Everybody’s business

The thunder rolls
Morning Thunder Café, the Vallombrosa Avenue restaurant where people are happy to sign in and wait half an hour for a table because the food’s so tasty, has a new owner.

She’s Dee Luna, who has been a server at the restaurant for 11 years—since about a year after the place opened.

Luna had long dreamed of owning Morning Thunder Café, and when Patricia Dukes bought it four years ago, Luna told her to let her know if she was ever ready to give it up.

“She did,” Luna said, happily. She and her husband, who manages the Safer Arms gun range, had been saving up for just such an opportunity and took out a home equity loan to seal the deal.

Not one to mess with success, Luna is keeping the same menu and large portions but adding a few specials. Also, she said, “all the employees stayed on.” She has also reopened the patio for dining and done some repainting and fixing-up.

The hours, too, will stay the same. Closing at 2 p.m. means Luna is home by the time her two kids get home from school.

Country Day-O
Chico County Day School, which will be moving to the soon-to-be-former Fair View High School campus next year, has found a new principal after a long search.

He’s Paul Weber, previously of Mountain Ridge Middle School in Paradise and St. Thomas the Apostle in Oroville. He’s a Chico State grad with expertise in a variety of areas.

Teacher Carol Masters has been promoted to lead teacher/vice principal.

Come to the mountain
Look for an added Mountain Mike’s Pizza at Fifth and Nord streets, the location most recently occupied by the Chameleon Café.

Mountain Mike’s is a 27-year-old franchise, with a local person owning the Chico parlors, that sells one million pizzas a year in California and Oregon. I recommend the Chicken Club without the chicken.

The Chameleon Café, which opened after Sin of Cortez moved, is no more. “Cameleon Café is closed,” reads the Web site of the restaurant that opened a little over a year ago.

No lyin’ about the Scion
In a funky partnership, Toyota paired up with downtown coffee shop Moxie’s last weekend to offer test drives of the Scion. (There’s the boxy model, plus three more.)

My husband and I swung by to check it out, because his car just died its final death and mine has 233,000 miles, no A/C, a mold garden in the back seat and I have to hold the trunk closed with duct tape.

We each got to take a ride in the cars (I like the $13,000 xA hatchback), and for filling out a survey we got a T-shirt, flip-flops, two $15 gift certificates to Moxie’s (tasty sandwiches, by the way) and a Scion magazine that tries to pretend it’s anti-corporation.

Moxie’s Café & Gallery owner Jan Bielfelt said, “We got involved with this event because they were looking for a café like Moxie’s and approached us. They are promoting this car to the ‘hip, edgy’ crowd; it’s not your mother’s Toyota.”

There are all kinds of custom options you can get, some cool and some stupid ($299 light-up cup holder).