I haven’t posted anything for awhile. I have been busy putting up jams and preserves for the restaurant. At my home I have a small orchard that produces lots, and lots, and…lots of stone fruit. So, when late spring/summer rolls around I am busy putting up the fruit from the orchard. When you get jam with your toast at Claire’s there is a good chance the fruit it was made with came from our trees. We grow plums, nectarines, peaches, figs, and apricots. This is part of the reason our jam is so good. We can pick our fruit when it is at the peak of ripeness. This makes for more delicious jam. This year I put up 400 pounds of fruit for jam for Claire’s on Cedros. When all of our trees were done producing we had made over 200 qts. of jam. That makes for long days over a hot stove. The rewards though are worth it.

Tip: try our jam on our hot cereal…It is yummy.

You may have noticed our gorgeous blooming bearded irises at the restaurant of late.  They have a history.  When Terrie and I bought the property I noticed that there were iris bulbs (not very healthy looking) in the land around the old buildings.  I wanted to save them because, they are so beautiful in the springtime.  So I dug them out and planted them in my yard to incubate them until we could replant them at the restaurant.  So once Claire’s on Cedros got established and the bulbs had been revived our gardeners transplanted them back to the site.  So the irises you see today are back in their rightful place…246 North Cedros.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.  Claire

Just got the word we are in the running for best brunch in San Diego.  Wow!  It is an honor to be in the running.

So thank you for all of you who nominated us.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  It  validates what we are doing at the restaurant.

And for those of you who want to vote for us in this poll…here is the information.  Thanks, Claire

Customers have been asking and we have been listening.  Maybe not listening fast enough but, still listening. On April 2nd we will open for dinner 2 days per week.  The days that seem to be most popular are Saturday and Sunday.  So we chose them.  We plan to be open until 9 PM.
Our plan is to run our operation much like we already do.  We will continue to offer breakfast all day.  And the menu will remain the same. We will offer dinner specials.  If they prove popular we will think about a dinner menu but, the dinner operation is new to us so we plan to proceed with baby steps…and thank you all for supporting us and being patient.

Claire

Sunday I came into work around 5:30 AM and was amazed because all around our building was what appeared to be snow!  Apparently during the night there was heavy rain/hail.  The hail accumulated around our building and because, the overnight temperature was low, it stayed.  We had “snow” accumulations that stayed until mid morning….Never thought I’d see snow in Solana Beach.

Then during the morning there was more rain and then a beautiful rainbow.

In terms of weather happenings an exciting weekend at the restaurant…

claire

We just started our spring menu Tuesday of this week.  New menu launches make for bumpy days at the restaurant.  The good news is that with every new menu we have learned more about how to do it better.  Like with this menu we got it up on our web site in a timely manner.   No comment about the last time.   With every hurdle we overcome we discover a new one that we need to do better to make our transitions smoother.  The good news is that by the weekend we should be sharp on all the new items and most importantly, pumpkin “Clairecakes” will be with us a bit longer  ( by my best guestimate until the end of February).

We just  found out that we have been voted “Best Eco Friendly and Dog Friendly” restaurant in San Diego by the readers of Ranch and Coast Magazine.  It is an honor to know that the readership of the magazine thinks so highly of our restaurant and it’s crew.  So to all of you who voted for us we are very thankful….and we promise not to let it go to our heads.

And one last thing, tonight is the night we will be on television with Larry Himmel on Channel 8 5:00 news.  We are being featured as a part of a story on the Cedros Design District.   We are happy to be a part of this group and thankful to be included in on this story.  So thank you Channel 8 and Larry Himmel from all of us at Claire’s on Cedros

Claire

I just got word in that we will not be on Channel 8 on Monday…we will be on Channel 8 on Thursday February 3rd at 5:20ish PM news. I know you think I have a screw loose, trust me I am only relaying what the media is telling me and they keep changing their minds.  Thank you for your patience….Claire

Okay I said there would be news coverage of the restaurant tonight at 5 PM…I  need to correct that.  We will be on Channel 8 on Monday night January 31 at 5:40ish PM.  I think it went well with Larry Himmel today…We will see come Monday.
So, tonight instead of watching me on TV I’ll be watching Aztec basketball…GO AZTECS!

claire

Guess who is coming for breakfast?  Larry  Himmel and the Channel 8 news crew are coming to do a spot on our little restaurant tomorrow!  Looks like he’ll be showing up for “Clairecakes” at around 9:30 tomorrow morning.
The telecast will be featuring the Cedros Design District…and Claire’s on Cedros being in the neighborhood  (even if we are on the wrong side of Cedros) makes us of interest to them.  Lucky us we get to be on television tomorrow night on the 5:00 Channel 8 newscast.

Claire