Show: On The Town Station: KNCO File: 10:28.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-28 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 30.7 MB to 6.1 MB --- transcript --- It is 1133 and 59 degrees and today Tom Fitzsimmons is On The Town at Sopa House of Thai. Good morning Tom. Well good morning Mo, yeah it's great being over here in Nevada City, of course Halloween week in Nevada City is huge, Linz Kukruc here is going to be talking about that from the chamber, but one reason why Nevada City is always great is the restaurants and Sopa House of Thai is one of those great restaurants here in Nevada City, we're inside today in an area that used to be a lot different looking than what I remember, B's here and this has all gotten remodeled over here in kind of the bar area. Yes it has, hi Tom, so our Thai seating side has gotten renovated, so we are going to be starting to rent out the space for like birthdays, Christmas parties, baby showers, bridal showers, anything, and it looks, it's a perfect room for that, yes and it's a really nice space as well, you know everyone's always liked this site but we haven't always been able to open it, but now it is, it will be open, you got it decorated for Halloween here, are these relatives you have hanging here, what are these spooks and skeletons here, who are these guys? These are just the spooks and skeletons of our restaurant, people are doing parties and stuff, say it's a Christmas party, do they get to order from the menu or can they order like a big group amount of food, how does that work? So they can do it however is easier for them as well, they can reach out to us, they can give us a call or send us an email at inquiry at SOPAhouseofthai.com and depending on how many people are in their party, they can do a buffet style or they can order individually or we can come up with a package for them. SOPA House of Thai has great parking just up the street, if you're having like a big group as far as parking goes for a party, what I love is that the windows and doors here, it's very bright in here as well, I think that would surprise people. Yes, it's very bright in here and has that really nice, what would you want to say, ambience to the place with our Thai music playing and we still have the patio open as long as we can keep it open because our customers love the patio, so we got some heaters out there. Also we got blankets, so if anybody wants a little blanket to put over their legs if they're cold because a lot of people still like sitting outside when they bring out their dog. Pillow too, by chance, maybe take a little nappy poo after I eat? Just a little throw to put over their legs if they would like if they're cold. That's perfect, I mean because it is that type of day today, you just said that and it really is, you got a little blanket, it's very comfortable out there, especially with heaters and stuff and people must hear it all the time, they love, this has special meaning, the patio out here. Yes, people love the patio, it just has a nice charm to it, you know, and we have the fountains, we hear the water running, it's just relaxing. So I can think of rehearsal dinners being here, I can think of like you said, birthday parties, retirement parties, I shouldn't say that, yeah, I'm not retiring, just stepping away here for a short time by the way at the radio station, but again, it is in the bar area and sometimes we don't talk enough about what you have here, is this like wine and beer or what do you have here? Yes, right now, so we just have wine and beer and we just started selling Nevada City wine, Nevada City winery wine, excuse me, so we have four wines, we have a Chardonnay, a Zinfandel and a white wine called Sonata and a dessert, Zinfandel wine, which is really delicious. You know what, and I don't know if you know this about that winery, we've had them on with you Lynn, it's all women that run that winery, from everybody that works there, that is pretty awesome. That is really awesome, yes it is. Women rule the world here, Bea, I mean you're like one of these powerful business women in downtown Nevada City. Thank you Tom, same, like you were saying, I'm here as well, our manager, front end manager, she's a woman, she's great, our kitchen manager, she's a woman, she is also great, they've been here for about 20 years. So how's business been going, I mean, because this is your first restaurant, right, that you've owned? Yes, it's our first restaurant, business is going good, you know, the community has really supported us and showed up, and we really appreciate that. Alright, and I know Jesse's not here because he just got done harvesting down in the valley, right, so is he getting some rest now? Yes, finally he is getting some rest, although he has our three-year-old son right now, so he's probably running around. Not that much rest, now I heard you talking with Lynn, that like, you could bring some of his nuts up here, say walnuts, for some dishes and stuff, right? Yes, our manager was asking for some walnuts, so maybe they will come up with a dish, I believe she was saying walnut shrimp, a special. So for people that want to do the parties, because it is the time of year they start booking parties and stuff, certainly for Christmas, what should they do, should they call or go on the website or what? They can give us a call directly at the restaurant, or they can send us an email to inquiry at sopahouseofthai.com, and we will get back to them as soon as we can. Thanks for hosting us here on the town, I'm sorry we're late this month, but I'm glad we finally got here. No, we're glad to have you, thank you so much. It's great being here. We're going to take a quick break, check in on Wall Street, then we're on the town talking, well, I mean, Bea will join us as well, because she's a business owner, it's Halloween week in Nevada City, so Lynn Scooper, we're going to talk all about it when we come back. It is 1139 and 59 degrees, and I have a chat with Rick Fisher, financial advisor with Ostro Financial Consultants, LPL Financial, member SIPC, and I hope you got a picture there of Sopa House of Thai, Rick, and you know, off the air, you're talking about, you usually end up at the same restaurant, and there's so many, I don't know if this area is so unique, but it seems as if there's just all these great restaurants. There seems to be a lot more, there's been a big changeover, so last time I was in Nevada City, there was a couple of restaurants I hadn't seen before, so I kind of made a mental note and maybe go visit them at some point. Okay, well, sounds like a good idea, and Sopa House of Thai, I've heard some really good things about them. Every time I've gone there, I've been very impressed, there's this one dish I love, and as long as they don't change that, I'll be good. Okay, I'll put out a call, keep Mr. Fisher happy, and I'm sure Wall Street's keeping you happy, how's it going there? Yeah, we got a small smile on our face, right now we've got the Dow up 151 points to 52,529, S&P 500's up 26 points to 7748, and the NASDAQ is up just 36 points to 26,514. Taking a look at commodities, we've got oil's back up again, up almost $3 to $103 a barrel, gold's heading south down $30 and change to $4,045 an ounce, with silver down 92 cents to $53.59 an ounce, and the 10-year treasury rate currently is at, bonds are down, we've got the rate up to 5.05%, and this is all that Fed is keeping rates where they are, and the market seems to be okay with it. And we'll get an update from you right after the 5.30 newscast this afternoon. So until then, this has been Rick Fisher of Ostro Financial Consultants Incorporated, LPL, inviting you to call us at 273-4425 and discover the difference. When you think beyond investments, have a wonderful afternoon. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA SIPC. Investment advice offered through Ostro Financial Consultants Incorporated, a registered investment advisor and separate entity from LPL Financials. Tune in to The Ramsey Show, today at noon, brought to you by Zion Capital, your trusted Ramsey SmartVestor Pros, right here in Nevada County. Ring, ring, goes the bell. And welcome back to On the Towntop, it's Tim Matera at SOPA House at Ty, Commercial Street in Nevada City, a great place to be. What I love about the room that we're sitting in, where the bar is located, is that it has these big tall doors, these historic doors that have been here forever, that looks upon just Commercial Street, you kind of get the atmosphere of it, you can see the alleyway over here, and it's a very special town this time of year, Lynn Skookrud, isn't it? It really is, it's maybe my favorite time of year in Nevada City. It's beautiful right now with the fall colors, they haven't quite peaked, but they're definitely coming in, so it's just a beautiful time to be in Nevada City. Yeah, I think it's nice, the days when you get to noontime, right, all of a sudden the sun comes out, it gets higher in the sky, it warms up a bit, so it's going to be perfect out here, especially for fall colors. Yeah, it's great weather right now, nice and cool, but not too cold, and so yeah, it's a great time to come walk around. I always encourage people, come on into town, grab dinner, walk around after, because I love kind of right around when the sun starts to set, the colors just really illuminate in all the trees. Well, you know, being here with her restaurant, you know, relatively new here, I think there's what that, Woods, I'm trying to think of the new store that just opened where J.J. Jackson was. Wolfcraft, yeah, which is very exciting, we have a lot of new things in Nevada City, so Wolfcraft opened, which is an art and pottery cafe, so you can pop in to grab a drink or a snack, and the snack is provided by Heartwood, and then there's different options, so there's craft kits that you can pick up and actually sit in the cafe portion and do the kits, and so there's various kits, I think there's some embroidery, there's pottery painting, and the cool unique thing about the pottery painting is that the pottery, usually when you go to a pottery painting place, it's kind of like cheap pottery that's been imported, all of this stuff is actually made by local ceramicists in town, and so it's really cool, and then in the back, they actually have throwing wheels and kilns, and so you can take classes and use the space to actually create your own pottery as well. Isn't it kind of dangerous to have your coffee and throw in mud and all that stuff, can that be kind of dangerous? Maybe a little bit, but the coffee mostly stays in the front half, so yeah, but it's kind of nice, you can drink your coffee, paint some pottery up front, and then head to the back for the more involved things. Right, this is the beginning of the holiday season, and certainly Halloween's going to be very active, I did talk to Taylor Wolfe from the county of Nevada, and that Halloween Spooktacular, I think is what they call it down here? Yeah, Halloween Spooktacular, so we partner with the county, and we have a really fun event, so you can start up at the Rood Government Center, and they go all out at the Rood Center, they decorate the entire government building, every department kind of has a different theme, and all their staff members dress up with that theme, so the kids can go to each department and trick or treat there, then hop on the free county shuttle, which drops off at City Hall, and they can walk around in the business district, and trick or treat throughout the business district here, so super fun event, great opportunity for the younger ones to come out and have a safe trick or treating environment. It's growing in popularity all the time, is that true? It is, it's definitely growing, and it's one of those things, it's only from three to five, so you have two hours to kind of get it in, and that's what we're hearing, it's almost hard to see it all in the two hour time frame, especially the Rood Center does a lot of fun things, and you'll see some firefighters out, so it's a really fun event, and a lot, you know, it's just great for the kids. We do want to mention that this year, for the first time, it's not on Halloween day, because Halloween falls on a Saturday, so it's on Friday, October 30th this year, so definitely make sure you mark your calendars for that, 3 to 5 p.m., and then the shuttle runs until 7 p.m., so great to maybe start at the Rood Center, come downtown, trick or treat, and then you still have time to grab dinner before you head back up to your car. Alright, I know you're a newlywed and such, so I don't know if your Halloween costume this year is a newlywed related, like Beetlejuice or anything like that? We do have a couple's costume, so Nathan is going to be a fisherman, kind of a comical over-the-top fisherman, and I'm going to be a fish, so. So he hooked you, is that it? He did, he hooked me, yeah, kind of a fun one, so yeah, and of course we've stopped by Solstice to get some of our Halloween goodies, if you're still on the market for Halloween costumes, Solstice is the place to go. Alright, so if you start at the Rood Center, and I like that idea, in that it's a building, so in case the kids, especially the little ones, might get a little cool or something like that, they can get the feel of it, then take a shuttle, the shuttle drops you off where down here? It drops off right in front of City Hall, so it makes it really easy, you're central, right on Broad Street, so a really central, easy location, and like I mentioned, it's completely free, so that's 3 to 7 p.m. this Friday. Alright, so are all the businesses then taking part in this, or do they have signs out there, or how does that work? For the most part, all of them, we will be bringing around signs so you know, but largely most of them are out front anyway, so you'll kind of know, but most of the businesses are participating, maybe not every single one, but the vast majority of them will be. And do you recommend a certain route to go for people? You know, I would say mix it up, because you don't want everyone necessarily going the same route, so you can mix it up and kind of see whatever works best for you, and some people can head up the hill first, some down, and any way that you go, you'll find something. Alright, Bea, do you have a costume picked out for Halloween and stuff? So, yes, my son is into Paw Patrol, he's going to be Chase from Paw Patrol, and I'm going to be the Dalmatian. Wait a minute, which one's Chase? Is Chase? He's the one in the blue outfit, he's like the cop, the cop, yes, and I'm going to be the Dalmatian, which is Marshall, and I'm convincing my husband to be one of the other ones still, so we'll see. Marshall, you would be, that's going to be kind of fun to stop by, so the kids can stop by here, and where should they come, right to the front door here? To the front door, yes, the front entrance, not the back entrance, the front entrance, please. So are you guys going to give them, like, nuts off your farm trees, or what are you going to do? We're going to give them delicious candies. Delicious candies, that's what it's all about. So that is a very fun time that's out here, okay, but that's just the beginning, right, because Halloween itself is another thing for this town. Exactly, there's not many towns that do Halloween like Nevada City, so Nevada City really loves Halloween and goes all out, so yeah, so it's such a fun, all weekend long, there's tons of activities, in addition to the trick-or-treating you'll find in the residential area, almost every single one of our venues and bars has live music or DJs or something happening that night, so there's something all over town, both Friday and Saturday night, so lots of fun to be had in Nevada City. This is like a really important time for people to kind of get out here and discover some stuff that maybe if they haven't been to Nevada City for a while. Yeah, it's a great time to come out and discover, you know, I think, like I said, this is one of my favorite times in Nevada City with the fall colors, and so just walking around on the evening, even if you're an adult and you don't have kids to trick-or-treat, like I don't have kids, I love walking through Nevada City, both downtown and the residential area on Halloween, because there are so many creative costumes. You don't see a lot of store-bought costumes in Nevada City, instead you see a lot of artists making their own costumes, and so it's just a really fun kind of people-watching event where you can walk around, grab dinner, go see a show, there's all kinds of, like I said, live music and activities happening. Are you and your husband planning to go door-to-door, though, and do a little trick-or-treating, see if with your costumes on to get some candy? I don't know, we'll be collecting the candy, but we definitely plan to walk around and then see one of the shows. There's actually a fun show happening at the Oddfellows Hall on Halloween called Possessed, and so there's local bands that are possessed by a famous band you may know, and they'll be playing cover songs from them, so we'll be checking that out. Wow, that sounds cool. Yeah, really fun, so lots of local bands, but like I said, Crazy Horse, like all of the different locations around town, Golden Era, there's all kinds of fun activities happening this weekend. Does everybody stay well-behaved? Because I've never heard of problems on Halloween, even though they've had adult, I mean, over the years they've had adult celebrations at the Foundry, things like that, but it's always been well-behaved. Yeah, I've never heard of a bad incident for Halloween, even though we get a lot of people, I think people just have a really great time and enjoy it, and our police and fire department do come out, and they do actually block off some of the residential streets because we get such big crowds, so it's an unofficial street closure, but there is a street closure that happens up near East Broad and North Pine Street in the residential area, so they come out and they are on site, but I've never heard of any major incidents happening. Do ghosts come out during Halloween here? Because Mark Lyons done tours here, if I recall, right? That local author and stuff? Yeah, the ghosts definitely come out, and our whole team at the Chamber, our staff and volunteers actually had a private tour with Mark Lyons last week, which was really fun to learn all about the ghosts that are haunting some of these buildings downtown, so that's another opportunity is that Mark does private tours, or we have a really amazing new app that we partner with Nevada County Arts and Culture on, and so we actually have where you can do the ghost tour anytime, so if you're looking for something to do to walk around on Halloween, the app is available, and we have the ghost tour that's available for purchase for $10, so you can walk around, do it on your phone, listen to the audio, learn directly from Mark about all the ghosts in the community, but we also have other tours on there. There's a historic audio walking tour, there's a mural tour, a tree tour, now's a great time for the tree tour, because of all the fall colors, so there's a lot of tours, you can find all of that on our website, just click visit and click on the tours section. Alright, I didn't notice this, this has kind of interesting spaces up here, the way it got a little higher ceiling and all that stuff, does this building, I'll ask Bea if she's seen anything or heard anything, is this kind of known to be a little haunted? I think this one might have some ghosts, yeah, there's quite a few that do around town. Bea, come on, what have you heard? That is what I have heard. Have you heard anything? I haven't personally seen anything or heard anything, thankfully, but I have heard from some of the staff, yes. Any silverware moved or anything like that? No, we've had some lights move, and some maybe like footsteps or something, those are upstairs over on the side of the building, that is pretty old, so they have heard some stuff up there. I'm telling you, Sopa House at Tye, one of those places to be in Nevada City for Halloween, anyway, we're going to have to take our one break, and to do that right now, as we're on the town, Sopa House at Tye, Nevada City, Lynch Kukruit here from the Chamber of Commerce, so a quick break, we'll be right back. Hello Grass Valley neighbors, I'm Bob Branstrom, and I served on the Grass Valley City Council from 2020 to 2024. I'm running again, because I want to continue serving you on the issues that affect our community every day. My priorities include responsible stewardship of city finances, wildfire preparedness, a strong local economy, and more housing opportunities. I believe good local government depends on listening to residents, working with city staff and community partners, and making decisions with Grass Valley's long-term needs in mind. To learn more about my experience and priorities, search Bob for Grass Valley City Council online. Paid for by Branstrom for Grass Valley City Council 2026, FPPC number 1488394. Have you been putting off an MRI because you're worried about feeling trapped inside that big tunnel? Hey, I'm Dr. Mark Clayton, and at Clayton Imaging, we do things differently. Our specialized extremity MRI is designed for the parts of your body that take the most abuse – your feet, ankles, knees, hands, wrists, and elbows. Unlike traditional MRIs, most patients don't have to slide all the way into the machine, making a much more comfortable experience and helping reduce feelings of claustrophobia. Whether you're dealing with a sports injury, arthritis, chronic pain, or a recent injury, your doctor can get the detailed images needed to help guide your treatment, without the stress of a conventional MRI. And for a limited time through November, we're offering introductory, self-pay MRI special for just $250. If you've been delaying an MRI because of cost convenience, now is the perfect time to get the answers you need. Ask your health care provider to refer you to Clayton Imaging, or visit claytonimaging.com to learn more. Clayton Imaging – comfortable, affordable, and local. Planning for retirement isn't easy. If you don't know where to start, tune in to Bright Lake Wealth Presents Retirement Talks with Ted Thatcher every Sunday morning at 10. Ted shares helpful tips and strategies that just might change the course of your retirement. Listen every Sunday at 10 to Bright Lake Wealth Presents Retirement Talks with Ted Thatcher. Hope in a bright future. Bright Lake Wealth Management offers investment advisory services and is registered with the SEC. At Big O, we offer total auto care to make any car problem feel like no problem at all. Now through November 1st, don't be spooked by scary good deals. Get $100 instant savings on sets of four select in-stock Nitto, Pirelli, Toyo, and Nexen tires. Visit our website for more details. Big O Tires, the team you trust. Installation required. Disposal fees and shop fees extra were permitted. See store for pricing. Eligibility may vary. Not valid with other offers. Ring, ring, goes the bell. And welcome back down to town. Tom Fitzsimmons here at Sopa House at Ty on Commercial Street in Nevada City. Great place to be. A reminder too, because we are talking Halloween, but it's the beginning of the holiday season. So when you're talking about Christmas parties, great place to have a Christmas party. But also other events, just like Lynn, newlywed that she is, rehearsal dinners, even post-wedding celebration if you're here too, right? Yeah, post-wedding. I even came here for my bachelorette dinner when we sat out on the patio, had a great time. What happens at a bachelorette dinner? Are you allowed to say? Well, the dinner was maybe the mellow part, and then we went out around town after, but it was the starting point. All right. Fair enough. I understand. And by the way, be real quick, since we're going to be talking now about heading into the other holidays, like Christmas and stuff, you guys have gift cards here and stuff? Yes, we do have gift cards. You can actually purchase them online as well, or you can walk into the restaurant and grab it. All right. Can you get them for any amount? I'm sorry, what was that? Can you get them for any amount or a certain amount? Yes, any amount. That's good. They make great gifts. All right. And of course, Christmastime, Victorian Christmas here, heck, there's movies made about your town here, and people still come here and talk about the Christmas card movie, right? Yeah, it's amazing. This year is actually the 20th anniversary of the release of the Christmas card. That's 20 years now? It is 20 years, and people still travel from all across the country because of it. It really spoke to a lot of people. We actually had a very touching story of someone who was a veteran and was in active military duty when the movie came out and had a very similar story, and he actually kind of took a pilgrimage from Florida, drove all the way here to see this place because it meant so much to him. That's pretty awesome, huh? All right. So do they stop at the chamber and want to ... Do you have like a map or sites to see? Yeah, we have a map that we hand out that includes a lot of the popular sites from the movie, so people want to go see those. So we give out a lot of those, but we also have some fun, unique things. We have an original copy of the script in our office, which we don't give out, but you can sit and read it, and we've had people sit down for three hours and read the entire script in our office. We even have the blueprint to the home, and so we've actually had people reach out to see the blueprint of the home where they filmed the movie, and someone even actually tried to build a replica of the home and took those blueprints. So yeah, people love the movie. There's a lot of people very committed to it, for sure. I do know the home. I've been there for Christmas parties because it's a local doctor. I'll just leave it that way. My wife being a labor delivery nurse, he was a pediatrician, he hosted Christmas parties about every three years, and the plateware in the movie is actually his. Everything was so perfect in that house, they used it in the movie. Yeah, it's pretty amazing to see that. It was such a great house, and every time I watch it as a local person, I think it's fun because I always recognize someone new. It's great that they had so many extras in town that maybe back 20 years ago I didn't know, but now I know, and I'm like, oh, I didn't realize they were in the movie. So it's really fun to see our local community in it. Victorian Christmas is happening, but again, you have a hometown Christmas, right? Yeah, brand new this year, we are offering hometown Christmas, which is essentially a miniature version of Victorian Christmas, really geared towards locals because we've heard from our local community that Victorian Christmas is maybe a bit too big, and they want somewhere where they see those familiar faces and people they know, and so hometown Christmas is our answer to that. So we're closing Spring Street, just one block of Spring Street, kind of from Pine to the Miner's Foundry, and we'll have all your favorites, Santa, chestnuts, hot mulled wine, a couple of local vendors, but then the real thing, too, is that all the shops are staying open late. A lot of them will be offering specials, and so you can actually walk around and get all of your holiday shopping done, and we're giving away a lot of giveaways for people who do shop local that night. All right, that sounds good. So when is that night? Do you know it offhand? You have no notes in front of you, by the way. It's all in my head. It's Wednesday, December 2nd. So it's the Wednesday before Victorian Christmas starts, and it's from 4.30 to 8.30 p.m., so it'll be a really fun night. We're really looking forward to it. It's the first time we're doing it, and we're very intentionally going old school, so you won't find it on our website. You won't find it on our social media. We're using radio, newspaper, flyers, and word of mouth, so we're encouraging everyone to tell your friends, spread the word, let people know that it's a great local gathering opportunity. And I'm kind of a shopping handicap. If I come into the chamber and say, hey, who's a store I can go to? My one daughter's a schoolteacher. Is there a good place to buy that stuff? You guys can point me in the right direction? Yeah, we have so many great stores, and we love pointing people in the right direction. Thinking of schoolteachers right off my head, Wanderdose is such a great place to stop by. There's a lot of notebooks, pens, pencils, all kinds of things like that that are great for teachers. And so we're always happy to provide direction, and you can always check out our website. We have a directory of all of our members. We have 350 members. They're sorted by category, so you can go online and look ahead of time and see what might be a good fit for you. I tell you what, this is the time of year it starts shining here in Nevada City, because the holidays are here. It starts with Halloween. The weekend is huge here in Nevada City. If you haven't taken it in, you're new to the area, please come and explore. You can start if you have little ones on Friday, Saturday is Halloween. Make Sopa House A Tai one of the places you stop by and explore, because with the new ownership he has, and Jesse and the family here, they make you feel like family. It's a great place to enjoy yourself and enjoy some special events here in this room right here at the bar area of Sopa House A Tai. It's all remodeled, waiting for you. All right, that does it for us. We've got ABC News coming up right now. --- end of transcript ---