Tag Archives: Breaking the Chain

Breaking the Chain: Savory Cafe

This post is part of a series I’m doing called “Breaking the Chain”. Check out previous broken chains like White Elephant, Rúla Búla, Park View Cafe, The Old Place Cornell and Craft & Commerce.

Pancakes. Just the word makes me feel oh-so-happy! I’m always in search of new forms of pancakes, and while these aren’t specifically NEW to me, they’re noteworthy enough that I’m devoting an entire blog to them.
Savory Cafe and Bakery in Ventura. I. LOVE. Ventura. I could honestly spend my life there eating at Andria’s, eating at the Taj, eating at Savory, eating at… you get the picture. Ventura is a cesspool of deliciousness. Yeah, cesspool and deliciousness don’t go together. Deal with it.
We sat on the covered porch, warmed from the chilly marine layer by toasty heating lamps. I was warm enough to take off my superawesomecool arm warmers.
This is actually a picture from a vegan place in Colorado – I just wanted to display my superawesomecool arm warmers.
I found what I wanted immediately. Actually, I found it before we even arrived. I have this habit of reading menus online for fun. It comes in handy at such times as this.
The lighting sucked on my side of the table, but here’s the general idea…
…and here’s the close up! Sweet potato pancakes spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, covered in a rich whipped cream and topped with candied spicy pecans. Oh. Yes. These pancakes weren’t dense, the way my vegan sweet potato pancakes sometimes turn out, but light and fluffy, and it’s impossible to keep from overstuffing yourself unless you have great self control, like me.

That’s such a lie. I demolished the plate.
Along with the three thick strips of crispy bacon that came with. They melted in my mouth. I fell into the happiest brunch food coma of my entire life.

Savory, thank you for being you.

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My Other Half

Yesterday was my last day of retail! I’m technically still “on-call” but after last night, there will be no more! I just can’t take it anymore – the sitting around, waiting for customers who never come, doing homework at the counter and no one really cares because there’s nothing to miss… It’s just a waste of my time, so I’m officially done!

To celebrate, I opened my second to last growler of Dos Beckis.
I think it has passed its peak! I think it’s been sitting a little too long with the trub… The flavor is a little metallic-y now, and the hops have definitely added more bitter to it. I still drank it, AND enjoyed it! No worries!

Today, I celebrated by meeting someone who I’ve only met on the internet. How risqué am I? I’ve known this person for a little over a month –  we were assigned to the same group project (in an internet college course) and have exchanged many e-mails and Skype conversations. I risked my life today…
She’s TERRIFYING! This is Sofia Pernas, the most brizziliant person in my class. Seriously, she’s the only one in the entire class who uses correct grammar and doesn’t need a thesaurus to think up big words when she writes. Oh yeah, and she’s an incredibly gorgeous, talented actress. That too…
We met up at Caffe Aroma, another Breaking the Chain in Newbury Park. This place is freakin’ adorable! It’s very kitschy and is normally filled with elderly ladies wearing big red hats having tea parties. PERFECT for a first time meetup! If this scared her away, then it just wasn’t meant to be…
I ordered the ice blended green tea with boba (soy, thank you very much!) – one of the top recommended drinks to order on Yelp. This. Was. Luscious! I’d recommend this, but without the boba. The tapioca pearls varied between hard and crunchy and sickly sweet. I may have found my new substitute for my coffee until Lent is over, though! GREEN TEA SLUSHIES!
My turkey avocado sandwich in the foreground with Sofia’s tuna melt and chocolate shake in the back. I envied her combo, I must say…
…but then I saw the HUGE chunks of avocado and sprouts sticking out, layered between thick slices of bread that was baked with tons of walnuts and seeds. And my life was complete. I only finished half and asked them if they could keep the rest in their refrigerator so it wouldn’t go bad. Sweetly, they complied, “only if you don’t forget to take it with you!”

I FORGOT THE OTHER HALF 🙁The menu for this adorable little cafe is slightly pricey, but totally worth it for the peace and ambiance.
Like I said, kitschy and adorable. The service here was wonderful! The girl working behind the counter gave her recommendations, which we greedily consumed, and put up with our ridiculous giggling for FOUR hours!
Two apples, no plums.

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Breaking the Chain: Rúla Búla

This post is part of a new series I’m doing called “Breaking the Chain”. Check out previous broken chains like White Elephant.

After Friday’s show had wrapped up in Tempe, we closed up the booth and ventured out looking for a local restaurant to try. I’ve walked by this place a few times whilst looking for take-out lunches and wanted to check it out, so into Rúla Búla we went!
This adorable little Irish pub really has the authentic feel of Ireland – or I like to think it does. It’s hard to say, never having been there, but you can take it on my educated guess that this is very similar!
I absolutely LOVE the small tavern feel. Everything is very quaint and wooden and roughed up. It felt authentic and very cozy.
I ordered a Guinness Crown – a tall glass of Magner’s cider (Enjoyed this many a time last summer!) with a crown of Guinness on top. I’ve tried so very hard to enjoy Guinness, but it really is just not for me. I like my beer to have flavor, not taste like ashy water. My apologies to all you Guinness-lovers.
Since I didn’t get a chance to have corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day, I ordered a big ole plate here. It was tasty, but nothing compared to what my mumsie used to make in the slow cooker. The meat was a little tough and stringy and the cabbage was slightly crunchy. I prefer it when everything is so tender that it just melts in your mouth – just the way mom makes it!

I was far too stuffed for dessert, so we toddled over to the parking lot and headed back to the hotel. Things changed when I saw that the lobby restaurant was still in full swing…
BREAD PUDDING!!!! If you’re just now finding my blog, you need to know that I have an obsession with bread pudding. Up until Sunday, I had bread pudding eight days in a row. It was a beautiful time in my life.

On a side note – I’d like to let you know that those tastings from the beer garden were 2 ounces only! The pictures make them look like a full stein, but it was a small 2 ounce glass – I got some worried queries from my mother after reading my blog, teehee!

I get one more day of relaxation (and laundry), then off to Tucson for another show!!! LOVING IT!

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