You would think a roadway as busy as Eureka Way would be lined with more and better restaurant options than having to order via a microphone and eat in your car, but most of the eateries are expressly designed to get you driving again as fast as possible. Maybe it has to do with the number of medical facilities and high schools on that street – necessary to be sure, but not really the sort of business zoning that attracts restaurants.

An oddly-shaped little plot at Eureka Way and 11th Street has been home to a series of sit-down restaurants. Back in the 1980s it housed a very good Italian restaurant, followed by (among others) the Donut Wheel, the ill-fated Avocado’s, Brick’s, and Uncle Mike’s Burgers. Uncle Mike’s had barely let the paint dry before Madayne took over, opening their second Redding location (the other on Hilltop Drive).

The dining room is relentlessly boxy, with small aqua wooden-topped tables and banquette seating along one wall and a lengthy counter on another, metal chairs to be moved around as needed. There’s a divided-off space in the center with picnic tables. When you walk in, order and pay at the counter (there is also another counter on the other side of the room which mainly serves coffee drinks), then take a seat and wait for your food to be delivered. While you wait, you can peruse the t-shirts, mugs, books, and coffee for sale.

On M. de Joie’s first visit, she ordered and then asked for a receipt but was abandoned by the cashier, so she never got it. She supposes the cashier had to confer with others in front of and behind the coffee bar who all seemed to be busily sending and receiving texts.

Trinami sandwich, 1/2 $8.50, plus hummus & veggies, $1.00 with meal, $1.50 a la carte

Trinami is the name given to a sandwich built with smoked tri-tip, pastrami, Swiss cheese, and chipotle sauce on what the paper menu described as a baggett. The menu also said it came with fries, which were nowhere to be seen. While the sandwich was delicious, this was by far the smallest half-sandwich M. de Joie has encountered in a very long time. It was a good thing she ordered the hummus & veggies on the side since that $8.50 half sandwich was terribly lonely all by itself. It would have been nice to have a spoon or some other implement to scoop up the hummus after running out of baby carrots, but waitstaff was nowhere to be seen – maybe involved in a texting scheme to take over the world. Actually the hummus was very good scooped up with fingers.

Black and blue salad, half $9.50

M. de Joie was surprised at the generous serving of salad, given the incident with the half-sandwich, and wonders if they got it right or she was given the wrong portion. No way to check now. At any rate, the salad was delicious, with thinly-sliced warmly grilled tri-tip and a generous amount of blue cheese.

It was while she was eating this salad that M. de Joie began musing about the wisdom of tipping. Now she is fully aware that the subject of tipping is a volatile minefield, but she’s going there anyway for the purpose of this story. Service/tipping is for, you know, service. You are seated in a restaurant, your waitperson brings you menus, takes your drink order, brings your drinks, takes your meal order, brings you your meal, checks back to see if you need anything, and in general makes sure you get everything you want/need. That fulfills the concept of service. Now at a place like Madayne, when you pay by card you are asked right away if you want to tip, and the options are spelled out on the automated screen (15%, 20%, etc.).

M. de Joie is a generous tipper in exchange for good service, knowing that waitstaff put up with a lot of abuse and are not paid well, but something stuck in her craw about this. How do you know what you want to tip for service when you haven’t had any service?

No one came to take Femme de Joie’s order: she gave it at the counter. No one checked to see if she had everything she needed. Someone did come around and plunk down the salad, but that was it. Since she’d had to get her own water, she could have easily gotten up to get her own salad too. Was delivery of a salad, a walk from the kitchen, worth a buck-fifty?

NorCal breakfast burrito, $6.99

The old smears on the tables had been wiped away and replaced with fresh smears. A burrito filled with breakfast staples – egg, potato, bacon, ham, Cheddar – then lightly grilled was really very good, with all the fillings hot and cooked just right, though it did scream out for some salsa. Reluctant to have to get up and go disturb the waitstaff, M. de Joie decided to take a chance on a bottle on the table labeled “Madayne Sauce – a fresh take on ketchup.” She had noticed it on her first visit, mainly because the bottles on the table were half empty and left uncapped. Not feeling impetuous, she poured some onto her plate and tasted it before saucing the burrito. It was sweet ketchup with a hint of heat and a decided moldy flavor, and not the delicious type of mold like Brie.

M. de Joie also ordered coffee since they flog it tirelessly ($2.25). She won’t make that mistake again, though she was impressed at how a cup of coffee can be bitter and watery at the same time.

What to say about Madayne? The food is pretty good but overpriced. You’re hit up for a tip for service before you even sit down. Staff is friendly but elusive: you’re pretty much on your own. There doesn’t seem to be any one person in charge and the staff seems lackadaisical about taking care of basic details. Femme de Joie only visited the Eureka Way location and it may be different at the Hilltop Drive branch, but she’s not really interested in spending more money there to find out.

Madayne Grill & Espresso, 1970 Eureka Way, Redding, CA 96001. 530-245-9160. Also Madayne Eatery & Espresso, 930 Hilltop Drive, Redding, CA 96003. 530-224-1111. Open Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Saturday 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Sunday 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM (Hilltop branch closes at 7 PM on Sunday). Cash and cards. Parking lot. Vegetarian and vegan options. Beer and wine. Website at http://madayne.com/

If you haven’t lived in Redding long, you might be surprised to know that Market Street used to be part of California’s main thoroughfare. The Highway Formerly Known As 99 ran from Mexico to the Oregon border and was quite the accomplishment in interstate highways. When Interstate 5 was completed – likewise an accomplishment – it decimated businesses along 99, including Market Streets north and south (AKA State Route 273). Looking at it now, it’s hard to believe that it was lined with perfectly respectable motels, restaurants, and other businesses (remember the Coliseum Roller Skating Rink? Chesty’s Floor Shop? A&W? Paul Bunyan?).

A Denny’s Restaurant operated on 273 in the 1960s and ’70s; it morphed into the Lime Tree Restaurant, which later became AJ’s. Four years ago Roque and Tiferet Carbajal opened Sweetie’s in that old Denny’s, serving up their seasonal specialties like heirloom tomato Benedict and strawberry-rhubarb cobbler alongside home-smoked & barbecued meats to an appreciative customer base. Now Roque Carbajal has opened Roquito’s Taqueria on South Market, take-out Mexican in a tiny building that formerly housed to-go pizza and was perhaps best known as “that place next to The Tropics.”

Though there are a few picnic tables on the south side of the building, Roquito’s is really a take-it-home kind of place. There’s just enough room to squeeze inside and order; you watch your food assembled in the tiny kitchen. Or phone your order in ahead and pick it up; Femme de Joie wished desperately she had done this while waiting behind a customer who ordered a LOT of food yet seemed to not know what each item actually was.

Nachos with grilled chicken, Roquito style, $7.50

“Roquito style” is available on all menu items for an extra dollar and is worth it; it includes cabbage, pico de gallo, Jalepenos, cilantro, onion, lime, and a spicy creamy sauce drizzled over. Although M. de Joie had her misgivings when she saw the nachos being assembled in a smallish-to-medium-size Styrofoam take-out box, the end product was more than the sum of its parts. Melty cheese sauce ladled over house-made chips with all of the Roquito toppings plus morsels of grilled chicken made two very generous servings and we wound up scraping the box for leftover smidgens of sauce. The chicken got a bit lost amidst all the competing flavors so a more strongly flavored meat like carnitas or barbacoa would work better – or no meat at all.

Smoked carnitas torta, $9.50

Many Mexican restaurants don’t offer tortas; if they do, it’s likely inoffensive and unmemorable. The crusty grilled bolillo roll was necessary to hold the juicy filling – the house spicy sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese, and delectable smoked pork carnitas all pressed together. The smoked carnitas was one of the better versions in town, with real wood smoke taste on pull-apart shreds of pork. In fact, an order of the carnitas alone would be fantastic – it’s that good.

Carne Asada burrito, $8.50

Roquito’s does a few things differently: whole wheat tortillas instead of white. Ranchero beans (pintos in a smoky sauce) instead of refried. And brown rice in place of the usual reddish annatto “Spanish” rice. So you can have a giant burrito and a lot less guilt. This was filling but not heavy with niblets of grilled carne asada beef peeking though – again, the meat got a little overwhelmed by all the toppings, but the little bites were delicious on their own.

Roque Carbajal is onto something here. The limited menu – no enchiladas, no chile rellanos, no tamales – lets Roquitos focus on just a few things and do them very well. Staff is efficient, friendly, and helpful even when the little foyer is packed. Grilled meat from Sweetie’s is on tap. Prices are reasonable for the quality and serving size. They serve Cholula Hot Sauce in to-go packets. Is it too much to dream that Sweetie’s and Roquito’s might be the harbinger of a Renaissance of South Market Street?

Roquito’s Taqueria, 2605 South Market Street, Redding, CA 96001. 530-768-1103. Open Monday through Saturday, 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Closed Sunday. Cash and cards, no checks. No alcohol. Parking is wherever you can find it – there’s a vacant lot to the north of The Tropics. Vegetarian and vegan options. Follow them on Facebook.

You’re at the airport waiting for your flight. You feel a bit peckish, maybe a little anxious, and decide to throw caution to the wind and get something to eat. You think about comfort food: a stack of warm cookies, a cheeseburger, a triple gin and tonic – but when you actually start looking at the prices, the trip back down to earth nearly shatters your ankles.  Ten dollars for a bowl of soup? Thirteen bucks for an Irish coffee? Twenty-one for a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon? Even as you reluctantly fork over $9.75 for a sad cellophane-wrapped turkey sandwich, you already know what it tastes like: the lonely humiliation of being the last one chosen for the softball team.

Fortunately for those who fly in and out of Benton Airpark, the situation is much happier. You might not think of dining at the airport, but West Redding is fortunate to have the Airpark Cafe close at hand, open to the public and pilots alike. Taken over by new owners a few months ago, it’s a cheerful place to enjoy a leisurely breakfast or lunch while enjoying the views of the mountains and planes landing and taking off. The outdoor deck is pleasant even on hot days with canopies and misters. Service is friendly, though a bit on the slow side.

Reuben sandwich, $7.99, with house-made potato salad; small house salad, $2.50

Grilled Reuben sandwich needed just a bit more sauerkraut – it was pretty thinly spread – but otherwise was tasty and a good value. House-made potato salad was much better than the stuff in industrial-packaged tubs you so often get in small cafes – creamy and slightly sweet. Femme de Joie was expecting a salad of bagged iceberg lettuce so it was a nice surprise to get this salad of dark greens and tomato instead – and at a good price.

Chicken fried steak breakfast sandwich, $8.25, side of hash browns, $2.50

Whoever thought of putting chicken fried steak into sandwich form is one smart cookie. This isn’t diet food by any means, but it was tender and savory with a thin omelet, cheese, and smear of gravy inside the bread. Hash browns were crisp on the outside and tender inside.

French toast combo, $8.25

Freshly made French toast was light and fluffy alongside crisp bacon, eggs cooked as requested, and hash browns. A very good deal for the money.

Side order of two biscuits ($1.50 each) and gravy $1.50

The gravy was definitely made in-house, as evidenced by the swirl of sausage fat that hadn’t quite been incorporated. Great sausage flavor and not too salty, this went nicely on fresh biscuits and smeared on the hash browns.

French dip supreme with mushrooms, onions, and Swiss cheese, $8.25, sweet potato fries on the side

Airpark Cafe had some very tender tri-tip available, and that smokey taste made this French dip rise above the ordinary, a juicy and messy combination. Sweet potato fries were out of a freezer bag but were crisp and non-greasy.

Florentine Omelet, $8.99, home-style potatoes on the side

The Florentine Omelet was a special of the day, with spinach, tomatoes, and ham, covered in Hollandaise. Eggs were tender and filled with fresh ingredients; the lusciously rich Hollandaise was missing the requisite tang of lemon and was more like a thick eggy butter sauce. Home-style fries were a bit undercooked.

Cobb salad, $7.99

Cobb salad included dried cranberries, feta cheese, fresh apple, red onion, tomato, candied walnuts, and strips of grilled chicken atop a mesclun mix – this would probably be called a half-salad portion in most restaurants, but the price fit the portion size. Light and refreshing, this made a good lunch.

Airpark Cafe is a little gem in an unlikely place above the tarmac, not far from the Dog Park – hence the dog bed and dog water bowl on the deck. The low prices and friendly atmosphere make up for the somewhat slow service. It’s quite small so is unsuited for a group of more than about eight people, and is up a flight of stairs (Femme de Joie assumes there is another access from within the building it’s housed in, but doesn’t know for certain). It’s a good value with tasty food in an area where restaurants are thin on the ground. Worth checking out.

Additional bonus: they are currently offering a tri-tip dinner and a movie on Saturday nights in the hangar; schedule at flyhillside.com

Airpark Cafe at Benton Airpark, 2600 Gold Street at Airpark Drive, Redding, CA 96001. 530-241-4204. Open daily, 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Cash and cards; no checks, Beer and wine. Vegetarian and vegan options. Parking lot.

A show of hands, please: Who remembers where all the old local taverns/bars/dives were? Better yet, who actually patronized them? Anyone?

Possibly the most infamous was the Oak Grove, which one night became an ungodly flaming cocktail and is now a grassy lot under an oak tree. But there was also 2-Me’s on Hilltop (run by a man named Twomey) where a Subway now stands. Urban renewal took out the Old Crow Club on California, US Bank rises above the old Ricardo’s location at Placer and Pine, and all that remains of Jomar’s is a width of dirt on Railroad Avenue where you can pull over and park. There are still plenty of the old watering holes around, but they are somewhat of an endangered species as they are slowly replaced with wine bars, microbrew taprooms, and upscale bars serving 16 varieties of Pacific Northwest gin and imported ice.

A more recent addition to the local bar scene is a space on Hartnell across from the Hen House. Bubba Thrasher’s was there first, then closed and made room for 21 Taps. Jr’s Across the Way followed in 2012 with a kitchen in addition to the bar (apparently Jr’s served pretty good burgers).

A few months ago, Fusion Lounge Bar & Grill opened in Jr’s place. The premise is a new one for Redding: fusing elements of Asian cuisines (Lao, Thai, Vietnamese, etc.) with American and Mexican dishes to create such hybrids as the Pho-rito, Pho-nudo, and the Senganator Burger, while also functioning as a neighborhood bar.

Despite their new sign, it’s easy to drive right past as you toodle east on Hartnell, lost in a sea of metal auto repair and machine shop prefab buildings. The parking lot is one of those long narrow ones that passes by a long row of metal doors behind Fusion, makes a U-turn, and sneaks back out to Hartnell.

Fusion’s black and blood-red concrete block walls, easy-clean tables and floors, and a truly goth restroom took a note from the punk club playbook circa 1976, but the clientele was a mixture of locals, auto shop employees, hipsters, and families. (Note: family-friendly until 9:00 PM.) There’s a pool table near the back and a smoker’s patio out the side door. Sit at the bar or one of the tables and waitstaff will come take your order. Service was friendly and fairly fast; servers are knowledgeable about the food. Specials are on a backlit writing board at the end of the bar.

Baller Bowl, $10.99

This was an interesting mixture of a taco salad (deep-fried flour tortilla bowl) with crunchy mixed cabbage salad, deep-fried shrimp, and tataki of tuna, Sriracha and wasabi drizzle, and a soy dressing on the side. The tataki (seared ahi with sesame crust, thinly sliced) was so very much like fine filet mignon that only its tendency to melt delicately on the tongue belied its origins. Alongside were crunchy fried shrimp that made a nice contrast to the ethereal tuna. The soy dressing, however, proved to be very salty, and toward the bottom of the cabbage salad M. de Joie regretted pouring the dressing over. Sriracha and wasabi were nice to smear the shrimp in, but mixed on the plate they tended to look septic.

Fusion fries, $7.50

Femme de Joie ordered Fusion Shrimp but what was delivered was Fusion Fries, as she discovered when she couldn’t find anything but chicken in the toppings. This could be a variation on nachos or potato skins: Jo-jos – seasoned crunchy potato wedges – were topped with melted cheese, shredded chicken, cilantro, diced tomatoes, Jalapenos, and Fusion sauce. Fusion sauce is a somewhat spicy, smoky red sauce with hints of Thai curry – think of it as an exotic fry sauce. It was quite good when first delivered but after fifteen minutes or so, the potatoes got pretty soggy (there was a lot of sauce). This was plenty to share among two or three people.

Calamari, $8.00

Calamari is a popular appetizer in restaurants but it is almost always straight out of a frozen box, already breaded and ready to deep-fry and serve up with “our own garlic aioli.” Fusion’s salt-baked calamari was wonderful: thick bite-sized morsels with a dusting of tart tamarind and garnished with fried green onions and Jalapeno slices, this was addictive and original.

Kaliang Fin, $3.00

M. de Joie had never heard of Kaliang Fin and cannot find any reference to it elsewhere, so it may be an original specialty. Korean flour made from mung beans is cooked with water, cooled to produce a gelatin-like block, then cut into small pieces and served in a cold and slightly sour broth. The gelatin cubes had the texture and taste of hard-boiled egg white, slightly sulphuric and bouncy. The broth didn’t have much personality other than tartness and seemed to be mostly a vehicle to support the mung bean jelly. On the side was a small amount of house-made fermented bean & chili paste to mix into the soup – the paste was spicy-hot and delicious, though M. de Joie didn’t really think it helped the soup much. KF (as it’s called on the menu) did have a refreshing quality that might be appealing if one had overindulged in too much rich food and drink, but overall M. de Joie felt she probably wouldn’t order this again.

Fusion Burger, $9.99 with garlic fries ($1.00 extra) and pepper jack cheese

This towering burger, piled high with lettuce, tomato, onion, bacon, roasted eggplant, Fusion sauce, and a fried egg, was in no way reminiscent of a franchise burger. Goopy and drippy, the thick burger fell apart as the egg yolk and Fusion sauce disintegrated the bun, and was overall luscious, juicy, and a wildly delicious messy mixture of tastes. Garlic fries on the side were on the greasy and slightly limp side, but Femme de Joie loved the plentiful garlic bits.

In an unlikely location far from the main hubs of Redding, Fusion is trying out new and exciting ideas, and for the most part they work. The menu is wisely kept small and manageable, with weekly specials thrown in. Prices are more than fair for the amount and quality of food. Though there were a few missteps, overall Femme de Joie loved the intent and direction of the kitchen. If you’re looking for something new to try, drive out to Fusion and sample their innovative dishes.

Fusion Lounge Bar & Grill, 2704 Hartnell Avenue, Redding, CA 96002. 530-768-1360. Open Monday through Thursday, 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM, Friday 11:00 AM – midnight, Saturday 3:00 PM to midnight. Closed Sunday. No minors after 9:00 PM. Cards and cash; no checks. Full bar. Vegetarian and vegan options. Parking lot. Follow them on Facebook.

The Brewers’ Journal Volume 34, published in 1909, said this about Shasta County beer: Kennett, Shasta County, Cal., is said to be the location of a new brewery to be erected by Portland, Ore., capitalists. We don’t know if this brewery paid off for the investors, but we do know it’s now underwater.

Earlier, the “Report of the State Agricultural Society, 1907-8” stated there was one brewery in Shasta County.  However, it should be noted that the same report also states “The climate is pleasant, not extremely hot in summer nor cold in winter” and “Irrigation is unnecessary for most crops… as the rainy season covers the entire growing season,”  so it is possible that the person charged with researching Shasta County’s report may have spent a large amount of time inside that brewery and gotten his information from the denizens thereof.

Fast forward 100+ years, we find the state of breweries in Northern California to be wildly popular and growing. Femme de Joie recalls a few false starts – the Redding Brewing Company, Kennett-Diamond, North Star – but a glance in the craft beer section of local stores shows many more success stories. Wildcard Brewing Company, Fall River Brewing Taphouse,  Etna Brewing Company, Dunsmuir Brewery Works, Lost Coast Brewery, and the Big Enchilada, the Capo di tutti capi of Northern California breweries – Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico.

Add to that list Woody’s Brewing Company, which opened in early 2015 in the old Tapas location. While not strictly “downtown” – it’s a few blocks away from the old mall location (M. de Joie has a large amount of snark for the “Promenade” name) – Woody’s has certainly contributed to increased business and patronage in Redding’s downtown area.

M. de Joie and Amico del Signore visited when Woody’s first opened. They liked the beer but they weren’t certain they liked it enough to endure the noise factor. During busy times in the evening we had to shout at each other across a table to be heard, which didn’t help lower the noise and didn’t make for a pleasant evening out. However, lunchtimes are relatively peaceful, especially since sound baffles have been installed on the ceiling.

The menu is primarily food that goes with beer- burgers, large appetizers, lots of cheese. Service is friendly and knowledgeable, though it can be slow when Woody’s is busy.

Smoked onion rings with honey-mustard dip, $6.99

The first few bites of these onion rings were delicious – a light smoky edge, crisp coating, piquant honey-mustard dipping sauce. As the rings cooled, though, they began to release superabundant amounts of oil.

Squeeze one of the rings and the oil oozed out. The onion inside the batter began to lose its character and fuse to the flabby coating. After a beer or two, you might not notice so much, but it was impossible to deny the puddles gathering in the paper liner of the basket.

The Woody Burger with house-made veggie patty plus side salad, $10.99

You can’t help but notice the giant hamburger bun on any of the burgers, and the burger looks small in comparison. But in fact the veggie burger was of a generous portion to match – it did fall apart like virtually every other veggie burger and was a bit on the goopy side, but had a pleasant nutty taste. Side salad was fresh and crisp. It made for a filling lunch.

Cobb salad, $11.99

Cobb salad is one of those items that always looks good on the menu but often is a bit of a disappointment with skimpy amounts of indifferent toppings, but Woody’s version delivered – lots of flavorful blue cheese, avocados, bacon, grilled chicken and plenty of fresh greens underneath. All mixed together (as inevitably happens with a Cobb), the salad was pungently creamy with crisp bites.

Fish and chips, $13.99

M. de Joie has to say this was the strangest looking fish and chips she’s ever been served. It looked rather like bread sticks than fish. Looks aren’t everything, though – this was not like bread sticks at all. It wasn’t particularly like fried fish, either. The interior was fish, to be sure; it was moist and tender and fully cooked. The exterior was flabby, soft, and without any seasoning whatsoever, so the effect was that of a warm, damp paper towel cuddling the hot fish wrapped inside it. There was a cup of sprightly cole slaw alongside as well as a portion of what the menu said was Remoulade sauce. It was unlike any Remoulade sauce Femme de Joie has ever tasted, oddly bitter and sour at the same time. Perhaps there was a tot of beer added to it; if so, she feels that was a grave mistake. There were also some of Woody’s fabled house-made tots (short for Tater Tots) which had a nice crunch but not a lot of personality – possibly because Woody’s encourages ordering them with a load of toppings.

M. de Joie liked the salads and burgers at Woody’s but felt they definitely need to work on their deep-frying (and deep-fried anything goes with beer).  Woody’s is a definite plus to downtown Redding. With a more casual ambiance than wine bars, non-franchise feel, attracting mixed crowds of hipsters, ladies who lunch, business and government employees, they seem to be filling (and perhaps helping to create) a niche market.  At least one other local brewery is slated to open a pub downtown so time will reveal whether the craft beer movement has legs in Redding. In the meantime, check out Woody’s.

Woody’s Brewing Company,1257 Oregon Street, Redding, CA 96001. 530-765-1034. Open Tuesday through Thursday, 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM, Friday and Saturday 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM, Sunday 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Closed Monday. Cards and cash; no checks. Beer (of course) and wine. Street parking. Vegetarian and vegan options. Website at www.woodysbrewing.biz or follow them on Facebook.

What defines barbecue? And what is the difference between barbecue and grilling? Though the terms are frequently used interchangeably and the results (usually) delectable, they mean very different procedures and end results. As Chris Schlesinger explains in his 1990 book The Thrill of the Grill, grilling is placing food near a heat source and cooking by conduction, searing the exterior and concentrating juices on the interior while browning the outside (the Maillard effect).  Barbecuing, on the other hand, means placing a large quantity of food (usually meat) within a pit or other closed chamber and letting it cook very slowly by indirect heat and smoke from a hardwood fire.

Grilling is fun, fast, and convenient. Barbecuing is not fast, easy, or cheap, but it is an obsession. Barbecue masters – nearly all men – might not sneer at a grilled steaks, but they won’t give you quarter if you try to usurp their title and skill. Writer Calvin Trillin noted that Henry Perry, who began the business that evolved into the legendary Arthur Bryant’s Barbecue in Kansas City, enjoyed seeing customers suffer when they sampled his incendiary sauce. Trillin explained that a man who spent all night tending a hardwood fire could be excused for developing some dark and malevolent tendencies. (Arthur Bryant himself later tamed the sauce down since he appreciated the sight of a returning customer more than a screaming customer.)

All this to say: most barbecue is not barbecue. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t taste good, or isn’t fun to share with all the family and college buddies, but don’t confuse it with the real deal. If in doubt, New Orleans-based food writer/barbecue cookbook author Colleen Rush helpfully compiled a list of 7 Foolproof Ways to Spot a Fake BBQ Joint.

For a couple of years, barbecue restaurants popped up all over the greater Redding area – Palo Cedro, Cypress Avenue, Shasta Lake – and one by one they disappeared into the gloaming. Fat Daddy’s Gourmet BBQ is one of, if not the, longest running barbecue restaurants in Redding. Located in an old A&W Stand (who else remembers those frosty mugs of root beer with the ice shards that slid into the drink?), Fat Daddy’s has been serving for over ten years and seems to still be going strong. Inside are easy-clean Formica tables and easy-mop flooring, with dollar bills tacked to the ceiling. Order at the counter and they’ll call your name when your food is ready. There’s a small condiment table stocked with extra sauce, pickles, and small semi-hot pickled peppers.

Tri-tip sandwich with macaroni salad, $8.25

Tri-tip is a notoriously tough but flavorful cut of meat that is popular with barbecue enthusiasts. It’s been Femme de Joie’s experience that barbecued tri-tip is nearly always dried out and exceedingly chewy, not unlike chewing on a baseball mitt or a pit bull’s tail. Since this tri-tip had never seen a barbecue, it didn’t suffer from toughness, though it was a bit fibrous. The meat itself was on the bland unseasoned side, but was slathered with copious amounts of barbecue sauce, as is all the meat served at Fat Daddy’s. The sauce was not as sweet as some commercial sauces, which Femme de Joie appreciates, and owed some of its flavor to molasses (as opposed to tomato and/or ketchup). The sandwiches came on rolls that were a bit better than the average roll and did not fall apart into a soggy mess.  To be sure it was a generous serving and fair for the price. Macaroni salad was a deli standard with little to distinguish it.

Pulled beef sandwich with potato salad, $8.25

A variation on pulled pork, shredded beef was doused heavily with barbecue sauce. The meat itself was more tender than the tri-tip – not too surprising – and maybe more flavorful, though it was hard to tell since all Femme de Joie could really taste was the sauce. Potato salad on the side seemed to have come from the same place as the macaroni salad: nothing bad about it but neither was there anything special.

Chicken meal with cole slaw and Caesar salad, $10.25

Femme de Joie could not fault the tenderness and moistness of the chicken. Three pieces (a leg and two thighs) were fall-apart tender and juicy, but again, these were not cooked on a barbecue or a grill since the skin was flabby without any crust, and again, absolutely soaked in sauce.  Caesar salad (Caesar salad at a BBQ place?) was deliciously  crunchy and tart. Cole slaw was fresh and likewise crunchy. Both salads were big improvements over the very average potato and macaroni salads.

Obviously Fat Daddy’s knows their target audience since they’ve been in business eleven years (an eternity in the restaurant industry and especially in Redding). Portions are fair for the money and customers seem to love the barbecue sauce (for sale on site).  It isn’t real barbecue, but then they don’t claim to be (despite the giant portable grill chained outside). Femme de Joie doesn’t crave sweet goopy barbecue sauces much – a little goes a very long way in her estimation – so while she wouldn’t make a special trip to Four Corners for Fat Daddy’s, if she wound up dining there she wouldn’t kick too much. But she would definitely ask for sauce on the side.

Fat Daddy’s Gourmet BBQ, 942 Hartnell Avenue, Redding CA 96002. 530-221-8270. Open Monday through Friday, 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Closed weekends. No checks. Parking lot. Not much for vegetarians to see here except salad. Website at http://www.fatdaddysredding.com/
or follow them on Facebook.

In his 1983 book “Third Helpings,” journalist Calvin Trillin investigated the infamous Fried Chicken Wars of Crawford County, Kansas. It seems that Chicken Annie had made a name for herself in the 1930s until 1943, when Chicken Mary opened up her fried chicken palace at the corner where customers turned off the main road to get to Annie’s.  There was subtle guerrilla warfare between the two restaurants – little digs, “accidentally” directing drivers to the wrong restaurant –  that finally came to a head in the 1970s, when a road may or may not have been named in honor of Chicken Annie. Chicken Mary partisans denied involvement with the sign being torn down. Eventually Chicken Annie’s grandson and Chicken Mary’s granddaughter married and opened their own chicken restaurant.

Femme de Joie isn’t sure who brought the first wood-fired pizza oven to Redding, but so far there have been no squabbles, no shots fired, no attempts to sabotage the mozzarella.  As far as M. de Joie can tell, the proprietors like each other. Cinders was the first to jump through the building code hoops to bring their pizza indoors – it took an eternity – but now they have set up a successful shop in Market Square. A varnished wood counter with red plastic stools allows diners to watch pizza being made; or sit at wooden tables inside or outside the shop.  Service is friendly; if they’re busy expect to wait about 20 minutes for your order.

Half Caesar salad, $5.00

M. de Joie isn’t sure about those asymmetrical bowls – they tip, and one side lower than the other makes it hard to mix with a fork – but she did like the crunchy Romaine and shards of Parmesan cheese in the Caesar. She’s given up expecting real Caesar dressing in restaurants (it involves a raw or coddled egg) but this lemony dressing was pleasant in its place.

Greek pizza, $10.00

Greek pizza included feta, mozzarella,  fresh basil, olive oil, Kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and balsamic reduction. Femme de Joie liked the toppings, especially the balsamic reduction contrasting with salty olives and feta, but thought the crust was undercooked and a bit doughy.

Half Greek salad, $5.00

Spinach and spring mix, sun-dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, and feta with balsamic reduction and olive oil

Again, the odd bowls made this difficult to eat.  Sweet-tangy balsamic reduction and olive oil against the salty mixture of Mediterranean ingredients made for a light and refreshing salad, though the sun-dried tomatoes were in unwieldy hunks that couldn’t be cut into manageable pieces with a fork.

Margherita pizza, $8.00

Margherita is the Little Black Dress of pizza.  It has nothing to do with the tequila drink, and doubt has been cast about whether it was really named for Queen Margherita, but it’s the Pizza Standard.  The fresh basil was the best thing on this pizza: it was underbaked, leaving a globby morass of mozzarella and much too much sauce floating on top, never adhering to the crust.

Pepperoni pizza, $8.00

This was a wonderful pizza, Though there was a lot of oil – hard to avoid that with pepperoni – the sausage was spicy with crisp edges and the crust was baked so that the bottom was slightly crisp, the interior chewy, soft and naan-like.

Cinders have wisely limited their menu by not including sandwiches and lasagna and bread sticks at the restaurant; they normally offer about six pizzas at any one time along with specials. Ingredients are high-quality and fresh. The prices are right for individual pizzas and salads.  Femme de Joie would like to see the pizzas baked longer to become a fusion of topping/crust rather than separate goopy sliding elements.  Don’t fear that random blackened bubble – that’s going to happen with the unpredictable temperature fluctuations in wood-fired ovens.  There are good things going on here and M. de Joie hopes they get better,

Cinders Wood Fired Pizza,  1415 Market Street, Redding, CA 96001 (in Market Square at the north end of the mall). 530-605-0665. Open Monday through Saturday, 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM (though they may run out of dough and close early). Cash, cards. No alcohol. Parking lot. Vegan and vegetarian options; gluten-free crust offered. Website at http://cinderspizza.com/ or follow them on Facebook.

Andrew Carnegie was a Scot who emigrated to America and made an enormous fortune in steel. In 1889 he wrote an article titled Wealth, promoting his view that with great wealth came great responsibility. When he turned 65 in 1900, he began philanthropic works with his amassed millions, including funding the construction of 1,679 libraries in the United States. One of those was built in Redding in 1904 where Library Park now lies. It was demolished in 1962.

Just west of that long-gone brick edifice, on the southwest corner of Yuba and Oregon, was the old three-story Western Hotel. (In those days West Redding was chockablock with hotels and boarding houses.)  The third floor was removed after a fire and the hotel apparently continues as residence rentals to this day. The ground floor hosted some offices; a place called Cafe Filosophy briefly occupied 1600 Oregon Street  before the Carnegie name came around again.

When Carnegie’s opened in 1998, there weren’t many places for lunch within walking distance of the courthouse or the many associated offices nearby. Though more restaurants have opened up  since then, it’s still very popular and usually fills up during the noon hour. Service is friendly and efficient.

Cashew chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat rye bread with tomato basil soup, $11.99

The menu says the cashew chicken salad consists of chicken, celery, green onions, cashews, raisins, and mayonnaise, but all Femme de Joie could taste was raisins. She likes raisins to a point, but this was overwhelming. Maybe she got the scoop of salad where all the raisins were hiding. Maybe whoever made the salad went bonkers with the measuring cup.  It was impossible to taste chicken or cashews or anything but raisins. She did pull out a small pale green square of vegetation that at first seemed to be cucumber; on closer inspection it proved to be celery which was a bit squidgy and past its expiration date – leading M. de Joie to feel that the day’s chicken salad had been mixed with some older chicken salad. And raisins.

Carnegie’s is justifiably famous for their tomato-basil soup, a lightly creamy tomatoey blend with an herbal hint. It would have been even more delightful if it had been hot.

Half order of chicken Caesar salad, $8.99, with Cheddar ale soup, $3.49

A half-salad was a generous portion, quite enough for lunch. Chopped Romaine and tender bitelets of moist chicken were tossed with a lemony dressing and showered with feathery shards of Parmesan cheese, making a light meal feel as hearty as if it had bits of steak in it. Cheddar ale soup tasted like exactly both – the salty mineral graininess of Cheddar as well as the bitter bite of ale. It might appeal to adults more than children with those grown-up strong flavors. If it had been hot, it would have been excellent.

Reuben sandwich on whole wheat rye with potato salad, $11.99

One of the few grilled sandwiches on the Carnegie’s menu, the Reuben was packed with mild and lean pastrami and a nice icing of melted cheese. However, Femme de Joie noticed something was not quite right. Prodding around with her fork, she deconstructed the sandwich and eventually found what she was looking for: an extremely thin scatter of sauerkraut threads mashed into the mustard. Perhaps Carnegie’s customers leave most of the sauerkraut behind and so they’ve decided to tone it down, but a Reuben without sauerkraut, or with virtually none, is an ordinary pastrami sandwich. Potato salad on the side was delicious, made with red-skinned new potatoes, slightly sweet and freshly made.

Carnegie’s is in an appealing casual space with lots of light from tall and wide windows as well as a more intimate upstairs seating area. The menu is kept simple so that service is fairly fast even when it’s busy; portions are fair for the price. But there are some problems in execution – lukewarm soups and sandwich fillings that miss the mark. Those aren’t big things individually, but after three  consecutive meals with a noticeable flaw in each, Femme de Joie wonders if anyone in the kitchen is getting feedback from customers or if people are just eating and silently acquiescing. It wouldn’t take much to straighten the problems out – a little attention to detail and voila!  Really good food.

Carnegie’s, 1600 Oregon Street, Redding, California 96001. 530-246-2926. Open Monday & Tuesday, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Wednesday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM with limited menu. Cards and cash; no checks. Vegetarian and vegan options. Beer and wine. Street parking.