Andrew J. Pridgen

San Francisco

Contributing Editor at SFGate

central ca contributing editor @sfgate.

Articles

Demolition proposed for legendary Calif. roadside stop Pea Soup Andersen's

1 week ago | ksbw.com | Andrew J. Pridgen

Video above from past coverage. Pea Soup Andersen’s in Buellton was a century-old California roadside icon. In 2024, it served its last signature bowl of the eponymous green goodness to road-weary guests. Now, a notorious developer is proposing a massive multiuse development on the current structure’s footprint. Questions and concerns over what’s next for Pea Soup Andersen’s began to surface in 2021 when the property was first listed for sale for just under $5 million.
'Controversial' local developer seeks demolition of Pea Soup Andersen's

1 week ago | sfgate.com | Andrew J. Pridgen

Pea Soup Andersen’s in Buellton was a century-old California roadside icon. In 2024, it served its last signature bowl of the eponymous green goodness to road-weary guests. Now, a notorious developer is proposing a massive multiuse development on the current structure’s footprint. Questions and concerns over what’s next for Pea Soup Andersen’s began to surface in 2021 when the property was first listed for sale for just under $5 million.
How a true crime podcast on an unlikely California city grew a huge following

1 week ago | sacbee.com | Andrew J. Pridgen

Bakersfield, it seems, has all the key ingredients to be the new epicenter of California noir. It's a city suspended in time as other metros have mowed their landmarks down and moved on. It's cast in a permanent daytime haze from generations of industrial equipment laboring and pesticides circulating beneath the unforgiving Valley sun.
Why people are obsessed with a true crime podcast on this Calif. city

1 week ago | sfgate.com | Andrew J. Pridgen

‘I wanted to retell these stories in some way. But I didn’t know how.’‘What happened right here in Bakersfield in 1926 nudged Al Capone from the headlines’‘The people I’m usually interviewing are reliving the worst day of their lives’
Iconic California estate with ties to Jackie O and FDR lists for $1.4M

2 weeks ago | sfgate.com | Andrew J. Pridgen

Camp’s efforts led to a “major transformation in agriculture in the United States with the development of large-scale agri-business in California’s interior valleys,” reads a summary of the Wofford B. Camp Papers, donated to the libraries of Clemson University, Camp’s alma mater. “These have come to be one of the major areas of intensive agriculture in the United States with California now leading the nation in agriculture.
Big Sur lowers speed limits as locals continue to struggle

2 weeks ago | ksbw.com | Andrew J. Pridgen

Motorists driving along Highway 1 in Big Sur will need to monitor their speedometers a little more closely after the speed limit was lowered in the region last month. For a roughly 55-mile stretch of the windy coastal highway, from the San Luis Obispo-Monterey County line to north of the Point Sur Naval Facility, the speed limit was dropped from 55 mph to either 40 or 45 mph.
Caltrans lowers speed limit through Big Sur as locals struggle

2 weeks ago | sfgate.com | Andrew J. Pridgen

“No one’s reached out to us that I know of,” Drabinski said, comparing the move to a reduction in speed over a parallel stretch of road farther inland on Highway 101 between San Miguel and King City. “Maybe two years ago, we made a change to the speed limit …We dropped that down to 65.
A California college town's decades-long sandwich war is finally over

3 weeks ago | sfgate.com | Andrew J. Pridgen

On Monday, SFGATE visited the now-empty shop, which shut its doors to the public sometime in late March. That’s according to a worker for a local cleaning service who was on site removing trash and taking inventory of the former standout sandwich shop on the corner of Osos and Leff streets, just blocks from the heart of downtown San Luis Obispo.
96-year-old Calif. ice cream shop scooped up by local family in surprise sale

3 weeks ago | sfgate.com | Andrew J. Pridgen

The saga of one of California’s oldest and most revered ice cream shops took a hopeful turn last week. Hanford’s Superior Dairy, the anchor of a Central Valley downtown that has been scooping for locals, visitors and even celebrities for 96 years, has reportedly found a new owner — and a local one at that.
This might be the best taco in California. It's $2.

1 month ago | sfgate.com | Andrew J. Pridgen

The highlights? For me, it was the birria ramen. Ordered by the guy in front of me on my most recent visit, he turned and said that I had to give it a shot.