(NOTE: The Eats clan will be moving from our current digs in a few months to a new family abode off the greater Eastern & El Camino corridor. So, gone are the days of long, detail filled ramblings about all the eateries in the Fair Oaks Blvd sphere of influence. You can now look forward to long, intricate musings on the joy that is the Plaza Hof Brau.)
 Anyway, back to our story. Mike Dunne over at the Bee has spent plenty of words praising a little French joint up in the foothills called “Zachary Jacques.” I won’t spend much time, therefore, totally agreeing with him and talking about the wonderful food, great service and charming atmosphere that make the hour long drive totally and completely worth it. I’ll instead talk about how to use Zachary Jacques in a recipe to create a perfect birthday in the foothills.
Step 1) Take the day off of work. This is essential.
Step 2) Dirve up to Apple Hill with a loved one.
Step 3) Stop at Rainbow Orchards and get a freshly made Apple Cider doughnut. (If you tell the proprietor that it’s your birthday, you get a free cream cheese tart. Yummy!)
Step 4) Go directly to Jack Russel Brewing Company and wash down that doughnut with the 10 beer sampler (which winds up being the liquid equivalent of a shooping bag full of beer)
Step 5) Move on to Grandpa’s Cellars to get some cider and a carmel apple.
Step 6) Spend 20 minutes in car picking carmel from out of your teeth.
Step 7) Get ye over to the Boeger winery tasting room where tastings are free and pretty much every wine is at least fantastic, if not stupendous.
Step 8 ) By this time, it’s difficult to walk straight so make sure your companion for the day can prop you up for the walk back to the car.
Step 9) Head on over to Zachary Jacques for dinner. It’s in Diamond Springs, so the drive will take about twenty minutes.
Step 10) Order the fixed course meal. The chef definitely knows what he’s doing. Let him give you a wonderful array of tastes and compliment him and his friendly staff as you stumble out the door.
Happy Birthday
The Sac Rag 
“Step 2) Dirve up to Apple Hill with a loved one.
…
Step 8 ) By this time, it’s difficult to walk straight so make sure your companion for the day can prop you up for the walk back to the car.”
Drinking and driving/spelling is quite the epidemic in these parts.
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Been around for some time, like since the last Ice Age….changed hands about a year or two ago…
was very good Frenchie type joint, so I assume the new owners haven’t butchered the cuisine…
that crap they serve with as an appetizer…the stuff with goose liver is a little too pasty and dippy for me…sort of Skippy Peanut Butter with Goose Gizzards blended to the smooth state…
Boeger is OK…
Lava Cap is spectacular and their Calder “Mobile” really works…Sierra Vista Winery in Pleasant Valley has the best view around…next to Holly Hill Winery…and then go out to Somerset/Fair Play…
There are actually some good restaurants out in Fair Play/Mt Aukum, better, I guess than Zach Jacks…
Become the hip place to be, El Dorado County and the “Wine” scene…
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I like to dirve up to Apple Hill, too. Haven’t been dirving in a long time . . .
BS
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My note would be, in step two you are leaving with a “loved one”, in step 8 they are now a “companion”. Really shows how relationships go down hill so quickly when drinking is involved.
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Funny you should mention Lava Cap, Jack. Both the wife and I love the view at LC and think their tasting room is ok, but we both really don’t like their wines. I think out palates are diametrically opposed to that of their wine maker. It’s all a matter of taste, of course, but I absolutely love just about every wine they make over at Boeger. So I guess the moral of the story is, if you don’t like one, you’re bound to like the other, so why not try them both.
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