For weeks, a sign saying “so close you can almost taste it” hung in the window of the storefront vacated by Le Petit Paris last year, and on Tuesday, Sacramentans got their chance to go in and sample authentic Italian gelato in Midtown when Devine Gelateria & Cafe opened. “The opening went really well,” owner Elizabeth McCleary said Wednesday morning as she prepared to make gelato and sorbetto from scratch for the upcoming day. Originally planning to close at 8 p.m. on the opening day, there was a line of people as late as 7:45 p.m., and McCleary said she might adjust her hours to stay open another hour if the trend continues. Flavors include roasted almond, pistachio, dulce de leche, b

An East Sacramento couple will open an Italian cafe specializing in handmade gelato and sorbetto in Midtown this summer. Elizabeth and Brian McCleary decided to open Devine Gelateria & Cafe after she spent a month in Italy learning how to make the icy Italian confections. Elizabeth McCleary will operate the gelateria ("je LOT uhria") at 1221 19th St., where a Parisian boutique and cafe called Le Petit Paris closed last fall. McCleary, who is part Italian, went through a four-level course to become a gelato maker at Carpigiani Gelato University near Bologna. She also spent a week working at the school's gelateria to get some real-life experience. While there, an ABC TV crew interviewed h

An air of sadness hung about Le Petit Paris Wednesday after the owners announced they will close late this month. The boutique and Parisian cafe has brought a bit of France to Midtown for the last five years, but it's been struggling for at least two. Owners Tassina Placencia and her husband Ruben plan to close the family business at 1221 19th St. on Sept. 26. The economy and fewer customers — including state workers making less money because they're furloughed many Fridays — have contributed to the problem, Tassina Placencia said Wednesday afternoon. "It's not what it was," she said during a break from serving customers who lined up at the counter. "No one's buying coffee anymore. You

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening a champagne cork popped that sent more than 40 waiters and waitresses on a footrace in the inaugural Sacramento Bastille Day Waiters' Race. Each of the runners had to carry a server tray holding two glasses and a bottle of wine from the alley between Le Petit Paris and Mulvaney's B&L, around the 1800 block between L Street and Capitol Avenue, and into the courtyard behind the L Wine Lounge and Urban Kitchen. "They celebrate the fall of the Bastille in Paris by running through the streets with wine, and wouldn't that be fun to do in Sacramento?" said Patrick Mulvaney, owner of Mulvaney's B&L. Mulvaney decided to organize the race per the suggestion of Sacto