The Rail Bridge Cellars Penthouse Lounge at the Elks Tower will offer a wine-tasting room with a skyline view after opening in two weeks. The owners of urban winery Rail Bridge Cellars, Michael Gelber and his wife, Katharine (Ayers) Gelber, want to breathe new life into a room that once held Top of the Town, a restaurant and bar popular in the 1950s and 1960s. They hope to officially open the spot July 11 as an off-site wine-tasting room in the heart of downtown, he said. The opening is tied to the winery's growth after seven new wines were recently introduced to the market. Previously, Rail Bridge had only offered two wines: a sauvignon blanc and a 2004 proprietary red blend called Latt

A dusty corner of the historic Elks Tower containing a pool hidden for decades will soon get a second life when a Euro-style cafe, bar and chocolatier open next year. The Ayers family has begun renovating a bi-level corner of the 1926 building designed by architect Leonard J. Starks to incorporate a pool where club members swam for 50 years. The pool hasn't been used since about the early 1980s. Building owner Steve Ayers, his daughter Katharine (Ayers) Gelber and her husband, Michael Gelber, are partnering to open Rail Bridge Wine and Spirits in the front corner of the building at 921 11th St. The other corner is anchored by McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant. The bar, small cafe

Sactown Magazine will celebrate its 3-year anniversary by packing and moving. The move anticipates the bi-monthly magazine's hopes of going monthly and increasing editorial, advertising and sales staff, said Rob Turner, Sactown's co-editor-in-chief. Sactown will move Saturday from one historic skyscraper, completed in the 1920s, to another one a few blocks down the street. The move will more than double Sactown's office space, to 4,100 square feet. Co-Editors-in-Chief Turner and Elyssa Lee hired their first Sactown Magazine employee, art director Jason Malmberg, in January 2006. At the time they were operating out of their house. They moved into the Elks Tower that June, and have publish

Victor Louis kicked off Sacramento’s Fashion Week with his One Night in Paris fall collection in front of about 500 people Thursday night.  Louis’s show at at Elks Tower Ballroom also displayed the work of seven other local designers. “Those other designers are actually fellow (classmates),” Louis said. “I kind of did interviews at school and selected the best out of everyone.” Louis and the other designers attend the International Academy of Design & Technology (IADT) charter school in Sacramento.  It opened in 2006 and has about 500 students. Louis has attended the institute for two years and will graduate with a bachelor of arts degree in fashion design and marketing in August. “He