Steak and potato

Redding, California, September 12, 2011—

LINDSEY RECALLED EATING HERE sometime in the relatively recent past, though I didn't. You gotta eat somewhere, and there isn't any place decent between Sacramento and Ashland as far as I know. Well, Café Maddalena in Dunsmuir, maybe: but it's closed Mondays.

And we're breaking the drive to Ashland here in Redding, and you gotta eat. (Though we could have fasted, now I think about it.)

I ordered Caesar salad and the six-ounce sirloin, grilled rare, with a baked potato and those stir-fried squash, peppers, and onions that used to come with every eat-out dinner back in the 1950s. Best thing on the table was the bruschetta with tomatoes concassée, bits of raw garlic to liven things up. (The bread itself was marginal.)

As Thérèse said, we could/should have simply brought some snacks. Oh well.

Sauvignon blanc, BV, 2009; Cabernet sauvignon, Clos de Bois, unknown vintage (both served by the glass)

• Hilton Garden Inn Café, 5050 Bechelli Lane, Redding, California; 530-226-5111