Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "restaurant"

Willie's Burgers launches food truck

2012-02-07T08:04:11Z

The locally owned Willie’s Burgers plans to launch a food truck – the Willie Wagon – in Sacramento this week, carrying burgers, chili burgers and fries.

“We’ve always thought a food truck was a good way to get the product and what we do out to people,” said Bill Taylor, owner of Willie’s Burgers. “I’d started developing the idea of a Willie Wagon since 1995, but it’s been in the back of my mind.”

Willie’s Burgers opened at 16th and Broadway in 1991, and a second location opened in Carmichael in 2004. Now, taking the burgers to offices and events with the food truck is proving a good addition to the business, Taylor said Friday.

“It’s been terrific,” he said. “We follow basically the same menu we have downtown, and we will be bringing in shakes once we get the milkshake machine.”

The original idea behind Willie’s Burgers was to bring some of the burger culture from Los Angeles to Sacramento, including staying open late, Taylor said. Currently, Sacramento’s mobile food ordinance requires the trucks to finish serving at 6 p.m., but it is moving to 8 p.m. in April, and Taylor said getting the laws changed is a priority.

“Having a downtown food truck roundup would bring more people downtown, and to the streets, and that would make the streets safer,” he said.

Another benefit to the food trucks, he added, includes giving some local chefs the chance to start small with a cheaper venture to showcase their creations – making a name for themselves without having to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Prices at the Willie Wagon will be between $7 and $10 for a burger, drink and fries, and a few dollars more with a milkshake or chili fries.

Managing the food truck is J.J. Wakamiya, who said Monday that he wants to use the truck to encourage more people to explore the diverse areas of Sacramento.

“I want to encourage people to get out and try new foods and look for new things,” he said.

Final inspections with the city of Sacramento were scheduled for Tuesday morning, and Wakamiya said he planned to start running a downtown route this week.

Currently, the truck is licensed to operate in Rancho Cordova and Sacramento County.

“We’ve done a few events, like a rugby tournament and some office gatherings in Rancho Cordova,” he said. “We’d like to do more events like SactoMoFo 4 on April 21.”

He said that while the main goal is to sell burgers and spread the Willie’s Burgers name, the truck is part of a campaign to change the controversial ordinance that constricts food trucks to operating for only 30 minutes at a time within city limits.

“We want to support the mobile food industry and enhance it from a generic taco truck or roach coach to a branded truck with specialized menu,” he said.

To find out where the Willie Wagon will be, check the truck’s Facebook page.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

The Red Rabbit opens on J Street

2012-02-07T01:47:39Z

The Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar is now open in the space that used to hold Red Lotus in Midtown, and a grand opening is scheduled for Friday.

The restaurant and bar aims to bring affordable food and drinks with an international flair to the block and see the same successes that other businesses – Harlow’s, BarWest Burgers & Wings and Centro Cocina Mexicana – have seen, said co-owners Matt Nurge and John Bays.

“We’re going with the globally inspired concept,” said Bays, who is the restaurant’s chef. “We’ve got a little Vietnamese, a little American – a lot of braising going on, and we’ve got some Hawaiian.”

An assortment of cheeses – including Spanish Manchego – will be on the menu, and while those come from overseas, much of the rest of the food is locally sourced.

“We try to get everything from local suppliers whenever we can,” Bays said.

Bays said the food prices are still being tweaked, but he plans on offering salads for around $5 - $7, and entrées range from around $11 - $15, with appetizers falling in between.

The menu itself is still being finalized, but some items, such as the “Bastard Banh Mi” – a Vietnamese banh mi sandwich with lemon chicken, pickled vegetables and chillies on grilled bread – are essentially finalized.

Vegetarian items are included as well, and Bays said it was important to build them from scratch, not just have them as an afterthought.

“These are vegetarian and vegan meals,” he said. “They’re more than just a side of vegetables.”

One of the vegetarian items is the “Earth Burger,” which has beans, rice, almonds, carrots, zucchini, onions and a goat cheese spread on an egg bun.

Brunch – including a Bloody Mary bar – will be held Saturdays and Sundays starting Feb. 18.

Nurge said house cocktails will be about $7, and well drinks such as a gin and tonic will be $4.

Currently, the restaurant is waiting on its liquor license, but all draft beers will be California brews.

“The ABC doesn’t tell businesses when they will get their licenses, but we’re hoping it’s soon,” he said.

“Everything we’re doing is simplified, but with high-quality ingredients,” Nurge said.

The theme of simplification is carried through with the décor of the restaurant, which is markedly different from Red Lotus, but those familiar with the former business will notice some of the same features, including the circular bar inside the doorway and the back patio.

“We were looking at the space, and a lot of it was really nice,” Nurge said. “On the patio, we took out the bamboo, and we really liked what we had left.”

The back patio is an all-weather patio with a roof, gas heaters for the winter and water misters for the summer. A front patio also runs along J Street, and Nurge said the whole restaurant can hold about 150 people comfortably.

One facet of the restaurant that pertains more to the approximately 30 employees than customers is a monetary incentive. A percentage of the restaurant’s profits will be doled out to the workers each quarter, and they will share in the profitability of the business.

“We open the books to them, and they can see exactly how we’re doing financially,” Nurge said. “It’s absolutely transparent, and we want them to feel like they’re more than just workers. We want them to feel like they’re a part of our success, because they are.”

The Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar is located at 2718 J St. It is scheduled to be open from 11 a.m. - midnight Sunday through Thursday, until 2 a.m. on weekends, Nurge said. When brunch begins later this month, the restaurant will open at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. For now until Thursday, it will open at 6 p.m., and then will follow normal business hours.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

The Republic opens

2012-02-04T08:07:30Z

The Republic Featuring Drewski’s opened downtown Friday, bringing a combination lounge, sports bar, video arcade, pool hall and food truck menu to one location.

“I’m excited we pulled it off,” said Andrew “Drewski” Blaskovich, owner of the popular food truck Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen. “I’m 100 percent confident in our staff here, and I know our kitchen crew, wait staff, bartenders and everyone will help make this happen.”

The 6,500-square-foot space opened at 5 p.m. Friday, and it is scheduled to stay open until 3 - 4 a.m. on the weekend nights.

Customers filtered in the doors – including a glass-paneled garage door that opens onto a patio – from 5 p.m. onward Friday, and they quickly took to the arcade games even as workers were on the other side of the building putting the finishing touches on an elevated stage that will be used for live music.

“It’s great. I see this place taking off,” said 37-year-old Scott Abraham of Sacramento. “I love the garage door. It’s one of those concepts that’s really taken off lately, and it reminds me a little of how they do things in Hawaii, with the sliding doors. It’s perfect for Sacramento in the summer.”

One of the anticipated features in the space is a pair of skee ball games.

“It’s huge on the East Coast,” said Andy Duong, a marketer for the establishment. “We also have four pool tables, eight video games, and we brought in some board games – Jenga, Connect Four and Battleship.”

TVs will show sporting events, including mixed martial arts on Saturday and the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Duong said the space doesn’t fit the mold of a sports bar, lounge, restaurant or pool hall, and he referred to it as a “party bar.”

“We’re going to start with some small music acts, and then maybe expand to larger ones,” he said. “We’re here across from Memorial Auditorium, and it’s going to be a great location.”

In addition to entertainment, the space will see the expansion of the menu Sacramentans are familiar with from Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen.

“We’re going to be doing a lot more with the food,” Blaskovich said.

A buffalo chicken melt called the Roadrunner will be added to the menu, and another one will be the Chevelle, which features tri-tip, bell peppers, onions, sauce and provolone cheese on flatbread.

The Republic Featuring Drewski’s is located at 908 15th St.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Blackbird to open by end of February

2012-01-28T01:37:16Z

Replacement of a gas line is postponing the opening of the downtown seafood restaurant Blackbird Kitchen & Bar from Valentine’s Day to Feb. 21, but the restaurateurs are still able to work inside, and the iconic graphic on the front is complete.

“The buildout is being done right now, and the menu will be available in a couple of weeks,” said General Manager Shayne “7evin” Iles.

“We’re going to open when PG&E finishes the work, so hopefully it’s sooner, or at least on time,” he said.

Officials from Pacific Gas and Electric did not return messages left on Friday.

Blackbird Kitchen & Bar is located at 1013-1015 Ninth St.

Mediterranean food coming to K Street

2012-01-27T01:07:29Z

Influences from the Andalusia region of Spain such as Moorish arches and water features will be the architectural highlights of a Mediterranean/American restaurant coming to 925 K St.

The restaurant does not yet have a name and won’t be open until at least June, but Gene Hopkins, the superintendent in charge of the buildout, said it will be a combination buffet and full-service restaurant that will feature Mediterranean cuisine as well as some American dishes.

Formerly Farley’s Soup and Salad, the building has been vacant for about six years, and work began on the new business at the end of last year, Hopkins said.

Customers entering the 4,200-square-foot ground floor will be greeted by a waterfall on the right side, recalling the Moorish architecture prevalent throughout Spain. Two more waterfalls are planned to divide the buffet area with the seating area, and Moorish arches will serve as accents.

“It’s definitely going to be classy,” Hopkins said. “It’s going to fit in with some of the other businesses that are here or going in around here. We’ve got the restaurant and bars down the street (Dive Bar, District 30 and Pizza Rock), and we have Sharif Jewelers coming in across from us.”

While it will likely come after the restaurant opens, a facelift of the façade is planned. At the least, it will be repainted, but if plans are approved, one option is to carry the arch theme to the front of the restaurant and add pillars to accent the doorway.

The menu is still in the early stages, but Hopkins said it will include traditional Mediterranean fare such as hummus and pita sandwiches. No pork will be served, and it’s not yet determined whether alcohol will be served.

The owner, Sam Abukhdair, is from Palestine, Hopkins said, adding that he is bringing the inspiration for the cuisine.

The building itself is historic, and Hopkins said he sees it as a blend of 1820s and 1970s design.

As part of the city that was originally at a lower level, what is currently the basement used to be at street level.

“The entrance to the shop was set back, and if you go down there, you can see where the doorways and windows used to be,” Hopkins said. “They’re concreted over now, but the hinges are still there.”

At one point, the building served as a bank, and a heavy vault door Hopkins estimated to weigh at least a ton will be the new entryway to the walk-in refrigerator.

“There’s no way we can move that out of here,” he said with a laugh.

Despite the historic elements, the interior design will be more modern.

“The wall behind the buffet is going to glow,” Hopkins said, adding that LEDs will be placed behind frosted Plexiglas. The bathrooms are walled and floored in marble tile, and granite countertops will be installed.

A removable stage might be incorporated into the back end of the restaurant to allow for live music, and exterior seating along K Street will be built if plans are approved, Hopkins said.

The second floor of the building is being renovated as well, and it might be used to house events, while the third floor is being built out as offices.

The business, when it opens, will be another in a recent wave of businesses opening along the once-dreary K Street.

“It’s been a huge change here over the past six months, even,” Hopkins said, noting that new businesses and other changes to K Street have brought increased foot traffic to the area. “This is totally turning around.”

Esther Son, who opened Estelle’s Patisserie at the other end of the 900 block about a month ago, said she is happy to be on K Street, and added that she thinks another business will only add to the success she is seeing.

“It’s definitely an aid,” she said. “It’s synergy. I want neighbors. That will bring more people down here, and we’re building a community.”

Son said she wants to see more retail stores open as well as restaurants, but she has gotten support from local workers and customers that she said she is happy for.

“I enjoy being there,” she said. “I’m doing really well, and we get pretty busy during lunchtime. People come in, and they say they’re happy to have more businesses, and they want us to succeed. It’s been really good, and I think more (businesses) need to open up.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Mikuni celebrates 25 years

2012-01-26T01:12:52Z

Mikuni Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar will celebrate a quarter century in business May 15, and co-owner Taro Arai said that after the touch-and-go nature of the first five years, the business has come a long way.

“The first five years, the more we worked, the more money we lost,” he said. “I still cannot believe it’s been 25 years. We’re so lucky to have all the support we’ve had.”

Now with nine restaurants in the greater Sacramento area, Arai said the business will be expanding in 2012, and while more brick-and-mortar restaurants are likely in store, the next thing people will see is a food truck.

There is no set timeline for rolling out the food truck yet, but Arai said he and his family have already started shopping for a truck.

“If it takes a year, I’ll be pretty upset,” he said.

“We’re working on the menu,” he added. “That’s the exciting part. I think we’re going to change the menu every week to see what people want and what works out there.”

Fitting the menu to be something the customers want and come back for has been key to staying in business for the past 25 years, he added.

When the first restaurant opened in Fair Oaks in 1987, it was due to a miracle, Arai said.

Working in a family member’s Japanese restaurant, Arai’s father was approached by a man who asked for his bank account information. Trusting the man, Arai’s father gave him the information.

A few days later, $300,000 was deposited into the account, and the man said to pay it back whenever it was possible.

“He gave us a no-contract loan,” Arai said Wednesday. “It was crazy.”

That loan enabled the family to open Mikuni, which translates as “kingdom of God.” The family planned to feature sushi, but there was one problem – Arai didn’t know how to make sushi. To remedy that, his father sent him to the bookstore.

“I needed, like, ‘Making Sushi for Dummies,’ ” he said with a laugh. “I learned how to do it, and we kept making new rolls for the people. My father told us to never stop making new rolls.”

Starting as a family of five who arrived from Japan with little more than a dream and the earnings from Arai’s paper route, there are now 17 family members involved in the restaurant, with Arai’s four children working during the summers and for special events.

“Its nice that it’s still a family business,” he said.

Despite success, the restaurant was not immune to the financial troubles brought about during the recession.

“We did struggle from 2007-2009,” Arai said. “My brother-in-law took over as CEO, and he’s just turned everything around, and we’re coming back strong now. He’s done a great job, and my brother is executive chef, and my sister is working in marketing.”

The Sacramento restaurant, located at 1530 J St., was part of the revitalization of the area when it was developed in 2003, said Downtown Sacramento Partnership spokeswoman Lisa Martinez.

“That was a historic renovation of a building that was not the best site before then,” Martinez said Wednesday. “Mikuni and P.F. Chang’s moved in, and it was kind of a turning point for the district. That year and the following year saw a big transformation in a lot of places downtown, and they were on the cutting edge.”

Martinez added that since the restaurant is on the border of downtown and Midtown, it helped create a bridge between the two districts and aided in making the area become more pedestrian-friendly.

“It’s been nine or 10 years since that development, and now downtown is known as a great location to go out and eat,” Martinez said. “Downtown really is the hub, and I think Mikuni and that development really strengthened the district.”

Arai said that being in business to make money is important for the 650 employees and their families, but it isn’t the end goal for the company.

“We’re committed to give back,” he said. “We’ve just reached $1 million in donations to breast cancer research, and we want to make a difference. We want to continue to help the charities in town. That’s another goal we have, and we keep pushing it.”

As part of the anniversary celebration, Mikuni is having contests and promotions that include a trip for two to Las Vegas, and someone will win a Honda Fit. For more information, click here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Eateries and "Drinkeries" wanted for Sacramento Chef Challenge

2012-01-18T19:00:41Z

2012 marks the tenth anniversary of our region’s premier culinary competition the Sacramento Chef Challenge, and organizers are inviting local restaurants, wineries, breweries and specialty shops to showcase their fare at the June 23rd event.

The Sacramento Chef Challenge is a culinary extravaganza featuring two live cooking competitions, lavish food, wine and beer sampling, live music, raffle prizes and more. The event is expected to draw a crowd of over 1000 guests in celebration of INALLIANCE, a local nonprofit that has provided support to people with developmental disabilities for 60 years.

“Our vendors draw a huge crowd each year by providing a variety of samples to our guests,” says INALLIANCE Executive Director Diana DeRodeff, "It is a great way for both fledgling and established companies to connect with community members, while supporting the organization.” Most event booths are free of charge, and vendors have the opportunity to win prizes.

The Sacramento Chef Challenge will see some exciting changes for 2012, including live entertainment and a new venue. The event will be held outdoors at INALLIANCE, where both vendors and guests will have a little more room to move. “We have just outgrown our old venue,” says DeRodeff, “And, we are eager to share our beautiful campus with the community.”

INALLIANCE has been in the Sacramento area since 1952, but few people know about the nonprofit’s work, because they tend stay in the background promoting the abilities of their participants. The programs INALLIANCE provides to people in the community focus on independence, quality of life and choice. “People with developmental disabilities are very capable. When given the opportunity they flourish, and that makes for a happier and a healthier community,” says DeRodeff.

The Sacramento Chef Challenge will be held on Saturday, June 23, 2012 beginning at 4:30pm, and tickets are only $25. If you are interested in becoming a vendor or purchasing tickets, visit www.chefevent.com or call 916-381-1300 x 170.

Disclosure: Jessica Bean is an employee of INALLIANCE

Drewski's combines food truck fare, sports bar

2012-01-17T01:24:21Z

After less than a year on Sacramento’s streets, local food truck Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen is adding a brick-and-mortar establishment at 908 15th St. that blurs the line between sports bar and food truck.

The Republic Featuring Drewski’s is set to open the week before the Super Bowl (Feb. 5), and Drewski’s owner Andrew “Drewski” Blaskovich said he’s excited to be part of the growth in downtown Sacramento and to offer a late-night food and entertainment spot, closing around 3-4 a.m. on the weekends.

“It’s going to be a sports bar,” Blaskovich said. “We’re going to have 12-15 TVs, pool tables, video games and – we’re hoping – skee ball.”

The four pool tables will complement old-school video games such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, and entertainment will be provided by live bands as well as DJs.

Moving to add a traditional restaurant and bar is something many food truck owners aspire to, but Blaskovich said he has no plans to rein in the food truck aspect of the business.

“The trucks are my babies,” he said.

And that is trucks – plural.

“We’re going to be adding another truck, and we’re shooting for about two months,” he said.

One of the biggest problems that comes with operating the trucks is solved by opening the brick-and-mortar establishment, Blaskovich said.

“For the truck, I don’t have any storage, so I have to shop every day,” he said. “Now, I have a place to prep all the food, take deliveries and store it so I have to shop only once a week, plus I can save money by getting discounts on things in bulk.”

Blaskovich is partnering with a bar operator, whose name he is not yet releasing, and he will focus on the food.

The cuisine will include the menu from the food truck, but the full kitchen will allow an expanded menu.

“We’re going to have some street tacos, and we’re doing a variety of burgers, different hot wings, chicken sandwiches and all kinds of good stuff,” he said.

Meals will run about $10, he added.

Appetizers, including garlic rosemary tater tots, will be included, as well as salads and other sandwiches. A variety of sauces such as Thai peanut sauce, a tangy barbecue sauce and others will accentuate the dishes.

Plates won’t be used, with all the food served in the cardboard boats with paper linings that those who frequent the food truck are familiar with.

Those who want to challenge themselves will have the option of facing down a massive burger, getting their photo on the wall and a T-shirt if they’re up to the challenge.

The 18-Wheeler will be a 4- or 5-pound burger that Blaskovich said will be a meal for about three people, but anyone who finishes it in a set time, possibly 20 minutes, will earn a spot on the wall.

Formerly Dream Ultra Lounge & Restaurant, The Republic Featuring Drewski’s is getting a facelift with black ceilings, a roll-up door facing Memorial Auditorium that leads to one of two patios, and interior décor of faux brick and wood molding with either mirrors or stained glass artwork.

Downtown Sacramento Partnership Marketing Director Lisa Martinez said it’s unique to see a food truck open a brick-and-mortar establishment in Sacramento, and the location should be a successful one.

“They’re in the middle of an entertainment district, and it’s a great amenity,” she said. “I think the beauty of it is they already have a successful following, so the business is coming in with an established clientele.”

Across the street from Memorial Auditorium, the business is close to the Torch Club and not far from the Wells Fargo Pavilion, the newly opened Maydestone apartment building and the future site of Coyote Tap House.

Blaskovich said he is looking to appeal to the after-work happy hour crowd, opening around 4 or 5 p.m., as well as anyone looking for late-night eats and entertainment, or people leaving Memorial Auditorium after a concert. Sunday brunch will be served and will likely feature a dish of waffles and fried chicken, which is growing in popularity.

“I’m from Sacramento, and I’ve always been a big supporter of downtown Sacramento and the growth we’ve experienced in the past,” Blaskovich said. “I want to be a part of that, and this gives people downtown the chance to have Drewski’s if the truck is out in Roseville or Elk Grove or something.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

J Street Yummy Yogurt Cafe on hiatus

2012-01-14T00:06:57Z

The Yummy Yogurt Cafe at 19th and J streets closed Dec. 1, and though it was expected to reopen by the end of the year, owner Jason Yee said it will remain in hiatus for a while longer.

“Right now, we’re working on a new plan, and we just really haven’t gotten to the point to expose the plan yet,” Yee said Thursday, adding that he is still looking for ideas or anyone who wants to partner with him for a new concept.

The idea is to have the space up and running again in a couple of months.

Yee said he didn’t shut down the space because of lack of sales, but because he wants to revamp the store itself to provide something more than frozen yogurt.

“It’s a great location, and that’s part of why we decided to close,” he said. “The location is great, so we want something greater in there. We want something more unique.”

The original Yummy Yogurt Cafe in Westfield Downtown Plaza remains open, and there are no plans to close it, Yee said.

Coyote Tap House to take old Brew it Up! spot

2012-01-13T00:27:46Z

Coyote Tap House, a new bar and restaurant serving Asian cuisine complemented by 50-60 beers on tap, is in the works to take the spot at 14th and H streets vacated by Brew it Up! last year.

“It’s going to have a full bar and live entertainment,” said Valerie Mamone-Werder, business recruitment manager for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

The owners, brothers Ken and Ming Le, own and have run Oshima Sushi and Fugu Lounge in Natomas since 2004, Mamone-Werder said.

“They’re really good operators,” she added. “We met with them when the news came out that Brew it Up! was leaving the space. It didn’t take long to have a lot of interest. They’re going to be a fantastic addition for that area.”

The Music Circus is located nearby, and Mamone-Werder said the new tap house will complement the area by providing a place where she expects a crowd of those in their late 20s to their 40s will frequent.

“We want everybody to continue to succeed in that area, and having someone come into the vacant space helps,” Mamone-Werder said.

The Le brothers were not available for comment Thursday afternoon. Mamone-Werder said she expects that the pair will make improvements to the interior, and possibly the exterior of the space, and that she hopes to see the business open by spring or summer, depending on how long it takes to make the improvements.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Work finishes on The Porch

2012-01-11T01:28:25Z

The namesake of The Porch, a southern-style restaurant and bar that replaced Celestin’s Island Eats & Cajun Cuisine, is now finished.

Completed last week, the front patio area seats 16, and a back porch is planned, though construction likely won’t begin for at least a month, said Olivia Pinto, a host at The Porch.

The restaurant, located at 1815 K St., opened in December. To read more about the restaurant, click here.

Mongo Mongo Mongolian BBQ opens in Midtown

2012-01-10T06:52:12Z

Mongo Mongo Mongolian BBQ restaurant at 19th and J streets opened Saturday, and owner Jonathan Ng said he is pleased with the customer turnout.

“It’s been good, we’re really excited to be open,” Ng said Monday.

Much of the interior design still needs to be finished, Ng said, but getting the restaurant open and focusing on the food was the top priority.

“It’s kind of barren, but we’re working on it,” Ng said, adding that interior décor details are being worked out.

In order to keep the garage doors installed when the business was Garlic Shack – which shut down after only three months – Ng said a unique setup had to be made to meet health department regulations that stipulate the kitchen can’t be open-air.

Customers walk in along the left side of the restaurant, go through sliding glass doors and prepare their bowls for the chef. The chef then cooks the food on the Mongolian barbecue – a circular device originating from the shields used by Ghengis Khan’s army – and customers can go to their tables, to have the food delivered when it is completed.

Dinner bowls cost $10.95, and lunch bowls – weekdays until 4 p.m. – are $7.95. The restaurant takes cash only, but an ATM is inside.

The enclosed kitchen allows the garage doors to be opened when weather permits, and customers can sit on the patio once the furniture is installed.

Jenifer Estrada, a 20-year-old Sacramentan who works in retail, said Monday that she enjoyed the food, and it stacked up well against other Mongolian barbecue restaurants she has tried.

“It’s my first time here, and I really liked it,” she said. “The food was very good, and I hope they stay around longer than the last places that were here.”

Estrada said she had pork with noodles, vegetables and teriyaki sauce.

Another Sacramentan, 35-year-old construction worker and musician Chris Orozco, agreed with Estrada’s take on the restaurant.

“It’s pretty good, and I think the fact that they stay open late is nice,” he said, referencing the 3 a.m. closing time for Friday and Saturday nights.

“It’s fresh, and everything was crisp,” he added. “People need to make it out here and support the new local eateries.”

Mongo Mongo, located at 19th and J streets, is open from 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. - 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Favorite sandwiches star in new food truck

2012-01-10T03:09:38Z

Coast to Coast Sandwiches – Sacramento’s newest food truck – brings what the owners say are some of their favorite sandwiches from across the country, including a South Philly cheesesteak and a Reuben.

Co-owners Robert Ramos and Sean Figueroa – not able to find an exact match of their favorite sandwiches from east of the Mississippi – decided they had a niche, and they looked to open a business.

Both graduated from culinary school, where they initially came up with the broad strokes of the Coast to Coast Sandwiches idea. Ramos was born in New York and lived in Florida, while Figueroa’s family is from Louisiana, and the Louisiana po’boy sandwich is his mother’s recipe.

“The Reubens here don’t compare to the ones in New York, and the cheesesteaks aren’t the real thing, not that we’ve found,” Ramos said. “We had both lived in different parts of the U.S. and loved the foods from those areas but could never find an exact match out here.”

Initially, the plan was to open a restaurant, but Ramos said lenders weren’t willing to take a chance on loaning money to a couple of chefs without restaurant ownership experience.

“I went four to five months looking for a location,” Ramos said. “It was pretty frustrating.”

Finally, the pair decided to focus on an idea that was originally an offshoot of the brick-and-mortar store: a food truck.

“We found a truck, went through the hurdles the city and county like to put in front of you, and in November, we started doing small engagements and gatherings,” Ramos said. “We started going out on the streets right before Christmas.”

As the name implies, the fare focuses on sandwiches. There are five types, and each is $7.

Sandwich types include a South Philly cheesesteak, Louisiana catfish po’boy, NorCal BLT, New York City pastrami and a Reuben.

The sandwiches are served on rolls or sliced breads, and both hot and cold options are offered.

Two sides are available – sweet potato fries and bacon macaroni and cheese – and a combo meal includes a sandwich, a side and a drink for $10.

“I really like the staff,” said Angela Marbay, a 42-year-old Sacramentan who is a manager for the state. “They’re very nice and personable.”

Marbay bought a Reuben sandwich on Monday near the DMV offices, saying that the quality of the food the first time the truck came by brought her back, and she is happy to have the food truck option in the area.

“The South Philly cheesesteak is really, really good, too,” she said. “I like when the food trucks come by, and I think people should support the small businesses.”

John Glaeser, a 48-year-old association manager from Sacramento, said Monday that he recently took an interest in local food trucks and wanted to try Coast to Coast Sandwiches.

“I like that you can get in and out fast at lunch,” he said.

Ramos said the ultimate goal is still to build a traditional restaurant, with a much-expanded menu.

“We don’t have the space on the truck to do everything we want to, and there’s a lot more we’d like to offer,” he said. “Right now, we’re hoping to build our brand, and the truck is a great moving billboard for it.”

The side of the truck is decorated with graphics of the Golden Gate Bridge meeting the Brooklyn Bridge above the Gateway Arch from St. Louis. Ramos said it shows some of the different parts of the country that the food comes from.

To keep up with Coast to Coast Sandwiches’ whereabouts, check its website, which has a schedule of appearances as well as a live Twitter feed.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Midtown gets its long-awaited Squeeze Inn

2012-01-04T01:43:01Z

A long line of eager Sacramentans arrived at 17th and K streets Tuesday looking for the perfect skirt. But it wasn’t apparel they were after – it was the “cheese skirt” that cloaks the meat patties on burgers at The Squeeze Inn.

Owner Sabrina Nicola said this is the eighth Squeeze Inn location, and the first day of business went well.

“Everyone seems to be really happy,” she said Tuesday afternoon. “I think we had about 150 people for the lunch rush, and they’re a lot of locals and nearby workers who are happy to see us.”

Nicola, who previously worked at the original Squeeze Inn on Fruitridge Road, said she wanted to bring the feel of the original space and combine it with contemporary artwork.

To read more about Nicola's efforts to open the restaurant, click here.

Pricing is about the same as the other locations, but varies slightly due to taxes being included in the list price. Single burgers range from $6.25 to $8.75.

Customers eating lunch on Tuesday said the new location measures up to their expectations.

“I’ve been to the old one, and I’m happy this one is here,” said Ann Monson, a 58-year-old state worker from Sacramento. “My office is right next door.”

She said she’s been anticipating its opening for the past few months and described the cheeseburger as “outrageous cheesy goodness.”

Another local happy to see the restaurant open was 29-year-old KC Caitano, who works at the Artistic Edge art gallery, 1880 Fulton Ave.

“I couldn’t be happier that they’re in Midtown,” he said, adding that he lives nearby. “To finally have one here and close to home – I’ll probably be in here every day.”

He said he was happy to see an option on the menu that appealed to his Hawaiian roots: a Squeeze with Cheese with spam.

“If you’ve never tried (The Squeeze Inn) before, you’ve got to,” he said. “It’s one of the things you should do before you die.”

The restaurant can seat about 55 people at a combination of tables and a counter, and a railed-off front patio will be added to the seating area when the weather warms up, Nicola said.

Midtown’s Squeeze Inn is located at 1630 K St. It is open from 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Sunday. It is closed Monday.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

The Sacramento Press on 'Insight'

2012-01-04T01:10:43Z

On Capital Public Radio’s “Insight” program on Tuesday, host David Watts Barton and I talked about new laws in effect for the new year, businesses scheduled to open in the near future, the upcoming elections and other local issues.

The beginning of the year typically brings in a number of new laws, and 2012 is no different. Some of the notable changes include mandatory child booster seats in cars for kids under age 8 or shorter than 4 feet 9 inches, the banning of openly carrying unloaded handguns and a new law that states police can no longer impound a vehicle at a DUI checkpoint if the only offense is the driver not having a license.

Click here to read about those and other laws that went into effect Sunday.

Also new this year will be several businesses. A sports-themed restaurant and bar, Mongolian food’s arrival on the grid and a new bicycle share program have all been covered by The Sacramento Press in the past and will soon be open for business in the central city.

To read about some of the new businesses coming in the next few weeks and months, click here.

If the mayor’s office has its way, it won’t be business as usual in Sacramento’s political future. A charter reform proposal could be on this summer’s ballot, and it would reshape the way Sacramento’s government works. An executive – or “strong” – mayor, an independent redistricting commission and an ethical review process are all parts of the reform measure being discussed at City Hall.

It’s a big year for Mayor Kevin Johnson, as he and the City Council members from even-numbered districts campaign to keep their seats in this year’s elections. While some districts – including District 4, which covers the central city – are full of competition, others currently only have a couple candidates, and Kevin McCarty currently has no challengers to his District 6 seat. But the deadline to enter the political race isn’t until March, so the competition could heat up even more.

One of those in the running for a City Council seat is Rob Kerth, former executive director of the Midtown Business Association. The MBA position was filled by Elizabeth Studebaker on Monday, and The Sacramento Press will follow up with her to learn what plans she has in store for Midtown.

The California Supreme Court’s upholding of Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to eliminate redevelopment agencies – and its dismissal of legislation that would allow them to continue with significant payments to the state – mean many projects in blighted areas of Sacramento won’t get done, and those that haven’t been finished might be in jeopardy too. Look for Sacramento Press reporter Melissa Corker’s latest update on redevelopment Wednesday.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

New businesses coming in 2012

2011-12-30T04:51:12Z

As 2012 approaches, there are several new businesses preparing to open, from much-anticipated restaurants to a privately funded bicycle share program. Below is a list of some of the new businesses Sacramentans can expect to see in the new year.

Those who frequent the downtown area will have a new place to eat and drink in late February or early March as the Firestone Public House opens with 60 beer taps in what the owners said will be a new take on the sports bar theme.

The Wong family – which runs Mix Downtown, Cafeteria 15L and the Park Ultra Lounge – is teaming up with the de Vere White family – of de Vere’s Irish Pub – for the new business that will replace the old California Pizza Kitchen spot at 16th and L streets.

Midtown will be getting a Mongolian barbecue restaurant, with Mongo Mongo Mongolian Barbecue due to open in the next few weeks. Previously the home of the ill-fated Garlic Shack, owner Jonathan Ng said he plans to stay open for the late-night crowd that frequents the area.

Also in Midtown is a restaurant that will be replacing Hangar 17, at 17th and S streets, which closed earlier this year. The owners of The Golden Bear restaurant and bar are opening Hook & Ladder Manufacturing Co., which co-owner Kimio Bazett said will be a “grown-up” version of The Golden Bear.

Brian Mizner, formerly of Hot Italian and L Wine Lounge, will be the chef at the restaurant, and Chris Tucker, from The Golden Bear and Shady Lady Saloon, will be the beverage manager, Bazett said Wednesday.

The restaurant is expected to open in late March or early April.

Red Lotus Kitchen and Bar, an Asian restaurant at 2718 J St., closed in September, allowing Shady Lady Saloon bartender Matt Nurge and his business partners to open their own space, which will serve peasant-style food from multiple cultures.

Named Red Rabbit – partly inspired by the new artwork at the airport – the restaurant will share profits with its employees. That aspect is something Nurge said he believes will help show the workers they are valued as well as give them an incentive to keep working there, saving costs on training new staff in an industry that has high turnover.

City Hall Garage will be getting a new restaurant: Big Joe’s BBQ, which will replace Fog Mountain Cafe at the corner of 10th and J streets. Fog Mountain Cafe closed in April, and Big Joe’s is expected to open early next year.

The beer business in Sacramento will have a fresh face next year as well, with the New Helvetia Brewing Company expected to open in late February or early March on Broadway.

Owner David Gull said he will initially open as a brewery and tasting room, and a restaurant may be added to the space about six months later, though there is no set timeline on it.

Bicycle enthusiasts won’t need to bring their own set of wheels to Midtown once The Last Mile launches in the first quarter of 2012. The Last Mile is a privately funded bicycle share program owned by Aaron Zeff, who also owns Priority Parking.

With the new business, cyclists will be able to rent bicycles by the hour for a little more than $1. Zeff, a board member for the Midtown Business Association, said that most programs of the kind are funded with public dollars, and The Last Mile won’t have its bills footed by taxpayers.

Are there more businesses opening next year that you know about? Share them in the conversation below.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Editorial Note: A spelling correction was made to this article after it was published.

Year in review: Food vs. government

2011-12-29T02:23:45Z

Two city ordinances regulating food were the subject of debate in Sacramento in 2011, and while backyard keeping of egg-laying hens was allowed, the other, more volatile issue rages on – the controversial ordinance governing food trucks.

The ordinance limiting food truck operation within city limits to 30-minute intervals has been a source of contention for more than a year, but it heated up in 2011 with the inaugural SactoMoFo mobile food festival in April.

At the festival, Fremont Park was occupied by thousands of foodies who dropped by for a taste of gourmet on the go, and it achieved its goal of bringing widespread awareness to the issue.

Owners of “brick-and-mortar” restaurants were split on the issue, prompting a series of talks between them, restaurant advocacy groups, city officials and mobile food vendors.

The issue came before the City Council’s Law and Legislation Committee most recently in November, but the issue was postponed.

City Councilman Jay Schenirer, chairman of the Law and Legislation Committee, said Wednesday that while the issue will be on the agenda in 2012 – and he hopes it will be in the first quarter, there are no firm plans on when that will be.

In the meantime, regular food truck gatherings are held outside the city limits, because the county has no ordinance limiting operators to 30 minutes.

Backyard chicken keeping was allowed in the city in 2011 after a long discussion and series of public meetings, with advocates writing about it on The Sacramento Press as far back as 2009.

Those in favor of keeping chickens for egg-laying purposes argued that they wanted to have control of their food supply, ensuring food to their standards, and they pointed out that numerous other cities already allowed chicken keeping.

People opposed to allowing backyard chicken keeping said they feared the chickens would be noisy and possibly be conduits for avian flu.

The issue was almost killed in 2010, but City Councilman Steve Cohn walked out of a meeting to prevent what would likely have been a vote to end it.

The ordinance, which went into effect Nov. 1, did not please everyone, as it placed several restrictions on keeping chickens in backyards, including limiting the number to three and keeping them at least 20 feet from an adjacent residence.

The ordinance only allows the keeping of hens – as roosters don’t lay eggs and also crow, and it remains illegal to slaughter chickens in backyards. A $15 licensing fee per chicken is collected to pay for enforcement of the ordinance.

Gina Knepp, manager of the city’s animal shelter, said Wednesday that only about 20 chickens have been licensed in the past two months, but far more than that live in the city.

“We just cited a gentleman who had 30 chickens in his yard,” she said, adding that there has been no decrease or increase in calls since the ordinance passed.

“It’s still premature to tell,” she said. “I plan to go back to the council after six months and recommend some changes to the ordinance.”

Some of the recommendations she said she is considering include a flat licensing fee so owners don’t license each chicken as well as the ability to pay licensing fees online, which she said is probably discouraging some people from licensing their chickens.

Another change in food laws was the state-mandated food handler card, which requires most restaurant workers to pass a state test on food safety before being allowed to work.

The law went into effect July 1, though enforcement was delayed to allow time for restaurants and their workers to get the cards and come into compliance.

The state government got involved in funding garden boxes this year, with the local nonprofit organization Ubuntu Green working with low-income families to build boxes where they can grow healthy foods.

Community gardens were also a part of Schenirer’s WayUp Sacramento program, which promotes healthy living. It was launched in Oak Park in October.

Even schools got involved in small-scale farming this year, as Sacramento City College started a city farm project to “teach with dirt.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Year in review: Business comings and goings

2011-12-29T02:18:58Z

The past year saw quite a bit of businesses come, go and expand in the central city area, and The Sacramento Press covered many of those happenings. Below are some of the major expansions and changes as well as some of the most-viewed stories on businesses closing.

A favorite Sacramento lunch spot changed hands this year as Chef Daniel Pont handed over ownership of La Bonne Soupe Café in late April. The 72-year-old chef said he still enjoys cooking, but running the one-man shop by himself was too much. He has since opened another restaurant, this time in Folsom, where he has a staff to help run it.

New owners Ed Stoddard and Leah Brown reopened the restaurant in the same location in May.

The popular Bows & Arrows vintage clothing store closed its spot at 17th and L streets in April and moved across from Safeway on 19th Street. As part of the move, owners Olivia Coelho and Trisha Rhomberg partnered with Davis-based Fat Face Cafe to add food and drinks to the new spot as well as art shows and musical performances.

Curtis Park’s Pangaea Two Brews Cafe expanded its business from being a taphouse and cafe to include a bottle shop. Owner Rob Archie said he wanted to offer locals the chance to grab individual bottles of less-common brews at to-go prices.

The Downtown 24 Hour Fitness club completed an extensive remodel in October, a $10 million project that added 31,000 square feet to bring the total to 50,000, which now includes a basketball court, a racquetball court and new cardio machines.

A couple who started a donut business called Doughbot Donuts from home in May 2010 added a Southside Park storefront in September. Owners Bryan Widener and Dannah O’Donnell said they sold 700 donuts on the first day and 1,000 the next.

Temple Coffee was a fixture in an old bookstore on 10th Street between J and K streets since 2005, but it moved a block east in September, reopening in a larger location. Owner Sean Kohmescher said the new, more open space allows for more conversation and personal engagement.

The owners of Tuli Bistro opted for a downtown location, opening Restaurant Thirteen on the ground floor of the Sterling Hotel at 1300 H St. in March. The new restaurant is intended to have an atmosphere similar to a fine-dining establishment, but without the stigma, said Chef Adam Pechal.

Shoki Ramen House also opened a second location in May, this time bringing the Japanese noodles to R Street. The ramen is all made from scratch in-house.

Despite many restaurants doing well in 2011, there were some that closed – with closures due to retirements, a bad economy or any number of other reasons.

Newsbeat, a newsstand that stocked a wide range of hard-to-find magazines, closed its doors in the MARRS Building in Midtown in November. Co-owner Terrence Lott attributed the closure to high rents and the decreasing demand for print media as digital media continue to grow in popularity.

Perhaps the biggest flop in central city business in 2011 was Garlic Shack, which was much-anticipated and kept delaying its opening date. When it did open in July, it was to mixed reviews, and by mid-October, it was gone, with no word from the owners.

The unique Hangar 17, a restaurant in a Quonset hut in Midtown, shut down in March. Owner Joey Madrid said the economy cost the business its viability, and workers left with a bitter taste in their mouths, saying their final checks bounced.

Next-door Midtown businesses Aura and Red Lotus also closed in 2011, and Aura was replaced by BarWest Burgers & Wings, while Red Lotus will be replaced by another restaurant, Red Rabbit, in 2012. Aura closed in March, and Red Lotus closed in September.

Despite the popularity of bicycles in Midtown, the bicycle-themed Spin Burger Bar at 16th and K streets wasn’t able to make it, closing in July. The closure, however, opened the space for a new Indian restaurant, which was up and running in December.

The 52-year-old Capitol Aquarium also closed in 2011, calling it quits in July as the owners were unable to find a buyer for the business.

Another veteran business, Brew it Up!, wasn’t able to make it at the corner of 14th and H streets, shutting down in late July. Owner Mike Costello said debt piled up and not enough customers came in to pay the bills, so he had to call it quits.

Not all restaurant closures were due to the economy, with Celestin’s Island Eats & Cajun Cuisine being one example. The 28-year-old business closed when owners Patrick and Phoebe Celestin decided to retire. They said they didn’t want to sell it, and the space reopened in December as The Porch, a Southern-themed restaurant run by the owners of nearby Capitol Garage.

Do you have a favorite business that expanded or closed in 2011? Let us know in the conversation below.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Year in review: Business milestones

2011-12-27T05:29:55Z

The Sacramento Press covered many stories in 2011 of businesses coming and going, but there are a number of Sacramento businesses that celebrated milestones, withstanding the test of time and recessions big and small.

Midtown Italian restaurant Paesanos – Italian for “friends” – has been in business for 15 years, since April 1996. Director of Operations Dana Scarpulla told The Sacramento Press that Midtown has undergone major changes since the restaurant’s founding, and most have been positive.

Pastas, pizzas and salads top the list of favorites at the restaurant, which has since expanded to Paesanos Pronto and a couple other locations. There’s also word of another location opening in 2012.

The Kitchen, owned by husband and wife Randall Selland and Nancy Zimmer, has been in business for 20 years, starting in May of 1991.

Known for its presentation dinners that are highly interactive, The Kitchen caters to an upscale crowd with $125 four-course demonstration meals. Selland is expanding as well, opening another restaurant in El Dorado Hills in mid-January.

Another restaurant in business for 20 years is Ernesto’s Mexican Food. The Midtown eatery weathered recessions by focusing on quality and service, said owner Pauline Jiménez.

It opened in November 1991, and top dishes at the restaurant include tortilla soup, chile rellenos and carnitas. Of course, the margaritas play a big role in the restaurant and bar as well.

Biba Restaurant celebrated its 25th birthday with a reopening and makeover in July.

"Just like a beautiful woman, you don't stay beautiful forever unless you do something," owner Biba Caggiano told The Sacramento Press. "This place needed something: color, other things. I'm very, very, very happy."

Caggiano ws born in Italy, and the name might be familiar to those who watch The Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel, as she hosted more than 100 episodes of “Biba’s Italian Kitchen” on the networks.

The nonprofit cable TV Access Sacramento turned 25 in March, marking a quarter century of covering local life, including entertainment and cultural events as well as high school sports.

Local officials including Assemblyman Roger Dickinson and City Councilman Steve Cohn attended the organization’s birthday party, and Sacramento Press Community Contributor Kati Garner was there to take photos.

Locally owned Lofings Lighting sits in an unobtrusive spot on J Street most noticeable when driving by at night, and the business marked its 50th year in November.

Over the past half-century, the Lofing family has become renowned in the industry for expertise in lighting fixtures and technology, serving both residential and commercial clients across the country. The Lofings routinely test new technology and give input to manufacturers before the products go to market.

The American River Parkway is often called “the jewel” of the region, and for the past 50 years, the Save American River Parkway Association has been working to preserve it and encourage its use by local residents and tourists alike.

The nonprofit group has more than 600 members and keeps tabs on the 23-mile stretch of parkway, which hosts 5 million visitors each year doing everything from bicycling and running to boating.

Are there any other businesses that celebrated milestones this year? Let us know in the conversation below.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Hot Italian hosts second series of Savage Sprints

2011-12-27T01:04:37Z

For anyone wanting an energizing bike ride in January that won’t take them into the freezing winter cold, Hot Italian on 16th and Q streets has just the thing: Savage Sprints.

For the second year in a row, the Midtown restaurant is hosting a series of stationary bike races free to anyone who wants to show up and ride. The next racing event will be Jan. 8.

“They are small interval races of about 10 to 12 seconds (each),” Alisa Kuwabara, a supervisor at Hot Italian, said Friday. “It sounds short, but it’s really intense and gets your heart racing like crazy.”

The head-to-head races start with little kids on smaller bikes, and progress to adult races on larger bikes, Kuwabara said.

According to the Savage Sprints website, two or more competitors race side by side with a computer that calculates and displays the leader, the distance traveled, and the speed of each rider. The race distance is a simulated 250 meters and the fastest rider to the end of the distance wins.

The first races are for timing only – called “seeding” – to determine time brackets, the website states. Then the times are collected and the top 16 men and top 16 women advance to a normal bracket of eighth, quarter, semis and then to a final pair of racers to determine a winner.

All of the winners move on to championship brackets for the finale at the end of the season.

Steve Rex, owner of Rex Cycles in Sacramento, provides the stationary bikes for the races, and the series is set up in a bracket tournament schedule.

Kuwabara said racers of all ages are welcome to participate, and there are typically 40 to 50 riders racing each night of the series.

Participants really get into the race, Kuwabara said – some show up in their full cycling gear, and some even dress in costume for the occasion.

“We’ve had superheroes, nurses and all sorts of themes show up,” Kuwabara said. “People really have fun with it.”

According to Hot Italian co-owner Andrea Lepore, the races started after she saw a similar event at Rex Cycles a couple of years ago.

“I called (Rex) up and told him I thought having the races at our place would be great,” Lepore said. “He builds amazing bikes, and it looked like something people would really like to do.”

Winners are eligible for prizes such as T-shirts and other merchandise from Hot Italian, Lepore said, and Rex Cycles offers some merchandise prizes also.

“The Savage Sprints series are being held to raise awareness for the building of a velodrome here in Sacramento,” Lepore said.

A velodrome is a racing arena specifically for bicycles. The only other velodrome in northern California is in San Jose, Lepore said.

Representatives from the Sacramento Velodrome Association – a local nonprofit that initiated the project – were not immediately available for comment on this story.

“This is the second season we’ve had (Savage Sprints) at the restaurant, and it’s just gotten bigger and bigger,” Lepore said.

The number of competitors for each race is limited, Lepore said, and there are sometimes upwards of 150 to 200 spectators for each night of the series.

The next Savage Sprints will be Jan. 8 at Hot Italian. Signup for the races online at TimeYourRace.com, or on race day starting at 4 p.m. Racing will be from 5 - 7:30 p.m.

Hot Italian is sponsoring the races so no entry fee is required, however donations toward the velodrome project are welcome.

The remaining races will be held Jan. 22 and Feb. 5, and the tournament finale will be Feb. 19.

For more information about Savage Sprints and to pre-register for a racing spot, go to the race website.

More information about the velodrome project can be found here.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter with The Sacramento Press. follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

New Texas barbecue spot on Broadway

2011-12-22T08:57:49Z

T & R Taste of Texas opened on Broadway near 36th Street in late October, and Chef Rodney Ray said he thinks the barbecue restaurant will be able to last in the spot that has seen several businesses come and go in past years.

“It’s simple, good, home-cooked food,” he said Wednesday. “It’s great barbecue, and we don’t grill it – we smoke it.”

All meats are smoked a minimum of five hours in an on-site smoker, and four types of wood are used: apple, hickory, mesquite and cherry, Ray said. Meats and other ingredients come from local restaurant suppliers, and he added that he wants to work with farmers markets to bring in local produce during harvest season.

Ray, who is a longtime friend of owner Clarence Pughsley Jr., said he got much of his experience with barbecue cooking as a freelance chef – including time on cruise ships.

“I travel all over, and Sacramento has been my home base for the past 10 years,” he said. “I really like going to the Caribbean. They’ve got a lot of great barbecue there.”

Both Pughsley and Ray have Texas roots, and Ray said he likes the Texas style of barbecuing, with a heavy emphasis on ribs.

“Our pork ribs are our most popular,” he said. “We’re working on a boneless beef rib, too, and tri tip is really popular here.”

The 1,300-square-foot restaurant holds 30 people, and there are plans to build a patio starting in March or April. Prices range from $6 - $10 for meals, with a combination platter of two meat types with two sides for $7.99 available from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Before T & R, the space was briefly Johnny Broadway’s, another barbecue restaurant, Ray said.

Sides include coleslaw, barbecue beans, potato salad and tater tots.

In addition to walk-in dining, T & R also caters, and Ray said he can cook a multitude of types of food – not limited to barbecue.

“We’re a barbecue restaurant, but we can do a lot more,” he said.

Sandra VanHook, owner of the Images & Beyond sign-making and silk-screening business a block away, said she has eaten at T & R several times since its opening nine weeks ago.

“When I tasted their pulled-pork sandwich for the first time, it was really good,” she said. “I think it’s the first time I’ve tasted it done right, with coleslaw on top.”

She said she has liked all the food she has tried, including the pulled pork, fried wings and hot links.

“The hot-link sandwich is unusual, but delicious,” she said.

She added that the restaurant is a good addition to the area, with food options predominantly being fast food.

Norma Henderson, owner of the Norma J’s Place beauty salon less than a block away, said she thinks that once the restaurant gets established, it will help draw business to the area.

“It’s very good, and the hospitality is really nice,” she said. “I’m glad to see a business there.”

T & R Taste of Texas is located at 3621 Broadway. It is open from 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and on Sunday from noon until the customers stop coming in, Ray said.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Photo essay: Estelle's Patisserie

2011-12-21T08:39:56Z

French pastries arrived on the corner of Ninth and K streets Dec. 8 when Estelle’s Patisserie opened without fanfare to gauge the market before adjusting and doing a grand opening sometime in January.

“The customers have been so supportive,” said owner Esther Son, whose first name translates to Estelle in French. “I’ve owned other businesses, and this group down here is just so dynamic and supportive.”

The staff of about 12 starts baking as early as 3 a.m., and the bakery offers about 35 items – from fruit tarts, puff pastries and croissants to soups, sandwiches and baguettes.

Cream-filled puff pastries, raspberry and blueberry tarts, buttery croissants and Madeleines in various flavors from chocolate to poppyseed top the pastry selection. Also available are shortbread cookies, caprese sandwiches – tomato, mozzarella and basil on a baguette – and a host of soups and quiches.

All items are made in-house, including sauces.

The most popular items so far have been the croissant sandwiches and the puff pastries, Son said.

Danielle Blacet, a 35-year-old Folsom resident who works across the street from the bakery at a political trade association, said the tomato bisque soup was excellent and reason enough to go back.

“I’m glad to have something here again,” she said, noting that the space previously housed Danielle’s Creperie and La Bou. “People in our office like to try new things, and having this on K Street is great.”

Sacramento real estate developer Kipp Blewett, 46, said he had Estelle’s Patisserie cater an event for him, and he was pleased with the pastries, returning Tuesday afternoon for lunch.

“What Temple is to coffee, Esther (Son) is to pastries,” he said. “We have little pieces of Paris on K Street. Who would have thought?”

Teo Judal, a 65-year-old retired Woodland resident, said he came to the pastry shop looking for a rum baba – a pastry he said is hard to find in Sacramento – but wasn’t able to get one at Estelle’s Patisserie.

“I had the almond tart instead,” he said. “It was good, and I think they have a good location.”

Linda Anderson, a 63-year-old Sacramentan who works with Blacet, has been to the pastry shop multiple times.

“The potato leek soup was the best I’ve ever had, and I make it at home,” she said. “I also had the vegetable quiche, and the crust was impeccable. The quiche was a perfect consistency.”

She said the prices aren’t the cheapest – they range from $1 for a Madeleine cookie to about $4.50 for a fruit tart – but they are a good value for the quality.

“I had the shortbread cookie, and it was the perfect mix of flour, butter and sugar,” she said. “It’s really good, and you can tell they pay a lot of attention to detail.”

Son said she is building up a following for the catering side of the business, with free deliveries throughout downtown Sacramento for orders of $80 or more, and a fee of about $10 for orders less than $80.

The pastry shop is located at Ninth and K streets and is open from 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Indian restaurant opens on K Street in Midtown

2011-12-15T02:30:48Z

Indian cuisine arrived at the corner of 16th and K streets last week when Monsoon Indian Bar & Grill opened Dec. 8, and the response has been positive, co-owner Paul Singh said.

“I go to Yelp, and we’re getting reallygood reviews,” Singh said. “I think it’s a good barometer, and it also gives you feedback. People take the time to go and write, and I take them seriously, even though it’s only about 10 or so so far.”

Some of the most popular dishes so far, Singh said, are thechicken tikka masala, lamb Vindaloo and the samosa pakora appetizers – vegetarian-friendly pastry wraps of peas and rice.

“People are coming back for additional visits, and that gives me confidence,” Singh said.

Many of the nearby buildings house state offices, and some of those employees were in the restaurant for lunch on Wednesday.

“This is my first time trying Indian food,” said Nadine Jordan, a 50-year-old state employee from Sacramento. “It was an awesome experience. I’ve never tried it in my life, and it was absolutely good.”

Farzana Buksh, a 27-year-old state worker from Sacramento, is from an Indian background and said she thinks the food is authentic, though not necessarily what her mother would make at home.

“The food was really delicious,” she said. “I had the chicken tikka masala, and it was good.”

Erik Sweeting, a 28-year-old state worker from Rocklin, said he tried the mango prawns and enjoyed them as well as the naan.

“The service was very friendly,” he added. “I’ll definitely come back.”

Those unfamiliar with Indian cuisine are given samples of the food, Singh said. A new dish is in the works that will provide three samples of three different foods during lunchtime.

“We currently have a lunch deal that is very popular,” Singh said. “We call it the two for 20, and you get an appetizer, two meals of your choice, rice and naan bread for $20.”

Though the soft opening was last week, Singh said the grand opening will likely be the first week in January.

“We wanted to wait until after the holidays since everyone is so busy,” he said.

The interior décor, which Singh said he originally envisioned as being more traditional, is more modern – a result of the restaurant’s large window space.

Stockton-based interior designer Kathleen Jennison worked with Singh and his business partners.

“They wanted it to be Indian but also contemporary,” she said. “They were looking for a nightclub feel, but also a family-friendly atmosphere.”

Jennison said she wanted to evoke a sense of rain, given the restaurant’s name, and the gray and blue walls are accented by crystal light fixtures to give a feel of cloudiness with lightning. The concrete floors were polished to give a sense of shiny water.

One wall is red, which Jennison said is an homage to the colors of Indian spices.

Monsoon is open from 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

The Porch opens in old Celestin's spot

2011-12-14T02:21:24Z

The Porch, a southern-style restaurant, opened Thursday and is celebrating its grand opening this week in the space built to hold the popular Celestin’s Island Eats & Cajun Cuisine, which closed in September.

“We’ve had a really nice response,” said co-owner John Lopez. “Everyone has said good things so far, and we have several people who have been back multiple times.”

Popular food items include shrimp and grits, fried chicken, homemade brisket and a shrimp purloo – andouille sausage, bell peppers, onions, shrimp, rice, blue crab gravy and grilled chicken.

Customers familiar with the layout of Celestin’s will notice several differences in the remodeled space. The floor-to-ceiling walls have been chopped to much lower heights, giving the restaurant a more open, less-compartmentalized feel. Bamboo floors cover the entire dining area, and a faux fireplace on a wall adjacent to several faux windows looking out to a Charleston plantation’s grounds give the feeling of being in a southern home.

“We wanted to open it up and make it feel welcoming,” Lopez said. “We took one of the server stations and turned it into a 12-foot family table that people can reserve now.”

The restaurant can seat about 110 people inside, and the namesake front porch is still under construction, with work expected to wrap up within the next week.

“We have gas lamps, and it’s going to look like a porch with white pickets along the railing,” Lopez said.

Grand opening events with drink specials will be continuing through Friday, with representatives from vendors such as Sudwerk, Lagunitas and Big Sky Brewing Co. coming.

A cocktail menu was devised by a bartender the owners met on a research trip to Charleston, and there are 12 beers on tap.

The custom-built wooden back bar area is designed to show off the restaurant’s whiskey and bourbon selections, and Lopez said he plans to add tastings with several flights – multiple small samples – of the spirits in the coming weeks, as well as with beer and wine.

Much of the ingredients in the menu items are locally supplied, with fish coming from farms in Sloughouse, sandwich bread from Old Soul Bakery in Sacramento and cornmeal from Grass Valley Grains of Wheatland.

Lopez, who also co-owns the nearby Capitol Garage, said brunch will be added to The Porch in January, featuring southern fare, though the menu is still being determined.

Approximately 30 employees work at the new restaurant, including four of the employees from Celestin’s. When Celestin’s closed in September and the co-owner Phoebe Celestin agreed to lease the space to The Porch, she said the new restaurateurs’ willingness to interview her former staffers made her happy.

Gregg Hill, a 47-year-old software developer from Rocklin, said during lunchtime Tuesday that the barbecue pork sandwich was good.

“The restaurant is big, and it’s nice and clean,” he said.

Another diner who stopped in for lunch was 32-year-old state worker Bentley Jorgenson of Sacramento.

“I liked to eat at Celestin’s, and I was sad to see it go,” he said. “(The Porch) is great. I was amazed with how they redid this place. It looks great.”

The Porch is located at 1815 K St. and is open from 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and from 11 a.m. - midnight Thursday through Saturday. The “social hour” is from 3 - 6 p.m. daily and includes $1-off drink specials.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Baking with heart, one cookie at a time

2011-12-12T05:34:07Z

For the holidays, Plates Cafe and Catering is serving Christmas cookies, baked and prepared by the women in St. John's Shelter Program for Women and Children.

St. John's provides shelter, education and childcare to homeless women with children.
As part of the shelter's six- to 12-month training program, Plates Cafe and Catering, located at 14 Business Parkway, serves as an on-the-job training site for the shelter, where the women perform restaurant positions such as cooks, waitresses and hostesses, Stuart Edgcombe, 46, Chef at Plates Cafe and Catering, said.

"It's more than just cooking," Edgcombe said. "It's teaching them life lessons."

Teresa Kamekona, 39, said her experience at Plates Cafe and Catering taught her to be accountable, manage her time better and work with other people again, but most of all regain her self-esteem.

"It felt good to be needed," Kamekona, a recent graduate of the training program, said. She said, people depended on her, which pushed her to do her best.

"You can see the joy in the women's eyes as they learn cooking skills from Chef Stu," Pasta Queen owner Susan Korec, 52, said. While renting space for her pasta business at Plates, she has seen how the women work on various kitchen tasks, Korec said.

Pasta Queen's products are also sold at the store, with parts of the proceeds going back to the training program.

Edgcombe said he and trainee Monica Ward, 37, came out with a list of different cookies that remind them of their childhood Christmas memories.

"It's a great experience for the girls to make all these different cookies," Edgcombe said. "It's another activity they can be exposed to, be responsible for and be a part of."

The Christmas cookies featured are Mexican wedding, ginger snap, chewy sugar, thumb print and chocolate chip. He said their chocolate cookie is available year-round, and is one the bestselling items in the store.

"It's the All-American cookie," Edgcombe said. "It does not matter if it is Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving."

He said they included the ginger snap cookie because, like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, it is associated with and the holidays.

"The bite of molasses and ginger says Christmas to me," Edgcombe said. He said that these cookies, because of their “snap” or crisp, are best paired with coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

Out of the five Christmas cookies, the chewy sugar cookie, he said, is the most Christmas-styled with its red, green and white sugar sprinkles.

"What makes our cookies special goes beyond the dough, sugar, chocolate chips, ginger or any of the other ingredients," Edgcombe said. "It represents memories of Christmas past."

All of the proceeds from the Christmas cookie sale, like their other products at Plates Cafe and Catering, go toward the St. John's Shelter Program for Women and Children.

The Christmas cookies, can be ordered through their website, and will be available for pickup starting Dec. 19.

Prices for the cookies are still to be determined and will be posted on their site.

Plates Cafe and Catering, which opened June last year, also serves lunch Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Sacramento Press on 'Insight'

2011-12-07T02:02:03Z

City Council election drama, a potential swap of high school campuses, new businesses and two Sacramento Press contests were all topics I discussed with Jeffrey Callison Tuesday morning on Capital Public Radio’s “Insight” program.

Elections are quite a ways away, but the District 2 City Council race is already heating up as some accuse candidate Kim Mack of using an email list from her time working on the Obama campaign to push for a Strong Mayor initiative for Mayor Kevin Johnson. Mack denies sharing the email list with the Strong Mayor backers. Read more by clicking here.

Another contentious issue in the city right now has to do with education – more specifically education facilities. The Sacramento City Unified School District board floated the idea of swapping Sacramento Charter High School and West Campus – two high schools that sit about two miles apart. Proponents say moving the public West Campus school to the old Sacramento High School facility – which now houses the charter school – would provide a pedestrian-friendly comprehensive school for the area. Opponents say there is no reason to swap them, and moving schools will only put a different set of students in an inadequate facility.

As the ongoing Occupy Sacramento movement stays in the news, one Sacramento Press reader asked Sacramento Police Officer Michelle Lazark in her weekly column about the difference between camping in Cesar Chavez Plaza and in front of stores for deals. Lazark replied that police enforce the no-camping ordinance on public property, but typically don’t do so on private property unless business owners ask them to or there are “No Loitering” signs posted.

A pair of coffee roasters with about a decade of experience each are opening Insight Coffee Roasters, a new coffee bar and roasting house in Southside Park. The duo plans to focus on sustainable coffee, working directly with growers in Latin America and selling only organic milk and sugar in their drinks.

The old Fog Mountain Cafe business in the City Hall Garage will soon be replaced by a barbecue eatery: Big Joe’s BBQ. Fog Mountain closed in April, and the city forgave some of the lease in order to bring Big Joe’s on as soon as possible.

Bringing as much comedy as drama, Sacra-Melo – a musical theater parody group – opened on the Delta King in Old Sacramento in late September. Actors don’t stay strictly to the script, but interact with the audience and work with piano accompaniment to give a show the owners say is unique in the area.

Finally, a pair of contests on The Sacramento Press gives readers the chance to be more interactive with the site and earn some prizes at the same time. “To Catch an Error” is in its second month and gives readers the chance to help us improve the quality of content on the site. For more information on how you can take part – and win a meal at Zócalo – click here. The second contest is the third annual Journalism Open, which runs for the month of January. Is there something you think should be in the news? You have the chance to put it there and win prizes – with the first place winner taking home $600. For more details and rules, click here.

Man on the Street: business after cars on K

2011-12-07T01:50:25Z

It’s been almost one month since cars returned to K Street between Eighth and 12th streets, and The Sacramento Press asked business owners and managers on the former pedestrian mall if they have observed any differences as a result.

To read about the reopening of the K Street Mall to vehicular traffic, click here.

Larry Bethune, 25-year-old shift leader at Quiznos, 902 K St.

“I think it allows a lot more people to know about the different restaurants on K Street,” Bethune said. “It hasn’t increased business yet because there’s nowhere to park. There’s a lot about a block from here with purple fence around it. If they turned that into a parking lot, then having cars on the street would turn into a really great idea.”

Veni Sharma, 63-year-old co-owner of DeRow & Sharma Clothier & Tailors, 916 K St.

“It’s too early to tell, but it’s improved a little bit,” Sharma said. “People are still learning they can drive down here. It’s a positive thing.”

Chuck Karajeh, 51-year-old owner of Midtown Market, 1026 K St.

“There’s been no change so far,” Karajeh said. “I don’t think it’s going to change anything. To me, well, I’ve been here a long time. I don’t think people are going to stop, and there’s no parking. If they had street parking, it would help.”

Chris Dooley, 32-year-old bar manager at Ella Dining Room & Bar, 1131 K St.

“We’re still doing the same, but we have always had a street with cars on it, since we’re on the corner (of 12th and K streets),” Dooley said. “For some, I’m sure bringing cars back has increased business. It definitely makes the street more approachable to pedestrians and families, so it’s more accessible now.”

Jesse Lua, 29-year-old manager of Blimpie Subs & Salads, 1023 K St.

“There’s been no change,” Lua said. “It really hasn’t gotten any traffic at all. I don’t think it’ll do anything without parking. The only traffic I’ve seen is maybe some cabs, but there hasn’t been an accident yet.”

Sid Garcia-Heberger, 46-year-old general manager of the Crest Theatre, 1013 K St.

“I’m seeing increased activity on the street,” Garcia-Heberger said. “Most of the increased activity is on the weekends and at night. I think people are still getting used to it. Once more people know about it, I think it will really help.”

What is your perception of the changes to K Street over the past month, since cars were allowed. Have you driven down the former pedestrian mall? Let us know in the conversation below.

Freshii closes, reopens as Fresca Deli

2011-11-29T01:52:06Z

Freshii, a health-conscious walk-up eatery located at 400 Q St., morphed into Fresca Deli over the holiday weekend in a move the owner said is meant to appeal more to the people who dine in the area.

“Ultimately, that concept didn’t suit the demographic of this area,” said co-owner Eric Heffel, explaining that the adjacent cafeteria in the CalPERS building is always full.

“What we’ve started doing is more sandwiches and hearty soups, but we still have healthy options here,” he added.

The interior looks similar, although Freshii signage has been removed.

At Freshii, customers filled out menu cards to make custom food items, or they could choose from a list. Fresca Deli uses a more standard menu.

The same staff is making the food, and some items, such as the pozole soup and a quesadilla, are their creations. The rest of the recipes came from Heffel’s co-owner, Larry Shield.

“He’s kind of a Texas boy,” Heffel said. “He went back to his roots.”

Grilled cheese with a choice of meats, chicken salad sandwiches, roast beef sandwiches and even a hot meatloaf sandwich are all on the menu. Sandwiches range in price from $4.50 to $8.50, and all are offered as combo meals with soup or sides such as potato salad and coleslaw.

“Nothing on the menu is over 10 bucks, even the combos,” Heffel said. “We had to be really conscious of competing with the cafeteria. We want to provide better food for the same or better price.”

Wraps, grilled burritos, salads and soups are also available, and all the food is purchased from local wholesalers. The Yogurtagogo frozen yogurt is still available.

Soups include pozole – a traditional Mexican soup, cream of tomato basil, Asian lemongrass, and shrimp and corn chowder.

Freshii was open for about eight months, and Heffel said the revenue projections have shown for some time that the concept didn’t work out for the location.

Customers entering the new space, he said, will see a completely different menu, but if they look closer, they will see influences from Freshii.

“We still use brown rice for all of our bowls and our wraps, and we have a number of salads available,” Heffel said.

Monday was the first day the rebranded business was open, and Heffel said it was too soon to determine its success.

“We won’t know until people start coming back,” he said. “Most of our business is to-go orders, so we will see what the feedback is.”

In addition to serving the largely state-employed lunch crowd, Heffel said he wants to make Fresca Deli a local hangout.

With that goal in mind, he brought in a Foosball table, is showing the American Film Institute’s Top 100 films on a TV and, like he did when it was Freshii, will be featuring live local music on the patio.

“When the weather was warmer, we had blues jam sessions every Thursday night for about four months,” he said. “We will be bringing back more local music once it warms up again.”

Heffel said the break from Freshii was straightforward, with no major problems. For a time, catering will not be available, but he said that will change once the deli gets up and running.

The work done over the weekend largely consisted of reorganizing the kitchen area and making sure that the new food being offered could be produced efficiently.

People eating at the restaurant on Monday afternoon said they found it to be convenient and affordable.

“I haven’t tried (Freshii) for a long time, but I like this,” said Amil Chandrasekara, a 40-year-old CalPERS employee. “The price is good, and the food is good.”

Roxane Divol, a 39-year-old consultant from San Francisco, said the prices are good, and the deli is another option for those looking to eat in the area.

“It’s a regular deli,” she said. “It’s nothing fantastic, but the prices are good and it’s convenient.”

Fresca Deli, located at 400 Q St., is open from 7 a.m. - 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Monsoon to bring Indian cuisine to 16th and K

2011-11-28T05:41:56Z

Monsoon Indian Bar & Grill is scheduled to open the first week of December in the building at 16th and K streets that formerly housed Spin Burger Bar and Bistro 33.

“It’s going to be fresh food, prepared daily,” said co-owner Chan Singh. “This is Indian food where we use spices to enhance the flavors of the food, not overkill it.”

Singh, originally from Delhi, India, came to North America in the 1990s, getting into the restaurant business in Toronto, Canada, opening his original Monsoon location.

Singh said his business in Toronto is well-run by his managers, allowing him to come to Sacramento and focus on the new venture.

In India, the monsoon season typically lasts from June to September, and it’s a special time, according to Singh.

“It’s considered to be kind of a romantic time in India,” he said. “You have five to six months of 100-plus temperatures, and then the monsoon comes, and it really brings everything to life and cools down. People love to go out and have fun and eat.”

The restaurant, which will be open seven days per week, will serve lunch and dinner and have a full bar. A limited late-night menu will be available after about 10 p.m., and Indian-themed cocktails will be available as well, Singh said.

The food will be traditional Indian, served to Singh’s specifications.

“It’s going to be the kind of food I like to eat,” he said. “If I wouldn’t want to eat it, why would I serve it?”

Chicken Vindaloo, a spicy dish from the Goa region; Kerala fish, a fish topped with coconut sauce, peppercorns and curry leaves; chicken tikka masala, roasted chicken in a curry sauce; and numerous other dishes including shrimp and salmon will be available.

In addition, there will be a variety of what Singh said are more modern dishes in India, including a dish with chicken atop a coconut chickpea sauce and lamp chops in a creamy curry sauce.

A range of vegetarian items will be available as well.

Full menu details are still being worked out, as is the cocktail selection. Prices for food will range from around $10 for vegetarian items to $12 - $15 for non-vegetarian items. The lunch menu will be less-expensive, with food running from about $8 - $10.

The 2,800-square-foot restaurant will seat about 95 people inside, and the existing patio will be retained.

Most recently, the space held Spin Burger Bar, which evolved from Bistro 33.

“We originally wanted to decorate it in a traditional Indian way, but when we saw the building, it’s very modern, so we will have a more modern influence,” Singh said.

Some of the décor will be paintings imported from India.

While Singh is not a Sacramentan, he said he will be living here for the foreseeable future as the restaurant gets started, and he has two local partners.

“We were looking in Roseville, but when we saw that this space was available, we knew we had to come here. I don’t think there is anything else like this around here.”

Jennifer Young, a 41-year-old state worker from Sacramento who works in the area, said the restaurant will be a nice complement to the area.

“I like curry,” she said Wednesday afternoon. “I’ll definitely try it out.”

Young said that, with numerous state office buildings in the area, affordable food will likely be key to staying in business.

Another nearby state worker, 27-year-old Abby Eddy of Sacramento, said she thinks the corner location is the perfect spot for a restaurant, and it will be successful if it provides a good late-night option for diners and those looking for drinks.

“I’ll definitely give it a shot,” she said.

Monsoon Indian Bar & Grill, 1020 16th St., is scheduled to be open from 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Sunday.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

New East Sac deli pleases locals

2011-11-23T03:58:43Z

East Sacramento’s month-old Juno’s Kitchen & Delicatessen focuses on serving sustainable food out of a small space with a name inspired by a unique dog.

“Juno is a very unusual dog,” owner Mark Helms said of the pit bull/bull terrier mix. “She likes to swim underwater; she likes to carry around sticks that are like twice her weight. She’s an extreme athlete.”

Helms and his wife, Susan Vasques, opened Juno’s, located at 3617 J St., at the end of October, mere months after selling their restaurant in The Pocket, Ravenous Cafe.

They sold the upscale American-style restaurant to be closer to home, Helms said.

“I always wanted to have a place where bread was kind of the focus,” Helms said, explaining that most of the bread products are made in-house in a pizza oven that was already installed in the 1,100-square-foot space. They are then sliced on one of his prized possessions: an electric bread slicer that dates back to the 1940s.

The shop offers a wide range of sandwiches for lunch and dinner, including Vietnamese-style banh mi pork sandwiches, steak sandwiches, salmon sandwiches and grilled burgers. Also on the menu are dishes such as couscous.

Ingredients are grown locally, and nitrate-free meats and cage-free eggs are used. All sauces are made fresh in-house as well.

“That’s really important to me,” Helms said. “We don’t want to have a bunch of processed food in here. We’re serving something that’s really higher-end, but at a more reasonable price.”

Sandwiches range from $8 - $12, and Helms said he expects to bring in some new dishes in the near future, including scallops with curry served on bread.

Helms said the pizza oven – a leftover from when the space was Pizza Guys – allows him to bake airy bread, since it can cook with steam.

The bread is one thing customers eating at the deli took notice of Tuesday afternoon.

Sarah Miles, a 38-year-old registered nurse from Curtis Park, said the baguette on her steak sandwich was perfect.

“Sometimes baguettes are too hard, but this one was perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside,” she said. “The meat is really tender, and the mushrooms are like butter in your mouth.”

Miles was brought to the restaurant by her friend, 52-year-old Rose Varesio, an instructor at Sacramento State.

Varesio, however, praised the fact that there wasn’t any bread on her sandwich.

“I don’t eat gluten, and I don’t eat pork,” she said. “My banh mi doesn’t have bread or meat, and I really like it that way. They’ll work with you to make you exactly what you want, whether it’s vegan or gluten-free or whatever.”

Though without bread the sandwich was directly on the plate, Varesio said it was still very tasty.

She added that she lives nearby and has already picked it out as a favorite where she takes her friends.

“I love this place,” she said.

Helms, 44, said he has lived in the area for more than 20 years, and the response from customers has been better than he expected, with more than 200 people coming in one day – a surprise for a place that seats 12 people inside and 12 more on the patio.

“I wanted to set this up to be available for a lot of takeout,” he said, adding that the business is also available for catering.

Julie Holt, a 46-year-old Sacramento City College professor from the Arden area, came to Juno’s with her parents for her birthday Tuesday.

“It was amazing,” she said, adding that she had a burger with caramelized onions and Manchego cheese, a style from central Spain. “The bun was great, and it was the perfect size – not too much and not too little.”

The restaurant is currently open from 11:30 a.m. - 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, though that might change as business demands, Helms said.

“I’ve been a chef all my life,” Helms said. “This is my life, and it’s what I want to do. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

Editorial Note: Spelling corrections have been made to this story. Rose Varesio's name has been corrected.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

The influence of Yelp on Sacramento restaurants

2011-11-21T00:35:30Z

With 2,624 Sacramento restaurants reviewed on Yelp, the capital city has thousands of restaurant-goers using Yelp to share their dining experiences with others. A recent study done by Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Michael Luca found that local restaurants increase revenue 5 to 9 percent per star they gain on Yelp.

The Sacramento Press wanted to see if this finding held true for restaurants in the central city. Comments and ratings on Yelp appear to make a big difference, but Sacramento restaurant owners and managers say they aren’t so sure.

Luca combined data on Seattle restaurant revenues that he collected from the Washington State Department of Revenue and Yelp ratings of the restaurants in his sample and found that no matter the type of restaurant, as long as it was not a chain, revenue increases correspond to ratings on Yelp.

Sacramento seems to have a mixed bag of restaurant owners and managers who agree and disagree with the findings of the study. Restaurants vary in both the attention they pay to their Yelp scores as well as the significance they believe the scores have on overall revenue and the quality of the reviews themselves.

“We email our customers who leave negative reviews on Yelp. It gives us an opportunity to rectify situations that do sometimes unfortunately happen,” said Mathew Parker, general manager of 58 Degrees & Holding Co. “We have had people sit in our restaurant and Yelp us at the same time. The good comes with the bad on Yelp.... I bet Yelp ratings do affect our revenue, but I am not exactly sure how.”

Sacramento restaurant owners and managers who avidly follow their Yelp scores tend to agree that not every comment and star rating is accurate but there can be helpful critiques that are worth looking at.

“When we first opened, we checked it every day,” said Ryan Pierini, general manager of BarWest. “We definitely pay attention to Yelp and it most often supports the feedback we already get from our customers in person. We do have to take some Yelp reviews with a grain of salt.”

BarWest has made some menu changes since first opening. Fries coming with burgers is one of those changes.

“The complaints on Yelp were consistent with the complaints we had heard in person about fries not coming on the side of burgers,” said Pierini. “Yelp helps support what we already know and so we can make changes.”

Now, burgers at BarWest include fries on the side.

Luca’s study found that, by 2009, Yelp had provided the broadest review coverage of Seattle’s restaurants, supplying reviews for 69 percent of all the city’s eating establishments.

“We know that people are aware of our score and that it affects their perception of the restaurant,” said Noe Hernandez, general manager of Zócalo. “We don’t see people coming in though and telling us that they came to Zócalo based on our ratings or a reviews that they read on Yelp.”

Some Sacramento restaurant owners and managers question if people choose a restaurant based on reviews at all or if customers just hear of a restaurant because they Yelped for places near them with good food.

“We follow our Yelp score, but we haven’t found that it affects our revenue. Rarely do I hear anything about the score of the restaurant, but I do hear about people finding out about us on Yelp,” said Aziz Bellarbi-Salah, manager at Aioli Bodega Española.

Different restaurants have expressed differing opinions on the importance of either star ratings overall or individual comments.

“We typically check up on comments when we look at Yelp, but we don’t pay too much attention to ratings. We pay more attention to individual comments and reviews and take that as constructive criticism,” said Michael Ng, general manager at OneSpeed.

Manager Mathew Parker of 58 Degrees & Holding Co. disagreed.

“The words and star ratings do not always match up,” Parker said. “People can post really inaccurate reviews that have nothing to do with a business and are just looking to complain. Yelp only shows a general trend of a restaurant through star ratings.”

Some Sacramento restaurant owners don’t believe that Yelp makes much of a difference in consumer choice and don’t spend any time looking at Yelp.

“We don’t pay attention to Yelp at all. We don’t really care about it,” said David English, owner and chef of The Press. “We may have guests come in because of Yelp, but how it correlates to revenue and if it makes any difference overall, I don’t know.”

Sacramento restaurant owners and managers are uncertain of the effects of Yelp ratings on revenue, but what does seem to be agreed upon is that Yelp is a force that is difficult to measure, and they are undecided about how important Yelp scores actually are. If Sacramento restaurant managers and owners pay attention to Yelp or not, Yelp is actively growing in both popularity and restaurant coverage.

The Sacramento Press took to the streets to find out when and how people are using Yelp, if they consider the reviews on Yelp to be trustworthy, and whether the website is as influential as some predict in shaping consumer decisions in Sacramento.

Kenny Truong, a 29-year-old Elk Grove resident who works for the California Department of Health Care Services, said that he mainly uses Yelp to identify restaurants before trying them out.

Though he’s never written a Yelp review, Truong said he’d be likely to if he had an extremely positive experience at a business or restaurant.

Truong said he tends to stay away from businesses that get consistently poor reviews, but otherwise his decision to try out a new place is not highly affected by the number of stars on a restaurant’s profile.

“Most of the time I give businesses the benefit of the doubt because people have different tastes,” Truong said.

Amanda Moore, 23, is a human resources administrative assistant in Midtown. While she said she often uses Yelp to find new restaurants, she has also written approximately 15 reviews on the website.

“I’m most likely to go on Yelp when I’m happy with a business or when I’m seriously dissatisfied,” Moore said.

Jonathan Williams said he was inspired to write his first Yelp review after a positive experience with a new veterinarian he found on the website.

Williams, a 56-year-old volunteer at the Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Center, said he uses Yelp frequently and tends to favor businesses with the most stars.

Williams said he likes to do a lot of research before trying out something new and has found Yelp to be a fairly accurate tool in the process. So far, he said, he’s never gone to a highly rated restaurant or busines and disliked it.

Consumers should be cautious when using information found on the Internet, Williams noted. But he also said he has found most Yelp reviews to be trustworthy.

Clark Paramo, a 22-year-old student at Sacramento City College, said he mainly uses Yelp to see what others have said about restaurants and businesses he’s been to.

“I like to read the funny negative reviews,” Paramo said.

Though he’s never written a review himself, Paramo said he does have friends who use their smartphones to access Yelp and post comments while sitting at a restaurant.

Paramo said he finds that the majority of reviews accurately reflect the quality of restaurants and businesses he’s been to.

Dean Goding, 44, of West Sacramento, said he became familiar with Yelp through his job. Goding works at Mike’s Bikes on I Street in Sacramento, and he said he often checks the website to see what customers are saying about the shop.

While he encourages customers to comment on their experience, Goding said he thinks that others might use Yelp to purposefully hurt rival businesses by posting negative reviews, which decreases the credibility of ratings.

Goding said he also uses Yelp to check out new restaurants and tends to avoid the poorly rated ones. He has never written a review, and he said he prefers to show his support for a businesses in person.

“If I like a place, I’ll go back,” Goding said.

Kelly Priley, 31, is a mother and skincare products saleswoman. She said that she has found Yelp reviews helpful for researching service companies such as spas and salons.

Priley said she uses Yelp both before and after trying out a business, but that ratings don’t necessarily deter her from going someplace new.

“I’m pretty optimistic and open to trying things,” Priley said. “Maybe I’d be prone to go sooner or be more excited about a place with a higher rating, but I mostly use Yelp as a reference.”

Priley said she has submitted a few reviews but prefers reading other people’s comments to writing comments herself. If she likes a business, Priley said, she’s more likely to tell friends and use word-of-mouth advertising to share the news.

Overall, Yelp appears to be a popular reference regardless if a user submits a review. Though some admit to having reservations about the accuracy of reviews posted on Yelp, the simple star rating system helps consumers to at least identify businesses that might be worth a visit.

Is Yelp an effective tool for restaurant hunters and a financial benefit to businesses alike? Do you use Yelp, and if so, does it influence your choices as a consumer? Please share your comments below.

Margaret Hoyer contributed to this article.

Ruhstaller beer makes Sacramento comeback

2011-11-16T05:49:27Z

A Sacramento entrepreneur is looking to bridge past and present with the resurrection of one of Sacramento’s most-recognized names in beer: Ruhstaller.

J-E Paino, a native San Franciscan who grew up in Houston before moving to Davis for college, settled on the idea of marketing new, California-grown and brewed beer under the classic Ruhstaller name about two years ago, and he officially launched the product Tuesday night at Mulvaney’s B&L, 1215 19th St.

“As I researched Sacramento’s brewing history, the guy that kept coming up over and over again was Ruhstaller,” Paino said Monday.

Frank Ruhstaller left Switzerland for the United States in the mid-1800s, and he made his way to Sacramento, setting up his brewery in the old City Brewery in 1881, Paino said. Shortly after, he became a partner in the Buffalo Brewery.

William Burg, a member of the Sacramento Heritage Board of Directors and other local historical societies, said the Buffalo Brewery was a virtual “Who’s Who” of prominent Sacramento brewers.

“Ruhstaller’s son took over his business and may have run (the Buffalo Brewery) for a while,” Burg said. He added that Ruhstaller was adept at marketing – producing numerous novelty items, plates, mugs and other beer-related merchandise that remain highly collectible today.

Paino said Sacramento was a natural site for brewing around the turn of the century, with hops growing from the area of Campus Commons out to Sloughouse, and the rivers provided ready access to ship all over the region as well as Asia.

Under Paino’s ownership, Ruhstaller is produced in two varieties – the Ruhstaller 1881 and Hop Sac ’11.

“The 1881 is a California red ale,” Paino said, explaining that all the hops are grown in California near the Oregon border. Without any malting houses in California, the undried hops are shipped to Vancouver, Wash., malted, and returned to Sacramento for brewing.

According to Paino, using the hops without drying them gives the beer a unique flavor. Much like wine, in which the drinker can taste the variation in each vintage based on weather conditions, soil and a number of other factors, the 1881 ale gets a unique flavor from California.

The Hop Sac ’11 is an orange-colored ale also made with California hops. Paino said the name is an homage to Sacramento’s history of harvesting hops, which were placed in burlap sacks.

The recipes are not the same as the originals, Paino said, since the original recipes were far different from what is popular today.

Paino said he has been producing the beer for about four months, and he has had to brew it at local breweries – including Hoppy Brewing Co. – when they have space, as he does not yet have a commercial facility.

Patrick Mulvaney, owner of Mulvaney’s B&L restaurant, said Ruhstaller beers have been the most-asked-for brews he carries at the restaurant.

The beers, so far only available on tap, can be found at several local eateries. For a complete list, click here.

Tyler Zurcher, a 31-year-old Sacramento filmmaker, said he was well aware of the Ruhstaller name, having studied Sacramento’s brewing history.

“J-E said he was going to bring back Ruhstaller, and I said, ‘Great, can I try it?’ and it was really good,” Zurcher said. “It’s a unique name that these guys brought back, and I think it’s awesome that they’re doing that.”

Burg said that, from a historian’s standpoint, he is happy to see more interest in an era of Sacramento history that is often overlooked.

“There were 17 or so breweries within the grid, total, before Prohibition,” he said. “People are realizing our history is marketable. For a long time, people assumed no one would have any interest after the Gold Rush and the Transcontinental Railroad, but there is a rich industrial history here.”

Rob Robertson, a 35-year-old software developer from Sacramento, said he isn’t familiar with the history, but he found it interesting after reading a little bit about it on the Ruhstaller website.

“So far, this beer has been at really all the premium places, and it’s really tasty and hoppy,” he said. “It’s hoppalicious.”

Paino said he is happy with the popularity of the beer, with demand outpacing supply. He plans to begin offering the beer in a bottle, possibly in 2012, in addition to kegs.

“When Ruhstaller came to Sacramento, it was a place where you didn’t need to be someone to become someone,” Paino said. “And that’s something that hasn’t changed.”

For more information about Sacramento’s brewing history, Paino and Burg said Ed Carroll’s book, “Sacramento’s Breweries” is a good read.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Local blog tracks restaurants, happy hours

2011-11-11T19:23:33Z

When Darrel Ng moved to Sacramento from San Francisco in 2003, he made it a point to learn where the best happy hour deals were, and as he took more and more interest in the local restaurant scene, he decided to share his findings, launching the blog Cowtown Eats in 2009.

“I used to work at the Capitol, and we were always asking each other who had the best happy hours,” Ng said. “Most of us were from out of town, and it was frustrating trying to find the best value.”

Now a public relations professional for the health industry, Ng said his blog isn’t so much a source of income as a passion for the local dining scene, but he did say it helps fund his happy hour research trips.

Cowtown Eats, which now has about 35,000 page views per month and close to 8,000 unique visitors, has continually updated information about the local restaurant scene, be it Ng’s original writing, posting of daily deal coupons for restaurants or links to stories covered by various local media outlets.

“I post twice a day, and I spend about 45 minutes each night working on those, then I just schedule them for the next day,” Ng said.

As for the name, Ng said he wanted to take the traditionally negative connotation of Sacramento as a “cow town” and turn it into something positive.

One 23-year-old Sacramentan, Chris Odneal, took a path similar to Ng’s, moving to Sacramento from the Bay Area about a year ago to work in the Capitol.

“Most of us move up here from all over the state, and we were looking for places to go,” Odneal said. “Someone suggested Cowtown Eats to me, and we found it to be one of the most useful spots for compiling where all the happy hours are in Sacramento.”

Odneal said he uses it to find happy hours with good value when it comes time to celebrate birthdays or other events.

“It’s a great tool for folks moving into Sacramento and trying to figure out where the best places are,” he said. “You can click on a day of the week and find the best deals out there.”

Ng said he thinks the success of his blog – which lists between 100 and 150 happy hours – is due to the level of detail he provides.

“Some other blogs might have numbers, like they say a certain place carries domestic drafts for $2, but I say exactly which beers they have,” Ng said. “They might do it as a business, but I have a real passion for it, and I think that comes through.”

He added that he focuses on value. While a $2 happy hour deal might sound good, sometimes the food isn’t necessarily worth it, and maybe a $30 meal special at a place that’s traditionally more expensive is a much higher value for the dollar.

Reviewing restaurants is something he does rarely.

“Not everyone has the same palate, and besides, food review sites are a dime a dozen,” Ng said. “If I find something amazing, I’ll post about it, like maybe a seasonal burger at the Mini Burger Truck or something.”

Ng said he learns about new events in a variety of ways, be it simply walking around the city, talking to restaurant owners and workers, or, in some cases, hearing directly from restaurants themselves.

“Some of the ones with more sophisticated marketing teams send me emails when they have something new,” Ng said.

One of those is the Paragary Restaurant Group.

“I think he has a really good readership of kind of that foodie community,” said Callista Wengler, marketing director for the Paragary Restaurant Group. “For us, that’s the ultimate in terms of customers, because if you can get the foodies, there’s a whole network you want to reach out to.”

In addition to sharing ideas with Ng on a professional level, Wengler said she frequently reads Cowtown Eats when she’s looking for something new, as well as to learn about other restaurants.

In the future, Ng said, he plans to create a more permanent logo and updated design for the blog, but he has no specific timeframe for that.

“I’m still kind of surprised so many people read it,” he said with a laugh. “I never knew it would grow like it did, but I’m really enjoying it.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

French pastry shop coming to K Street downtown

2011-11-11T01:20:54Z

French desserts will once again be available at the corner of Ninth and K streets downtown as the owner of a popular East Sacramento cupcake shop plans to open Estelle’s Patisserie on Dec. 1 in the building that formerly housed Danielle’s Creperie.

“This has been my lifelong passion,” said owner Esther Son. “I’ve always dreamed of owning a bakery, ever since I was a little girl.”

Though not traditionally trained as a baker, Son said she considers herself self-taught, and she has extensive experience in coming up with recipes and tweaking them until they’re perfect.

Her cupcake shop, Esther’s Cupcakes, has been in business at 2600 Fair Oaks Blvd. for two years.

“We were always coming downtown because we had a lot of clients at the Capitol,” she said. “The politicians and the lobbyists would bring in our cupcakes for gifts at fundraisers, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used to order from us.”

The pastry shop, however, will have a much broader set of goods. Some of the menu items include French macarons, croissants, green tea madeleines, fresh strawberry cakes, puff pastries, French baguettes and even sandwiches such as ham and cheese on a croissant.

Fruit tarts and quiches loaded with vegetables will also be available, and coffee from Temple Coffee will be sold.

Most desserts will be in the $3-$4 range, and Son said customers will be able to get lunch and a drink for about $8.

Though Son is Korean-American, she said she chose to focus on French desserts, starting at the roots, and then modifying them with Asian and American influences.

“The root of all dessert and pastry making is French,” Son said. “Not that American, Asian or Italian styles aren’t as good, but I wanted to go back to the roots and then improvise.”

The name Estelle, she said, is the French version of Esther, so it was a natural choice.

A self-described perfectionist, Son said she and her staff – the patisserie will employ about 10 workers – spent six months perfecting the croissant.

“We boast of our butter croissants,” she said. “We don’t buy pre-mixed or frozen croissants. It’s 100 percent homemade, and there are not many of those in town. It’s really flaky and buttery.”

With a husband who is a physician, Son said that even though her business has a variety of desserts, being health-conscious is still important.

“We need to educate people on what good dessert is,” she said. “Some people are used to Twinkies, and they are so unnaturally sweet and oily, but a dessert doesn’t have to be overwhelming.”

To get away from processed foods and make even a buttery croissant more healthy than the alternative, Son said she focuses on using high-quality ingredients bought from local sources whenever possible.

“We avoid shortening and corn syrup,” she said. “It’s hard to say dessert is healthy, but you can work on it by reducing those kinds of ingredients.”

Also available will be diabetic-friendly and vegan items. There will also be “almost-gluten-free” items, and Son explained that to legally call something gluten-free, it must be produced on separate equipment, which is something she isn’t set up to do.

One of the clients of her other business, Esther’s Cupcakes, is the J. Crew store in Arden Fair Mall.

“We use Esther for her cupcakes for special events for our store clients,” said Manager Sophie Pena. “Her cupcakes are a special, unique treat. They look amazing; they taste amazing. You just look at them, and you can tell they’re hers.”

Pena said she is looking forward to going down to the patisserie and trying Son’s other baked goods once it opens.

The building, at 901 K St., was formerly Danielle’s Creperie. At 3,000 square feet, it has a seating area of about 1,000 square feet that can hold 25-30 people. A few more tables will be put on the fenced-in patio that fronts K Street.

K Street will open to vehicular traffic for the first time since the 1960s on Saturday, and Son said that was one of the reasons she chose to open a downtown location.

“I’m really excited to see the city and urban life turn around, and I want to be a part of this,” she said. “If I can make a little change to the downtown lifestyle, I’ll be so honored.”

That sentiment, according to Downtown Sacramento Partnership Business Recruitment Director Valerie Mamone-Werder, is key to turning around the blighted K Street area that has seen improvement over the past year with the opening of numerous new businesses, including Tequila Museo Myahuel and the nightlife trio of Pizza Rock, District 30 and Dive Bar.

“I think that getting these tenants, these merchants and retailers that really get downtown is refreshing,” she said. “We have a lot of naysayers, but we have people who see downtown for what it is and can be, and she sees what we do have, and what’s coming.”

Having lived in Sacramento for the past 10 years, Son, 34, said she plans to raise her two children, ages 5 and 6, in the area.

Also scheduled for late winter and early spring openings are another cupcake shop in the Westfield Galleria at Roseville Mall and another Estelle’s Patisserie in the Arden area.

“I’m not here to come in and then go out of business in five years,” Son said. “I plan on being here for the long haul.”

Estelle’s Patisserie, 901 K St., will initially be open from 6 a.m. - 7 p.m. on weekdays. If business warrants, Son said, she will stay open on weekends.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Ernesto's Mexican Food celebrates 20 years

2011-11-08T02:17:30Z

Despite challenging times, Ernesto’s Mexican Food in Midtown will celebrate 20 years in business next week, and owner Pauline Jiménez said the key to success has been focusing on quality food and service.

“We’re a neighborhood restaurant,” Jiménez said. “I’ve lived in the community for 50 years, and I think for the past 20 years we have been a staple here, and we are still going strong.”

For 13 of the past 20 years, Jiménez said, Ernesto’s – located at 1901 16th St. – has been listed as best Mexican restaurant in Sacramento Magazine and has received other recognition in local contests.

The business opened Nov. 18, 1991 in a space that was best-known for a Chinese restaurant, The Golden Buddha, which operated for 40 years. A pizza restaurant was there for three years in between.

To celebrate the milestone, the restaurant is preparing a $20 prix-fixe menu for two people, which will include an appetizer, two entrées and dessert. The special menu will be available Nov. 17-19 starting at 6 p.m.

The local Mariachi Mi Tierra Mariachi band will perform each night starting at 6:30.

Tequila tastings will also be held during the celebration, with Jose Cuervo Tradicional tequila being used in all margaritas – without a price change.

“We partnered with Jose Cuervo, so people are getting the premium tequila for the same price for our anniversary,” Jiménez said.

The menu items have not yet been set, said Director of Operations Dani Jiménez-Pareja, granddaughter of Jiménez, adding that it will include several of the restaurant’s most popular items.

“Our carnitas are one of our most popular dishes,” she said. “A lot of people really like our tortilla soup, and the chili rellenos are good, too.”

Jiménez said that while the industrial section of the nearby neighborhood hasn’t changed too much, restaurants in the nearby blocks have come and gone.

“These times are tough,” Jiménez said. “We have had to look at places where we can save, but we don’t jeopardize the quality of our food, and we haven’t raised our prices in four or five years.”

Jiménez added that of the changes seen over the past two decades, most of them have had to do with the day-to-day running of the business, from remodeling the building after the first year to the advent of touch-screen computers for sending orders to the kitchen.

“We also made our food more healthy,” she said.

Jiménez-Pareja said eliminating trans fat and offering more healthy options with kids meals – such as fruit and vegetables – have all been recent changes in a trend toward more healthy eating, and more is coming.

“We’re working to have less sodium in the food,” she said. “That’s probably the next thing the health departments will focus on, and it just masks the flavor anyway. We’d rather have the natural flavor of the food come through.”

Jiménez said the natural flavors are key to the flavor palate of Mexican cuisine, and she only buys fresh ingredients, from local markets whenever possible.

“You get better food. It’s a healthier food when you get it fresh from the market,” Jiménez said.

Another change when vegetarianism became more widespread shortly after the restaurant’s opening was switching soup bases from chicken broth to vegetable broth.

Alyssa Bressen, a 23-year-old from Las Vegas, ate at the restaurant for the first time Monday afternoon. She came to Sacramento to visit relatives.

“These are seriously the best carnitas I’ve ever had,” she said. “They know how to do them right here.”

Sophie Bressem, a 49-year-old Sacramentan, said she thinks the chile verde is the best dish on the menu, and the restaurant is a place she takes family members and friends when they come to visit.

“I’ve been coming here for years,” she said. “I eat here at least once a month, if not more. It’s great food, a great atmosphere and it’s got great music.”

Jiménez said she enjoys the business, and even at age 74, she is happy to continue coming in to work every day, and she has done all the jobs except dishwashing and serving.

“I’ve been in the kitchen, I’ve bussed tables and I’ve hosted. In the early years, I had to do quite a bit, but now I don’t,” she said.

“It’s a tough business,” she added. “When people come to me and tell me they want to open a restaurant, I think they must be mad, but if you have the patience and the will, you can do it. I love coming to work every day, and I’ll keep doing it as long as I can.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Gourmet seafood restaurant coming to downtown Sacramento

2011-11-05T02:01:20Z

Two historical downtown buildings are being refurbished, and they will soon house Blackbird Kitchen & Bar, a seafood restaurant that owner Carina Lampkin said will serve “gourmet food at hipster prices” and is expected to open in December.

The approximately 3,500-square-foot building was formerly two separate buildings, 1013 and 1015 Ninth St., and both date back to the 1930s.

“Blackbird is a compilation of all of my experience so far,” said the 30-year-old Lampkin. “I grew up on the East Coast and spent every summer in Maine. In 2003, I moved to San Francisco and went to culinary school.”

After spending almost a decade cooking at restaurants in San Francisco, Lampkin made the move to Sacramento and partnered with Rachel Kelley, a 27-year-old pastry chef who spent the past four years working at Ella, and Shayne “7evin” Iles, a graphic designer, marketer and DJ who will be the general manager.

While Lampkin isn’t sharing too many details of what the menu will hold, she said the restaurant will feature a variety of fish, including salmon, cod, halibut and mahi-mahi. She said she also loves working with dungeness crab and lobster.

Both Lampkin and Kelley will work in the kitchen, along with other local talent they have recruited.

Oysters – both raw and cooked – will also be on the menu, and non-seafood items such as steak, chicken and pork will be available.

“Our kitchen is basically the same size as our dining room,” Lampkin said. “We have a lot of space to make a lot of different types of food.”

Before Blackbird, the space housed a Thai restaurant.

When it comes to dessert creations, Kelley said she will be using fresh, seasonal ingredients, and her double-chocolate ice cream is one of her favorite dishes.

Prices have not been set, but Lampkin said she wants to provide excellent, affordable food.

“None of us is looking to get rich off of this,” she said. “We know times are hard, and if we break even on our high-cost items like fish, I’ll be happy.”

The owners said they are happy to be in historical buildings.

“The building on the left was Skagg’s Cash Store, the predecessor to Safeway,” 7evin said. “The other one, at 1015 (Ninth St.), was built by the Dean brothers in 1933, the same people who built Memorial Auditorium.”

Setting up in historical buildings at first seemed challenging, as the restaurateurs realized there were restrictions on what they could and could not demolish inside, but in the end, it turned out for the better, Lampkin said.

“When we’re done with the interior, it’s going to be amazing,” she said. “And we’re not three kids coming from the Bay Area with money – we’re doing a lot of the work ourselves. I never expected to be scraping paint, but that’s what we’ve been doing.”

Work on the interior is still under way, and the three partners said they are enjoying designing it but look forward to its completion.

“The great thing about (Lampkin, Kelley and 7evin) is that they have a vision, and yet even with their vision and artistic abilities, they are still willing to listen to the preservation department, and they have truly partnered to make that space pop,” said Valerie Mamone-Werder, business recruitment manager for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

She added that that section of the city is an important area for economic development, with nearby K Street readying to open to vehicular traffic.

“I think we’ve seen a lot of success from 12th (Street) to 10th Street, and this feels like a natural progression down the street and around the corner, and that’s very exciting,” she said.

For those looking for a preview of the food to come at Blackbird, the restaurant will be participating in a celebration for bringing cars back to K Street scheduled for 4 p.m. Nov. 12 at 12th and K streets.

“We’ll be out there with our fish tacos and a few other things,” Lampkin said.

Looking to do more with the space than simply serve food, Lampkin said a large cocktail selection will be available as well, and art will feature prominently in the space.

“I feel like Sacramento is a true artists’ community,” Lampkin said. “In San Francisco, rent is too expensive to really foster that community, but Sacramento’s arts community is amazing.”

7evin, who works in graphic design and marketing but is also a DJ, said the restaurant will not have any dance space, but DJs will be brought in to perform for the diners.

“It’s not going to just be people with two turntables and a mixer,” he said. “It’s people who are really performers, who are mixing live and really creating art.”

The most noticeable artwork displayed by the restaurant won’t actually be inside. The exterior space will feature a wall painting of 7evin’s graphic rendition of Lampkin’s idea to showcase a flock of blackbirds taking flight from a tree.

Lampkin said that when she woke up after being in a car accident in 2005, she heard the Beatles’ song “Blackbird,” and it stuck with her. Sadly, her close friend did not survive the collision, and Lampkin said she has since learned that many cultures believe the dead communicate with the living through blackbirds.

“I didn’t even know that until after I named the restaurant, but it’s really fitting,” she said.

Initially, the restaurant will be able to seat 50 people, and Lampkin said that after six months of being open, she plans to add another 25 seats.

Sean Kohmescher, owner of Temple Coffee, which has a location across the street, said he is happy to see Blackbird opening.

“I’ve met them quite a few times, and they seem like great people,” he said. “I’ve had their food, and the food was amazing. There’s been so many changes going on downtown, mostly in the last few years with places closing, it’s good to see places opening up.”

Blackbird Kitchen & Bar is located at 1015 Ninth St.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Food truck ordinance talks postponed

2011-11-02T03:30:50Z

Any decision regarding Sacramento’s controversial food truck ordinance – which currently limits trucks to operating a maximum of 30 minutes in one spot – will have to wait, since a City Council Law and Legislation Committee meeting was canceled Tuesday.

“There’s a lot of stuff to look at in state law, and we’re trying to figure that out,” said Councilman Jay Schenirer, chairman of the committee. “A lot of it is whether it’s just legal or not.”

One of the legal issues is that California Vehicle Code protections on commercial vehicles can arguably be applied to mobile food vendor operations.

Operators of food trucks have been advocating changing the city ordinance for more than a year, saying that the 30-minute time limit keeps them from being able to reasonably do business in city limits.

The inaugural SactoMoFo, a mobile food festival held in Fremont Park in April, was by all accounts a successful event, and since then, a serious push has been under way to revise Sacramento’s ordinance.

But it’s not as easy as doing away with the existing laws.

Some “brick-and-mortar” restaurateurs said they are afraid that allowing food trucks to operate within the city without proper regulation will pose serious threats to their businesses.

“What it comes down to is very real, very human issues,” said Daniel Conway, spokesman for the California Restaurant Association. “It’s a challenging economic time, and all business owners are as acutely aware of their balance sheet as ever.”

He added that he believes mobile food vendors and traditional restaurants can easily coexist.

The Law and Legislation meeting planned for Tuesday could have addressed that, but city officials said they want to make sure any new ordinance has legal merit.

“We’re still moving forward on it,” said Councilman Darrell Fong. “There’s a lot of interest from the different parties involved in this, and it’s going to take all those groups working together: restaurant owners, mobile food trucks and us as a city.”

Conway said the legality of local governments regulating commercial vehicles is murky at best.

“There is some existing case law and appellate law that has found the state vehicle code preempts local ordinances, and therefore local governments are pretty limited in what they can do to regulate commercial vehicles,” he said.

The answer to that question is what stalled the issue in Sacramento Tuesday.

“They really want to make sure they get this right, and I think they really are sincere about setting a model and giving citizens a chance to experience both types of food,” Conway said. “They’re digging deeper than most jurisdictions have.”

According to the staff report for the meeting, the revisions to the ordinance will be addressed in four areas: vending on public right-of-ways; vending on private property and any related zoning issues; hours of operation and/or time limitations; and permitting and operating requirements for mobile food vendors.

Conway added that he doesn’t think the City Council is being complacent and pushing the issue aside, but rather that it has been very busy since April, dealing with issues such as medical marijuana, Occupy Sacramento, backyard chicken coops and the budget.

“I always say, it was being awfully hopeful that we could be able to get it done by the year’s end,” said Catherine Enfield, who operates the Munchie Musings blog and aTwitter account covering Sacramento food trucks.

“Basically, it’s just frustrating,” she said, “but it’s just a setback in the timeline. I’m still very encouraged by what I hear out of City Hall. I’m still very hopeful, you just have to be patient.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Mongolian barbecue coming to Midtown

2011-11-01T02:10:41Z

A Mongolian barbecue restaurant will be moving into the building at 1830 J St., with owners saying they will bring cuisine with about 1,000 years of tradition to a spot that has recently seen two businesses close.

Co-owner Jonathan Ng, 24, said Monday that he plans to open Mongo Mongo Mongolian BBQ with three business partners by early December, bringing to Midtown a restaurant type popular in Sacramento’s suburbs.

“Once Garlic Shack fell through, I just jumped at it,” said Ng, who formerly co-owned Tamarind – a Vietnamese restaurant at 25th and J streets – and was a manager at Plum Blossom, the restaurant that occupied the space before Garlic Shack.

Key to making the new business work will be selling quality food at good prices, Ng said, adding that he wants to keep the average meal at less than $10.

Offering a variety of meats, sauces and vegetables, Mongolian barbecue allows patrons to create their own custom meals and then have them cooked on a circular grill by a chef.

Meat choices will include beef, chicken, pork and lamb. Sauces will range from teriyaki to more custom sauces, including some fusion sauces mixing traditional Asian flavors with Italian and Spanish spices and sauces. Another sauce Ng said he anticipates being popular is an orange-flavored sauce similar to that used on orange chicken at some restaurants.

“The sauce makes the meal in Mongolian barbecue,” Ng said. “We’re going to really focus on good food and good service.”

Customers will be able to create their own combinations of items or choose from a prepared menu. Rather than standing in line and waiting for their food to be cooked, diners can sit while a server brings the cooked meals to their table.

The Mongolian barbecue cooking style dates back at least as far as the Middle Ages, when the warlord Genghis Khan led a nomadic army conquering and plundering throughout Asia.

“Cooking on a circular grill comes from the way they would cook their food on their shields,” Ng said. “They’d put whatever vegetables they stole and meat they poached on them and cook it over fires.”

Moving into the space with its newly installed roll-up garage doors fronting J Street presented Ng and his business partners with a problem: Mongolian barbecue restaurants typically have kitchens out where customers can see them, but health code requires kitchens be enclosed, so either the garage doors had to go, or another solution devised.

“We decided to take out the (existing) wall separating the kitchen from the restaurant and make it out of glass with sliding glass doors,” Ng said.

With that plan, customers can still walk in and out of the garage doors onto a patio, and the kitchen is easily seen as the chef cooks the food, moving it over the grill surface with two large chopstick-like tongs.

A separate griddle will allow the restaurant to offer vegetarian and vegan options.

The patio fronting J Street will be accented with plants, and cushioned chairs with low tables will give it a lounge-like feel, Ng said.

Currently, there are no plans to pursue a full liquor license, but Ng said beer and wine will be available. The beer selection will be broad, with some pan-Pacific selections such as Tsing Tao (from China) and Tiger Beer (from Thailand). Sake and the plum wine known as sojo will be served, and they might also find their way into sauces.

The restaurant will focus on lunch and dinner, but hours have not yet been set, Ng said. It will stay open until 3 a.m. for the Thursday through Saturday night crowd, which he said is a top priority.

“We don’t have that many late-night places in Sacramento where you can actually get good food,” he said. “That’s something we need here.”

Matt Burden, a 41-year-old entertainment industry worker, said he agrees with the need for late-night food variety.

“If it’s open late, they’re going to make a fortune,” he said.

Originally from Australia, Burden now lives in Vancouver, Canada, and travels to Sacramento on business.

“Mongolian barbecue is so good,” he said. “I like that you get your bits and your bobs and then have them grill it up. I would do some chicken, soy, teriyaki and peppers. That’ll do well.”

Amanda Moore, a 23-year-old Sacramentan who works for a nearby nonprofit health care organization, said she hopes to see the business do well.

“I wish them the best of luck. I’ve been here since July, and this is the third business that will be in there,” she said. “I hope they can make it work.”

Amber Schmaeling, program director for the Midtown Business Association, said that the area is one of the prime business blocks in Midtown, and while Garlic Shack did not last long – opening in July and closing in September – Plum Blossom lasted “quite a while.”

“In close proximity, you’ve got Starbucks and several nightlife establishments,” she said. “If I was opening a business, I would see that as a key space with a lot of potential.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Burgers & Brew expands beer selection, restaurant space

2011-10-28T05:12:55Z

Burgers & Brew more than doubled its draft beer selection with the addition of 16 new taps Wednesday, and the R Street restaurant will be debuting its own beer recipes brewed by Sudwerk Brewing in Davis as early as next month.

“It’s a very exciting time to be in the beer industry,” said co-owner Philippe Masoud. “Beer has become the main thing people are drinking, and it is getting as popular as wine has been.”

He said that when he emigrated from Jordan in the early 1980s, the only beers that were widely available in California were the traditional American brews such as Coors and Budweiser, and he has gradually seen the selection grow over the past decades to the current explosion of microbrew and international varieties.

At 1409 R St., the restaurant is in the middle of one of Sacramento’s liveliest nightlife areas, with the block anchored by popular Shady Lady Saloon, R15 and the recently opened Ace of Spades music venue.

For the past two years, Burgers & Brew operated with 12 beer taps, and weekly specials were rotated. Masoud said customers frequently asked for the special beers to be made available longer, but a lack of storage and refrigerator space made that impossible.

“Pliny the Elder is nice to have in stock, since that really has quite a following,” Masoud said.

When the next-door Top This Frozen Yogurt – also owned by Masoud – closed in mid-August, it gave him the opportunity to expand Burgers & Brew, adding a couple hundred square feet and a spacing the tables out and, more importantly, cold storage for enough beer kegs to supply 16 new tap handles.

Seating remains the same, with space for roughly 65-70 people inside.

The new beers on tap are mostly ones that have been featured over the past two years as specials, and they include a number of Belgian beers.

“Most people who really know beer agree that Belgium makes the best beers in the world,” Masoud said. “Our emphasis right now is to focus on the high-end beers.”

New draft beers will include Brother Thelonious, Czechvar, Leffe, Old Rasputin, Karmeliet and Delirium. Prices range from $4.50 - $6 per glass, and the glasses vary in size from 10 ounces to 1 pint.

“We serve them in the glasses they are meant to come in,” Masoud said. “We will also sell the glasses, since those are collectible, and people always ask us about them.”

Previously, glasses were ordered one by one, but with the added, space Masoud said he can order by the case, and even sell them at cost to customers who like to take them home.

Customers who came in for lunch on Thursday – the first day people were seated in the new space – said they were happy to see the expansion.

Melissa Eidson, a Sacramento resident who works for the state, said the restaurant feels more open and well-lit than it previously did.

“I think it’s really good,” she said. “I’ve been here before for lunch, and it’s always been really crowded. It feels more spacious now.”

Crystal Myers, another Sacramento resident and state worker, said she thinks the added selection of beers will make the 1400 block of R Street even more of a destination for nightlife.

“It’s always packed down here, and the more options people have, the better,” she said.

In about a month, the restaurant will be rolling out beers made to its own specifications by Sudwerk Brewing in Davis, where the original Burgers & Brew is located.

Five varieties will eventually be offered: Voodoo Porter, Imperial IPA, Sacrament Abbey Ale, Rapture Imperial Brown and a seasonal selection.

Also beginning next month will be a series of regular beer tastings in the restaurant, made possible with the added space.

“I’d like to do them weekly, so hopefully there is enough demand for that,” Masoud said. “I’ll be putting out fliers when we get ready for that.”

A few menu items have been added over the past year, most notably a lamb burger, but Masoud said that for now the emphasis is on the beer selection, and in addition to the 28 taps, there are roughly 70 bottled beers available.

Thomas Gutchens, production manager for Ace of Spades, said he is happy to see the business doing well.

“I believe that as it expands, more people will obviously show up to the place,” he said. “The restaurant has become a major destination.”

When booking touring bands, Gutchens said, he and his staff always direct them to the various eateries on the block, but Burgers & Brew tends to be the musicians’ favorite.

“They always go to Burgers & Brew, and when they come back through here again, they say they want to go to ‘that burger place,’ and they hurry up and finish their sound checks early so they can go next door,” he added.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Local chefs open new eatery in Natomas

2011-10-25T01:03:18Z

A group of central city restaurateurs is teaming up to branch out into Natomas, but in a more casual setting than their full-service Midtown and East Sacramento locations.

Pork Belly Grub Shack is scheduled to open this week and is a collaboration between the owners of Kru, a Japanese restaurant at 2516 J St., and Formoli’s Bistro, which recently moved to 3839 J St.

“It’s going to be really casual – burgers, sandwiches, soups and salads,” said Billy Ngo, owner of Kru. “It’s going to be simple, good food, and it’s going to be cheap.”

Menu items will feature a lot of pork, with a pork belly grilled cheese, sandwiches built around pork, and burgers such as the Notorious P.I.G., a 10-ounce beef patty with a slab of braised pork belly and pork rinds on a bun.

Suzanne Ricci, wife of Formoli’s Bistro Chef Aimal Formoli and one of the partners along with Formoli and Ngo, said pork was the obvious focus because all of them enjoy it so much.

“Everyone’s had bacon, but best part of the pig is the belly,” Ricci said, explaining that the savory area will be the restaurant’s focus.

“It’s super-basic, super-simple stuff,” she said. “It’s got lots of pork belly, which is really the best part of the pig, and it’s heavier, comfort food with competitive prices.”

Also on the menu will be some Asian-inspired dishes, most notably banh-mi sandwiches with meat selections.

Pork Belly Grub Shack, located at 4261 Truxel Road, will have items ranging from $4 - $9 and will primarily be a lunch place and sell take-out for early dinner. Hours are planned to be from about 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., though they may change.

Ngo said he, Ricci and Formoli thought the deal on the space it was too good to pass up and decided to bring a local independent eatery to an area dominated by larger chain businesses.

“There’s a lot of chain restaurants out there, so we want to bring some Midtown-style cooking to the area,” Ngo said.

Ricci said that while they all have traditionally operated full-service restaurants, the new place, which is looking to do a lot of catering and takeout as well as counter service inside, is more appealing in a down economy.

The approximately 1,600-square-foot space can seat about 30 people and used to be a specialty chocolate shop, so food-service necessities such as floor drains were already installed, Ricci said.

Outdoor seating is planned for the future, once the restaurant gets up and running.

Interior décor will feature pig paintings by locals Liz Miller and Matthew Byrd.

“We want to bring some of a Midtown artistic, creative feel to (the restaurant),” Ricci said.

Opening amid fears of a second recession, Ricci said the economy is always a consideration, but she believes the restaurant will do well.

“With Billy (Ngo) and Aimal (Formoli), I know the food is going to be good,” she said. “If the product is good and the pricing is reasonable, then it’s definitely going to be a place people can bring their families.”

General Manager David West was previously a bartender at Red Lotus, and he said he sees the restaurant growing in popularity and turning into a small chain if it does as well as he expects.

“There’s two amazing chefs behind it,” he said. “It’s gonna be good.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Firestone Public House to open in February

2011-10-22T07:20:07Z

More details are emerging about Firestone Public House, the restaurant and bar that will replace the old California Pizza Kitchen in the Firestone Building at 15th and L streets downtown.

Featuring American-style cuisine and a hefty beer selection with 60 on tap, the business will be a family-friendly restaurant that will also serve as a place to watch sports and have a brew – not a typical sports bar, according to co-owner Mason Wong.

“It’s definitely going to be a full restaurant with a full menu,” Wong said. “We’ll do lunch and dinner, and possibly brunch on Sundays. It will be focused on sports, with a lot of TVs, but it’s not going to have a sports bar look to it.”

The target opening date is sometime in February, and construction is scheduled to start in the next few weeks.

Customers looking for jerseys and sports equipment on the walls won’t find it at Firestone Public House, but Wong said he wants to work out partnerships with the Kings, River Cats and other sports teams and organizations in the area for events.

“We want to have a unique variety of food and some fun appetizers,” he added.

One example of the food is an original-style Philly cheesesteak sandwich, which will be served with the meat on the bun, but the cheese on top of a spatula, which the diner will spread on the sandwich.

Pizzas will also be featured, as the oven from when the space was California Pizza Kitchen is still in place. The popular Korean tacos sold at GoGi’s Korean BBQ will be available as well.

The beer selection will include something for everyone, said co-owner Henry de Vere White.

“It’s going to be everything from American craft brews to Belgian-style beers, the popular domestics, German and English beers,” he said. “There’s 60 tap handles, so there’s lots of room.”

Wong described the interior space as having a San Francisco feel with high ceilings, a rustic stain on the concrete floors and wood elements in the décor.

Wong, who co-owns Mix Downtown and Cafeteria 15L, among others, said that though he and his brothers come from a club background, Firestone Public House won’t be a dance club, and there are no plans for a stage for live entertainment.

“We will have some elements of a club in it,” he said, “mainly with the sound. The sound is going to be really high-quality, and we will turn the music up as the night goes on and we’ll have a more vibrant atmosphere.”

Lisa Martinez, marketing director for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, said the block around 15th and L streets is one of the strongest areas downtown, and it will be good to have the open space once again filled with a business.

“This sounds like the kind of place you can bring a date and watch a game,” Martinez said. “It’ll fit in really well.”

Other sports bars nearby include MVP Sports Grill, at 2110 L St., and Shenanigans, 705 J St.

Martinez added that without a sports-themed business right around 15th and L, Firestone Public House will add diversity to the corner.

Wong is partnering with his brothers, Curtis and Alan, and the de Vere White brothers – Henry, Simon and Mark.

“It’s been a good working relationship,” Mason Wong said. “We’ve got three Wongs and three de Veres, and we’ve all been around in Sacramento.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

De Vere's in Davis nears completion

2011-10-21T02:44:45Z

Construction on de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis is about two weeks from being finished, and as the bar, which was custom-built in Ireland and then shipped to California, nears completion, Davis residents said they are excited to see a business fill a long-troubled space.

The pub is a new location spawned off the successful de Vere’s Irish Pub at 1521 L St. in Sacramento.

“It seems like it’s going to be a pretty good business,” said Matt Johnson, a 25-year-old bartender from Davis. “I’m excited, and I hope they’re successful.”

Johnson said the space at 217 E St. in Davis has long been something of a revolving door for businesses, which have had trouble staying open much longer than a year.

The space previously housed several restaurants, including Soga’s, Chaat Cafe and Agave.

“I did some research on the company, and I think it totally fits down here,” Johnson said. “It’s always crowded in the other bars, so a new one is always exciting.”

Pub co-owner Henry de Vere White said Wednesday that he wants the pub to be a community gathering place.

“There’s a saying in Ireland that when you’re born, everyone goes to the pub; when you have your first communion, everyone goes to the pub; when you get married, everyone goes to the pub; and when you die, everyone else goes to the pub,” de Vere White said.

He added that the pub concept is more about sharing life experiences than going to a club.

Johnson said he thinks a pub with that atmosphere will be a good fit for Davis.

“We need a place you can sit down and have a drink and not have your ears blown out by loud music,” he said.

Another Davis resident, 25-year-old Marc Meadows, a scientist, said he is happy to see another bar where people can relax, and that has a good beer selection.

“As long as there’s not too many bros, I’ll go there,” he said.

Danielle Orosco, a 22-year-old Davis resident who attends Sacramento City College, said the downtown Davis location is perfect, as it’s walking distance from the UC Davis campus and many homes and workplaces.

“They picked a good town, because Davis is so small that everyone goes out in groups,” she said. “I’m excited. I’ve been living here for two years, and having a new bar to go to will be nice. It looks bigger than some of the other bars, where you just feel squished.”

De Vere White said he looks forward to having the space – which will offer a large selection of food in addition to drinks – be filled with all types of people, from families having lunch and dinner to students coming by in the afternoon to study or dropping by for happy hour.

The building that houses the pub was gutted at the start of construction to allow for the parts constructed in Ireland to be fitted, said Shawn Eldredge of Capitol Painting and Construction, the firm handling the build.

“De Vere’s is a very intense buildout,” Eldredge said. “It’s a lot of material not only from Ireland, but locally.”

He added that the construction has gone well, but many parts needed to be custom-fitted. In the end, he said, he thinks the finished project will be more than worth the effort.

“I believe it’s going to be prettier than the one in Sacramento,” he said, adding that he was involved in construction of the Sacramento location as well.

De Vere White said that 65 employees have been hired, and most have already completed training.

Pre-opening parties will be held, and those interested can sign up by clicking here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

The Sacramento Press on 'Insight'

2011-10-19T01:22:09Z

During The Sacramento Press’ spot on Capital Public Radio’s “Insight” Tuesday morning, host Jeffrey Callison and I discussed the Occupy Sacramento movement, early turns in the upcoming City Council elections, a design competition for Capitol Mall and the arrival of a sailing vessel in Old Sacramento.

With the Occupy Sacramento demonstration well into its second week, protesters are upset that Cesar Chavez Plaza is closed from 11 p.m. - 5 a.m. due to a city ordinance. Sacramento Police Department spokeswoman Laura Peck said Monday that 58 arrests have been made, and the City Council plans to decide whether to allow the protesters to stay in the park after hours, after they went to City Hall last week.

More city politics have been in the news lately, with City Councilman Rob Fong announcing last week that he will not seek another term, instead pursuing a career as a lobbyist. Shortly after the announcement, Steve Hansen, a local activist, announced he will run for the District 4 seat. This will be the first election since District 4 took over most of the central city, which was previously split between three districts.

The former Red Lotus spot on J Street in Midtown has a new tenant, with January being the earliest possible opening date. The currently unnamed business will be a 50/50 mix of restaurant and bar, and it has a special incentive for employees: They will be given a share of the profits.

A few blocks down J Street, the owner of Thai Basil and the upstairs Level Up Lounge wants to add a second-floor deck area so people in the lounge will not have to go down to the street level to smoke, and the deck will also serve as a more permanent roof over the patio seating at Thai Basil. Neighbors raised concerns about added noise, but the Planning Commission approved the project on Thursday.

Federal prosecutors in Southern California have announced that they will go after print, TV and radio advertising for medicinal marijuana, and some Sacramento publications, notably Sacramento News & Review and The Sacramento Bee, have carried those advertisements. SN&R was able to hire more reporters within the past year due to the ads even as general advertising revenues fell across the industry. The Sacramento Bee recently announced its decision to start carrying them. The Sacramento Press has previously reached out to medical marijuana dispensaries for advertising but did not run any advertisements from them. For a timeline on medical marijuana issues in California, click here.

Sacramento received 48 submissions that met the criteria for its Catalyst Capitol Mall Design Competition, which was held to bring international attention to the section of Capitol Mall between Tower Bridge and 10th Street as the city looks for a “big idea” for the space after the state relinquished control of it in 2006. A jury selected the winners, which will be announced Nov. 9. The public can weigh in on the designs as well by clicking here and following the link to the voting page.

Anyone wanting insight into merchant sailing in the 18th century can visit the tall ship Hawaiian Chieftain, docked in Old Sacramento near Tower Bridge until mid-December. Visitors can tour the ship, where crew members will be standing by to answer questions and give history of an era gone by.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Local business emphasizes the need to play

2011-10-15T01:14:25Z

A pair of Sacramento entrepreneurs are building a business centered around what they say adults are missing in their lives – play.

Jeff Louie and Chris Chu, both 30, founded Asobuyo in April as a way for like-minded locals to get together, play games, sample food from local businesses and get to know one another.

“We’re all about using play as a mechanism for life change,” Chu said. “When people play, they have better quality of life and less stress.”

Asobuyo is a Japanese word that roughly translates as “let’s play,” Chu said, adding that weekly meetings of Asobuyo members are centered around playing games in groups of four in a fun way to get to know people.

The first event was held at Capsity Offices, 2321 P St., which is a co-working space Louie co-founded. The game was several video clips of Midtown set up in a trivia game similar to “Scene It?” but that proved too difficult to facilitate, with the amount of time involved in producing the video and developing questions.

Now, game evenings are typically spent at local restaurants so the members can bond over food, and some of the restaurants Asobuyo has partnered with are Kupros Bistro, Cafe Lumiere and Old Soul Co.

One game they play is called Superstar, and in it, one member of the group is the superstar, and team members collect myriad facts about the superstar – everything from how many keys he or she has on a key ring to where he or she was born. They then must memorize the facts.

Throughout the night, different questions are asked, and the superstar’s teammates – or “fans” – have to answer correctly, racking up the most correct answers to beat the other teams.

“It’s a good game to play early on so maybe some of the more quiet people get to tell more about themselves,” Louie said.

“We plan our games strategically so they build on each other,” Chu said, adding that over the course of the night, the team that wins the most games is declared the overall winner and receives prizes – which have ranged from cakes and food to gift cards from hosting businesses.

Wendy Duncan, 27, said she enjoyed playing Urban Dictionary Balderdash, in which a definition from the popular website and book “Urban Dictionary” was read, and participants had to guess the word it described.

“I think (Asobuyo) is just a good combination of everything: food, socializing and fun,” she said.

She added that, for her, the biggest benefit has been meeting like-minded people who are interested in having fun and exploring the city.

“I’ve grown up in Sacramento, and I feel like a lot of the locals have a poor image of the city and talk trash about it,” she said. “They say there’s nothing fun to do, but Asobuyo lets us have a lot of fun and get to know the area.”

The business makes its money through some paid events as well as marketing for local businesses.

One upcoming event, scheduled for 2 - 7 p.m. on Oct. 23, is a spy-themed grub crawl and scavenger hunt, Chu said.

“Each spy team will go to each place and complete a mission, then sample some food and meet the owners,” Chu said.

While most events are free, the food crawl and scavenger hunt will cost $35, with $10 being donated to the charity Asian Resources, Inc., a nonprofit organization providing social services in Sacramento, especially to youths with limited English-speaking abilities.

Khonnie Lattasima, 29, said she found out about Asobuyo through the website Yelp while browsing events.

“I emailed them, and it sounded interesting,” she said. “I didn’t really know what it was, and I think it’s something you actually have to experience.”

She added that she enjoys the positive attitudes of everyone involved.

“It breaks down a lot of barriers, and you get to know a lot of people,” she said. “They’ve done a great job. It’s basically a play movement, and they’re building something really positive in the community.”

Louie said he and Chu want to eventually expand beyond Sacramento and create a movement where people see that taking time to play and have fun actually adds to productivity and quality of life.

Future plans involve an option of a paid premium membership and more integration with technology, including some form of mobile app.

“We wanted to start in Sacramento,” he said. “We’re both from Sacramento, and we want people to be proud that there are businesses that want to start up here.”

To contact Asobuyo, visit the company’s website or Facebook page.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Red Lotus space might be filled by January

2011-10-14T01:12:14Z

A pair of restaurateurs are opening a restaurant and bar in the space that formerly housed Red Lotus in Midtown, which closed last month, and employees are being given a special incentive to do quality work – a share of the profits.

“It’s going to be a simple, affordable neighborhood spot where families can come for a meal, and it’s welcoming of everyone,” said co-owner Matt Nurge. “It’s going to be rustic – a little like peasant food, and a little like street food.”

While still in the early stages with a possible opening date of sometime in January, the as-yet-unnamed restaurant and bar at 2718 J St. will have its food planned by Executive Chef and co-owner John Bays.

Both grew up in Sacramento, working in various restaurants and bars. Nurge said he knew Bays casually for years, and about six months ago, mutual friends helped them connect as business partners.

“It’s fun food, not uptight – just simple,” Bays said. “I have a braised short rib patty melt I'd like to do, maybe a ramen pot pie, just some different stuff.”

Other menu possibilities include Vietnamese chicken sandwiches, burgers with fried eggs, stir fry dishes made on the existing wok grill and a number of sandwiches.

“We want to really be busy at lunch as well as dinner and after,” Nurge said. “We have the Sutter building that’s opening up, and there will be 4,000 people in the area, and we want to deliver good food at a reasonable price.”

The Sutter building will house the hospital’s Anderson Lucchetti Women’s and Children’s Center.

He added that lunch dishes will likely range from $7 to $10, and dinner dishes will go for around $10 to $15.

Currently, the restaurant seats about 120 people, but the seating will be redone, with a distinct bar area up front and restaurant seating in the rear, Nurge said. Front and back patio seating will be a major part of the restaurant’s draw, he added, with more-permanent tables and chairs fronting J Street.

Nurge described the operation as half restaurant and half bar, and said he will draw on his experience as a bartender – most recently his three-year stint at Shady Lady Saloon – to create craft cocktails that will be on a regularly rotating menu.

“I want to keep the cocktail menu small so it’s simple, and I’ll rotate drinks like we will the food, providing whatever is in season locally,” Nurge said, adding that the restaurant’s six beer taps will likely be rotated with California selections.

In an industry that sees high turnover rates among staff – and the expenses that go along with training new employees – Bays and Nurge said they want to make employees a top priority, designating a percentage of the restaurant’s profits to them.

“It’s something to set us apart from other restaurants,” Bays said. “It lets them know they’re valued, that they’re working toward something that gives back to them, not just working for the man.”

Nurge said employees will not be asked to contribute any money to the business, and the plan is to have all of them included, with possible extra benefits for long-term employees, though nothing has yet been finalized.

“Mainly, we want to share our success with the people who help make us successful,” Nurge said. “My mom was a server for 25 years, and (the employees) carried the business on their backs, and people sat back and counted the money.”

He added that he intends to make money, but he wants to do it in a way that includes everyone.

If someone cares about what they do, they’ll stay longer, he said.

Bays added that the shared profits will incentivize employees to come up with cost-saving ideas and keep an eye toward cutting down on waste.

Both owners have histories in the restaurant industry. Nurge worked at numerous restaurants and bars, and Bays currently works for the Sacramento City Unified School District and owned a restaurant called Grapes at 11th and H streets in the late 1990s.

Alex Origoni, co-owner of Shady Lady Saloon – where Nurge currently works – said that extensive experience is one of the most important assets to becoming a successful restaurant operator.

“So many people get into the industry because they think it’s cool or because people tell them they have a great potatoes au gratin recipe and they should open one,” Origoni said. “Having a good menu is maybe about 5 percent of operating a restaurant business.”

Origoni said Nurge has a certain style to his cocktail creations gleaned from a career working for varied restaurants and bars, giving him experience in catering to many types of customers.

“That’s a huge advantage,” Origoni said.

Another advantage is being a part of what Origoni described as the tight-nit fraternity of restaurateurs in Sacramento who consider themselves friends and help each other out whenever possible.

Already, Nurge said, Shady Lady Saloon and other restaurant owners have offered their help.

“We see it as a team effort to build the industry and make the community even more interesting,” Origoni said. “Getting into that is the best advice I can give him, and it’s advice he already knows.”

Nurge and Bays said they are looking forward to joining the successful block of J Street anchored by Centro Cocina Mexican and Harlow’s.

“Success breeds success,” Nurge said. “That was one of the things that really attracted us to this space.”

Nearby residents have previously raised concerns about businesses selling alcohol on the block, and Nurge said he intends to work with the neighborhood associations in the area, and he currently has no plans to apply for an entertainment permit, which is required for amplified music in the city.

“We’re not a nightclub,” he said. “We’re more of a low-key restaurant and bar, and we want to be a local spot and still draw people from Midtown, families from East Sac, and people from the other areas as well.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Garlic Shack gone?

2011-10-13T01:58:15Z

Garlic Shack, a Midtown restaurant that opened in in early July on the corner of 19th and J streets, appeared closed Wednesday afternoon and evening, with chairs stacked on tables and the vinyl “We’re Open” sign removed.

Owner Ken Powers did not return phone calls left by The Sacramento Press Wednesday, and workers at nearby businesses were not able to confirm whether the restaurant was closed for good or just on hiatus.

Gluten-free brown rice was the basis for the restaurant’s signature rice bowls, and most menu items featured garlic, with garlic fries being a favorite, as previously reported by The Sacramento Press.

Before Garlic Shack, the space housed Plum Blossom, an Asian-food restaurant.

The Sacramento Press will post updates as more information becomes available.

Thai Basil and Level Up Lounge owner pursues second-floor patio

2011-10-12T01:02:48Z

A Midtown business owner is looking to add a second-floor patio area to her combination restaurant and lounge, but as the plans go to the Planning Commission for review Thursday, some neighbors say it will present a noise problem.

Suleka Sun-Lindley owns Thai Basil and Level Up Lounge at 2431 J St., and with the lounge – which opened in 2007 – not making money, she said she hopes the addition of an open-air balcony will help it become profitable.

“Thai Basil is doing well, but Level Up has been costing us money,” she said Tuesday afternoon. “I’m hoping that adding an area where people can go outside and smoke will make more people want to come.”

The Thai restaurant, which opened in May 2002, is a successful branch of a family business begun by Sun-Lindley, her mother and sister in Roseville in 1996. Sun-Lindley, who moved from Thailand in 1989, was an architect before going into the restaurant business.

After being granted a liquor license in a lottery in 2006, the upstairs portion of the building was turned into Level Up Lounge.

Building an upper deck or patio was the logical solution to two problems, Sun-Lindley said.

“We like to have our outdoor seating at Thai Basil, but the awning leaks in the rain, and I wanted to build a permanent covering over it,” she said. “I thought it would be perfect to make it a deck for Level Up so people could use it to go outside and smoke, instead of going downstairs to the street.”

The design involves extending the front and rear walls of the building 8 feet and putting a floor and new awning in place to allow lower-level seating in all weather as well as upper-level open space.

In all, 300 square feet will be added to the 4,000 square feet the building already occupies, but the capacity of Level Up Lounge – 50 people – will not increase.

Some neighbors, however, are concerned about added noise from the business, which stays open until midnight on weeknights and 2 a.m. Thursday through Sunday.

“My worries are that if that went in, then I might not be able to sleep,” said nearby resident Joe Diaz. “The DJs already play loud music, and I hear it. It goes right through my double-pane windows and insulated walls.”

He added that he is concerned people will step outside and have loud conversations on the balcony that will keep him awake, and parking will be more scarce.

Another nearby building owner, Brent Johnson, said he has four residential tenants for whom noise is a problem, though he acknowledged noise as a reality in a mixed-use area such as Midtown.

“It’s mostly just the noise,” he said. “I’m all for local businesses succeeding, but the noise went up when the bar came in, and I think instead of it being an open-air patio, it could be closed to keep in the sound.”

He added that he sees a benefit to the patio as well.

Currently, smokers on the street level toss cigarette butts onto his property, he said, adding that he thinks having an upstairs area where they can smoke will cut down on the problem.

Sun-Lindley held an informal meeting at the lounge Monday night, with staff passing out about 40 fliers inviting neighbors to give input. Modifications were made to the design to completely enclose the rearward wall – which faces homes – after the comments of the four people who came, with two supporting and two opposing. It was originally designed as a half-wall.

Others familiar with the space said the addition will make the lounge more attractive.

“I love the expansion idea just to get people out to have some fresh air,” said local artist John Krempel, who has had about 20 art shows in the lounge.

“During my art shows, people want to get outside and get some fresh air, but they have to go downstairs, and a lot of the time, they just leave,” he said. “It would be such a better experience if you had (the patio) up there.”

Sun-Lindley said she enjoys having art shows in Level Up as a way of staying involved in the community.

“The nearby neighbors are the ones we want to have coming in,” she said. “We want to run a business, but we also want to be good neighbors.”

Fully enclosing the outdoor space, she said, “would kill the ambiance.”

Adding to the building has been a continual process since the restaurant’s opening, with a permanent storage area, new flooring, new paint, revised lighting, courtyard seating and the building of the lounge all being done over the years as money was available.

“We want to put the money we make back into the business,” she said.

Planning the patio cost about $19,000, with a $9,000 non-refundable permit fee added to $10,000 in planning and architectural renderings. If approved, the estimated cost of the addition, as designed, is about $150,000.

“I really want it for a better outdoor dining experience, but it’s also something we want to see at Level Up, since having an outdoor area is so Sacramento,” she said.

The design will be reviewed by the Planning Commission at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the City Council Chambers at 915 I St.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

New restaurant to embrace Southern fare

2011-10-06T00:55:22Z

The owners of Midtown’s Capitol Garage are bringing Southern-style cooking to the spot recently vacated by Celestin’s Island Eats and Cajun Cuisine, with a projected opening in mid- to late November.

The Porch, located at 1815 K St., will feature items such as fried green tomatoes, catfish and corn hushpuppies, a soft shell crab po’ boy and other Southern favorites, said Chef and co-owner Jon Clemons.

He added that he wants to keep entrées priced below $20.

“We’ve been trying to do a second place for about a year and a half,” said co-owner John Lopez, adding that The Porch will be a dedicated restaurant, unlike Capitol Garage, which mixes a bar, restaurant and entertainment venue.

After looking at a variety of locations around Sacramento, Lopez said, he, Clemons and co-owner Jerry Mitchell began working with the owners of Celestin’s at the end of June to figure out a leasing agreement.

“It was really attractive because it was a turnkey operation,” Lopez said. “The only real changes we need to make are cosmetic.”

The two businesses will be about three blocks apart, with Capitol Garage located at 1500 K St.

The interior décor of The Porch will give customers the feeling of a home, and the exterior will be changed to embody the restaurant’s name, with the back patio opened up for seating, augmenting existing front patio seating.

The idea for the restaurant came on a trip to Portland, where the owners dined at a Southern restaurant, Lopez said.

“We thought that type of cuisine is really missing from Sacramento, and we wanted to bring that here,” he said.

Next up was a trip to Charleston, S.C., to get more ideas and inspiration for the menu.

“Charleston is such a great city for food,” Clemons said. “We’re going to focus on the coastal Southern food, with a lot of seafood. We’re also going to branch out into Creole and Cajun food.”

But for those wondering if some of the menu items from Celestin’s will return to the new restaurant, it’s unlikely.

“We might do a gumbo (soup) or something,” Clemons said, “but it would be our own recipe.”

The food will not be a copy of the fare at Capitol Garage, but some of the future menu items from The Porch are currently being offered on the specials menu at Capitol Garage.

“It’s kind of a way people can come in and preview the menu,” Clemons said.

The Porch will have a full liquor license, with wine pairings for some of the meals as well as bourbon drinks and cocktails that the owners are working with a bartender from Charleston to create.

They are also working to stock some beers common in the South but hard to find on the West Coast, such as Yuengling.

Open for lunch and dinner, Lopez said he wants to add Saturday and Sunday brunch around the beginning of the year.

Lopez said the prospect of a deeper recession is worrisome, but he thinks the proximity of the Convention Center and the foot traffic in the area will let the new restaurant thrive.

About 25 people will staff the restaurant, and Lopez said about half of the Celestin’s staff will be retained, with several already working shifts at Capitol Garage.

Celestin’s owners Patrick and Phoebe Celestin previously told The Sacramento Press that the new owners’ agreeing to interview the existing staff was a good gesture as they took over the location, which the Celestins had built in 2001.

The building has yet to be altered, but Lopez said passers-by should see changes starting in the next week or two as construction gets under way.

“Just keep driving by,” he said. “You’ll be surprised at the difference.”

The Porch’s website is under construction and will be reachable via the Capitol Garage website.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Watercolors Hiking in historic Locke and Delta Meadows State Park

2011-09-13T10:47:13Z

A Watercolors and Hiking event will be held in Locke, Calif. on Thursday, September 15, 2011 starting at 10:00 a.m. The hike will be led by Martha Esch. Bring the kids and the grandparents; everyone is welcome! Well-behaved dogs on leashes, okay. This is a mostly level 1.5 mile hike apart from one 20 foot long, somewhat steep, narrow path up a levee hill and some optional off-path routes along the way that are prickly and narrow.

Locke artist and art teacher, Martha Esch, will demonstrate easy techniques to painting a quick, lovely, loose watercolor postcard of scenic spots along the hike. Next, participants will begin using watercolor kits, blank postcards and brushes that will be passed out to all who'd like to paint their own scenes. (There will be a $5 art supply fee.)

Pack your own brown bag lunch, your own beverage and maybe some small snacks to share with others. The group will gather in front of Al the Wop's famous bar and steakhouse, located in the middle of Main Street in Locke, Calif.

If you arrive late, just follow the wooden walkway next to Al's to the back of Locke and the walking path past the community gardens, up the levee to the Meadows State Park to catch up. At the top of that levee, the first of two postcard watercolor paintings will take place overlooking the beautiful lagoon called Railroad Slough.

After 15 minutes, the group will stop painting and hike about 1/2 mile to a scenic overlook along Snodgrass Slough where they'll pause to paint their second15-minute postcards.

Lunch will take place at the Snodgrass Slough as well before the hike back to town where the 90 to 120 minute tour winds up back on Main Street.

Everyone in the hiking group will be welcome to sneak a peek at Esch’s paintings, some in progress, at "The Shack," her art and music studio located at the top end of Main Street at Levee Road.

The Delta Meadows State Park is a beautiful, secret gem and the town of Locke is a fun, historic place that you'll want to soon return to with your out-of-state guests. Visitors are free to visit antique and gift shops, museums and the town’s two restaurants, Al the Wops and the Locke Garden Chinese Restaurant.

Visitors should be sure to shop at Lisa Kirk's fun store called Strange Cargo, located next to Al the Wop's. If you have some muscle strain after your hike and want some acupuncture, Diane Thomas is the one to visit at Locke Chinese Medicine a few doors north of Lisa's shop.

Call Martha Esch at (916) 776-1000 with questions. Hope you can join!

To get to the meeting place in Locke from I-5, take the Twin Cities Road exit west toward the tall radio towers. When you hit the road along the Sacramento River, turn left (south) and go one mile to Locke and turn left into the tiny town. When you enter Locke, park in the free parking lot, straight ahead, next to the public restrooms. Entry codes are: Men 3535/ Women 3434.. Gather in front of famous Al the Wop's, located at 13943 Main Street, Locke CA 95690.

Disclosure: Aricle author, Martha Esch teaches private, small and large group art classes in watercolors, oils, and acrylic painting as well as clay classes to all skill levels and ages. For more, visit her blog at www.marthaesch.blogspot.com

Owners of Celestin's reflect on 28 years in business

2011-09-09T01:11:23Z

When it opened at 25th and J streets on a December morning almost 28 years ago, Celestin’s Island Eats & Cajun Cuisine was an instant success in the area, long before it was widely known as Midtown.

The restaurant, now located at 1815 K St., will close for the final time Sept. 30 as the Celestin family looks to relax and take a vacation.

“It’s the right time,” co-owner Phoebe Celestin said. She and her husband are looking to get out of the business, and they will now rent the space to a Southern-themed restaurant called The Porch.

She added that the closure is not financial. They handed it off to their son and his wife in 2006, but took it back in June, as the younger couple wanted to spend evenings together with their child. From that point on, they were looking to lease the space.

Selling Celestin’s wasn’t really an option, she said, since it had always been a family business and wouldn’t be the same otherwise.

Celestin said she and her husband are happy to see that Midtown has grown and prospered, getting to the point they dreamed of it becoming almost three decades ago.

“It’s bittersweet to leave it now, since the area is what we wanted it to be all that time,” Celestin said. “We were popular from day one, and we’ve been really fortunate. We had a strong beginning, middle and end. Every story should have that.”

Celestin added that several things were memorable over the years. She said customers always commented on how the windows on the original J Street location constantly steamed over, and she also remembers high-profile politicians stopping in for lunch.

But there’s one aspect of running the business that she said she will especially miss.

“My favorite was always being in a rush and working really hard and then pulling it off,” she said. “That was always a great feeling of satisfaction.”

With news of the restaurant’s impending closure coming out on Wednesday, Thursday’s lunch was very busy, and when the rush was past, co-owner Patrick Celestin, Phoebe Celestin’s husband, was wiping down patio tables.

“It’s what I do,” he said. “It’s important to have a good work ethic. I really like serving the folks and cooking the food. I’m going to miss the people and the hustle and bustle.”

Born in Port au Prince, Haiti, Patrick Celestin was in Sacramento visiting a friend from the Peace Corps when he met Phoebe, who had moved to the city from Seattle, and the two were later married.

Opening a restaurant seemed the natural thing to do for Patrick Celestin, who came from a family of chefs, caterers and restaurateurs.

“It’s in my blood,” he said Thursday. “What pleased me the most about owning this restaurant is that we maintained the quality of our food the whole time.”

The move from J Street to K Street came in 2001, after a fire burned a beauty salon on the space, and the Celestins were able to have a building constructed to their specifications.

At that time, they upgraded from a beer and wine license to a full liquor license and added mojitos and sangria to the menu, which have been some of the restaurant’s best-selling items since.

When it comes to food, the gumbo soup has remained a staple, as well as Haitian dishes.

“I have my favorite dishes,” Phoebe Celestin said. “I never tired of the gumbo, and I always loved the poulet blanchi, which is chicken in cream sauce with peas and onions.”

She added that another popular item is Haiti’s national dish, grio, which is twice-cooked pork with a sauce called Ti-Malice made of shallots, lime juice, chilies and thyme.

On Sept. 30, an auction of Haitian voodoo flags that grace the establishment’s walls will be held, with 15 percent of the proceeds donated to a charity the restaurant has partnered with for years, the Haitian Education and Leadership Program.

Customers packed the restaurant Thursday, and one of them was Nebrisa Novello, who came to celebrate her 28th birthday.

“I’ve come here on and off for the past 10 years,” she said. “It’s one of those Sacramento institutions. I like to keep going to them and help keep them around.”

She said she is happy that Celestin’s isn’t the victim of the economy and that The Porch will open in November to keep it from becoming an empty space.

Phoebe Celestin said the owners of The Porch, who also own nearby Capitol Garage, agreed to interview the entire staff of Celestin’s.

“That was very important to us,” she said.

Terry Sidie, who owns the Faces nightclub at 20th and K streets, ate at Celestin’s Thursday and said he is sad to see it go.

“They’re absolutely great,” he said. “There’s nothing else like it in town. There’s nothing I can say about Patrick and Phoebe that isn’t good.”

With the restaurant’s final three weeks approaching, the Celestins are making plans for what to do in the future.

Phoebe Celestin said she wants to return to Paris on a European vacation that might also include Spain and Switzerland to visit friends and family.

Patrick Celestin said he wants to relax, work around the house and clean out the garage.

Down the line, the couple might start a small product line of some of the restaurant’s favorites, including the gumbo soup and Ti-Malice Haitian hot sauce. They would then look to sell it at local markets.

But that’s in the more distant future. On Thursday, Patrick Celestin said he was focusing on the last weeks, where he hopes to see a lot of familiar faces so he can thank them for coming in over the years.

“Thank you. Thank you, Sacramento,” he said. “I am so grateful for the 28 years of support. I can’t emphasize my gratitude enough.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Celestin's to close this month

2011-09-08T00:45:30Z

After 28 years, Celestin’s Island Eats and Cajun Cuisine is closing its doors Sept. 30, according to owner Phoebe Celestin.

The Midtown restaurant will be replaced by a new venture from the owners of Capitol Garage, called The Porch Restaurant & Bar, which will feature Southern-style cuisine, according to a Wednesday press release.

The business was handed down to Celestin's son and his wife several years ago, she said, but once they had a child, they wanted to spend evenings together – something not conducive to running a restaurant.

"My husband and I came back and were considering offers that have been made," Celestin said. "We talked to several people and have a really good connection with the guys from Capitol Garage."

She added that there are currently no plans for her and her husband to open another restaurant, but that might be a possibility down the line.

"My husband loves to cook for people and will probably do it until he is no longer able to," she said. "He may look for something similar as a labor of love, but it's not in the plans at this moment."

Celestin’s, currently located at 1815 K St., originally opened on J Street in 1983 before moving to the current space in 2001, according to the restaurant’s website.

The Celestin family, originally from Port au Prince, Haiti, will auction off the Haitian Voodoo flags that hang on the walls of the restaurant on the last night of business, Sept. 30.

Celestin’s is known for its Caribbean- and Cajun-inspired food, including hamburgers with jerk seasoning, chicken curry and the popular gumbo soup.

The Sacramento Press will provide a more detailed article on Thursday.

To read a previous review of the restaurant by a Sacramento Press contributor, click here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Local catering business keeps it in the family

2011-09-03T01:31:13Z

After working in the restaurant industry for more than 20 years, Mark Mitchell decided it was time to stop working for other people – so he opened a catering business last summer.

Mitchell and Sons Mobile Eatery came to life after friends who own Kasbah Lounge at 22nd and J streets offered to rent their kitchen to him. He has been building his business since then, catering events and regularly supplying food to Midtown and downtown businesses.

“The idea was essentially that I really like cooking food, but I didn’t want to work for anyone else,” he said Friday. “I like the creative side of cooking. I like to play music and experiment with it.”

Whether he’s listening to The Clash, Tom Petty or whatever else strikes his mood, he said he likes to cook and takes pride in knowing that his food will be a central part of a family or group of friends sitting down together for a good time.

He sells goods regularly to a food cart called Le Petite Pedlar on the 500 block of Capitol Mall and to Devine Gelateria in Midtown, but he also caters for lunches and events such as bridal showers, baby showers and weddings.

A menu is available, but he said he will make custom meals as well.

His favorite dish to prepare is anything having to do with pork, but a growing trend in party dishes is something else he said he loves to prepare – Timpano.

“It’s like a huge Italian pastry in a 12-quart bowl,” he said. “Mine has pasta, meatballs, sausage, salami, peppers, herbs, marinara and hard-boiled eggs. It’s all layered, and it looks really cool when you bring it out.”

Much of his business revolves around making lunches, whether it be for a single person or an entire office.

Lunch sandwiches run $6-$7, and salads with meats are available in the same range. Soups are popular in the colder weather as well, he said.

One of Mitchell’s repeat clients is Resources Law Group near Fifth Street and Capitol Avenue downtown.

“We have lunch meetings all the time,” said Executive Assistant Carolyn Fisher. “We see a lot of people, and I always like trying new vendors.”

Earlier this year, she said she called Mitchell and asked him to tweak his menu to offer vegetarian options for the law firm, and she asked him to make a few things that weren’t on the menu.

“It’s definitely not what you would get from your standard deli,” she said. “He cooks with some flair, and he’s a really fun young guy. I imagine he really likes what he does, and he’s nimble and not afraid to go rogue from his menu.”

The shaky economy is something of a concern with starting the new business, Mitchell said, but he added that he feels confident with the year-old enterprise.

“The one solid (thing) I have is that people still want to eat, to have someone else cook for them,” he said. “I learned long ago that the most important part of the business is service. I know my food’s good, and I want to do everything I can to make sure the service is, too.”

Early in his career he helped start the East Sacramento Italian restaurant called Cafe Milazza, where he spent 10 years as a chef. The restaurant has since closed, and the space is now the home of OneSpeed Pizza.

“After that, I spent five years at Nugget Market, and then I worked at Sampino’s (Towne Foods) on 16th Street,” he said.
Though he now works on his own, he said he gets a lot of help from his four sons, ages 8, 10, 12 and 15.

“They all help me in some way,” he said. “To varying degrees, they’re all into it.”

His 12-year-old son, Micah, has become something of an understudy, and Mitchell said his goal is to one day become a professional soccer player or a chef.

“I’d be happy if he did either one,” Mitchell said with a laugh.

Mitchell and Sons Mobile Eatery can be reached by phone at 267-3261 or online by clicking here once the site is updated.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Gelateria opens at 19th and Capitol

2011-09-01T07:31:33Z

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, biscotti, stracciatella (chocolate chip), dark rich chocolate, hazelnut and marscapone.

Other flavors are being created as well, including blackberry sorbet and chocolate peanut butter.

“There’ll be more as time goes on and things start to run a little more smoothly,” she said. “I’ll even be doing some flavors from wine around the holidays, a champagne gelato or something.”

Sorbetto flavors include blueberry, lemon, Bartlett pear, cantaloupe, kiwi banana and caramelized pineapple.

Prices are $2.50 for a 2.7-oz mini, $3.50 for a 4.5-oz small, $4.25 for a 5.75-oz medium and $5 for a 7.1-oz large.

After working in advertising for more than 15 years, McCleary jetted off to Italy to learn the art of making gelato from scratch.

Unlike ice cream, gelato is denser and creamier, and McCleary said it is lower in fat as well.

“People have been blown away (by the gelato), which is the reaction I was hoping for,” McCleary said.

One of the people who was blown away by the taste and authenticity of the gelato was Curtis Park resident Patricia Moses, 53.

“It’s the real thing,” she said. “I don’t need to buy a plane ticket (to Italy).”

Eating a roasted hazelnut and chocolate-flavored scoop Wednesday afternoon, Moses said she’s glad the shop opened.

A longtime lover of authentic gelato, Moses said gelato is differentiated from ice cream by the intensity and precision of its flavoring.

“She’s making it the way you’re supposed to,” Moses said.

McCleary said she had to get a pasteurization license to be able to work with the materials in the way she learned when she studied the process in Italy.

“The Milk and Dairy board was here for five hours on Friday,” McCleary said, adding that she had to pass a written test as well as a practical test and show that she knew how to properly use the machinery.

That certification allows McCleary to make her own gelato base from scratch, so she is not relying on anyone else and can work with the flavors to make it consistent every time.

Once the business hits its stride, McCleary said, she plans on rolling out a mobile cart to sell gelato at farmers markets and also wants to find restaurant customers.

Also on offer at the gelateria and cafe are paninis for $6.99, which are prepared by local caterer Mark Mitchell, owner of Mitchell and Sons Mobile Eatery.

McCleary said she knew Mitchell from a restaurant he worked at, and it was during a chance meeting at Mulvaney’s B&L when she learned he was catering and could provide her with paninis.

Panini options include chicken, turkey, roast beef, prosciutto and a vegetable option. Different combinations of cheese and vegetables are available on each sandwich.

“They’re made on a couple of different types of focaccia bread,” Mitchell said. “They’re fresh every day. We’re not wrapping them holding them in the fridge for several days.”

He added that he enjoys gelato, and he is happy to have Devine Gelateria & Cafe as a place to eat as well as a client.

McCleary said she buys local products, from her dairy products to the Temple Coffee she uses to make lattes, Americanos and espressos.

Roz Nice, a 57-year-old Auburn resident, said the opening of the gelateria and cafe is part of a trend she is seeing in Sacramento.

“Sacramento is really coming of age with its gourmet restaurants and cafes,” she said Wednesday.

A fan of Italian gelato as well as traditional ice cream, Nice said she feels satisfied by a smaller amount of gelato than ice cream.

“It’s delicious here,” she said. “It’s just like the gelato I had in Italy.”

Devine Gelateria & Cafe is located at 1221 19th St. Hours are 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and noon - 6 p.m. on Sunday. The business is closed on Mondays.

To read more about McCleary and the differences between gelato, sorbetto and ice cream, click here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Hot Italian temporarily a car showroom?

2011-08-27T00:43:06Z

People headed to Midtown’s Hot Italian for a pizza or gelato might be surprised to see two new additions to restaurant – a pair of cars from Italian manufacturer Fiat, which returned to the United States this year after a 27-year hiatus.

“We’ve been looking for new pop-up concepts, and they’re stylish, they’re Italian, and they’re a great fit,” said Andrea Lepore, managing partner of Hot Italian, located at 16th and Q streets.

A “pop-up,” she explained, is a temporary display that sometimes has retail components to it.

“It kind of pops up, and you have to catch it while it’s here,” she said. “It will be up for at least three months.”

The two cars, a Fiat 500 and a Fiat 500C Cabriolet – with a retractable roof – can’t be purchased at the restaurant, but they fit the restaurant, in more ways than one.

“The most common thing people ask us is how we got them in here,” Lepore said. “It was a little tight, and on one, we had to back it up and then fold the mirrors in. We had about an inch of clearance on either side.”

FIAT Pop-Up Shop Launch from HOT ITALIAN on Vimeo.

Joey Gonzalez, general manager of Fiat of Sacramento, 2329 B Fulton Ave., said he thinks the cars will appeal to Hot Italian’s clientele.

“We found that a lot of Italian-Americans have a fond memory of or feel comfortable with the Fiat brand,” he said. “Also, the lifestyle that Hot Italian promotes is very similar to what our buyers are looking for.”

He said the Fiat vehicles fit an urban lifestyle that emphasizes compactness and fuel economy over larger sedans or SUVs. With Hot Italian being a destination for bicyclists and being located in Midtown, he said he thinks the vehicles will be exposed to people who might not otherwise know about the Fulton Avenue dealership.

Perry Harris, a Fair Oaks resident, went into the restaurant Friday with his family and said he was surprised to see the cars in the space.

“They look great. They kind of look fun to drive,” he said. “It looks like I need a coast highway, to tell you the truth. It looks like a reason to get out and drive.”

Perry said having them there brings attention to them.

“You don’t really see Fiats too often,” he said. “I wish more cars looked like this.”

Another diner at Hot Italian Friday, Valeria Morrow, is originally from Argentina and spent time living in Italy, with her Italian husband.

“I think it’s cool,” she said. “It adds a nice vibe to the place.”

She added that in Italy and Argentina, she saw some restaurants with vehicles in them like the Fiats in Hot Italian, but it wasn’t common.

“For us, this is a great brand to associate with,” Lepore said. “The convertible is really fun to drive.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

BarWest opens on J Street

2011-08-23T03:58:37Z

BarWest Burgers & Wings on J Street opened Thursday after a soft opening the previous weekend, filling a space that previously housed Aura ~~and G.V. Hurley’s~~ .

“We were really busy (on Thursday),” said co-owner Trevor Shults. “You can tell people in this area were really looking for something like this.”

The restaurant and bar located at 2724 J St. features a menu heavy on burgers and wings, with some salads and other items, such as deep-fried Ding-Dongs and buffalo fries as well.

Burgers include a variety of types, with the Capitol Classic (a step up from the BarWest burger with the addition of the “secret sauce”) and the J Street Bleu (a burger with bleu cheese).

Shults said the main focus for him at the moment is working with the staff to improve customer service in response to Yelp! reviews that complained of slow service.

“It’s like any new restaurant,” he said. “We need to work the kinks out before we really hit our stride.”

One change coming this week that’s a direct result of customer feedback is including French fries with every burger purchase.

Shults said that, originally, burgers by themselves started at $3.95, and fries were added separately. Customers, however, were upset that the burgers didn’t come with fries, so the menu is being adjusted so all burgers come with fries and start at about $5.

Drinks are another main feature of the restaurant and bar, with 16 beers on tap and about 40 craft beers available in bottles, Shults said.

“We also have drinks in fishbowls,” he said. “In fact, they’ve been so popular that I’ve got to order some more fishbowls.”

He said serving the 64-ounce fishbowl drinks allows people to share, and the popularity caused him to order another 50 of them to augment the 25 bowls he started with.

The mixed drinks served in fishbowls have four straws in them, and cost about $27.

The ground-floor restaurant area, including a patio, seats 102. The décor uses the brick walls of the buildings as well as padded wall coverings and beach hut-style grass over the bar area. A few surf boards serve as accents in the space.

An upstairs area is available for private gatherings, holding 48 people seated and 70 standing.

Shults said the idea is that it can be used for anything from corporate events to fantasy football drafts and birthday parties.

Some of the amenities upstairs include a private bar, four flatscreen TVs and a 15-foot projector.

“If people want to have corporate events, it’s $20 a head, and we have a $500 minimum,” Shults said.

Flatscreen TVs dominate the area above the bar and are also in other parts of the restaurant and the patio with 20 in all.

“We will have NFL Sunday Ticket from DirecTV, and we’ll be showing all the important games,” Shults said.

There won’t be any live music at BarWest, as one of the agreements with local neighbors included not filing for an entertainment permit. To read more about the restaurant and its workings with neighbors – who stood firm against the previous operators – click here.

Midtown resident George Raya, who has been involved with local neighborhood groups, said Monday that the restaurant and bar is not turning out to have the same types of problems that previous restaurants had.

“The crowd here seems to be social drinkers,” he said. “They aren’t drinking to get drunk. I’ve talked to a lot of the neighbors, and they all say it’s not a problem.”

He said there is noise associated with the restaurant and bar, but it’s the noise of a party, not the louder noise of a nightclub.

And Raya said he has been to BarWest every day it’s been open, and that it’s a convenient spot to get a drink near his home.

Tara Dodson, 37, lives in East Sacramento and likened BarWest to a Sacramento version of “Cheers.”

“The food is really good,” she said. “This is definitely a great local neighborhood bar.”

Johnny Davis, 33, said he’s tried most of the menu items and likes them all, but one stands above the rest.

“The deep-fried Ding Dong is amazing,” he said. “I’ve had one every day.”

He also said he tried the wings with the “death sauce.”

“If you were here, you would have seen a grown man crying,” he said with a laugh.

A touch-screen jukebox sits in the back of the restaurant, and music videos will be shown weekend nights.

BarWest Burgers & Wings serves food from 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, with the bar open until 2 a.m. Food service starts at 9 a.m. with brunch on weekends, and food service continues until 10 p.m., with the bar open until 2 a.m.

The BarWest menu can be found online by clicking here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Editorial Note: A correction has been made after this story was published. The incorrect information has been struck out.

Dad's Sandwiches owners buy J's Cafe

2011-08-18T00:59:05Z

The owners of Dad’s Sandwiches recently bought a longtime downtown eatery and plan to add some of their signature sandwiches and rename it Dad’s on J by the beginning of next year.

Mick Stevenson, co-owner of Dad’s Sandwiches at 13th and S streets, said he and his business partner, DJ Rogers, have been looking for a second location for several months. When J’s Cafe, 1004 J St., went up on Craigslist about four weeks ago, they had the keys within a few days.

“We bought Dad’s two years ago, and we made money on the first day we were open,” Stevenson said in J’s Cafe Wednesday morning. “It’s the same with this place. Those turnkey businesses are great in this economy.”

The J’s Cafe menu will remain intact with the same prices. Stevenson said he brought in a higher-quality meat for the cheeseburgers and a higher-quality fish for the fish and chips, but he kept the same two-person staff, so customers should notice little difference.

The cafe features breakfast and lunch, including egg, hash brown and sausage platters as well as several types of burgers and sandwiches. Fish and chips are another popular option.

Around Jan. 1, Stevenson said some of the more popular items from Dad’s Sandwiches – between seven and 10 sandwiches and probably a couple of salads – will be added to the menu.

Customer Brittan Jones said Wednesday that the vegetable burger tastes slightly different, but it’s good.

“Having some salads will be nice,” said Jones, who goes to the cafe about once a week and added that healthier options would be welcomed. “I know I shouldn’t eat fried food as much as I do.”

Stevenson, who worked at the Fourth Street Grill for four years, said he bought Dad’s Sandwiches two years ago so he could follow his passion for food without working to make someone else rich.

“I’m living my dream right now,” he said.

Despite Fog Mountain Cafe – a block away – closing earlier this year, Stevenson said the economy didn’t discourage him.

“This is 10th and J,” he said. “This place looks like New York City at lunchtime. There’s tons of people, and they’ve always gotta eat. I ain’t scared.”

He said Thursdays and Fridays are the busiest days, but he averages about 75 customers through the restaurant from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. on weekdays.

When the cafe re-brands as Dad’s on J, along with new paint and added menu options, he will open earlier, around 7 or 8 a.m., to bring in more customers for breakfast.

It is closed on weekends.

“At Dad’s (Sandwiches), we have our regulars who come in for early coffee at 7 a.m.,” he said.

He added that having a full grill at J’s Cafe will allow him to cater more than he currently can with the electric-only equipment at Dad’s Sandwiches.

“We can really add some hot items,” he said. “Right now, we only do meat-and-cheese trays.”

Deena Smith said she has been patronizing J’s Cafe for five or six years, and she picked up some food to go Wednesday morning.

“I was concerned it wasn’t going to be the same,” she said. “The food is really good and reasonably priced, and the people were really nice.”

She added that she enjoys the food under the new ownership.

“He seems like a really nice guy,” she said. “I hope he does well.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Pangaea opens bottle shop

2011-08-17T01:00:55Z

Local watering hole Pangaea Two Brews Cafe recently expanded its operations to include a bottle shop with about 200 beer selections. The bottle shop opened earlier this month, and owner Rob Archie said he has plans to add a delivery service in the Curtis Park neighborhood in September.

“We had our grand opening Aug. 6, and it was full in here all day,” Archie said. “The response has been really positive.”

Pangaea, located at 2743 Franklin Blvd., is marked by its selection of Belgian beers on tap, and Archie told The Sacramento Press in a previous article that he has long wanted to bring a bottle shop to offer those beers at to-go prices.

Beers are stored in a refrigerator spanning much of one wall of the bottle shop, which can be entered by the street or through an arched doorway from the adjacent cafe.

Another new feature that came with the bottle shop was a wine and cheese selection.

“We have some people who come in here, and as much as they might love beer, they sometimes want a glass of wine,” Archie said.

Wine selection includes chilled whites as well as reds in a rack along one wall, and he said the bottle selection is varied, with wines from the United States, France, Chile and other areas.

Coming sometime next month is a bicycle delivery service for the Curtis Park neighborhood.

“It’s a convenience for the area,” Archie said. “We will keep our website updated with what we have in stock, and people can order and have it delivered to them.”

To make it worthwhile, Archie said he will either have a minimum purchase requirement or a small charge for deliveries. For more information as it becomes available, check the website or Facebook page.

While bottles are priced for take out, patrons dining in the adjacent cafe can have bottles at their tables for a small corkage fee, depending on the size of the bottle.

“What’s cool about our system is (customers) don’t have to go over and buy it there and then come back to their table,” Archie said. “It’s all the same business, and it’s all connected, so they can just have it brought to their table and added onto the bill.”

Dave Morrow, craft beer manager for DBI Beverage, Inc., of Sacramento, a beer distributor, said the opening of the bottle shop is indicative of a growing trend in craft beers taking hold in Sacramento over the past couple of years.

“It’s really blown up,” he said, adding that the beer scene has become more sophisticated, and beer drinkers are increasingly treating the beverage with the respect and reverence often associated with wines.

Morrow said that even though there may be some expensive beers, the high-priced ones coming in bottles that hold about two pints are still much more affordable than their counterparts in the wine industry.

“You can come in here and literally have your pick of the best beers in the world,” Morrow said Tuesday as he perused the bottles in the shop. “And what’s great is anybody can afford it. You can get some of the best beers in the world for $10-$15 here.”

Archie said he has long wanted to have a bottle shop, and Morrow said he “nailed it.”

“If I won the lottery, this is exactly the bar I would build in my house,” Morrow said.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Old Ironsides has sound system, continues live music

2011-08-12T00:56:53Z

Quashing persistent rumors that Old Ironsides would stop playing live music, staff told The Sacramento Press Thursday that the bar now has its own sound system, and concerts are booked into November.

“For the record, we were never without a sound system,” said Mark “Gonzo” Gonzales, a manager for the establishment and also the man handling most of the booking for shows.

In late June, there were rumors that the iconic establishment at 10th and S streets would no longer be hosting live music, which has been a mainstay of the business for 21 years.

Gonzales said the old sound system, which had been leased, was taken out June 19, and a new sound system was being looked at, but in the meantime, a different sound system was being rented.

The new sound system went on line June 29, Gonzales said.

Bartender Art Rodriguez said having the sound system is an important aspect of the business.

“It means a lot to me to have a new one, because the owners don’t have to pay the rent on the old one,” he said. “When I found out how much money they were paying for the lease (on the old sound system), it was incredible.”

Rodriguez declined to give an exact amount, but characterized the lease as “quite a bit.”

He said the sound system, which consists of a Yamaha sound board, two bass speakers and several powered speakers, is smaller than the one that was leased, but anything more in the small space would be overkill.

“All the people who have come into the venue really like it,” he said.

Only one live band show had been held with the new sound system by Thursday afternoon, Gonzales said, though there had been a few open mic nights as well.

Local alternative/R&B/rock band Red Velvet Kiss played at the venue with the new sound system in place, playing on July 22.

“It was decent,” said Vincent Scola, lead guitarist for Red Velvet Kiss. “It’s not as good as the last sound system, but it still did the job. I was happy with it.”

Scola added that he would play at Old Ironsides again, and he said it’s valuable to have as a live music venue.

“You cant have too many live venues,” he said.

Mick Stevenson, owner of Dad’s Sandwiches at 13th and S streets, said he is glad Old Ironsides has a new sound system and will continue to provide live music.

“It’s crucial in this town,” he said. “It’s not always my neighborhood watering hole, but all three of my bands have played there a lot.”

Stevenson has played in the bands Nevada Backwards, Sam Sobriety and BLVD Park.

“(Old Ironsides is) definitely our competition as far as restaurants go,” he added. “But I know everyone in there, and having them here is a benefit to everyone. The Old Ironsides guys talk about us, and we let people know about them.”

Stevenson added that he thinks having Gonzales book bands for the venue is a good move as well.

“Bartenders know what bands bring in the money,” he said. “It should be good. I’m glad they’re up and running.”

Rodriguez said the live music has helped the restaurant and bar succeed in the current economy.

“It’s very important,” he said. “I’ve been here for 28 years, and I’ve seen Old Ironsides grow from not having any entertainment ... As far as nightlife, (the music) has really helped.”

Gonzales said that no one should worry about Old Ironsides going anywhere.

“We’ve been around a long time,” he said. “Come in and hear the new sound system and support the local bands.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

The Golden Bear expands its territory

2011-08-10T00:59:19Z

The space that formerly housed Hangar 17 in Midtown has been taken over by owners of The Golden Bear, who plan to bring a “grown-up” version of their neighborhood bar and restaurant to the area.

“We’ve been looking for a second location for quite a while,” said The Golden Bear co-owner Kimio Bazett. “It was preferably in Midtown and preferably a space that was built-out or established or had some unique architecture.”

Hangar 17 closed in March, and the space still had all of its restaurant equipment intact, which saved a huge expense, he said.

The approximately 4,000-square-foot building at 1630 S St. has about half of its space dedicated to the kitchen, an aspect Bazett said was important.

“A bar is what we know, but food will be an integral part of it,” he said. “One thing we were not really able to do (at The Golden Bear) is stretch our legs and show what we can do with the food.”

Bazett and his business partner, Jon Modrow, showed off their love of food with The Golden Bear’s inclusion on the Food Network show “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” last fall.

Some crossover with the food at The Golden Bear can be expected, but no menus have been set for the new space, which does not yet have a name.

“It will be a fairly different business, but it’s nice to pay homage,” he said, referring to The Golden Bear, which opened about seven years ago.

The targeted opening date is sometime in February, and Bazett said there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

“Aesthetically, we want to lighten up the space and really make it unique,” he said. “Nothing against Hangar 17, but it’s really important for us to differentiate ourselves for our own tastes.”

Designing the interior will be Whitney Johnson and Tina Ross, who are in the process of forming a design firm.

Johnson designed the interior of Shady Lady Saloon and said her experience lies mostly in restaurants.

“I think one of the biggest challenges is going to be differentiating (the building) from the street,” she said. “That space is pretty much tagged as Hangar 17. We need to change that.”

Though details and designs are still being worked out, large windows will front the street, opening up the space and bringing in more natural light. The patio area will become an indoor-outdoor space and will feature plants and a gardening aspect, Johnson said.

“We need a changed exterior look so people really notice it when they drive by,” she said.

In keeping with the theme of making the restaurant and bar a more mature “big brother” to The Golden Bear, Johnson said natural materials and history will be incorporated into the design.

While using wood accents is becoming more popular, she said the trend has been with refining the wood, and she wants to do something different, possibly using railroad ties and other rougher materials, but including more refined fabrics to “find the balance between femininity and masculinity.”

“Since Sacramento has so much railroad history, we want to use the railroad ties to show that off,” she said. “We don’t want to be Portland or San Francisco. We want to be Sacramento, and we want people drawn here for that.”

Bazett said the economy, though nagging, does not give him too many worries.

“Nothing’s foolproof, but we’ve put a lot of effort (at The Golden Bear), and we’ve never wanted to jump at the quick buck or claw over others,” he said. “We’ve been looking at this for several years, and maybe that’s why it’s taken so long. We’ve found what we want now.”

The timing is good, he said, as The Golden Bear gets a revamped kitchen, including a new hood and some other upgrades.

“This place can pretty much run itself, so we’ll have time to focus on the new place,” he said, adding that he won’t let The Golden Bear fall by the wayside.

Hours have not yet been set, Bazett said.

“That depends on whatever accord we can reach with the neighbors,” he said. “We are entirely different owners than the owners of Hangar 17.”

He added that he views The Golden Bear – and the new place – as a complement to the community.

“If we’re able to offer public space to meet people, socialize and offer high-quality food and drink and have minimal impact to the neighborhood, then that’s what we want,” he said. “It’s gotta be a win-win.”

Daniel Mueller, senior associate with Foursquare Commercial Inc. and broker on the Hangar 17 space deal, said he expects Bazett and Modrow will succeed.

“They’re young guys who have a good vision, and it’s not stagnant,” Mueller said. “I’m a restaurant broker, and I run into owners who have no vision for the future. That’s not what we need in this economy.”

He said he thinks The Golden Bear’s owners will provide a unique experience to the area.

“I think that when people walk in there, they’re going to be very impressed,” he said.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Spotlight Cakes offers cakes, Caribbean food

2011-08-04T00:54:21Z

A native of Trinidad and Tobago is bringing gourmet cakes and the taste of the Caribbean to Sacramento with the newly opened Spotlight Cakes on Stockton Boulevard.

Donna George, 54, learned the art of Caribbean cooking and cake baking at an early age from her family, and at 16, they moved to New York City, where she later began a career in nursing.

“I’ve always dreamed of opening my own restaurant and bakery,” she said Wednesday, adding that it opened July 21.

Her move to California from New York was prompted by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“I witnessed the first plane fly into the first tower on my way to work,” she said. “I have seven kids, and one of them was in college near the towers. I had no idea what was going on, and it took me seven hours to get home to Brooklyn.”

After that, she said she couldn’t live in New York City anymore, and she packed the kids and her belongings and drove to Sacramento, where she had previously traveled visiting friends.

Working as a nurse for Sutter, she got to know the community around Stockton Boulevard and Oak Park, and when an injury a few months ago kept her from being able to work, she decided it was time to fulfill her lifelong dream.

The cakes she makes can be anything from a standard New York-style cheesecake with a spongecake base to elaborate cakes with fondant and designs painted on them.

Other cakes include red velvet, buttery chocolate, tiramisu, lemon and fancier ones such as a nine-layer cake – yellow cake with vanilla buttercream frosting – and the bakery’s White Chocolate Cherry Bliss: yellow or chocolate cake with white chocolate moose filling.

And for those looking to have their own royal wedding, George said she can make British wedding cake.

“It’s basically a moist fruitcake with rum,” she said.

“Those crazy cakes are kind of the craze right now, like you see on the Food Network,” George said. “Last week, we made a birthday cake shaped like a race car.”

Cakes range from $60 to several hundred, depending on how “crazy” the client wants to make it, she said, adding that she also does wedding cakes, and any combination of cake flavors and fillings can be cooked up by her staff.

Pies will be carried in the fall, but can be made to order right now.

Rounding out the dessert menu is a variety of cookies and cupcakes, which George said have been popular with customers.

Victor Paz is one of George’s customers, and for his 49th birthday on Tuesday, he said he had to order one of George’s cheesecakes for the occasion.

“It’s delicious,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of really good things here.”

A designer cake business needs a fitting name, and it came naturally to George.

“I love Broadway, so the idea of calling it Spotlight Cakes just seemed right,” she said.

While the cakes take center stage at the establishment, George said she is also looking to bring more authentic Caribbean fare to Sacramento by selling Caribbean food for lunch, and it’s already developing a following.

“We had one woman come in (for lunch) Thursday, and she came back Friday, and then she came again on Saturday,” George said, adding that the Caribbean food won her over.

The food includes jerk chicken and jerk pork, curry chicken, and flatbread wraps called roti.

“Caribbean food is really spicy, but we put the spicy on the side,” George said, adding that the spiciness is in the sauces, and serving it on the side is a good way to keep it from overpowering those who aren’t familiar with the dishes.

The sauces include flavors like mango, chutney, oregano, thyme and rosemary, George said.

“There’s lots of curry, too, since we have an East Indian influence in the Caribbean,” she added. “We want to include more than just Trinidad and Tobago, so we have Cuban sandwiches and other dishes, too.”

Spotlight Cakes Executive Chef Todd Kingsbury, 26, is a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and lived in Barbados for a couple of years.

“Caribbean food gives you artistic freedom,” he said. “I’m a real creative kind of guy, and it’s always something different, depending on what you put into it and how you work with it.”

He said Caribbean food is very palatable, and most people who have tried it really enjoy it.

“We’re keeping it mostly authentic and putting a little bit of an Americanized twist on it,” he said.

The price of the roti wraps is about $7, and plates of jerk chicken with rice, beans and plantains can be had for $7.50. A smaller plate of the latter goes for $5, George said.

Caribbean food is not really expensive, and it’s healthy,” she said. “We don’t do a lot of fried stuff.”

Lauren Wakefield, George’s 21-year-old daughter, said she was surprised there weren’t many Caribbean places in Sacramento.

“We had them on every corner in Brooklyn,” Wakefield said. “I think it’s mostly because people here haven’t had it before. I don’t know how to explain the taste, but everyone who tastes it likes it.”

George’s mother, 83-year-old Mavis George, said she is proud of her daughter and excited for the business.

“I did some baking,” Mavis George said at the restaurant on Wednesday. “She learned a little from me and then did her own thing.”

Mavis George added that the Caribbean food in the restaurant reminds her of the food from her home in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Spotlight Cakes is open from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. for the after-church crowd on Sundays. It is located at 3751 Stockton Blvd.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Downtown brewpub closes for final time

2011-08-02T00:33:44Z

Brew it Up! closed for the final time Sunday, and owner Mike Costello said it underscores a concept that is too often overlooked: If you like a business, patronize it.

Sales at the brewpub took a substantial hit in late 2008, Costello said, and the restaurant – that also offered individual brewing – never recovered.

“If we stayed flat at our 2008 sales, we’d be surviving,” he said. “If you find a business you like, you’ve got to support it.”

The business announced Friday on its website that it would be closing, attributing the shutdown to the economy.

“I’m not blaming anybody,” Costello said Saturday afternoon at one of the tables near the bar as customers came in to grab their last brews and meal at the restaurant. It operated in Davis for seven years before moving to 14th and H streets in Sacramento eight years ago.

“We made good decisions, and we made some bad decisions,” he said. “Couple that with some very substantial hits in sales that came right around the time of state worker furloughs. It was impossible to catch up.”

Costello said he saw the need to close coming, and added, “The decision to close was made for me earlier this week,” declining to go into detail.

For the 55-60 employees who worked for the company, the news came as a surprise.

“It’s not something I expected,” said Head Brewer Raul Munoz, 34. “Most employees don’t pay attention to the behind-the-scenes stuff. We just look out here (in the restaurant), and we’re busy.”

Munoz said the workers will now probably just go their separate ways.

“It’s a state of surrealness,” he said. “I’ve got a cloudy head. It was a really great job, and I was well-compensated. I don’t know if I’ll find anything better.”

Munoz, who worked at Brew it Up! for six years, said the customer reaction was mixed, with longtime customers coming in for the last time seeming depressed, while others – who bought a recent Groupon for brewing their own beer – were upset to find out the the business would not honor the coupon.

“We’re catching a lot of flak,” Costello said. “They’re upset, and rightly so.”

He added that the only reason he kept the restaurant open through the weekend was in an effort to make payroll.

“That was my pledge to the crew,” he said. “Every single employee showed up. Not a single one bailed out.”

He added that several of his serving staff – which receives tips – approached him and asked that the kitchen staff – which does not receive tips – be given first priority when it came to paying wages.

Kristen Weingart, a 23-year-old bartender, said the final three days the business was open allowed her to say goodbye to her coworkers as well as the regular customers she has gotten to know over the past three and a half years.

“So much of this job is a part of me,” she said. “Mike was a great boss. He was really kind, and he may have lost his business, but he gained a family. I’m going to miss that.”

Weingart said she knew the business wasn’t doing very well, but she was still surprised when the announcement came Friday morning.

Customers leaving Brew it Up! Saturday said they were sad to see the business go.

“I used to come down here a lot,” said Sheri Adam, 48. “I started working farther away and didn’t make it in as much. I’m really going to miss their sandwiches and beer, and the people are really nice.”

Ron Liles, a 65-year-old Woodland resident, said he came down one last time to meet his son for lunch.

“This is just this silly economy we’re in,” he said. “Storefronts everywhere are closed up.”

He said he will miss the atmosphere and the people the most, and he enjoyed brewing his own beer with his son in the past.

Costello said he doesn’t have any immediate plans to open another business at the moment, but it’s not something he is ruling out.

If he does go into business again, he said he will work in a partnership with others.

“There are a lot of things about the concept that work,” he said. “There are some things I would change, and I’m just sad to see it didn’t work out.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Entrepreneurs drop 'fight bar,' look to expand restaurant

2011-07-30T00:11:40Z

The owners of a contested bar with a mixed martial arts fighting concept withdrew their application earlier this month, but neighboring residents are still concerned that new plans for the Midtown space will be the same operation by another name.

The MMA Fight Bar concept was planned by the owners of Luck’s BBQ, which at 2502 J St. is next door to the vacant space the fight bar would have taken.

The application for an alcohol license for Fight Bar was withdrawn by owners in mid-July, and the Alcoholic Beverage Control office confirmed Friday that no new application has been filed yet.

“They’ve decided to change their format there,” said Midtown Business Association Executive Director Rob Kerth. “They’ve decided to expand Luck’s BBQ.”

Kerth said trying to shoehorn another restaurant into the space is difficult, and the new idea should allow the space to be put into use much sooner.

As a restaurant, Kerth said he thinks it’s great to see new investment and improvement in the Midtown area.

“The more we have to offer, the more we expect people will enjoy coming here and living here,” he said.

Kerth added that the fight bar theme wasn’t likely to appeal to nearby residents.

“If something shows up with the name ‘Fight Bar,’ it’s not starting out setting a great impression with neighborhood leaders,” he said. “They’ve decided to rethink that concept.”

City Councilman Steve Cohn said the owners did some outreach efforts in the community that weren’t well-received.

“It seemed this concept was going to be pretty problematic right across from a senior housing complex, so they decided to hold back on that idea,” he said.

A manager at Luck’s BBQ confirmed Wednesday that the owners would be expanding Luck’s BBQ in lieu of building the fight bar, but he did not return phone calls later in the week.

Nearby residents said Friday that they are still waiting to see what the expansion will bring.

In the past, the same group of neighbors has been influential with other nearby establishements, including G.V. Hurley’s and BarWest Burgers & Wings.

Dale Kooyman, a local resident, said that he is waiting to see which type of liquor license – if any – the business applies for.

Restaurant alcohol licenses are easier to get, but bar/nightclub licenses are more expensive and must be justified, he said, adding that he doesn’t want to see the owners apply for a restaurant license only to stay open until 1:30 or 2 a.m. and operate as a bar.

“We’ll see if it’s a better outcome,” he said. “We’ll see if they’re just changing the name or changing the operation. If you’ve got 15 or 20 screens showing fights, then it’s still a fight bar, even if you call it a restaurant.”

Kooyman added that the name is immaterial.

“We don’t want a business operation that fosters MMA/martial arts,” he said. “They’re in Chicago and various places, and the bouncers can’t control the fights.”

Karen Jacques, another area resident, said she is concerned that alcohol mixed with a fight-themed bar will cause spillover troubles in the nearby residential areas, where many patrons would likely park their vehicles.

“It seems like the more we become a regional destination that is known primarily for bars, the more there is spillover,” she said.

She added that bouncers and security at bars cannot control problems that might occur on nearby streets, and with reduced police and code enforcement staff, she is concerned.

“I’m still concerned about what may go in there,” she said.

Cohn acknowledged that there may still be concerns among local residents as the restaurant expansion goes forward, but he expects they can be worked through.

“I think certainly if all parties are willing to talk to each other, there’ll be ways to work out the restaurant expansion,” he said.

He added that he doesn’t know any timeline for the expansion permit to be filed, but he expects it to be sooner than later.

“I did get the impression it was not going to be a long time,” he said. “Probably in the next couple of weeks.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

California Pizza Kitchen to leave, be replaced by pub

2011-07-12T01:12:04Z

Two Sacramento families with downtown businesses will take over the space in the Firestone Building that houses California Pizza Kitchen. The restaurant, which opened in May 2009, will close this month, making way for the Firestone Public House in about six months.

The de Vere Whites, who own de Vere’s Irish Pub, and the Wong family, which owns Ma Jong’s, The Park Ultralounge, The Mix and Cafeteria 15L, are still working out the details of what the approximately 5,700-square-foot space at 1132 16th St. will hold, according to Henry de Vere White.

“The best way to say it is that a sports bar will probably be one aspect of it, and through the buildout, it is going to develop,” he said. “The Wong family has always done new and vibrant ideas.”

De Vere White said the details have yet to be worked out, and upcoming meetings will help hash it out. A sports bar will be one aspect of it, but it will likely be a place where people who aren’t avid sports fans can go for a conversation and a drink as well.

He said he does not think having another bar-centric business on the corner of 16th and L streets next door to his family’s pub will hurt his business.

“I think people who want to go to an Irish pub are going to go to an Irish pub for the experience,” he said. “I really think that (Firestone Public House) will be different enough, and it’ll complement the corner.”

Mason Wong of the Wong family was unavailable for comment.

Ken Fahn, one of the co-developers of the Firestone building where de Vere’s Irish Pub and the new business will be housed, said business never quite worked out for California Pizza Kitchen at that spot.

“We thought (California Pizza Kitchen) would be a nice addition to the downtown, and they have a strong kids’ menu and all that,” he said.

But over the past two years, the crowds never really materialized for the chain pizza restaurant, which also has a location at Arden Fair and opened a new space in Roseville last year.

“We’re going to assume that the Midtown and downtown crowd doesn’t go for chain restaurants,” Fahn said. “Local operators have a better handle on the idiosyncrasies of the market. They understand Sacramento better.”

He added that opening at the start of government furloughs also undoubtedly affected the level of business.

Mark Cordano, the other co-developer working with the Wurster family, which has owned the building since the 1940s, said he originally expected California Pizza Kitchen to be successful.

“We thought we’d get more kids downtown, but the families we expected to come from Land Park and East Sac tend to stay in their neighborhoods,” Cordano said.

He added that numerous other pizza restaurants opened as well, including Chicago Fire, Pizza Rock and Hot Italian, along with established pizza restaurants such as Paesanos, which presented a lot of competition.

Representatives from California Pizza Kitchen did not return calls Friday or Monday.

Fahn said he expects the new business to do well, adding that the other tenants in the building, including Mediterranean restaurant Petra Greek and Japanese steakhouse Sapporo Grill, are doing well.

“I think everybody that’s involved in this project are true Sacramentans,” Fahn said. “They have roots here. From a landlord’s perspective, we believe in operators who put their soul into the business.”

De Vere White said that “keeping it local” is going to be one of the keys for success.

“I think we’re going to put our own unique stance on it and create something everyone will really enjoy,” he said. “The overall sentiment is that we’re all just really excited to work together on this.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

The Garlic Shack is now open

2011-07-08T00:45:40Z

Midtown’s Garlic Shack has been open for a week, and General Manager Ken Powers said the locals have been craving his garlic fries, along with other items such as rice bowls based on gluten-free brown rice.

The hard part is letting people know it’s open, he said, since it has been about six months since the former restaurant, Plum Blossom, closed.

To read more about the construction and ideas behind The Garlic Shack, located at 19th and J streets, click here.

“We didn’t want to open on Second Saturday, so we made sure we opened a week earlier,” Powers said, adding that he hopes to have a DJ outside for the Second Saturday Art Walk.

The restaurant’s glass garage door, which spans much of the street-facing wall, should be open during the event to allow patrons easy access to the patio seats and let the beats filter into the dining area.

While the restaurant’s emphasis is – as the name suggests – garlic, Powers said the beers have been popular, with tall cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Coors Light adding to a selection of microbrews including Sudwerk, Lagunitas Brewing Company and Lost Coast Brewery.

Most popular among the garlic-centric entrées are the rice bowls, which are served with gluten-free brown rice.

The above-pictured rice bowl is the Caribbean rice bowl, which has yams, onions, a jerk sauce that includes beer, and a char-broiled, marinated pork chop. It is topped with pistachios and hemp, sesame and sunflower seeds.

Powers said the recipes are his own creations.

“Sometimes you get an idea from something you eat somewhere, and then you go home and take what you liked from that and add in something else that you like, and it works really well,” he said.

The garlic fries are popular as well, Powers said.

Garlic-flavored desserts are planned, but Powers said he wants to get the flavors perfected before offering them to patrons. In the meantime, other desserts are offered, made by the dessert chef behind the Nevada City Truffle Shop.

Pictured above are the standard size cakes: The one on the left is key lime and the one on the right is dark chocolate filled with white chocolate and topped with raspberry purée.

“We’re also making a mud pie of our own,” Powers said.

Food items range from $4.50 and upward, with an average full meal including a salad going for about $17. Nothing is above $18, Powers said.

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. - 10 or 11 p.m., and it stays open later on Friday and Saturday nights.

“We stay open till at least 2:15,” Powers said. “We want to capture that after-bar crowd, and there’s no way of knowing how much will come in here before 2 or 2:15.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Pangaea to open a bottle shop

2011-07-07T00:55:10Z

Those who prefer to buy specialty brews will soon have a new place to go to stock their beer cellars as Curtis Park’s Pangaea Two Brews Cafe celebrates its third anniversary by opening a bottle shop. Adjacent to Pangaea, at 2743 Franklin Blvd., it will complement the already-successful cafe with its largely Belgian and Belgian-style beer selection.

Prices will be competitive with other local distributors, owner Rob Archie said.

The bottle shop will open in about a week. Also new to the space will be specialty cheeses, high-end Belgian chocolates, wine and a larger selection of charcuterie.

“We’re probably going to start off with about 250 bottles and work our way up,” said the 36-year-old Archie. “We have space for about 500 bottles.”

Archie said he is excited to bring a specialized beer selection at to-go prices he said will be competitive with retailers like BevMo! and Total Wine. The selection will be updated via the Facebook page.

“We have an advantage over (large distributors) because we can bring in small shipments, like maybe a case, and we will sell a beer to 12 people and be done with it,” he said.

Many of the beers have complex profiles, and Archie said they can be stored for years in cellars like wine, and as they age in the bottles they develop a unique flavor yet retain their body and carbonation.

He added that beers taste different on tap than they do in bottles, and selling bottles of beer will give customers a chance to taste that difference.

Adding wine to the selection is something Archie said customers have been requesting since Pangaea’s opening in 2008. The wine selection will be small, but he said he wants to focus on quality bottles, like his philosophy with beer.

The approximately 550-square-foot bottle shop was undergoing construction Wednesday morning, with the floors being painted a reddish brown. It has a street entrance, and cafe visitors can also access it through a newly created arched doorway that joins the two spaces.

Construction began about two weeks ago, and the soft opening of the bottle shop is expected in a week. The grand opening is scheduled for Aug. 6, when Archie said he will have a block party at Franklin Boulevard and Third Avenue (which will be closed off) with beer, wine and pairings with food, cheese and chocolate.

“I had a lot of ideas for (the bottle shop space),” Archie said. “At first I thought of making it a wine bar, then I thought of leaving it as an office, but I really wanted to bring the bottle shop in, and it’s a good space for it.”

Patrons who want to sip their bottle shop beers at the cafe can do so by paying a small corkage fee that has yet to be determined.

“People say that being in here reminds them of being in Europe,” he said. “A lot of the people who travel like to find local beers, and those are the beers we will be carrying.”

The cafe’s European feel comes from sturdy wooden tables surrounded by wall hangings of beer ads and a smaller version of a famous fountain in Brussels.

Tyler Stacy, a 23-year-old wine industry worker who lives a few blocks away, said he is most excited about the implementation of wine, and he is looking forward to having a place nearby where he can pick up a few bottles of rare Belgian beers.

Zoila Reyna, a 26-year-old Davis resident, said she comes to Pangaea for the food and the beers, specifically the cafe’s bacon and egg sandwich.

“I absolutely will be coming to the bottle shop,” she said. “They’ve surprised me with their collection of quality beers here, and I can’t imagine what they’ll have, so I want to come back and check it out.”

Archie said expanding the business in a down economy doesn’t worry him too much, since he opened Pangaea at the beginning of the recession in July, 2008.

“I think with the economy, we’re really maturing,” he said. “We’re living a little more like the Europeans. We don’t need the biggest house, but we want to focus on some of the simple pleasures in life, even just going to a local place, sitting down and having a good beer that’s been stored right and served in the right glass.”

Pangaea is open from 8 a.m. - 10 p.m., but Archie said those hours might be changing soon, possibly opening later and staying open a little later, too.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

A guide to Shoki Ramen House for the diet-restricted

2011-07-04T23:24:19Z

Dining out as a vegetarian or vegan can be difficult. For those with dietary restrictions, modifying menu items or asking for substitutions becomes a normal part of ordering at restaurants.

Many restaurants have menus that accommodate those with food allergies or whose diets are restricted, but the best way to be sure you are not eating foods you are allergic to or you choose not to is to ask.

Shoki Ramen House is a popular destination for vegetarians, vegans and meat eaters alike.

The Sacramento Press recently spoke with a vegan who frequents Shoki Ramen House regularly. His experience prompted The Sacramento Press to do some research and create a guide to Shoki Ramen House for vegans and vegetarians.

The customer said he had been going to the original Shoki on 24th Street for quite some time and that he had learned the right way to order a vegan-friendly meal.

When the new location opened on R Street, he started going there, and after about 10 visits of ordering the same thing he was informed that the bamboo shoots were cooked in meat broth.

He said after that he stopped ordering the bamboo shoots until he was later told that the establishment was no longer soaking the bamboo shoots in the meat broth. On another visit, he was told the bamboo shoots were being soaked in seafood broth.

“I was frustrated about the whole thing, but I love their ramen so much,” he said. “I just wish they would define the dishes more clearly, at least with the term vegan. Honestly, it would be better for the company to just adopt the standard vernacular of the clients.”

When this story was recounted to Kathy Ueyama, part-owner of the business and wife of Chef Yasushi Ueyama, she said, “The company works really hard to be as proactive as it can when it comes to preparing food for those with dietary restrictions.

“All of the employees, from busser to server, are required to take a 55-question exam about the company and its menu to ensure that all customers are well-informed when choosing their ramen,” she said. “They have to get a 100 percent to pass and are motivated with a raise upon passing.”

Kathy Ueyama said that when she and her husband first began the company, it was to be all about the ramen and the original triple soup broth (meat, seafood and vegetable). When Yasushi Ueyama saw customers come in who couldn’t eat any of the ramen because they couldn’t eat meat, specifically a friend who couldn’t eat pork for religious reasons, she said he felt bad and created a vegetarian broth.

That vegetarian broth is actually made of a combination of vegetable and seafood broth. Kathy Ueyama said that as more people started to order the vegetarian ramen, there started being issues that it was not truly vegetarian because of the seafood broth in it.

As a result, Yasushi Ueyama once more worked to create a vegan broth. The concept of veganism was new to Yasushi Ueyama since Japanese culture did not really make that sort of differentiation, Kathy Ueyama said.

Kathy Ueyama explained that when Yasushi Ueyama was creating the vegan ramen, he had customers taste and provide their opinions.

“Yasushi is very health-conscious, but he’s also very flavor-conscious,” Kathy Ueyama said.

They love the business and all of our customers, Kathy Ueyama said, adding that it is very difficult to accommodate everyone, as each person has their own preferences.

“One vegetarian customer may be OK with a little bit of seafood broth, and a so-called vegan customer has been seen eating tomago (sweet fried egg),” she said.

Here are a few tips for ordering at Shoki Ramen House:

1. All the servers are required to ask customers if they have any dietary restrictions, but if they don’t, always tell your server, who can then guide you when ordering ramen.

2. The vegan ramen only comes in one size and flavor, the tan tan men, or spicy ramen. Kathy Ueyama explained that this is due to the delicacy of the flavoring. The flavor can be adjusted by adjusting the spiciness of the dish.

3. While the broth and ramen in the vegan dish are vegan-friendly, not all the toppings are. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, you should steer clear of the bamboo shoots (menma), shiitake mushrooms and tomago.

4. When ordering steamed cabbage, make sure it is vegan-friendly by asking. The type of sauce used to season it depends on the ramen ordered.

5. When ordering the spinach (oshitashi), make sure to take off the bonito (fish) flakes or put them on the side.

6. Err on the side of caution and ask questions.

The first and the last of the tips were emphasized by Kathy Ueyama. She said the menu does change from time to time.

Shoki Ramen House also provides a gluten-free option for its customers. Kathy Ueyama said they are in the process of finding a company to provide them with gluten-free noodles, so currently the gluten-free option is actually a gluten-free broth with a side of white or brown rice. This is available in the vegetarian option, but not the vegan.

For more information, call the restaurants directly: 454-2411 (2675 24th St.) or 441-0011 (1201 R St.).

ABC liaison officers: know the rules, follow the rules

2011-07-02T04:51:11Z

Despite losing 42 sworn police officers this week due to budget cuts, the Sacramento Police Department was able to keep one officer whose job is enforcing liquor license regulations and making sure licensees know the rules and follow them.

A $75,000 grant was awarded to the city of Sacramento from the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), allowing the city to fill the second of only two ABC liaison officer positions in the Police Department.

ABC liaison officers play a vital role in keeping bars and restaurants in compliance with liquor laws, said Lt. Gina Haynes of the Sacramento Police Department’s Metro Division.

According to city staff, Sacramento has more than 1,000 ABC-licensed establishments, with an average of 25 per square mile in the downtown area.

“We’re a capital city, so we really have a responsibility to make sure that we have a nice, orderly city, with venues that people are going to want to frequent in their social time,” Haynes said.

Having so many places to socialize and drink has caused some challenges for the city, however.

Haynes said alcohol-related problems, including underage drinking, are a big concern to city police because of the number of young adults and minors attracted to the many entertainment venues in the city.

In March 2010, Sacramento was ranked 20th of the Top 100 Drunkest Cities in America by Men’s Health Magazine.

Also in 2010, police statistics reported a total of 32 traffic fatalities in Sacramento, 13 of which were alcohol-related, and six of which were hit-and-run, which may have been alcohol-related.

“We would be in a whole world of hurt if we didn’t have (ABC liaison officers),” Haynes said.

Haynes said ABC liaison officers provide law enforcement and education and prevention programs for liquor license holders throughout the city.

“I would consider preventing or reducing the number of alcohol-related fatalities to be vital in the way of public safety,” Haynes said.

There are only two ABC liaison officers employed by the city of Sacramento, according to police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

At the same time, the city processed 900 applications for liquor licenses last year alone.

ABC liaison officers answer complaints of every color: from alcohol being watered down to people selling alcohol out of their homes to retailers operating without valid licenses.

“It goes on and on and on,” Haynes said. “Anywhere there is the possibility of making money, there is the potential for breaking the law. Liquor laws are no different.”

The officers also perform compliance inspections, decoy operations, conduct DUI checkpoints and maintain ABC compliance at special entertainment events.

“They are really the go-to resource when it comes to ABC license regulations,” Leong said. “We’re trying to change the negative numbers in relation to alcohol-related crime.”

The one-year grant award for the liaison officer position extends to June 30, 2012.

After that, the city will have to apply for another grant in order to continue the liaison officer position.

“We absolutely cannot afford to let those positions go away.” Haynes said. “They do a good job, and we need them.”

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Food law takes effect Friday

2011-07-01T00:44:20Z

A new food handler training program goes into effect for all California restaurant workers Friday, and Sacramento-area employees and restaurateurs have varied opinions on its effectiveness.

The new law, Senate Bill 602, requires all restaurant employees – with a few exceptions – who handle food to complete an online training course with basic food safety instruction. According to the law, certified testing companies cannot charge more than $15, paid by the employee.

“There are similar laws and requirements like this in other states that require a basic level of food safety training, like Florida and Texas,” said Daniel Conway, legislative and public affairs director of the California Restaurant Association.

The association is a trade group for California restaurants and worked with county health inspectors and state Sen. Alex Padilla of Pacoima, who authored the bill.

“It will without a doubt have a positive impact in terms of food safety,” Conway said.

He added that San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside counties already had similar guidelines at the local level, and they had measurable results in decreasing the amount of food-borne ailments. Those counties are exempt from the law, given their current programs.

A similar program has been required for at least one manager at every restaurant for about a decade, Conway said, and the new comprehensive certification is modeled on that, but not as intensive.

The test, which must be passed with a score of 70 percent or better, covers six topics: food-borne illness, including terms and types; the relationship between time and temperature as it affects food-borne illness; the relationship between personal hygiene and food safety; methods of preventing food contamination; procedures for cleaning and sanitizing utensils and equipment; and problems and solutions concerning temperature control, cross-contamination, housekeeping and maintenance.

That, however, does not sit well with some restaurant workers.

“Well I’m mad I have to spend my money on it, and I really don’t think it’s going to make people more careful with food handling,” said Summer Johnston, an 18-year-old Starbucks employee.

“I definitely think that the company should have to pay for it,” she added.

Clarence Wong, a manager at Taro’s by Mikuni, said, "There was an initial fear about how much it would cost us if we had to pay for everyone to take the test, but because the employees are now paying for their own cards, it's now a matter of the employees making sure to meet the standards before the deadline so that they can work.”

Records of cards – such as photocopies – must be kept by employers, and employees do not need to carry the cards with them when they work, according to an FAQ page put out by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, which also lists exemptions for certain groups of employees and restaurant types.

Employers who cannot produce cards for their employees will be in violation of the law, and that violation can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor.

Conway said the card belongs to the worker, and only one is needed, renewed every three years.

The test can be taken here, and the certificate can be printed.

“It was meant to kind of give employees maximum flexibility,” he said. “A fair number of people working in the restaurant industry work several jobs, and they can use the same card wherever they go.”

He added that since it is statewide, people who live in Sacramento and go to college in a different county can use the same card if they have jobs in both places.

“We’re all for it,” said Patrick Mulvaney, owner of Mulvaney’s B&L. “I think it’s pretty cool, because it makes sure everybody is up to snuff and on the same level.”

He compared it to needing a license as a taxi driver or a cosmetology certificate to style hair in a salon.

Mulvaney said some of his workers without access to computers used one at the restaurant, and though all of his workers can read, he said that if they couldn’t, a manager would have to sit down and go through it with them, making sure it was all understood.

“I think it seems like a good idea, and it makes sense intuitively for me,” he said. “Everybody should know that things need to be under 40 (degrees) or over 140 (degrees) and the reasons it’s OK to leave vinegar out but not milk.”

Some employees at local restaurants doubt Conway’s assertion that the law will have any real effect.

"Basically, I think this is just a way for the state to get money, and every year there will be some way for them to make it more expensive,” said Taro’s by Mikuni Head Hostess Katrina Ewbank.

“Each restaurant has their own training already, and I honestly don't think, if people weren't practicing cleanliness before, that they'll all of a sudden be super-clean,” she said. “Though, I think people might just feel better knowing that restaurants are requiring their workers to do it."

Christopher Weiss, a 21-year-old employee of New York Pizza and Plus, agreed.

“It wouldn’t upset me too much. It just means I’d miss a little bit of work to do the class,” he said. “It sounds like (the food handler card) would be necessary, but when you’re actually working with food, even after taking classes, you tend to do it your way. Doing a class kind of seems ridiculous.”

Employees may grumble, but it is required by law, and not having it will mean being unemployed.

“It’s theirs, but they need to have it.... If there is a health inspection, (inspectors) will ask for it,” said John Ruffaine, co-owner of Giovanni’s Old World Pizzeria. “As soon as it is enforced, if they don’t (have) it, they are without a job. They are not allowed to work (in food service) anymore.”

He added that employees not having the cards would be akin to the restaurant operating without any other permit.

A number of Ruffaine’s employees had already received their cards when questioned by The Sacramento Press in advance of the law's effective date.

“The funny thing is, it seems they say they feel better about themselves because they feel more important about it – they have something that says that they can handle food. Their spirits are uplifted after taking it,” he said.

Ruffaine said the test involves a lot of common-sense items, but that they are important to prevent food contamination.

“Unlike us, there are many places that don’t really inform staff on not only how to properly handle food, but detergents,” he said.

Olive Garden server Teona Garza said the test is a pain, and she found out about it from other servers.

“We have to get it on our own,” she said. “It's a boring test, and (Olive Garden) is making us pay the fee. But they said we have to get it or we won't be employed."

For more information on the food handler card, click here.

The test, administered by ServSafe, and frequently asked questions can be found here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell. Sacramento Press editorial interns Amy Wong, Nha Nguyen, Elizabeth Orfin and Taylor Miles contributed to this article.

Fresh Freshii on Third and Q Streets

2011-06-28T14:32:07Z

Freshii opened a new location in downtown Sacramento on April 11, and owner Eric Heffel said they are happy to be in the area.

According to Heffel, there are about 12,000 daytime office workers and 3,000 residents in the surrounding area and only one restaurant within walking distance to choose from.

“Freshii can now provide all of those people another choice,” Heffel said.

Located at 400 Q St., on the corner of 3rd and Q streets at the CalPERS building, the newest Freshii location is providing a variety of items to patrons in the area including, but not limited to, frozen yogurt, freshly made wraps, soups and salads, and a variety of snacks and drinks.

Menu prices range from $1.79 to $9.79.

But, if being told what to eat isn’t your thing, one of the main features of Freshii is that everything is customizable. There are more than 70 different ingredients to choose from, such as avocado, chopped almonds, grilled salmon, edamame, feta cheese or bean sprouts, to name a few.

Patrons are welcomed to build their own meals from scratch by checking off wanted ingredients on the provided menus/checklists. First, customers choose what type of meal they want to build, either a salad, bowl, classic or grilled wrap or soup.

After choosing from a base of romaine, spinach or a Freshii mix of greens for a salad or wrap base as well as vegetable, chicken and lemongrass broth for soup, they can choose from two lists of ingredients before finally selecting a dressing/sauce.

Though it opened in April, the Q Street location waited to hold its grand opening on Friday and Saturday evening, when its liquor license came through. Heffel said they are the only Freshii out of the 48 locations throughout Canada, America, Austria and Dubai that serves beer and wine and said he hopes that this will allow them to provide the residents in the area with a cool hangout spot.

This particular location is also the only one with a full self-serve yogurt section. Normally, Freshii locations only sell one flavor of frozen yogurt, but Heffel, also the owner of Yogurtagogo, said when CEO and founder of Freshii Matthew Cornin came across Yogurtagogo, he really liked the concept and wanted to try it out at the Q Street corner.

The new location has three seating areas, including an outside patio that can serve up to 60 people.

The Freshii brand is about fast, fresh and healthy food, Heffel said. And being that it is also a very green company, it provides food delivery service throughout the downtown area by bicycle.

To read more about Freshii's menu and manifesto, click here.

Regular food truck gathering kicks off

2011-06-23T00:02:18Z

A weekly gathering of food trucks will kick off Thursday at Tognotti’s Auto World as Mini Burger Truck, Mama Kim on the Go and Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen hold the first event organized by the fledgling Sacramento Food Truck Alliance.

The alliance formed about a month ago and is looking to be a self-policing organization for food trucks that will hold operators to a high level of service standards and host events in which alliance members can participate, said Davin Vculek, operating partner of Mini Burger Truck.

“I encourage people to come check out (Thursday’s gathering),” Vculek said. “For the most part, I think citizens want this. For the people who have never given it a shot, come down and see how clean they are – they’re not the old roach coaches.”

Thursday’s food truck gathering – which does not have a specific name as organizers mull options for something catchy and descriptive – will be held in the parking lot for Tognotti’s Auto World, 2509 Fulton Ave.

The trucks will be in the lot from 5 - 8 p.m., and Tognotti’s is staying open an hour later, until 7:30 p.m., to coincide with the gathering.

Tognotti’s General Manager Vince Colangelo said he has had a food truck park in the parking lot before, and it was very popular.

He said a truck owner came to him and asked to park in the parking lot, and he agreed. It parks there regularly, and he said it draws employees from the area as well as his own employees. He added that many of the food truck visitors walk into the store, and it’s good for his business.

“We’re a little surprised to see how busy it is,” he added. “Whenever we come in or out, there’s always somebody in line buying something.”

The event must be held outside Sacramento city limits due to an ordinance limiting food truck operators from staying in one place for longer than 30 minutes.

A special event permit may be sought, he added. A much larger mobile food festival, SactoMoFo, was held April 30 and drew an estimated 10,000 people as mobile food vendors and local foodies looked to overturn the ordinance.

Andrew “Drewski” Blaskovich, owner of Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen, which specializes in gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, melts and tacos, said he sees the Sacramento Food Truck Alliance as a way to help city officials keep an eye on food trucks if the ordinance is overturned as well as host events like the gathering Thursday that will bring more exposure.

One of the alliance’s rules is that food trucks not park in front of restaurants.

“We don’t want to put anybody out of business,” Blaskovich said. “We want this whole city to thrive.”

He said he thinks food trucks operating in Sacramento as they do in other cities such as Portland and San Francisco will bring people downtown and help create a bustling streetscape that might draw more businesses to take advantage of the crowds outside.

“We could get those commuting customers who aren’t used to being downtown, and they could come and say, ‘Wow, J Street is a cool street,’ ” he said.

“I think the business we bring is going to get people out of their seats and walking around and help spike the economy in downtown Sacramento.”

Though the gathering will be held regularly, the location will change, said Kim Scott, owner of Mama Kim on the Go, which sells gourmet American fare – one of the most-popular items being barbecue tri-tip with sweet potato chips – and focuses on using local products.

“We’ve had really good response to the food in general,” she said. “This is our first weekly gathering, and the support is going to govern how big this gets.”

She said it is a good opportunity to try different foods and not have to deal with the long lines that foodies waited in during the SactoMoFo festival.

Chris Jarosz of WIcked ‘Wich, said he is looking forward to participating in the gathering of food trucks, but wants to take some time to get experience with the newly launched truck before going out to a bigger event.

“We didn’t want to go out there and not be able to accommodate that many people and be disorganized,” he said.

He added that he wants to see the ordinance overturned, and he wants to reach out to the owners of traditional restaurants to make sure that the trucks and buildings can coexist and even profit from each other’s presence.

Jarosz said Wicked ’Wich probably won’t participate every week in the gathering, but maybe twice per month or monthly.

“What’s great about the food trucks is we can go to our customers and not have them have to come to us,” he said.

Vculek said he thinks it is only a matter of time before the ordinance is overturned.

City leaders recently met with restaurateurs, food truck operators and food lovers to gather information in advance of drafting a new ordinance.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Photos of Bows and Arrows' new digs

2011-06-22T01:03:54Z

Vintage clothing store Bows and Arrows opened in its new Midtown location June 4, and the space is fitting the shop’s needs perfectly, according to co-owner Trisha Rhomberg.

Located at 1815 19th St. across from Safeway, the store now includes Fat Face cafe and is being called Bows Collective overall, so customers can pick up vintage clothes, sandwiches and something to drink – including beer and wine – at the same location.

Also incorporated in the new space is an art gallery.

The custom-made wooden bar is a focal point at the rear of the store, surrounded by rustic tables made by a friend of co-owners Rhomberg and Olivia Coelho from salvaged wood in front of the doorway to a patio, where more tables are interspersed with flowers to give a welcoming feel.

Rhomberg previously told The Sacramento Press that she wanted to give the feel of being in someone’s home while also being friendly to the environment.

To read more about Bows and Arrows’ new space and move, click here.

Lounge on 20's remodel

2011-06-18T08:15:08Z

Midtown’s Lounge on 20, known for its all-white décor and dim lighting and as a place to grab a drink and relax, transformed last month to include dining and incorporate a warmer color scheme.

“We added almost 100 seats for dining, a new menu and (Executive Chef Pajo Bruich),” said owner Ali Mackani. “There are color changes, new lighting, a freestanding sculpture that’s also a fireplace, and we still have areas for lounging.”

He added that a dessert chef, Elaine Baker, formerly of Grange Restaurant and Bar, is also working at the remodeled space.

Also included is an elevated stage for live performances Thursday through Saturday nights.

Careful preparation enabled the transformation to take place over four nights, Mackani said, adding that it reopened to the public on May 20.

The successful lounge concept is still evident, but Mackani said the goal was to bring in dining, and he added that from the outset he wanted it to be unique.

Bruich uses sous vide cooking methods, which allow meats to be slow-cooked for hours at a low temperature to retain their juiciness and flavor.

Mackani said Bruich will also be incorporating “molecular gastronomy,” which is paying close attention to the way foods interact with each other at the smallest level of detail to deliver the exact taste the chef is looking to create.

In about a month, the bar menu will be updated to include demonstrations – such as one where liquids will be turned to gels – and specialty drinks, some of which will be served in glasses made entirely of ice.

The overall effect of the remodeled space, Mackani said, gives a softer touch to the colors and makes the area feel more intimate. Curtains allow some areas to be shielded from the rest of the space for a more private feel.

Mackani said customer response has been very positive.

Customer Desmond Williams of East Sacramento told The Sacramento Press Friday that he loves the addition of food.

“I hope the community really embraces it,” he said. “Chef Pajo’s making really great stuff.”

He said he also likes the space, adding that it does a good job of providing both openness and an intimate feel. When it comes to live music performances, he said the acts start late enough that diners can still have conversations over dinner, then stick around for the music.

Customer Mary Daffin of Sacramento raved about the food selections as well, calling the whole menu a “When Harry Met Sally” experience.

Mackani said he is happy with the renovation of the restaurant and lounge, which originally opened in 2008.

“We just think it’s a great place to come and dine and stay later at night for drinks,” he said. “We want to really be a place you can pick for a lot of different occasions.”

To view the menu and prices, click here.

To stay up to date on events and musical acts, check Lounge on 20’s Facebook page.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

First step in food truck talks taken

2011-06-09T00:57:05Z

The future of mobile food trucks in Sacramento was discussed Monday night at the first in what will likely be many meetings between mobile food vendors, “brick-and-mortar” restaurateurs, city leaders and advocacy groups.

The meeting, held at The Kitchen restaurant, 2225 Hurley Way, was not open to the public, City Councilman Steve Cohn said Monday morning.

An ordinance limiting food trucks to operating within the city to 30-minute stops has been contested more vehemently lately. The SactoMoFo mobile food festival April 30 drew an estimated 10,000 people, prompting a closer look at the ordinance.

Several gourmet food trucks, including Mini Burger Truck and Wicked ’Wich, have recently begun operating in the area.

Monday’s meeting was a step in that direction.

“It was a productive meeting, and there are some issues we need to address,” City Councilman Darrell Fong said Wednesday. “There’s still a lot more work, and a lot more hurdles to get over, but I think we can make it work.”

Some of the issues raised at the meeting, attended by approximately 30 people, according to Fong, are parking, competition and making sure mobile food vendors are accountable for taxes and permit fees.

“City restaurants are struggling, too,” said Fong, whose brother is a partner in the Mikuni restaurant organization. “Sometimes they fear the competition could put them out of business. But on the other hand, it’s competition that people want, right?”

California Restaurant Association Legislative and Public Affairs Director Daniel Conway was at the meeting as well, and he said it represents an early step in moving away from the conceptual aspect of allowing food trucks to operate more freely in the city toward the reality of it.

The goal of the CRA, which has been around for about 100 years, is to be the voice of restaurants in the state and provide industry information to them, according to its website. Conway said it represents both traditional and mobile restaurants.

“I think, really, the value of Monday night’s meeting was to provide some clarity and better understanding of everyone involved,” he said. “It’s getting more concrete. Mobile operators were there, brick-and-mortar (restaurant) owners were there – a very diverse set of perspectives.”

Conway said he thinks food trucks can coexist with traditional restaurants in the city, and he pointed to other California cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, where food trucks are well-known.

“We have a familiarity with it that hopefully is providing value to this conversation,” he said, adding that much of the recent local information has come from news stories and rumors, which aren’t restaurant-specific or always accurate. “Everyone is striving for a balanced and reasonable approach.”

Compromise, he said, will be a part of any modification to the ordinance.

He said the truly successful food trucks in other cities are typically associated with a brick-and-mortar restaurant in some way, be they owned by one, partnered with one or have aspirations of setting up their own in the future.

“I think there’s a productive conversation that’s started,” Conway said. “I’ve seen it characterized in the press as a food fight, but that’s not the case and doesn’t need to be the case.”

Catherine Enfield, the woman behind the Munchie Musings blog and one of the organizers of the SactoMoFo festival, said the meeting was purely informational and intended to break down how food trucks operate.

“It was to dispel the myths and disinformation about the mobile food industry,” she said. “A truck is just a smaller version of a restaurant. It’s just on wheels.”

Fong said more meetings will be held in the future, likely in four to six weeks, after the city budget process has been completed.

Other council members present were Angelique Ashby, Steve Cohn and Kevin McCarty.

Fong described the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, which started at 6 p.m., as “very cordial.”

“We’ll see where this ends up,” he said. “There’s definitely a demand for it.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

A new deli to fill your belly

2011-06-03T23:28:34Z

Midtown Deli is expected to open next week at the Alexan Midtown complex.

Subcontractor Butch Plank came up with the idea to open an upscale deli when working at the apartment complex while it was under construction in 2009 at the northeast corner of Alhambra Boulevard and S Street.

He plans to have a soft opening Monday and Tuesday, followed by a grand opening Wednesday.

Plank had a hard time finding sit-down restaurants nearby as he installed all the doors on 275 apartments at the site, which sits across from the California Department of Transportation.

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, which is kitty-corner from the apartment complex, also has a deli with a dining area. But Plank wanted to open a full restaurant where people could relax without the bustle of the co-op.

"There was no place to eat down here," said Plank, who co-owns a door company, Michael Hopper Construction Company.

The Roseville resident also liked the neighborhood and the apartment complex itself. But he has no previous restaurant experience.

So Plank hired former Beach Hut Deli manager Jenny Hunt to manage the place after her brother, a plumber, introduced them. Hunt worked at a Beach Hut while growing up in Jackson and later managed several other Beach Huts.

"My only experience with delis was eating at them," Plank said.

Although the apartment complex was finished in January 2010, the corner space at 1899 Alhambra Blvd. had nothing more than a dirt floor inside when Plank decided to lease it last fall. The restaurant now holds booths with granite tables and other seating for 24, two wide-screen TVs and a new kitchen. A sidewalk patio will seat 14.

The restaurant will sell classic deli sandwiches, salads, paninis, wraps, soup, appetizers, beer and wine. It will also offer pastries and coffee for breakfast.

The hours will be 7 a.m. - 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. - 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Alexan Midtown Business Manager Megan Mier said office staff and tenants have been waiting eagerly for the deli to open.

"Our residents are very excited,” she said. “It'll be a great benefit for everyone.”

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

The Kitchen celebrates 20 years

2011-05-26T05:52:07Z

Husband-and-wife team Randall Selland and Nancy Zimmer, who are the co-founders, executive chefs and owners of The Selland Group, will celebrate the 20-year success of The Kitchen restaurant by opening up another Selland’s Market-Café in El Dorado Hills on Nov. 24.

The Kitchen started in May 1991, offering Sacramento the revolutionary demonstration dinners while providing a personal and intimate experience by talking with guests while cooking in front of them.

Prior to cooking, Zimmer and Selland were both involved in art.

Zimmer worked at an art gallery when she and Selland first met, Zimmer said. “I always had an interest in cooking, and I just loved to cook. (Selland) was always just an artist, and so I think he just turned his food into art.”

Selland said Zimmer worked as a manager for Tower Gallery on El Camino.

Selland said he was trained in the stained glass business before he became a chef. Zimmer saw his artwork at a show in Sacramento and she tracked him down because she liked his artwork. After meeting each other for the first time, they started dating and have stayed together ever since.

Selland said he traveled on large-scale commissions.

“I was in Amsterdam in a show in 1985,” Selland said. “I decided that I didn’t want to do (stained glass), so I traveled to Spain and Portugal. I came back home to Sacramento, finished up obligations (and we began) cooking and started catering.”

Selland said he started cooking at Fat City for two months when he got a call from The Cookery owner Jean Luc Chassereau.

“That’s where I kind of got my big start,” Selland said.

“While he was doing that I was working at the art gallery starting catering companies,” Zimmer said.

According to Zimmer, they have both always had a passion for food.

“(We had) no formal culinary training,” Selland said.

According to a press release, Sous Chef Bernice Hagen closed La Bernice Cooking School and offered to lease the kitchen. Selland and Zimmer ran a catering business there and, after some time, Marcus Graziano approached the two to host wine and dinner in their catering kitchen.

“(Graziano) came to sell wine and wanted us to do food in the space we had, and it had a counter around it because it was a cooking school, and people loved the fact that they got to interact with Nancy and I and that we cooked the food right in front of them,” Selland said. “I think that’s where we kind of got going.

“We started at $30 a person, (and now) it’s $125. The food was very simple, with four courses. What we’ve done is tried to continually make the food fresh (and with a) twist. We’re always tweaking everything – it keeps us interested … We keep giving (clients) new things.”

According to Selland, one way their cooking has changed from when they first started to now is how they prepare a beef tenderloin.

They used to marinade, grill, slice and put it in the oven. Now, they cut the meat into blocks and use a sous vide technique by vacuum sealing it, cooking the meat and using a circulator and throwing it in the grill. They changed their techniques of cooking to make dishes more interesting to make and keep them fresh and new for the customers.

“We give the menu item a different twist (by) the way we prepare it,” Selland said. “We never try to duplicate dishes … Instead of playing it safe, you’re always evolving.”

According to Selland, they cook for 50 people at The Kitchen. They discontinued their full-service catering business and opened up the Selland’s Market-Café in 2001 and Ella Dining Room and Bar, named after their granddaughter, in 2007, according to the press release.

“It’s always cooking something that we would want to eat ourselves,” Selland said. “If you come to The Kitchen and you tell me the food was interesting, then we’re not doing our job, because our job is to make food that just tastes really good.

“That’s how Nancy and I like to eat, and that’s how we’ve always liked to eat. We enjoy going to places that are trying new techniques, pushing the envelope a little bit to where sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t ... But we like to cook food for our clients that just tastes good. I mean, the best compliment you can ever get at The Kitchen is that the food is really yummy.”

Selland said that he and Zimmer still do the menus at The Kitchen after 20 years even though they have a chef there.

According to Selland, he goes to a lot of farmers markets to look for what is in season and they put their heads together to come up with menus.

For example, he said he would sit down and share an idea that he had with Nancy and she would think about it and if she has a different way of doing it, she would share it with him.

“(We have) never argued. (We) agree on the end result,” Selland said. “(We) taste all the components … I love the spontaneity of the creative process … It’s how I’ve always worked. Most chefs try and reflect … I’d rather have something with passion than something that’s technically perfect.”

Selland said they never base their menus on playing it safe. He also said they have never taken a dish off of the menu, but they have tweaked it through the process.

“When we do a menu at The Kitchen, we’ve never tasted it or done it before, and so we have to start that month and put it out there without ever having done it before,” Zimmer said. “It’s a brand-new menu, brand-new items, things we’ve never done before.”

Selland also commented on how Sacramento’s dining and restaurant culture has changed over the years.

“I think things have come a long way to where there are a lot more restaurants out there focusing on making food you can feel – you can transport to other cities ... instead of thinking of cooking for the Sacramento market,” Selland said. “Everything is how we want to do it and we hope people accept it and embrace it.”

Zimmer said that they have gotten thank-you letters over the years. According to Selland, several of the letters have included how happy customers are, how lovely their experience was at The Kitchen and that they want to come back.

“We’re really proud, we started with an idea … people have embraced the ideas that we’ve had,” Selland said. “We’re proud of what we have accomplished in Sacramento and we’re not finished.”

The Selland Group has won multiple awards for food and service, one of which was the “Award for Ultimate Distinction” by the Wine Enthusiast.

“We both came from nothing, especially me, and we have been able to achieve (things) and make people happy,” Zimmer said. “People are so kind to us and think we’re something special somehow.”

Selland said that he has enjoyed seeing customers come back through the years.

“It’s exciting because people give us money to do what we like to do,” Selland said. “We get to make a living with our passion. We love to cook – pretty simple and basic.”

Red Lotus and Formoli's Bistro Slow Beer Movement Dinner No. 4

2011-05-25T03:58:47Z

Monday evening, 40 guests were welcomed into Red Lotus Kitchen and Bar by friendly staff and the smell of hops-smoked chicken wafting through the restaurant. These individuals gathered together for the fourth in a series of ongoing dinners known as the Slow Beer Movement. Hosted by Red Lotus and Formoli’s Bistro, the dinners are meant to highlight local food and, of course, beer.

In the past, foreign beer, such as the Belgian brew Duvel Green, had been featured, but recently the event founders felt that finding a place closer to home would coincide better with their practice of supporting local food. That evening, each of the five courses and even the dessert was paired with a beer from Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco.

The menu included a baby arugula salad with fried pork belly in a horse radish/chive sauce with Anchor Summer Beer, the lightest beer. Together they would help to start up each diner’s stomach for the night. The asparagus soup seasoned with 7-spice was matched with the spice of the original Christmas beer, Liberty Ale. The udon noodles with Shimeji mushrooms and pickled ramp was paired with the Anchor Steam. The grilled monkfish cheek with poached monkfish liver was served with Brekle’s Brown and the hops-smoked chicken with the Anchor Porter. Lastly, a fruity dessert of peaches and berries was macerated in a sweeter brew, Anchor’s Old Foghorn Beer.

The beer dinners were a collaborative project between the owners of each restaurant, Aimal Formoli and wife Suzanne Ricci, Billy Ngo and Red Lotus Bar Manager Mark Neuhauser.

According to Formoli, he and Ngo, both chefs and restaurant owners, had been wanting to do something together for a long time. They found that wine dinners were popular, but they wanted to do something different. With Neuhauser’s passion for beer and years of previous bar work at Outback Steakhouse and Suzanne Ricci’s direction, it all just came together.

Kane Kunst, sales manager at Anchor Brewing Company, represented the company and educated the guests on what they were drinking.

“I’ve been to and a part of a lot of beer dinners elsewhere, but this one is definitely unique. They actually close down the restaurant for the event, which really creates a much more intimate setting for people to share their knowledge and experience in a sort of open forum,” Kunst said.

Formoli and Ngo both said they wanted this to be a fun and educational experience for the guests.

Formoli said, “The idea and name for these dinners stemmed from the concept of the slow food movement, where there is a focus on local products and slowing the pace of dining to heighten the experience and enjoyment of the food and drinks.”

“Of course, we want people to love everything they eat, but we also really want to change people’s minds about what they eat and how they eat it,” he added.

Adam Saake, who does social media marketing for Red Lotus and the beer dinners, said sometimes people expressed concern over how much food and alcohol they’d be consuming.

“While each dish is paired with a beer, it’s not a full-size dish and pint,” he said. “Each person gets a good serving of food and about four ounces of beer served in a wine glass, that complement each other. It’s not about getting drunk; these are very hand-crafted artisan beers that have very intelligent, complex flavor profiles and rather than stuffed, people should walk away satisfied.”

That was a point reiterated by all parties involved.

“Beer is so much more complex than people think, and it’s made up of so many more components than they realize,” Neuhauser said. “With wine, you pair with pretty specific types of food or cheese, but at these dinners, the chefs work hard to make something different that really brings out the flavors of both the dish and the beer.”

As tables of guests waited for each dish to be served, the food was definitely a point of discussion.

Malea Heim, a hairstylist in East Sacramento, came with her husband Toby Heim, who services a lot of the restaurant equipment at Formoli’s.

“Honestly, when Toby said he was taking me to a beer dinner, I hesitated because I’m not a big fan of beer. But really, you don’t have to be to come. The food is great and the environment is really fun because everyone is able to mix and mingle,” Malea Heim said.

While a number of attendees and the chefs themselves were most excited about the hops-smoked chicken, Malea Heim said she was really interested in the dressing on the salad. She said she was pleasantly surprised by how tasty the horse radish/chive sauce ended up being.

Toby Heim though, said he was especially impressed with the asparagus soup,which had a spice that matched that of the Liberty Ale, his favorite beer, perfectly.

At the other end of the table, diners were talking about a dish at the last Slow Beer Movement dinner, which involved baby octopus in black ink noodles.

Scott Anderson, MC of the dinner and deputy sheriff in Sacramento County, talked about why he came.

“Sacramento has great food scene that a lot of people don’t know about or realize,” he said. “This is my fourth dinner, and it is a great thing. The dishes are truly memorable, and it’s made to be about the experience...We’re encouraged to take our time and enjoy the food and beer. I don’t plan on missing a single dinner unless I happen to be out of town.”

Adam Pechal, chef and co-owner of Tuli’s Bistro and RESTAURANT THIR13EN, was also present and said he was most excited about the collaboration between two great local chefs.

“That these two phenomenal chefs, who I would also love to work with, are working together is what really drew me in. You know that the food will be amazing.”

Formoli said that they plan to keep the dinners going indefinitely. The dinners are scheduled to occur the third Monday of every month with the location alternating between the two restaurants.

Both Formoli and Neuhauser said they are trying to stay as local as they can, so next month’s event will be held at the new location of Formoli’s Bistro, 3839 J St., in conjunction with another local brewery and restaurant, Brew It Up!, 801 14th St.

Owner/founder of Brew It Up! Michael Costello, who was present, said the co-founders of the beer dinners have already brewed their own Japanese-style pilsner with a special twist to be served on that evening’s menu. Costello said three of the five featured beers, will be specially brewed for the event.

For more information on the dinners, check out their Facebook page.

For the love of beer: West Coast Brew Fest

2011-05-20T00:50:21Z

About 3,000 people and 60 breweries will converge at Miller Park Saturday afternoon and stay until the kegs are tapped dry at the 12th annual West Coast Brew Fest.

“The West Coast is the home of the micro-brew, and we have over 120 brews coming this weekend,” said co-founder Matson Breakey. “We seem to have a really great following of people that come out every year and are well-behaved and represent Sacramento and other places.”

He added that in addition to the region, dedicated followers arrive from as far away as Arizona and Washington.

The festival is set up as a “tokenless tasting” event, where beer enthusiasts pay admission to enter and then are handed a cup and set loose to choose their favorite beers in 5-ounce pours from 1 - 5 p.m. Saturday.

The beer is all donated by the breweries, and proceeds from the event benefit the Make a Difference Project, a North Sacramento organization that helps youth get involved in civic activities and volunteering, said Breakey, who used to be a board member.

“We’ve been raising anywhere from $25,000 - $30,000 each year,” he said.

The festival started small in 2000 with Breakey and co-founders and beer judges Dwight Bradish and Brian Freeman organizing a festival that drew about 350 people. It has continued to grow – except one year when the Sacramento Kings were playing the Los Angeles Lakers in a playoff game – and it has sold out for the past several years.

One of the local breweries participating is Brew It Up! – located at 14th and H streets – which has been a part of the festival since the first year.

“For us, it’s an opportunity to get out in front of our customers,” said owner Mike Costello. “It’s part promotion and part party. It’s a great time that really draws people that are looking for craft-brewed beers, unique beers and beers brewed in and out of the region.”

Costello said he will be bringing three beers to the event – ESB, an English-style ale; Three Amigos, a Belgian triple-style beer; and the third one will be a surprise.

“Each brewery brings a couple of different beers,” he said. “The way they set it up is there’s large tents, and they’ll get four to five breweries in each, and it’s a great time to be side by side with other breweries and talk to other brewers about the business.”

Brew it Up! has been brewing since 1996 in Davis and moved to Sacramento in 2003. All beers are made in-house, and 22 are on tap at the brewery.

Another local brewery involved in the event is River City Brewing Company, located in Westfield Downtown Plaza, which has been a regular at the festival for years, according to Brewmaster Brian Cofresi.

The brewery has been in business since 1993 and sells its beers only at beer festivals and the restaurant.

“I like getting the chance to kind of stand there shoulder-to-shoulder with the big boys and say, ‘Hey, we’re doing it right here, in Sacramento,’ ” he said.

River City will bring at least four beers to the event – including Woodenhead Ale, a hoppy amber ale; a Belgian white ale; a West Coast-style India Pale Ale – more hoppy than the English style; and Consternation, a black sour beer – which will probably be fully consumed during the VIP event.

VIP ticket holders, according to Breakey, get early entrance to the event and earlier beer sampling as well as a slightly larger cup.

In addition to local breweries, numerous American and European breweries will be on-hand as well.

“We have a lot of great ones returning,” Breakey said. “Alaskan is always a fan favorite, and I’m really interested to see Fossil Fuels – they make beer using a yeast strain that apparently is 45 million years old.”

Other breweries come from as far away as Hawaii, Poland and the Czech Republic. For the official list of breweries, click here.

For those who prefer a good cider, Breakey said there is always a good selection of those as well, including local Two Rivers Cider.

Tickets are available for pre-purchase online and in participating breweries, including River City Brewing Company and Brew it Up! VIP tickets are $95, general admission is $30 and designated driver tickets are $5.

Breakey recommended arriving early, as a line forms about half an hour before the gates open.

Miller Park is located at 2710 Ramp Way near the marina.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Shady Lady Saloon owners to open restaurant in Galt

2011-05-17T00:34:28Z

The owners of downtown’s Shady Lady Saloon are set to open a new restaurant in Galt in two weeks featuring a blend of traditional American food mixed with lean California cuisine in a restored building from the Civil War era.

Co-owner Alex Origoni said the restaurant – called Brewster’s in a nod to one of the early tenants – will feature food ranging from $8.50 entree salads to a $22 filet mignon, with sandwiches starting in the $9 range.

“The history of (the building) is really what attracted us. Much like the building Shady Lady is in, it’s a registered historic landmark, and it just gives so much character to the project,” Origoni said.

Origoni, who owns Shady Lady Saloon with Jason Boggs and Garret Van Vleck, said the trio worked together in various Sacramento restaurants before opening the saloon two years ago. Initially hesitant to expand to Galt, he said that once they saw the building, they were sold.

“We saw it as a blank canvas,” Origoni said, adding that the shell of the building is original, but the rest of it was essentially empty, allowing them to incorporate high ceilings, honeycomb tin paneling on the second-floor roof characteristic of the 1860s and some modern touches as well.

The 7,000-square-foot building was purchased more than a year ago by Sacramento’s D & S Development, Inc., said co-owner Bay Miry.

Miry said one unique feature of the restaurant is a glass floor near the downstairs bar and entry area that overlooks a wine cellar.

“The cellar will be lit, so people will be able to look down and see that area,” Miry said. “There’s also a really cool glass elevator that leads up to a lounge area on the second floor. They have a solid menu that’s going to be a lot of moderate price-range comfort food.”

Before its recent renovation, it had been vacant for about 20 years.

D & S Development is no stranger to the Shady Lady Saloon’s owners, having worked together at the 1409 R St. location as well as plans to work together on K Street in Sacramento.

The scope of the project was significant, Miry said. It included seismic retrofit and structural reinforcement as well as finding a tenant for the site.

“We did about $2.5 million in renovations: hardwood floors, chandeliers, woodwork – especially in the bar. Some of the tables were made out of cedar, which is pretty unique,” he said.

Galt City Manager Jason Behrmann said he sees the restaurant and a nearby senior housing project – by Sacramento Developer CFY Development, Inc., which is partnering with D & S on K Street in Sacramento – as being catalysts for revitalizing downtown Galt.

“We’ve been doing a lot of facade restoration, and we’re trying to bring more dining options and a movie theater, and we’ve got some other improvements along the railroad like plaza and park features,” he said. “We want this to be the central place for the community like the way it once was.”

In a public/private partnership, Behrmann said Galt contributed about $1.2 million in grants and redevelopment funds.

He added that he is happy with D & S Development’s choice to bring Shady Lady Saloon owners into the space.

“We went up (to Sacramento) and took a look at their operation,” Behrmann said. “We’re certainly supportive of that.”

Origoni said he is flattered to have a role in kicking off the revitalization effort.

“It’s something we take seriously,” he said. “We hope to deliver a solid product to the town. There’s been so much interest in the community.”

Galt Chamber of Commerce Board President Rose Lavine lives across the street from the building and said she is happy to see a business going in.

“I think it’ll be awesome,” she said. “It’s never been a restaurant.”

The building previously housed a post office, then the Brewster Company Store – a general store – and finally an Odd Fellows Lodge before its 20-year vacancy.

“That’s really the only big restaurant down there (in downtown Galt),” she added.

Behrmann said he hopes the restaurant will help make historic downtown Galt a regional draw as well as a magnet for Galt residents.

Origoni said he wants people to know that Brewster’s is not a Shady Lady Saloon clone.

“Certainly our stamp is on it, in terms of the type of things that we do and the core values we have for the industry, but it’s a unique concept that is just a different animal than Shady Lady, and I hope people realize that.”

Brewster’s is located at 201 Fourth St. in Galt. For updates on exact opening date and a website for the restaurant, check the Shady Lady Saloon Facebook page.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

RESTAURANT THIR13EN previews its menu and location

2011-05-16T04:25:57Z

Tuli Bistro owners Adam Pechal and Ulrike “Ulli” Lesk Petersen previewed the space and menu of their second restaurant, RESTAURANT THIR13EN, on Friday. The restaurant is located on the bottom floor of the Sterling Hotel at 1300 H St., where the restaurant Chanterelle was until it closed last January.

All evening invited guests were provided teasers of THIR13EN’s menu, which included oyster shooters, sous vide quail wings, seared scallops, Kurabuta pork belly and seared sirloin with potato puree. Each guest was also provided a drink ticket to sample offerings from their full bar, such as wine from Berryessa Gap Vineyards, international beer taps and a number of signature cocktails.

Petersen and Pechal — who is also the head chef — expanded their business with the Smoked-Out Trailer, a mobile culinary rig, and Tuli Catering, but when they were approached by the building owners through Bay Miry at D & S Development, about taking over the space, they couldn’t resist, they both said.

They said they were especially interested in the ballroom, which would allow them even more business via catering events. Pechal said the ballroom had not initially been part of the deal, but the real estate company made it happen, convincing the hotel to include the ballroom to sweeten the pot and finalize the agreement.

Marketing director and Pechal’s longtime friend, Johnny Shin said the company is now the exclusive caterer for the Sterling Hotel Ballroom.

“The large kitchen at the Sterling allows us to ramp up our catering services with the same quality that Tuli Bistro serves daily,” Shin said. “House-made pastas and meats combined with seasonal and local sources are at the heart of Chef Adam’s goals. We are now able to support Tuli Bistro, Tuli Catering and our Smoked-Out Trailer to full capacity.”

While Pechal said he wants to maintain the tradition of local sustainable food and keep the general vibe of the two restaurants the same, THIR13EN will be at a higher, more refined level.

“Tuli Bistro is a bit more rustic than THIR13EN,” Pechal said. “Here at THIR13EN there will be more attention to detail.” He specifically mentioned the use of different cooking techniques, such as the sous vide used on the quail wings that night .

Shin said the THIR13EN idea stemmed from wanting to do more with space. Shin talked about how he and Pechal would take “research trips” to San Francisco, a place that was really able to demonstrate how to make the most of small spaces.

One thing they came across in their research was the idea of a “community table.” Shin explained that a community table was a larger table set aside in a restaurant with open seating. It seated at a first-come, first-served basis and allowed people to enjoy the food while mingling with other diners.

The community table at THIR13EN will seat 13. It was not ready for the preview event, but Shin said it will be custom-built from a Boos Block cutting board. Besides the community table, the restaurant can seat 40 inside and 40 more on the patio outside.

While the exact arrangement of the restaurant is still being determined, Pechal said they were going for a “humbly elegant” look and feel, and the community table will help in that respect. He said that the community table will be placed between seated tables and the bar, a position he noted would functionally break and yet blend the room.

Shin said the restaurant will begin taking reservations Monday for their first dinner bookings for May 27 and 28 and each weekend after. They will open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. starting in June.

Shoki Ramen House opens its second location

2011-05-14T11:42:38Z

Japanese couple Kathy and Yasushi Ueyama officially opened their second location of Shoki Ramen House on R and 12th streets May 3.

The new location has an outdoor patio and enclosed parking and can hold roughly twice as many customers as the 24th Street location.

The menu will remain the same at the new location providing a variety of made-from-scratch ramen, including shuyo, shio and tan tan men spicy ramen.

Yasushi has 20 years of cooking and restaurant experience under his belt. Born and raised in Japan, he owned four restaurants during the time the couple lived in Kobe, Kathy Ueyama said.

According to Kathy Ueyama, the couple moved back to Sacramento in 2001, and though Yasushi continued work as an owner/chef in the Japanese food industry, he really wanted to do something different.

Yasushi Ueyama always had an interest in ramen. Many of his friends and colleagues told him that it was a bad idea to open a ramen restaurant because they said they thought it would not be well-received and the weather was too hot for it. But despite their opposition, the original Shoki Ramen House opened in the summer of 2007.

Yasushi Ueyama’s vision for the restaurant was to create a healthy dish for every customer, from babies to the elderly. Kathy Ueyama said she believed this was what really set them apart from other places and that it was likely that was how they were able to slowly draw in such a strong and loyal clientele.

The ramen house grew beyond their expectations. Kathy Ueyama recounted how sometimes, especially during the winter, they’d have people waiting outside in the cold and sometimes rainy weather for an hour or more for just one bowl.

Since 2007, Kathy Ueyama said the business had steadily grown, and it was situations such as the one described above that really pushed them to open up the second location. The 24th Street and 2nd Avenue location had a max capacity of 20 people, and it became clear that they needed a bigger venue to accommodate larger parties.

While the couple hesitated at taking on the responsibility of opening a new location, Kathy Ueyama said the whole thing kind of just fell into place. She noted that when she and her husband looked into locations for the first store, the R Street location was actually one they really liked, but it just didn’t work out.

“When the R Street location became available in January, it was the final sign needed to push us to open up another location. We felt it was all meant to be,” she said.

Each bowl of ramen is made of a broth, noodles, finishing sauce or tare and toppings. The process of making each bowl is much more complicated than most people think, she added.

“The original soup base is actually made of a blend of three different types of broth. We call it our triple soup and from that, with the use of a finishing sauce or tare, we can achieve the various other flavors on the menu. Yasushi also makes a vegetarian and vegan broth separately.”

It’s very important to Yasushi Ueyama that the expansion not affect the taste of the food at all, his wife said. Other than the location and extended hours, nothing else will change.

Yasushi does his best to make sure of that, doing all the cooking for both locations, said Kathy Ueyama. She said he gets minimal sleep, waking up very early to prepare the broth for each location and going back and forth as needed throughout the day.

Quality is really important to Yasushi, Kathy Ueyama said. He is the only person who knows exactly what goes into every bowl sent out. Most of the ingredients are imported from Japan, and only local produce is used.

“Also, everything is made from scratch. From the broth to the tare, to the chili sauce, everything, even the noodles. Our noodle company makes the whole-wheat noodles to his specifications,” Kathy Ueyama said.

When asked about opening a third venue, Kathy Ueyama said it was too soon to tell.

“Yasushi looks into all possibilities as to how he can share his passion of cooking with more and more people, but it depends on a lot of things,” she said. “If an opportunity arises and the current situation asks for it, it’s a possibility, but it is very important to keep the same quality and expectations, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

In addition to the ramen favorites, there are also a number of side dishes and appetizers to choose from, such as edamame and spicy menma (bamboo shoots). The ramen bowls range from $5.90 to $9.90, with additional costs for extra toppings.

The restaurant will be open seven days a week. Monday through Friday, lunch will be from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 - 10 p.m. Saturday lunch is from noon - 3 p.m. and dinner is from 5 - 10 p.m. Sunday, the restaurant is open all day from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.

For more information on the the newest location, call 441-0011.

Business community helps Shady Lady staff

2011-05-14T00:40:31Z

As downtown’s Shady Lady Saloon undergoes a voluntary 10-day suspension of its alcohol license, owners are helping their 32 employees find work until the bar can reopen May 20.

When the establishment opened two years ago, a liquor license was obtained under the names of the three owners, Jason Boggs, Garrett Van Vleck and Alex Origoni. When the business was renamed Shady Lady Inc., the owners didn’t clear it with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Boggs said.

“Unbeknownst to us, you can’t do that,” he said Friday, three days after the bar’s closure for the license suspension.

Lori Ajax, district administrator for ABC’s Sacramento and Yuba district offices, said the violation is twofold – one for operating under a business name without notifying ABC and also for changing license ownership within a two-year period (a violation of a condition of its issuance).

“We thought it was a fair penalty,” Ajax said, adding that it is less than the normal penalty of a 10-day indefinite suspension until the paperwork clears and ownership is transferred, which can take a long time. “Basically, what we’re looking for is compliance, and they are complying.”

But for the 10-day period the 1409 R St. business is closed, the 32 employees can’t go to their jobs at the saloon.

That’s when, according to bartender Travis Kavanaugh, the owners did what they could to help the staff find work at other establishments.

Kavanaugh said multiple other restaurants have opened their doors to Shady Lady employees, a fact he attributed to Shady Lady owners’ efforts.

From 2-7 p.m. Sunday, Shady Lady bartenders will guest bartend at Tequila Museo Mayahuel, 1200 K St., for an event with Tequila Fortaleza.

“The owners will help bartend, and all that money and proceeds are being distributed to the staff,” Kavanaugh said, adding that he is thankful for it. “What company does that?”

At 8 p.m. Sunday, Shady Lady bartenders, including Kavanaugh, will be guest-bartending at Dive Bar, 1022 K St.

On Monday, Boggs will bartend at The Golden Bear in Midtown, 2326 K St., starting at 3 p.m. and give his tips to the Shady Lady Saloon staff.

Boggs said the whole central city restaurant community has opened up with support.

“Randy Paragary called me and gave me a pep talk,” he said with a smile.

Mulvaney’s B&L, 1215 19th St., is using Shady Lady Saloon’s kitchen and employing Shady Lady cooks to cater a wedding on Saturday, said Mulvaney’s Catering Chef and Kitchen Manager Robb Venditti.

“We’re trying to make use of a perfectly good kitchen and throw a few dollars in their cooks’ pockets,” he said.

According to Kavanaugh, the staff had time to plan ahead, since they were told 10 days before the suspension period what was coming.

“I’m good with my money, so I’ll be OK,” he said, adding that he plans to go camping.

Boggs said the business will be OK as well, but it’s still a big deal.

“It’s not going to be easy,” he said. “Contrary to what a lot of people think, there’s not a lot of profit in the restaurant business. We’ll definitely be running on fumes when we reopen, but we’re not going to close down or anything.”

In the two years the business has been open, it has seen its share of wear and tear, so Boggs said some minor renovations will be done before May 20.

“I’m refinishing the bar myself,” he said, adding that there will also be some repainting and a couple more benches installed in the front.

“It’s only two years old, but it’s seen some use,” he said.

Boggs, Kavanaugh and Ajax all confirmed that there was nothing happening at the bar in violation of ABC regulations other than the name it was operating under.

No alcohol was sold to minors, and no drugs were being dealt on the premises, Boggs and Kavanaugh said, referring to an incorrect sign that originally went up and was later removed.

The ABC did put the restaurant on a form of probation a year and a half ago, Ajax said, when one of the owners was caught with a controlled substance – but not at the business.

“One of the partners got pulled over and had a little bit of illegal substance on him,” Boggs said. “It’s got nothing to do with (the 10-day suspension) at all.”

Shady Lady Saloon owners are currently working on a restaurant in Galt called Brewster’s, which will be a dinner house, Boggs said. It is scheduled to open in two weeks.

Check The Sacramento Press next week for more information on Brewster’s.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Squeezin' into West Sacramento

2011-05-12T02:51:02Z

The original Squeeze Inn on Power Inn Road was made famous by Food Network’s Guy Fieri, who raved about their infamous cheese “skirt,” the restaurant’s twist on the classic cheeseburger. Since then it has opened up restaurants in Roseville and Galt.

Tuesday morning, the Squeeze Inn’s fourth location – at 1350 Harbor Blvd. in West Sacramento – officially opened its doors at 10 a.m.

The newest addition to the Squeeze Inn line is the biggest location so far, seating up to 80 people, according to West Sacramento Squeeze Inn’s publicist, Heather Atherton.

The Squeeze Inn has been a regular on the burger scene in Sacramento for at least 30 years according to co-owner Dave Chambers.

“We’ve always wanted to own our own restaurant, and we love the Squeeze Inn brand. It’s not fast food, and it’s so unique of a brand that it has this crave-ability factor, especially with the cheese skirt. There’s a strong following and we thought it was a great opportunity to start and own something we all loved,” Chambers said.

When Chambers says “we,” he is referring to his longtime friends and partners – Joe Mousley and Eric Ostberg.

The group also has a fourth silent investor who was the one that linked them with the original owner, Travis Hauser, to get the ball rolling on the project. The group were regulars at the Power Inn location, driving in from Roseville to get their Squeezeburgers with cheese skirt fixes.

Atherton mentioned that all three men had previous food industry experience.

“They’re all restaurant industry veterans, some from fast food and some from food services,” Atherton said. “So, there’s a really great depth of understanding of how to deliver great customer service and a really high-quality product.”

Chambers said they had looked at a number of potential locations in Natomas, Vacaville, Davis and Auburn. In the end, West Sacramento proved to be prime location as it was far enough out from the other locations, but close enough in proximity to draw from the original fan base. Chambers also said that it was a truly business-friendly environment.

Atherton seconded Chambers’ comments by saying how welcoming local officials had been.

“We had two soft openings last week to prepare everyone for Tuesday. Friday’s soft opening included a luncheon with the mayor, Christopher Cabaldon, and other officials as a thank-you before their Cap-to-Cap event, which conflicted with the grand opening. We wanted to give them an opportunity to experience the food for all their support,” said Atherton.

Both Atherton and Chambers said the soft openings last weekend had been very busy. Chambers said about 200 people came through on Friday and 500 on Saturday. He expected about 600 to 1,000 at the actual opening.

“There hasn’t been too much real marketing for the event,” Chambers said. “Most of the buzz was created by fans by word-of-mouth. The city and customers have expressed a lot of excitement about it.”

Though the doors wouldn’t open to the public till 10 a.m., the grand opening had an early start as Good Day Sacramento’s Mark S. Allen and Don Geronimo were there at around 6 a.m. helping to further generate noise about the new location with their chatter and antics, including a burger-eating contest with Allen against customers. To watch the contest, check out their website.

By 11 a.m., the restaurant was fully packed and the line was out the door and wrapped around the corner.

Nina Galvan works as a yard supervisor at Stonegate Elementary School and lives near the new location. It was her first time eating at any Squeeze Inn.

“My co-worker was raving about this place for months, and I had been wanting to go, but the other locations are a bit far from here,” said Galvan. “So when I heard about this location opening a few months ago, I was pretty excited to finally be able to try it.”

Galvan brought along her friend, Velina Gonzalez, who works for the city as a site leader for an after-school program.

“I’ve had a burger at the Power Inn location before, but that was years ago,” Gonzalez said. “It was pretty good from what I remember, so I’m glad this place opened up. It’s much closer.”

Both women planned on ordering the classic “Squeeze with Cheese,” with Galvan modifying hers with the addition of some avocado.

Jeff Garrick also came to the opening Tuesday. He’s a forklift driver at Tony’s Fine Foods and a West Sacramento resident.

“I used to work night shifts over at Crystal Milk near the Power Inn location, and my wife, Melissa, would always have me pick up a ‘Squeeze with Cheese’ on the way home ever since we saw them featured on the Food Network show (“Diners Drive-Ins or Dives”).”

The West Sacramento location will feature the same menu and hours as the others. 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with all locations closed on Sundays.

For more information, visit the site or call the West Sacramento location at 371-6779.

New owners reopen La Bonne Soupe Café

2011-05-12T01:11:35Z

French chef Daniel Pont has passed his tiny La Bonne Soupe Café on to a couple who bring the same passion for French cookery.

Chef Ed Stoddard and his fiancée, Leah Brown, are not related to 72-year-old Pont, who sold them the downtown soup and sandwich shop he created and operated on his own for six years. Nor are they French.

Starting Monday, the Midtown couple will continue to offer the same gastronomic experience, following in Pont's footsteps as closely as they can. Stoddard describes the food as good, honest French cooking and the place itself as a French cookery.

"A cookery is a place where you don't just go to eat food. You go there to meet people and learn about food," he said. "This food does take a long time to cook – but it's worth it."

Pont retired April 29 after owning five restaurants and spending more than 50 years in the industry. Zagat rated his French onion soup at La Bonne Soupe Café as the best in the world in 2009. If he comes out of retirement, he said he would have a staff to work alongside him. He sold the café's concept, name and equipment.

Perhaps most surprising is that Stoddard and Brown found La Bonne Soupe Café in time to buy the business.

They discovered the café through an ad on Craigslist. But the description and location were so vague, they had no idea what it was until talking with Pont. They didn't really know much about the restaurant or its huge following. La Bonne Soupe Café is hidden behind a modest storefront at 920 Eighth St. on an obscure downtown block.

Several others also wanted to buy the café. Two people later made offers to buy the business from the couple. Stoddard believes his commitment to good French cooking and the way he makes stock with roasted bones and meat convinced Pont to sell the café to them.

Stoddard and Brown replaced a sink and art on the walls, but little else. La Bonne Soupe Café had a soft re-opening Monday and Tuesday.

However, problems with a refrigerator, meat slicer and plumbing cropped up Wednesday morning. The couple posted a sign on the door and temporarily closed the café to give them time to repair or buy a new commercial fridge, repair plumbing, replace a second sink and buy a heavy-duty slicer.

The café's charming yellow and red interior and even the phone number – 492-9506 – will stay the same.

The small menu of $4 soups, $6-$7 sandwiches and $5 salads will seem nearly identical. The new menu will keep a customer favorite, Pont's brie and prosciutto sandwich, a variation of Pont's famous French onion soup, and braised meat sandwiches. The rest will be variations of Pont's offerings. Stoddard will reintroduce wild game such as boar and antelope to the menu.

The dishes will be based on his own recipes, with improvisation. The café won't use any of Pont's recipes.

"You don't buy the chef," Stoddard said.

The locavore restaurant will reflect the couple's commitment to eating locally produced food. The dishes will be made using only organic produce, with Stoddard picking up 90 percent of the produce at local farmers markets or ethnic food stores.

Meats from free-range animals will come from local and non-local sources. He'll travel to the Bay Area to buy fresh seafood for soups and sandwiches each week.

The food will also have "integrity." If the menu says it came from a certain location or company, it does, Stoddard said.

He and Brown are working out a plan to deliver groceries at night by car and bike or skateboard to work downtown each day.

Stoddard has worked in restaurants since he was 13, when he cut wood for a restaurant in an upstate New York spa town, Ballston Spa. At 16, he began apprenticing with a chef who taught him to cook. Stoddard returned to the restaurant business after a stint in the Marine Corps.

He moved to Sacramento in 1991 to train as a sous chef in the kitchen at the private Capitol Club in the Renaissance Tower – just steps away from his new location. Stoddard also worked at Bernice's Cookery and Ella in Sacramento. He developed the menus and was the catering chef at Morgan Creek Golf Club in Roseville.

La Bonne Soupe Café is his first restaurant. Two changes they'll implement: the café will now be a two-person operation, and Brown, the general manager, will deliver meals to tables after taking orders at the small counter.

Customers can still watch the chef in action just behind the counter.

"People like to see the cook cut things – just put on a show," he said. "Everybody's going to see my secret sauce."

They still expect a line to form inside and outside down the sidewalk. Stoddard hopes to hire a classical guitarist to play for customers during lunch once or twice a week.

The couple will add a second outside table but keep just six small tables inside. They'd like to add a sidewalk produce stand. The hours initially will be just slightly extended, from 10:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Within two months, Stoddard and Brown hope to add breakfast and coffee and open at 7:30 a.m. They also may open on Saturdays. For now, Stoddard is offering guerrilla or underground dining on Saturday nights: Parties of up to 20 people can reserve the spot for private dinners.

Pont is still very much a part of the place. He stopped by with his family Sunday night. He wanted to check on them as they prepared for their soft opening the next morning.

"He said, 'You better be serious,' " Stoddard recalled. "He just cares so much."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Burgers and wings spot to take Aura's spot on J Street

2011-05-07T00:40:25Z

BarWest Burgers & Wings will be taking the place of Aura on J Street in Midtown, and in addition to food, it is bringing a sense of cooperation with a local neighborhood association that has filed complaints for previous bars in that area, including the now-closed GV Hurley’s.

The opening day is tentatively set for mid-July. Co-owners Trevor Shults and Todd Zancaner are teaming up with local restaurateur Randy Paragary, for whom Shults worked in numerous positions – most recently in marketing.

Shults said he has always been a fan of the block that contains Centro Cocina Mexicana, Red Lotus and Harlow’s, so moving into the two-level spot at 2724 J St. was a “no-brainer.”

“It will be affordable, sit-down dining,” he said. A burger with a 3-ounce patty – similar in size to In-N-Out Burger’s patties – will start at $3.95, and a double will be $6.

Five sandwiches, five salads and a vegetable burger round out the menu, which is still being finalized.

Thirty types of wings will also be on offer, and one of the highlights of the 4,300-square-foot space is its second floor, which Shults said can be rented out for banquets, business meetings, birthday parties or any number of occasions.

He said it will accommodate 30 people in a sit-down configuration or 70 standing.

One essential aspect of opening a restaurant on the 2700 block of J Street is working with local residents.

“In Midtown, the only way you’re going to survive is if the neighborhood association supports you,” he said.

The Marshall School/New Era Park Neighborhood Association has a long history of battling with businesses on the block, with concerns of rowdiness and noise levels, according to board co-chair Mark Hefling.

“It’s been an issue adding restaurants to that block in the past,” Hefling said.

Former co-chair George Raya said loud parties as well as the noise of all the bars emptying into the street on Friday and Saturday nights has been a problem.

But both Raya and Hefling said the cooperation between the association and BarWest has been very positive.

In going through the process of obtaining a liquor license, BarWest owners were encouraged by the Alcoholic Beverage Commission to cooperate with the neighbors, Hefling said.

Several concessions were made to get the neighbors on board – including agreeing not to apply for an entertainment permit through the city and bolting down tables on the ground floor so they cannot be cleared for a dance space, as was previously done when Aura occupied the building.

An eviction notice dated March 21 was on the front door of Aura last month, and The Sacramento Press was unable to reach the former owners or property management.

After contacting more than 70 area neighbors, Hefling said the association has not heard any opposition.

Hefling said the neighborhood association is representing two disparate groups – residents who have been in the area for 25 years or more and relatively new residents who moved to Midtown after the transformation of the area over the past decade.

To that end, he said, the association is trying to find a happy medium between those who want a quiet central city atmosphere and those who like having bars and restaurants – many of whom work in those bars and restaurants.

Hefling said the owners of BarWest have been easy to work with, and he believes they are honest people who will continue to work with the association.

When the restaurant opens, Shults said it will be open until midnight on weekdays, with a 2 a.m. closing time on Saturday and Sunday morning for the late-night crowds Friday and Saturday.

There will be 15 TVs on the walls, and BarWest will be carrying all the DirecTV packages so patrons can watch sports, but he said it won’t be a sports bar.

The décor will be casual, and there will be signature cocktails, but he didn’t have details on them yet.

“We’re really in the design phase right now,” he said. “We’re really just excited to offer a great burger, great wings, a great atmosphere and 14 beers on tap.”

A website and Facebook page will be created in the future. Check back in the conversation below for information as it becomes available.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

SactoMoFo a catalyst for ordinance discussion

2011-05-05T00:20:24Z

Just days after the successful SactoMoFo mobile food festival, City Councilman Rob Fong asked that an ordinance limiting mobile food vendors’ parking times within the city be reviewed with an eye for changing it.

“What I’d like to ask everyone is to see if we would be willing to take a second look at the mobile food vendor ordinance that is currently on the books. I suspect that Law and Legislation is the place ... to see... if there’s a way for us to kind of accommodate what I think is a very positive and cool movement that is really going through a lot of other cities and has really positive benefits,” he said at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

The ordinance he referred to has been on the books since 2008 and forbids food trucks from parking in one spot within the city for more than 30 minutes at a time. It is unpopular with food truck operators and those who frequent the trucks.

SactoMoFo organizers held the event to raise awareness of the ordinance and get it changed. They have also collected more than 3,500 signatures on a petition asking for the ordinance’s repeal, said Catherine Enfield, an organizer.

“The whole goal of that event was to have the City Council re-examine the ordinance, so yeah, it was a success,” she said Wednesday.

That movement seems to have the support needed on the City Council, which would require five total votes from its eight members and Mayor Kevin Johnson.

Tuesday and Wednesday, Councilmen Kevin McCarty, Darrell Fong, Steve Cohn and Jay Schenirer all said they support Rob Fong’s mission to revisit it. Mayor Kevin Johnson also said he agrees with overhauling the ordinance.

Councilwomen Angelique Ashby, Bonnie Pannell and Sandy Sheedy were not available for comment Wednesday.

Schenirer is the chairman of the City Council’s Law and Legislation Committee, which will handle initial discussions on a revised or amended ordinance.

“I don’t know the timeline,” he said Wednesday, adding that he expects it will be a couple of months before it comes before the Law and Legislation Committee.

It’s possible that it could come sooner, but looming budget problems that will undoubtedly force layoffs will reduce available staff for working on the ordinance, he said.

“The event last Saturday was good for the city,” Schenirer said. “It’s bringing more options to people. It’s getting more people to experience different things.”

Cohn said it is “certainly time to update the rules.”

He said he is not sure what form that will take, but that a 30-minute limitation on parking and operating food trucks is unreasonable.

“There may be some restrictions, but I would think we can extend the 30-minute (rule) for certain locations where we think this would work.”

Some “brick-and-mortar” restaurant owners have previously argued that mobile food vendors will harm their businesses, and that’s something Darrell Fong said he will weigh when making his decision.

“I want to start a dialogue and listen to both sides,” he said. “From what we saw out there, I think they can (coexist).”

Darrell Fong’s brother, Derrick Fong, is a part-owner of Mikuni and is also involved with Star Ginger, a new restaurant from Lemon Grass owner Mai Pham.

“My brother thinks it can work,” Darrell Fong said. “It’s a different kind of food, and it works in other cities like Portland, Truckee and Napa.”

If mobile food trucks are eventually given more free rein to operate within the city, Darrell Fong said he wants to make sure they pay their fair share of taxes.

“I’m going to look at this as being a revenue generator,” he said. “They will be paying taxes just like any other restaurant. They will have the same responsibilities as other restaurants. We just need to make sure the ordinance is fair.”

Supporters of mobile food trucks will be speaking during public comment of Tuesday’s City Council meeting, when the issue is expected to be discussed, Enfield said.

Kathleen Haley contributed to this report. Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

La Bonne Soupe Café chef bids adieu

2011-04-29T23:45:30Z

The man once dubbed “The Soup Ami” by local media said goodbye to his loyal customers for the last time at downtown’s La Bonne Soupe Café Friday as he retired from a restaurant career that spanned 55 years and two continents.

Daniel Pont, 72, said his retirement is bittersweet, since he loved operating his one-man shop on Eighth Street between I and J streets for the past six years. But he wants to spend time with his family.

“I will probably take the next week and just rest,” he said in the small café Friday afternoon while a handful of customers hung around, sharing wine and thanking him for good times. “No driving, no working – just swimming pool, eating and sleeping.”

He sold his business to a young couple, and he said much of it will remain the same, but he’s hanging onto his recipes.

“I advised them to keep the same concept because it works,” he said. “If I was 10 years younger, I would franchise (the business). I told them to make good food and be nice to the people, because without customers, you have no business.”

The Frenchman is originally from Lyon, and he came to the United States by way of Paris. He worked in Chicago before coming to California. He arrived in Sacramento six years ago.

His daughter and his grandchildren, 7-year-old Sofia and 5-year-old Benjamin, live in Folsom. Pont said he will continue living in the United States, close to them.

Despite the 12-hour days, five days a week that running the business required, Pont said leaving it is sad.

“I liked my customers very much, and I really enjoy what I do,” he said. “But I can’t stop the clock. When you get older, even if your mind is focused, your body can’t always keep up.”

Pont said that when he started the business, he had no idea how much work it would take, and he described it as the hardest job he’s ever had, but one he’s thoroughly enjoyed.

The announcement that he was retiring wasn’t a grand affair – just a simple sign on the door, signed, “Le Chef.”

Some customers Friday afternoon did everything they could to snag one last sandwich.

“I waited an hour and a half in line, and it was worth it,” said Art Scotland, a retired presiding justice who still does some work on Capitol Mall. “It’s not only a great lunch – he’s a maestro of the food. It’s entertainment as well as a wonderful meal from a delightful host.”

Scotland said he went to the café for the last three days in a row for his favorite sandwiches, which included the brie and prosciutto, the lamb and the braised pork.

“And the soups were excellent too,” he added. “It’s extraordinarily good food, an interesting ambiance, and the French music in the background made it such a unique small little café.”

Another customer, Sacramentan Emily Perez, said she has been going to the café for two or three years.

“I’m heartbroken,” she said when she learned of Pont’s retirement, adding that she’ll miss the brie and apple sandwich.

“He always used good-quality ingredients. You can tell when it’s good quality versus when someone uses a lot of salt and sugar to make it taste good,” she said.

Perez added that she enjoyed watching the precision with which Pont prepared the food.

“You could tell he had really good training,” she said.

Pont said he will pass on his cooking skills to his grandchildren, whom he will teach in his own kitchen.

And it’s possible, he said, that he will make a return to the restaurant scene, but in a less-rigorous role.

“If I come back, I will be the owner and have a staff,” he said.

Sacramento artist Karen O’Haire brought Pont a special gift Friday afternoon – a painting of La Bonne Soupe Café.

“I painted that for a plein air (show) in 2009,” she said. “We had to pick our favorite places, and I stood across the street and painted it. He’s just wonderful. It’s a sad loss.”

When he received the painting, Pont smiled and said, “La Bonne Soupe will live forever now.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @brandon_darnell.

Fog Mountain Cafe a victim of economy

2011-04-26T01:13:44Z

Fog Mountain Cafe, which served the corner of 10th and I streets downtown and catered to government workers, became the latest victim of the recession when it shut its doors for good April 5.

“It was essentially the economic downturn. We just never recovered,” said Jim Harnish, who with his wife, Judy and son, Eric, owned the restaurant. “We opened about six months before that happened, and after the recession and furloughs, it was just too much.”

The cafe opened at 1000 I St. about three years ago in what seemed the perfect spot for a breakfast-and-lunch business.

“When we were looking for a site, I did some research, and that site had 40,000 employees within the block,” Harnish said. “We thought it was a fabulous site being across from Cal EPA and City Hall and just a couple of blocks from the Capitol.”

Initially, business was good, with soups and sandwiches selling well, but the economic downturn, coupled with government furloughs and then the moving of some of the city’s operations from the area to Richards Boulevard, took a lot of the foot traffic away.

Harnish said they cut as many costs as they could, and cut staffing, but while there were good days, they were outnumbered by what he called “dismal days.”

“It stabilized, but it stabilized too low,” Harnish said.

Area workers were still learning of the restaurant’s closing Monday afternoon.

“I liked the variety and the freshness,” said Kevin Morrill. “I went there for lunch once in a while.”

He said he thinks it’s too bad that they had to close because of the economy, but called that the “nature of the world today.”

John Warren said he would eat at Fog Mountain Cafe about twice a month.

“It’s a shame, because it provided good food and service,” he said. “Their soups were excellent. It’s a sad note on the economic times.”

He added that he enjoyed going to Fog Mountain Cafe because it was more formal than some of the other eateries in the area, such as Quizno’s.

The cafe, he said, was a good place to meet someone for lunch downtown, as the food was good, and at $7-$10 for a meal, the prices were reasonable.

The restaurant spawned from their other local business, Fog Mountain Candy, which Harnish said he began 15 years ago. His son, Eric, went to work there, and they eventually opened the cafe.

Eric Harnish has a chef’s background, and he worked at Mace’s Restaurant in Sacramento as a sous chef as well as another upscale restaurant, the Old Bath House, in Pacific Grove.

Harnish said he and his wife might restart the candy company.

“We kind of mothballed that last year because of the same problem,” Harnish said. “The primary business was corporate gift boxes at the holidays. I don’t think we’ll see the cafe come back, but my wife and I might bring back the candy business just part-time for kicks rather than a serious business.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @brandon_darnell.

Feast for the Streets comes Wednesday, honors Bunker

2011-04-23T00:37:25Z

Francis House’s Feast of the Streets on Wednesday will be a bittersweet celebration of both the 20th anniversary of the event, and the life of former Executive Director Greg Bunker, who died in December.

“About 1,000 people came to his memorial service, and this is sort of our memorial for him,” said Forrest Reed, program director for Francis House.

The banquet will kick off with a four-minute video of Bunker’s life.

Francis House is a nonprofit organization founded in Sacramento 40 years ago that offers counseling services, hotel vouchers and help getting California identification to people in need, such as homeless people.

Feast For the Streets is the biggest fundraiser for Francis House, and $56,000 has already been raised in corporate and private donations. About 750 people are expected to be at the event, with ticket prices at $50.

“We’ve managed to keep the ticket price steady,” Reed said. “It really is one of the premiere food events in Sacramento, but it tends to fly under the radar.

Lining the walls of the Scottish Rite Center Wednesday night will be 40 restaurants and six wineries, including Mimi’s Cafe, Mulvaney’s B&L, Ettore’s European Bakery, Thai Basil and River City Brewing Co.

According to Lisa Schulze, office manager for Mulvaney’s B&L, co-owner Patrick Mulvaney has been working with Francis House and the Feast for the Streets for the past several years.

“I think what’s important to him and his wife, Robin, is they’re helping to get resources to people who don’t have basic resources – like education and counseling to get out of poverty,” she said.

“I think the importance of it is that if you help these types of organizations, you help break the cycle of poverty because people get stuck in poverty and have no way out without help,” she said.

Reed said that increasing numbers of people have come to Francis House since 2007 asking for assistance, and a small core of 5,000 donors have been able to keep the needed aid flowing, but help is still needed.

“We have two full-time people and three part-time people, and we’ve managed to touch 30,000 people, but we’re still having to turn some away,” he said.

Just over 81 percent of every dollar received goes directly to those in need, Reed said, adding that it’s a number he feels very good about.

Carla Meyers is a volunteer co-chairing the organization of Feast for the Streets, and she said she started as a volunteer several years ago.

“I’m retired, and I wanted to do something where I could interact with people and not stuff envelopes,” she said. “From the beginning at Francis House, you sit with clients and do resource counseling, help with getting a California ID and send them to various resources. I just thought it was a really great way to give back.”

Attendees will be able to eat their fill around the tables at the event Wednesday, Meyers said.

There will also be a silent auction in a room adjoining the banquet area as well as a live auction on the stage.

“We get 700-plus people,” Meyers said. “It’s great food and great entertainment, and you get to give back to those less fortunate.”

Tickets can be purchased online or in person at Francis House, 1422 C St. Reed said tickets will be sold at the door beginning at 5:30 p.m., but the event is expected to sell out.

The Scottish Rite Masonic Center is located at 6151 H St.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Capitol Bowl to undergo renovation

2011-04-22T00:30:45Z

West Sacramento’s Capitol Bowl is getting a makeover this summer, adding a patio, upgrading the restaurant and knocking down walls in the 55-year-old business.

“We want to help our customers by improving our facility to give them better service,” said Capitol Bowl owner Ross Amin, adding that the business will be open during the remodel, which starts Monday.

The $600,000 project – which is scheduled for completion in July – is being well-received by customers interviewed by The Sacramento Press Thursday afternoon, including one longtime bowler, West Sacramento resident Rita Dodson.

“We’ve been coming here since 1968,” Dodson said, adding that her children played in leagues, and now she takes her grandchildren to the arcade and to toss a few balls down the lanes.

“I’m excited they’re doing this,” she said. “This place had been getting kind of run-down, but when Ross took it over (12 years ago), he started doing some really good things. The bathrooms are much nicer now, and I’m looking forward to the restaurant.”

The back half of the alley, with the lanes and seating areas, has all been redone: New scoreboards, pin-setters and other equipment were installed over the past few years, Amin said. The bathrooms were also renovated, and he said he is looking to bring the same type of renovation to the rest of the space.

The biggest feature in the renovated bowling alley will be the improvement of the snack bar into a full-service restaurant.

“We’re bringing in a kitchen manager over the summer for the first time, and we’re really making this place serve two purposes – a bowling alley and a restaurant,” Manager Chris White said. “We want to make this a destination for downtown.”

West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said he is excited about the project as well.

“This project is a focal point of our Renaissance in downtown,” he said Thursday at the bowling alley. “It’s one of the most important places in the city, where people come together. This is also downtown Sacramento’s bowling alley.”

Situated two blocks from Raley Field and near the new community center and community college campus that opened over the past year, Cabaldon said the outdoor patio and restaurant – which are planned to be open until 11 p.m. on weekdays and 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights – will be a much-needed dining destination downtown.

White said that burgers and pizza will feature prominently in the restaurant, since that’s what bowling alley patrons tend to want.

“I’m trying to add more healthy choices, but who knows?” she said.

Prices aren’t set yet, but White said they will be reasonable, as she wants to keep the family-owned business a place where families can afford to bowl and eat.

“Right now, a family of four can bowl for about $30,” she said.

Another major change will be in the bar area, which was originally a dark place with the same navy blue color everywhere except the floor – which was a dark red color.

“We’re going to have a U-shaped bar in the lobby, and we’ll be able to seat more people for live music shows,” White said.

Currently, the bar can only seat 46 people, and when live music is brought in on weekends, it doesn’t give bands much of an audience. Once the space is opened up, about 80 people will be able to see the musicians, with another 80 outside on the patio.

Ceilings will also be raised 2 feet, making the height between 12 and 14 feet throughout for a bigger feel inside, and they will be renovated as well to replace water-damaged panels from when the roof leaked years ago.

President and CEO of the West Sacramento Chamber of Commerce Denice Seals said businesses like Capitol Bowl have a positive regional impact by drawing people to them and strengthening the other nearby businesses.

“All the pieces come together in projects like this,” she said. “Capitol Bowl has made a commitment to stay here and grow.”

White said starting the renovation during the recession was not an easy choice, and it was delayed from a planned start time of last year.

“We stepped back and took a breath, and I’m glad we did,” she said, “but we’re confident going forward.”

A party is being held Friday night to kick off the renovation and raise money for the Special Olympics, which has a bowling league at Capitol Bowl.

From 7 - 10 p.m., bowlers can get an hour of bowling and a pair of shoes ($10 for kids, $15 for adults) in the fundraiser, while a live DJ spins music for dancing in the bar area. A raffle will also be held with prizes donated by West Sacramento businesses.

Everyone at the party will be able to write on one of the interior walls, which will be destroyed on Monday.

“We’re saving a part of it, and we’ll take lots of pictures,” White said.

Capitol Bowl is open weekdays from 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. - 1 a.m.

For updates during the construction, visit the construction blog here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Where to enjoy Easter brunch in the central city

2011-04-18T05:16:22Z

Easter is fast approaching and along with it comes the requisite egg hunts and candy-fests. Before you go snacking on the Snickers, though, you may be interested in having a good old-fashioned Easter brunch with your friends and family.

If you’re looking for good food on Easter Sunday in the central city area, here are a few places offering brunch and drink specials on this special day:

Tower Cafe
1518 Broadway
Brunch: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Dinner: 4:30 to 11 p.m.
Tower Cafe’s large brunch menu includes their Famous French Toast, Eggs Tower, the Borracho Burger, and Thai steak salad. Or, try one of their specialties: a chorizo burrito with sauteed onions, garlic and dry chorizo sausage scrambled with eggs and wrapped in a jumbo flour tortilla with black beans and guajillo chili sauce.

Diners will enjoy the recently updated outdoor patio and waiting area, while Tower’s own in-house balloon artist will be on hand to create some fanciful balloon art for the kids. The bar will be open too. Brunch entrees start at $8.95. Reservations are not required but are suggested for parties of six or more. Call 441-0222 for more information.

Sweetwater Restaurant
1901 S St.
Brunch only, 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Sweetwater is offering a special Easter brunch buffet for $19.95. More than 30 breakfast, brunch and lunch item choices will be available, including a variety of eggs benedicts, pancakes, fresh salads, pastas, pastries and more. The buffet special includes a complimentary glass of mimosa or champagne, and you can add on unlimited mimosas for $6 more. Reservations are highly recommended through their website or by calling 731-8857.

33rd Street Bistro
3301 Folsom Blvd.
8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Guests will enjoy the made-to-order omelet station, scrambled eggs, pancakes, potatoes, spiral sliced ham, chilled salads, wood-roasted salmon with cucumber dill sauce, and many desserts and pastries for only $29 per person. Of course, what’s Sunday brunch without the endless mimosas for $8?

Manager Tim Spathos and crew go all out to make Easter brunch a special occasion for everyone. You’ll definitely want to make reservations for this one. Call 455-2233 for information.

Capitol Garage
1500 K St.
Brunch: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Executive chef Jonathan Clemons’ Sunday brunch menu includes everything from specialty egg scrambles to buckwheat pancakes with fresh blueberries to biscuits and gravy. If you feel like something a little different, go for the Banana Rama French Toast, topped with rum-flamed bananas, brown sugar, toasted pecans, whipped honey butter and garage potatoes for $13.95. Clemons’ specialty is desserts, and this time he’s bringing back his scrumptious truffles made with Cadbury Creme Eggs for $2 each or three for $5.

Most brunch entrees start at around $9.95, kids’ menu items start at $7.95, and bottomless mimosas are $6.95 with the purchase of an entree. Reservations are suggested, so call the Garage at 444-3633.

Cafe Bernardo
1431 R St.
Brunch: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Cafe Bernardo is located in the R15 building, and everyone from singles to families come in on Sunday mornings to enjoy the brunch that head chef Scott Ostrander prepares each week. Along with such specialties as Amaretto French Toast, on Easter Sunday Scott will add griddled crab cakes with poached eggs, grilled asparagus, and roasted red bell pepper Hollandaise sauce. Entrees range from $7 to $10 and bottomless mimosas are $10 all day. Although reservations are not required, guests can call ahead at 930-9191.

Tuli Bistro
2031 S St.
Brunch: 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tuli is a restaurant with a bistro-style menu and welcoming, neighborly atmosphere. Although they usually have a brunch menu every Sunday, this Easter they’re “kicking it up a bit,” says manager Claudia Bovero. Some of the specialty items on the menu will include chicken-fried lamb chops with a morel mushroom brown gravy, and rabbit sugo with house-made pappardelle noodles. Chef Eric Sarmento’s specialty is pork, so look for some delicious pork dishes as well. Entrees start at $11 and bottomless mimosas are $9. Reservations are suggested for Easter Sunday and can be made by calling 451-8854.

Kupros Bistro
1217 21st St.
Brunch: 10 a.m. to 2:30 pm
Dinner: 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
This Easter Sunday at Kupros, chef Matthew Robinson has put together a delightful three-course brunch menu with buffet, entree, and dessert for $25 per person. First comes the continental buffet including pastries, fruits, parfaits and salads. Next, guests choose from a variety of entrees, including ricotta pancakes with candied raspberries and lemon curd, or spring vegetable quiche, or even a grilled bistro fillet steak with puttanesca sauce. Brunch finishes with small-bite pain perdu with maple gelato and walnuts. Bottomless mimosas are $10 and Bloody Marys will be on special all day. Reservations are recommended and can be made online or by calling 440-0401.

Fox & Goose
1001 R St.
Brunch: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The menu at this family-friendly English-style pubhouse includes a little bit of everything: eggs benedict, tofu scramble, waffles, scones and more. Fox & Goose’s specialty pub grills are served with two eggs and English country potatoes, and offer a wide variety of add-in choices like ham, bacon, linguica, sirloin steak, or even kippers. For something a bit more English traditional, try the Welsh Rarebit omelet, or perhaps some bangers and eggs. Entrees start at about $8 to $10, and they don’t take reservations, so walk right in and enjoy a great Sunday brunch.

Paesanos celebrates 15 years in Midtown

2011-04-10T22:26:50Z

Paesanos Italian restaurant in Midtown is gearing up to celebrate 15 years in business with two weeks of specials starting Saturday and a hint to possible expansion to a third location.

Director of Operations Dana Scarpulla said a new location is in the works – probably getting under way within a year – but she couldn’t comment further on the location. She added that business has continued to grow in the past five years.

“We opened on April 18, 1996, and it’s been great,” Scarpulla said. “There wasn’t much on this corner back then, and we’ve seen Midtown really transition since.”

The spot at 1806 Capitol Ave. had seen a string of restaurants come and go before Paesanos moved in. In the late 1800s, it was home to a machine shop and then a Studebaker dealership.

Since the mid-1990s, restaurants have become more concentrated in Midtown, and Scarpulla said that has made it more of a destination for Sacramentans and suburbanites alike, which has helped Paesanos stay in business and thrive.

“When they moved in, Midtown was quite a different place,” said Midtown Business Association Executive Director Rob Kerth. “The vacancy rate on commercial properties was far higher, and it wasn’t a destination for anything.”

Kerth added that restaurants are hard businesses to run, and to be able to stay in business for 15 years as the area grew to more of a destination and more restaurants sprang up is a testament to quality.

“In so many ways, they were pioneers here,” he said.

Owners David Virga and Mark Scribner opened a second location in Elk Grove in 2005.

“Paesanos is Italian slang that loosely translates as ‘friends,’ ” Scarpulla said, adding that the name is descriptive of the restaurant’s goal.

“We’ve always tried to be a place where people could come and hang out and be friendly,” she said. “We’re great for large groups, and the quality of our product has kept them coming back.”

A few regulars were having lunch at the restaurant Friday afternoon.

“A friend brought me here a year ago, and I’ve been coming ever since,” said Andrea Hoyt, who brought her mother for lunch. “The food is really good and fresh, and the people are really friendly.”

She said her favorite dish is the smoked salmon linguini.

Hoyt said she lives in South Sacramento but finds it’s worth the trip to Midtown, though she does have an ulterior motive.

“I want to meet my future husband here,” she said.

Reuben Gonzales has been going to Paesanos with his wife, Paulina, since just before their 2-year-old daughter was born.

“We come in here every Friday,” he said. “They always make us feel like family here, and it’s really great food.”

Scarpulla said two weeks of specials, starting April 16, will be offered as a thank-you to customers.

Those specials include everything from 15-cent sangrias all day on April 18 to “Throwback Thursday” on April 21, when some of the original menu items such as the carbonara and Stromboli will be offered at their 1996 prices.

Three nights will be dedicated to raising money for charity, with 15 percent of gross sales going to nonprofits including Happy Tails Pet Sanctuary (April 20), CARES Sacramento (April 25) and Women Escaping a Violent Environment (April 27).

For a full list of promotions and offers, click here.

Server Erika Fuentez has worked at Paesanos for eight years and said she enjoys the atmosphere and the camaraderie.

“I’ve worked for so many restaurants, and it’s so much fun here. If they were a bunch of jerks, I’d have left a long time ago,” she said with a laugh.

Paesanos is located at 1806 Capitol Ave. The Elk Grove restaurant location is located at 8519 Bond Road.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

SactoMoFo: gourmet food on the cheap

2011-04-06T00:52:34Z

Local foodies are hoping to overturn a city ordinance not by petitioning, but by eating – gathering mobile food vendors in Fremont Park for a food festival called SactoMoFo.

The April 30 event in Fremont Park will have 21 food vendors – including 15 gourmet food trucks – and run from noon - 6 p.m., said Catherine Enfield, one of the event’s organizers and writer of the Munchie Musings food blog.

Other organizers include Joshua Lurie-Terrell of YumTacos.com, Paul Somerhausen of the Sacramento Epicureans and Costa Apostolos of the Friends of Fremont Park.

“I’m looking forward to good food,” Enfield said. “I personally was in charge of getting the Bay Area trucks, and I selected the best – the crème de la crème of Bay Area trucks – so I’m really looking forward to those.”

Food vendors specializing in a variety of areas will be at the festival – including mini burgers, Korean food, single-brewed coffees and gourmet salads.

The vendor slots filled up in about a month, Enfield said, and organizers had more interest than availability, prompting a waiting list. That allowed the event to stay full despite a couple of cancellations.

But it’s not all about having a bite to eat.

“We have an agenda,” Enfield said. “Sacramento has city ordinances that deter gourmet trucks from being in our city.”

An ordinance limiting the amount of time a truck can be stopped to 30 minutes effectively kills business, Enfield said.

She added that SactoMoFo got an event permit from the city, so the 30-minute rule isn’t in effect for the festival.

Davin Vculek, operating partner of Mini Burger Truck, agreed.

His food truck began operating in Sacramento earlier this year, and he said the ordinance makes him spend more time outside Sacramento.

“This is the only spot in the area where you have to move every 30 minutes,” he said. “Elk Grove, Roseville, Rancho Cordova and Folsom are all a lot more lenient and easier to do business in. We find ourselves out there a lot because it’s easier.”

Despite that, he said Mini Burger Truck works downtown, although some customers get upset after waiting in line only to have the 30 minute time limit expire before they can place their orders.

Vculek said he will be at the festival cooking gourmet burgers to spread awareness of the mobile food scene as well as the law to Sacramentans.

“We want to show people in this city what it’s all about,” he said. “We’ve built a pretty good fan base thus far, but it’s a small fraction of a percentage.”

Julia Yoon will bring her Seoul on Wheels truck from San Francisco and serve Korean barbecue specialties.

“There are so many amazing food trucks right now, with all different types of cuisine,” Yoon said. “It’s a really good way to try all different types of foods out there. We have spots (in San Francisco) where five trucks will gather. It’s a great way for people to sample lots of food and not break the bank.”

She added that her menu ranges in price from $3 - $8, and that’s typical of food trucks in general.

In San Francisco, she said the permitting process is easier than in Sacramento, with trucks being allocated a spot where they stay and serve.

She said being required to move every 30 minutes would ruin her business.

“I would not be able to do it,” she said. “Thirty minutes is just not enough time to serve the number of people I get. On a regular day I might be serving 80 - 150 people on a lunch stop.”

Sacramento coffeehouse Chocolate Fish Coffee will be at the festival as well, serving single-brewed cups of coffee to attendees.

“We’ve always thought the food truck idea was really groovy,” said co-owner Edie Baker. “We travel up to Portland, and we have our food trucks we like to visit up there, just like we have our favorite restaurants.”

Baker said she has not invested in a food truck in Sacramento due to the ordinance, but she would like one to augment her storefront at 3rd and Q streets.

And the name Chocolate Fish Coffee?

Baker said it is a tradition from New Zealand in which people give fish-shaped chocolates as thank-yous.

“We sell them here,” she said, adding that her husband is from New Zealand. “It’s a nice thing to take back to the office and give as a thank-you.”

Also at the festival will be Mama Kim on the Go, the food truck from Mama Kim at the O Club, located at the Lion’s Gate Hotel in McClellan Park.

Owner Kim Scott has been in the catering and restaurant business for the past 12 years and started using a food truck about a month ago.

“We do fresh, gourmet food,” she said. “One of our signature things is a barbecue tri-tip with sweet potato chips.”

She added that she uses local produce and would describe the fare as “California fresh.”

Food truck operators and mobile food enthusiasts said they long to bring the vibrant mobile food vending culture prevalent in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland to Sacramento.

“I hope a lot of people come out for it,” Baker said. “I hope the town really supports it, and I think it could make us stand out and be a reason people come to Sacramento.”

The festival will be held from noon - 6 p.m. April 30 at Fremont Park, 15th and Q streets. Entrance is free, but donations will be accepted to benefit the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

De Vere's expanding to Davis

2011-04-05T00:09:14Z

De Vere’s Irish Pub, a locally owned downtown business founded in the midst of the recession, will open its second location at the end of the summer in the space that was formerly the home of Soga’s in Davis.

“We’re excited,” said co-owner Simon de Vere White. “We’ve been eying Davis for a long time.”

The new space, at 217 E St. in downtown Davis, is 4,800 square feet, about 1,000 square feet bigger than the Sacramento pub.

His brother, co-owner Henry de Vere White, said the expansion is a risk, but one he hopes will prove as successful as the current location on 15th and L streets in Sacramento.

“I think we filled a niche here in Sacramento," Simon de Vere White said, adding that the brothers hope to do the same in Davis.

The basic concept will be the same, as they said community involvement at all levels is important to success.

“We are a neighborhood Irish pub,” Henry de Vere White said. “We do lunch and dinner, and you see the little ones coming in, and then at night it gets a little bit (of an older crowd).”

According to Christi Skibbins, executive director of the Davis Chamber of Commerce, E Street is often referred to as “Eat Street.”

“E Street is a street a lot of people call Eat Street because there are so many restaurants and bars,” she said. “It will be a good spot for them. They’re right across from E Street Plaza, so there is plenty of parking, and it has easy access from all of Davis.”

The Davis pub will have the same menu as de Vere’s in Sacramento when it comes to drinks and food, but possibly with more emphasis on hamburgers with the large student population, Simon de Vere White said.

“It’s too early to tell, but that’s something we will work out when we get closer to opening,” he added.

Activities like the popular Monday night trivia challenge will be carried over to the Davis location as well.

The décor will be similar, as family friends in Ireland will once again be designing the interior space.

“This whole pub was built in Ireland then broken down and shipped over here,” Henry de Vere White said Monday in the Sacramento pub. “All the decorations on the walls are replicas of family items from Ireland.”

Authenticity is important to the brothers, with Simon being born in Ireland and Henry being born in Boston – the first one born in America from a family that traces its Irish heritage back to the year 1140.

The brothers have been living in Sacramento since 1985.

“In here, we have high ceilings, but in Davis, the ceilings are much lower,” Henry de Vere White said. “This is typical of a Victorian pub in downtown Dublin, but the Davis one will have more of a neighborhood feel.”

Philippe Masoud is the owner of two restaurants with locations in both Sacramento and Davis – Crepeville and Burgers and Brew. He said he expects the pub to be successful as well, since the same types of places appeal to both cities.

“Davis is a really good town for us. Sacramento took us longer to be discovered,” he said, adding that he opened his businesses in Davis first.

One challenge to doing business in Davis that Sacramento doesn’t face, however, is that business slows down considerably in summer, when the college students are on break, he said.

But that can be overcome, he said, adding, “I think they will do really good.”

For more information on de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis, check the pub’s Facebook page or follow it on Twitter.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Popular local eatery closes its doors

2011-03-29T03:01:35Z

Hangar 17, a local bar and restaurant that started with valet service and famously huge hamburgers, closed its doors for the final time last Monday, due in part to unresolved tax issues and a floundering economy.

Joey Madrid, 40, co-owner of Hangar 17, spoke with The Sacramento Press about the events leading up to the restaurant’s closing.

“Everyone thinks we’re terrible people, that we did everyone wrong, but that’s not true,” Madrid said. “We did the best we could, but things got the better of us.”

Madrid and co-owner James Lombardi became acquainted when Madrid and Lombardi’s younger brother, Chris, worked together at Chops Steakhouse in Sacramento.

Madrid and the older Lombardi brother came up with the idea for a “hangout” where they could spend time with friends, eat good food and have a few drinks in a relaxed atmosphere. When younger brother Chris, who was a chef at the time, came up with some menu ideas, the men decided to take the plunge and open shop.

Lombardi found an old military-style Quonset building at the corner of 17th and S streets and ran it by Madrid as a potential site for the new business. Madrid had coincidentally found the same location in his own search for a business site.

“We took that as a sign that it was meant to be,” Madrid said.

The restaurant started with a temporary liquor license that allowed them to sell alcohol until 2 a.m., and Madrid and Lombardi included valet service at the front door to alleviate the notoriously inconvenient parking in the area.

“It was a piece of the neighborhood,” said Nelda Mackey, school guidance counselor and resident near the restaurant’s location. “Everyone over there was like family. We were on a first-name basis with Tracy and Dayla, the bartenders. We’re so sad that it closed.”

As much as the bar grew in popularity with the locals and enjoyed predominantly good reviews when it opened in late 2004, Hangar 17 suffered a setback in mid-2006.

Some residents and property owners had protested the issuance of the liquor license when Hangar 17 first applied for it and, by the time the appeal and hearing process came to a conclusion nearly 18 months later, the license was finally issued with operating restrictions that included a requirement that the front door remain closed during business hours, and alcohol could only be sold until 10 p.m.

“That was what started things going bad,” Madrid said. “We weren’t going to have the late-night customers that we had at first. Once the liquor license was changed, we had to start changing other things to make up for it.”

The first thing to change was a shifted focus from late evening drink sales to food sales, particularly for a lunchtime crowd that was largely composed of state workers with offices nearby.

Robert du Plaine, 52, a former chef and current state engineer, was a frequent diner at Hangar 17 who took note of the quality of the food.

“It wasn’t just a plain burger,” du Plaine said. “The food was always creative and properly prepared. It’s very sad to see it go – it was a wonderful place to eat.”

Despite a good lunch crowd and many “regulars” in the evenings, Hangar 17 felt another squeeze in 2009 when the economy suffered further downturns and furloughs were instituted for state workers. The lunch crowd started to dwindle, and so did the restaurant’s profits.

“People just couldn’t keep going out like they used to,” Madrid said. “Pretty quick, we weren’t making as much in food sales anymore.”

As business slumped and profits disappeared, Madrid and Lombardi found themselves unable to make regular payments to unemployment insurance, the Board of Equalization, and the Internal Revenue Service.

“I called all of them (EDD, Board of Equalization, IRS) to make payment arrangements,” Madrid said, “But every time I paid one, the other two would fall behind, and I’d have to make up for it. Then, another would be caught up, but the first two would fall behind. It just never ended.”

The more they tried to dig the business out of the deepening hole, the worse things got. Payroll checks were bouncing, and unpaid taxes ballooned to more than $500,000 with interest and penalties. Madrid said there came a point where they just couldn’t keep it afloat any longer.

“We got together and just said, ‘Look, we’re drowning here,’ ” he said.

The decision was made, and Lombardi notified employees via text that Hangar 17 was no longer in business.

“We’re so upset that it closed,” Mackey said. “Lots of neighbors went there.”

Mackey wasn’t the only neighbor surprised by the closing of the popular neighborhood hangout.

“It came as a surprise to everyone,” said Stan Barton, 53, controller for Paragary restaurants and a longtime resident near Hangar 17. “We had no idea it was closing.”

According to Madrid, the landlord took possession of the building as of Friday, March 25, and the IRS has a lien on all of the equipment and furniture inside. Madrid and Lombardi will sell some assets to offset their tax liability and then, “We’ll do what we can to resolve it,” Madrid said.

“It’s going to take some time,” he said.

Downtown's Zen Sushi open after remodel

2011-03-26T00:52:50Z

Downtown’s Zen Sushi restaurant recently finished a remodel to add a full bar and redecorate its interior in the style of modern sushi restaurants found in San Francisco.

The restaurant was closed from early December until Feb. 11 for the remodel, according to owner Jason Hom.

Hom said he is most excited about bringing in a full bar as part of the remodeled space.

“Everyone is surprised at the change,” he said. “The whole style of the restaurant is a little bit more modern.”

Hom said that business isn’t as good as it was before the closure, but it is picking up. He added that some people thought the business had closed permanently.

Manager Quyen Luong said she is most excited about the bar, but also the “beautiful atmosphere we can provide to our customers now. It’s a completely new feel we can provide to our customers now.”

The restaurant now has happy hour from 3 - 6 p.m. seven days a week, and Luong said draft beers are $2.99.

The main dining room has seen some changes as well, incorporating a more traditional Japanese feel than the swanky bar area.

“Japanese sceneries are warm and earthy,” Luong said. “Our architect is bringing that back (in the seating area) with a modern twist.”

Luong said the restaurant’s décor is meant to complement the food.

“It’s more clean-cut, which is like the food,” she said.

Longtime regular customer Julie Werthman said she likes the new space.

“I think they did a great job, she said. “It’s much brighter, up-to-date, inviting, clean – they made a great use of space.”

For her, the bar room is the most striking change.

“It used to be dark, and it’s just so much more exciting and more comfortable to be in,” she said. “The food is excellent as always. They have great lunch specials.”

The restaurant, located at 900 15th St., has extended its hours from 9:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. on weeknights and 10:30 p.m. on weekends, Luong said.

The restaurant’s website is still under construction, and can be found here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Fresh from Jalisco: New Midtown taqueria

2011-03-22T00:02:50Z

A pair of Roseville taquerias called Jalisco Fresh Mexican Grill have become so popular that their owner has opened another in Midtown Sacramento.

Fans were driving from as far away as the foothill towns of Nevada City, El Dorado Hills and Auburn to get to the family-owned restaurants in Roseville. Some pleaded with owner Ramon Arias to launch his next taqueria in Auburn so they wouldn't have to travel so far for the tacos, burritos and fajitas.

"They said, 'You should open another taco house,' " Arias, 42, said Monday. "We didn't think there were enough people over there (in Auburn) to keep our business open. I thought Sacramento was better."

Arias and his family opened the third Jalisco Fresh last Monday at the corner of 19th and S streets in the R Street Marketplace. The Mexican eatery has taken over the spot at 1831 S St. vacated by Daphne's Greek Cafe last summer.

A native of Guadalajara in Jalisco, Arias came to the United States in 1984. He went to work at a turkey farm in Sonoma County, where he became the manager. He worked there 16 years before opening his first restaurant in Concord in 2000. He later sold it and moved to Roseville.

Arias opened the first Jalisco Fresh Mexican Grill at 9050 Fairway Drive in Roseville in 2003. He opened a second there three years later at 5180 Foothills Blvd.

His three daughters, who were born in California, came up with the name for the restaurant. The family travels back to his home state of Jalisco every year or two to visit his parents and get spoiled by his mother's cooking, he said.

The restaurants use recipes handed down by Arias' mother and grandmother and others from Guadalajara or the Jalisco region. The burritos and fajitas – made with his mother's recipe – are the most popular, Arias said.

"We do it our own way," he said. "People just love those things."

The menu includes tacos, burritos, tostadas, quesadillas, seafood, soup and plates ranging from $2.25 for a small taco to $14.99 for a beef-and-shrimp fajitas. The counter-service restaurant serves breakfast, which on weekend mornings includes Menudo. Beer, horchata and aguas frescas are also served.

His wife, Leticia Arias, brothers Jose and Alejandro, and his oldest daughter, 20-year-old Leidi, help out at the restaurants. The Midtown space underwent a renovation, with a green interior being repainted in terra cotta and pale yellow. The restaurant seats about 50 inside and 20 on an outside patio.

Jalisco Fresh is open daily from 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. They're still determining how late they need to stay open as news of the restaurant's opening spreads, Arias said.

"Weekdays is going good," he said. "Weekends is quiet. Nobody knows that we're there."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter and photographer at The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.