For Sacramentans who have ever pondered the mystery of what makes a cocktail special and want to sample new, classic, exotic and experimental cocktails, then they will have the opportunity beginning Monday. Midtown Cocktail Week is coming back to Sacramento for the fourth year, and for seven nights, 15 designated Midtown or downtown bars and restaurants will be featuring specialty cocktail events. For more information and a full list of events, click here.  “It’s good for business, (but) not in the monetary sense,” said Jason Boggs, co-owner of Shady Lady Saloon. “It lets people in Sacramento know they can drink better, and that makes quality of life better for everyone.” Midtown Cockt

Sons and daughters, it’s time to throw in the tie. It’s that time of year to show your appreciation for dear ol’ dad, and this year, neck adornment just isn’t going to cut it. Don’t know what to get for dad? The Sacramento Press has compiled a list of places to shop and unique gift ideas for Father’s Day, whether your dad is a music buff, a bike aficionado, a comic book nerd, a beer nut or a hip young pop. Phono Select: for the music man Phono Select is an indie record shop located at 2312 K St. in the heart of Midtown. This is the spot that local DJs and music lovers can go to to dig for records new and old. The store is artsy, clean and organized based on music style – punk, rock, h

The smell of fresh duck, fine wine and fruit-infused cocktails filled The Citizen Hotel’s Grange restaurant Thursday night at the second annual Fowl Mouth Dinner, where Grange Executive Chef Michael Tuohy and special guest/food writer Hank Shaw each presented his own version of duck in four different courses. 133 guests show up to participate in this event, and at $55 per plate, everyone got their money’s worth. Guest and governmental advocate Gary Conover said he enjoyed the ability to have a variety of different kinds of duck applications. For each course, two culinary creations came out side-by-side: one “A” and one “B,” which the guests were to vote on in a taste test, not knowing

Americans have embraced environmentalism as a trendy idea, but they must wage a revolution, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said in Sacramento on Thursday. Friedman’s speech to about 1,000 people at the Crest Theatre was for “Greenwise,” Mayor Kevin Johnson’s environmental initiative. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist presented his views on the global environment and economy, and discussed his new book “Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America.” The event was free to the public and Friedman was not paid to speak, said Johnson spokesman Joaquin McPeek. Friedman’s talk was a star-studded political event: After the author

An ad hoc committee led by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is backing the developers of the Citizen Hotel to redevelop the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street Mall with a huge public market as the centerpiece. The committee, made up of four City Council members - Steve Cohn, Rob Fong, Ray Tretheway and Johnson - is recommending that the Sacramento Alliance Team led by Rubicon Partners, St. Anton Partners and Preferred Capital Advisors be given the project to revamp city-owned property on those blocks, according to a city staff report released Thursday afternoon. The City Council is set to vote on the matter Tuesday. Last month, a special committee set up by the city recommended two other team

They brought Sacramento the Citizen Hotel and its restaurant, Grange. Now that same team is proposing an even more ambitious downtown project. Calling themselves the Sacramento Alliance Team, the partners behind the Citizen Hotel are seeking Sacramento City Council approval to redevelop the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street Mall. Two weeks before a council vote on the matter, they held an open meeting on the plan's centerpiece: a 35,000-square-foot public market, tentatively called the California Boqueria, that would showcase the state's food and wine at the corner of Eighth and K streets. Two of the partners, Rubicon Partners co-founder Kipp Blewett and Grange Executive Chef Michael Tuohy

Mark Miller admitted being flattered when Life magazine named him one of America's most influential chefs of the 1980s alongside Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck and Paul Prudhomme. But he isn't comfortable with his celebrity chef status. Miller is most famous for popularizing the southwest cooking style worldwide. He's written 10 cookbooks altogether, and seven of them deal with southwestern-style cooking, including The Great Chile Book and Coyote Café, named after his famous Santa Fe café. However, what Miller really wants is to inspire people to cook. "Sometimes we watch too much television, and we are preordaining what the [culinary] experience is," Miller said. "People should really de

If you saw some bright spotlights weaving through the downtown sky Thursday Feb. 26, the source was probably the Citizen Hotel, which is owned by Joie de Vivre Hotels. The 83-year-old building located at 926 J Street was filled with hundreds of formally-dressed partygoers from 5 to 8 p.m. Guests enjoyed appetizers prepared by Chef Michael Tuohy from the hotel's Grange Restaurant, while sipping from a champagne fountain and a martini luge. On other floors, guests enjoyed wine, chocolate and jazz. At 6:30 p.m, Kipp Blewett, the Developer of the Citizen gave opening remarks via monitor thanking the downtown area and Joie de Vivre, "which has a long history of revitalizing historic assets. T