March 25, 2010 - Noriega Hotel

Thursday, March 25, 2010 - Noriega Hotel - Basque Restaurant
Bakersfield, CA - My Third Time for Dinner

{Click on any photo to view the full size image}

Macguy from Puyallup, WA and I are headed to Yuma, AZ for the VROC Lettuce Ride.
But Macguy has never eaten at a Basque Restaurant before so we split the two day ride to Yuma in uneven sections to over night in Bakersfield, CA.
Macguy insisted that I crop his belly from the photo so it is a bit of a strange crop for a photo. :-)

Tonight there is a rather small gathering for Dinner. The bartender/cashier told me that lately the weekday evenings have been "hit or miss" with as few as 5 or 6 to as many as 100. The weekends have been full houses, though. There is only one sitting at 7:00 PM and everything is served "boarding house" style. In fact the Noriega Hotel still has ten boarders.
Macguy pouring some soup. Bernadette is the only waitress for tonight.

Pickled tongue, Basque beans, cottage cheese and salad

Don R. was sitting across from me during my first visit to Noriega's.
Don R in the blue shirt waving

Some of the boarders and a Chinese couple from San Jose

Don R's friend serving himself some of the delicious lamb stew

Spaghetti, French fries and prime rib

Fresh green beans, pickled carrots and Don eating up the lamb stew

Bernadette scooping out the rainbow sherbet

The young man talking about eating insects in Southeast Asia

Macguy had already polished off most of a bottle of red wine and was now eating his dessert

Another great meal at the Noriega Hotel.

~end .