The wall of a Midtown restaurant soon will soon become a fresh canvas for a Sacramento muralist. Hot Italian and the Arts & Business Council of Sacramento have put out a call for artists to submit mural proposals with modern Italian themes. The winning artist will be paid $1,000, plus $500 in restaurant certificates, to design and install an 8-foot by 3-foot mural for the eatery's main dining room. The space was intended to hold a bicycle. But the restaurant's owners, Andrea Lepore and Fabrizio Cercatore, want to open it up to local artists instead and decided to hold a contest to choose the design, Lepore said. "It's really open to anyone," she said. "It could be any medium: photograph

Paulette Coffman and her daughters Chelsea and Brittany are crazy about cupcakes. They’re so obsessed with baking cupcakes of every conceivable flavor that they opened their own business in downtown Davis called Let Them Eat Cake! The Parisian-themed shop features three daily flavors. Let Them Eat Cake’s menu describes their red velvet cupcake, Scarlett, as a “scrumptious red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting,” while their chocolate cupcake, the Dubliner, is hailed as a “Guinness Stout chocolate cake with chocolate butter-cream frosting.” Their third daily flavor, called Illegally Blonde, is described as a “fluffy, vanilla cake with vanilla frosting.” In addition to the three stapl

This week marks the first Sacramento Beer Week.  Breweries, restaurants and bars throughout the Sacramento region will shine a spotlight on beer.  Sacramento Beer Week will feature more than 200 events including brewer’s dinners, beer and cheese pairings, rare ale tastings, pint nights and brewery showcases. Sacramento Beer Week seeks to brew up interest in beer generally and in locally brewed craft beer in particular.  The period following the holidays and before the warmer Spring weather is traditionally a slow period for beer sales, and Sacramento Beer Week organizers hope their event will be a shot in the arm for the local economy. Local brews won’t be the only ones showcased during

Eat from 20 of Sacramento's downtown restaurants with the purchase of one ticket supporting a 10-year-old boy fighting secondary cancer. The For Ben Food Crawl is from 2 to 5 p.m. on Feb. 28.  Each restaurant will have  drink specials, a taste of their food, and tons of great people exploring the grid of Sacramento while supporting Ben and his family. Beating levels while playing Nintendo DS, building cities with Legos, and making people smile are just a few of Ben's talents. But, that is not all he does. Ben has survived a brain tumor two years ago and now is battling secondary cancer in his spine. Intense treatments, intelligent doctors, unlimited prayers, and his close family and frie

Sacramento's restaurants are a clear reflection of the times, with high-end establishments taking a beating and fast food expected to continue to rise in 2010. As the recession continues, top-tier central city restaurants such as 55 Degrees and Masons have closed or begun transforming into more affordable dining. Similarly high-end chains, such as Ruth's Chris Steak House, just outside the central city, and Morton's The Steakhouse, and celebrated local establishments are reported to be in trouble. Casual restaurants have also been seriously hurt by the economy. But fast-food restaurants like McDonald's are expanding and the demand for "fast-casual" restaurant concepts is exploding. "Eve

Sacramento environmental groups gathered Thursday night to recognize local leaders in sustainability and to raise funds for local environmental projects. Sustainable Sacramento was hosted by Pesticide Watch and Slow Food Sacramento. The event was held at Hot Italian Pizza and Panini Bar in midtown Sacramento. As attendees escaped the damp streets and persistent rain, they were greeted warmly by Paul S. Towers, state director of Pesticide Watch Education Fund, and Slow Food Sacramento’s Kathy Les. Hot Italian co-owner Fabrizio Cercatore poured glasses of red wine and brought out a variety of pizzas for guests to enjoy. Pesticide Watch, a statewide organization based in Sacramento, seeks t

Chris Nestor knows people are in need of a little comfort right now. The chef behind INK decided the time is right for a restaurant which may be able to provide that. On Jan. 12, he will open House Kitchen & Bar at 555 Capitol Mall. Opening first for lunch, House will serve re-imagined American comfort food in a warm setting, with dinner prices that won't go above $17. The concept is a response to the times, with many people facing continuing economic challenges, said Nestor. "Everybody has changed their mindset about what they want to pay when dining out," Nestor said. "Times are different right now. Meals are different right now. People's needs are different. So I just think it's a ne

The time of year is here again for locals to venture out and experience some of our neighborhoods' finest eateries. Being in the restaurant business for most of my life, I have had the privilege of eating in some of the greatest food cities: New York, Miami, Las Vegas and San Francisco. The upcoming Dine Downtown week in Sacramento is an event that can satisfy even the most finicky foodie and rival any of those cities. The list of 35 participating restaurants is quite impressive for Sacramento’s fifth annual Dine Downtown week, January 8 through 17. The dining scene in Sacramento is up and coming, so there are certain places those of us on a strict budget will never be able to try, right

A new year starts. And local entrepreneurs are dreaming about businesses on their wish lists. Whether it's a rooftop sushi bar or a celebrity look-alike chauffeur service, most business owners have at least one idea simmering close to their hearts. Several talked recently about other businesses they would love to open if the circumstances were right. Sacramento's fright goddess Deborah Chaussé is really into Halloween. So much so that she would like to turn the home of Evangeline's Costume Mansion into a haunted house each October. That's not a total stretch, considering the fantasy shop is located in two of the city's oldest buildings: the Howard House, built in 1859, and the Lady Adams

The hottest spot for a New Year's Eve celebration is aboard the Empress Hornblower in Old Sacramento. They will have two fireworks cruises on New Year's Eve for the 9:00pm and 12:00pm fireworks at Tower Bridge. The first is a Dinner Gala cruise from 7:00pm to 10:00pm. Enjoy the fabulous buffet dinner, open standard cocktail bar, including after dinner liquors and house champagne, festive New Year's Eve party favors, pre-boarding photograph and live DJ entertainment for dancing. The second is a Midnight Cocktail cruise from 11:00pm to 1:00pm. Enjoy delicious hors d'ouevres, free flowing house champagne with a no-host bar for all other beverages, festive New Year's Eve party favors, pre-boa

Sacramento’s original restaurant week is back January 8 through January 17! Dine Downtown is returning with 36 of Sacramento’s top restaurants offering special three-course prixe-fixed dinner menus for only $30 per person. “Dine Downtown gives you the opportunity to experience Sacramento’s finest restaurants on a budget,” said DSP Director of Marketing and Outreach Lisa Martinez, “This year Dine Downtown has been extended from 7 to 10 days, giving diners an extra 3 days to sample the best restaurants on the grid.” Participating restaurants include 3 Fires Lounge & Restaurant at The Marriott, 4th Street Grille, 58 Degrees and Holding Co., Biba Restaurant, Bistro 33, Brew It Up!, The Broil

Dragonfly Restaurant has closed its doors after five years in Midtown. Owners Glenn and Rosa Rivera-Lew quietly closed the Asian-fusion restaurant at least two weeks ago. They are now considering other options for the 3,500-square-foot space at 1809 Capitol Ave., whose lease they still own, said Ernesto Jimenez, an owner of the building and Zocalo, the restaurant next door. Dragonfly — whose menu included sushi, noodles and tapas such as sesame seed cones and taro chips — struggled for some time. "That's a sad one for us," said Rob Kerth, executive director of the Midtown Business Association. "I think they just couldn't draw enough people in to keep it going." Dragonfly opened about a

After months of careful planning, countless focus groups and likely many sleepless nights, the big day is finally upon Terry Harvego. Today Harvego opens his new restaurant, Ten 22. So with every obstacle overcome but today’s first day of business, one wonders how Harvego feels. “I’m not nervous — I’m very confident and I just want to do this now,” Harvego said at Thursday evening's soft opening. “Sure, there will probably be some mistakes the first day, but it is what it is. I know it will be great." Ten 22’s soft opening the night before its grand opening the next day was a laid-back affair, with the 100 or so attendees inside the restaurant’s simple, refined interior fully living the

Anthony and Tracy Palombo say the place they're opening in two weeks will be more than just a restaurant. Husband and wife want 5th and H Café to be a place for friends and family to gather around good food and a glass of wine — a space like his uncle's café in Italy, where Anthony first started out in the restaurant business one summer when he was 24. His uncle's trattoria sits in Montepertuso, a small town hidden in the cliffs above Positano on the Amalfi Coast. The name of his uncle's restaurant: Il Ritrovo. "That means in Italian, 'Where Friends Meet,' " Anthony Palombo said. "It's the most beautiful place on earth." Palombo worked at the restaurant for a year and a half. He did ev

For the third annual year, local Mexican restaurant Zocalo hosted its Dia de los Muertos celebration on Monday, Nov 2. The holiday (which in Spanish literally translates into “day of the dead”) celebrates the life and death of loved ones who have passed on over the past year. It is largely celebrated throughout Mexico, America and Canada. As with any festival, celebrating Dia de los Muertos properly requires an exacting eye for tradition. Much like its food, Zocalo saw to it that its party was as authentic as possible. Burning candles illuminated the large shrines in the center of the entrance to the restaurant, allowing patrons to read the names on tags hanging from numerous trees arou

A clean bill of health and an outpouring of customer support have prompted the reopening of a wildly popular downtown lunch spot, La Bonne Soupe Café. On Wednesday, owner Daniel Pont will resume serving the French onion soup Zagat rated as the best in the world only months ago, as well as the sandwiches and other food that earned his restaurant Zagat's top rating in Sacramento. The cafe passed a Sacramento County health reinspection Friday, nine days after a restaurant inspector closed it upon finding cockroaches. Pont, a renowned 70-year-old French chef, said Tuesday he's recovering from the stress and heartbreak that landed him in the hospital just before the first scheduled reinspect

It started in the name of Cystic Fibrosis. Three years ago, Darby Flynn and Brian Fischer were trying to come up with a new event for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. "CFF had more relationships in the suburbs than in the central city," Fischer said. "They wanted to grow in Downtown and educate more people in the city." At the time, CFF had a national fundraising pub crawl event. Fischer suggested a gourmet food crawl instead. "A week before the event, CFF canceled all the pub crawls around the country except for the Edible Crawl for a Cure because it had food and alcohol," he said. By the second year, the Edible Crawl for a Cure sold out, with 1,000 participants strolling the streets

"Kanpai!" You may hear a few attendees joyously exclaim this Japanese phrase, equivalent to the English "Cheers!" at the fifth annual Northern California Premium Sake Fest. The event kicks off Wednesday at The Sheraton Grand. North American Food Distributions — importer and wholesale distributor for Asian food retailers — hand-selected over 100 of the finest sake, shochu and Japanese beers to be presented and tasted for this event. "Shochu is a distilled spirit," said Judy Inaba, event manager for North American Food Distributions Inc. "It is an old-style beverage, very popular in Japan." The drink can be mixed with different juices, much like vodka, for a desired taste, Inaba said. Ea

The exclusive preview tasting at Ten 22 on Wednesday, Sept. 2 found myself, fellow Sacramento Press reporter Jonathan Mendick, and members of our local media peers Sactown Magazine, Capitol Public Radio and Sacramento News & Review happily sipping on sweet, summery cocktails on the balcony of a posh loft above the skeletal framework of the soon-to-be restaurant and bar in Old Sac. Conversation and laughs were exchanged as owner and host extraordinaire Terry Harvego gave us a preview of the tasteful upholstery of the restaurant's interior. But how did we get here? The evening started out innocently enough as Harvego led our party of eight into the cluttered expanse of what will be the rest

  Rollin' on the BikeCrawl II The 2nd "bicycle-themed" Grubcrawl is Wed. Aug. 26, promptly at 5:30 starting @ Bikes and Bites, 12th & J st, Downtown Sac..... Grubcrawlusa.com in partnership with Bikes & Bites presents the second of many Bikecrawls, rollin' spot to spot enjoying free appetizers and drink specials all night long! Soooo,....Bring your cycles, trikes, and appetites! Join us @ Brew It Up, Sofia's, Three Fires @ the downtown Marriott, Table 260,...and other Sacramento Hot Spots. See ya there! Rent-A-Bike or bring your own! Bring your tour cycle, beach cruizer, road or mountain bike, or tandem to the starting venue at 5:30 pm, with $25 and your appetite! Or for an additional