Fuse Lounge- A Retro tradition brought up to date

We've been trying to find some great dining deals in the Monterey/Carmel area for awhile and were coming up empty handed. That is until an EOC facebook friend, Giule Garland tipped us off to a couple of deals in Carmel. The most interesting involved FREE FOOD! That got our attention fast. We decided a little road trip south was in the cards for us.  Fuse Lounge in the Carmel Mission Inn was our destination.  Many years ago it was the only large hotel in the area and was a Holiday Inn, but its been completely redo while retaining a slightly retro look. The lounge/restaurant has kept the most retro look and feel but is all brand spanking new. Lots of windows give the place an open airy feel. They are plenty of large comfy chairs arranged around large tables, which are great for large groups.  We chose a smaller table near a window overlooking the pool area and garden.  A good thing to do is call ahead and double check when hapy hour starts that day. I was told it was 4-6 and checking online I couldn't find a time on their site. When we arrived at 4:30 we were told it didn't start till 5. Not a big deal, we just soaked up some sun by the pool till opening time. So at this point it seems like happy  hour is 5-7pm. Much more civilized in my opinion.
  Okay here's the ground rules. The buffet is free if you buy a alcoholic drink. If you opt out  of the alcohol you can still get the buffet for 5.00. We went for two Sierra Nevada beers, $4.00 during happy hour, that's a dollar off regular price. Well drinks also get the dollar off discount. With the drink orders in we were given plates to use at the buffet. They're small but as it turned out well designed for loading up at the buffet, not that that's necessary as its all you can eat. 
  The buffet itself was a nice selection of items that allowed you to put together a nicely varied meal. In the cold department were a selection of grilled marinated veggies. This included; asparagus, eggplant, mushrooms, onions and bell peppers. I could've been happy with just this. The eggplant was buttery and the asparagus crunchy but not tough.  Even if veggies aren't your thing, get some onions or peppers as they make a nice garnish for the hot items. 
  On the night we were there the hot items were a rigatoni pasta with a tomato/garlic sauce topped with grated cheese. Then there were mushrooms stuffed with meat, my mom used to make these and her's were the best and these compared very well. Last were my favorite, tasty but difficult to catagorize. In the end I'd say they were mini chicken tostadas. A tiny, about the size of a half dollar, fried corn tortilla topped with chicken, sour cream and a little cilantro. Little bites of heaven. By the second helping of food I was pretty much full. I gamely went back for a third, but I think I was pushing it.
  Okay what was the damage? Two beers $4.00 each, total eight bucks! That's it! Okay, I don't think it gets better than that.  If you need more food they do have a regular dinner menu, but we were just fine with this.
  This deal is available Wed and Thurs. Friday they have another deal that we're going to need to check out. An all you can eat seafood buffet for 11.99. Again the catch is you need to buy a drink. But consider this. Without a drink the buffet is 19.99. So in effect you get the buffet and a drink for less than the cost of the buffet alone. Do the math.  We'll be checking this out in the future, but we're told they have blue point oysters, peel and eat shrimp, cioppino, and several other items.
  So if you're in Carmel during the week this is the place to land after a day of exploring the area.

Fuse Lounge 
3665 Rio Road
Carmel, CA, 93923
831-624-6632

Davenport Roadhouse-A Relaxing Drive up the Coast

  After a crummy rainy day we were happy to see the sun come out in the late afternoon. It seemed like a great time to hop  in the car and head north on Hwy 1 watching the sun dip into the ocean.
 Our destination was the Davenport Roadhouse, a place I hadn't been to in years, but I had recently heard some good things about the place so being as it was Tuesday and we heard they have a Taco Tuesdays, we figured why not?
  The drive was beautiful and from my Westside office only about a fifteen minute drive. Davenport Roadhouse is a combo, restaurant, bar and Inn housed in a beautiful brick and wood building.  We arrived around 8 and Taco Tuesday runs from 6-9, so with it staying light later its a great way to get a great deal without having to adhere to the regular 4-6 happy hour hours of most places.  There was an acoustic group playing when we arrived, The Sherry Austin Band, they were really good and had a nice turnout in the bar.
  We were seated in the restaurant section but we could still see andhear the music. Its nicely laid out where if you want even less music you could sit further back in the restaurant, but we were happy just off to the side.
  Most days the Roadhouse has a 4-6pm happy hour, but on Tuesdays and Thurdays that is extended to 9pm and on Tuesdays Tacos are on special for $3.00 ea. You have a choice of Veggie, Fish or Carnitas. We orders a couple beers, they had Santa Cruz Pale Ale on tap, which is my new favorite, very cold and very clean. For tacos we each had a fish and a carnitas taco. The fish is made with grilled Tilapia and the Carnitas was a delicious slow cooked pork.  The tacos come ala carte but are beautifully presented. A flour tortilla comes with the selected filling topped with red cabbage, really fresh guacamole, actually more like wonderfully ripe mashed avocado and topped with a spicy mayonaise. Its hard to say which was better, each was exquisite in its own way and if I had it all to do again I'd make the same choice.

 The service was very friendly and the whole place had a very homey comfy feeling.  Seemed like there were a lot of locals who knew each other, but it was still very comfortable. As summer comes upon us and the days get longer we'll definitely be making more trips this way and we'll most definitely be stopping by for more of this great food.
  If your planning a trip from out of the area, this would be an ideal place to stop for the night if you're traveling up or down the coast. A nice inn and some great food, it couldn't get much better.


Davenport Roadhouse
Hwy 1
Davenport, CA

A Happy Hour when you Need One

We had business in Palo Alto recently and were returning home to Santa Cruz around 2pm and realized we were famished and wouldn't make it home without some sustenance. We hadn't had lunch and it was still too early for dinner, so we decided to try to find a happy hour that started early.  After some searching around on my iPhone I found a place that got unanimously great reviews and they had a well regarded happy hour that went from 2-7pm! This sounded like our kind of place, It was in Campbell which was right on our way home.

 The place is called Grill 'em and seems to be a popular "cook your own steak" kind of place, but a lot of the reviews single out the happy hour as being worth the visit.  During happy hour beers are $3, well drinks $2.50, margaritsa $4 and appetizers $5.  We checked the menu online and it had a nice range of apps, so we were on our way. Grill 'em in on Bascom Av just south of Dry Creek Road. We'd passed this area many times but have never noticed this place. Nice sign, but the building is kind of dark looking. The posts we'd seen about the place mention this and also say ignore and go right on in, its a friendly place, and this was true, the hostess/waitress was really friendly and started to lead us into the dining room, I mentioned that we were here for happy hour, as a lot of places require that you sit in  the bar to get happy hour deals, but she just said, "Great", and proceeded to seat us in a nice booth in the dining room. Since we came smack dab in the middle of "dead time" at most restaurants, I can't comment on how busy the place usually is, but there was another table of people in the dining room and the bar had was pretty busy.
  The appetizer menu has a nice selection and we had some trouble making up our minds, but we finally settled on the Chicken Potstickers, BBQ short ribs and Chicken Quesadilla. For drinks we had a Sierra Nevada and since it was Thursday we ordered the $3 Mojito.

 Service was quick and our orders arrived fairly quickly. The Potstickers came with both hot and sweet dipping sauces. These are not the large doughy kind of Potstickers, they're more of what I see as Gyozas, that are served in Japanese restaurants. Crunchy but not hard on the outside and the filling was pretty tasty.  Take my word for it the hot dipping sauce if HOT!, but really addicting, the sweet is a nice compliment, both very good. Nice size order, 8 pieces.
  They arrived first and soon after our other two appetizers arrived. The Quesadilla was really nice, filled with cheese, chicken and grilled onion, served with a side of salsa and sour cream. Good size and very tasty. The salsa wasn't too spicy but was a good complement to the quesadilla.
  The hit of the trio was the BBQ short ribs, Korean style. I'm always wary of these because I've had a few too many fatty, tough versions. Here their exquisite. We had contemplated getting some bread to go with them but didn't and a good thing as the order comes with pieces of garlic bread, perfect.  These boneless short ribs were very tender, with enough fat to make them moist and delicious. They had been marinated in a teriyaki based sauce which was not overpowering and imparted a slightly sweet finish to the flavor.

  Drinkwise my Sierra was very cold and fresh tasting, and went perfectly with the meal. The Mojito on the other had seemed on the watery side, it seemed like a correct combination of ingrediants, but like maybe it had been premixed with ice and the ice had melted. I had read some reviews that said the same thing about the Mojitos and others that said they were STRONG. Unfortunately I got the former rather than the latter. If it had been later I would have ordered another cocktail to get a better impression of what the bar can do, but that'll have to wait till another day.
  All in all I'd say we had a nice light meal and we'd definitely return, the food was good and the prices were right and you can't beat the hours for the happy hour.


Grill 'em
2509 S. Bascom Avenue
Campbell, CA