Restaurants

Dragonfly closes

2009-12-07T02:49:28Z

Dragonfly Restaurant has closed its doors after five years in Midtown.

Owners Glenn and Rosa Rivera-Lew quietly closed the Asian-fusion restaurant at least two weeks ago. They are now considering other options for the 3,500-square-foot space at 1809 Capitol Ave., whose lease they still own, said Ernesto Jimenez, an owner of the building and Zocalo, the restaurant next door.

Dragonfly — whose menu included sushi, noodles and tapas such as sesame seed cones and taro chips — struggled for some time.

"That's a sad one for us," said Rob Kerth, executive director of the Midtown Business Association. "I think they just couldn't draw enough people in to keep it going."

Dragonfly opened about a month after Zocalo in 2004 after Jimenez and building co-owner Ron Vrilakas, an architect, redeveloped the 1920s-era Arnold Brothers Building. The space, originally built as a warehouse for car repairs, features 18-foot ceilings and outdoor dining.

A sign on Dragonfly's door says a new business is expected to open early next year. It's too early to know whether the Lews will change the concept and resume operation, transfer the lease to a new operator or bring in new partners or investors, Jimenez said.

"He (Lew) has some great ideas in the works," Jimenez said.

The Lews operate a restaurant at Arden Fair and operated Fusions restaurant in Davis for seven years. They could not be reached for comment.

Musicians still cooking at sandwich shop

2010-01-19T02:37:19Z

Most musicians have day jobs. Now two musicians own theirs.

Cooks Mick "The Deli Lama" Stevenson and Dennis "DJ" Rogers have kept the original Dad's Sandwich Shop going strong at 1310 S St. after assuming ownership three months ago. Dad's Kitchen at 2968 Freeport Blvd. near Curtis Park closed after its owners, Alison and Sam "Dad" England, weren't able to find a buyer.

Diners may not even know a change of ownership took place, because Rogers and Stevenson had largely been running the restaurant, which operates from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, they said. Rogers, 26, also plays guitar in the hardcore punk band Killing The Dream, and 37-year-old Stevenson is in three bands: a punk band, a folk band and a spaghetti western band called Blvd ParK.

They plan to keep the menu, filled with sandwiches such as the California Carnivore (roast beef and pastrami) and the Fat Elvis (peanut butter, honey and banana), plus salads, soup and breakfast sandwiches. And they will keep the restaurant's name.

"There's no reason to change it," Rogers said. "Dad — Sam — he's our friend."

The original opened about five years ago in the shadow of several state agencies. Rogers helped the Englands open Dad's Kitchen about two years ago. Rogers and Stevenson worked at both establishments. They've hired their own staff at the sandwich shop, and all are into music.

The restaurant is casual and small, holding four tiny, two-person tables. Diners order at a small counter. During a lunch rush last week, Stevenson, Rogers and the staff cranked sandwiches out for customers like Steve Schoenig.

Dad's Sandwich Shop is just a stone's throw away from the California Department of Fish and Game, where Schoenig works as a supervising biologist. He eats there regularly after hearing about the restaurant from coworkers. He said he likes the place because it's unique and the people making the food are nice to their customers.

"It's great food. It's not a chain," he said. "They have a real creative menu and they're real friendly."

Photos by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter covering business and development for the Sacramento Press.

Zócalo to grow

2009-12-08T04:58:04Z

Zócalo restaurant plans to expand its space for celebration by adding a banquet room.

The 1,000-square-foot banquet room will increase the L-shaped 3,500-square-foot dining area by nearly a third.

The room will contain pre-Columbian-style artwork and noise-reduction features including "big, beautiful doors" that can be closed and rugs that will make the new room quieter than an existing 500-square-foot banquet room, said restaurant owner Ernesto Jimenez.

"We get a lot of requests for groups — especially this time of year," he said. "It's a good celebration place."

A bank has given verbal approval for a loan, but now paperwork must be completed, Jimenez said. The plan is to start work by May so the room will be completed in the summer.

The banquet room will be carved from space the restaurant uses for storage between Zócalo and the now-closed Dragonfly. Zócalo will not expand into Dragonfly's space, Jimenez said.

Photo provided by Zócalo.

5th and H Cafe to open

2009-11-12T05:24:54Z

Anthony and Tracy Palombo say the place they're opening in two weeks will be more than just a restaurant.

Husband and wife want 5th and H Café to be a place for friends and family to gather around good food and a glass of wine — a space like his uncle's café in Italy, where Anthony first started out in the restaurant business one summer when he was 24.

His uncle's trattoria sits in Montepertuso, a small town hidden in the cliffs above Positano on the Amalfi Coast. The name of his uncle's restaurant: Il Ritrovo.

"That means in Italian, 'Where Friends Meet,' " Anthony Palombo said. "It's the most beautiful place on earth."

Palombo worked at the restaurant for a year and a half. He did everything he could to learn the restaurant business inside and out.

"I was working in the kitchen day and night," he said. "Those stories you hear about chefs working 16, 17 hours a day — that was me.

"From waking up early to make fresh pastas to going down on my scooter to the market for fresh fish, pretty much right out of the sea," he said. "It was something you dream of."

Palombo has dreamed of opening his own restaurant for 15 years. After moving to the area four years ago, he helped open Spataro Restaurant and Bar as the sous chef. He worked at the downtown Bistro 33 for a year, then went back to Spataro as the chef. After two more years there, he began to put his dream into motion.

Now he and his wife are opening a restaurant like his uncle's in the back corner of the historic Railway Express Agency Building, between the train station and the federal courthouse.

With minor modifications, they're taking over the space vacated by Soups in the City and leased out by Johan Otto, who restored the building with another developer, Lynn Pomeroy. The café, decorated with a terra cotta floor and walls in autumn shades, will hold 10 tables.

He has a lot of family support. He and Tracy found a new deli case through Craigslist. His uncle, an electrician, drove down from Santa Rosa to install more electrical wire. His dad, a bricklayer, may help build a brick barbecue in an outdoor patio.

The café will be much like his uncle's, he said. Palombo will run the place himself, offering friendly, one-on-one service with help from two people in the kitchen. He said he doesn't want to put a label on his food.

"I just want to be able to do what I want to do; make what people want to eat — fun stuff," he said. "I'm going to really focus on my food. There's not really a place where you can get good, fresh food around here."

The 5th and H Café will serve breakfast and lunch, along with wine by the glass and bottles of beer. The focus will be on seasonal, locally-grown ingredients, with plenty of vegetarian options, Palombo said.

His dad's garden will supply some of the produce for the café. Palombo will also use fruits and vegetables from growers like Soil Born Farms and Full Belly Farm.

The breakfast menu will include lavender waffles and apple pancakes. Lunch items will include seasonal soups made from scratch each morning, paninis, whole wheat wraps, Niman Ranch burgers and rustic tuna salad poached in olive oil with arugula and beets.

The café will also serve artisan cheeses, cured meats, housemade antipasti and seasonal fruit plates.

The restaurant will open the fourth week in November. Hours will be from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Catering will be offered and outdoor seating may be added in the future. Palombo said he's starting with the basics, and then will develop the menu based on what customers want.

They expect to serve travelers using the Sacramento Valley Station, judges and lawyers working in the courthouse and state workers, he said.

"I want to cater to the people around here. I want them to feel comfortable," he said. "I want this to be a place where friends around the area come to meet."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Amarin closes after more than 20 years

2010-01-28T05:51:35Z

Amarin Thai Cuisine, one of Sacramento's earliest Thai restaurants, has gone dark after the owners closed last week.

On Jan. 19, the family-run restaurant shut its doors at the corner of I and 12th streets, just a few blocks from government buildings housing thousands of state, city, county and federal employees. Downtown workers made up the bulk of Amarin's customers during weekday lunches.

"That was our favorite," said downtown resident Gloria Burt, an art show curator for Sacramento's Central Library. "The food was really, really good. We're unhappy it's gone."

Like many other businesses in the central city, Amarin was hurt by the recession and state employee furloughs. But a loss of revenue was not the reason for the restaurant's closure, according to a source who spoke to the owners.

Amarin was believed to have been the second Thai restaurant to open in Sacramento. The Sacramento County health department's earliest records for the restaurant date back to 1989. Another family first opened the restaurant, and that may have been earlier. The current owner, listed as Sureerat Nui Mach, had opened a restaurant of the same name in Folsom in 2002 and later sold the business.

Siam Restaurant is believed to have been the first, according to Lek Pitak, who owns Thai Palace, 3262 J St., and Thais working at Siam.

Siam first opened in the 5300 block of Franklin Boulevard. The city built a police station there and Siam relocated to 5100 Franklin Blvd. City of Sacramento Revenue Division records for that location date to 1988. Siam workers said the restaurant first opened by 1984 or possibly earlier.

The Burt family discovered Amarin soon after the first family opened it. Over the years, the restaurant expanded and the interior was decorated more, Burt said.

"We had a lot of friends who liked going there," she said. "Now where are we going to get our coconut soup? It was the best."

Amarin's license to sell beer and wine expired Dec. 31, but is still considered active until the end of a 90-day grace period, according to the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Amarin's space at 900 12th St. may not stay vacant for long. More than five potential restaurant operators have inquired about leasing the retail space on the ground floor of the Congress Hotel in the week since the restaurant closed.

The owners could not be reached for comment.

Friends open 14th and O bistro

2010-02-09T04:15:58Z

Two thirty-somethings who grew up in Sacramento's restaurant scene are teaming up to open a French-influenced restaurant next month.

Simon's Bar & Cafe co-owner Alan Chan is opening his second restaurant, Bistro Michel, at 1501 14th St. The bistro will be managed by Richard Macias, who's worked in restaurants all over Sacramento. The two became friends after Macias got a job bartending at Simon's.

Chan, 36 and Macias, 35, plan to open a restaurant that is "simple and classy and not overbearing," offering primarily American food cooked with French techniques and priced for most people, Macias said.

They got fired up about French food while in France a few years ago to celebrate a friend's birthday. The bistro's name was chosen in memory of an incredible side trip they made to Brussels. The name of the city's patron saint, Michel — also known as Saint Michael the Archangel — was plastered all over, Macias said.

"We've been to France many times," Chan said. "We're inspired by the food and we want to do something special ourselves."

The bistro will replace Gaylord Restaurant in the Admail Express building, an infill redevelopment project by the Capitol Area Development Authority.

Chan grew up in the restaurant business. Nearly the same can be said about Macias, who has worked in the industry since he was 14. As teens, they went to rival Sacramento high schools.

Chan's uncle, Simon Chan, and father Johnny Chan opened Simon's more than 20 years ago. Simon owned the bar and Johnny owned the restaurant. Alan Chan took over the restaurant when his dad retired. His uncle still owns the bar.

Macias began working in coffee shops 21 years ago while in high school. He has since worked in many restaurants. He waited tables at The Waterboy, did everything from serving to cooking at The Kitchen, and helped open Selland's Market-Cafe as a manager and the person in charge of wine. Macias has also worked at 55 Degrees and Ella.

"I think I've worked at every restaurant in town," he said. "You get stale. You want to learn something new."

Chan and Macias are working together on the bistro's wine list and menu. One side of the bistro will hold a cafe where people can buy pastries, sandwiches, coffee and espresso. The neighborhood doesn't have another coffee shop within four or five blocks, Macias said.

The bistro will offer a tier of service, with approximately $5 sandwiches and $10 sit-down lunches. Wine pricings won't be "inflated," and the restaurant will offer wine tastings and other fun events, he added.

Bistro Michel will focus on farmers' market produce and locally raised meats from Bledsoe Ranch meats, as well as meats from Colorado. Dishes could include a classic rack of lamb with herb crust and potatoes au gratin using a dried truffle cheese, and a New York strip steak with bone marrow butter, French fries and spinach. The food will be prepared with the French technique Macias learned at high-end establishments.

"We just kind of want to do something that's in that style, but caters to the budgets of people who aren't executives," he said. "I don't know that we can call it French."

Chan has looked at many other locations over the years. They both like the location at 14th and O streets because it's in the central business district and close to the Capitol and the offices of many state workers.

"It's an ideal location for us, we feel," Chan said.

They expect to open the restaurant and bar in March. The cafe will open a couple months later. They will add onto the sunroom that was used as a dining room by Gaylord's.

The pair is still working out the interior's design and color scheme. They're starting with a thorough cleaning. They'll replace carpeting with flagstone, tile or nice linoleum. Pastry cases and counters must be built and the seating will be changed. Once they open, they'll seek customer input for other changes, Chan said.

"We want to make everything better and better as we go," he said.

Mexican artist tapped again for Zócalo expansion

2010-02-08T04:58:43Z

Sacramento restaurateur Ernesto Jimenez was excited, yet afraid to take on the challenge of creating a restaurant in a 6,000-square-foot corner space in the old Arnold Brothers Motor Cars building.

He already was the owner of the colorful Mexican restaurant Ernesto's when he and partners bought the 77-year-old building in 2001. And he'd been dreaming about his next restaurant for years. He wanted it to be something special.

"It was a beautiful old building, so the restaurant had to match the exterior," he said. "I didn't want it to be just another restaurant. It had to be something beyond that."

His visits to the new space at 18th Street and Capitol Avenue told him there was a lot of work ahead. Part of the fun of preparation came on trips to Mexico, his parents' homeland, where he searched for the pieces that could go into the restaurant.

By the time the building's renovation began in the fall of 2003, he'd found Ernesto Cruz, the person who helped him transform a former flooring store into Zócalo, where nearly every furnishing is a handmade piece of art.

"It was a really thrashed, ugly space," Jimenez said. "He pretty much came in and made it happen — and made it look great."

Six years after opening, Jimenez is recruiting Cruz to create a private banquet room that will add 1,000 square feet to the restaurant.

Cruz is an artist with his own shop in San Pedro Tlaquepaque, a Mexican village bordering Guadalajara known for its pottery and blown glass. He was trained as an architect. But his passionate, bohemian nature was best expressed through art, Jimenez said.

"He didn't seem to be the kind of guy who could conform to the 9-to-5 standards we live by," Jimenez said. "So he got into his art."

Cruz first began candlemaking, then got into painting and other art. But it wasn't until he married a very organized European woman that the business end of his art really soared, Jimenez said.

Cruz picked up artistic and cultural influences from other lands as the couple traveled extensively. Travel has become an important part of his imaginative and inventive existence, Jimenez said.

"He needs to do that in order to stay alive — to stay alive creatively," Jimenez said. "I respect that he's true to himself. That's not easy in this world."

Cruz branched into interior design and worked with artisans in his city to get furnishings made by hand out of stone, metal, wood and clay.

But he wasn't easy for Jimenez to find. Jimenez had gotten a tip to check out an unusual lamp in a restaurant in Morelia, Michoacan. He asked the restaurant owner who had made the lamp and where he could find that person. The proprietor sent him to Mexico City without even a name. The artist's work was nowhere to be found.

It wasn't until Jimenez traveled in the opposite direction and stumbled upon Cruz's shop, opened only one week earlier in the state of Jalisco, that he found the lamp's maker.

Jimenez had searched Mexico extensively, trying to find the look he wanted for the restaurant. He found beautiful art, but thought it had been done in too many other Mexican restaurants in both countries. He quickly fell in love with what he found in Cruz's shop, "io," named for the couple's son. But Jimenez didn't know if others would feel the same. He wasn't sure if anyone else would even like it.

"It was risky. I didn't know if people were going to say, 'This isn't Mexican,' " he said. "'Cause this isn't seen so much — in Mexico, even."

Cruz spent five days in Sacramento taking photos and measuring the space.

Jimenez visited Cruz 10 times in a year and a half to go over the interior design plans and look at artwork. Many design adjustments had to be made to fit the space and adhere to city codes for historic buildings, Jimenez said.

For example, a design for a front door awning couldn't be used because it didn't meet city code.

The two spent hours visiting shops where people were crafting pieces for the restaurant. Jimenez got to know Cruz and his family over dinners at their house.

Cruz developed a style for Zócalo that blends influences from pre-Columbian Mexico, Moorish Iberia, Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Africa. Abstract human figures and hearts can be found again and again on pieces throughout the restaurant.

"It's a little difficult to describe," Jimenez said.

Cruz designed things such as a pre-Columbian baptismal urn, called a pila; a grand volcanic stone fireplace and a huge, ornate wooden door frame for a 500-foot banquet space known as the Morelia Room; hand-blown lamps of fantastic shapes and sizes; handworked metal bar stools; and a bar and tables made of travertine. Cruz also designed wooden furniture and painted a large painting on a back wall.

Jimenez will return to Tlaquepaque in April to look at Cruz's plans for the new room, talk about specific ideas and choose art and furnishings. The existing banquet space can get noisy, partly because it is open to the entire restaurant. The idea is to create a quieter space for celebrations and meetings in a room between Zócalo and the former Dragonfly restaurant, Jimenez said.

The look will be a continuation of the main restaurant, with a more rustic style to block noise. The floor will be wood covered with big, Persian-style rugs. Heavy drapes will hang on an exterior wall containing a separate door and windows to muffle sound and create a darker space when needed for such things as audio-visual presentations.

"We're going to make it as multifunctional as we can," Jimenez said.

An opening between the space and the main dining room will be built in the restaurant's back wall, where Cruz's painting now hangs. A heavy wooden door will be installed there. A pre-Columbian statue lit like a shrine will be visible through that doorway. A small service bar and restrooms also may be added, Jimenez said.

Work on the new room is expected to start by June. At the same time, the outdoor patio will be expanded in front of the room and more plants will be added outside. The additions are meant to expand on the restaurant's goal of being a gathering place. After all, it's named after Mexico City's famous plaza, known as the Zócalo — one of the world's largest public squares.

Jimenez said he's happy to have found Cruz, who created the unique restaurant Jimenez had been dreaming of.

"There's lots of great art all over Mexico," Jimenez said. "But nothing like this."

Photos by Ernesto Jimenez and Suzanne Hurt. Restaurant scene photo provided by Jimenez.

5th and H Cafe opens

2009-11-23T20:49:00Z

Downtown Sacramento's newest restaurant, 5th and H Café opened Monday.

Chef and owner Anthony Palombo and a small staff are servi,ng pastries and beverages on the first day of business. The full menu will be offered Tuesday, he said.

Palombo said he owes much thanks to his whole family for all their help with opening the café. Brother-in-law Brian Donnaley and father-in-law Bob Donnaley helped extensively with painting and installing kitchen equipment, he said.

His mother and grandmother taught him how to cook growing up. His mother-in-law Phyllis Donnaley, who once owned a deli, has provided a lot of help with the new business. She gave the café its first dollar Monday.

Tucked into a back corner of the Railway Express Agency Building, 431 I St., the restaurant sits between the federal courthouse and the Sacramento Valley Station. Hours are from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information, call 441-1130 or e-mail 5thandH@gmail.com.

November opening for Ten 22

2009-10-16T07:00:41Z

Work crews are preparing Old Sacramento's newest restaurant, Ten 22, for a mid-November opening.

Crews continued building the large hickory bar and exposed kitchen Thursday. Work was expected to start Friday on a firepit that will take center stage in a courtyard lounge and dining area with a view of brick buildings dating to the 1850s.

The restaurant's Oct. 22 opening was pushed back a few weeks so construction could be finished and the new staff trained in depth, said Terry Harvego, director of Harvego Enterprises, which is opening the restaurant in its year-old loft building, the Orleans, 1022 Second St. The restaurant and the building are overseen by Old Sacramento Properties, a division of Harvego Enterprises.

"We just want to make sure we're ready," he said. "We absolutely understand the need to provide great service, because that's what our customers and clients demand. And we're going to work very hard to make sure we deliver that."

Management from Old Sacramento's Firehouse Restaurant, also owned by the Harvego family, helped choose the new restaurant's wines and collaborated on the menu with Ten 22's consulting executive chef, Irie Gangler. Gangler was formerly with the Firehouse and Crush 29 in Roseville.

They developed a new American menu to fit the range of tastes that will come to Old Sacramento, Harvego said.

"We want people to be comfortable coming in," he said. "It's dishes you'd know, but cooked with a modern twist. When you leave, we want you to say, 'Wow, I've never had halibut cooked that way,' or 'I've never had a steak cooked that way.' "

The restaurant's interior features hickory woodwork, a mosaic tile pizza oven, brick and light tones. Workers still need to install more wainscoting and finish painting inside the 6,900-square-foot space, where banks of French doors in the front and back let light in. A 60" high-definition television, booths and a banquette will be installed in a private dining room that can seat 55. Two dozen draft beers will be kept cool in a glycol chiller system with kegs in a basement cooler and chilled lines to the taps, Harvego said.

The new Orleans occupies a site steeped in history. The building was constructed on a vacant lot that once housed the Orleans Hotel. The original Orleans was possibly Sacramento's finest hotel, used by Mark Twain and state legislators, said Marcia Eymann, history manager for the city and county.

"When we were first entering statehood, a lot of wheeling and dealing went on in the Orleans," she said.

The restaurant's courtyard faces two historic buildings connecting back to the city's boomtown days in 1849, when most of the city's buildings were canvas. Canvas tents at both sites were replaced with wood by 1850 and then brick after a fire in1852, Eymann said.

Courtyard diners at Ten-22 will be treated to a classic Old Sacramento view featuring the back of Leggett's Ale House, a narrow three-story building featuring green shutters, and the wide Booth Building, which sports a shaded second-floor balcony.

"We thought the patio would be a great place where people could come, sit back, and relax," Harvego said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Comforting "House" opens on Capitol Mall

2010-01-05T06:16:17Z

Chris Nestor knows people are in need of a little comfort right now.

The chef behind INK decided the time is right for a restaurant which may be able to provide that. On Jan. 12, he will open House Kitchen & Bar at 555 Capitol Mall.

Opening first for lunch, House will serve re-imagined American comfort food in a warm setting, with dinner prices that won't go above $17. The concept is a response to the times, with many people facing continuing economic challenges, said Nestor.

"Everybody has changed their mindset about what they want to pay when dining out," Nestor said. "Times are different right now. Meals are different right now. People's needs are different. So I just think it's a new day."

House is taking over the space where 55 Degrees closed more than a year ago. Dressed in chef's whites Monday, 41-year-old Nestor supervised a kitchen already serving diners who stopped by its adjacent lunch counter café to get an early taste of the restaurant. The café offers lunch-to-go in a spot that housed a La Bou eatery for a year.

Nestor shies away from the spotlight. He credits his success to surrounding himself with successful people. He never wears his name on his chef's jacket, so an air of being under pressure was all that identified him as the owner and head chef of a restaurant about to open.

Breakfast will be added one week after the official opening and dinner will be added by late February, after the liquor license has been granted, said restaurant manager Meagan Svendsen.

Lunch and dinner items and prices will be the same. They could include buttermilk fried chicken with bacon smashed potatoes and collard greens for $14.50, flat iron steak tacos for $13 and a drunken chicken salad for $12. The menu will change constantly, with half a dozen new items added daily.

"We want to take things they've had at their mom's house — dishes they have some kind of nostalgic connection to — and make it the best in Sacramento," Nestor said.

The interior renovation of the main restaurant continued out-of-sight Monday behind windows covered with brown paper. House Kitchen & Bar will be a 180-degree departure from 55 Degrees, a minimalist, high-end French restaurant that operated there until closing on its three-year anniversary on September 5, 2008, Nestor said.

Cushy booths and butcher block tables will help make the space more inviting, Svendsen said. Artist Sandy Christensen of Unique Finishes created a faux-finish copper ceiling and artist Jason Byrd made a 30-foot sculpture of a kitchen tool to sit atop a wine cooler being converted into an art piece.

"We just want to warm it up — create that cozy feel," Svendsen said. "Like at home — sophisticated and classy, yet comfortable."

Nestor started out as a waiter. Pressure from his then-fiancée led him to enroll in the Culinary Institute of America. After graduating 16 years ago, he worked as the food and beverage manager for a Hilton Hotel in Fresno, then moved to Sacramento in 1995.

He later worked at Rio City Café, the Cheesecake Factory and Paragary's Bar & Oven. Nestor opened INK in May 2003. When Sammy Chu's closed at 15th and R streets after just eight months, mentor Randy Paragary brought Nestor in immediately to start a new restaurant. Nestor opened the glitzy Icon Restaurant and Lounge there in November 2004.

Icon operated for a year and a half. Nestor said he thinks the restaurant didn't succeed partly because the location wasn't well-known yet and not many people knew about the restaurant. It took a few more years for the area to become trendy and full of successful businesses.

Nestor said he and his staff plan to work hard to increase the liveliness of Capitol Mall, which has few restaurants.

The owner of 55 Degrees, Ali Mackani, said when closing the restaurant that the establishment didn't work out because residential development did not grow in the Capitol Mall area as expected. He opened Lounge on 20 at 20th and K streets in July 2008.

House Kitchen & Bar is expected to draw diners from the Capitol Mall office buildings, the Capitol, nearby hotels and state agencies.

"Although this area is sophisticated, when people leave their offices, I think they want to be in a comfortable environment — yet still get superior service, phenomenal food and general comfort," Svendsen said.

The staff will make a special effort to welcome diners — right down to asking what they'd like to see on the menu.

"It's our house. We want you to feel relaxed here," Nestor said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter covering business and development for The Sacramento Press.

Red Lotus expected in January

2009-12-02T04:54:26Z

Midtown diners and residents who have been awaiting a new Asian-fusion restaurant will have to wait a bit longer.

Red Lotus Kitchen & Bar — the newest addition to the 2700 block of J Street — isn't likely to open until January, said chef Buu "Billy" Ngo, who is partnering again with Peter Kwong after their Japanese restaurant Kru has become a success just a few blocks down the street. Kru opened in 2005.

They plan to open their new restaurant at 2718 J St., where G.V. Hurley's closed its doors in September. Ngo and Kwong bought the business from Hurley's owners, who had conflicts with neighboring residents. The liquor license transfer is holding up the opening of Red Lotus, Ngo said Tuesday morning.

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control's (ABC) Sacramento District is waiting for signed paperwork from Red Lotus. One of the most crucial documents that's missing contains the liquor license conditions, which must transfer with the license, said Jeff Gregson, a supervising investigator with the district.

"It's just a matter of getting us what we need," he said. "Then we can process the application."

Ngo and Kwong's attorney submitted all necessary paperwork more than a month ago, Ngo said, adding that they've been trying to figure out what was holding up the process. Later Tuesday, ABC contacted the attorney to say paperwork was incomplete, Ngo said, who was surprised.

"Everything is turned in," he said. Ngo said he has already read and initialed the license conditions document.

"We agree with those conditions," he added. The attorney will now resubmit the documents.

Liquor license transfers usually take 45 to 60 days once an application is filed. Applications must be forwarded to the city council, planning commission and police department, which then have a chance to weigh in, said ABC spokesman John Carr.

The transfer is not being held up by complaints, unresolved issues or red tape from the city or another outside entity, Gregson said.

Three protests were filed in September against the liquor license transfer. At least one protest was filed by a neighbor active with the area's resident organization, the Marshall School/New Era Park Neighborhood Association.

Those three people were notified that they can't protest a "person-to-person" transfer because there will be no change in the business operation, Gregson said. However, their concerns were alleviated once they learned the liquor license conditions also will transfer, he added.

Hurley's liquor license required the business to sell at least as much food as alcohol, based on quarterly sales records that had to be maintained. Residents complained to ABC that Hurley's was selling more alcohol than food.

While acknowledging alcohol sales will be important to the success of the restaurant, Ngo stressed their emphasis will be on food. Only dinner will be served at first. Lunch and a weekend brunch are expected to be added. Red Lotus will be open until midnight except on Fridays and Saturdays, when hours will extend to 2 a.m., Ngo said.

Minor renovations and creation of a menu must still be planned, Ngo said. But Red Lotus will open, he said.

"It's going to happen," Ngo said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for the Sacramento Press.

La Bonne Soupe reopens Wednesday

2009-10-14T05:01:33Z

A clean bill of health and an outpouring of customer support have prompted the reopening of a wildly popular downtown lunch spot, La Bonne Soupe Café.

On Wednesday, owner Daniel Pont will resume serving the French onion soup Zagat rated as the best in the world only months ago, as well as the sandwiches and other food that earned his restaurant Zagat's top rating in Sacramento.

The cafe passed a Sacramento County health reinspection Friday, nine days after a restaurant inspector closed it upon finding cockroaches.

Pont, a renowned 70-year-old French chef, said Tuesday he's recovering from the stress and heartbreak that landed him in the hospital just before the first scheduled reinspection. He spent all day Tuesday preparing to reopen the restaurant he first opened in 2005.

"Today, I came here to see how it is to work," he said. "I cooked for the family today. So I was happy to be in the kitchen again."

The restaurant had been closed for about three weeks before the initial inspection -- initially for a vacation, but then while Pont tended to his wife, who had become sick and spent several days in the hospital.

The closure and Pont's collapse pushed loyal customers to rally to his defense. While a for-sale sign quickly went up, customers left flowers and cards outside the restaurant. They sent emails and filled his answering machine with their calls. They phoned Sacramento County's restaurant inspection program to complain. They even volunteered legal assistance or help at the cafe.

"They were wonderful and that's one of the reasons I stopped the sale, for now," Pont said.

Mark Urquhart-Webb, a program manager with California Air Resources Board, stopped by the cafe at 920 8th St. to read the messages left by well-wishers. He and his wife had enjoyed the French food cooked and served by Pont, who runs the restaurant alone.

"It took nearly the full hour to get served. The food was just fabulous," Urquhart-Webb said. "It's not a Subway moment at all."

His friend, Raphael Hitzke, won a "Best of Best Film Award" at the Tucson Slow Food Film Festival with the documentary, Vive La Food!, featuring Pont and William Rolle, another French chef operating a one-man show, in East Sacramento.

Signs on the door said, "Nous t'adorons Chef Daniel," and "If and when you decide to reopen, we will be waiting for you."

Pont has worked in all facets of the hospitality industry for 52 years. His grandparents taught him to make bread and butter after the family survived World War II in France.

He opened his first restaurant, Le Ranch House, in Sonoma in the early 1970s. He went on to open Chez Daniel, La Maconais and La Maison, all in the Bay Area.

He retired, then he and his wife moved to the Folsom-El Dorado area five years ago to be close to their daughter and her family. Pont left retirement to open the cafe downtown.

Customers soon packed the tiny cafe, where Pont worked 60 hours a week, including Saturdays when he'd go in to deep clean. A small counter was the only thing separating him from customers who watched him prepare their meals, one at a time. The line outside grew longer and started earlier as word of the restaurant spread. Regulars knew they had to turn up by 11 a.m. to avoid the worst of the lunch rush.

It was at 10:40 a.m. one day that an inspector showed up in Pont's last minutes of preparation. Pont felt he was treated disrespectfully by a young inspector who refused to come back after the lunch rush. He's never been treated rudely or cited for any other problems in 70 health inspections at five restaurants, he said.

"We are not students here. A restaurant that never had any violations should not be treated the same as one that constantly has problems," he said. "They hurt me badly and I have to put it behind me."

Some people have said they thought the inspection was prompted by a complaint — possibly from someone jealous of Pont's Zagat rating.

However, John Rogers, the county's environmental health division chief, said the surprise inspection was routine and not initiated by any calls or complaints.

A copy of the inspection report shows that the inspector was on the premises from 10:40 a.m. to noon. The inspector tried to pull Pont aside but Pont said he couldn't and refused to talk to the inspector, Rogers said, adding there was no other verbal communication from the inspector.

Inspectors, who are now visiting restaurants three times a year, must inspect in the morning at least once a year to see whether people are using proper cooking temperatures and food-handling practice, as well as the cleanliness of the facility.

"We advise staff not to go in the middle of lunch. It's too hectic," Rogers said.

A supervisor present for the reinspection Friday agreed the annual morning inspection would be conducted much earlier from now on, and be finished before Pont opens at 10:30 a.m.

"It's a difficult situation to be in for all parties, and we do it as respectfully as we can," he said. "We understand we're coming into their place of business ... and that they own this establishment. They have some ownership and some pride, and people need to be treated in respect."

Pont took down a for-sale sign but said diners will have to decide the future of the restaurant.

"It's up to the customers," he said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.