Despite the fact that I don’t find Jay Leno funny, I respect him. Or rather, I respected him. The man works, and works hard. He hosted a late night show every weekday, never missing a show until forced to do so for medical reasons, and performed stand-up when not producing the Tonight Show. He always presented himself to be a classy fellow that seemed like he’d be likable in person.

Before I go on, read this Rolling Stone interview with Leno posted before Leno’s departure from the Tonight Show.

And here at NBC, they have this thing that they like you to leave before you peak out and you’re over the top. And that’s what they wanted to do with me. So I said, “Guys, whatever you want to do.” I’ve never been one of these guys that breaks up with a girl and goes, “But why? If I do this, will you go out with me?” I’m more like, “Babe, if you don’t want to see me, I’m gone. It’s over. Thank you.”
–Jay Leno

When Leno left the Tonight Show, my understanding from what I’ve read, including the Rolling Stone interview, is that he did so of his own accord. Sure, Conan O’Brien wanted to advance in NBC from his Late Night show, but Leno did not have to endorse O’Brien as the next Tonight Show host. He did not have to step down. If O’Brien was indeed going to ABC, Leno could have let him. If NBC has “this thing that they like you to leave before you peak out and you’re over the top,” he could have certainly countered that by reminding the network that he was still on top. Instead, Leno decided to go along with the notion of leaving willingly. Then, about five years later, he came up with the idea for a 10 o’clock show.

It didn’t do very well. Now, NBC is relocating Leno’s show to 11:35 PM and bumping back the Tonight Show to 12:05 AM, something Conan won’t support.

First, NBC is just a huge example of bad-decision making. Forget the gamble of a five-day-a-week comedy talk-show at 10:00 PM. Forget the lack of Must-See-TV (remember those days?). Leno’s show didn’t do well in the ratings because either a) it wasn’t very good; b) it wasn’t what people wanted at 10:00 PM; c) both a and b. The move to 11:35 is essentially asking Leno to do a show it was suggested he leave, which he did willingly–I say suggested because no one forced him out. No one fired him. This isn’t logical at all. Why suggest that Leno leave the Tonight Show at 11:35 only to put him back in the same time slot with a different show?

Second, if Leno elected to step down, he should stay down. He willingly stepped down, setting his own departure date. He suggested the 10:00 show, it’s not doing well, and now NBC wants to move him back to 11:35 which will affect more than just him. It affects O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon, current host of Late Night. I think it’s selfish to return to an old time slot that he willingly left to do a half hour show that will bump everyone’s time slot back, changing showtimes that have been in place for a long time.

Third, networks don’t give anything a chance anymore, including NBC. Changing the hosts of the Tonight Show means there will be a loss in viewers as loyal fans follow the host they like. Leno presumably took fans with him, as did O’Brien. And a reboot means a new show, and a new show means time needed to build a new following. O’Brien needs more time to gain new fans to add to his already faithful followers.

The classy thing to do would be for Leno to think twice about his support of the move and decline. He can do something else, whether at NBC or another network. He made his decision five years ago to leave. He should honor that decision.

On a related note, even though the Internet and DVRs have given us the ability to watch TV programs whenever we want, outside of their scheduled programming, the fact is people still watch scheduled TV. People still set aside time to watch certain things. The least networks can do is is provide quality programming and let the programming take the time to grow and build an audience. Seinfeld needed time. Leno’s Tonight Show needed time. Just because the landscape of TV watching has changed, doesn’t mean that scheduled programming has gone away. It still needs an audience, and audiences are earned, not awarded.

So I’ve been back at the drawing board, and it’s nice to draw comics again. But while working on Payday, I just felt… dull. I’d spent some time doing thumbnail layouts (and if you’ve been reading, you know how I feel about doing those) and thusly lost the feel for drawing some of the characters. I needed a break from what I was doing. I needed to draw something fun and quick, and I wanted to draw something I didn’t write myself.

Enter my friend, David Hopkins. He was putting together a minicomic called One Night Stand, a project for which he wrote 30 one-page stories and one two-page story, all with different artists. Unfortunately for me, I heard about the call too late. So, I asked him if he had any short stories lying around that he wanted illustrated. At first he wasn’t sure he had any, but after some digging he found a story he scripted in 2003 called Fighting David Parrot and emailed it to me. I had a great time drawing it and my sessions at the drawing board have been injected with new fuel.

Read Fighting David Parrot here.

David’s stuff is fun to read, so be sure to check out some of his other comics.

Last Oregon food report! Finally! This took, what… three-plus months?

On our way home to California, we stopped in Reedsport, OR for lunch. It was a coastal town, and pretty charming. While using the iPhone to search for decent places to eat (what did we do before Internet phones? We just saw a place and stopped, is what), we found that the Harbor Light Family Restaurant was nearby and had received a few good reviews. In fact, we had just passed it mere minutes before. A quick turnaround and we came upon the small eatery.

It was the kind of place seniors would go to for a quiet bite to eat when hankering for some homecooked meals not actually cooked at home. In fact, late in our meal, a senior couple came in and, upon being seated, the husband started to read the menu to his wife because she couldn’t read it herself. It was so warming to see, I remember smiling.

But enough of the feelgoods, right? On to the food!

For an appetizer, I ordered a small bowl of clam chowder. So good was this chowder, my dominant memory of this fine soup is that t was better than Mo’s Annex. It was creamy, the potatoes were smooth, and was delightfully rich. I told the waitress that their chowder was much better than Mo’s, and instead of saying thanks, she said, “Oh, I know. I’ve been told that before.” I love it.

I ordered the clam fritters breakfast. I had never had clam fritters before, but c’mon… I had to try it. I was close to the coast, so seafood needed to be had. They were quite good. The clams were definitely present in a very obvious, flavorful way, and the fritter was moist. It was different, but good. They went well with the eggs, which I had ordered over-medium. I like over-easy, but was advised (by a Denny’s waitress, not that that lessens her credibility, but it was at Denny’s where the food ain’t that good) that in restaurants, over-easy has runny white, while over-medium is just runny yolks. When my plate came, the eggs were cooked hard all the way through. I mentioned this to the waitress and she replaced my eggs… AND let me keep the over-cooked eggs. In the end, I had my runny yolks to go with my clam fritters.

My wife at the BLT with onion rings. Everything was reportedly good (I didn’t get to sample the sandwich, but I did get to have an onion ring). My wife often has trouble remembering foods she likes, and from where, but the onion rings made a huge impression on her. The breading was light and fluffy, reminiscent of tempura without actually being tempura. They were slightly greasy, but not overly so. Overall, they were light in texture. My wife loved them.

I also got to try her chocolate milkshake. In the words of my wife, “Soooooooooooo good.” Unfortunately, my notes for the milkshake end with that. Just take my word for it.

The service was friendly. Very typical of a diner, where you feel welcome and the staff is friendly but in a casual way. It was a great way to top of our Oregon restaurant experiences. When in Reedsport, I will return.

That said, this review’s ratings guide is as follows:

	Drive out of your way to go here. Do it.
	When in Reedsport, eat here. Do it.
	If deciding between this and a few other places, lean towards here.
	Meh. Just… meh.
	Before eating here, replace your stomach with one of iron to protect you from the forces of evil.

I give the Harbor Light Family Restaurant 4 stars. We had a great time eating lunch in a casual setting with a friendly waitress, good food, excellent clam chowder, a great milkshake, and onion rings that made my wife smile.

Boy, I’m getting behind in this whole Oregon chronicle, aren’t I?

A quick qualifier for this review: when I opened the draft, lo and behold… no notes. I thought I’d written down notes for this review but there were none to be found. So, let’s see how my memory serves. If my memory can’t justify a criticism, I’ll be sure to leave it out.

Mo’s is a pretty popular food attraction in Oregon. So popular, in fact, they have two locations in Newport that are right across the street from each other in order to handle the volume of customers. There’s Mo’s, and there’s Mo’s Annex, which is the one we attended.

(There are six locations in Oregon, altogether)

It looks like your typical on-the-pier seafood joint. Because it is. And I assumed it was popular because of its food.

Most everyone in my party had the clam chowder in a bread bowl, the chowder being a Mo’s staple. I, on the other hand, had a cup of chowder to accompany my main dish: baked oysters.

The chowder was decent. Plenty of clams, potatoes, and veggies. The problem was, the potatoes were gritty. They weren’t smooth at all, and it very much distracted from the creaminess. Perhaps it was the variety of potato, or perhaps it was just how they were cooked, but in the end the overall chowder just had a grittiness to it that I didn’t like because of them ‘taters. It was tasty enough, but it wasn’t anything that stood out from the other clam chowders I’ve at other places (except for, you know, the gritty texture). I didn’t understand why it was so famous.

The baked oysters were plump and had a good flavor. Being baked – and thus, heated – the oysters weren’t bright or light in flavor, something I’m used to associating with the visual of naked, unseasoned oysters. Instead, the flavor was a little darker and less sweet (if memory serves). The accompanying melted butter made the oysters a little richer than they would have otherwise been, but at the same time the two didn’t seem to fit together. I have a feeling that the butter would have been a better accompaniment for naked, baked clams. Perhaps lemon would’ve been better suited for the baked oysters. In any case, they were fine without the butter.

(I’m keeping in mind that I prefer naked, unseasoned oysters to be raw and chilled, so I’m attempting to review what was in front of me, not to review my preferences)

The prices weren’t too bad. They’re pretty typical for what you’d expect from a seafood joint on the pier. In fact, considering the portions of food and that their seafood is most likely fresh (I know the oysters were), the prices are very, very good. Unfortunately, however, I didn’t think it was anything special. Perhaps if I’d just had the oysters, I would have rated this place a bit better, but the clam chowder did not live up to its fame.

The service was friendly. Our waitress accidentally brought food for my friend’s two-year-old that we didn’t order, and she let us keep it. How nice.

This review’s rating guide? Here it is:

	When in Newport, OR, stand in line first thing!
	Delish fish! (I had to rhyme)
	Average, but I’d come back to try more.
	Not worth standing in line, but if there’s no line…
	Tell everyone in line to eat somewhere else or go catch their own seafood.

I give Mo’s Annex 3 stars. I suppose it would’ve been 3.5 stars if I hadn’t had the clam chowder. The baked oysters were of good quality. The service was friendly enough for a busy place. Overall, the place didn’t excite me, but it didn’t disappoint me enough to prevent me from coming back.

The wife and I decided to splurge for our wedding anniversary dinner. We wanted to dress up. We wanted a nice, elegant evening with great food. We went to Ella and got exactly what we wanted.

First, the food. The FOOD. When I go to a restaurant, I want good food. Sure, I expect great service, but if the food is great, it just might overshadow poor service. I have said on numerous occasions to my wife that good food should make you cry.

A happy cry, of course.

Ella’s simple menu made it both difficult to choose and easy to choose: difficult because I wanted to try everything, and easy because the menu wasn’t pages and pages of various dishes. Our chosen meal?

• Pan-seared sea scallops with olive oil-cured tomatoes and tiny mizuna on top, all seated on creamy grits
• Wood oven meatballs with roasted tomato sauce and sheep’s milk ricotta
• Handkerchief pasta with braised porcini mushrooms, herbed formage blanc and parmesan cream

We shared the first two dishes, while we each had our own handkerchief pasta plate.

I had, with my meal, a glass of Pinot Noir from Regis Bouvier (Marsannay, Clos Du Roy; 2006), recommened by our wonderful server, Andrea. I knew we were going to have a variety of food types (seafood, red meat, and pasta), so the Pinot was recommended as a versatile wine that wouldn’t be overbearing with fruitiness. After my first sip, I smiled. The wine was quite good and fun to drink.

The scallops were very large and cooked just right. Tender and moist, it went very, very well with the tomato, mizuna, and grits, the latter being the heaviest part of the dish. My wife, not the biggest seafood lover, even liked the scallops (though she couldn’t finish it as the texture was starting to slightly overwhelm her palate).

The meatballs were small in size, about the size of a Swedish meatball. They were the richest meatballs I’ve ever had. They were moist and bursting with salty meat flavor (in a good way), a huge contrast to the scallops. I really liked them, while my wife absolutely loved them.

Then, our final dish: the handkerchief pasta. The smell was amazing. I wanted to leave the dish alone so I could enjoy the smell and also eat the thing at the same time. Two sheets of pasta – shaped like handkerchiefs, of course – blanketed a small bed of porcini mushrooms. My first bite was pasta only, wet with sauce. It was – I dare say this word – exquisite. Damn straight. It was a beautiful bite of food, buttery, with the faintest hint of garlic (if my palate was correct), with a tartness at the end from the flavor of the mushrooms that had melded with the rest of the light sauce. Eating the mushrooms themselves brought out the tartness and complimented the other components well. They weren’t overbearing and didn’t have a very strong, overwhelming “mushroom-flavor” that, I assume, many people associate with mushrooms… especially ones who don’t like them. My wife is someone that hates mushrooms, but she tried one, and after going through her usual “Do I Like This Weird Thing” face, she told me that it wasn’t bad… and then proceeded to eat all of her mushrooms! I couldn’t believe it. Thank you, Ella, for cooking and serving mushrooms that my wife would eat. I will need to buy porcini mushrooms and attempt to cook them in the same manner so that I can have mushrooms in the food at home again.

For dessert, I did not want anything too sweet. I was going to have a scotch and soda, but for some reason decided I would have another glass of wine, something fruitier this time. Andrea recommended a Copain “Tous Ensemble” Syrah (Mendocino, CA; 2007). My experience with Syrahs is that they are fruity and slightly spicy. Noticing that I was thinking about her recommendation, she offered to bring me a taste. Bonus. I ended up having a glass.

As the dessert menu came, along with my wine, I saw that they had artisan cheeses with traditional garnishes. Even though I did not want more to eat, I gave in to my gluttonous whims and had the cheese, while my wife ordered the hazelnut chocolate torte with coffee ice cream.

I can’t comment on the torte, other than my wife liked her dessert with the exception of what she thought were candied hazelnuts.

The cheeses, however, were excellent. All of them. Nicoli Farm goat cheese, which was bright, light, and tart; aged Vella Jack, which was hard, strong, had bite, was slightly nutty (again, if my palate is correct), and had a lot in common with the texture of Gruyere; Blu del Moncenisio, a strong, semi-soft blue cheese; a Montbriac, which was similar to brie, though not as strong. The Montbriac, I learned during this writing, is a French blue cheese. The cheeses were served with garnishes: nuts (I don’t know what kind), moist white gingered raisins, and small, cubed fruit paste. I forget the fruit, but the flavor was sweet and, for some reason, reminded me of tamarind. I sampled the fruit paste and raisins, but mostly concentrated on the cheeses, which I had with a few pieces of long, fry-bread herb crackers. A wonderful dessert. I got to take the cheese I was unable to finish home.

I literally smiled all throughout dinner.

All of the portions were small, as all dishes are done as small plates. I had no problem with this and, in fact, there was no need for bigger portions. The thing is, each dish was so good, when I finished with my portions I concluded that I had just eaten the right amount. There was no need for more scallops, more meatballs, or more pasta. I’m certainly accustomed to eating a whole lot more food, but in the case of Ella, I didn’t feel like the portions should’ve been bigger. I was completely satisfied with what I had, and I shared two of the dishes with my wife. Perhaps this is what is missing from everyday food: the feeling that what is being eaten is so good that just a little bit will do; the sensation that so much flavor is exploding in your mouth from one dish that more would be too much. Could sensory overload be the cure to overeating? Something to ponder.

As for the ambience, well… it was great. The ceiling is oddly decorated with wooden shutters. While the rest of the room has a very modern, clean look, the shutters were a nice touch, giving the atmosphere a down-to-earth feel. I was hoping for a quiet dining experience, but the room was alive with chatter. It wasn’t incredibly loud, and the noise level was probably accentuated by the acoustics of the room. It was a mix of high-end dining with a casual vibe. Eating at Ella was an enjoyable experience.

Service was excellent. I was nervous at first because my wife, who had a work lunch at Ella a few months earlier, told me that the wait staff comes by to fold your napkin if you leave the table. Now, I’m not big on having other people touch things that I apply to my mouth, but when I came back from the restroom, I found that my napkin, though refolded, was pretty much intact the way I left it. They changed out our serving and dining ware with every course so that the remnants from one dish did not affect the next dish. Everything was clean: the silverware, the glasses… everything. The bathrooms: clean. The dining area: clean.

My only disappointment – and this is extremely minor, mind you – was that, when I made the reservations by phone, the person asked if we were celebrating anything special. I told her that it was our wedding anniversary, and she said she would make a note of it. That, to me, implied that perhaps some mention of it would be made by our server or the hostess. No mention of it was made, so I was left wondering why the note was made in the first place. But as I said, this is an extremely minor point.

There are few restaurants that I make the declaration of “needing” to return to, and Ella is one of the few. I look forward to the day when I can afford to return. Speaking of afford, I have no problem revealing that we dropped quite a bit of money on this meal. When I pay for something, I want value. Just because there is a lot of something, doesn’t mean it’s good; just because something is good, doesn’t mean there’s enough. In the case of Ella, high quality food meets just the right amount, all in a comfortable, eye-pleasing setting with great service.

That said, what’s this review’s rating guide?

	Simply excellent. Worth every single penny.
	A wonderful visit, but…
	Overpriced for what we got, but some good eats.
	Way too much money for some meh food.
	You might as well throw $100 in the trash. It’s better than visiting this place.

I give Ella Dining Room and Bar 5 stars, which is rare for me. Excellent food that was worth the higher price, wonderful service, and a great atmosphere lent itself to a great anniversary outing. I shall return. Plus, a special thank you to Andrea, our server. I’d read several reviews that either described the service as “great” or “pretentious”. Andrea falls into the former category. She made the evening very pleasant, was super-friendly, and made us feel welcome and comfortable. She also wrote down the names of the wines and cheese for me for my future reference.