Just Checking In

Thanks to everyone who helped clean up our Goddess-like city on Saturday. I'm working on a post with regard to Clean Up Day, which will likely include footage on youtube. Here's what the Daily Bulletin wrote about Clean Up Day.

Today's photo is from the library's digital collection. The restoration of the city's Goddess of Pomona statue a few years back was the closest she's ever come to getting a spa treatment. Which is what I need after spending Saturday picking up trash on Garey and helping to break ground on a community garden at Lincoln Elementary. Stay tuned.



Pomona's new Vietnamese resturant, Pho Vi, opened downtown (3rd and Thomas) on Saturday at noon. Thank you to staff photographer Richard for the scoop, and for the above photograph of a happy couple enjoying one of the first meals there. If anyone reading this has eaten there yet, feel free to email me a review of the place to publish on the blog.



Also looking increasingly good is the Pomona Baking Co. space at Second and Locust, set to open within weeks. They've now got the outside seating area in. Thanks again to Richard for the photo.



Here's the former Pomona Bakery. Located on Third Street, west of Garey. Note the birdcage. Compliments of Richard via the Pomona Digital Collection.

All for now.
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Opening Soon Downtown

Pho Vi, a new Vietnamese restaurant, will be opening soon at the corner of 3rd and Thomas. It's a central corner location, and they advertise outdoor seating.

For those who have never had Vietnamese cuisine, it is very healthy, fresh and flavorful. Like Mexican food, cilantro is a trademark seasoning of Vietnamese cuisine. Vietnamese beef noodle soup is called Pho (pronounced fuh), and has developed a cult-like following.

One of the cult members is my husband, who used to be a regular at another Pomona Vietnamese restaurant, which shall remain nameless. He rarely goes there anymore, since the wait staff developed a habit of asking him what sports teams to bet on. Seems my husband made the mistake of reading the sports section of the L.A. Times over his countless lunches there. Far as I can tell, my husband's tips were helpful, based on the reverential treatment we received when Mr. Big and I joined him for lunch. But my husband got a little nervous, wondering what might happen if his advice lost someone lots of money. My husband started to go there less, and eventually the wait staff changed, only to be replaced by new people who often served a different pho than my husband had actually ordered. Hence our excitement about Pho Vi coming to town.

I thought this was the old bank building where Eldridge Cleaver spent his last year of life, but thanks to Richard who sent me these photos (no, he did not take them!) it turns out the Pho Vi space used to be a theater.

btw, David Allen already wrote about Pho Vi in passing, of course he did it in the Pasadena local paper, rather than the "Inland Valley," so I only just saw this.

In that article, David lists his dream businesses for Pomona. What are other people's wishes for downtown businesses?

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