Social Distance Road Trip: Lunch in Santa Barbara, Dessert in Ventura

The pandemic has certainly limited our movement, keeping us close to home for much of the year. So on Sunday, we decided to pull off a quick road trip for lunch — specifically, La Super Rica in Santa Barbara. Made famous by Julia Child, who was a fan, La Super Rica is always a stop when we make it up to Santa Barbara. But on Sunday, it wasn't just a stop — it was the destination.

Guisado's is still my favorite taco, hands down. But La Super Rica does an amazing chorizo taco — and as I discovered today, its hongos (mushroom) taco is also something special. The line is always long, and the wait is some time as well. There's currently no restaurant seating, so we took ours to go and set out to find a park to eat it at.

Our first stop was the Santa Barbara Mission. Beautiful grounds, but no real shade. We moved on to...

... Alameda Park, where we ate. And then we strolled across the street to the Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden, a nice oasis complete with lagoon and many, many ducks and turtles.

Lots of turtles.

And more turtles.

From there, we headed back down to Ventura for dessert. The kids have been asking for Dole Whips ever since we hit Kings Hawaiian Bakery's Local Place a few weeks ago, but didn't get any. A quick Google search turned up Coastal Cone Ice Cream in Ventura Harbor Village.

The price was a bit on the high side -- $5.95 for a small -- but I did like the presentation. And it indeed hit the spot. 

Our first time at this part of Ventura Harbor.

The view while enjoying our Dole Whips.

This was quickly consumed.

Across the Ventura Harbor Village, the beach.

The waves were strong and the surfers were out.

A quick walk on the rocks.

And from there, back home. Another socially distant road trip, with more hopefully to come.

Discussing "Law & Order" and Its Brand

Back in April, I took part in a day-long conference at UC Santa Barbara's Carsey-Wolf Center. The topic? The 20-year impact of "Law & Order." ("Law & Order" creator Dick Wolf is the namesake, along with Marcy Carsey, of the Carsey-Wolf Center, natch. So expect a future conference on Carsey-Werner.)

My topic: How "Law & Order" morphed from TV show into a full-fledged brand. (I wrote a story on this topic back in 2001, which is partly why I was asked to join in.)

This was a rare case of actually being on a panel instead of moderating it -- and wow, that's a whole lot easier. I was joined by Cliff Gilbert-Lurie, Senior Partner, Ziffren Brittenham LLP; Warren Littlefield, Founder, The Littlefield Company and former President, NBC Entertainment; Jonathan Nichols-Pethick, Program Director and Associate Professor of Film Studies, DePauw University; Betsy Scolnik, Head of Digital Strategies, Wolf Films; and Ellen Seiter, Professor of Television Studies, School for Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California.

Here's how the panel was pitched:

"Law & Order" is one of the most financially successful series in the history of television. Conceived originally as a modular hour-long drama that could be syndicated in half-hour blocs, it was from the outset a program designed to navigate the shifting sands of the TV business during cable and broadband eras. Panelists explored the distinctive features of "Law & Order" as a network franchise and off-network syndication property. Topics included: production strategies, cost containment, marketing, cross-platform synergies, brand management, target audiences, and intellectual property. Panelists also discussed "Law & Order" within the broader context of network and cable television.

And here's the video from the day:

Law and Order: Changing Television: Session 1: The Brand from Carsey-Wolf Center on Vimeo.

L.A. Road Trip: A Saturday in Ventura

I headed to Santa Barbara on Friday morning to take part in a day-long seminar at UCSB on the "Law & Order" brand; Maria and the boys took the Amtrak and joined me later that evening.

After lunch the next day at La Super Rica, we decided to pass on our usual jaunt down Santa Barbara's State Street and instead explore Ventura -- specifically, Ventura's old town.



Formally known as the City of San Buenaventura, Ventura was a tiny, sleepy town for most of its existence. The population now stands at about 110,000. The city is named for Mission San Buenaventura, which was founded by Father Junípero Serra in 1782.


Ventura Theatre

Ventura's old downtown feels similar to what Old Town Pasadena was like prior to the arrival of major chains and the over-commercialization. Ventura downtown has major retailers, but it's also still home to several mom and pop stores -- and a large number of thrift stores.

A few more pics:


Mission San Buenaventura


Downtown


Car for sale


Another car


Ventura City Hall

"Brothers & Sisters" Has a Geography Problem

The Daily Beast's Kate Aurthur has a big bone to pick with ABC's Sunday night drama "Brothers & Sisters."

The show is set in both Los Angeles and Santa Barbara -- and Kate is bothered by the ease the characters travel between both cities, as if they're down the block from each other. She writes:

Increasingly, to anyone who lives in Southern California, or has, like, heard of Southern California, it has also become a bizarre geographic mystery requiring a suspension of disbelief that would torment even Dan Brown fans.

The majority of the Walker family, led by matriarch Nora (Sally Field), lives in Pasadena and Los Angeles, which are very near each other, if not essentially considered to be the same city. So fine, great, they all see each other all the time—that makes sense.

Then there is the married couple, Kitty (Calista Flockhart) and Robert (Rob Lowe)—she an author, he a senator who is running for governor of California—who explicitly and clearly live in Santa Barbara. Yet Brothers & Sisters acts as if the two regions are mere seconds away from each other. Robert’s senatorial office is in downtown Los Angeles; Kitty is constantly stopping by her mother’s house. It is maddening.

In one recent episode, Aurthur notes that the characters traveled back and forth between Pasadena and Santa Barbara several times in one night.

Google Maps clocks the trip between Pasadena and Santa Barbara at 103 miles -- or one hour and 41 minutes.

So what's the deal? Kate got the unsatisfying answer from ABC: “They exist in a world without traffic… and Robert has a helicopter at his disposal.”

Blogging the Montecito Fire

(AP photo by Michael Moriatis)

Wonkette editor Ken Layne has been one of my heroes of the recent presidential campaign. Under his watch, Wonkette has been a fun, irreverent stop to read about some of the more outrageous but true aspects of the McCain-Obama race.

Layne happened to be spending time in Santa Barbara this past week, and got a front row view of the devastating fires now hitting Montecito. He filed this report for LAist. An excerpt:

In the foothills, dozens of "hot spots" could be seen, with five or six huge estates bursting into flames and a fire line that dropped behind ridges and over hills and went in either direction for as far as you could see. Convoys of fire engines roared up the highway, from Ventura and Los Angeles and Orange County. The radio hosts somberly recounted the tragedies seen and offers of help received.

Mansions and compounds literally exploded as we creeped south on the 101.

Layne tunes in to L.A. news radio outlets KNX and KFWB, where the anchors made sure to reassure listeners that estates owned by Oprah Winfrey and Rob Lowe were safe. Sez Layne: "Idiots."

Rate-A-Restaurant #175: La Super Rica

Restaurant: La Super Rica

Location: 622 N Milpas St. (Santa Barbara)

Type of restaurant: Taqueria



They stipulated: The line gets lengthy during the way -- so you may have to wait to order. Once you get to the front of the line, order by number, and fast. Also, don't be afraid to order a lot: The tacos are street food-sized.



We stipulated: On our drive up north, we wanted to make sure we hit a couple of simple, great spots. La Super Rica -- well known as Julia Child's favorite Mexican spot -- fit the bill. It was easy to find, and we happened to be in Santa Barbara for lunch, so score.



What we ordered: Tacos de Adobado (strips of marinated pork steak served on two homemade tortillas, $2.50); Tacos de Chorizo (chunks of grilled chorizo served on two homemade tortillas, $2.50); Auesadilla (grilled cheese between two homemade tortillas, $1.55); Lomito Suizo (grilled marinated pork with melted cheese between two corn tortillas, $3.50); Gordita de Frijol (handmade thick corn tortilla filled with spicy ground beans, $2.75); Guacamole (served with two homemade tortillas, $3.25); horchata ($1.60); cafe de olla (coffee flavored with cinnamon and piloncillo, $1.40).



High point: Ahh, those homemade tortillas, filled with meat and topped off with homemade salsa. I especially loved the gordita -- they don't lie, it's spicy. And the guacamole is excellent -- we weren't originally going to order it, but so many people were walking away from the counter with it, we couldn't resist.

Low point: The wait was a little too long, particularly since we had to get back on the road. But still worth it.



Overall impression: La Super Rica is an instutition, and while I still think our own Yuca's beats them on taste, it's definitely as good a reason to visit Santa Barbara as anything else. La Super Rica is about to be featured on the Food Network, and I also hear rumors that the owners are planning on opening branches of the taqueria overseas. Not a bad export -- perhaps the U.S. ought to consider making "taco diplomacy" a benchmark of its international strategy.

Chance we'll go back: Next time we're in Santa Barbara, we're hitting La Super Rica first.

For a complete list of our more than 175 restaurant reviews, check out our companion Rate-A-Restaurant site.

Coastal Journey, Day 1: Los Angeles to Morro Bay

Bags packed, snacks secured, Evan's bag of toys positioned next to his car seat, we headed out last Tuesday morning for our trip up the coast.

On the CD player, a radio show specially recorded just for this trip: "The Evan and Daddy Show" -- yes, the Kid Formerly Known As Blogger Toddler and I had recorded a special radio show for the trip, a mix of tunes by Duffy, Coldplay, the Aquabats, the Smiths and more, with our witty banter between songs. (Precocious, I know.)

Away we went, up the 101. First stop, Santa Barbara. We parked off State and strolled up and down, making a pit stop at a Barnes & Noble. It was there that I looked up the address for a taco spot that Maria had heard about: La Super Rica.



(One of you later backed this up -- I can't believe we had never hit La Super Rica in all of our years visiting Santa Barbara!)

From there, we continued our drive up the 101, stopping outside San Luis Obispo at the famed Madonna Inn.



This quickly became the "let's visit places on the 101 we've always meant to stop and check out, but never have" trip. Madonna Inn was at the top of the list. Friends have stayed here, but we've never stopped to check out the pink palace ourselves.



It was pretty much what we expected. Quite gaudy, quite old, and quite interesting. I wish we'd seen some of the hotel's themed rooms, but the main building is actually separate from the guest accomodations.



C'mon, how creepy is the doll below?!



From there, we took a few of you up on the suggestion to visit the Apple Farm restaurant and hotel. Yeah, it's a tourist trap.



But a tourist trap with tasty baked goods, and a nice place to sit after a long drive. We skipped the restaurant and simply grabbed a few cookies and headed out by the water wheel (which fascinated the KFKABT, of course).



Then, it was on to our pit stop for the night, Morro Bay. One of the last fishing towns in California, Morro Bay is also known for the big rock that dominates the skyline.







Morro Bay is also recognizable for these three smokestacks, connected to a PG&E plant.



We got a good view of the bay and Morro rock from our hotel, the Best Western Tradewinds. Nothing special, but a decent room at a decent price. Can't beat the location -- also walking distance from Morro Bay's Embarcadero.

We opted to drive back to San Luis Obispo, however, and try another spot you recommended: Novo Restaurant.



Located on the creek that runs through San Luis Obispo's downtown, Novo's back patio was a great spot to dine on our first night.



Afterward, we strolled through San Luis Obispo, where we walked past the mission (above) and the Fremont Theater (below).



Next Up: Day 2, we avoid the fires.