Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Post 9: Diamondback Grill in Sonora --> Columbia State Historic Park

Not much went on during the day after we left Robert Mondavi Winery. Our original plan was to visit Yosemite Park later on that day, but the drive from Napa Valley to Yosemite was a lot further than we thought, and when we checked in at our hotel at Yosemite, the concierge told us Yosemite Park is still an hour to an hour and a half away from the hotel, and that it is better for us to wake up early the next day and go to the park then. Boo-urns...a waste of a day for sure. Well, nothing we can do about this, except to go visit the "downtown" of this little town called Sonora.


We walked around a bit, trying to figure out a decent place to eat. Not many good restaurants there it seems. We stopped in front of Diamondback Grill, peered inside the windows, a bit hesitant to go in. While we were lingering outside the place, a local walked by us and told us that Diamondback Grill is the place to go, that the food is really good, and we won't regret it (or something along those lines). Well that was all it took for us to venture inside and give this little restaurant a try.


When we walked in, we were reassured that this place couldn't be TOO bad since there were quite a bit of people there already (couldn't see pass the glass windows when we were outside because of the reflection).



Window to the kitchen. Notice the "Prescriptions" sign up top =)


The Daily Specials.


Their regular menu consists of mostly what you call "pub food". However, I was quite impressed with their wide selection of burgers and sandwiches.




Both my brother and my sister-in-law had a "STELLLLLLLLLLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!"


When the waitress brought over our burgers and sandwiches, we were wide-eyed at how big the portions were. But then again, we shouldn't be too surprised because we were in the U.S. afterall.

Eggplant, tomato, and mozzarella sandwich with olive oil and lettuce on a sourdough bun with homemade pesto - This was mine. That was a really really big piece of mozzarella.


And those are really really huge onion rings.



Diamondback burger with sweet potato fries.


Roasted red pepper mozzarella burger with sweet potato fries.


Grilled salon with bald mountain farm melon salsa - one of the Daily Specials.


Really not much to comment about the dinner besides the sheer size of everything. As for the taste? Average. Normal pub food. Maybe a teeny bit better than your normal pub food? I don't know. Yeah. That's about it.

To walk off our enormous dinner, we went to Columbia State Historic Park near by. 


Here, the old Gold Rush-era business district has been preserved with shops, restaurants and two hotels. When you walk in this park, it's like you've time-traveled back to the 1850s. It's almost equivalent to our Black Creek Pioneer Village.


This park was EXTREMELY DESERTED when we went, there was hardly anyone there at all. 


More random pictures of this place. Now that I think back, WOW, what a boring day that was LOL!


To be fair, I'm sure this park is more lively during the day; I mean, we did go on a weeknight after dinner around 7-8pm. 


It is a real town, and never actually closes (although businesses there are open from 10am to 5pm). So it's kinda like people expecting Toronto's financial district to be busy after dinner. Won't happen.



Anyway, we didn't stay for long and went back to the hotel shortly afterwards. Not much to do in the small town of Sonora, that's for sure. Guess it works out because we needed to be refreshed for our early morning trip to Yosemite Park.

93 South Washington Street
Sonora, CA  95370
209-532-6661

11255 Jackson Street
Columbia, CA  95310
Information line: 209-588-9128



My Virgin America Trip to Los Angeles, Caifornia