Puerto Vallarta Mexican Restaurant: a taste of Mexico I went with a few friends to Puerto Vallarta Mexican Restaurant in Steubenville Saturday night.
Exteriorly it’s not very impressive, so I didn’t know what to expect. The minute we stepped inside the door, however, it became clear to me that this was not your typical, Americanized, Mexican dive. The atmosphere is friendly, without being obnoxious. The walls are particularly attractive: a very cheerful yellow all around, with colorful decorations. The floor is an unpleasant dark red tile, but it’s clean. Overall, the restaurant seemed bright, and spacious. There were also live plants, which I thought very tasteful. The affable host immediately escorted us to our seats and we had not long to wait until our server (Jose) showed up. From the minute we sat down, we were provided with unlimited complimentary chips and salsa. The drink menu was extensive, especially for alcoholic drinks. My friends ordered mango margaritas and I ordered a Pepsi. The margaritas were a big hit. The Pepsi was a little flat. The dinner menu was pretty exciting, even for one who has frequented authentic Mexican restaurants for most of her life. Each item contained a detailed description below it. For vegetarians, there was also a generous non-meat section. After sufficiently contemplating the menu, we ordered for our appetizers the Nachos Vallarta, the Guacamole Dip, and the Quesadilla Rellena. The nachos were delectable. The chicken topping was perfectly done. The guacamole was a little bit bland, but it tasted freshly made and complimented the gluten-free tortilla chips nicely. The Quesadilla Rellena was definitely my favorite, though. It was a little salty with the perfect ratio of beef to refried beans. The appetizers met with general approval from our table. The entrees were harder to decide. We finally went with one Patron Burrito, the Fajitas Jalisco, a Chimichanga and one Shrimp Quesadilla. We had to wait for a little while to get our food, but it was worth the wait. Every dish was an extravagant experience. The combination of the sour cream, melted cheese, tomato and spiced beef in the Patron Burrito was delectable. The fajitas were nicely seasoned and cooked. The chimichanga’s spicy chicken and cheese sauce were great together. The shrimp in the shrimp quesadilla was not so exciting, but the sautéed tomatoes and onions were very good. Jose turned out to be an attentive and efficient waiter. Even though he had three tables that were much larger than our table, he came often to inquire about the food. He was prompt in handing us our bill when we were finished dining. My experience at Puerto Vallarta was quite enjoyable. The food was delicious, the service was quick, the atmosphere was refreshing, the portions were generous and the prices were very fair. I look forward to visiting Puerto Vallarta again soon. |
Man found guilty for sexual misconduct towards minor A Bloomingdale man was found guilty Wednesday of attempting to initiate sexual relations with a minor.
Mark D. Flenniken, of 1010 Township Hwy 262, was accused of using the internet Jan. 12 to solicit sexual relations from a law enforcement official, whom he believed to be a 14-year-old girl, police said. According to court documents, Flenniken was determined to be a sexual offender and sentenced to 14 months in the Lorain Correctional Institution. The court also mandated five years of probation following the defendant’s release from prison. Flenniken has three previous convictions of sexual misconduct with a minor, according to court records. The real Law & Order: A day with the Steubenville patrol division Light afternoon traffic rumbled by the Steubenville Police Department, commonly called the SPD, an unassuming brick building in downtown Steubenville at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The structure is unceremonious in comparison with the columned courthouse across the street, but to do it justice - pun very much intended - it serves its purpose well.
Once inside, the layout is slightly confusing, however, being a small building it’s not hard to navigate. I found the captain’s office without too much trouble and with a little help from the passing animal control officer. Captain Young, a jolly, white-haired man offered me some cake before I sat down. It was his birthday. Over cake, I explained to him that I was looking to ride along with a police officer. He informed me that this was not such an unusual request. “We do ride-alongs all the time,” he said. “I’ll get you a form.” Young then called in Officer Eric Dervis who agreed to take me in his patrol car on what he called the daylight shift. Dervis is nice-looking, of medium build, with a cheerful, pleasant demeanor. After I signed a form, agreeing not to sue in case of incident or injury, we left the station. The cruiser toured downtown Steubenville, one of three patrol sectors in the city, Dervis explained. Then he drove through the other two sections, which he called hilltop and west end. Birds could be heard through the open windows, as Dervis expertly navigated the sloping Steubenville streets. On both sides of the street, city residents lounged on their porches in easy chairs. “Most of them haven’t had a job in their lives,” he said. Dervis, on the other hand, has had several. He has served 11 years on the force. Before working in law enforcement, he worked as a chef at the Steubenville Country Club. When he was 31, he decided to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a police officer. Someday, he said, he wants to combine his two passions and write a law enforcement-themed cookbook. He told me that an average day for him consists of waking up early and going through the previous day’s reports. Then he either goes out in his patrol car or works in the courtroom escorting prisoners. Earlier in the day, he had made one arrest, he said. He told me his average is one a week. Usually, he said, he responds to about 20 calls during the daylight shift. Along the way, he told interesting anecdotes. An amusing time, he said, was when he confronted a man about a crack pipe found lying nearby. “‘Is this your crack pipe?’ I asked him,” he said. “‘No,’ (the man answered) ‘this one’s mine’ and he pulled another pipe out of his bag.” The most common types of crimes in the area, he said, are drug- or traffic-related. He pointed out several areas which he called “drug hotspots”, like Pizza Pie Park, a juvenile hangout, Pleasant Food Mart, a common crack area, Maryland market and Hawk Gas Station. We drove around for another hour or so. Dervis explained some of the graffiti tags on the sides of buildings and bridges. “ESK is a gang sign,” he said. “It stands for East Side Killas, a small-time gang in Steubenville. EST stands for East Side Terror, the original gang. The Killas came around some time after them. They’re both wannabe gangs. We don’t have any real gangs, like the Bloodz or the Crips here.” At 4:00 p.m. the daylight shift ended and we returned to the police station. There were several officers standing outside as we pulled into the parking lot. They acted somewhat uncomfortable when they found out I was a journalism student, but they warmed up to me after a while. They all joked about who was going to take me on the afternoon shift. Officer Eric Hart was elected the lucky winner. I was instructed to wait inside the station while Hart took care of some paperwork, where I met the afternoon dispatcher Annie Delfiandra. Delfiandra is a Franciscan alumna from Steubenville. She is a cheery, personable woman with a casual attitude. I also met Sgt. Gotshall, a nice, talkative man, who smoked with me outside while I waited. At 4:23, Hart reappeared and we got on the road. Immediately, the car was called to an accident between University Boulevard and Franklin Avenue. An SUV had rear-ended another SUV, which rear-ended a pick-up truck. It was straightforward. There was minimal damage and no injuries. However, it took nearly thirty minutes to sort out. Hart re-entered the squad car grumbling about how he hated being called pet names by strangers. Apparently, the driver of the first SUV had taken to calling him “honey”, which he found annoying. Hart was not as talkative as Dervis was at first. He seemed like a very impatient, intelligent, and candid man with a dry sense of humor about his job. He made constant jokes about people and situations. “The sunnier it is, the worse people drive,” he said. Hart said he has worked more than 13 years on the force. I asked him why he had joined the police department. “I guess I’ll give you the stock answer,” he said. ‘I joined because I wanted to help people.” Hart originally studied psychology in college, but found criminology more interesting. He began his career as a security guard at Franciscan University. He had done a few ride-alongs before, he said, and had once taken one of the Franciscan T.O.R. sisters along, which he described as amusing. “Everybody stared at us, like ‘what the heck?’” he said. In the 13 years that Hart has been with the force, he has dealt with quite a few interesting situations. He said there have been 22 homicides in that time. There have been three already this year, he said. Most of the crimes he deals with are drug-related, he said. “In this city, I’ve found that ninety-percent of crime is drug-related,” he said. “I’ve also found that ninety-percent of these people bring their problems on themselves and ninety-percent of these people don’t want help.” As Hart drove through the area known as hilltop, he waved to almost everyone on the street. He rolled open the windows and shouted at people walking on the sidewalk, calling them by name and asking them how they were and how their families were. Then he would turn to me and say how the person he had just talked to had a warrant out on them. “I don’t arrest them unless it’s something really big,” he said. “Obviously, I wouldn’t let someone wanted for murder go free, but I’m not going to haul in every other person I see for little warrants, like failure to appear in court.” “Am I jaded?” he said, when we were driving away. “Yes, I’m jaded. We deal with the same B.S., with people who create the same situations and expect you to clear it up in six seconds.” He said that there have been situations that have caused him to cringe, even as a hardened police officer. “One time, me and another police officer were patrolling and we saw a little girl, four years old, walking down Sunset Boulevard by herself,” he said. “We took her home, where we found her mom, a heroine addict, passed out on the stairwell like she was dead, with her face on the stairs, and her two-year-old clinging to her. The mom has since died. I don’t know what happened to the kids.” He stared out the windshield with a saddened expression on his weathered face. Then he frowned seriously. “There are people in this town that don’t give a damn about their kids,” he said. We had to stop several more times, which Hart did not seem to appreciate. Every time the dispatcher called his car number over the radio, he set his jaw and seemed agitated. He later explained that he was supposed to meet his wife for dinner at 5:45, and he didn’t want to be late. Delfiandra could be heard over the radio during our conversations describing situations and ordering each individual car into action. At one point, she said she had received a call from a woman who was worried about a group of men possibly using drugs nearby her property. The woman was too afraid to reveal her identity. “I hate drug busts,” Hart said as he turned the car around and went to investigate. By the time we arrived, the group was no longer there. After that, we cruised around for a while, until Hart was called to check out an alarm a few blocks away at Finley United Methodist Church. Children played basketball in the parking lot while the alarm blared inside. Hart and another police officer searched the premises for a cause, but determining none, they turned off the alarm and we left. Hart dropped me off at the university and went to have dinner with his wife at 5:45 right on schedule. When he picked me up again, he seemed in a better mood and told me he had just made an arrest. “I was sitting with my wife in the window at Subway, when this man walked by that I knew had a warrant for felony theft,” he said. “I quietly escorted him to my car and arrested him; I didn’t make a scene.” When asked how his wife felt about the incident, he laughed and grew jokingly defensive. “She wasn’t real thrilled,” he said, “but we were done eating.” Apparently, this wasn’t the first time Hart had arrested someone at Subway. He said that a year ago, he had noticed that the man who was making their sandwiches had a warrant out for his arrest. He waited for the man to finish the sandwiches, then arrested him. He said they had to wait months to go back to the Subway. As the day progressed and it began to grow darker, more people were seen out in their front lawns grilling or sitting on their porches smoking. Children played in the street or in the yard, calling out things like “hey, mister police officer man” as we passed by. Around dusk, we parked in an alley, adjacent to Pleasant Food Market, a place that Hart said he liked to sit at and watch people. Teenagers, as well as older men and women, came and went, all of them giving us suspicious looks. Hart nonchalantly regarded them and smiled. “I don’t even barely notice anymore,” he said, of the looks. He said he had once witnessed a man get his shin broken by a group of men wielding pipes at Pleasant Food Market. He said that it was the hub of all drug activity in the neighborhood. “This is where they know to meet,” he said. “They meet here and then they’re told where to go to get the drugs.” While we waited, he regaled me with anecdotes of criminal activity he had witnessed. He told me about a particular case where a man had killed a woman he was living with, then proceeded to take her children to school the next day. “When you do this job long enough,” Hart said, “you learn people are capable of doing anything to one another. And they will.” There were a few calls on the radio, cars chasing each other around, domestic violence calls, and a few situations involving feuding neighbors, but no shootings, no drug busts, no gang activity, or ritual murders, nothing like on TV. “It goes in spurts,” Hart said. “Sometimes you’ll get a lot and sometimes you won’t see anything for weeks.” It was no episode of Law & Order, that’s for sure. |