As many of you know, a fine restaurant known as the Ranch House BBQ was wrecked by the floods last winter. The "babbling brook" turned into a raging river, ripping out a fairly recent add-on to the main building and carrying a shed (that used to be a video rental shop) many yards to the shoulder of the freeway. What made the disaster especially sad was that the Ranch House BBQ owners had managed to revive that place of business. I ate there several times and it was always packed with customers standing in line, waiting for tables.

And it was worth waiting for.

I've been going to and fro on Highway 8 ever since it was converted from the old 410. I well remember when that restaurant was the fabled and wonderful Ranch Kitchen. This flood actually closed part of the road. Unprecedented in my experience out here.

I see they have cleaned up the place quite a bit. The outlying debris is gone, the leaning and crumpled add-on has been removed. But the main original Ranch Kitchen (which survived a fire in the late 1950s, I think) still stands. A cyclone fence has recently been put up around it.

So what's the deal here? Does this fence mean the old building is going to be taken down, or, restored? Anyone out there have information?