88 
Mountain View News Saturday, September 19, 2026 FOOD & DRINK & SURVIVING 88 
Mountain View News Saturday, September 19, 2026 FOOD & DRINK & SURVIVING 
By Peter Dills 


GINGER CORNER MARKET: THE LITTLE 
MARKET ACROSS FROM GRANT PARK 

Growing up — and I do mean a while back — the little building 
that is now Ginger Corner Market was called Eddie’s Market. It 
couldn’t have been much more than 800 square feet.
Across the street was Grant Park, where we played as kids. Eddie’s 
was just part of the neighborhood. You didn’t think much about 
it. It was the little market across from the park. 

Funny how many years later I’m back in that same little buildinghaving lunch. 

Ginger Corner opened in the summer of 2012, so it’s hardly the 
new kid on the block anymore. It’s a small neighborhood spot 
with sandwiches, coffee, breakfast, sweets and some fun retro sodas. 

The first thing I noticed was the place has personality. Old coffee cans and cracker tins sit on 
the shelves along with bottles, toys, cards and all kinds of odds and ends. It feels a little like an 
old neighborhood market, which considering my memories of Eddie’s, works just fine for me. 

My friend invited me for lunch and I went with a turkey sandwich. Most of the sandwiches 
are around $14, and you can get yours pressed or not pressed. I went pressed. 

My sandwich had plenty of turkey, cheddar and greens on toasted bread. Nothing fancy or 
complicated. It looked good, tasted fresh and filled me up. 

The man behind the sandwiches is Bubba. I’m officially calling him the sandwich guru. In a 
place this small you don’t need a cast of thousands. You need somebody behind the counter 
who knows how to make a sandwich, and Bubba does. Bubba and cast includes Diana with 
the smile, and Liz she owns the joint 

Now, about that $14. 

My dad, Elmer Dills, was adamant about mentioning prices in his restaurant reviews. He 
always believed you couldn’t just tell readers that something was good. Tell them what it 
costs. Is it worth it? Would you order it again? I can almost hear him now. 
“Fourteen dollars for a sandwich?” Yes, Dad. Fourteen dollars. 

Of course, we’re not living in the Eddie’s Market days anymore. These days $14 for a good deli 
sandwich isn’t exactly breaking news. But for $14, I want enough meat, fresh ingredients and 
a sandwich that doesn’t leave me hungry an hour later. 

Ginger Corner passed the test. 

I also went for a Dr. Brown’s Black Cherry soda. With all the retro touches around the place, 
somehow it seemed like the right choice. 

There’s more than sandwiches here. The menu has breakfast, salads, coffee and sweets, so you 
could easily come back several times and try something different. 

In fact, I already know my order for next time: the ham and Brie sandwich( I did) , pressed, 
with the beet salad on the side. Ham and Brie is one of those combinations that sounds just 
right to me, especially warmed up on the press. Add the beet salad and I think I’ve got lunch 
figured out. 

There’s also some outside seating, which brings me to Peter’s Pro Tip. 

It seems the fall weather is cooperating so, find a bench, find some shade and have lunch in 
the park. For me, that’s where this story really comes together. When I was a kid, we played 
in Grant Park with Eddie’s Market sitting across the street. Today the park is still there and 
so is that little building. 

Only now it’s Ginger Corner Market, Bubba is making the sandwiches, and I’m the guy 
worrying about whether a $14 sandwich is worth the money. 

Come to think of it, maybe I’m turning into my dad. Ginger Corner Market217 S. Michigan Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91106 

(626) 795-2447 


CHRISTOPHER Nyerges 

[Nyerges is the author of “How to Survive Anywhere,” “Extreme Simplicity,” “Til 
Death Do Us Part?” and other books. He can be reached at www.SchoolofSelfReliance.
com or Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041] 

ARTIST KATE LAIN’S POST-WILDFIRE COMMUNITY ART 
PROJECT BRINGING POST-FIRE COMMUNITY TOGETHER 

On Sunday, September 13 at Pasadena’s Arlington Garden, community 

members participated in a unique art project called Watershed. Under a 
canopy in the shade of the Garden, Pasadena-based artist Kate Lain gave each participant a 
specially treated piece of fabric, measuring about 8 inches by a foot and a half. The cloth was 
placed on a stiff piece of cardboard for easy handling. Each person then placed plant material 
and other artifacts onto the cloth and then covered it all with a thick sheet of clear plastic to 
hold everything in place. Each such piece was then placed in the sun for about 3 minutes. 
The sun shines down on the cloth, and makes an impression on the treated cloth, except 
where the plants were laid. Then the cloth is removed, and placed in water for a few minutes 
to “develop” the image of the plants and artifacts. 

Alejandro Palacios (left), and daughter Karimeh watch as Kate Lain (with red headband) “develops” 
their cyanotype cloth in water. -photo Helen Wong 
This process is known as cyanotype, an analog photographic process which produces blue 
and white images. 

The cloths, once removed from the water, were beautiful art pieces where the plant materials 
come out white, and the background is blue. It is a detailed and somewhat exacting process, 
and participants were visibly excited by the results. Kate Lain guides each step to ensure that 
everyone has a success. 

The dried and fresh plant materials mostly came from Eaton Canyon, and were primarilyinvasive plants that were removed by Eaton Canyon staff and volunteers working on habitat 
care to help the park recover from the fire. It was important to Lain to involve the fire-
ravaged park in this project. The Eaton Canyon invasive plant materials included dried star 
thistle, dry grasses, sweet allysum seed pods, horehound, and puncture vine. There were also 
some fallen branches with leaves from a burned oak tree. 

“I wanted to use some of the non-native invasive plants that were pulled as part of the Eaton 
Canyon post-wildfire recovery efforts,” says Lain. “For me, it’s a way to make visible the ways 
our recoveries – as people, communities, landscapes, ecologies – are intertwined.” 

Community members attending Sunday's session were invited to bring meaningful objects 
from home to use in creating their cyanotype. Objects could be something that survived 
the fire, something that has brought comfort during post-fire recovery, or something else of 
personal significance. 


James Oberhausen and Caryn Carver hang their developed cyanotype cloths to dry. – photo Helen 
Wong. 

Lain's deep connection with Eaton Canyon started back when she was a child, visiting the 
nature center and hiking with her family. She went on to work as a college intern in the trailer 
when the nature center was being rebuilt from the 1993 fire, then worked for years as a staffnaturalist in the new nature center. She researched Eaton Canyon history and continued to 
volunteer with her family for the park and nature center for years to come. 

"Eaton Canyon is a place I’ve been deeply connected to all my life," says Lain. 

Watershed, facilitated by Kate Lain, is a post-wildfire community art project grounded in 
the idea that creating art in community with one another, and with the environment, can be 
healing. 

Anyone impacted by the wildfires in any way is invited to participate. Besides making the 
cyanotype strips, participants were encouraged to draw images on a large roll of paper for 
how they visualize the future of our post-wildfire communities, and also write their thoughts 
about how healing can occur. Some of these drawings and words will be used to create 
additional cyanotypes for the project. 

The blue cyanotype cloth strips will later be sewn together to create a 50 foot or longer textile 
stream which will be displayed as a temporary art installation for public viewing at Arlington 
Garden in the spring of 2027. 

Sunday’s event was just part one of the project. Another drop-in cyanotype-making session 
will be held at the Arlington Garden, from 11:30 am to 2:30 p.m. 

According to Lain, there will be additional cyanotype and art-making sessions. Progress 
of the art project and future art-making sessions and workshops will be announced on 
Watershed's Instagram account and a Facebook page, and those sessions and workshopsheld at Arlington Garden will be included on their Eventbrite page. 

What did the participants think of this project? Caryn Carver and James Oberhausen said, 
"We’re so grateful to be part of this beautiful project which represents our beautiful and 
resilient community." Alejandro Palacios and Karimeh Palaces added "Selecting the items 
was the best part of making cyanotypes." 

For more information, go to: https://www.instagram.com/p/DcUHFNnD5P6/?img_index=1Watershed is hosted by Arlington Garden, and sponsored in part by the Pasadena Arts and 
Culture Commission, and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division. 

Lain adds that “I'm particularly interested in including community members who were 
impacted in any way by the Eaton Fire. I invite you all to come be part of the art-making.” 
It’s free to participate in the event, but registration is requested so Lain can estimate how 
many supplies to bring. 

• Drop-in Cyanotype Session #2: Saturday, Oct.3, 2026, 11:30am–2:30pmMore info at https://watershedartproject-oct3.eventbrite.com 
Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com