Eldrad must live

Holy crap, today I discovered the most awesome place on my way home (temporarily; I have to go back for German in a few hours).

Those of you who are/were longtime IC residents probably know the Bread Garden, the cafe/restaurant famous for its soup, breads and pastries. Well, they've opened a grocery store in the Ped Mall! (Where Tait's Natural Foods used to be; for those of you who haven't been here in a few years and don't know where that is, it's basically part of the ground floor of the new office building next to the library that was under construction when I came in 2005.)

So I was pleased to discover that not only do I now have a small grocery store on the way home from campus again, but this time it's exactly the kind of grocery store I would wish for if I had a choice. Like Tait's did, it has lots of organic/healthy/high-dollar but high-quality items; unlike Tait's, it also has "regular" food (i.e., brands like Doritos and Coke and Breyer's and the like, with commensurate pricing). So basically I can stop both to buy the unhealthy things I like (Pringles, pop, etc.) but also to get healthy/nice items to cook actual food.

I think some will be leery because Tait's died a death of attrition, basically because it was trying to do what the New Pioneer Co-op (our local crunchy granola organic/healthy/high-dollar but high-quality items co-op) does. But for a while it really did fill a needed niche in that it basically served as a neighborhood grocery for people in the area; it died mostly because it didn't offer anything to fit student budgets. That's not the problem with this place; not only can you get the nice $5 organic brats, but you can also get the $3.50 Johnsonville beer brats as well, and for a lot of things it has both "regular" and organic/nice versions.

So basically, while Iowa City doesn't have enough crunchy granola people to support two organic grocery stores, I think it does have enough crunchy granola people and students who walk to campus to support a neighborhood market that offers both cheap and nice varieties of food. I'm hoping it will survive, and perhaps even expand the organic/quality food market (Tait's certainly seemed to; the Co-op said their membership rose after Tait's opened, which I can only put down as more availability of nice organic food leading to more consumers of it, and the Bread Garden Market may do the same).

Also, the coup de grace: like Tait's did (and unfortunately the Co-op doesn't), THEY HAVE KING ARTHUR BREAD FLOUR, HOO-YAH

Well, yesterday was Father's Day, and so my mom and I feted my stepdad Ben for most of the day. My mom took us (as a Father's Day present) to a relatively new place just a few blocks away on Troost called Grace: A Bistro on the Edge. (Edge of what? Troost [the racial dividing line in KC]? Sanity? Who knows?) It was actually a really nice place, a very pleasant and pretty breakfasterie given that it was on Troost. It wasn't too expensive, either. The waiter did seem to think he was Jay Leno, though - he kept up a constant stream of (not all that good) patter. But he was nice.

After that, we took Ben to a scrapbooking shop at Town Center Plaza because he's been thinking he'd like to get into scrapbooking as a hobby. (And it is perfect for him: he saves EVERYTHING and loves nostalgia and the past, so we're hoping if he's able to save and catalog the things he wants to keep, he won't be as much of a pack rat to save everything else.) He got a couple of beginner books about scrapbooking on sale, and then I took us (as a Father's Day present) to the Elephant Bar for sunch (lupper?). Then we saw that Organized Living, which shares a parking lot with Elephant Bar, was having a going out of business sale, so we stopped in for a little bit and I got a sexy spice rack for my apartment. :D

...Since I seem to be unable to write an LJ entry without mentioning the Scientologist goodness of Tomkat, here's something that makes Tom Cruise seem like a creepy ass - Tom Cruise got punk'd British TV-style...and got the pranksters arrested.

And while on the subject of Britain, here's an article about happy-slapping yobs. It just amuses me because I bet the "major mall near London" (you know, the one that's banned hoodies) is Bentall Centre in Kingston. XD

Edit: Debbie Harry schools Paris Hilton. :D