Let the Celebrations Begin

As most of you know, CV Weekly is beginning its third year of publication with this issue, Vol. 3, No. 1. Without question, I wanted to celebrate this milestone, but the question was, how?

Last year we hosted a lavish party on the grounds of St. Luke’s of the Mountains Episcopal Church – a historic location for a historic occasion was the theme. This year, I pondered how we here could reach out to the community – our advertisers, subscribers and supporters – to say thank you.

Enter the Early Rodders car club.

Many in the Crescenta Valley are familiar with the Early Rodders. They can be found on Saturday mornings at the parking lot of the UA Theatres across from Verdugo Hills Hospital. The club meets from (gulp!) 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and welcomes just about every kind of auto ever to roll off an assembly line. Anyone can head over there on Saturday morning, grab a coffee and bagel (there’s a Starbucks and Goldstein’s on site) and stroll around the cars, talk with the owners and leave with an appreciation of, if not an envy for, the variety of vehicles viewed.

The Rodders are celebrating their 10th anniversary on Sept. 24 and have invited Crescenta Valley Weekly to join the party!

Held at Crescenta Valley Park at Honolulu and Dunsmore avenues, the party is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will include food trucks, music and of course cars. About 150 cars are expected to be on display, from early models to the exotics – definitely something to satisfy everyone’s taste.

And Crescenta Valley Weekly will be right along side, dancing to the music and giving out pieces of our two year anniversary cake to our friends and neighbors who stop by. And what a cake it’s going to be – provided by Leon Bakery & Café.

Thank you to organizer Dwight and the Early Rodders for extending the invitation – we can hardly wait!

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Getting the paper ready each week demands a lot of attention and focus. We put forth our absolute best effort to give the foothill community the latest in local news in a format that is aesthetically pleasing and (hopefully for the most part) grammatically correct.

Given this amount of effort, I’m sure it comes as no surprise that Thursday night is a time to celebrate. More than once (especially this summer) I have been found Thursday night at Ocean View Bistro on the outside patio facing Florencita Avenue enjoying a delicious meal, a full body glass of wine and the pedestrian traffic. An aside – OV Bistro has one of the best filet mignons I’ve ever tasted.

Last Thursday, however, my husband Steve and I chose to go Italian and headed over to Fratelli’s on Verdugo across from Marshall’s.

We arrived around 6 p.m. and enjoyed a filling meal and wonderful conversation out on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Then he headed off to a meeting and I chose to stay put to watch the sun set (and enjoy a nice glass of cabernet).

As dusk descended, things picked up at Fratelli’s. A crowd of little league and Gladiator football players arrived to enjoy a pizza and share strategies. Around 7:30 the outside speakers came alive with the sounds of Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra, ready to serenade diners.

It was so very pleasant to see the crowds converge, hear the music play and taste a nice glass of vino.

I hope you choose to visit either Ocean View Bistro or Fratelli’s soon (before daylight savings time ends) and experience the absolute stress release that comes from a good meal and a full-bodied glass of wine.

And if you do head over to Fratelli’s ask for Sherilyn – she’s a great server.

Oh! I almost forgot … tell them you heard about them in the CV Weekly.

  robin goldsworthy