Anaheim Resort District Dining 2016

Hotel Indigo Anaheim

I got a little obsessed hunting for local food options in the Anaheim Resort District (where the Disney Theme Parks and Anaheim Convention Center are located) ahead of Star Wars Celebration last year.

Anaheim

I talked to frequent Disneyland-goers about their favorite spots, exchanged emails with the Anaheim Convention Center and their concessions-provider Aramark, and even tried sorting through online business license records.

Ecogrounds coffee anaheim

Once I was in Anaheim, I walked into restaurants I hadn’t been able to find information for to ask questions and pick up take-out menus.

Alertos Sabrosada

In the end, I had this list of restaurants that are some combination of unique to the area, highly recommended, and/or offering something local, as well as being walking-distance from the Disney Parks and Anaheim Convention Center – without requiring admission.

So here it is, updated with current information and grouped geographically. I marked up a map to help you visualize it all.

Anaheim resort map

1. Downtown Disney and Disneyland Resort Hotels

Located between – but outside of – the Parks, Downtown Disney includes shopping, restaurants, and live music.

While this is not the place to find indie eateries, there are plenty of unique spots that are true to their location in Mickey’s backyard. (I mean, it’s not like every city has an Enchanted Tiki Bar.)

Disneyland Anaheim

Find character dining, menus, accessibility, hours, etc. on Disneyland Resort’s site.

Anaheim resort

2. East of Disney

We walked by a lot of the places listed below en route from our hotel to the convention last year. We tried a few and liked breakfast at Chambers (and were guests of Hotel Indigo Anaheim), lunch at Tanor, late-night take-out from Sabrosada/Alertos.

We ran out of time to try the Pizza Press while we were in Anaheim, but the Pasadena location hosted us for lunch on our more recent trip. Summary of the upcoming review: it was super good!

Anaheim

tanor-kebab

Anaheim Resort Centre

In another post, I called this “Anaheim’s Local Food Corner,” because one unimpressive-looking strip mall contained 5 different non-chain restaurants.

  • California Pizza Place (menu) – narrow dining room with walls crammed with retro paraphernalia serving pizza, burgers, and pancakes. Delivery is also available.
  • Tanor Mediterranean Grill (menu) – Mediterranean/Persian food with delicious chicken shawarma.
  • Star Burger (menu) – fusion of burgers, kimchi, and bulkogi (Korean-style grilled beef).
  • Sabrosada (menu) – formerly known as Alertos Mexican Food, family-owned taqueria with five Southern California locations. We liked the al pastor and pollo asado mini tacos.
  • Panda Kitchen (menu) – American Chinese food. You can call ahead to pick up your order or dine in.

Anaheim

Anaheim GardenWalk

This is a bigger, newer shopping center populated mostly by chains, including the Cheesecake Factory that the German Big Bang Theory fans we met last year were so excited to visit.

  • Kip Barry’s Cabaret – Cafe, magic gift shop, and performance venue. Formerly Houdini’s Hideaway.
  • House of Blues – Restaurant and music venue, opening at the GardenWalk this fall. (Moving from their previous location at Downtown Disney, which has already closed.)

Anaheim Convention Center

3. Anaheim Convention Center

The Anaheim Convention Center is across the street from the Disneyland Resort. I was pleasantly surprised to learn they are serious about sourcing local and sustainable food and beverages. If you’re attending a conference or convention there, you can check out ecoGrounds / Java City Fair Trade coffee in the lobby. They may also have the Hearst Ranch Grill open with all-beef hamburgers from the Convention Center’s own herd of free-range, grass-fed cattle.

Anaheim convention center

If you don’t have an event badge or just want to get out of the crowded Convention Center halls for a minute, here’s what’s right next door:

  • Anaheim Marriott on southwest side of Convention Center has a bar/restaurant called nFuse that serves local craft beers and seasonal microbrews. There is also a nice lobby with lots of seating. I believe there is also wifi and outlets. (Otherwise, there’s also a large Starbucks off the lobby. They handled the extra long line like it was child’s play.)
  • Hilton Anaheim on west side of Convention Center. In the food court…
    • Just Grillin’ Express – Burgers, salads, and fries (spicy or not) made from ingredients delivered daily. Based in Alhambra, California.
    • Submarina – a Southern California based sub sandwich chain.

Anaheim

– More info –

A big thanks to Sarah Woloski of the Skywalking through Neverland podcast, Genevieve Eldred, Paul Barrie of the Window to the Magic podcast, and Whitney Drake for sharing their favorite spots!

The map is a screenshot from Apple Maps I modified in Skitch. Other photos by Phillip and me.

Martha’s Vineyard Local Ingredients

Martha's vineyard

I mostly know Martha’s Vineyard through podcasts. Of course, I’ve heard it mentioned on the news as a place where presidents and hoity-toity people go to vacation.

But the year-round residents are a close-knit community – one that, I learned from This American Life’s annual poultry slam episode, is sometimes plagued by roving bands of wild turkeys.

Martha's vineyard

The most recent podcast to bring Martha’s Vineyard to my attention was The Moth. One of the storytellers is a farmer and chef-owner of a restaurant on the island with food sourced from the area and his neighbors. The menu changes daily and may include ingredients like the mussels his friend grows just off the nearby shore or shiitake mushrooms from a family farm down the street.

Martha's vineyard

The restaurant is called Beach Plum, and they also have an inn and rental cottages. It sounds like a really lovely place to be.

Photos by Gabriela Herman via Beach Plum Inn.

Microblog Mondays: Write in your own space

Exploring 3 Sides of Charlottesville, Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia

Virginia

Even though it was our first time in central Virginia, something felt familiar about the wooded hills we were driving through.

“Why does this landscape remind me of a painting in an American history book?”

Oh. Right. Because it’s exactly the kind of landscape that would have been a backdrop to the colonial-period events we learn about in school. The same kind of tree-lined ridges probably rolled right through the Jamestown Settlement, the Lost Colony of Roanoke, and other landmarks memorialized in art, legend, and the bold print in history texts.

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Infantry,_Continental_Army,_1779-1783.jpg

Our destination was Charlottesville, a charming small town near the Blue Ridge mountains in the heart of Virginia’s wine country and just a couple hours south of Washington DC.
Thomas Jefferson at Monticello

Here are some sights to check out while you’re there, as well as places to refuel.

1. Outside of Town: Presidents and Pinot

Three U.S. presidents made their homes in the region, and all three properties are open to the public with daily house tours.

Monticello

  • Monticello – the impressive, innovative, and, in some ways, quirky house Thomas Jefferson designed for himself. We were able to visit and will be telling you more about it in a separate post.
  • Ash Lawn-Highland – James Monroe’s home, also in Charlottesville near Monticello.
  • Montpelier – James Madison’s home, which is about 25 minutes away in the town of Orange.

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Eat + Drink

While there is a cafe at Monticello, we opted instead for lunch at the nearby Michie Tavern, a historic site itself with a museum, shops, servers in 18th century garb, and a killer buffet. (Seriously. You’ll be hearing more about that, as well.)

Intertwined with these sites is wine country. Thomas Jefferson was instrumental in bringing wine grape cultivation to the U.S., so the historic roots of the area’s vineyards run deep. You’ll probably pass several en route to visit the presidential residences.

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  • My cousin’s wedding was at Trump Winery – yes, it’s owned by that Trump family. But considered on its own, it’s a gorgeous venue with good food and good wine. If you feel the product trumps politics, you can stop in for an afternoon tasting.

Charlottesville Wine

  • We enjoyed a bottle of wine from Prince Michel Vineyard & Winery, which is located in Leon, north of James Madison’s Montpelier. They have a barrel cave with a wine shop above it and offer events like Sunday brunch and paint nights.

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  • The Jefferson Vineyards are located on the grounds where Thomas Jefferson had wanted to establish a commercial vineyard.

Charlottesville

2. Pedestrian Perfect Downtown

The historic downtown street has been replaced by a brick walkway with trees, benches, restaurant seating, and sometimes vendor booths and buskers. On either side are lots of places to shop, eat and drink, an ice skating rink, a movie theater, and an outdoor concert venue.

The wide walkways allow plenty of room for community events, like First Night Virginia, a performing-arts-centered celebration on New Year’s Eve.

You can see a short film on Vimeo about the history of downtown Charlottesville and the pedestrian mall.

https://vimeo.com/42652821

Eat + Drink

We spent most of our time in the downtown area.

Omni Charlottesville Hotel

  • The Omni Charlottesville Hotel, where we stayed, basically opens right up to the downtown mall. It has a restaurant and a sporadically-open coffee shop in the lobby.

Charlottesville
Charlottesville

Charlottesville
Charlottesville

  • Timberlakes – drug store/soda fountain/sandwich shop opened in 1890. I tried the staff’s highly-recommended pimento cheese sandwich, which turned out to be basically a cold cheese log and spread on toast. All that to say, I’d recommend going there for the drinks. The front of the store also has any drug store essentials you might need.

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Charlottesville

  • South Street Brewery – while they do have seriously good burgers, their offerings go beyond typical pub fare to include a really nice variety of salads and delicious desserts. The beer drinkers at the table seemed happy with that too.Charlottesville

3. University of Virginia

The UVA is just over a mile from downtown, so a little of that college town vibe still seeps over.

There’s a free trolley that runs between the Downtown Mall and UVA with stops at the Amtrak and Greyhound Bus Stations.

Thomas Jefferson himself founded the university and (probably) designed its famed rotunda, a UNESCO world heritage site – along with the rest of the Academical Village and Monticello. The rotunda is currently undergoing renovations and is due to reopen this summer.

Charlottesville

Eat + Drink

Next to the campus is a series of craftsman-style former student resident buildings that have been converted into the Oakhurst Inn and cafe, where we got breakfast on the way out of town. We called about 10 minutes ahead, and they had my insanely good breakfast sandwich and coffee ready for us to pick up when we got there.

Charlottesville

Monticello Artisan Trail

The Monticello Artisan Trail winds through this entire area. Formerly known as the Monticello Wine Trail, it includes wineries, breweries, farms, artisan studios, and galleries.

Starr Hill porter

I’d love to go back and spend more time in the area.

Virginia

Revolutionary War painting by Henry Alexander Ogden (c. 1897). Public domain.

Thank you to Visit Charlottesville for assisting us with this trip. We were guests of Monticello and Michie Tavern when visiting each site. We received media rates for our stay at the Omni Hotel Charlottesville and a complimentary bottle of Prince Michel wine.

The Living Room in Chandler

sangria and bruschetta at the living room in chandler

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I finally made it in to The Living Room, a cozy wine bar in Chandler, one summer day when my friend Katie was in town. A monsoon storm had just blown through, cooling the temperature down from unbearable to pleasant, and they opened up the patio for us.

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The bruschetta was awesome. One kind had ripe cherry tomatoes. The other had prosciutto that reminded me of Spain.

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My sangria was ok. Turns out I’m very picky about sangria. After that, I ordered the same red as Katie, and that was really good. That’s probably what I should’ve done in the first place. Katie has great taste and is kind of a Living Room expert from her Chandler days.

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The servers came around just often enough, not so much they kept us from catching up, but enough to get our orders and bring us more bread, so we could finish off our delicous artichoke dip.

Seattle Restaurant Week and Elliott’s Oyster House

Seattle Restaurant Week

My recent Seattle trip happened to coincide with the first part of Seattle Restaurant Week (SRW), where local restaurants entice diners out of their normal routines with 3-course dinners for $30.

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SRW goes through Thursday, October 29, so if you’re in Seattle, you can still join in!

  1. Check out the full list of 165 participating restaurants on the SRW site. You can sort by neighborhood, dietary restrictions, etc. Click on your restaurant of choice for location and menu information (subject to change).
  2. Ask for the SRW menu at the restaurant. It may only be available by request and may differ from what’s listed online.
  3. Look for lunch. Many (but not all) SRW restaurants also offer lunch menus with 2 courses for $15.

Restaurant

Elliott’s

SRW recommended Elliott’s Oyster House, located right on the Seattle Waterfront, near Pike Place Market.

Elliott's Oyster House, Seattle

Really, it felt like a bit more of a touristy joint than I may have chosen on my own. But (a) I do like to eat seafood when I’m actually on a coast, (b) sometimes even the touristy locations can surprise you, and (c) SRW offered to pick up the tab.

So I thought it was worth a shot. And it was. The food was good and so was the view. You can see Puget Sound from just about any table inside or out on the patio.

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Phillip’s sister Liz (along with her two boys) braved the traffic/parking to drive us. I think both situations are currently worse than usual, due to some city project that has put a gaping canyon of construction directly in front of the restaurant. (Don’t worry, there’s a bridge.)

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Oysters

When you walk into Elliott’s, you see bins and bins of different varieties of oysters. So many. And they change up the selection seasonally.

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The oysters remain intact and unshucked until ordered. Fortunately, the staff includes some fast shuckers.

Oysters at Elliott's Oyster House, Seattle

Menu

Oysters are not on Elliott’s Restaurant Week menu. Maybe it’s a cost thing. Maybe they just want people to branch out and try some of their other offerings.

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Their SRW menu included other types of seafood that aren’t in the name of the restaurant, as well as beef and vegetarian dishes. The day we were there the offerings varied a bit from what was online. So Phillip, Liz, and I perused our options, while the boys set to work coloring their sea-life-themed kids’ menus with those cool triangular crayons that don’t roll off the table.

Lights at Elliott's Oyster House, Seattle

One nephew decided to color the fish and everything around them blue.

I asked him “Is it all blue because they’re underwater?”

He looked exasperated and simply said, “no.” Then went back to coloring.

Sometimes it’s better not to question art.

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The kids’, plates piled high with fish and chips, were served at the same time as our first course, which we all appreciated. (Bringing us food and not the boys would’ve been fun for no. one.)

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Liz had a delicious New England style white clam chowder made with a good dose of bacon. I had coconut prawns on top of a mango salsa. The prawns were crispy and coconutty yet kind of needed the accompanying Thai chili sauce to complete them.

Coconut shrimp at Elliott's Oyster House, Seattle

For the second course, I ordered the blackened trout salad. While the fish wasn’t cooked the way I’d expected, it wasn’t bad. It was served under a salad of mixed greens, walnuts, and apples, so that (literally) covered any minor flaws.

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Phillip thoroughly enjoyed his salmon reuben, and Liz had a really good steak sandwich.

Lunch is not a contest. But I think Liz won.

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Near to Elliott’s:

Thank you to Seattle Restaurant Week for the Elliott’s gift card. We also received CityPasses from Visit Seattle.