own items:)

Elite SCVers go to CalArts Library: A lot of my readers think libraries are a thing of yesteryear, a by-gone institution that has no place in our modern, always-connected world. Not me. I really love libraries and in the SCV, you’ll find no better library than the one in the 2nd sub-floor on the CalArts campus. Not only does it have a decent collection, but it’s probably the quietest library in all of the SCV. People here just don’t talk. It’s whisper quiet, a great place for study, reflection and even a stolen nap. During the school year, it’s opened late, later than anything in the SCV except the Saugus Cafe: midnight on some days. And what’s more, you can come in your jammies because that’s how most of the students come. Hell you probably don’t even have to shower. No one will notice. And they don’t check for parking permits. A win all the way around.

Normal SCVers go to: Barnes & Noble: If you’re just a normal, run of the mill SCVer and you want to read or study, you’ll probably end up at Barnes & Noble in Valencia with all the other sheeple. It’s loud and bustling,  but at least they offer coffee and wifi and are open late. Ho hum.

Elite SCVers go to Do It Center: In years past, the obvious elite choice for SCV do-it-yourselfers would have been Newhall or Holiday Hardware, but since those two institutions went the way of the do-do (peace be upon them), I’ve found Do It Center on Valencia Blvd to be a worthy stand-in. Most of the men who work there have leathery skin from long hours working construction projects outdoors; their hands are rough and ragged from working with them all their lives. They are friendly and offer real, down-to-earth advice about your project. They have personally saved me time and money. Talking to one of their knowledgeable workers is like talking to my dad about DIY: it’s reassuring, funny, and a bit humiliating all at once.

Normal SCVers go to Lowes or Home Depot: Hey, if you’re happy with the advice you’re getting from some tweenager about 90 degree elbow plumbing pipes, go to Lowes or Home Depot. If you consider dodging fork lifts with huge pallets fun, go here. They’re not all bad, of course -who hasn’t needed to go to Home Depot late on a Sunday night- but we’re after an elite, SCV-insider only experience here, not some generic big box experience you can have anywhere. Right?

Elite SCVers go to Video Depot: Ahhh, Video Depot. The last of the old privately-run video rental stores. Yes, I’m tragically behind the curve on movie rentals; though I do love Netflix streaming, it doesn’t offer everything, so when my wife and I need a movie to watch, we head over to Gina at Newhall’s Video Depot. Gina is a petite Korean woman who has run Video Depot since before I moved here. No one knows her age, but everyone knows she will outlive all of us, so healthy is her constitution and so athletic is her lifestyle. She’s always inappropriately nosy (“Why you no have baby yet, Jeff?”) but that’s part of the charm of Video Depot. She’s also very forgiving with late fees, which, you know what? I don’t even mind paying so long as Gina is still renting videos at Video Depot.

Normal SCVers go to Blockbuster: You poor souls.

Elite SCVers go to Hart or Summit Parks: We’re justifiably proud of our park system here in the SCV, but there are two parks in particular that stand out and that, from my own park-going experience, are under-appreciated. That would be Hart Park in Newhall and Summit Park in Valencia. These parks offer the quintessential American park-going experience, with huge shade trees you can just doze off under, lots of open space and things to explore, and even little trails you and your family can hike on. At Hart Park, for instance, you can walk uphill a bit and see William S. Hart’s mansion, plus some great views of Newhall. And in Summit Park (behind the YMCA on McBean), there’s a trail system that goes way back in the hills through a beautiful meadow where I’ve snapped many pictures. Do be aware that you are in the elite Valencia Summit neighborhood, where crazy open warfare between neighbors has been known to occur over things like children’s swim teams.

Normal SCVers go to Central Park: Not that there’s anything wrong with Central Park, of course, but I need fully grown, leafy trees to scratch my park itch. And the little saplings dotting Central Park offer no protection from the sun. Give it 20 years and I’m sure it’ll be the jewel in the SCV’s park system.

Elite SCVers go to Newhall Bikes: If you’re in need of a new bike or a simple tune-up of your old one, Roger at Newhall Bikes will take care of you in his quirky little shop on Main Street. An SCV-native and former bike racer, Roger enjoys blasting reggae -a distinctively un-SCV sound- in his shop, and he’s been known to host summer reggae parties with free beer. Yes, open air keggers in the SCV.

Normal SCVers go to WalMart: Don’t do it. Please. Buy your kid’s bike from one of the fine local bike stores, not Walmart. Not only will you be supporting local business, but you’ll get a bike that was put together by someone who actually knows how to work on bicycles.

Elite SCVers go to Mexican Taquerias: Want some real carne asada? Are you courageous enough to see what real Mexican food is all about? Then you owe it to yourself amigo to check out some of those hole-in-the-wall taquerias around town. Places like Las Lomas or Tortas Ahogadas in Newhall, or the taco place on Soledad & Sierra Highway, where you can find delicious meals for a good price, while watching some Mexican futbol coverage.Bonus points if you shop from the back of one of those produce trucks or cruise the narrow aisles of Tresierras in Newhall.

Normal SCVers go to Baja Fresh or Taco Bell: I admit, I partake regularly.

These are just a sample of under-appreciated activities and places in the SCV. Missing from this list is an authentic SCV coffee shop. So what say you? What are some under-appreciated activities or places in the SCV you enjoy?

Why would you want food trucks here? That’s part of the fun that you go down to LA for!! People here like home cooked meals and an occasional night at CPK. Growing up in Santa Monica, I know how crazy the food truck “craze” is. I wouldn’t go up here. But I’m sure many hipsters and those types will. Let’s just turn SCV into an extension of LA. People move out here to get away from that stuff.

…

But my point is that SCV is a more boring place. Not in a bad way, just in a way that I like the simplicity of living up here.

…

Maybe you should get in your Prius and take a trip to LA.

For the record, I ride bikes and try to take the bus whenever possible, so your smug suggestion (smuggestion?) that I get in my Prius is already wrong. I’d go all multi-modal on your suggested trip to LA, taking my bike on board the train, then riding to my destination. And you’re wrong on another count too: there are many of us here who don’t like that the SCV is a “boring simplistic” place, we want a little more variety, a little more spice, a few more interesting things to do, a few more dining options than CPK or Cheesecake Factory.

I know for many people, yourself included perhaps, the SCV is nothing more than a bedroom community, a place you only experience while you sleep. But there are many of us who grew up here, who are not transplants, who believe there is some culture, interesting people and history here and many of us are thrilled that we’re getting just a little taste of some of the things LA has to offer. It’s not an either/or proposition Michelle, the SCV can have both the great things of LA and the great things that make the SCV a nice place to live now.

If you don’t like that, I suggest you get in your SUV and floor it on up to the Antelope Valley, where you can feel at home in LA County’s premiere bedroom community. No one will upset you there.

Welcome to SCVTalk Michelle. Stick around.