This weekend, you could put on a sombrero and drink a Corona Light like a guero. Or, you could go to the best Mexican restaurant in town and enjoy the widest selection of premium tequila in the area. It is up to you, hombre.

El Patron at 66th and Folsom is one of our few establishments serving gourmet Mexican cuisine, and they will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo all weekend. With more than 40 brands and 100 different 100% agave tequilas, you owe it to yourself to enjoy a taste of real cultura Mexicana. Check out the schedule of events.

Continue reading “El Patron Cinco de Mayo Festival” »

With the rain falling and the mercury stuck at a stubborn fifty-five, I took it upon myself to go out and experience some new things in our fair city this weekend. Undaunted by the wet weather and soggy spirits I managed to eat, drink, and laugh my way to a pretty darn good weekend.

Friday night was a double dip into newness, visiting the newly remodeled Sacramento Comedy Spot as well as sampling the grub from the highly anticipated Suzie Burger.

The show at the Sacramento Comedy Spot was a rousing success. Labeled a “Grand Re-Opening,” the lineup included four different shows to a sold out audience. Shows run most Fridays at 8pm. Check out www.saccomedyspot.com for show details.

Suzie Burger was another story. The newly opened burger joint, brainchild of the Haines brothers, has been “coming soon” for quite a number of months now. The former auto repair shop on 29th and P streets has been teasing me with the thought of burgers and cheesesteaks for long enough. It was time to indulge. Continue reading “‘Twas a Weekend of Newness” »

The scuttlebutt on the street says that Willemina’s in Old Sac will be closing in the next 60 days. For those of you whom have not had the pleasure, this young venue has recently been the epicenter of Sacramento’s rockabilly, hotrod and tattoo loving community. It is also one of the few spots in town to feature quality German beers on draught.

Will the new owners of the property be the proprietors of Davis’ G Street Pub? If so, let’s hope they keep bringing the same high quality acts and events as the current owners. Cheers, and good luck!

Friday- Dinner with the Sacramento Epicureans at Oz, a wonderful Korean eatery on Bradshaw Road.  No reservations necessary, come on by and join the fun, $25 a head (alcohol not included).  Paulie over at Sac-Eps does a great job organizing these events.  If you’d like to try some adventurous foods and do it in a group setting, come on out and join the Sacramento Epicureans at any of there upcoming events.  www.sacramento-epicureans.com  Oz, 3343 Bradshaw Rd, Sacramento

Saturday- Hitting up my local farmers market at Watt and El Camino.  And later, heading out to TFO (see comments).

Sunday- The sac-eats/Runnergirl braintrust will make its triumphant return to the Streets of London for Sunday Night Trivia.  Come join us as we sip on English ales and do our best to top the top minds in Sacramento at this weekly test of pointless and not so pointless facts.  Trivia starts at 9pm but get there early unless you like standing.  (Or you can be like Runnergirl and bring your own chairs.)  Streets of London, 1804 J St, Sacramento

Sorry about the late notice, but Midtown’s newest pizza place is selling $1 slices and $2 beers. Uncle Vito’s is attached both physically and financially to Pronto, at 16th between O and P. The decor is typical wannabe New York, with black and white photos of Lennon, Times Square, Coney Island, etc etc. My slice was good, but only a rough approximation of a “New York” style slice. Not that it was bad, just not what I would consider authentic, like Georgio’s, which is Sacramento’s closest cousin to a true NY slice. Bonus points for a full bar and Eye of the Hawk on tap. BTW, is there a law that says that pizza in Midtown has to be sold by chicks with full sleeves of tattoos?
Cash only tonight.

On August 1, Streets of London opened their full bar. That’s right, full bar. Prior to Tuesday, only beer and wine flowed through the jolly, unwashed customers of the local watering hole. But now every reveler can bask in the glory of cosmos and lemondrops while listening to the Stones on the jukebox. Don’t expect Tom Cruise and Brian Brown behind the bar just yet, though. Information gleaned from my last visit (including the comment from one of the bartenders, “Is Crown Royal whiskey or Scotch?”) indicates that the lovely barmaids still prefer the ales and lagers to the multi jiggered cocktails. So, things might change a little at the convivial joint, but odds are most things will stay the same (especially if they continue to fry everything, including the cocktails, in the same oil they’ve been using since the Clinton administration).

Got together with some pals for post-work drinks at Bandera. While it had been about a year since I had last clinked glasses there, it seemed pretty much the same. The big rectangular bar is ideal for people watching. Or flirting. Not so great for finding a seat when it’s crowded, but that makes customer interaction all the more likely.

I asked the bartender who she thought made up Bandera’s clientele. She told me an interesting tale:

Several years ago it was the college crowd who monopolized the bar/restaurant, which wasn’t the demographic Bandera was going for. So, they started to close the bar at early, to discourage the late night/early morning, age-21-ish crowds. They also started requiring entree orders to sit at the tables - including the ones in the bar area (and they still do that) to get rid of hanging-outters in favor of actual restaurant patrons.
Continue reading “How do you pick your favorite watering hole?” »

KCRA.com reports that Chico State has canceled the remainder of its 2006 softball season after a high school recruit was admitted to a hospital for an alcohol overdose. Glad to see that dry campus thing is going well.

Which reminds me…while there has been a ban on alcohol at sporting events on California State University campuses, our own Sacramento State has decided to stay wet.

The fact that Sac State will continue to allow the sale of alcohol on campus is good news for students who enjoy washing down their pizza with a beer.

Amen.

From Graswich today I read that the restrooms at Mason’s have 1 set of sinks and mirrors to be shared by men and women. Graswich’s reader, a female, understandably brings up only the makeup issue, but that’s part of a larger issue here: separating the “business side” of the restroom from the sink and mirror means that when you exit the “business” wing it’s clear, you know, what you’ve been doing in there. The great thing about restaurant restrooms is supposed to be that they are multipurpose–powder room, shirt-tucking checkroom, middle-of-horrible date face wash and/or hair pat-down station, in addition to the infamous #1 and #2 that everybody knows takes place in there but thankfully when you exit, no questions are asked. In other words, ew gross, Mason’s! Where do you think we are?

Rumor has it that Paragary’s K-Bar is closed as of today. First, I must admit I’ve never been to K-Bar. I know it was the it-spot for the nightlife crowd when it first opened, and also heard it was a quality place for post-work cocktails. Hmmm. It also had a decent location smack-dab in the middle of the downtown/midtown area. So, any theories on why it closed?

Did it suck?
Or are Sac-town cocktailers all about the new hotspots?