Pronto- Farmer’s Market in a Bowel [sic]

Despite its insistence on using a grammatically flawed slogan, “Real Italian, Real Fast,” Pronto continues to deliver top-notch luncheon fare.   Today’s meal was the “Farmer’s Market” salad.  Mixed greens, arugula, corn, cornbread croutons, avocado, dates, almonds, goat cheese, and a citrus tarragon dressing.  Sweet, savory, crunchy and crispy.  This very well might be my favorite salad ever. 

I’ve discussed before how good the fagioli soup is at Pronto when the mercury dips below fifty degrees.  Well, the Farmer’s Market salad is the summer equivalent.  Sure, it’ll cost you about $10 with tax, but c’mon, you’re worth it.  You were just going to spend that money on some tattoo that you’ll regret later, or maybe some refrigerator magnet with a picture of a cat on it.  Besides, if you want to stay healthy, you’ll have to forego the notion of the $5 lunch.  That cheap midday meal looks good now, but doesn’t look so hot when you’re getting that colonoscopy down the road.  Do your body a favor, spend a few extra schillings on lunch.  Your intestine will thank you.

Pronto– 16th and O streets, Sacramento

39 thoughts on “Pronto- Farmer’s Market in a Bowel [sic]”

  1. It sounds a lot like the Macho Salad at Bandera, which I enjoyed just last night — only Bandera’s version is $14. Eek. Thank you for reminding readers to get their colonoscopies, as early detection is key.

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  2. When I asked my doc about getting “reamed”..she didn’t think it was a big deal and didn’t order the test. Hmmmm. I’ll chew on that for a bit.

    Salad with lots o fiber…sounds good and healthy all right.

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  3. Yeah, ya know, Pronto does pretty well for a yuppie chain joint. It’s the kind you don’t mind having on the grid, and it also is a welcome alternative to the horrible trainwreck that was the Hukilau, or whatever it was called. That place was dismal and had way too many noisy off-the-grid-ers hanging out outside it till way too late at night. I know this because I lived a block away when it was there. They’d often take up all the parking, too.

    I don’t give a damn about your high-rise condo…

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  5. BM: Apparently it’s only those who live on numbered or lettered streets who are allowed to frequent businesses on the same said numbered or lettered streets. The rest of us are rowdy hellions who need to stay away. Heaven forbid there should be attractions in the downtown area that stimulate the regional economy, and some of us (gasp!) drive cars.

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  7. “Apparently it’s only those who live on numbered or lettered streets who are allowed to frequent businesses on the same said numbered or lettered streets.”

    You didn’t get the memo?

    If you go to Pronto!, remember to throw a bucked of ice water on the owner.

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  8. Here’s the funny thing about some people’s take on Pronto. I’ve heard some “gridlock’d” folks complain that it’s just like Jack’s or just like Paesano’s.

    Of course it is. One of the main tenants of creating a pedestrian accessible area is replication. If your product is only accessible to a small neighborhood, then you open up a new location in a slightly different part of town offering many of the same goods. Ever wonder why there are so many nearly identical pubs in central London? so many pizza joints in New York? so many pharmacies in Chicago? It’s because there are enough pedestrians to support the localized replication (I’m sure there’s an urban planning term for this phenomenon).

    Also, FFT, you’ll notice that there aren’t any homeless folks hanging out outside of Pronto. Obviously, word has gotten out.

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  10. Thank you for pointing that out. I’m not sure how, but somehow this is the fault of our educational system.
    For those keeping score at home:
    tenants= those who inhabit a particular building
    tenets= beliefs, opinions, principles that a person or group maintain

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  11. Can’t say I was impressed with Pronto. Everything I’ve had so far taste pretty processed. The mashed potatoes I had there tasted like those “add milk” ones. But hey, I’m no foodie.

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  12. But you do have a palate (not palette, adamant), unless you’ve been in a horrible accident, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t be bold in saying so. Throw open the sash and yell to the rooftops that you hate those goddamned mashed potatoes and you’re not going to take it anymore. Go ahead. It’ll make you feel better.

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  13. It’s a strange irony that grid snobs often rant about city noise, lack of parking, out-of-towners and a different economic class.

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  14. I’m still trying to figure out how to use “mane tenants” and “main tenets” in a sentence together.

    I keep coming up with something about lice, but it’s not very funny.

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  16. “mane tenants and main tenets” was actually the unused tagline for the musical “Hair”.

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  18. It is my understanding that Pronto is one of the few places in town where one can get an Italian beef sandwich, and in my mind, that’s a good thing, even though I haven’t bothered to get one yet.

    I am still a fan of the $5 lunch, and there are still spots where it can be had in fairly healthy fashion. I will wander into $7-8 territory once in a while, but not if I can help it. Only on a special occasion will I spend $10 on a lunch. And that’s if I actually eat lunch out: if I really want a salad for lunch, I can throw one together before work for about 75 cents worth of ingredients.

    I am an unrepentant grid snob. How is it ironic? It’s basically related to the same phenomenon one finds in San Francisco, Manhattan, the Chicago Loop, or other urban centers. The proof, and perhaps the irony you describe, is that people do come to downtown Sacramento to spend money and time and then go home to their suburbs: if it wasn’t a great destination, there wouldn’t be grid snobbery.

    So, while we do need “bridge and tunnel people” coming downtown, both for our economies and our egos, we’re still going to make fun of them.

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  19. I’m still a little hung up on using the term “yuppies.” Since it is derived from “young urban professional,” it is a misnomer to refer to those outside the urban core as such. Plus many of us off-the-gridders aren’t in what’s considered the suburbs, and many of us work in/on the grid.

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  20. One other thing, any restaurant with a majority of patrons employed by the state (at least at lunch time) can never be considered “yuppie.”

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  21. The irony in complaining about noise, different people and lack of parking is that those are the stereotypical reason one chooses to live in the suburbs… Foregoing the eclectic loud jumble of the urban evironment in favor of the calm homogeny and convenience of the suburbs.

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  22. Well I wonder where I stand on this..I live in a numbered street with lettered cross streets. But in lovely East Sac. I guess I am still a “off-the-grid-er.”

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  25. Shit..I used to know how to spel. Palate..damn it!

    Personally, I am an oof-the-ginder and you don’t find many of us around anymore. We can only dine in Rancho Cordova.

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  26. basuraman: It’s a fine line. Do you live on a lettered/numbered street in East Sac? If so, then consider yourself an honorary grid kid, but subtract half of your scene points. You do gain a +4 modifier if you ever paid Downtown James Brown to perform “Sex Machine.”

    td: It isn’t noise, parking or strangers per se. It is specifically the noise, cars and bodies of suburbanites that cause such discomfort. A gaggle of scenesters smoking cigs in front of Old Ironsides is, in my mind, a far better and more tolerable thing than a crowd of marketing drones sipping overpriced grape juice in front of a wine bar before drunk-driving back to Roseville in their Lexuses (or is it lexii?). We’ll take their money, but don’t expect us to like them.

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  28. I guess being in marketing/advertising and having a taste for the underground and experimental music, i find myself at home with both crowds…. or maybe neither…. i can’t tell anymore.

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  29. td: I wouldn’t worry about it too much. About a third of those hipsters in front of Old Ironsides are probably in marketing/advertising too. And, of course, whenever I start flaming my own hypocrisy leaps out for everyone to see: I do marketing and advertising for an underground experimental music festival! So I guess that makes me a “marketing drone” too…

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  31. I am think I am one of those hipsters in front of Old Ironsides. Actually, I’m inside. They have some killers shows there.

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  32. “You can sing along. The words are easy. ‘So I say I gotta be free. So I say I gotta be me.'”

    I just heard a speech by 1964 Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Mills the other day, and he talked about our perceptions of people, as he fought many perceptions people had of him — even after he won the gold.

    Does it really matter if someone is a hipster, on-the-gridder, suburbanite, dork, nerd, spaz, or geek, so long as they’re happy and not hurting others?

    Seriously!

    This discussion started about SALAD.

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  33. “Apparently it’s only those who live on numbered or lettered streets who are allowed to frequent businesses on the same said numbered or lettered streets. The rest of us are rowdy hellions who need to stay away. Heaven forbid there should be attractions in the downtown area that stimulate the regional economy, and some of us (gasp!) drive cars.”

    Pretty much. At least until I move to Seattle.

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  34. And, back where we started!

    Thanks for entertaining us, as always, Mr. Olsen! All in good fun! 🙂

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  35. “Does it really matter if someone is a hipster, on-the-gridder, suburbanite, dork, nerd, spaz, or geek, so long as they’re happy and not hurting others?”

    i concur… it takes more than one ingredient to make a good salad.

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  36. do you think that when gridders leave their homeland they are met with the same hostility that is dealt to those coming in? and how can we tell them apart, is it a secret handshake, a bob of the head out of rhythem? this all reminds me of a piece of artwork hanging in sub-q some years ago. it said, “i love you, but i’m downtown.”

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  37. Well, part of why I moved downtown was because I got sick of having various epithets yelled at me from pickup trucks and primered Camaros, including one incident where I was berated because my socks apparently weren’t manly enough, so yes, I think that part of it is the hostility encountered when we leave our island home.

    And no, RG, it doesn’t matter in the slightest. But things that don’t matter are probably the most entertaining things to discuss on the Internet: if it really mattered, we’d discuss it in person.

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  38. I’m also a believer in the Farmer’s Market Salad. I recommend sharing that with the Mac ‘n Cheese side and you’ve got a $20 dinner for two. Oh, and the gelato is heaven.

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  39. I’m late to the party and I don’t care about the grid issues. But wanted to say Sac-Eats thanks for the suggestion – I had the farmers’ market salad this weekend and it was the best salad I’ve had in Sacramento. I love the croutons and the tangy dressing. It had the right proportions of everything. Well worth the $10 for a nice meal out. Finished with chocolate gelato. I also took the liberty of telling everyone there that I tried it b/c of a glowing review on Sacrag.com. 🙂

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