There is a restaurant in Sacramento that makes an even better Cappellacci di Zucca than Il Fornaio. Oy, now I want Il Fornaio, except I am craving Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina!

Also, no exaggeration, there are two Panera's within 3 miles of my front door. I'll send you one :).

We just had a new pizza joint open up around the corner - Garlic Jim's. Not too shabby, though it's a bit harder to rate when the kiddo insists on ordering the canadian bacon / pineapple / mushroom instead of one of the gourmet specialties.

I don't understand the fascination people have with Panera and Qdoba. My preference is for Chipotle!

I lived in California for five months. I do miss the venerable In/Out Burger.

What a rip not to have any good place to eat and a consequence of living in a smaller town. But, of course, there are also many disadvantages in the crush of a larger metropolis. What is one to do? Not easy to buy loads of ingredients and prepare it when you really want to go out and have good food served. Maybe someday there will be a parachute delivery service by Amazon for any restaurant food you want.
Now that would be worth paying for, eh?

I thought I wasn't hungry anymore, and then I read this post. Dang.

I LOVE Johnny Rocket's streamliner soya burger, pickle only, add cheese and bacon (OH HUSH, I know. I like the soya burger better than the regular one and I like bacon on my burger.)

And here in the bay area, we have Pasta Pomodoro which is sort of fast food-ish but not really. It is a chain but they have this eggplant, smoked mozz and pesto sandwich on foccacia that I could eat every single day of my life. They also have the yummiest polenta with brown butter, sage and parmesan. *DROOOOOOOOOOL*

I'm a big fan of Panera Bread soup, myself

I'm always getting the soup & half sandwich combo at Panera... whenever I'm shopping an hour away from home. We're supposed to be getting one, and I even think I know which storefront it's going into but they're taking their sweet ass time about it. I want Panera now!

Gahh this reminded me of how they closed the only johnny rockets in my town a couple of months back i was so ticked, no more goodburgers anywhere. do they have any moe's burritos up in your part of washington ?

Oooooooo, yeah. The soup and half-sandwich deal is great.

We don't have any of that stuff in my small town either, but it's hard to drive by two miles without seeing a Panera Bread or Qdoba.

BTW, the people in my office incorrectly pronounce it kuh-doba. It bothers me to no end. :)

funny - they just put in a Panera Bread in my town and I didn't like it. wanna switch towns? ;)

We have a local chain of Indian restaurants called India Palace that are so freaking beautiful inside, I'd pay money just to sit there and listen to the music. I might have just a small order of Karahi Paneer ...

I gotta say Red Robin's "Royal" is the best - bacon double cheeseburger with a fried egg on it. 'nuff said.