Hollywood, Atlanta and now...Santa Ana???

Last night as the wife and I were heading to Mother's Market at City Place, I was surprised to see people sitting on a normally unoccupied patio. And then I saw the sign: "Geisha House Now Open.

Hey, Geisha House is open! I said.

Whatever, she scoffed as we pulled into the driveway, coming to a never before seen sign at City Place reading: Valet Parking: $5.00.

See, the reason for my shock and the wife's doubt stems from our long-running theory that (part) owner Ashton Kutcher was pulling one last Punk on the citizens of Santa Ana.

Well, not really. We just know that so many restaurants have had such a difficult time opening up shop in Santa Ana, we figured this soon-to-be hot spot would eventually give up working with the often business-unfriendly Santa Ana and set up shop elsewhere, taking their pseudo-Spider-Man/Playstation 3 font with them.

After picking up our groceries at Mother's (including the tastiest (and only) $7 jar of pasta sauce I've ever had), I peered into the restaurant and was delighted to see such a highbrow venue in our own backyard. I knew there was another location in Hollywood, but I didn't think our little 'ol city would get the same treatment in decor.

"Man, and I thought being inside The Crosby on a Saturday night made me feel uncool(er)".

Though the staff seemed a little green being that it took a while for one of them to greet me, after doing so, she was very kind to humor my dumb questions.

When did you guys open?
Last night (Friday).

Were you busy?
Yeah, kinda. We're expecting it to pick up once the word gets out.

What time are you open 'til?
We stop seating at 10:30.

Are you open Sunday nights?
Yes, but not tomorrow.

Is Ashton here?
No. Go Away.

I'm kidding about the last one, but hey–we've got another restaurant in Santa Ana that's open on Sunday nights!

Long have I thought that a good sushi restaurant would do well in Downtown Santa Ana but hey, City Place will do for now.

As for the food–stay tuned as part two of this blog post continues later this week with a complete review of Geisha House's food, decor, prices and most important, the restrooms.

In the mean time, check out their menu.

Art Walk This Saturday (03/21)

Come rain or (moonlight) shine, the galleries at the Santiago Street Lofts come alive tomorrow night to host their monthly Art Walk event, The Santiago Art District.

I'm especially excited about a particular artist named Aaron Kraten showing tomorrow night at Curbside Gallery.

I met Aaron Kraten after February's art walk and immediately took a liking to him. Not only does he produce high quality and stylized works of art, but Aaron, much like yours truly has a penchant for all things video games.

What started off as a brief discussion about the arcade game Street Fighter turned into a two hour orgy of geekiness and nerdom–and I loved every minute of it.

With that said, stop on by tomorrow night and check out the galleries at the Santiago Art District–especially if you want to be schooled by Aaron Kraten in a conversation about video games.

(Early) St. Patty's Day Pub Crawl - 03/14

Being that St. Patty's Day takes place on a Tuesday this month, we've decided to celebrate it a few days early on Saturday.

And what would St. Patrick's Day be without prizes?

Stop by any of the participating locations and pick up a fresh Pub Crawl card and a set of GREEN BEADS.

Then, keep an eye out for both "Mr. Pub Crawl" himself and Yelp as they will be out and about looking for Pub Crawlers wearing green beads.

We'll have games to play and prizes to win for Pub Crawlers wearing the beads and have at least two stamps on their Pub Crawl Cards.

Prizes include: Afro Samurai for the Xbox 360/PS3, Shirts, iTunes Gift Cards, Chipotle Gift Cards, Free Drinks, Shot Glasses and more!


Here are some of the specials this month:

Lola Gaspar
$10 special (choice of any taco plate and a sangria, margarita, or pint of beer)

Tommy Pastrami
$3 ku bombs
$2.50 domestics
Happy hour prices on our delicious food

Memphis
Yummy corned beef sliders and $3 Guinness specials

Bistro 400
Irish Food, Drinks Specials and a Live DJ Spinning House and Dancefloor Oddities!

Jason's Downtown Restaurant
$3 Bud Light Bottles, $4 Beers on tap and $5 Lucky Irishman Martinis! The Latin Jazz Syndicate will be performing from 7:00pm-10:00pm and DJ Volta will take over from 10:30pm-2:00am

www.santaanapubcrawl.com

Weekend Events (03/07-03/08)

First Fridays. Fabulous Fun.
TGIFF. City Place retailers invite you to celebrate the first Friday of every month. Hosted from 7pm – 10pm, First Fridays are an evening for the whole family, complete with complementary appetizers, cocktails, live music, art exhibits, and plenty of great deals on one-of-a-kind buys from our eclectic collection of boutiques and shops.

Zoo Birthday
On March 7th and 8th, the Santa Ana Zoo at Prentice Park will celebrate 57 years of fun! There will be music, animal shows, and a huge model train exhibition by the Del Oro Pacific Model Train Club.

Grab a slice of the birthday cake and see Kids are Music, 5 4 U, and other great entertainment. New animals will be coming on exhibit for the occasion, so come out and check out your local Zoo and see what a long way it's come in the last 57 years.

Downtown Santa Ana Art Walk
Is always the first Saturday of every month. Come rain, shine, or holiday, the event will always take place between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.

Parking can be found in the 'Artists Village Parking Structure' at Third Street and Broadway. Walk through the galleries and studios, see a live performance or just hang out and enjoy the music. It is FREE and you always have a great time.

All information above is recirculated through various sources. I claim no ownership–feel free to pass it along.

Sloppy Sloping

Over the long weekend, a neighbor and I headed up to the top of his building to see how the sloping roofs were holding up after the recent rain.

Neither of us are experts when it comes to roofs nor standing water, but what we saw couldn't have been good.





In the second photo from the top, we took a ruler and dropped it in at a random spot and the water was nearly 2 inches deep. Other spots looked deeper, but neither of us really wanted to get our shoes soaked.

The bottom two photos show that the sloping roof does indeed work–the problem is that the slope ends below the level of the drainage pipes on the façade.

Lennar backs our roofs with a ten year warranty, but just imagine the inconvenience should the roofs begin to leak. Dry wall repairs, mold inspections/remediation, damage to flooring, furniture or electronics are just a few things one would most likely deal with.

In the mean time, I would suggest to everyone to inspect their roofs (yeah, even though the CC&Rs restrict you from going to the roof, I think when it comes to inspecting for standing water the HOA can look the other way).

If you find that your roof does indeed suffer from poor drainage, bring a broom to the roof and sweep off any excess standing water through the drain.

Hopefully we can get Lennar to take another look at the roofs before they pack it up for good here at the Santiago Lofts and leave this potential headache to be dealt with at the homeowner's expense.

**Update**
I ran into Eddie the other day and he told me that Lennar is bringing the roofing contractor back out to fix all of the drainage issues.

And that folks, is why Lennar is one of the best home builders out there.

Shoulda Woulda Coulda

First, read this article at the OC Register.

Doug Irving is one of the best reporters at the OC Register, not to mention a pretty nice and down-to-earth guy. But this article didn't sit too well with me, as well as several other individuals I spoke to about it.

Though, I wouldn't be too quick to blast Doug as he does bring up good points. Yeah, he does play up the “victim card” pretty nicely in this one but hold on, this is how I see it.

In recent years, the City seems to have developed an uncanny knack for missed opportunities, and I'm hoping that's the point Doug was trying to drive home; City, we're watching you this time.


Here are some key points from the article along with my thoughts:

• The property owners made a nice profit from their dealings with the city–even the code enforcement-violating ones. I'm sorry if some of them have seller's remorse but let me be clear; if someone offered me a huge chunk of change for my loft, I'd sell it in a heartbeat and move downtown.
  
  
• Calling your Ward a "slum" isn't the best choice of words, no matter how frustrated you are. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a slum as a densely populated usually urban area marked by crowding, dirty run-down housing, poverty, and social disorganization. This article seems to indicate that this definition could actually apply to what the Lacy neighborhood was prior to the City's intervention.
  
  
• I wouldn't say nothing has come of the City's convoluted plan to improve the City. The Santiago Lofts were built as part of this plan and our being here has resulted in some pretty great things for the City so far (exhibit 1, exhibit 2, exhibit 3).
  
  
• The City's plan of "buying up the crowded apartments and run-down homes that pocked the neighborhood, and replacing them with something newer, something better" does worry me. What exactly constitutes "newer and better"? More high-density apartments? No thank you. Let's not treat the people of Santa Ana like sardines please.
  
  
• The City needs to adopt a plan and announce an end date to this project. Things are so much more exciting when you have one (that's also a Lost reference). Once the end date is in place, Santa Ana needs to take the ball and run up field for six for a change, instead of dancing side to side gaining zero, or even worse, negative yardage.
  
  
• While I ask you to not crucify Mr. Irving for writing this article, I would like to present the fact that there is a severe dearth of positive articles written about Santa Ana in the Register; which is located less than a mile east of this so called "slum".
  

When and if the City does move forward with their plan, I hope they do it right. I hope whatever goes up in those lots (eh hem) causes drivers to slow down and be thankful they live/work in Santa Ana.

Giddy Like A School Girl

Things always seem to take longer to come to fruition in Santa Ana–Chipotle is no exception. About 11 months ago, I posted this article about a new Chipotle coming to a nearby shopping center.

Well, the wait is almost over. This Friday, February 6th, Seventeenth Street becomes all the more delicious as Chipotle opens their doors to the public.

If Chipotle isn't your thang because you're one of those types who feel that Chipotle is blasphemous, don't fret–there will be other restaurants joining Chipotle at the Homeplace Center including Shabu, Wings, Hawaiian and more!