Your Unofficial Apple Hill Guide: New, Updated, Now With More Apple Flavor

It’s that time of year again when the leaves start turning, the kids go back to school and the Eats household celebrates anotherNo, the other kind of apple. birthday.  In what is becoming an annual tradition, the Mrs. and I played hooky and headed up the hill midweek to sup full of apple flavored delights.  In the process, we found some new delights, and wound up finding out a few new things about our old favorites.  Follow me, won’t you, as we trip the apple fantastic to find the best of the ‘Hill for 2007.

Rainbow Orchards– There are few reason to hang around Rainbow Orchards other than to consume the finest doughnuts you will ever have, apple cider doughnuts, that is.  Freshly made, piping hot, covered with sugar, and crisp yet chewy, these doughriffic bites of heaven are the main attraction in the cavernous barn that makes up the whole of Rainbow Orchards commercial enterprise.  They sometimes have bluegrass music in the orchard, which is a nice offering, and the Mrs. and I found a beautiful selection of decorative pumpkins in a kaleidoscope of shades (including blue) but really, we’re all just going there for the doughnuts.  Did I mention the doughnuts?  And yes, I still refuse to spell it “donuts.”  Caution:  Mill View Farms produces and sells a similar apple cider doughnut, but be warned, this is an inferior product and not worth your doughnut calories.  The proprietor is very sweet though, bless her heart.    Continue reading “Your Unofficial Apple Hill Guide: New, Updated, Now With More Apple Flavor”

iFeliz cumpleanos a ‘Comidas de Sac’!

Our very own sac-eats is 31 years old today — such a pup!

May the coming year bring him a new restaurant that features gourmet mayonnaise sandwiches; all-you-can-drink Pellegrino; and live music in the stylings of Django, Cannonball Adderly, JJ Johnson, and Bill Dendle/Eddie Erickson.  

*Note to any native speakers of the Spanish language, please forgive my loose translation of “sac-eats,” and please feel free to offer your own translation.

Mix-n-match fusion at Three Monkeys

Today I passed a new establishment next to the Starbucks at St. Rose of Lima called Three Monkeys. Tagline: Saloon – Broiler – Sushi. Finally, you’re thinking, a place where I can get my chop and my sasparilla with a California roll on the side.

This raises several questions. First, is there a county or city office somewhere that when you walk through the door you are automatically granted a license to open a restaurant or bar? Second, how much is too much with the gimmicky restaurants? I would say that mashing up a 19th century term for a watering hole with sushi means we’re at least 80% of the way to the bottom of the barrel. What do you all think?

They Kind of ARE Giants

For me, the first indication of what the evening was going to be like came whilst arriving at the back of the line with TMBG ticket in hand. As I neared the doors, taped to the wall was a sign on paper that could have popped out of any printer you or I bought proclaiming, approximately “This show 14+, by request of THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS.” Which goes to show what kind of guys TMBG are. These are the guys who managed to put out children’s albums and not lose their fan base because their regular albums sound a bit like children’s albums – if the child in question is the baby from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. That the heavily adult audience gave an extended “yeah!” when the band launched into “The Alphabet of Nations” only goes to show that fans found the children’s albums another acceptable entry in the TMBG discography. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Continue reading “They Kind of ARE Giants”

New Arena, New Traffic Problems

Poppy is on board!In today’s Bee, writer Tony Bizjak reports on a number of traffic concerns from folks in-the-know concerning the new Cal Expo arena plans.  The piece pretty fairly andd succinctly addresses the concerns of a number of agencies, groups, and individuals, as well as putting forth a fledgling solution, even at this early stage:

Bartosik and other area business officials, in fact, already have been studying a potential traffic reducer — a streetcar that would run on tracks on or off the street.  It could bring people into the area from a nearby light-rail station, looping them to the Cal Expo gates and the Arden Fair front entrance.

Amazingly enough, not one of the so-called experts mentioned the futuristically fantastic solution staring them right in the face.  It’s a solution so singular it only needs one track, so simple it’s already been built, so elegant it only takes one word to express it: Monorail!  (From now on, any mention of the Monorail! will use a capitalized “M” and an exclamation point.) Continue reading “New Arena, New Traffic Problems”

A Tale of Two News Shows

We’ve taken our shots over the years at the two ring circus that is “Good Day Sacramento,” but we’ve not told the other side of the story, the side that compares Good Day against the other morning shows in the area to see where each stands in this fence-sitter of a media market. (Are we a small big market or a big small market, who can tell?) This week, a dear friend relayed to me his experiences with a two morning shows, and I’d like to share those with you. Hopefully, this will give you a chance to judge for yourself as to who really rules the airwaves from dawn to coffee break.

First of all, let me set the scene for you. My friend had two appearances lined up last month to promote an event, one appearance on the KCRA morning news on channel 58, and one appearance on Good Day Sacramento. The KCRA news appearance was (as if you couldn’t already see this coming) a bad scene.  Rushed for time, fighting technical difficulties and trying to get out his message points despite the woodenness of the broadcast team, my friend did his best to fill the thirty seconds that they wound up giving him. According to him, the crew was a bit scattered, everything was thrown together last minute and the everyone seemed a little stressed. Continue reading “A Tale of Two News Shows”

Updates for the Hungry

Flush with success and proud of a job well done, we turn the page on another award winning year here at the ‘Rag, and what better way to start anew than to revisit some old mentions that never quite got their full due.  In the spirit of “everything old is new again” here are a few updates on restaurants, events, chefs, coffee shops, etc. that got brief mentions previously and really need some more ink.  Continue reading “Updates for the Hungry”

Simply the best!

David Brent…better than all the rest, as they say. Specifically this here web log, which once again won the News & Review’s Reader’s Choice award for Best Local Blog. MarkTalk.com and Heckasac round out the top three. For those of you playing along at home those are the top three finishers from last year’s voting.

We couldn’t have done it without you readers, of whom at least 7 or 8 must have voted for us. As we’ve said time and again we have a ton of fun doing this and most of that fun is caused by the reactions we get. We’re hoping you’ll stay with us in the coming year.

And we’ll try not to be offended by Heckasac’s obvious ploy to steal our thunder regarding the impending award by announcing again last week that she is quitting again. (We kid the beckler of course.)

Also congrats to my father who repeats as Best Local Doctor. DMZs FTW!!!

UPDATE @ 2:00PM: Because I didn’t think to look in the Luxuries & Necessities category, I failed to notice that we also were voted #3 in the Best local Web site category. Fabulous. Thanks to sac-eats for pointing it out.

The War on PBS

Ken Burns and his team swore that they would never do another war documentary, but were inspired to tackle WWII after learning that more than 1000 veterans of this war die every day. Faced with a disappearing history, he and co-director Lynn Novick set out to document these soldiers’ and their families’ stories and to learn more about the home front in The War.

Interviews were conducted in four US cities: Sacramento, Luverne, MN, Mobile, AL, and Waterbury, CT. Those who viewed the first night learned of the experiences of several Sacramentans.

Read more about Sacramento during the War and the featured locals at the following links:

Earl Burke
Barbara Covington
Jeroline Green
Robert Kashiwagi
Burnett Miller
William Perkins
Susumu Satow
Harry Schmid
Dolores Silva
Walter Thompson
Asako Tokuno
Tim Tokuno
Sascha Weinzheimer
Burt Wilson

The War continues tonight with Part 2 of 7 on PBS at 8 and 10pm, and will be shown a total of four nights this week and three nights next week.

Sacramento Dining: Would you like a side of harmony with your tolerance?

In Sunday’s Bee, Mike Dunne wrote a piece summing up some contentious items that food bloggers around the country had carped about recently.  However, Dunne also noted that, “On the local restaurant scene, no issues seem to be stirring up diners much these days.”  Au contraire, Mr. Dunne.  As Mrs. Eats can attest to, there is no manner of things that I won’t complain about given the slightest opening.  So, not being one to turn down as obvious an invitation as that of the Bee’s esteemed food maven, I’ll discuss one of them now: Music. Continue reading “Sacramento Dining: Would you like a side of harmony with your tolerance?”