Saturday, May 31, 2008

Modern Mexican coming to EV!!!


This just in:

Richard Sandoval, Chef/Owner of the worldwide, critically acclaimed Modern Mexican restaurant concepts, will soon be calling the East Village Home! He will be occupying the recently completed, fully restored Schiefer Building, just outside of Petco Park. I don't know about you guys, but this is proof that our little hood is on the map!

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Saturday Mornings in the EV

I took Lil Tommy for a long walk this morning. Hey, he deserved it, having a rough week getting "broken" and all (snip, snip), I figured the least I could do was give him some good ol' fashioned outdoor time. Plus, he was staring at me, groaning, at 6:05 AM, so I wasn't getting back to sleep anyway.

The walk started off with a bit of a bummer. It's A Grind is supposed to be open at 6, and here I am, up a 6:20 and uncaffeinated, and the kid is running late. Oh well, I'll let Tommy run around in the Square, and then I'll get my coffee. So we walk into EV Square, and I let him off the leash to run around. I know they are now enforcing the stupid leash law, but hey, it's 6:20 on a Saturday morning. Who cares? No one's out anyways. Still, one of the lamer security guards comes up to me after about 5 minutes and says, "Excuse me sir, but your dog has to be on a leash", to which I respond, "Thanks for the heads up. I'll wait for a cop to write me a ticket". This park was such a great spot to hang with your neighbors, now, you'd be lucky to venture in and another 2 or 3 people are hanging out in the park, not including the transients that are starting to post up, since there is no activity to keep them away.


We're on our way, and finally, It's A Grind has opened it's doors. I get my large black, and start our walk down 10th, toward Park Blvd. and Martin Luther King Prom. I've always liked walking Tommy down this way, since there is very little traffic so I can usually leave him off the leash. And, looking back up 10th, it reminds me how much I love our growing little neighborhood. I've always thought that the triangle landscape section just outside of Petco would make for such a killer plaza, somewhere along the lines of Herald Square on 34th in Manhattan.



We get down to the MLK, and I haven't seen the Lil guy run like that in a long time. Poor dude probably has so much pent up energy, getting snipped and all, he just ran and ran and ran. We walked
all the way down to the Brickyard, cut up to G, let him run around Pantoja, and then back down the MLK. I've got to say the New Children's Museum came out fantastic, though it's too bad that it only has "Green" attributes, and they didn't go the extra step to get it LEED certified.

If you find yourself in the EV on a Saturday morning, take in the great spaces, fantastic views, and friendl
y people. If you run into Lil Tommy, don't worry, he doesn't bite!