There once was restaurant, mythical in its place on the Sacramento foodscape. It was a place where a man, woman, and child could go on a Friday night, eat prime rib, clam chowder, and drink cocktails by the bucket load. It was a place that shaped my childhood, my life, the lives of all Sacramentans, hell, the lives of all Americans. That place was the Palomino Room.

Located just off Watt Avenue on El Camino Boulevard, the Palomino Room was a treasure, a throwback, a repository of food, ambiance, and camaraderie from a different age. And now, it can live again.

The restaurant space that once was the PR, is now available for lease. For the last several years, it has been a horrid example of what happens when fusion cuisine goes wrong. That’s right, the “steak and sushi buffet.” But now, those days are past, and the space is once again available to be put right by some enterprising restaurateur. That’s right, you Paul Flemming, you Randy Selland, you Randy Paragary, you Virgas. It’s time to do your civic duty and restore the Palomino to all its vinyl boothed glory. The Paly’ needs to live again. You can make it so.

That’s right. Fieri, celebrity chef and questionably talented TV personality, was recently awarded the title of “Douchebag of the Month,” on the popular website Hot Chicks With Douchebags.

We might have to start a whole Fieri category here at the ‘Rag, what with his shameless whoring for the competition to his own local restaurant, his intentional assitude in inviting the whole nation to the Squeeze Inn, and his restaurant’s continued spotty food (except for those “Vegas Fries”–God, they’re good).

Every now and then, your intrepid culinary guide (me) gets the offer of a few schillings to write restaurant reviews for other publications. Not wanting to overlap the online and printed-page worlds, I’ve held back from covering restaurants in both places. Nevertheless, I realize that many of you don’t like to get your hands dirty by picking up printed pages, or don’t live in the geographic area in which said printed-page publications are available. To remedy this gap in restaurant knowledge, I give you a quick rundown on some of the area’s newest, and in some cases best, eateries not yet mentioned on this here ‘Rag.

Maritime Seafood & Grill- ****
Owner/Chef Morgan Song has created a dining experience that immediately needs to be considered among the best in the region, joining such familiar names as Biba, The Kitchen, Waterboy, and Mulvaney’s B&L. High priced and high class, this place sticks out in an otherwise depressing Carmichael strip mall on the corner of Marconi and Fair Oaks. Go there, now.

Maritime Seafood & Grill
6440 Fair Oaks Blvd
Carmichael, CA 95608
www.maritimeseafoodsac.com
Continue reading “The Best of the Rest” »

Which is why you’ll see me at the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” auditions at Jackson Rancheria on Monday, June 23 at 7am. Click here for more details.

And while I’m up in Jackson, I might stop at some of my favorite daytrip spots.

Thanks to Lisa Heyamoto for hipping me to this event.

In a lot of ways, Tapa the World is the anti-late-night hangout. Despite the many years of being one of the only kitchens in town open until midnight, the joint has resisted the urge to turn itself into a euro-tinged, ultra-douche lounge, and instead focuses on putting damn good food on the tables until the clock hits 11:59.

I was at Tapa a few weekends ago with a few friends in from out of town. Having the newcomers in tow made me look at the old Spanish gal with a new, appreciative perspective. At 10:30 at night, there weren’t too many other places in town at which we would have had nearly as much fun, eaten nearly as well, or drank nearly so exotically. Continue reading “Tapa the World” »

It turns out that you can make wine almost anywhere. Growing the grapes with which to make the wine is another story. But the actual storing, crushing, filtering, and fricasseeing necessary to make great wine can be done almost anywhere where you can match a bit of floor space with regular temperatures. Why, then, should it be a surprise that some of the best wine this writer has tasted in a long time comes out of a nondescript white brick warehouse across from a discount furniture store and a card room?

Rail Bridge Cellars, located on North 16th Street, may be a trailblazing entity, injecting the business of winemaking in to the urban core, but regardless of its geography, the wine’s the thing that makes this small wine producer stand out. Winemaker Jon Affonso (Jesuit High class of ‘88, Go Big Red!) confidently, and with obvious passion produces only two wines at the present, but what wines they are. Continue reading “Rail Bridge Cellars: Drink Local” »

Within the last few months, three new eateries have appeared in the greater Town & Country Club area (a hybrid of Country Club Plaza and Town & Country Village). These new joints manage to fill in a few gaps in the foodscape. If we keep our fingers crossed, maybe we’ll get an art house theater too.

Taqueria Y Pastelria San Marcos

It’s a fine piece of fortune when a fantastic taqueria opens up within blocks of you. San Marcos offers everything that a good taqueria should: great tacos, killer chips & salsa, and depression-era prices. Not only that, but San Marcos meets all the conditions for ethnic dive greatness, including a plethora of handwritten signs indicating the bizarre and sometimes draconian rules regarding restroom usage, ATM utilization, soda refills, chips & salsa availability, and most importantly, what is and is not included in the daily special. If you try to bend any of these rules, you will be left out in the Oaxacan desert to be eaten by coyotes. Continue reading “New Eats in the 95821″ »

According to an article at Bloomberg.com, disgraced NBA referee, alleged gambler, and confirmed ass-hat Tim Donaghy claims that NBA referees, under instructions from higher ups, helped to defeat the Sacramento Kings in the 2002 playoffs against the LA Lakers.

If this is true, then this really sucks, and if the Maloofs should throw a Las Vegas style hissy fit. Also, if this isn’t some fiction dreamed up by a desperate tool, then David Stern will go down in a ball of fire while my mother-in-law pours gasoline on the flames. If there’s one thing that Mo-Law doesn’t tolerate, it’s immorality in her sporting events. Especially against her Kings.

In a story today, the Bee reports that the Butte County Clerk Janice Grubbs has refused to perform any further marriage ceremonies in the Butte County Clerk’s office.

Don’t jump to conclusions, however, because Janice says that it has nothing to do with the recent dust-up over gay marriage. According to the piece, “…Grubbs says the county can’t afford to continue performing wedding ceremonies… [and] said her decision has nothing to do with the California Supreme Court’s ruling last month legalizing gay marriage.” (despite the fact that gay marriage just happened to be ordered by the court in the same week as her decision) Continue reading “I’m Taking My Heterosexual Ball and Going Home” »

Friday-
Celebrity Chef Challenge- This annual event and fundraiser for InAlliance, a non-profit organization that provides employment and living services for adults with disabilities, pits some of the area’s best chefs against one another in a contest of Olympian proportions. There’s bound to be great food and copious wine and talented chefs.
Where: The Old Sugar Mill, Clarksburg (10 min south of Sacramento)
When: Friday, 5-9pm
Continue reading “Watcha Doin’ This Weekend?” »