A Taste of Margaritaville in Downtown Vacaville

Today I headed out to Los Reyes Restaurante Y Cantina to enjoy some quality Mexican cuisine and catch some live music at Town Square. Downtown Vacaville Business Improvement District is putting on free intimate concerts every Wednesday through September 26th to entertain the midday lunch crowd. Today, Causalities of Friendship performed for a few hours under the beautifully designed triangle-shaped awnings. The weather was perfect and they had the audience mesmerized as they played well-known hits like “Margaritaville” and “A Pirate Looks At 40” by Jimmy Buffett. If you didn’t catch today’s performance, don’t worry. The Lunch Time Concert series will continue next week, so go ahead and grab lunch from one of our 26 restaurants and treat yourself to a relaxing afternoon under the balmy Vacaville sun. 

For a list of upcoming performances click here.

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Restaurant Review: Panera

Today, I decided to try Panera for lunch. Vacaville is home to a plethora of fun places to grab a bite, and Panera did not disappoint. For those who may not know, Panera is a chain bakery and coffee joint that serves up signature cafe items like soups, salads, and sandwiches. On this trip (there will be more), I ordered a combo 1/2 Caesar Salad and a side of French onion soup. FUN FACT: The “Caesar” in Caesar salad did not come from the Roman general Julius Caesar, but from an Italian immigrant named Caesar Cardini. Cardini apparently created the salad when he was cooking for a 4th of July dinner and ran out of other salad ingredients.

Julius Caesar would have been proud

The salad I received was substantial and served with romain lettuce, freshly grilled and seasoned chicken and topped with Parmesan cheese. Next up is the French Onion Soup. The French onion soup, or Soupe à l’oignon, is an onion and beef broth based soup usually accompanied by a topping of seasoned croutons and  melted gruyère cheese.

Onion soups have been popular at least as far back as Roman times. At the time, they were seen as food for poor, as onions were plentiful and easy to grow. 

My soup, while a little on the salty side, was a perfect accompaniment to the vinegary Caesar dressing. Overall, it was a great dining experience and the service quick and friendly. I would definitely recommend this place to visitors or residents of Vacaville any day!

My trip to the Vacaville Museum

A few weeks ago I took a trip to the Vacaville Museum to experience their latest exhibit: Little Bits, Big Picture. When I arrived I was greeted by Shawn Lum, who agreed to walk me through the museum. Archaeologists recently excavated below the surface in downtown Vacaville and unearthed evidence of people living along the Ulatis creek watershed for thousands of years. In the expansive collection were mortars and pestles (holy guacamole), arrowheads and ancient fish bones. My favorite piece in the exhibit was a bead the size of a grain of sand. Just a bead you say? Nay! Local archaeologists found that the bead was made from Czech glass! That means it traveled from Eastern Europe, across the Atlantic Ocean, through most of the continental United States, and to a small march village that is now Solano County. Shawn then took my upstairs to see the rest of the collection that was not on display. As we were walking, she explained to me that the museum had started as an iron collection. I was so excited to see some crazy iron swords, knifes and shields. Well, it turns out she was talking about irons…for getting the wrinkles out of clothes. After my excitement faded for the irons, I got to see some neat old appliances and electronics. Overall, it was a really interesting walk-through that told the story of the history of our beautiful town. From the primitive tools of the Patwin tribes, to the early days of clothes pressing technology, this is a piece of history you don’t want too miss.