The Gus’ saga continues with a not-so-hot Health Dept grade and financial issues backing it up, though declining sales surely can’t be to blame. Always seems to be plenty of people willing to be deli-abused chowing down. The thing that always gets me about Gus’s Grocery is: Go to ANY other sandwich shop in town and you will meet happy, healthy, helpful people. Go to Gus’s and be treated like you don’t exist. There’s a GO FUND ME if you want to throw your money away. Interesting concept: asking for donations to keep your restaurant afloat. Last I checked, morons had pushed the YES button almost 10,000 times. Boy, I’ll bet every failed resty in town woulda thought of that.

Morro Liquor looks to be maybe a month or two out. They’ve pretty much taken their grand time with that one, but it looks nice. Kinda out in a weird place, and time will tell if the Atascadero demo can support something like this. Not really anything like it in town, except maybe El Camino Liquor in the old gas station and of course Von’s–which that location is fairly famous for their booze selection. These are the Bob & Jan’s people from Cambria, which has a ridiculous whiskey selection and decent wine too–though the latter is fairly over-priced. Apparently, they also have the Mediterranean resty next door, which I’ve actually walked in to twice with intent, but refuse to eat in an empty room.

I hate to say I told you so, but I did and the banh-mi spot in Grover is vamos. Some kind of coffee shop has a banner up now. While I profusely admired the guts to open a shop selling (basically) only one sandwich, it wasn’t a very good one, and you know how EYE feel about these things. BANH MI AND CUBANO HAVE TO BE DONE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT OR DON’T BOTHER. I keep wondering if they had only had pho, things might have been different. What if I told you when I moved to Arroyo Grande 25 years ago, there were THREE places to get pho in 5-Cities and FIVE in SLO. Currently, I do not know of a single noodle-spot down there, as Elephant Thai–who had a workable pho–looks gone. That’s the one in the corner by El Rancho Marketplace where Konfusion used to be and changes names every month or so, so it could be just transitioning, but it didn’t look very open the other day. That leaves @bites as the lord-god-king-bufu of all things pho and banh-mi, and they do BOTH extremely well. North of the grade, I think you’re stuck with Pho-4-U in Sunken Gardens, who do good soup and *decent* sandwiches.

Speaking of coffee, the CAT CAFE yes you read that right is open in Grover and I can’t WAIT. Apparently there’s a handful of local shelter/rescues wandering around which if it’s true sounds like heaven. At the opposite end of the coffee spectrum, idiots like you have voted two new Starbux into slo. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY? Yes, YOU did this. Trust me, if you people didn’t drink that crap, they wouldn’t build them. Starbucks do not exist in a vacuum. The one on Court St downtown where Peets used to be is already open, and the one out where yours truly turned a Straw Hat into Village Host across from Fire Station #1 lo those many years ago is really really close to opening, with a MAJOR facelift. The whole situation is just sad. STOP DRINKING STARBUCKS PEOPLE /rant over. Out in Morro Bay, continued gnashing of teeth over the sudden closure of downtown stalwart Top Dog, with lots of rumors swirling among my business contacts out there. Also, the Trib just published an article inferring interviews with former employees (I can’t read it because paywall). Talking to ex-workers of a failed resty is NEVER without drama. Of course, everyone’s gonna blame Scout. Everyone always does.

Up across from the afore-mentioned Scout, the alleged Irish pub has opened. Paddy-Whacks or something, I don’t really care. The menu looks quite good, with shepherd’s pie and BLT and various pubby finger bites. I’ve been in twice with intent, the first time: they had Coors Light and Bud Light on tap and someone completely unaware of wine behind the counter. The second time: the menu was closed in favor of an all-you-can-eat breakfast extravaganza of brown-food in tin-foil steamer trays. You don’t have to follow me very long to understand how moist I get when I hear the words “ALL YOU CAN EAT” and “BUFFET” and “BREAKFAST”. The latter visit I awkwardly ordered a can of beer at the bar while dogs roamed around under my feet and too-friendly staff hangers-on attempted conversation. The former visit I merely left. Best choice I ever made. I do applaud what they’ve done, and the building’s BEAUTIFUL. It’s the closest thing we can get to a restaurant downtown–one of my ceaseless chants.

Let’s review: A town doesn’t exist until it has THREE RESTAURANTS. That’s my rule and start poking around at various communities and you will see it holds up. Three REAL restaurants: that means: sit-down; good vibe; with dinner; and not ridiculously ethnic besides French or Italian. Santa Margarita has struggled with this formula for decades, coming *really* close several times. Los Alamos was a shithole with a gas station and a thrift store but add Full-of-Life, Bells and Pico and BAM: destination! Buellton struggled for years with AJ’s and Hitching Post, but add Industrial Eats and viola: destination. Shall we do the math on downtown Morro Bay? I will give a half-point each for Thai Elephant and DiStasio’s–the former because of the ethnic rule and the latter because it’s just plain old not good. I suppose I can give Baby Dudes another half point if you can bear that vibe. They DO serve dinner, and people seem to like it–the line of Subarus out front doesn’t lie. The last good resty in downtown Morro Bay was Shawn’s On Main. Or was it Sean’s? Been too long.

Speaking of noodles, anyone been to the new spot in SLO in Gas Station Alley? Noodle Bowl or something–I can’t seem to find it online. Also next door is a charming-looking little beer pub I haven’t been to. Up in NOMO, serious work continues on the artist formerly known as Steinburg Gallery, though they’ve added year after year to the *OPENING* sign out front. Down the street, the former Splash Cafe is undergoing major revisions in-and-around Petit Soleil and the resty is becoming Condoleeza Rice or something like that.

14 years ago the cat at Bayside Cafe, Maverick, died. So eat your vegetables and stop kicking your sister.

@thatmcconnellguy