As in, yoso-silly, yoso-hungry, yoso-full, or best of all; mmm-delici-yoso!!!!! A San Diego based food and travel blog. An Ex-Pat Kama'aina and Friends explore food, restaurants, and travel from San Diego and points beyond.
I’m not quite sure who mentioned ViNam Cafe to me? But it’s definitely Banh Mi “season” for me right now as temps are starting to rise and I found myself in Rolando. So, I decided to figure out where ViNam was. I finally found the little shop on the ground floor of a mixed use apartment on ECB just East of College. I found some parking on ECB and walked over and discovered that the shop has it’s own small, but dedicated parking lot.
It was fairly early on a weekend morning and the little shop was quite sedate. Folks were just getting coffee while I was looking for my banh mi brekkie!
Just one nice young lady working.
Looking over the food, it was apparent that this is one of those “new” places and the menu has no Vietnamese names…other than banh mi.
I went with the Banh Mi Pate Chaor perhaps Dac Biet Cold Cut ($9). And it’s an interesting sign of the times as the nine dollar price didn’t faze me at all. Another thing that was different from other places is that the very nice young lady was doing everything….taking orders, making all the drinks, answering the phone, and of course making my banh mi. If this is usually the case, I wouldn’t be in a hurry when you visit. My banh mi took over twenty minutes, but I’m not going to complain too much since that young lady was working hard!
Three stacked slices of cha lua, two of nem nuong….though the flavor of that was nullified by that thick smear of pate….not that I’m complaining mind you. This was definitely pate forward in flavor.
The pickled veggies were really cut thick…a bit too thick for my enjoyment, but that’s splitting hairs. There were not one; but two slices of cucumber in this so you won’t find me complaining about that. A nice cross slice of jalapeno with some decent spice.
My least favorite item was the bread, the crust was hard and the bread was overly chewy.
Overall, not a bad banh mi, the proportion was off for my taste….though I might be the only customer who would ever complain about too much meat? If the bread situation is just an aberration (I understand they make their own bread) than this would indeed be a nice, slightly Westernized banh mi. I’m thinking this is great for the students at SDSU.
The ViNam Cafe 6150 El Cajon Blvd. Suite A San Diego, CA 92115 Current Hours: Mon – Fri 630am – 6pm Saturday 7am – 9pm Sunday 7am – 6pm
We stopped by on the way back from the Farmer’s Market and took a nice stroll and quick look.
Looks like fun and there are several stands and the of course Poseidon, BPC, and other places are open.
Nutmeg Cafe which will be opening on this very street has a table as well. It was the busiest table so I didn’t get a chance to check them out or even take a photo. However, Pit Stop Pizza which has a shop on Clairemont Drive has a trailer there as well.
This is taking place on the 4000 block of Napier Street from 9am to 1pm. More info here and here.
Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Fourth of July! Happy 250th!
On our last visit to Idyllwild many businesses were closed. We were here on Tuesday and Wednesday so that seemed odd. It’s during our meal at Ferro that our wonderful Server explained that weekends are the busy times for Idyllwild, so many businesses use Tuesday and Wednesday as their weekend so to speak. So, I took that into consideration when planning this road trip. We were visiting on a Sunday and Monday, leaving on Tuesday morning. So, all of the businesses seemed open during our visit.
That made the short walk from our accommodation to Raven Hill Bagels so easy to grab some breakfast and coffee. The shop is indeed closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It’s a small shop with some outdoor seating. You order at the counter….it’s basically a deli and then take your food.
There were some tables outside and the Missus waited with JJ.
A simple order, two Americanos, and a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Bagel Sandwich ($13), with Avocado ($2).
I chose a Jalapeno and Cheese Bagel, which was fairly dense, but tasty.
It would have been on the saltier side; but I added avocado which was a nice buffer. This was also quite large….I saved half for the next morning’s breakfast.
I also noted that the shop also sells various cheeses and deli meats by the pound as well.
Raven Hill Bagels 54440 North Circle Dr. Unit A Idyllwild-Pine Cove, CA 92549
Heading back to the Fireside Inn, we got into the car and headed up to the Idyllwild Nature Center.
There are several easy trails here and also ample parking on this day. We took the super easy Idyllwild Park Trail.
There was some interesting signage along the way with some interesting things to see; like these Bedrock Mortars used by the Cahuilla, the Indigenous People who settled in the area.
There were also some nice views along the way.
Which JJ enjoyed.
It was a nice way to spend a few hours.
Back in town, we parked at our cottage and walked down North Circle Drive, stopping at what is probably the Missus’s favorite shop in the town, Idyllwild Gardens.
Though this time the Missus resisted the urge to buy a bunch of stuffs!
Idyllwild Gardens 54385 North Circle Dr. Idyllwild, CA 92549
Our stop for lunch would be where we had what was our favorite meal on our previous visit….yes, it was at Atomic Cow.
The Missus and JJ hung out on the patio and I went in to order.
This time the Missus also wanted to try the Chili Cheese Fries. Which turned we turned out to not really enjoy.
Soggy dry fries…really weak, but salty chili, and gooey, but tasteless cheese.
Yes, it was the Cubano, which had Kalua Pork as one of the ingredients. Nicely toasted bread, nicely melted provolone cheese, pickles helping to cut the richness of the tender, smoky, porky, but not overly salty “Kalua pork”.
I’m glad we still enjoyed this. We had also learned that the sandwiches are pretty large here, so one plus a side is more than enough for our lunch. In fact, we needed a nap after this.
Atomic Cow 54200 North Circle Dr. Idyllwild-Pine Cove, CA 92549
We then had our afternoon “break” before heading back out to grab an early dinner and headed down North Circle Drive. It was nice to be here when most places were open. Right next to the Mountain Paws Pet Supply store was this lovely Gallery – Gift Shop.
The owner was super friendly and the Missus ended buying some small “stuffs” as gifts for folks.
Artspresso Art Gallery 54380 North Circle Dr. Idyllwild-Pine Cove, CA 92549
We kept heading on down the road and before you knew it, we had reached the Market, where North Circle Drive meets the 243…….
Right across the street was this place, called the Lumbermill.
Which had a patio, so we decided to head on in. We were led to the patio….which we really didn’t take to.
But the stools at the rail seemed nice and the place had a pleasant view of the street.
Looking at the condiments provided, you just kinda knew this was one of those burger-sandwich family diner – bar kind of places. And the menu, with burgers, burritos, nachos, hot dogs, sandwiches and such confirmed things. With this in mind, I went simple with regards to my cerveza….
And we just ordered two apps for dinner….which we were happy about since the portions were pretty large.
We got the boneless wings ($16.95).
Which looked over-sauced. It was pleasantly crunchy, the Buffalo sauce was on the sour-puckery side, but it did go rather well with the Blue Cheese Dressing. The really nice Server told us that they make their own dressing inhouse.
Of course, I just had to try some Cheese Curds ($15.95).
A bit too gooey with the batter not crisp enough…the menu said Wisconsin White Cheddar, but I really couldn’t make out any of the cheddar “sharpness”. Of course, it’s probably mass distributed young cheddar. I wasn’t expecting what I’d get at say………..The Old Fashioned in Madison, but it was still mediocre.
Still, not a terrible meal. JJ got treated nicely’ they brought a bowl of water for him. Service was welcoming….very nice folks working here. And it was enough food for our dinner.
Lumber Mill Bar & Grill 25985 CA-243 #243 Idyllwild-Pine Cove, CA 92549
It closed up a nice short stay in Idyllwild for us.
On our way out of Big Bear, the Missus decided She wanted to do another hike. So we headed west to the Castle Rock Trail. Because of the weekend crowd, we headed up early. It was a fairly easy trail, just 3 miles round trip.
Love the rock formations and the fall colors….something we really don’t get here in San Diego.
And of course; JJ had a blast as well.
Then we headed off to our next stop. The Missus wanted to stay in Idyllwild again. Because it was a Sunday, folks we headed out of Big Bear so it took us almost three hours to get to Idyllwild, which wasn’t too busy.
We parked near Village Center and the Missus did some shopping.
I had also heard that there’s a Farmers Market near the Town Hall on Sundays so we headed on over and did some browsing.
Idyllwild Farmers Market 25925 Cedar St. Idyllwild, CA 92549 Sunday from 9am – 2pm
We headed back down North Circle Drive to the car…..there are some really charming buildings and houses in Idyllwild.
When it happened! Remember how I mentioned that the Mayor of Idyllwild was a dog named Max? Well guess what….we ran into Max and his entourage meeting his constituents. So, we finally got to meet Max!
Which was kinda interesting as apparently Max doesn’t like other pooches so he went after JJ! He did go after me….well, after my back pocket as he sniffed out my package of treats. I cracked up….Max was looking for a bribe while trying to get rid of the competition! He really is a politician!
Meanwhile, I got my access code to our little cottage up the street….we’d stayed at the same place on our previous visit, so JJ felt right at home!
This time I went with the red ale with nice almost sweetish tones and was very easy to drink.
The Missus decided on the Crispy Sprouts.
Which were actually not bad. Fairly crisp, not mushy as many versions are. Kind of light in terms of flavor though.
I was curious about the “243 Dog”……which was a quite elongated kinda chewy hot dog, but was pleasantly savory..
The beer cheese was quite mild and not milky enough, the sweet caramelized onions were kind of a shock, but did add some additional flavor. The bacon aioli wasn’t really necessary in my opinion as it made things get soggy faster. The fires were typical thin style and on the drier side.
This was an ok dinner…..it met expectations.
And JJ was treated quite well too.
Idyllwild Brewpub 54423 Village Center Dr. Idyllwild, CA 92549
We had a nice stroll before settling in……
And we’d do a bit more exploring the following day!
