![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Beautiful Downtown Ventucopa
Dec. 5th, 2010 09:15 pmContinuing our journey from Ojai on Highway 33...
A cluster of buildings lined Hwy 33, and a sign announced "The Place." It served beer, and coffee, and ice-cream, and meals. There was nothing for miles in either direction. We stopped and went in.
If this had really been a Traditional Fantasy Journey instead of just evoking one, it would have been filled with carousing travelers, some unreliable, all talking and singing.
Instead, when we entered the place we felt like we'd stepped back in time. No one was there that afternoon, but for the genial white-haired host who we learned later was Alick. (It's Alick and Vicky's place.) The decor was from a bygone era, complete with a stag's head over the well-used fireplace.
The time-travel ambiance made up for the lack of elvenfolk, wookies, and other fantasy fellow-travelers. We ordered coffee, which was good, and a bean soup, which was excellent. We'd expected something from a can, heated in a microwave, but no. Vicky -- who came out later -- made it from scratch, even soaking the beans herself.
"The Place" the menu read, 'in Beautiful Downtown Ventucopa."
It was such a step back in time that I was surprised, later on, to find that The Place has a Facebook page! And is reviewed on Yelp!
A brief stop, but a memorable one. (Next up, Soda lakes , Nodding Donkeys and Peacocks in Parking Lots.)
A cluster of buildings lined Hwy 33, and a sign announced "The Place." It served beer, and coffee, and ice-cream, and meals. There was nothing for miles in either direction. We stopped and went in.
If this had really been a Traditional Fantasy Journey instead of just evoking one, it would have been filled with carousing travelers, some unreliable, all talking and singing.
Instead, when we entered the place we felt like we'd stepped back in time. No one was there that afternoon, but for the genial white-haired host who we learned later was Alick. (It's Alick and Vicky's place.) The decor was from a bygone era, complete with a stag's head over the well-used fireplace.
The time-travel ambiance made up for the lack of elvenfolk, wookies, and other fantasy fellow-travelers. We ordered coffee, which was good, and a bean soup, which was excellent. We'd expected something from a can, heated in a microwave, but no. Vicky -- who came out later -- made it from scratch, even soaking the beans herself.
"The Place" the menu read, 'in Beautiful Downtown Ventucopa."
It was such a step back in time that I was surprised, later on, to find that The Place has a Facebook page! And is reviewed on Yelp!
A brief stop, but a memorable one. (Next up, Soda lakes , Nodding Donkeys and Peacocks in Parking Lots.)
