It wasn't until later in the afternoon that the rain started barreling in...
while we were on the outskirts of the 91. It was a bit scary towards the end where we could barely see in front of us. Being stuck in traffic for nearly a full hour on the 15 sucked big time but as Barry Manilow said, "I (okay, we) made it through the rain". We made it safe and sound and super hungry.
Our hotel was along the eastern stretch of Colorado Blvd. It was pouring when we checked in and continued to pour throughout the whole of that first evening there. Bert and I were sans teen who was off at a retreat with youth group. We decided to have dinner close to our hotel. Nothing fancy, so Pho Banh Mi Che Cali it was. They have a small parking lot and we snagged one of the last few spaces.
You order and pay at the counter; they bring your food out to you. There were lots of open tables that evening. I guess no one wanted to go out in the rain.
We shared fried egg rolls and bun with bbq pork and shrimp.
Normally fried egg rolls come with lettuce and mint. This was the first time we've had it with purple perilla, rice noodles and pickled carrots. Quite nice indeed. The portion of four pieces was just right for the two of us.
Our bun was also a good choice that evening. We were debating whether to get soup or not since it was a chilly evening, but ended up getting the bun. There were lots of chopped vegetables hiding underneath the noodles, meats and chopped peanuts. I loved the flavors of textures of the bun. No skimping on the pork or shrimp here.
Bert mixing it up...
A satisfying meal after a long day's drive.
We made sure to save room for dessert and coffee. We weren't going to let the crappy weather stop us. It was quite different seeing Old Town Pasadena with its many alleys with hidden shops and restaurants on this rainy evening. Our dessert stop was here were Mills Place, an alley off of W. Colorado Blvd, and Mills Alley form a 'T'. Cafe 86 is next to a place called The Dog Bakery, yes that's what it was.
Cafe 86 is a family owned Filipino cafe serving drinks (coffee, tea, milkshakes) and desserts (ice cream sandwiches, cookies, cupcakes, etc). Many of their desserts feature my favorite flavor, ube, derived from a purple yam. This is a very popular flavor in the Philippines and one that I've always enjoyed as a child. It's so cool to see mainstream and even some upscale places serve ube.
Notice the sign on the door says, "Closing at 8:30 pm". It wasn't even 7 pm yet. Their normal closing hours are 10 pm. When we arrived, the place was empty save for two couples watching stuff on their laptops.
Our server/barista was a really nice young Filipino guy. We chose three desserts to share and a Nutella latte (this was coffee stop #1, believe it or not).
I 'm not sure why the brownies were "slutty" but we chose one of the Skyflake Crack cookies. We skipped out on the vegan ube bundt cakes (not pictured, but they looked pretty) and chose the ube truffle and Ube Crack cheesecake cupcake. According to our server, one of their most popular items is the Ube Flan Cupcake, but it was only offered on certain days of the week. This sadly, was not one of them.
Beans were from Espresso Republic. Milk was almond since lactose is not our friend.
The goods:
Out of the three, I liked the ube truffle the best. It was covered with crushed Oreo crumbs. The cookie was supersweet and I couldn't really detect the Skyflakes, although Bert really liked it. Lastly, the Ube Crack cheesecake cupcake was pretty good. A yelp reviewer didn't like it because it was served cold, but then, isn't cheesecake supposed to be served cold? The cupcake had cheesecake crumbs, the body of the cupcake was denser than normal, but I liked the ube flavor. The bottom was a nice and thick graham cracker crust.
Ube truffle...I want more.
Wanting to maxize our time spent while here, we walked over to Copa Vida which is right around the corner from Cafe 86 and across the street from 85C Bakery.
If you've been to any of the Copa Vida locations in San Diego (downtown's East Village, Sorrento Valley and now a newer one in on the outer edge of downtown, near the Santa Fe Train Depot), it has the same vibe, concept, similar decor and the same equipment. The evening of our visit, there was a duo performing an acoustic set.
A shakerato for me (this proved to be overkill and ended up taking it back to enjoy the next day) and a macchiato with almond milk for Bert.
Both excellent drinks. What was I thinking, getting something iced though, ha ha. \
Some rain videos here: The sappy "I Made It Through the Rain" by Barry Manilow:
And for a palate cleanser, here is one from the 80's, "The Rain" by Oran Juice Jones:
"You're just a squirrel tryin' to get a nut!"
Ending with one of my favorite epic rock videos, "November Rain" by Guns 'n Roses:
Articles"
Cafe 86
"Cafe 86" Pasadena Magazine (couldn't find date of publication) and for a mouthwatering photo of their famed ube flan cupcake, check out this photo from LAist (Feb 2016) and this one from WhenInManila.
Copa Vida
"Copa Vida joins growing coffee scene in Pasadena" Sprudge.com, Sept. 5, 2013 (I liked knowing the background history about the founder)
Pho Banh Mi Che Cali
1525 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91106
(626) 356-0404
www.phocali.net + reviews from Yelp
Cafe 86
36 W. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 219-6915
www.cafe-86.com + reviews from that four lettered site, foursquare and tripadvisor
Copa Vida, Pasadena
70 S. Raymond Ave
Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 213-3952
www.copa-vida.com / fb page + reviews from you know where and tripadvisor
We were getting pretty tired and wanted to make the most of the next day so we headed back to our hotel.
2 comments:
Man, that's some rain......
It was not fun being out there, plus the high winds too. I was so glad when we got off the freeway Kirk.
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