& if you’re lacking caution
fluffy tails
with cotton mouths
will get into your perpetually open gate
and reap the benefits
of what you’ve sown.

Visually, much had changed for the better. The first thing that I noticed was that the lighting was dimmed so that the moment you walk in the mood feels intimate. The color scheme of table cloths and chairs had been rearranged to be more aesthetically pleasing as well. The biggest blessing of all, though, was that they played soft unnameable jazz or classical music, as opposed to the aurally assaulting STAR 101.3. Admittedly, much of the restaurant still clashes. It seems confused as to whether or not it wants to cater to the quiet refined diners or those who frequent the attached bar for karaoke.

Karaoke is not the only ‘attraction’ offered at the bar, though it is quite popular among the regulars, local blues bands come to play at the restaurant two days a week. These visits are almost always a treasure to be seen. The bands that play at the restaurant can not only play well, but have character, too.

Who could truly compare to the service that I once provided at Palomares cafe? Well, seemingly, those who currently employed there, because I had no complaints about the service. The waiters were polite and always appeared at the right moments. Though there was one mistake in an order (a salad became fries), and the specials weren’t committed to memory, the cozy, cultural feeling of the Palomares Cafe completely made up for this. It was so intimate, in fact, that the chef himself served us our food.

The food was delicious, what more can be said? The three of us each got separate things. My father had a classic cheeseburger with fries (and a salad), I had the chicken Caesar salad, another classic dish, and my mother had one of the specials: the Pumpkin raviolis. My father’s meal was gone in a heart beat and left him rubbing his stomach, and though I did not finish mine, it was just what I had wanted and I enjoyed every bite. But when I got the last bite of my mother’s meal…I sure wished that I had changed. The pumpkin raviolis sounded unappetizing but the truth was that they melted in your mouth (cliche, but true). From classic meals, to new twists on old meals, the new chef knew just how to tantalize the taste buds and leave us all wanting more.

Though the fact that the restaurant tries to please both those there for a nice meal and those there to holler and drink does bother me, I can easily forget this when I receive my meal. Overall, the experience was a very positive (not to mention delicious) one. If you want good energy, good music, and most importantly good food, then I would highly suggest visiting The Palomares cafe: it is well worth the drive to Castro Valley.

Famous actors such as Morgan Freeman and Selma Blair blend smoothly into the cast which also shines with rare gems such as Alexa Davalos. Although obviously a movie about love, it did not fit into the two types of stereotypical love movies. It did not leave me hopeless, nor did it make me feel as though love is a black and white thing that always has a happy ending. On the contrary, The Feast of Love showed its viewers that love is a complicated endeavor.

I left the film quiet and pensive. The plot contains three main couples or people. The first young couple, Chloe and Oscar, fall in love at first sight and match each other ying for yang. It was a love that the viewers fell into and let themselves get wrapped up in. The boy was six months clean from heavy drugs, but as Chloe said, he was “the kind of addict that was a better person for having overcome the addiction than he ever would have been without the drugs and the hardship that came with them.” Their connection was the pure, straight to the heart type, so when their situation started looking up, my heartstrings pulled, and I rooted for them.

Another elderly couple, Esther and Harry, played by Morgan Freeman and Jane Alexander, had the type of relationship to make you coo. They were together for the long haul and seemed to know each other’s quirks inside and out, yet there was an unspoken and recent rift between the two of them.

The last main character was Bradley, played by Greg Kinnear, who was foolhardy in love and fell blindly.

Each situation hit an all-time low during the movie. Bradley fell so blindly that he missed the fact that his wife of six years was a lesbian and that his second wife was in love with another man. We learn that Esther and Harry, the nurturing old couple, never knew their son was a heroin addict, and he died of an overdose right under their eyes. The loving young couple, Oscar and Chloe, buying a cozy house, and they are about to have their first child when Oscar dies of heart failure caused by the very drugs that he had overcome.

Yet, despite these occurrences which break the souls of these inherently good people, each tries bravely to love again. The man finds a new woman who inspires him to love with his eyes wide open, and the elderly couple takes in the pregnant woman as their child, allowing each character to try to experience strong affections again.

Although the movie was not adored by critics, I strongly disagree with them. This film speaks to the amazing strength of the human heart and human-nature. It led me to rethink the matters of love. I believe that hardly anyone has a soul mate. Each of us has so much love inside of us, that giving it to only one person would be selfish. It should be our moral duty to bestow it upon others. What sets us apart from all else is that we not only have the ability to, but the resilient will to put our hearts on the line and, like Chloe, Oscar, Esther, Harry, and Bradley, love and love and love again.