la herradura restaurant, 7101 rosedale hwy, bakersfield ca 93308

rating: 4/5; price: $. this place is easy to miss, a storefront restaurant on the south side of rosedale hwy in a still-industrial section... inside is an ordering window and a cozy dining room with stocky, comfortable new mexican tables & chairs hacked from (looked like) entire blond pines and ranchito artwork of horse, mexican village, gaucho, and such. the big tv murmured futbol and other diners chatted politely in spanish. the waitress said they were out of ice cream when we tried to order a coffee milkshake, but then, after walking away to another table & maybe composing the english sentence in her mind, she returned and smiled, "i promise we will have it the NEXT time." i liked that friendly touch, as well as the hearty food. we had nachos, sopes, and tortas all stuffed with or topped with carne asada (it had been a bad day for us both and we needed a serious pigging out session). the torta was the biggest thing i'd ever seen, like a child's catcher's mitt, except delicious (unlike the mitt - i suppose i didn't need to write that part...). all our food was very tasty and the nice young waitress kept the sodas coming. at other tables, we spotted giant bowls of soup, siete mares, and other tasty looking plates that will tempt us, along with the cozy mexican-western atmosphere of la herradura, to return.

tony's pizza, 4130 california ave, bakersfield

price: $; food: 5/5.
as kids, we'd go visit our grandparents in delano. they lived across the street from the grape orchards, where grandpa, who rarely left his recliner, his TV baseball, and his iced tea, would steal over and rustle grapes (the little sweet green thompsons seedless you can't get in stores anymore)... if we were lucky, we'd get a dollar to walk over to thrifty's and the three of us could get an ice cream. if we were REAL lucky, our extravagant aunt would give us a fiver and we'd go to tony's pizza for a slice and a coke. i don't remember much at all of my life, but i remember the pizza - thin-crust, topped with big big circles of ham, not too greasy, delicious.
yesterday, we walked into a newly-opened tony's pizza in bakersfield, located in the mervyn's shopping center on california (east end of mall). the place is new, very clean (unusual for local pizza parlors), not decorated with sports teams (also unusual)... the theme is firefighting: the comfy blue walls and historical pictures feature old fire engines and houses; the most interesting picture (to me) shows firefighters' uniforms, how they've changed over the past century-plus. fancy brews include amber bock (involuntary drool) and firehouse ale, with proceeds from the last going to firefighter causes. beautiful poinsettias and other deep-red plants really spruced the place up further. i couldn't believe it; a beautiful pizza parlor! "give it time," my hubby said, but i'd like to think that tony's will stay clean...
they sell slices! three different sliced pizzas rotated in a warmed glass compartment... slices started at just $1.50! that's much better than the three-bucks-plus you'd pay at the mall... i noticed, too, small cokes were just 75 cents. drinks are usually where restaurants will gouge you - particularly at bar-restaurants, which'll charge up to three bucks for a soda, if you don't watch it... these prices seemed reasonable.
excited, as a semi-joke, i called my delano cousin (now in texas), sister, and aunt. "guess where i am?" i said. "TONY'S PIZZA!"
the man behind the counter smiled... did he look familiar?
the pizza arrived. how can a pizza look familiar? yet, it did. i went to the counter. "i remember there was a tony's in delano," i said to the young woman now there. "yes," she replied. "it's the same family."
wow! thought i... what a nice coincidence! 25 years later, here we were, back at tony's.
the pizza was just terrific, as i knew it'd be just by looking at it: not greasy, covered with giant, thin slices of sweet ham and plentiful pineapple (we always order this, if it's available. we're from california, you know)... even though sports played on the flat screens, the volume was low enough that it sounded a bit like calming surf... i was not even disturbed by the 10 video game machines, all with hunting and killing themes, rationalizing that somehow maybe that was related to peace officer training... the small pizza with two toppings, $8, was just right for the two of us gluttons; we even brought home a slice. it was still delicious later as i scarfed it from in front of the refrigerator. when we go back, we might try some of tony's specialty pizzas, like mexicana (with chorizo and spices) or chile verde... or maybe we'll just stick with the delicious ham/pineapple (their offical hawaiian pizza is topped with bell pepper, too)... also on the menu are bread and pizza sticks, salad bar, and sandwiches, as well as the beer bar i mentioned.
instead of china buffet next door, visit tony's pizza for good prices, delicious pizzas ranging in price from just $6.50 (small cheese) to $22 (x-large with four toppings), and very pleasant and clean atmosphere.

pour house, 4041 fruitvale, bakersfield ca 93308

food: 3/5; price: $. although it's still open, absorbed into the bbq factory at the garces circle, we miss the old highland cafe in oildale. no partier these decades, i'm still a bar fly and love the darkness, the clinking glasses, the mirrors, the lights, the odor, the blinking tvs inevitably showing sports or country music videos, the jukebox tunes of these places... at the old highland, the bar atmosphere was absolute romance for me and my spouse... at the new location, the food's good, the service is nice, but, well, it's a restaurant.
we went to the pour house, where "guys from the oilfield go," i was told. the pour house, unlike the old highland, is more bar than eatery, but it satisfies the desire for dark and dingy... our stressed-looking waitress, dealing with her (seeming) boyfriend at one table and some jerk at the bar who told her to "stop throwing food at me," brought us the special, chicken fried steak, as well as a grilled cheese. we poured from what we thought was ketchup, but it was pepper. at least this made the waitress laugh... the food was good and probably the more we go here, the more friendly people will get. that's what happened at the highland, and it became one of our favorites...