Rate-A-Restaurant #338: Harris Ranch

(Pic by Bunrab.com)

Restaurant: Harris Ranch

Location: 24505 West Dorris Avenue (Coalinga, Calif.)

Type of restaurant: Steak and American



We stipulated: We drive up the 5 at least once a year to visit San Francisco. And every year, we consider visiting Harris Ranch, but never do. But this year, the timing was right to stop at Harris Ranch just in time for lunch. We were ready to stop in Coalinga.

They stipulated: "You will be treated to a mouth-watering menu of Harris Ranch Restaurant Reserve Beef. We have designed the menu around the fruits and vegetables we grow and creatively showcase the West’s Best Beef in classic Harris Ranch dishes such as our Award-Winning Pot Roast, Tri Tip Sandwich and Barbeque Beef Ribs." Also: For pilots flying in for lunch, "For your convenience, Harris Ranch has a 2,800 foot landing strip that is paved and lighted along the south side of the main complex. Self-serve 100 LL Aviation Fuel is available 24 hours a day."



What we ordered: HARRIS RANCH POT ROAST (winning tender slow roasted beef brisket, garlic mashed red skin potatoes, brown gravy & farm fresh vegetables $19.95); SLICED MARINATED TRI-TIP (Seasoned with Kosher salt and cracked black peppercorns,served with garlic mashed red skin potatoes, brown gravy & farm fresh vegetables $23.95); kids pizza.



High point:  The acorn squash side was fantastic. I'd love to eat more.



Low point:  The gravy.



Overall impression: An oasis on the terribly dull I-5 freeway journey to San Francisco. Definitely worth the stop. But food-wise, just OK. The pot roast good could have used a bit more flavor. We appreciated the big menu -- the veggies were probably the best part. (I know, strange to say for Harris Ranch, where the beef should be the star.) Also appreciated the great kids menu.



Will we return: If the timing is right, I'd definitely stop again for lunch or dinner at Harris Ranch. It beats most of the food choices on the 5.

Scenes from a Glendale Brush Fire

Good news: It appears that this afternoon's brush fire in Glendale near the 2 and 134 freeway interchange has been mostly knocked down, thanks to some quick-acting fire departments!

Retro Friday: GM's Futuristic Vision of Driving... in 1976

Futuristic predictions are always amusing, particularly when they're geared toward the not-so-distant future. I love this 1956 GM film, created for a Motorama exhibit, imagining a space age-y 1976. Of course, most of this technology is now here (well, except for auto pilot -- although testing is ongoing) and a lot less complicated. But it took a few more decades.

Retro Friday: 1950s-Era Carmageddon

We complain now about the traffic... but if this circa-1950s video of the 110 freeway (then known just as the "11") is any indication, things were pretty tight back then too. Call it "Carmageddon, '50s Style."

Retro Friday: L.A. Freeways in the 1950s

Battle traffic this morning? Prepared to battle Friday evening traffic tonight? Watch and weep: Easy-moving L.A. freeways in the 1950s.

A Little Ditty About L.A. Public Transportation

Boyle Heights-based hardcore band It's Casual has come up with an ode to public transportation in Los Angeles. "The Redline," the first single from the band's upcoming release "The New Los Angeles Part I: Through The Eyes Of A Bus Rider," looks at what it's like to avoid the freeways and take public transportation (and a skateboard) to work. (In real life, It's Casual lead singer Edward Solis doesn't own a car and really does ride public transportation.)

Rick Kosick ("Jackass") shot and directed the video, above. The group's album is released on March 13.

Retro Friday: Lake Dolores, America's First Waterpark

It's one of the many bizarre sites (along with Zzyzx Rd.) you can't help but notice while speeding down the 15 to or from Las Vegas. An eerie, abandoned water park in the middle of the desert: "Rock-A-Hoola," formerly known as Lake Dolores, seems to have been a pretty bad idea.

Yet it thrived as Lake Dolores. (Above, an 1980s-era ad for the attraction.) Opened by Bob and Dolores (the park's namesake) Byers in 1962, Lake Dolores is considered one of the first -- if not the first -- water parks in the country.

A popular recreational attraction for much of the 1970s and 1980s, it finally shut down in the late 1980s. Ten years later, in the late 1990s, it reopened as the 1950s-themed "Rock-A-Hoola." Here's a promo video from 1998:



But the new owners went bankrupt, and it shut down for good by 2004. Since then the water attractions have been removed and the location has been vandalized. Now, it's a spooky shell of its former self.

Now, people can't resist stopping off the freeway to take videos of the eerie water park ruins. Some videos:





And in the most famous example, the stars of MTV's "Rob and Big" took their skateboards and rode on the abandoned slides:



Lake Dolores isn't forgotten. Not only do thousands of motorists drive by it every day, but one filmmaker is even working on a documentary about the country's first waterpark. Here's a clip:



Check out more cool pics of the abandoned waterpark at Lost America here.

Carmageddon Wrap

Thankfully, Carmageddon turned into Car2K -- although folks already fear next year's sequel, when motorists may ignore the warnings and hit the freeways. But that's next year (which I've already dubbed "Breakin' the 405 2: Carlectric Boogaloo").

For now, some takeaways from the weekend. The Los Angeles Times asks if Carmageddon's less congested roads can be :

The success of Carmageddon has given way to a political and lifestyle question: If L.A. residents can cut their driving for one weekend, how can they be encouraged to drive less the rest of the time?

...

"You can suddenly hear people talking. You hear kids playing," said L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. "People discovered something about themselves and Los Angeles auto culture that shocked them. Why can't we take some chunk of L.A. and shut it down to traffic on certain days or weekends, as they do in Italy?"

Some mass-transportation advocates went further, saying that Carmageddon showed the need for less freeway expansion — like the $1-billion project that closed the 405 — and for more investment in rail and bus service.

Over at KCET, D.J. Waldie is a bit more realistic:

We may have immunized ourselves too well, in the opinion of some emergency planners. We're already being warned to be afraid of not being afraid enough of Carmageddon 2, when the other side of the overpass comes down next year.

Saturday also seemed to have a message that life would be better if a kind of permanent Carmageddon were possible, and every day would be like Saturday. Advocates of a less driven L.A. may point to Carmageddon as a model of the future city, where auto-dependent residents cheerfully bike, walk, and take the bus to work because they know what's good for them.

Unfortunately, most drivers tend to believe that someone else - anyone else - should take the bus, ride a bike, stay at home, and accept diminished mobility. Not them, but you. (Or as actor Neil Patrick Harris tweeted in illustration of the effect: "I love having the 405 freeway closed. Traffic is nonexistent. Carmageddon is the best! I'm gonna Carma-get-in my car and run some errands."

OK, that NPH tweet is pretty funny.

Carmageddon? More Like Car2K

So the cynics might say that "Carmageddon" was overblown hype. Others might note that all the hype surrounding "Carmageddon" is what made things go so smooth. (That's the 5 freeway, near Atwater Village, as seen from a bike bridge above.)

Either way, traffic was smooth around Los Angeles on Saturday, despite the 405 shutdown. We'll see if that convinces people to hit the freeways on Sunday -- creating a belated "Carmageddon." See you on the streets!

If "Carmageddon" still doesn't occur, feel free to use my "Car2K" slogan.

Countdown to Carmageddon

I guess "carmageddon" is sticking, despite my attempts to coin "autopocalypse" or my pal Christy's even better "cartastrophe."

But CARMAGEDDON it is. CARMAGEDDON PEOPLE. WE'RE ALL GOING TO BE STUCK IN OUR HOMES NEXT WEEKEND!

Or maybe not. There's a strong feeling out there that the roads will rival the 1984 Olympics -- when motorists, afraid of all the traffic warnings, stayed clear... leaving the freeways remarkably smooth.

Team Franklin Avenue plans to stay as FAR AWAY from the 405 as possible next weekend... the benefits of living far, far away from the west side.

In case you're still in the dark about CARMAGEDDON 2011, UCLA and KCET will produce the special "COUNTDOWN TO CARMAGEDDON: The 405 Closure." Details:

Produced by UCLA’s University Communications and Public Outreach department, the 30-minute program is scheduled to air on KCET as a special broadcast of the award-winning news program SoCal Connected. The first airing is set for Wednesday, July 13, at 8 p.m. The show will repeat on Friday, July 15, at 9:30 p.m.

COUNTDOWN TO CARMAGEDDON: The 405 Closure presents the reasons for the freeway’s 53-hour closure and the unprecedented steps ordered by public officials to avoid severe traffic delays across the region. The program will also explore the potential long-term benefits to commuters of modernizing the freeway.

The program details the impact of the 405 shutdown through informative graphics and discussions with senior officials of Metro, the California Highway Patrol, the Los Angeles Police Department and UCLA, a major employer in the closure zone.

LA Observed's Kevin Roderick, who also serves as director of the UCLA Newsroom, will narrate.

Reviving the Ghost of L.A.'s Berkeley Square

One of the most fascinating blogs I've seen in a while is Berkeley Square Los Angeles, a look at a long-lost neighborhood in West Adams.

Berkeley Square was once a place filled with grand homes and privileged inhabitants. But the neighborhood decayed over time -- and the construction of the 10 freeway wiped it off the map. Here's how the blog describes its mission:

What came into existence was what must have been in its heyday a lovely picture of Southern California--serious houses by serious architects amid towering palms. And then it was over--the lure of Windsor Square, Hancock Park, Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Brentwood, Pasadena, to name a few, became too great after the landmark 1948 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled unconstitutional the restrictive covenants precluding residency of African-Americans (among other ethnicities) in certain neighborhoods...the houses were aging and expensive to maintain...and the wall-like Santa Monica Freeway was eventually aimed almost directly through the Square.

The social ramifications, however, are not my primary aim here. I'd like merely to describe, post by post, what is known about each house and its occupants, to rescue the Square, as much as possible, from obscurity.

We'll be reading.

Retro Friday: The Arroyo Seco Parkway, Then and Now

It's now been more than 70 years after the nation's first "freeway," the Arroyo Seco Parkway (formerly the Pasadena Freeway), was born. Here's a "now and then" contrast of everyone's favorite curvy, semi-dangerous roadway.

(Hat tip to Rich Brown.)

Preservation Update: Westwood's Crest Theatre Sold; Pasadena Freeway Threatened

(Flickr pic by avilon_music.)

:: L.A. Observed reports that Westwood's Majestic Crest has been sold, and that the upcoming screening of the Julia Roberts movie "Eat, Play, Love" will be its last. Owner Robert Bucksbaum is vague about the future of the theater, however. From an email sent out by Bucksbaum:

I'll provide more details about the sale in the next few weeks but I think it will be a positive experience for our patrons and the Westwood community.

:: The New York Times writes about concerns that Caltrans' rehabilitation project on the recently renamed Arroyo Seco Parkway (formerly the Pasadena Freeway) has damaged the drive's historic features:

Paul Daniel Marriott, author of “Preserving the Historic Highway,” a guide to melding safety improvements with historical accuracy for parkways and highways, said in an interview recently that a $17 million maintenance and rehabilitation project now under way on the Pasadena Freeway, or State Route 110 in California, was endangering original elements of the road, which opened in 1940 (as the Arroyo Seco Parkway) and is the oldest part of what became the Los Angeles freeway system.

Caltrans, the state transportation department, has nominated the highway for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. But now, Mr. Marriott said, Caltrans is adding concrete Jersey barriers and chain-link fences to the narrow highway and destroying its historical character.

According to the paper, "Caltrans says the new barriers are necessary to insure safety and to reduce maintenance costs."

O.J.'s June 17, 1994 Car Chase: Where Were You?

I remember the summer of O.J. quite well.

I had just started as an intern at Newsweek in New York, working in the news magazine's business section. Fridays were late nights at Newsweek, as much of the week's copy was rolling in and being edited. As interns, we got to do some reporting, but we were mostly assigned to fact checking -- which meant sometimes waiting until late in the night as raw copy was finally turned into stories by the writers and editors. (In those days, reporters and writers were not necessarily the same thing.)

One of my fellow interns had decided to throw a party the evening of Friday, June 17. Although many of us were going to be late to the event, it was definitely something to look forward to as we sat in our cubicles and waited to be dismissed from our various departments.

But then came the news: O.J. Simpson was missing. And then the even bigger news: O.J. Simpson was speeding down the freeways of Los Angeles in a white Ford Bronco driven by his pal Al Cowling. Simpson held a gun to his head as he talked to a 911 operator. And it was all captured on live TV.

The fact checkers and copy editors in the business department all gathered in one of the business editors' offices. And we watched on her little TV, as that SUV drove slowly down L.A. freeways (and hundreds of Angelenos cheered him on).

Copy probably poured in to our computers, ready to be edited, but it didn't matter. We were riveted, like the rest of America. (One immediate casualty of the O.J. chase: That intern's party didn't happen that night.)

Given what was happening -- the gun, the purported suicide note, the chase from the law -- I think we all were assuming that the evening would wind up with O.J. dead. We couldn't have guessed that evening that the drama would continue over the following year and lead to an even bigger circus of a trial.

Meanwhile, as we watched the news unfold in the weeks that followed, rival Time soon got criticized for darkening a mug shot of O.J. But Newsweek also caught grief for producing too many O.J. covers, week in and week out. It was a lot of O.J.; but that's what people wanted.

A year later, when the O.J. verdict was finally revealed, I was visiting my friend Anthony in Hawaii -- and got up super early to hear the result. (But that's another story for another time.)

Just in time for the 16th anniversary of that fateful day (yes, that was 16 years ago!), ESPN's latest "30 on 30" documentary "June 17th, 1994," which aired this week on the sports cabler, looks at that fateful, busy evening.



How did you watch the events of that evening unfold?

Freeway Sign Update: Artist Richard Ankrom Gets Some Bad News on His "Guerrilla Public Service"

Pic by Richard Ankrom

Ever since Caltrans replaced the freeway signs on the 110 North in November, artist Richard Ankrom has been trying to figure out if any of his 2001 work "Guerrilla Public Service" had been saved.

Richard dropped us an email the other day to give us the bad word: Nope.

Above, the rubbish bale in which Ankrom's work, along with plenty of old freeway signs -- has been crushed.



When I first wrote about the sign replacement last week, Richard said he hadn't heard the news -- and then rushed out to see where the signs had gone.

Now, he writes:

Thanks again for the heads up. It took a while to track the signs down, finally got an answer on the 2nd, but it was too late.

The sign crew was there Nov. 22nd, so it was probably crushed before Thanksgiving.

Caltrans awarded the sign removal and installation contract to Peterson/Chase. Under contract they were to recycle the old signs. Peterson/Chase and Garcia Recycling are within 3 blocks of each other in Garden Grove, Ca.

The aluminum bales are going to China, and they are not willing to sell them to me. I will keep trying, before they go in a shipping container.

One of the contractor's employees knew about the sign project and thought he had saved it, as it turns out he saved the wrong one, not knowing the location or that my signature was on the back.

Ankrom, of course, is the artist who famously added a marker on a 110 freeway sign to signal the turnoff to the 5 North -- something that, surprisingly, hadn't been on the 110 North signs until then. Ankrom was among the motorists who had been confused by the lack of any direction to the 5 North -- and decided to do something about it.

Caltrans was not only cool with the Ankrom's work, but agreed to keep it up -- until, that is, the signs were replaced last month.

Caltrans Changes Signs on 110 North; Richard Ankrom's Famed "5 North" Installation Feared Lost

The new sign, heading north on the 110.

If you're driving north on the 110 past downtown Los Angeles this weekend, you'll notice the brand-spanking new freeway signs installed by California's Department of Transportation.

The new signs are much more reflective, and also for the first time give equal weight to both the 5 and 110 freeways. The new signs designate the 5 North for drivers in the left two lanes, and the 110 North for the right two lanes.

Quite a difference from a few years ago, when the signs didn't mention the 5 North at all. Back then, motorists were left scrambling to figure out on their own how to find the 5 North turnoff from the 110 North (if you knew it was there at all).

That is, until artist Richard Ankrom's infamous August 2001 installation "Guerilla Public Service."


(Pic: Gary Leonard/Downtown News)

Ankrom took two years to design an exact replica of the Interstate 5 logo, as well as the word "NORTH" in an identical font to Caltrans signs. Then, in the middle of a sunny day, Ankrom -- dressed as a Caltrans worker -- installed the markers on an existing "110 North" sign.

And then... nobody noticed! The helpful signs finally directed 110 drivers to the 5, and yet Caltrans didn't have any idea. Nine months later, the Los Angeles Downtown News finally broke the story.

Caltrans, amazingly, agreed that the new signs were helpful -- and kept them up! The agency even installed a similar marker on another 110 North sign.

Sadly, these brand new freeway signs installed this weekend -- while even helpful than the old ones -- mean that Ankrom's work has now disappeared. I emailed Ankrom on Friday, and he hadn't heard the news:

Missed the change on the freeway signs until you pointed it out. Immediately went to look, hopefully I can recover the sign.

A little disappointed that it's down, but the new signs are a big improvement. After being up for 9 years and three months it was a good run. It helped my career in a subtle way. Still get surprised when it comes up.

Here's hoping the sign is somewhere in storage and can be saved. I'm a bit sad to see it go -- I often think of Ankrom's installation when I pass under the "5 North" marker on the 110.


Photo composite of Ankrom's installation, by Jim Payne.

Here's how Ankrom described "Guerilla Public Service":

The installation and documentation of missing information on the freeway sign system, guerrilla public service. Exact reproduction of guide signs (Caltrans part numbers G-27, G-47) placed on existing structure (gantry 23100) to aid motorists to their destination and ease traffic congestion.
To prove the integrity of the arts, its place in culture and why civilization needs it. The benefits of the artistic endeavor in everyday life, what we see, don’t see, and take for granted.
For the hundreds of millions of motorists in their commute, in which they use the freeway sign system.

The Mystery of Those Shipping Containers at the Sepulveda Dam

(Photo by Michael Owen Baker/Daily News)

Rest easy -- the city didn't decide to start storing empty shipping containers at the Sepulveda Dam (although, given its past assaults on Los Angeles' historic sites, I wouldn't have been surprised).

You've probably seen it while passing by the Sepulveda Dam near the 101/405 interchange: Piles and piles of shipping containers, with scaffolding on top. It almost looked like the set up to a music festival stage to me. Thankfully, it's just temporary, according to the Daily News.

The paper writes that the stack of containers -- at least five stories tall -- is a part of a top-secret film shoot there, known only by its code name: "Rasputin." Most believe that "Rasputin" is code for the real movie shooting there: "Iron Man 2."

Writes the paper:

Hollywood insiders, masters of cinematic deception, have refused to even acknowledge the colossus next to one of the busiest freeway interchanges in the nation.

"If I can comment I'll let you know," said an email sent by a not-for-attribution official of Paramount Pictures, distributor for the "Iron Man" films. "But for the most part they haven't let me say a word about anything."

However, another person familiar with the set said it will support a massive "green screen," used to film actors in front of digitally produced backgrounds for special-effects filmmaking.

For the past week, motorists driving through the 101/405 interchange have craned their necks to see the growing block of containers just south of the Art Deco bulwark.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which administers the dam, issued a film permit for "Rasputin Locations." Many movie bloggers view that as code for "Iron Man 2," a Marvel Comics superhero action sequel starring Robert Downey Jr., set for release next May.

"They do have a permit," said Jay Field, an Army Corps spokesman in Los Angeles. "They are working with FilmLA. We have had our environmental, our engineering and our safety staffs review the permit application and have agreed there would be no problem.

"There will be no impact to the dam structure, or its operational capability, as well as an environmental impact."

But like a typical Hollywood mystery, FilmLA, which supplies local permits for TV and film productions, said it had not green-lighted a Sepulveda Basin shoot.

The shoot will continue until August, the paper wrote.

Your Favorite Freeway: The 2

(Flickr pic by Tommy-G.)


It was no contest: When speeding down L.A.'s maze of freeways, you prefer the relatively smooth 2 Freeway (also known as the Glendale Freeway), perched high above the city, and surrounded by mountains.

The 2 is a relatively short freeway, running from La Canada Flintridge (where the 2 turns into the Angeles Crest Highway and heads into the mountains) and Echo Park, where it... just suddenly stops. The 2 suffers from a case of freewayus interruptus, as once upon a time the 2 was meant to continue heading west, over Santa Monica Blvd. -- the never-built "Beverly Hills Freeway."

Perhaps all of you are still nostalgic for "CHiPs," which frequently shot on stretches of the 2 before it officially opened in the late 1970s.

Here's how the poll shaped up:

The Wednesday Poll: Freeway of Love Edition

Angelenos have a love/hate relationship with their freeways. Mostly hate, of course. But there are those patches of freeway that still provide smooth rides or breathtaking views -- and without them, our hour-long commutes would still be even longer.

For me, I enjoy heading north on the 110, particularly in winter, when the snow-capped mountains tower over downtown's skyscrapers. I also get a kick out of taking the 210 between the 2 and the 118; winding through the mountains, you forget that you're in L.A. But my favorite stretch of freeway has to be the 134 between the 2 and Pasadena. Up high, with a great view and a mostly clear ride, my only complaint is the lack of on or off ramps.

Now, it's your turn. Pick your favorite L.A. freeway below.

The Northbound 110 to 5 Freeway Transition: Soon To Get a Bit Less Hairy

(Flickr pic by Atwater Village Newbie.)

Driving north on the 110 past downtown, you may have noticed the new signage over the Figueroa tunnels. A new electronic sign has been added over the No. 2 lane, and will be used to signal when that additional lane can be used for drivers looking to transition to the north 5.

That means, as seen above, soon both of those two lanes on the left will be occasionally be used for motorists hopping on the 5. Will that cause more confusion? I dunno.

But I still think it's about time. As we wrote last year, "There aren't many freeway interchanges that are more nervewracking then the northbound 110 switchover to the northbound 5. It's usually touch and go up the 110, and it's always a gamble to decide when to merge into the far left lane. Too soon, and you're stuck in the slow line to the 5. Wait too long, and you might miss the turn."

Check out a brief history of the 110 -- once known as the Arroyo Seco Parkway -- here.