Download Restaurant Coupons!!  Search dozens of San Gabriel Valley restaurant menus by city, type of cuisine, type of restaurant, or alphabetically.  Visit our directory featuring nearly 400 San Gabriel Valley restaurants' addresses and phone numbers.  Read restaurant spotlights featuring full color photos, and download coupons!! 

Search The Complete List (A to Z)

Search by City

Search by Cuisine

Search by Restaurant Type

What's New/Coming Soon

Download and Print Coupons

Adding Your Restaurant

Sign me up for the SGV Menus.com mailing list

Dot Com Dining Restaurant Reviews

Restaurant Directory (non-members too)

Events Calendar

Media Partners

Links

Contact SanGabrielValleyMenus.com

Awards We've Won

Press Releases

View Barney's Only Place in Town's Menu

A Look At San Gabriel Valley Restaurants by SanGabrielValleyMenus.com

Barney’s Only Place in Town Café Gives Back to Sierra Madre

By Bill Coburn

It’s going on a couple years now since Michael and Bill Kefalas bought The Only Place in Town, and renamed it Barney’s Only Place in Town.  You see, Mike and Bill are not new to the restaurant scene, as they have been the owners of Barney’s, Ltd. in Old Town Pasadena, for about nine years or so.

While the Only Place in Town has had a long run as a successful business in Sierra Madre, the Kefalas brothers wanted to put their own stamp on the restaurant.  They were smart enough, though, to keep some of the old staples that had contributed to the success of the business before their arrival.

So while you will find a new menu that is significantly more varied than the old one, you’ll also find several items that were the most popular with its regulars.  Almost everyone I spoke with about the ownership change asked me if I knew if the brothers were going to keep Maggie Wong’s Chinese Chicken Salad (chunks of chicken tossed with romaine lettuce, peanuts, sesame seeds, Chinese noodles and their special sweet and sour dressing).  They did, and Keelan had a half order of it when we stopped by for dinner recently.  The occasion was a fundraiser for the Sierra Madre Rose Float Association, with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the SMRFA.  The place was packed, as much of the town turned out to support the SMRFA, which is on a roll with two Tournament of Roses awards in two years.  In addition to hosting fundraisers for worthy local causes such as this one, Mike was introduced at a recent City Council meeting as one of Sierra Madre’s new firefighters, so you see, they truly are giving back to the community.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  We started out with an order of Chili Cheese Fries, which were those great big steak fries, smothered in chili and cheese.  The three of us shared them, and it was just enough to get us started as we waited for the rest of our meal.

Katie ordered the Chicken Marsala, and I ordered the Bacon Wrapped Filet, which this evening was on the menu as a Rose Parade special, which came with a rose, as well as a baked potato, sauteed vegetables and a salad.

The filet was really quite good, cooked to perfection, and the bacon was not burnt by the charbroiling of the filet, as sometimes happens.  The potato was light and flaky, not overcooked at all, and the vegetables were like I like them, crispy, but cooked enough to bite right through, and there was some garlic added that made the taste just right.

Keelan said his salad was really good, but that next time, he’s going to order the dressing on the side.  He said it was really good dressing, but he thinks he may have enjoyed it even more if he could do a better job of suiting his own taste by putting on only as much as he wants.

Katie’s chicken marsala was very good (I know, I tried it), nice and juicy, a good size portion, and one of the better marsala sauces I’ve had recently.  No shortage of mushrooms, and her dinner also came with a baked potato and sautéed vegetables, which, by the way, were broccoli, carrots and a little bit of zucchini.  That’s fine with me, I prefer the broccoli and carrots to the zucchini any day of the week.

One things that surprised me, though I’m not sure why, is how good the desserts are at Barney’s Only Place in Town.  They offer 9 different homemade ice creams, you can ask your server which one’s are available on the day you visit.  I tried the chocolate cherry ice cream and it was excellent.  Keelan ordered the Petit Vesuvius, described as molten chocolate cake, served with vanilla bean ice cream, and Katie ordered the Coconut Dream Cake – White cake layered with custard, apricot and coconut.  All three were scrumptious, and each worthy of recommendation.

To view the Barney’s Only Place in Town menu online, go to http://www.sangabrielvalleymenus.com/barneysonlyplaceintown.  I think it’s time for an update, you may find it’s a little different than what you find on location, but much of it remains the same, and you can get an idea of what you’re looking at.  Be sure and tell them you read about them in Dot Com Dining!!

Bill Coburn is owner of SanGabrielValleyMenus.com, a restaurant website featuring dozens of  restaurants’ menus, as well as downloadable coupons.  He has nearly 20 years experience in the restaurant business, and has been eating for much longer than that.