If you’re a fan of Hula-Hoops and a variety of local food, wine and beer, then the Sacramento Zoo’s 10th annual King of Feasts Wine and Food Luau – which will be held Saturday at the zoo – is for you. “The luau is held all over the zoo,” Tonja Swank, public relations coordinator for the Sacramento Zoo, said of the 21-and-over event. “We line the different restaurants, wineries and breweries along different areas of the zoo. Some will be lined along Big Cat Row where the hyenas, snow leopard and where the larger cats are.” Participating restaurants include local favorites such as Zocalo, Taylor’s Kitchen, Kru and Chops Steakhouse. Swank said attendees can expect to find sample-serving siz

Nearly two years after opening, Hot Italian received the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification. The Midtown pizza parlor is the first restaurant in the city to achieve the high-ranking environmental designation from the U.S. Green Building Council. Mayor Kevin Johnson joined owners Andrea Lepore and Fabrizio Cercatore at Hot Italian Tuesday to announce the LEED Silver status. Johnson praised Hot Italian for its environmental efforts. “This is about pro-business, pro-environment and pro-pizza,” Johnson said. Co-owner Andrea Lepore pointed out the restaurant’s sleek black-and-white color scheme, saying that it was environmentally friendly but not the co

The Dive Bar is the last of three new businesses on K St. to have its sign completed. The sign maker put the finishing touches on it early this evening. Pizza Rock and District 30 signs are up and the trio are on track to open on or before Jan. 1, 2011. Crest Theatre's marque is reflected in the glass. For more info on these businesses, CLICK HERE>>> . SacPress Photo | Kati Garner

After having their opening date pushed back, the three establishments on the 1000 block of K Street are on track to open by New Year’s, if not before then. “We think we can have them open before Christmas,” said Russ Conley, superintendent for Terra Nova industries. Conley said power has been supplied to the three businesses and that working with SMUD was a breeze. Construction was delayed due to an unstable electrical vault under the property. The three business concepts include a "mermaid bar," a gourmet pizza restaurant with acrobatic pizza tossers and a high-end, over-30 dance club to further develop K Street Mall into an entertainment district and to bring people from as far away

Curtis Park residents know how to throw a party. The 20th Annual Wine Tasting and Silent Auction event converted the Sierra 2 Center into a interactive showcase of fine wine, beer and gourmet eats. With 450 tickets sold before the event even began, only 100 were still available for purchase at the door. Curtis Park Neighborhood Association President Rosanna Herber said she expected the event to sell out. More than 35 wineries offered tastings of their red and white wines and many provided food pairings to complement their generous samples. People wandered slowly down the line of sampling tables with plates and wine glasses in hand. With no particular agenda or method, they followed thei

 Drive-in movies.  I have always loved them.  Almost more than the movies themselves, I love my romanticized notion of them. I am madly in love with the classic Americana for which the Drive-In is so symbolic.  It is hard to describe the way that drive-in movies make me feel, it's something akin to an ecstatic melancholy. They harken to a simpler time, a time that I never really got to experience firsthand, but one that I can easily imagine while stuffing my face with popcorn and enjoying a movie under the stars from the hood of my car. I can vividly recall the first drive-In movie I ever attended: "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial."  It was the summer of 1982, and I had just turned four year

Fabrizio Cercatore is not a chef. He is not a baker. He was trained to specialize in one thing only: pizza. Born in Verbania, Italy, Fabrizio has been a pizzaiolo — a pizza-maker, for 14 years. His knowledge of pizza stretches beyond a typical chain pizza shop around town. The Man Cercatore, co-owner of Hot Italian in Sacramento, has lived in the city to pursue what he calls this “project” of opening an authentic pizzeria restaurant abroad. He studied at a culinary school in Lerici, Italy. His familiarity with pizza hailed from working at his restaurant in La Spezia called La Tavernetta (The Little Tavern), which he owns with his sister. It was always his dream to open up a restaurant a

Sunshine, Italian fare and live music - "Hot Lunch" returns for its second season. The free concert series, hosted by Hot Italian, runs every Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., beginning today, for 13 weeks. Music and pizza lovers can spend their lunch break at Fremont Park across from Hot Italian. This year's lineup includes a wide variety of musical genres including alternative, funk, country and jazz. All talent featured in the series are either local or from the West Coast. Hot Lunch began in 2009, using the Concerts in the Park event as a similar model. The most obvious difference is that Hot Lunch aims to bring people together for music and food midday. To avoid wasting valuable minute

Mondays. Bah Humbug One recent Monday, however, was an exception to the perceived worst day of the week. I set aside my Monday blues, grabbed the umbrella and the BFF, and headed for Matteo's, Matt Woolston's eponymous neighborhood joint at the Five Points center in Carmichael.  Although the restaurant is usually closed on Mondays, Matteo's will occasionally schedule special events for Mondays, such as the food and wine tasting I attended this particular evening. As any 'foodie' worth their porcini mushroom will tell you, Matt's been turning out elegant repasts for the last 8 years at the north side's uber-swanky Supper Club. The elegant prix-fixe, multi course 'suppers' have maintained

Today I had but one objective which was to find a superior slice of pizza to sit down and enjoy without going broke in the process. You should know I was born and raised in New York so this was not going to be a simple task. I decided to try Giovanni’s Old World New York Pizzeria. My first impression was that the restaurant is enormous. The size of the restaurant drew attention to the fact I was the only one in the place. Normally I wouldn’t stay at a completely empty restaurant but they deserved an impartial review as much as any place. Let’s start with the positives. The lunch special which is offered from 11-4PM consists of two slices of pizza and a soda for $5.99. Draft beer is avail

Sacramento-raised painter David Garibaldi delivered a poignant speech at Wednesday's "For Art's Sake" meeting. The 26-year-old thanked Mayor Kevin Johnson and the city for its support and guidance when he was growing up in Sacramento. While Garibaldi was a high school student interested in the arts, the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission recognized his potential and sent him to California State Summer School for the Arts on a full scholarship, he said. Garibaldi credited this and his high school art program with helping him redirect a creative fire that led him to graffiti the streets of Sacramento, inspiring him instead to become a performance artist. The "For Art's Sake" initiativ

A great hidden little pizza place in North Land Park on Riverside Blvd. They use fresh seasonal ingredients on the constantly changing menu of appetizers, salads and thin-crust pizza - yum!

Rick Mahan was shaping hand-rolled pizza dough for Friday's lunch rush at his newest restaurant, One Speed, when a customer brought in tomatoes fresh from the garden. The plump red fruit later found its way onto a Caprese salad -- almost as quickly as pizza had made its way into the chef's heart. Mahan said he's been dreaming about creating a pizza place since opening The Waterboy in Midtown nearly 13 years ago. "I've never gotten over my pizza fascination," said Mahan, one of two pizza cooks cranking out pie after pie. "For me, the most satisfying thing to cook from start to finish is pizza. I've cooked everything over the years and I've loved it. This is proving to be a very satisfying

It's that time of year again - time for "Best Restaurants," brought to you by Sacramento Magazine. After reading the readers' picks for each category, it made me wonder whether the results would be different for readers of The Sacramento Press. Our focus has been primarily on events and coverage of things in the Grid, whereas Sacramento Magazine covers a larger demographic including the suburbs. There were four categories that stood out to me in Sacramento Magazine's Best Restaurants: Best Burrito, Best Pizza, Best Burger and Best Coffeehouse. I live in the Grid and therefore have my own biases about restaurants that live in Downtown and Midtown. I prefer restaurants in this area to tho

So last night Saturday June 13th 2009 was another amazing second Saturday here in Sacramento but among the normal routine of the event it was Hot Italian’s Grand Opening bash. The people showed up in full affect for this event last night. The whole place was packed wall to wall with all types of people all with one common goal, pizza! And of course the beer and wine. But on top of all the great food was the entertainment, all night there were DJ’s spinning records on the roof all the while a local Sacramento Mural/Graphitti artist painted an awesome Hot Italian couple on the 16th street side of the building. Up All Night TV was also on site shooting and interviewing folks as well. But the

Sacramento is not lacking in pizza. With options like Chicago Fire, Pieces, recently opened Papi's Pizza, family-owned businesses like Zelda's and Luigi's, or wood or brick oven-cooked Italian pizza from Hot Italian or Masullo, it's hard to imagine the need for more pizza establishments. But on Monday, May 18, midtown residents will be treated to the opening of a California Pizza Kitchen on 16th and L, the 253rd incarnation of the restaurant. One of the most impressive reasons to dine at a CPK could be its extensive children's menu that was recently named "The Best Kids Menu in America" by Restaurant Hospitality Magazine. Located in The Firestone Building, it will be open Monday through

Shake shake shake. Pfffft. Pfffft. One thin coat at a time, a spray of paint creates a bright new decoration over the gray brick wall. An artist with a rubber mask stands on a ladder while his suitcase full of aerosol cans waits below. He steps off and away from the ladder, looks at the black-and-white photograph in his hand and tilts his eyes upward to view the entirety of his 10-foot-tall mural. Pffft. Pffft. He continues to touch up the wall with black and white paint, the words "PERONI ITALY" nicely stenciled in the top right corner. Anthony Padilla holds a day job as a graphic designer, but for the last 10 years he has been expressing himself by doing graffiti art and murals during

A year in the making, the new home of pizza-with-style - Hot Italian at the corner of 16th and Q in the downtown Sacramento Grid - will be opening inside of three weeks. The owner's self-declared deadline: the Amgen Tour of California on Feb. 14. "That's Valentine's Day as well," says Andrea Leport, the woman who has managed this eatery from concept to near-fruition. "And the next day is St. Faustino's Day, the holiday for the single." Sounds like they're expecting business those days. And tying it to the big international bike race fits perfectly the theme of Hot Italian. “We’re all about the two wheels,” says Andrea Lepore. Hot Italian is a concept place that aims to serve lifestyle