For the first time since February 2020, I went out to dinner in Fresno.
Since the whole thing started, we have been all take-out, delivery and home cookin’ (outside of a couple day trips out-of-town).
But on Saturday we finally broke down and went out.
It was a special occasion otherwise it would not have happened. Even vaxxed we prefer to stay home for now.
But the decision was made, so we went with our nite-out go-to: Edo-Ya. Teppanyaki was the draw this time but their sushi and dinner service is excellent as well.
Gotta say, it was pretty weird. The vibe was definitely…different. Low-key. Busy but not fully functioning either. Like, they could have fit more people in, but it didn’t feel like they had the staff or desire to.
It was not a bad time, it was just a weird time.
The staff did great, no complaints there. It felt like… it…[gathering thoughts] it was kinda like that vibe when you are one of the last people in the restaurant and everyone kinda would rather you go home.
I don’t really know but I get the impression this is an across-the-board feeling and not localized to just Edo-ya.
Maybe it’s that I am not ready to be back out there and I was carrying that around. I dunno really. I just know I have no plans to head back out anytime soon.
Holy Kornacki, Batman, Fresno Is On The Board!
One of my better accomplishments in the Internet ever happened last week.
While watching Steve Kornacki during the Recall coverage, I was picking up a Steve-knows-Fresno vibe as he talked about Valley counties and Fresno. So I wrote a quick post about it:
I think Election Map God, Steve Kornacki, knows the Fresno area more than a regular person.
When he was running through California counties (counting up recall numbers last Tuesday night) whenever a San Joaquin Valley county would come up he would make a point to mention “San Joaquin Valley.”
And when Fresno County came up, he stopped to talk about the numbers – nothing extra there but just saying.
Here is the kicker though: when Madera came up he made sure to mention it was “20 minutes from Fresno” which is correct and would be an odd fact to know if you didn’t spend time here.
Even with Steve’s unique knowledge of American county geography, the Madera to Fresno thing is unique.
Let’s see where Steve is from:
End of post.
Alright, cool, I wrote a post with Kornacki as a subject. Time to alert Fresno Twitter:
I put Steve’s handle in there just so people reading it would know who Kornacki is (some people are weird and don’t know Steve’s election map prowess). I did not think he would even read it. But…
That. was. like. TEN minutes after I posted and moments prior he had been on MSNBC talkin’ election night numbers!!
So cool.
Please remind me to send Steve a Tark Towel for his birthday.
Fresno Is THIS Town!
The new Fashawn song “This Town” is good:
I love this verse:
I’m from here
That little corner you never come near
While he may be talking about a corner of his block, it could be all of Fresno too. We are definitely a corner many Californians never come near.
Fresno Is So Chicken
I don’t know that chicken sandwiches are ever going to dethrone tacos or tri-tip in Fresno, but chicken out there tryin’.
And get this: according to Bethany at the Fresno Bee, Fresno is getting EIGHT more chicken related places:
This feels like overkill but I’m not mad at it as I do enjoy a good chicken sandwich. My current favorites come from Mayd and Big Wagon:
Enjoy The [kinda] Cooler Weather
Now that it’s Fall I am ready to get rid of the heat and move on. I love Fresno Summers but these late hot temps and fire smoke, combining with my work truck not having a functional AC, is starting to fucking get to me.
Next time we talk I hope things are a little bit nicer. Until then I’ll see you on the blog, but not inside a restaurant. ✌️
-Mikey
Thank you for the read!