Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "pizza"

Sacramento Zoo's 10th annual King of Feasts

2011-06-20T04:49:48Z

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 sizes of food since the luau is a tasting event.

John Ruffaine, co-owner of Giovanni’s Old World Pizzeria, said this is the fourth year his restaurant has participated in King of Feasts. He said his business will be providing three pizza options.

Their meat-lover’s option is the Don Giovanni, a pizza topped with homemade Italian sausage and red roasted pepper. Their vegetarian option will be pesto pizza, topped with fresh tomatoes and pine nuts. They will also be serving a traditional cheese pizza. He added that all their pizzas will be topped with extra virgin olive oil.

“We always have a lot left over, and we give it away to people at the end (of the night),” Ruffaine said. “There is no better marketing than being generous,” Ruffaine said.”

Desserts will be provided by Vic’s Ice Cream and Cupcake Craving, among others. Mulvaney’s B&L will be serving a seasonal fruit sorbet, said general manager Andy Kingsbury.

The Hoppy Brewing Company, will be providing beer, including Liquid Sunshine Blonde Ale, Hoppy Face Amber Ale, Stony Face Red Ale and Total Eclipse Black Ale, said marketing manager Scott Patterson.

Amador Cellars Winery will be pouring their 2008 petite sirah, the 2008 syrah and two styles of zinfandel.

Shaun Kelish, tasting room manager of Bogle Vineyards, said their winery will be furnishing four types of wine for the event: the 2010 sauvignon blanc, the 2010 chenin blanc, 2009 merlot and the 2009 cabernet sauvignon.

Kelish said Bogle Vineyards is also donating a 2008 merlot 3-liter, 3-magnum bottle of wine, equivalent to four regular bottles, for silent auction.

The Na Aikane Ukulele Club will be performing, along with the Kaulumele Polynesian Dance Group who will also moderate the adult Hula-Hoop contest, Swank said.

It is the second year in a row that organizers of King of Feasts have gone with a luau theme, Swank said.

Tickets can be purchased at the door for $60. Pre-sale tickets purchased during zoo hours or by phone are $50. Zoo members pay $45 pre-sale.

All proceeds will got to the Sacremento Zoo’s general fund.

Hot Italian receives green certification

2011-01-26T03:29:15Z

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 color green.

“We really wanted to demonstrate that green didn’t have to be green,” she said. “It didn’t have to be brown. It could actually be black and white.”

Hot Italian’s building includes environmentally friendly tables, tile and display cases, and a compost bin, among many other green elements. The building’s wood beams are certified by the nonprofit Forest Stewardship Council, a group that advocates for environmentally sound forestry procedures.

Hot Italian is also part of the Green Restaurant Alliance of Sacramento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Good Signs on K St.

2010-12-13T05:19:05Z

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

K Street nightlife trio nearing completion

2010-11-25T00:16:22Z

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 as the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The project is the work of San Francisco nightclub operator George Karpaty.

Inside Pizza Rock, the big rig has been installed above the bar area.

Art on the ceiling recalls Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel piece, but with a guitar being handed over in lieu of the moment of creation.

Another view of Pizza Rock.

The pizza oven at Pizza Rock.

The pizza oven’s exterior portion fronting K Street.

Dive Bar has had its fish tank installed.

Dive Bar’s bar area under construction.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Curtis Park celebrates as a community

2010-10-04T05:52:47Z

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 their noses to trays of food that were refreshed regularly throughout the evening.

One of the most consistently crowded areas of the Sierra 2 Center was an outdoor section of Astroturf that had been converted into a beer garden. Pangaea Two Brews Cafe provided the selection of Belgian beers from 15 different breweries.

“This is some of the best beer you can get in the region,” Herber said.

People scanned the rows of bottles, overwhelmed by their options as helpful volunteers poured ice cold beer into wine glasses.

The abundance of beverage options were matched by more than 26 restaurants catering portions of their menus to the hungry crowd. Swarms of people lingered around Tuli Bistro's outdoor oven, which couldn't turn pizzas out fast enough to arrest people's voracious appetites.

Other favorites included lamb and beef meatballs in a spicy sauce served by Tapa The World, teriyaki chicken over rice by Megami Bento-Ya Restaurant and good old-fashioned macaroni and cheese with bread crumbs served by Dad's Kitchen.

Curtis Park resident Linda Elgart has attended the event for the last 14 years and said this year's appeared to be a little bit bigger. Elgart's pride for her neighborhood was evident in how she spoke so highly of events like this one.

“The neighborhood is just amazing because we have so many civic events that take place,” she said.

Elgart said that the Curtis Park community is neighborly in an old-fashioned way that you don't usually find. She said that people socialize with their neighbors.

“We're friends,” Elgart said.

An inviting and neighborly atmosphere could be seen throughout the event as people leisurely conversed their way through the rows of tables, eating, talking and laughing as they went.

A silent auction took place at a dozen or more tables spread throughout the Sierra 2 Center. Proceeds from the auction benefited the McClatchy High School track team, Bret Harte Elementary School and the Sierra 2 Center.

“We have a lot of bigger auction items than we've had in the past,” Herber said.

All auction items combined were valued at around $15,000, and Herber was confident that neighbors would bid the items up even higher than that.

One of the more unique items on auction this year included a private tour through the Crocker Art Museum led by the museum's executive director, Lyle Jones.

And in celebration of their 70th year, Gunther's Ice Cream auctioned off the opportunity for about four people to have an ice cream flavor of the month named after them.

As the day’s heat relented and people found refreshment in a cold beverage and neighborly conversation, harpist Bill Damian filled any momentary silences with classical music.

Herber said she anticipated the event to be a “hoot and a holler,” and based on the overall sound of merrymaking and wine glasses clanking, one might say she was right in thinking so.

Herber did say after all, “We’ve got a lot to celebrate.”

Time travel, made easy.

2010-09-22T21:28:49Z

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 years old. It's the second-oldest memory I have that I can put a(n approximate) date to. (The first? I can remember "The Catch" that sent the Niners to their first Super Bowl. More accurately, I remember my parents’ and their friends’ hysterical reaction to the game-winning play. It was so raucous that it disrupted our game of "Hungry, Hungry Hippos." I was pissed.)

I can also vividly recall the second one I ever attended: "The Mask," starring Jim Carrey. It was the summer of 1994, and I was 16. It was the same venue: The Sunset Drive-In in Portsmouth, Ohio. I remember thinking to myself that aside from the movie playing, and the makes of (some of) the cars, it may as well have been 1974. Drive-ins are a place where time seems to stand still. So is Portsmouth, Ohio. Go to a drive-in movie in Portsmouth, Ohio, and you can legitimately claim to have traveled back in time.

Up until very recently, that was it. I was nearly 32 years old, and I'd been to Europe as many times as I'd been to a drive-in. In the Bay Area, where I grew up, "The Great Drive-In Massacre of the Late 20th Century" was as swift as it was thorough. There had been 28 drive-ins in the Bay Area in 1978, the year of my birth. By the time I was 16, there were three that I knew of – none of them near me.

Nationwide, the numbers went from a high of more than 4,000 in 1958 to around 400 today. A bizzaro-decimation of tragic proportions.

Here in Sacramento County, where there were once more than a dozen, only one remains: The West Wind Sacramento 6.

I found out about TWWS6 from my girlfriend’s soon-to-be-10-year-old cousin Anna, who was about to celebrate her upcoming birthday there.

Wait, there's a drive-In movie theater in Sacramento?" I asked, incredulous.

"Uh, yeah" she answered, looking at me askance. The "duh" was implied.

I tried not to let on just how excited this new revelation made me, but I don't think I was successful.

Needless to say, I can vividly recall my third drive-in experience. I saw "Toy Story 3" at TWWS6, and it was glorious.

I also remember my fourth ("The Other Guys") and fifth ("Inception"), and am eagerly looking forward to my sixth,("The Town") this very evening.

I may never go to a cineplex again. Here's why:

-The tickets are much cheaper at the drive-in, $6.75, except on "Family Tuesdays," when they're a 1980-ish $4.75. Kids, aged 5-11, get in for a buck a piece.

-The concessions are marginally cheaper, but you also have the option of bringing anything you can fit in your car into the movie. I've seen people on blow-up mattresses basically watch the movie from bed, lawn chairs, blankets, buckets of chicken, pizzas, beers, whatever. I even saw people with their pets and others with their barbecues. Neither of these things is allowed, per se, but they appeared to get away with it. I'd like to see you try that at the megaplex.

-If you forget to stop at Little Caesars on the way to the show, you can get pizza there. And they'll deliver it to your car.

-There isn't anyone next to you text messaging, talking on the phone, or with one of those Bluetooths in their ear flashing at you. Or if there is, they probably came with you, and you can tell them to knock it off without risk of an altercation.

-You don't have to wear pants. (you probably should, but you could conceivably go without.)

-Necking.

- Did I mention that every movie is a double feature? ’Cause it is! The first movie starts at dusk, the second 15 minutes after the first one ends. On nights when it’s not too crowded, you can even move from one screen to another. Legally.

-It's about the closest you can come to venturing into the past without bending the space-time continuum, which can get messy.

-It may not be here much longer. If we don't support it, it certainly won't be.

Losing this last bastion of Americana would truly be tragic. You don't want that on your conscience, do you?

The West Wind Sacramento 6 can be found at 9616 Oates Drive Sacramento, CA 95827-1607

This Thursday, Sept. 23rd, they are having a free movie night: Live music, and games for the kids start at 6pm. The movies start at 8pm.

Featured will be "Toy Story 3" (fantastic, bring tissues), "Grown Ups" (bring a blindfold? j/k) and "Iron Man 2"(I got nothing)

The Hot Italian story, as told by Fabrizio Cercatore

2010-07-27T04:11:31Z

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 abroad. This dream became a reality when he met now co-owner Andrea Lepore through a mutual friend, Ruthie Bolton. Bolton — a former WNBA player for the Sacramento Monarchs — would come in to his restaurant in Italy with her team.

“Ruthie got engaged to my friend, and they invited me here for a vacation. When I was here, I met Andrea, and we became friends. I invited her to Italy to see the Cinque Terre, the restaurant. Then, speaking more profoundly with Andrea, she told me ‘Come on, let’s truly do this thing’ and slowly, slowly, we constructed this project.”

The restaurant opened Feb. 14, 2009.

“It was always a dream of mine to open a restaurant abroad. Perhaps a bet with myself,” he said. “And when I met Andrea, it was the perfect balance because she has the marketing aspect, something I lack. It’s the perfect equilibrium.”

Cercatore said he plans to stay in America for at least five years to see the project through.

“But, you never know with the life,” he said.

He recreated a typical Italian atmosphere at Hot Italian — large communal tables, no hostess, Italian music playing, and a soccer match on the big screen.

“At first, people feel a little timid to eat next to people they don’t know. But, when they continue to return, they feel a rapport of familiarity, of friendship,” Cercatore said. “They start sitting next to each other, getting a little more comfortable. It’s like this in Italy, and because of this, I don’t feel the absence of Italy.”

The Pizza
Cercatore, a tall, rather thin man in his 30s with a warm smile, spoke of the difference between a typical American-style pizza and a more traditional Italian pizza.

The dough he makes at Hot Italian is kept to rise for 24 to 48 hours, whereas typical places may let the dough rise from morning to night time.

“When you eat pizza at certain places, you get thirsty when you go to sleep. This is because the yeast retains liquids,” he said. “Instead, with a long leavening...the humidity becomes matured in the fridge. So, when one eats, it is much more light and digestible.”

Cercatore said the concept of strictly a pizza-maker does not really exist in the United States.

“There are lots of people who call me chef, but I don’t like it, because I don’t have the knowledge of a chef. I have the knowledge of pizza. It’s a trade that is well-known in Italy.”

This made it difficult for him to find people who could make his pizzas just right. He spent several months interviewing and then training suitable pizza-makers. During that time, he made all of the Hot Italian pizza himself.

“When we looked for personnel, there were plenty that were chefs that had good experience in the kitchen, but had never worked with pizza before. So at the beginning, it took awhile,” he said.

Currently, there are four “let’s call them pizzaiolo’s” and four in the process of learning. Cercatore said it can take around three weeks to teach basics on how to make pizza, but up to five months for complete training.

“Our pizza is the true Italian pizza. The difference is in the crust, dough and toppings. In the American pizza, there are much more toppings, they become heavy. Even the tastes are more strong. Perhaps the Italian version is something more simple.”

Cercatore and Lepore spent a year researching products for the restaurant. They use a combination of local produce and specialty items and imported specialty items. Speck prosciutto, for example, is imported from the Alto Adige region of Italy, while they purchase their ricotta cheese from a local family-owned shop in Sacramento.

All the pizzas are named after “hot Italians” — people who are perhaps not only good-looking, but prominent and current figures of Italian culture and society. Most on the menu are Italian soccer players.

Cercatore’s favorite pizza? La Fiori, with prosciutto Parma, mushrooms, arugula and mozzarella.

Yes, he eats his pizza every day, but he said he never gets tired of it.

“I change the toppings,” he said.

Note: Fabrizio Cercatore’s quotes have been translated from Italian to English by Angela Ruggiero.

For more information about Hot Italian and to view their menu, visit hotitalian.net

Photos by Angela Ruggiero. Photo of pizza courtesy of Hot Italian.

Free midday concert series "Hot Lunch" back for second season

2010-06-03T19:30:23Z

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 minutes of hour-long lunch breaks, Midtown workers and residents are able to order Hot Italian paninis and salad directly at Fremont Park and are encouraged to call ahead for pizza orders. The food will be delivered to your grassy seat.

"The music is fun and it's a nice place to have lunch," said Jerry Perry, music promoter for the series. "It's a different vibe. In clubs you only really get people who go to clubs. (At Fremont Park midday) we can put bands in front of people that don't usually get to see them."

As for the concept and comparison to the Concerts in the Park series, Andrea Lepore, creative director and development partner of Hot Italian, described the event as "another entertainment option for Midtown."

"There is really nothing else like it," said Lepore, "and Fremont Park is such a good venue." In its second season, Hot Lunch has been extended and begins earlier in the year, Lepore added, to take advantage of the sunshine and avoid the rain.

This year's Hot Lunch performer list:

June 3 - Walking Spanish
June 10 - The Storytellers
June 17 - Richard March
June 24 - Dog Party and Simpl3Jack
July 1 - Synchro
July 8 - The Kelps
July 15 - McDougal
July 22 - Musical Charis
July 29 - Life in 24 Frames
August 5 - Shannon Curtis, JP Spangler and Aaron Beaumont
August 12 - KB & The Slingtones
August 19 - BLVD Park
August 26 - Wahnderlust

Hot Italian is located at 16th and Q streets. Fremont Park, across the street, is on the corner of 16th and P streets.

Photos 1-3 courtesy of Colleen Belcher, Managing Editor for The Sacramento Press.

Photo 4 of Hot Lunch performers (June 10) courtesy of Andrew Heringer and Jerry Perry

Matteo's

2010-04-13T19:56:31Z

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 their popularity (what recession?) despite some lean economic times and an unlikely Gourmet Ghetto location

So with one success under his chef's coat, and not content to rest on his gastronomic laurels, Matt saw an opportunity in the Five Points center in Carmichael. Enter Matteo's, a casual, hip pizza outpost on the on other side of the culinary spectrum. Matteo's is pizza, but it's more Paragary than PizzaHut. Padded banquettes, modern lighting and brick fired pizzas are de riguere here, with a cool family vibe that's casual, but not campy; in other words, if you're looking for costume-clad mice or video games with your pizza, you'll have to look elsewhere.

At first glance, the menu reads like your typical pizza place line-up; further inspection leads to some delightful surprise entries, like pulled pork sliders with chipotle-coconut-pineapple cream cheese spread on a sweet roll with slaw ($9.95); an arugula, roasted beet, goat cheese, orange and pistachio salad, with hibiscus-champagne vinaigrette ($5.95 / $8.95); a Bledsoe pork chop with apple ginger chutney, southern greens, maple mashed sweet potatoes($15.95). And of course, there's the uniquely appointed brick fired pizzas, like The Stu (wild mushrooms, prosciutto, caramelized onions, arugula, Fontina, truffle oil, $14), and the Spaniard (romesco sauce, Serrano ham, potato, green olives, and Manchego, $13.50).

The wine list is equally surprising and delightful. At about 150 selections (with two dozen by-the-glass choices), it's extensive, but not unwieldy. With entries from Lodi to South Africa, it has a decidedly international and hand selected feel to it; nope, no carafes of 'house wines' at this pizza place.

There were several tables set up around the restaurant in mixer format for this evening's tasting; the food lined the bar at the back of the restaurant. With glass in-hand, we were off!

My first taste was a light sparkler, 'The Bitch'. Girlie-pink and fruity, it's abrasive nom-de-vino was not indicative of it's delicate and approachable style.

My favorite taste of the evening was the Belle Glos Pinot Noir, "Las Alturas", 2008, from the Santa Lucia highlands, with bright cherry fruit and a lingering finish. One of the nicest surprises of the evening were the wines from James Blake, a local bonded Sacramento winery. All four of his selections that evening were terrific, my favorite being the Buster Red, a 2007 California blend. One of the principals of the winery, James Scheller, was pouring, and was friendly, engaging and definitely having fun with his wine-making journey.

The menu that evening was equally impressive and included a selection of brick oven-fired pizzas, Kobe Beef sliders, (which were an excellent match to Orin Swift's Prisoner blend), an upscale mac and cheese with white truffle oil and asparagus, Port poached pears stuffed with 'stinky bleu', baby red potato skins with caramelized shallot mascarpone, and grilled vegetables with roasted red pepper aioli (I would've been content with just a plate of these by their lonesome).

I'll never look at Monday's the same again....

http://www.pizzamatteo.com

A Slice Of Reality

2009-12-10T03:24:35Z

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 available in a 32 ounce bucket at $2 for Bud and Bud Light and $3 for all others. The windows were nicely decorated for the holidays and there was a Christmas tree up by the front door which was aesthetically pleasing.

On to the less popular news. The 32 ounce bucket was made of Styrofoam which is an environmental nightmare. The only similarity between theirs and a slice of “New York” pizza is the thin crust; besides this I found it to just be OK. Five of the eight draft beers carried at Giovanni’s were supplied by Sacramento Brewing Company which we all know recently shut down due to economic reasons. I asked the employee working the counter where they will be getting their beer from now on and he had no idea which I thought was absolutely darling. They may want to start thinking about where their next kegs are coming from because the stout I ordered was beyond stale. An extra large pizza can run as much as $32 at dinner time which is just too much for me to pay with all of options I have available in Sacramento. Lastly, there is what I estimate to be a 60 inch projection T.V. which isn’t clearly visible from any angle in the room most likely due to the fact it was manufactured in the mid 1990’s.

In fairness to Giovanni’s the pizza really was not bad, but you should really be prepared to bring on the quality if you are going to have the words “New York” right in the name of your business. In conclusion I would never want to deter someone from drawing their own conclusion, however for my money the entire experience was mediocre and I myself might give them another chance once the kegs are switched out.

Giovanni’s is located at 6200 Folsom Blvd. 916.455.8831. Please note there are also locations at 5924 South Land Park Dr. 916.393.7001 and Natomas Town Center at 2701 Del Paso Road. I have not tried the last two locations and therefore no opinions or feedback on those particular locations.

As always, please know I am in no way affiliated with this or any restaurant I review. My goal is to go out and slowly experience different aspects of the Sacramento dining scene then share those experiences with you.

Andy Soto

Local artist David Garibaldi motivates at arts community meeting

2009-10-29T01:52:30Z

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" initiative launched in June and holds meetings once a month, the fourth Wednesday of the month from 10 to 11 a.m., in different locations throughout the Sacramento area. "For the next three and a half years, the arts initiative will be something I'm fighting for," Johnson said in a previous meeting.

More than 150 people showed up at Hot Italian pizzeria at 16th and Q streets to see Garibaldi deliver a speech and visual presentation. He is currently a licensed artist with Elvis Presley Enterprises, the Bob Marley Estate and Jimi Hendrix Estate, as well as an official Disney artist in the Disney Fine Art program. He recently performed his art show "Rhythm and Hue" as an opener for Blue Man Group and Snoop Dogg.

After the meeting, Hot Italian served pizza as members of the arts community mingled. The Sacramento Press spoke with some of the attendees.

"It's nice to have a mayor bringing this type of support to the arts," said Jay Bridges, of a film initiative called 916 Hollywood. He said the company will help bring Sacramento to the attention of the film industry, and also praised the level of support Johnson has received from corporations.

"It's really inspiring," said Kathy Ossmann, a singer and president of the Sacramento Master Singers board. "This is the first real support for the arts that raises public awareness and focuses on the arts."

She also addressed questions of whether or not the initiative was accomplishing enough.

"The most concrete accomplishment is being accepted for the Kennedy Center's 'Any Given Child Program,' (but) one year is a short time to accomplish something like building a new facility," she said. "This is much more about public awareness and perception, so I'm not disturbed nothing more concrete has been accomplished."

Next month's meeting will not take place on the fourth Wednesday of the month, due to its proximity to Thanksgiving. Instead, it will be held Nov. 18 at the Sacramento Theatre Company, 1419 H St.

For more information, please visit http://www.cityofsacramento.org/mayor/forArtsSake.

Masullo Pizza in Lank Park on Riverside Blvd.

2009-08-13T02:32:21Z

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!

Fresh from the pizza oven: East Sacramento's One Speed

2009-07-21T02:34:38Z

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 thing."

Although the 48-year-old likes to call the restaurant at 4818 Folsom Blvd. his "little pizza joint," this is no corner pizzeria. The upscale-minimalist East Sacramento space opened in June to serve artisan pizzas, hand-made pastas and other fare using as much locally grown food as possible.

Local and organic is even better, he said. Dressed in shorts, tennis shoes, a baseball cap and black One Speed T-shirt, Mahan blended with the rest of the fast-moving cooks working in the open kitchen behind a 26-foot-long granite counter.

During Friday's lunch, he made pizzas, cut five pounds of pasta for lunch and dinner, helped the pastry assistant make raspberry bread pudding and oversaw everything and everyone in the restaurant, tucked between a hardware store and yoga studio in the space where Cafe Milazzo used to be. Mahan said he's spending most of his time at One Speed.

"It's a big event to get a restaurant opened and running the way I want it," he said.

Just over a week ago, the restaurant's hours expanded to include lunch. One Speed is now open 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m. every day except Monday. Sunday breakfast may be added soon.

And with Mahan bringing his standards to the place, One Speed isn't likely to be East Sacramento's secret for long.

"It's the new hottest restaurant," said Sean Kohmescher, owner of Temple coffee and tea houses. "The foodies all know it's there."

But why the name "One Speed"?

"All the good pizza restaurant names were taken," said Mahan, smiling. Actually, he chose the name partly because he loves bikes with fixed gears. Mahan collects them.

"The name 'One Speed' refers to my affection for Schwinn one-speed bikes," he said. "It's also a token towards the slow-food movement and just enjoying a good meal with family or friends, rather than wolfing food down while sitting in your car."

Pizzas are even delivered using a single-speed, heavy-duty, Dutch delivery bike. The restaurant's bike decor is subtle: metal gears hang from pendulum lights and combine with round mirrors to function as wall art. Later, water-bottle cases will be repurposed into pepper grinder holders and wine bottle displays.

"I wanted a place with a casual vibe, but the food and service is no different than The Waterboy," said Mahan.

Behind the bar, One Speed General Manager Michael Ng peeled and chopped white peaches to make the classic Italian cocktail known as a Bellini.

"We like to do it right, because the peaches literally came off the tree this morning. That's why I was five minutes late. I was picking peaches," Ng said. "That's what Rick's all about, too. It's got to be fresh. It's got to be good."

Mahan has cultivated a following in Sacramento because he creates inventive food using the best ingredients he can find. And because he's always "tweaking" the food, the menu and the service to be better, said Ng.

"He has so much passion for what he does. He never goes stagnant because he's always trying to find a better way to do anything," he said. "I think that's the sign of a great businessman, a great chef, a great person -- you don't settle."

Mahan got started in the restaurant business as a 16-year-old washing dishes. He worked at a little family restaurant in Carmichael, where he grew up. The family passed their love for the restaurant business on to Mahan.

At 19, he left for San Francisco to work as a chef's apprentice at The St. Francis hotel. Three years later, the company wanted to send him to its new hotel in Boston. He returned to Sacramento to kill time while waiting for the hotel to open.

Mahan started working at an inventive little restaurant called Cafe Natoma in Folsom in 1984. The cafe joined other restaurants on the cutting edge of the California Cuisine movement. Mahan quickly cast off the classic French style so dependent on heavy sauces for lighter, fusion fare using fresh ingredients.

A year later, he went to work as the chef at Paragary's Bar and Oven. In 1988, he and a partner took over a struggling Paragary's (now Zinfandel Grille) on Fair Oaks Boulevard. They built another in Folsom in 1991 and opened that with Randy Paragary as a partner.

Mahan later opened Cafe Oaxaca and Cantina on Fair Oaks Boulevard before he created The Waterboy. He wanted to make pizza at The Waterboy, but the kitchen couldn't handle a big pizza oven.

One Speed's pizza starts with four ingredients that are mixed and hand-rolled and then allowed to ferment and develop flavor overnight. To keep the dough consistent, only Mahan and two others are currently allowed to make dough. During Friday's lunch rush, he taught pizza cook Christie Randolph how to shape the dough into a pizza pie.

The pies were laid onto a wooden paddle and placed into a double-stacked Marsal and Sons gas pizza oven from the East Coast. Valentino Fernandez, once a waiter working for Mahan, turned the oven into a centerpiece by hand-tiling it in a yellow mosaic. As beautiful as it is, the oven's not the secret to good pizza, Mahan said.

"I think the most important thing behind a good pizza is the people making it," said Mahan, who's spent two years developing the pizza dough recipe.

True to form, he's still making it better.

Best Restaurants - a different take

2009-07-21T01:54:18Z

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 those found in the outlying areas. It would be interesting to see the results had it been limited to only restaurants in the Grid.

Best Burrito went to Chipotle, with Dos Coyotes coming in second and Ernesto's coming in third. Both Chipotle and Dos Coyotes are chains. The Grid has very few chain restaurants, and I wonder if the presence of chains amidst family-owned and unique Sacramento restaurants makes a difference in reader choice. Does the quality speak for itself?

Best Pizza went to Round Table. Granted, Chicago Fire and Zelda's picked up second and third place, but I wonder how a delivery-based chain is even allowed in the running. Did Hot Italian or Luigi's or Giovanni's make it in the top five?

For the category of Best Burger, there are quite a few restaurants that come to mind that did not make the top three. Jim Denny's, Whitey Jolly Cones and Nationwide Freezer Meats were all missing from page 115 for best burger. In-N-Out, however, took first place, the Squeeze Inn (deserving, in my opinion, one of the top three) made second and McDonald's placed third.

For Best Coffeehouses, Starbucks was voted first place, Peet's took second and It's a Grind made third. When I think of good coffeehouses, I think of the unique havens in the Grid. Temple comes to mind. So does Weatherstone and Naked Lounge. If I want ambiance and a coffee or tea that comes in a mug that was washed and that is reusable, I do not go to Starbucks. If I want free wi-fi that does not require a cellular account, I cannot go to Starbucks. If I want a swirled foam design on my latte, I will not go to a mass chain coffeehouse.

My coffee choices come from currently living in the Grid, although I did grow up in the suburbs.

After reading this list, I looked at Sacramento Magazine's website. At the bottom, it reads "Find the best that Sacramento, California has to offer at Sacramento Magazine Online. With fantastic features such as a restaurant guide, an entertainment and events calendar and monthly recipes, you’ll find everything you need to know about exciting Sacramento, California."

Now, I ask you - readers of The Sacramento Press - if you were to vote on Best Restaurants for The Sacramento Press (in the Grid), which ones would make your top three for best burrito, pizza, burger and coffeehouse?

Second Saturday: Hot Italian

2009-06-15T06:11:36Z

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 high light of the evening was definitely the now Sacramento local Italian rapper Rigo Di Casa Nostra. Who moved to California about nine years ago and finally landed in Sacramento only a year ago. When Rigo performed it was the biggest event of the evening with people pouring out into the street to get the best view but causing a little bit of traffic on 16th street but overall no problems were reported due to the blockage of the street. The night really turned out to be a huge success and everyone really had a lot of fun.

Firestone Building warms up to California Pizza Kitchen

2009-05-14T03:12:46Z

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 Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. except Friday and Saturday when it's open until 11 p.m.

But does California Pizza Kitchen have a place in midtown?

Instead of current pizza places feeling endangered by this big chain, they welcome a competitor to the scene that they seem to have well under control.

"We welcome it," said Luigi's employee Terra Soto.

"With the midtowners, they like the mom and pop shops, and they don't really like the mainstream. The midtowners are pretty much set in their ways; we already have our following" she added.

"It's important to realize that we've been around for 50-something years, and the only thing that really changes the neighborhood is going to be Second Saturday," she said matter-of-factly when asked whether or not a pizza chain would change the neighborhood dynamic.

When asked the same question, Linda Ellington, manager of Zelda's Gourmet Pizza, answered, "We have our own following. There are other [pizza places] around us, so it gives people a choice. For some people it's not their style. We're more of a comfort food, a pan pizza."

"People that like that kind of pizza are going to go [to California Pizza Kitchen], and people that like our pizza are going to come here," Ellington said.

"I'm happy if they can make a go; besides, we're in different neighborhoods," said Robert Masullo, owner of the newly opened Masullo Pizza.

However, he wasn't completely thrilled at the idea of a chain.

"[With] the big chain, you get the feeling like you're everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It tastes the same everywhere. Why bother being in Sacramento?" asked Masullo.

"It's one thing to have clean water everywhere, but it's another to have food taste the same everywhere," he added.

Two events are already scheduled for the new restaurant. On Sunday, May 17, the eve of the grand opening, there will be an invite-only preview for selected people to view the new location. And on Tuesday, May 26, California Pizza Kitchen will donate 100 percent of their proceeds to Big Brothers Big Sisters, a national youth mentoring organization that matches children to qualified adult mentors.

Hot Italian makes its mark on Sacramento

2009-03-22T01:36:32Z

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 nights. Today he is creating a comic book and graffiti-inspired urban work of art for the Hot Italian, a pizza restaurant and Italian culture boutique on the corner 16th and Q Street.

Graffiti artists might usually only have a few moments under the cloak of nightfall to illegally tag up a wall before being chased away by police or business owners, their cursory artistic expressions quickly re-coated in another sheet of paint.

But Padilla is very lucky, not just because he has had hours to work on this particular mural over the last week, but because he is being commissioned to spray here, his creation to be viewed by many over the years to come.

"Mike Villareal helped me get this painting gig, and he is helping me with it along with the support of Andrea Lepore [Hot Italian owner], and Doug Woodward [of DBI Beverages which distributes Peroni to the Hot Italian]," Padilla said.

Lepore, who managed many of Hot Italian's aesthetic details, chose the photograph from a catalog of Peroni advertisements. "Other cities have urban murals, and we knew we wanted to serve Peroni, because it's a very modern Italian beer."

Lepore also plans to have a 20-foot laminate decoration incorporated onto the building's exterior depicting a couple on a scooter. Located on the 16th Street side of the building, it will be done by Italian company ABET Laminati.

Though Padilla usually uses color, today he has over forty cans of black and white paints in his suitcase to compliment the restaurant's modern Italian design. When he's done, he would love to work on a few more projects in the city.

One, he says, would incorporate the beauty of sculpture into the installation of solar panels. "Thinking about new ideas for energy sources is beautiful, so you should have a beautiful piece of art to complement it. Art that is functional and aesthetically pleasing would fit well in this city," said Padilla.

He would also like Sacramento to catch up with other modern cities by creating and maintaining legal walls for graffiti artists to paint on, uncensored. "If they had more of an outlet, there would be a better chance of them learning how to create something, rather than being chased away," he added.

Hot Italians, bicycle rims and instant pizza

2009-01-28T06:08:07Z

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 as well as food, says Lepore. The business really wants to serve cyclists and bikers of all stripes, and beyond its layout and such details as barstools made of old bike rims, has gone out of its way with the city to make it’s parking bike-friendly. The city has changed a couple of car lengths of parking into parking for motorbikes only, with more parking for bikes on the sidewalk.

And eventually, the pizza will be delivered – perhaps even on two wheels.

Hot Italian is also punnily named for charming head chef Fabrizio Cercaione, an Italian immigrant with a quick smile who was there when a group of us from SacramentoPress.com stopped by. He didn’t hesitate to toss a pizza up (literally) and fire it in the wood stove in a flash.

My interns got a taste, but I wasn’t quick enough; they assured me it was delicious.

But there will be plenty of chances to try Hot Italians’ pizza; the place opens in mere weeks, and is a very good bet to turn into one of the key hangouts in what is still a booming downtown Sacramento.