J.Chris back to Gilroy and I stayed in PG
to finish interviews and photos. I wandered
about in downtown PG, visiting many of
the fascinating small shops and meeting the
characters that run them. On Forest Street, I
ran across the Bookmark, a store specializing
in printed matter for the performing arts,
sheet music books and gifts. This store has a
little of everything including Pamela Scholz,
one of those charismatic characters. On this
particular Saturday she was leaving early for
Morgan Hill to play in a performance with
the South Valley Symphony!
Down the road and up Lighthouse
Avenue is Miss Trawick’s Home & Garden
Shop, established in 1895! Roxane Viray and
Lisa Dominguez currently own and operate
this intriguing gift and garden shop. I had
also heard about Pavels’ Backerei (German
for bakery), which was reported to have the
best pastries and sandwiches in town! That
afternoon I learned a hard lesson…they were
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MAY / JUNE 2015
sold out by 1:30 in the afternoon! By the
way, Pavels’ is across the parking lot from
Fandango’s, another of our favorite
restaurants.
For dinner that night I returned to the
restaurant above Miss Trawick’s Home &
Garden Shop, the Red House Café. What a
great place! According the maître d’ Nelson
Reyes the restaurant just received “best
restaurant” in Pacific Grove from the PG
Chamber of Commerce. I had a Spinach
Salad and Dungeness Crab Cakes from the
small plate menu. Fabulous! I also loved the
roulade served with the fresh bread. What a
treat! Reputation has it that the brunches and
the Oatmeal, Apricot and Pecan cookies are
worth a road trip!
Sunday morning – in typical Monterey
fashion – was cold and foggy. I headed
home with a new list of shops to visit, new
restaurants to try and the feeling that J. Chris
and I would be back soon.
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