Two Rivers will be celebrating tonight at One Speed from 5-8pm with four rare, barrel aged ciders (Wallonia, Hay-on-Wye, Chica Vieja, and the unnamed Bourbon Cider) and a variety of other surprises. Come join them and hoist your glass to fifteen more years of fantastic cider!
Add another few restaurants to the VOABE (victims of a bad economy) list. Red Lotus is down for the count. The upscale-ish Asian joint from the owners of Kru called it quits last night. In my handful of experiences there I can’t say I ever had a great meal. Decent, yes. A few good dishes, sure. But it was never my go to place. The prices seemed just a hair too high, and the food, just a bit too, well, less-than-rad. It may have suffered from proximity to its sister restaurant as well, since Kru is the go-to place in town to hit up when your stomach is empty, your wallet’s full, and you’re in the mood for Asian cuisine.
Following close on RL’s heels is Celestin’s. The long-running cajun/creole/island joint is calling it quits at the end of this month, and a new venture by Capitol Garage will be taking over its K Street digs. I was always a proud fan of Celestin’s. Their grio (fried pork) and plantains never failed to delight. The gumbo consistently pleased. The flavors sparked and jumped but the vibe always seemed a little sleepy. Strange coincidence then that the space Celestin’s used to hold is now held by Kru. Looking back, you wonder if Celestin’s should have just stayed in the smaller spot.
So, add these casualties to the list already pretty heavy with places like Spin, CPK, and Brew-It-Up (not to mention the strange limbo status of L Wine Bar).
Ok, this post is going to be all over the place, but there’s so much to do in the next few months, I don’t know where to start. I know, I’ll start by looking backwards:
The Cambridge Footlights performed last night at the Sacramento Comedy Spot and were nothing short of hilarious. If you missed it, you probably don’t care whatsoever about English comedy, so telling you it was great won’t make you feel the least bit guilty. So…take that I guess.
Doughbot, the new doughnut establishment on 10th and W has started off with a bang and a whimper. Their opening day (last Saturday) lasted all of 2 hours and 45 minutes, from opening to close, due to a huge rush in the early morning hours that exhausted the small bakery’s inventory in less time then it takes to read the new Grisham book. Good for them. However, waiting until Monday when things had died down a bit, I went and sampled the goods and found them to be quite underwhelming. While the flavors and combinations sounded interesting, I found that they tasted a bit bland and uninspiring. And, worst of all, their doughnut dough is a bit dry and dull and overly dense. I’m giving them a few months to get their nuts together and start pumping out something truly exceptional.
There are a slew of great shows coming up all over town. Here’s the short list
Colin Hay- Sep 11 Harlow’s: The former lead singer of Men at Work is an incredible musician, songwriter, storyteller. He’s a joy to watch and listen to.
White Noise Jazz Festival- Sep 11 Torch Club: Harley White Jr. is awesome. He’s bringing together a rich group of musicians to play from 2-midnight. Bay Area cats The Broun Felinis, local guitar wizards Aaron King and Mike Farrell, and more will be performing all day.
Rebirth Brass Band- Oct 6, Harlow’s: You feel like funkin’ it up NOLA style? Trust me, this will be a fun night.
Bill Cosby- Oct 29, Community Center Theater: Dude, it’s Bill Cosby. There’s no one better still alive.
Rare beer from across California will be auctioned for charity at Rubicon Brewing this Saturday.
You may not have noticed it, but Rubicon Brewing is quietly raising lots of money for local charities. Their 501c Wednesdays have hosted a variety of organizations who get a cut from the daily till and a chance to promote their organization to the beer loving public.
This Saturday, Rubicon will host the Northern California Brewers Guild and the California Small Brewers Association for a fundraiser for the craft beer industry itself. Both organizations are active in promoting craft beer among consumers, businesses and lawmakers. The highlight of this event, without a doubt, will be the two silent auctions of rare beer. How rare? Some of these beers have never even been for sale to the public.
Continue reading “Rare beer auction at Rubicon”
Apparently, Roseville’s fascination with chain restaurants has clouded its judgment as a Krispy Kreme doughnut factory and store is set to open on September 20th. The management team will hold a job fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, August 23rd at the new facility located at 10317 Fairway Drive. New jobs, great. I couldn’t help but think of CoolDMZ’s post from 2005 (man, has it been that long?) talking about the closure of the store on Arden Way.
Then this tidbit from the sacbee.com story:
The company, which entered the region’s market in about 2000, closed the last of its Sacramento Valley stores in 2007 amid an accounting scandal.
Accounting scandal? I just thought they failed because it was a fast food restaurant that only sold doughnuts. Go figure. So I browsed the innernets and found a lot of information on this scandal.
Yet, in carefully nuanced language, the Krispy Kreme investigators, led by two board members, hinted at the possibility of a willful cooking of the books. “The number, nature and timing of the accounting errors strongly suggest that they resulted from an intent to manage earnings,” the report said.
Yikes. But, yeah, it’s a business opening its doors and not shutting them so more power to them. I wonder if they’ll have valet parking.
I have not posted a “Where was I?” in quite some time. I’d rate this a 4 out of 10 on the difficulty scale. It’s a popular place in Sacramento.
If you were one of the 25 or so people who visited Good Eats this year, sorry to tell you that your dollar didn’t quite keep the doors open. The upscale mini-mart/bakery/deli/restaurant announced that it’s closing its doors by closing its doors and putting a sign in the window. While I didn’t have any particular gripe with Good Eats (except they ripped off their name from Alton Brown’s TV show and they had little to no parking and it felt like you were eating in an airport lounge or on display like you were at some zoo) it just seems the concept never quite took hold. I’d encourage a new owner to dump the restaurant idea, turn the place into another Taylor’s Market and let it go at that. Or, of course, reopen Andiamo’s which is what everyone wanted in the first place. Continue reading “Quick Bites: Good Eats shutting down, THIR13EN meets expectations, Doughbot news”
Or L Bear 17, or Bear-l Hangar, or something of that ilk.
Basically, here’s the news, the owners of Golden Bear are opening a new place in the old Hangar 17 storefront. Helping them do so will be the recently displaced Chris Tucker, former mix-master at L Wine Lounge & Urban Kitchen.
Here are the questions? Will the place try to revive the gastropub idea that Golden Bear had going for a few seconds last year? Will the bad juju from the previous Hangar owners curse the place? Will L ever reopen? And what the hell happened to Chris Tucker’s career? I thought those Rush Hour movies were going to put him over the top. Now he’s mixing drinks.
Sacramento’s Brew It Up! personal brewery is closing after almost eight years.
More sad news. My friend Mike Costello informed me that this will be the last weekend for Brew It Up! Almost 15 years ago, BIU! started helping the public make beer in their tiny Davis location, moving to Sacramento in 2004 to their present location. Costello cites the economic downturn, including furlough Fridays, as being too much for his operation.
Head down to Brew It Up! this weekend and help them drain the tanks. All beers are $5, and you can take the logo glass home as a souvenir of good times. Doors close Sunday at 8pm.
Sacramento’s L Wine Lounge & Urban Kitchen has closed.
Due to ongoing disputes between landlords and contractors, the popular and delicious L Wine Lounge & Urban Kitchen closed after brunch on Sunday. The Bee reports that the owners hope to reopen in two months. The small family of Sacramento restauranteurs is helping the staff out with some shifts, but the future of the business and their employees may depend on the expediency of Superior Court to straighten out the mess.
The Sac Rag 