Art is not just paint.

What? That’s sacrilege!

No it isn’t, it’s a fact. Like Ciccarelli’s.

What do facts and Ciccarelli’s have in common, art.

The other day I was in North Bend, (Very adventurous for me, if you have been following this blog), and I stopped at Gary Ostrom’s gallery and bakery. Yes, I know that’s a bit strange, but if you weren’t already a bohemian, you wouldn’t be interested in art. Oh sure, you can try to deny it, I did for years, “I’m not an artist. They have their heads in the clouds while I am a very down-to-earth, four-square kind of Texan, with sand in my craw and clear eyes and a nose for manure! No left-wing, commie, pinko, hippy artist, not me.” And you see how well all that self-delusion worked out.

So now that we know what you are, (I said I was one too), let’s move on and state for the record that there are all kinds of arts and one of them is food. Sure, that’s why there are five cooking channels and so many celebrity-chefs you can’t count the crock pots and admit it you watch too, maybe with all the lights turned out, but you do it, you know it in your heart of hearts, so come clean. Food is great.

That’s why when I found out that Gary, a fantastic local artist, had added baking to his resume; I had to tell ya’ll. And so now I’ll tell you something else.

Ciccarelli’s is a two blocks south of Gary’s C2B Bakery Studio. That’s 2076 Sherman Ave or (541) 751 1999 just in case you want to take a look or call.

It has a plain storefront so don’t be put off, go in and take a look. The dinning rooms are broken up into smallish, but pleasant spaces big enough to avoid rubbing elbows but not so big that you are afraid a soccer game will break out.

But the real treat is the patio. When I was there the weather was cool enough to make a warm weather bird think twice, but after seeing the patio I manned-up and dined al fresco.

Okay, the bad news first, it ain’t cheap.

But after that there’s nothing but good to say, they do a strawberry napoleon which is so nasty it is hard to believe that a person would do that to themselves. Hint* when you hear a clink, it means you’ve hit the plate and have to stop eating. Sure you could lick the plate, but probably shouldn’t

I had the daily special, Italian sausage with penne pasta, olive oil and secret herbs and spices, management had a mixed greens salad topped with raspberry vinaigrette and claims it was better than Tuesday night TV. I doubt that, but it must have been good because management never lies.

We ate and talked and lazed in the sun and for old guys had a pretty good time which is hard to do without prosthetic devices and Mentholatum Deep Heat rub.

If you go at night ask for Aryn, she’ll treat you right and make everything smooth and be there when you want her and leave you alone when you don’t and I know that you make a lot more money working at night, but I am old and can’t drive at night so why not give up the money and work the lunch trade so that I can have perfect service instead of those rowdy nighttime folks?

So try Ciccarelli’s. It’s just down the street from Gary’s C2B and you are going there anyway to support a fellow artist so why not have a great lunch and take home the stuff you bought at Gary’s? Take your time and you’ll think of what you didn’t buy and go back to C2B, so it will be worth a long, leisurely lunch.