I don’t do very much in Eastlake. It’s far away and usually if we’re in the area to get the kiddos, we go to Mandarin for cheap, delicious Chinese food. I was reluctant to go all the way to Eastlake for a meal, even if I had been invited, until I figured out that I’d be down there anyway. That’s how I found myself visiting Via Lago Trattoria with Jake and his youngest son, S., in tow for an evening …

I’ve read about Ristorante Kaz on a few blogs so far and finally felt the pressing need to visit. I made it over here on one of my weekly co-worker lunches to try out their prix fixe lunch.

You get to pick one item from under each heading. The first item is the standard or you can upgrade for an additional fee. For the pasta, there are 4 categories, each increasing in price as you go down the list.
And you get …

You know I don’t do the gluten-free thing, but I like trying new things. I was given the opportunity to try our Chef Anthony Russo’s new line of all natural gluten-free pizzas. These are frozen pizzas bringing another product to the market for a gluten-free product.
I haven’t always had the best of luck trying gluten-free products so I was maybe a little wary about this one. But adventurous about it in any case!

Chef Russo has a few flavors out for …

Best Pizza and Brew is a new restaurant that opened in Mira Mesa just a few weeks ago and it’s a nice change of pace from the many, many Asian restaurants that litter the neighborhood. The new pizza joint is a “spin-off” restaurant from the folks of Pizza Nova and offers baked items, salads, subs, pizzas and craft beers on tap.
I actually first saw that Best Pizza and Brew was open while I was on the way to Urgent Care …

A couple of weeks ago, Jake and I were on a quest to find some snow for his youngest son who really, really, really wanted to play in the snow and make snow angels. This was that weekend we had the warmer Santa Ana-like weather. Our hopes weren’t very high, but we did manage to find a few patches here and there… but sadly, not enough to make snow angels.

Just barely enough snow to toss a couple of snowballs at …

This meal is from early December – I’m a little behind in my postings! Jake, the kids and I went to Cafe di Roma after hunting for seashells in Imperial Beach and finally acquiring those elusive Star Dust Donuts. We were all hungry and since we were in Imperial Beach, I did a quick Yelp search to find a little Italian cafe. We stopped to check it out! My camera died shortly before this visit, so I apologize in advance …

I haven’t had much experience with Opera. When I was in high school, I took a class called “Theory of Knowledge” and our teacher, Mr. Icardo, required us to go to a few of the dress rehearsals for the Opera down at the Civic Center as a part of the class… to open up ourselves to things beyond what we were used to, I suppose. As a 16 year old, I sure didn’t regard it with much enthusiasm, but I …