With its remodel nearly finished, The Golden Bear is expected to host a grand unveiling as early as St. Patrick's Day on Wednesday. Owners Jon Modrow and Kimio Bazett said they hope to have the work done by Monday. But the bar in the converted house at 2326 K St. must still undergo final inspections from the city and county, so the exact date for a reopening party has not been set. Crews were busy Thursday completing renovation of the kitchen, bathrooms and an enclosed, covered back patio. Aqua couches, white tables and modern light fixtures with dimmers have been installed in the back room to create a clean, light ambiance, free of artwork. The idea is to showcase people "at their best,

In the two and a half weeks that I've been a Sacramentan, I've discovered many things that I like.  Some of these things I have included in my series of "Discovering Sacramento" articles.  I really like taco trucks. I like sports bars in general, and Sneakers in particular.  I like the Garden Highway, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to like the Virgin Sturgeon.  But there are a lot more things that I like, which haven't made it into my articles.  With this fact in mind, I have decided to begin a new storyline.  I'm calling it "Stuff I Like".  I'm going to try and keep these posts brief and to the point.  This is what I like, heres why, badda bing, badda boom. Short attention span readin

        Hi, my name is Lindol, and I am a sportsaholic.  It's been 15 minutes since my last fix.  It was an Oregon Duck basketball game, possibly my favorite of them all.  We (I graduated from the U of O in 2001, kind of by accident, but that's a story for another time) beat UCLA at home.  If there is one thing I love more than a victory for one of my teams, its a victory for one of my teams over a team from Los Angeles. BEAT LA.   I am a die hard Oregon football fan, I almost cried when "we" got smoked in Boise the first game of the season this year.  I couldn't bear to watch the end, so I saved myself the misery of watching the Legarrette Blount meltdown live.  Of course, I couldn't avoi

  "You moved where?"    "Sacramento"  "Why?"         Sacramento is not thought of very highly by a lot of Bay Area-ites.  I'm not entirely sure why.  I suppose many cannot separate the town from the stink wafting up from the State Assembly and Capital.  Politics as a whole is repugnant to your average person, and California's is especially loathsome. It's an unfortunate metonymy, "Sacramento" for the sludge that leaks out of the State Assembly, but it is to be expected.  When one considers "Washington DC", its a rare soul who thinks of the Smithsonian first and the politics second.   I grew up in Menlo Park, decidedly Bay Area-centric.  In the circles I came of age in, Sacramento wasn't

Super Bowl Sunday is just around the corner. If you also have a crotchety dog who bites your friends, a television with a butt, or an aversion to sharing your beer, check out some of these spots on game day. Hilltop Tavern (4757 Folsom Blvd.) is hosting its second annual Super Bowl Sunday Mac-and-Cheese-Off, where local contestants will be bringing their best dishes to the bar for sampling. INK Eats & Drinks (2730 N St.) is offering 25-cent wings, $1 Pabst Blue Ribbon beers and $3 drafts. Mikuni's (1530 J St.) is offering a Super Bowl Sunday prize raffle and all-you-can-eat sushi buffet. Adult tickets cost $30, senior tickets (+55) cost $20. Old Tavern (1510 20th St.) is hosting a Supe

To commemorate the end of a month-long celebration of its 75-year existence, the historic bar Old Ironsides held a final party on Sunday. The Sacramento institution melded new and old, representing the vast changes in culture from its 1934 founding though the rest of the 20th century. “Old time” drinks from each decade were back on the menu to give patrons a taste of what past generations enjoyed. Obscure concoctions such as the Moscow Mule (a 1940s drink with vodka, lime and ginger beer) were suggested alongside more popular fare like the Harvey Wallbanger (1970s) and the Washington Apple (2000s). A few waiters kept a constant rotation of sampler platters circulating the two main rooms

If your friends have ever tried to get you to sing karaoke but you’ve been intimidated by the fear of being onstage alone, Rockstar Live Band Karaoke has eliminated your last excuse. Every Tuesday night at Marilyn’s on K, a live band takes the stage to provide backup for anyone who’s had enough liquid courage to sign their name to the sheet and belt out a selection from a growing list of more than 200 popular songs. The band, who also performs as a cover band by the name of Johnny Favorite, is made up of: Adam Donald: guitars and vocals Scott George: lead guitars Gerry Pineda: bass Larry Shiavone: drums and vocals David Van Dusen: keyboards and vocals After a few warm-up tunes beginning

It's back: Midtown Cocktail Week, slated for August 10-16, 2009.  As its website notes http://midtowncocktailweek.org/, "Midtown Cocktail Week Sacramento launched in 2008 as the brainchild of mixologist Erick Castro, President of the San Francisco chapter of the USB, and restaurant maven Joe Anthony Savala from Zocalo. These two friends and colleagues noticed what was happening in San Francisco with an entire city celebrating the cocktail and the people who create them. Now, MCW has grown into a collaboration that will provide a wonderful experience to everyone that attends." The event kicks off at L Street Lounge at 6 on August 10th, with the night wrapping up at a penthouse party acros

Happy hour is alive and well in the Downtown Sacramento area on Thursday nights. While there are countless restaurants offering discounts on food and drinks for varying days and times, eight of the grid's Thursday happy hours stood out from the pack. Heading off the list is the Dragonfly Japanese restaurant. Located at 1809 Capitol Ave. and voted "Best New Restaurant" by SN&R, the Dragonfly offers some impressive deals during happy hour. Running from 3 to 6 p.m. and 9 to 10 p.m., the restaurant offers half-off sushi rolls, $2 sake bombs, $3 drafts and half-off well drinks. Another good place to kick back and enjoy some good deals on food and drinks is Level Up Lounge at 2431 J St. Their

Before opening to the general public, Old Sacramento's western-themed River City Saloon hosted two preview parties late last week for two nights of wild wild fun. The saloon officially opened its doors on Saturday, May 9. On Thursday, the Saloon hosted an open house with 25-cent beer and free appetizers. The next night was an invite-only soiree for friends, family, and neighboring businesses. The cash registers were ringing and the bartenders got plenty of practice in preparation for business in coming days. The parties, held in the evening, were aimed mainly at the over 21 but patrons of all ages showed up to sample their bar and menu offerings. While the first night of business was rat

Posted by dvh123 I am trying to find statistics for drunk in public incidents in my neighborhood. I live at 22nd and I street in midtown and it seems to me and my husband that in the past year or so we have had more and more of these incidents, particularly on the weekends. We are very disturbed by the number of individuals leaving the bars/restaurants in our neighborhood who are at best just loud and drunk and happy or at worst having horrible drunken altercations, sometimes right under our bedroom window. We do call the police, but this situation has gotten out of hand and it is also a very dangerous one in that there are fights and people driving away intoxicated. We need a foot or bi

Week 14: April 6-12, What have you got for us?! Better be good... Monday 4.6 Class: Nutrition and Cancer Survival: An evening with Marlene Marcello-McKenna If you or someone you know has been touched by Cancer, you may want to hear what this woman has to say.Marlene Marcello-McKenna is a nutritional consultant and educator. She is also the author of When Hope Never Dies. Marlene is a 23-year cancer survivor of malignant melanoma. Her extraordinary road back to health has baffled the medical establishment. The National Cancer Institute has researched her recovery and decided that further study was warranted, i.e., The Best Case Series of Macrobiotic Survivors. A guest on TV and radio,

While many local businesses are shutting their doors, three ambitious Sacramentans are putting their heads and money together to open a new saloon in Sacramento, The Shady Lady. Garrett Van Vleck, Jason Boggs and Alex Origoni first met working at various Paragary restaurants. After months of searching for the right place, the three took to the old Wonderbread factory and named it after the nickname for the first bar that Origoni went to when he was in school. "That's one of the things that hasn't changed through our entire two year process of doing this," Van Vleck said. The trio has gone through countless menus and concepts, but the name Shady Lady has been one constant. None of the

Superbowl Sunday is just around the corner, and with a number of local venues featuring food and drink specials, why slave away in your kitchen? Why sit at home with your friends and argue about who is going to refill the beer during the commercials? Let someone else refill it, no questions asked. Even if you don't like football, here are some great Sacramento locations to spend your Sunday, Feb. 1: According to Ron, the owner of MVP's Sports Grill, located at 1629 Capitol Ave., Bud Light and Jack Daniel's Girls will be in the Grill. Tri-tip ($7.95 includes coleslaw) and pizza ($19.95 includes four salads) will be the featured food specials, and Jack Daniel's and beer will be on sale. •

 I recently wrote a piece on the "Death of the Record Store." I was very impressed by the amount of feedback that the article received, be it in the Sacramento Press, via email or in person. Inevitably the conversation led to fond memories about fun times and good music. I was reminded particularly of the live music experiences I've had. Along with the demise of too many record stores, I contend there is a serious lacking in the quality and quantity of live music available today, especially in the smaller to mid-size venues, and towns. While the experience of a big Grateful Dead show in Oakland was always a fun time, the smaller, more intimate performances of a Jerry Garcia Band show at

Sure, you could sit at home and watch it on TV. But this is the Inauguration of a new and different president, and this president, more than most, is about community. So, you wanna be with people on this historic day, no? Someplace where you don’t need to wrap your head in wool to enjoy it? The TVs will be on everywhere - what would a Sacramento bar be like without a TV? - but if you want a place where they’re celebrating, we’ve got a short list for you to check out. Keep in mind that most of these places will be offering drink and food specials, but we’ll leave it to you to find out what they are. Here are a few places in town where you can watch the inaugural live - coverage begins at

The speed with which development in the downtown/midtown grid takes place can be snail’s pace slow, or lightning fast. Here’s an example of the latter. One week ago, I drove past the corner of 15th and L and checked out the progress on that corner, where the old Firestone tires store used to be. There is going to be a California Pizza Kitchen on the corner, and upstairs, Mason Wong has already quietly opened his gorgeous new lounge, Mix. But downstairs, one week ago, the commercial space to the left of those two businesses was bare bones, construction workers doing all that behind the scenes work that civilians can’t really fathom. Electrical, plumbing, etc. But last night, on my way to

Talking to people who grew up in Sacramento in the 1930s-1950s exposed me to an aspect of Sacramento that I never expected. Despite its reputation as a place without much nightlife, Sacramento has a long history as a town that stayed open late, played as hard as it worked, and was seldom short of musical entertainment. At some point Sacramento got a reputation for being stodgy and unexciting, and most of us who grew up here assumed that was the case, but the historical evidence simply doesn’t back that up. The best description of Sacramento night life in its early days comes from Mark Twain: Territorial Enterprise, February 1866 LETTER FROM SACRAMENTO [dated February 25, 1866] ”I arrived