Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula
23625 Holman Highway, Monterey (831) 624-5311, chomp.org
There’s a cafe inside the hospital affectionately known by its acronym – CHOMP that locals love. It’s a hospital and they are supposed to make you feel better than you did four years ago (or yesterday, for that matter). But what attracts people in perfectly good health to the hospital is the milkshake. It’s a no-frills thing: ice cream and milk, blended just like they did in parlors of old. And it’s perfect, so thick it can hold a straw upright, down to the last drop, but thin enough that you can use the straw to sip it. So it has bipartisan appeal. Next time Congressman Jimmy Panetta reaches out across the aisle, he should try offering one of these.