Road food along I5 in California

Cafe Society
1

In a few weeks, we’re making a pilgrimage to Southern Faire in San Bernardino. We’ll have no trouble filling our days and nights there, but on our way there and back (coming from San Francisco) we’ll be wanting to stop every so often for a rest, stretch our legs and get something to eat.

I’m sure there’s no shortage of Mc Burger Thing In The Box and beef jerky at the gas stations. I’m interested in real food. Food with nutritional value higher than the table it’s being served on.

The last time I drove I5, we had lunch at Harris Ranch. Unfortunately, I just had a look at their website and they have gotten seriously expensive. Never mind the steaks, which they are famous for. Harris used to be affordable. Your budget might moan slightly, but now… $12.50 for a hamburger and a Coke? For lunch? Ouch. If I want to pay this kind of price, I’ll save the road trip and go to Ruth’s Chris in San Francisco. I wouldn’t even have to drive - they’re not hard to get to by bus from here.

On another trip, we’d stopped at Anderson’s Pea Soup. Sounded intriguing - a rather large and busy restaurant specializing in split pea soup. Meh. I’ll just crack open a can of Progresso the next time I want split pea soup.

So, what else is there? It’s been approaching five years since I’ve been on I5, so what’s new, what’s wonderful, and most of all, what’s decently priced?

2

Well, you just mentioned the two I would have recommended trying :D. My only other recommendation is avoid the…umm…Apricot Tree? Something Apricot, anyway. Low-grade diner food at best, the two or three times I’ve given it a shot ( usually breakfast while headed south ).

  • Tamerlane
3

You got me confused with this “I5” business. San Bernadino is in Southern California. That means that it’s not the “I5,” it’s “THE 5.” So stop getting those mixed up. :wink:

Sacrilege! I love Anderson’s split pea soup! It has way too much sodium, but I love it! It’s one of the many things I miss out here in Hooterville.

Beats me. Whenever I go up to San Francisco, I take the 101 (notice THE in that sentence ;)) or the One. I don’t really like the 5 that much so I tend to avoid it. The lanes are so narrow. (At least near where I grew up.)

4

I always thought it was hilarious that the billboards on 101 for this place start something like 300 miles north of its location. Do I really need to know where to get split-pea soup in the LA area when I haven’t even hit King City yet?

I can’t offer any suggestions, but I’d love to hear some as well. I’d think that your chances of finding decent food between the Bay and LA are much better on 101 than on I-5. With San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, etc. on the way there must be something good.

Unfortunately, I’d guess that taking 101 to get to San Bernardino could add up to an hour in drive time. (But then, I drive I-5 really fast.)

Not for us NorCal folk. All of us north of the the Grapevine refer to it as “5” or “I-5”. Since most of the freeway is north of that point, we win. Heh.

I always wondered why LA-area residents use “the” when referring to freeways. I think it’s a regional ordinance there or something. It makes it so easy to pick you out when you venture up here.

5

Don’t knock Anderson’s man! Progresso ain’t got nothing on them! :stuck_out_tongue:

6

Anderson’s is OK. I just had dinner there Friday night, but I’m a local. It’s coffee shop food.

How far off the freeway are you willing to go? How about some outstanding family style Basque food? Go in to Los Banos, to Woolgrowers. Might not be a great idea if you’re driving though, because it’s so good and you eat so much that a nap is a really good idea afterwards.

7

I have a place to avoid. Actually, it’s just a convenient excuse to tell my road food story.

My family used to take vacations up to Lake Tahoe, so we’d hit the 5 and drive north from L.A. We’d often stop in Buttonwillow, which (I think) is where the demon spawn of road food resides.

One particular trip, we caravaned with my grandparents and an uncle or two. We left before dawn like usual, and decided to stop for breakfast in Buttonwillow. We opted for J’s Coffee Shop. (I think there’s more than one of 'em off the 5, but I think we were in Buttonwillow) J’s is your typical roadside breakfast food: eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and the like. I don’t remember what I ate. What I do remember is that every single one of us had some fatal combination of gas and indigestion. From that day forward, every time we passed the signs for J’s Coffee Shop, my dad would say “J’s Coffee Shop” and then make a fart noise with his mouth.

:smiley:

8

Sorry, don’t have any places to suggest to you, but I don have a suggestion - try looking at the forums here. If you don’t find what you need looking under restaurants reviewed, trying asking on the forums for suggestions. It’s a great site (and in fact, I’m going to go out to lunch with a bunch of the folk there next Saturday for crabcakes!), and you’re bound to get at least a few suggestions. At any rate, try it out, and good luck!

9

I would not recommend Harris Ranch. The last two times I have been there the steaks have been tough and spendy. Not a good combination.
You must not have looked very closely at the menu when you visited Anderson’s. They make a superb breakfast (available anytime IIRC), burgers, steaks, pretty much a full menu. Also kick ass spit pea soup. If you are on a budget, they have a deal that if you eat more bowls than anyone else has the meal if free. :smiley: Last time I checked the record is only about 13 bowls. So 14 bowls are you are there!
There is a Red Robin south of Harris Ranch IIRC. If you like their brand of burgers, go for it. Personally I am not a fan.
Buttonwillow has several restaurants. The food at the 76 truck stop used to be good, but the place has gotten kinda seedy over the last 10 years. Down the frontage road from the 76 station at Buttonwillow is a restaurant that I ate at a few months ago. ::: checks old expense report::: Willow Ranch was the name. Nothing overly fancy, but what I had was excellent home cooked food.
Grapevine has a couple of real restaurants I never stop there, so I’m not much help.
If you can hold off till you get to either Valencia or the San Fernando Valley there are lots of good places to eat. Right off the freeway in Valencia is a Red Lobster, and a Hamburger Hamlet. Plus tons of other places. If you want to eat in Valencia or the SFV drop me a line and I will suggest several great places.

[hijack] Two things about your trip. First off the faire is not is San Bernardino, it is in Devore. Close, but not the same place. (Probably 20-25 miles apart) Secondly, since the 210 freeway has been put through, your best bet for shortest route, and easy driving is I 5 South until you enter the San Fernando Valley, then take the 210 East all the way to the end. If your map is over about 2 years old it may not show the 210 extending past the 57, but it now goes all the way to the I 15. When you get to the I 15 go north about 9 miles and you are there. [/hijack]

10

If nothing else, it’s useful for picking out radio spots recorded in LA. A couple years ago, a home improvement store opened a new location near here, and the ads gave its location as <street> at the 580.

As for our trek - it looks like we may be better off packing a picnic. At least we’ll know waht we’re eating. :smiley:

11

Not for us NorCal folk. All of us north of the the Grapevine refer to it as “5” or “I-5”. Since most of the freeway is north of that point, we win. Heh.

I always wondered why LA-area residents use “the” when referring to freeways. I think it’s a regional ordinance there or something. It makes it so easy to pick you out when you venture up here.
[/QUOTE]

Interesting question. I’m not sure why we Southerners use it, but we do. Perhaps because there are SO MANY freeways in the greater L.A. Area. 5, 405, 91, 57, 55, 105, 2, 10, 15, 605, “the” just seems like a natural way to be specific. In some they have no articles at all. Maybe it’s a leftover from the days when all freeways were named according to where they led, going away from L.A. - the Ventura Freeway, the San Diego freeway, the Santa Ana Freeway, Etc. It seems a little strange to just say “Santa Ana Freeway.” Northern Californians, after all, have “THE Nimitz Freeway,” “THE Bayshore Freeway,” and in Sacramento, “THE Capital City Freeway.” Who knows? Language often seems to evolve without rhyme or reason.

What is particularly curious to me is that Northern Californians have so universally picked up on this linguistic difference. As a re-located southerner, Northerners started catching me on this grammatical curiosity, it seemed, with a kind of “gotcha” attitude. As if I were a spy or a trespasser, venturing onto hostile turf. Indeed, there does seem to be a rivalry between North and South. Notice the phrases, “We win,” and “It makes it easy to pick you out.”

Interestingly, Southern Californians, however, are almost entirely oblivious to this cross-state rivalry. (Yes, yes, I can hear it now: “Southern Californians are oblivious to everything! Har! Har!”) But I began to wonder what inspired this (gentle?) animosity. Had I done something? I came up with a few reasons for it - water, smog, television, attention, but the biggest reason for this sibling strife, I suspect, has more to do with the subject at hand - Freeways.

Northern Californians may tend to see Los Angeles as kind of monster from a 1950’s Sci-fi thriller - “The Monster That Ate California.” And that is why they find “the” so irritating. The look at the 101 and fear that some day it will be known as “THE San Francisco Freeway!” (Insert dramatic music here.)

12

I heard the theory that since we have so many freeways it gets confusing. For example, I grew up in Pacoima, the armpit of LA. You might want to take the Golden State Freeway to the San Diego Freeway to the Ventura Freeway. If you said it NorCal, it would be “Take 5 2 4 Oh 5 2 1 Oh 1”. This is very confusing. SoCalSpeak would be “Take the 5 to the 405 to the 101”.

13

I get a bacon cheese burger at Harris Ranch. It has the nicest atmosphere inside of anything between SF and LA and a decent burger. But it is pricey and a long wait. I usually eat at the bar for the wait. Still, it is just a burger. If I’m trying to make good time I’ll wait until I get to LA to eat. Jerry’s for dinner and then dessert Stan’s both on opposite corners at Weybourn and Broxton.

14

Where’s the best place on I-5 for brains?

15

I’ll second avoiding the Apricot Tree. Every time I have eaten there I have regretted it. That said I don’t know of much else directly off of I-5 other than Harris Ranch or Pea Soup Andersons for real food. Nowadays, I usually pack a lunch and stop at one of the rest stops along the way for a picnic. I get to choose the food and it is almost guaranteed I won’t get sick or torture the occupants of my car with extensive indigestion for the rest of the long trip.

16

Mrs. Dash, the Dashlings and I stopped at Harris Ranch on the way back from Southern California a month ago. We had a very pleasant experience. We showed up about 4:30 pm and had an early dinner. My wife ordered the Prime Rib “sandwich”, which was a giant slab of prime rib atop some bread, and I had the Liver & Onions. The portions were so generous that I called them “emasculating.” So while the price might be pretty high, unless you’re Joey Chestnut you should end up getting a second meal out of it.

17

That, and you take all our water. :stuck_out_tongue:

18

No good brains on I-5.

19

Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.

20

Man, the 5 between LA and Sacramento is just a wasteland, the radio sucks, the food sucks, it isn’t particularly scenic. Thank God for Sirius radio.