Fish Hopper Restaurant Monterey

Fish Hopper Restaurant Monterey
     Recently friends came into town for the weekend and when the inevitable question came up of  where are we having dinner? We all went back and forth, what kind of food do you want etc. etc. etc. My friends wife was like hey we are in Monterey we have to have fish for dinner. So I took them to one of my favorite seafood restaurants The Fish Hopper. One of the things I like about the Hopper is the view, the restaurant sits at the end of one of the old cannery piers so the whole back wall of the restaurant is glass and during the day you can see sailboats and fisherman coming in with their daily catch along with the shorebirds flying around. At night if their is a moon out and your eyesight adjusts to the darkness you can see the waves rolling in. So it's a wonderful view probably one of the best in Monterey. The service here is pretty great most times you can always find your waiter or waitress and they are always happy to help with anything you need. The  food is wonderful, my friends wife had crab which is what she was craving and I had the salmon which is one of my favorites at the hopper. The nautical themed artwork on the walls of the restaurant is just beautiful from the bent steel undersea scenes which are some of my favorite I could actually see these on a wall in someones home to the Jellyfish light fixtures. I know it almost sounds tacky but they are indeed very beautiful. their nautical themed artwork. So go to the Fish Hopper Monterey for the food and the service but enjoy the view and the artwork while you are there. Another great thing is just outside the door of the restaurant is a stairway down to the beach so if as we did you bring kids along after dinner they can work off some of their energy playing at the beach and getting chased by the waves.

 Fish Hopper HDR, a photo by Monica's Dad on Flickr.

First Awakenings Pacific Grove a Great Place For Brunch

     First Awakenings in Pacific Grove is the best place in town for brunch. They are only open until two so their specialty is breakfast and lunch. One of my favorite things is to go for a bike ride on the bike trail or a run and then sit on the outdoor patio next to the fire pit. Try to get a seat next to the fire pit on cold days it really does make a difference. Trust me they could charge extra on cold days for those tables. Sitting there with a nice cup of coffee and a plate of my favorite fruit crepes next to the fire is one of my favorite things on a Saturday morning. I recommend the fruit crepes at First Awakenings they are my favorite dish there along with the denver omelette. One of the things I like about this place is it's very laid back and personal they take care of you. You will see the waiters and waitresses walking around checking on you often. You can't miss them either they are in the First Awakenings uniform of shorts and Hawaiian shirt no matter how cold the weather is. After breakfast or brunch don't forget to walk around the American Tin Cannery. It is an old Cannery building that they have turned into an outlet mall. It seems to have not taken off. Businesses come and go but never stay so it changes often. But First Awakenings is always there. One of the things I like about the American Tin Cannery is occasionally they will rent space to artists and you can see them working in the store spaces through the windows. I think this would be a great gallery space because they have all the windows it would just take someone to set it up and get the artists to show their work maybe one weekend a month. I think it would be great something like the American Tin Cannery Art Walk.