If you want to witness some serious grindage (is that what the kids say these days? grindage? badical grindage?), Tony Hawk is performing at the California State Fair tonight at 7:00pm.
Like almost all shows at the Fair, the badical grindage is free with your admission. Getting your cube gleamed is extra.
Sacramento Bacon Fest 2012 begins on Monday! Ride the bacon bike crawl!
All week, hit up The Golden Bear, Bacon & Butter, Mulvaney’s B&L, Magpie Cafe, Restaurant THIR13EN, Grange Restaurant, Blackbird Kitchen and Bar, Shady Lady, and Fat Face at Bows & Arrows to try their best bacon-lettuce-tomato creations. As Sacramento is a culinary town that loves sourcing local and fresh products, I am looking forward to not only the taste of deliciousness, but also of consciousness.
The week culminates on Saturday with a bike crawl that includes bite-sized BLTs at each location so you can vote on the best. Tickets here. That evening, get bacony at Fat Face at Bows & Arrows.
Next year, I recommend a contest for most delicious costumes with bonus points for using real bacon.
So far I’ve only been able to find it at Taylor’s. Strauss Family Creamery Brown Sugar and Banana Ice Cream (with dark chocolate chunks).
It’s incredible, delectable, and packaged in a diminutive enough container so as not to cause gastric expansion on a geological scale. And it’s from those cute folks at Strauss Creamery who package their milk in glass bottles like right thinking greenies from Sonoma County should.
There’s something sad when an obviously talented pitmaster is undercut by his overwhelming slant towards cheapness. That’s all I could see looking around at the new J.R.’s Texas BBQ restaurant on Jibboom. Cheap bread, cheap condiments, cheap plates, cheap silverware, err plasticware. This is J.R.’s third or fourth location in and around town. They’re all in questionable locations, minimally furnished, and lacking in the homey diveyness of many of my favorite cheap restaurants.
The hotlinks had that distinct flavor of slightly old meat about them like when you take a risk and cook hamburger that’s been sitting in your refrigerator for 10 days. You can smell it from a mile away and can’t get the taste out of your mouth after a week. Likewise, I oversaw someone eating a cheeseburger that looked as if it had come out of a little league field snack bar. We’re not talking about quality here. We’re talking about the lowest common crap you can pick up at the cash and carry. This doesn’t feel like food made with love. And what is barbecue other than lovingly, slow-smoked love? dense cornbread love? overly sweet baked beans love?
This was none of those things. Â The potato salad was nice however.
Having eaten the day before at the big Joe’s BBQ the contrast couldn’t have been clearer. Big Joe strives for quality in preparation and content. JR seems to be a cheapskate who likes smoking meat.
So I’m reading this post on the Zillow blog about the top buyer and seller markets and noticed that Sacramento ranked #4 behind San Jose, San Francisco, and Las Vegas as the top sellers’ markets in the country right now.
Zillow analyzed data on sale-to-list price ratio, number of days listings spent on Zillow and percent of homes on the market with a price cut, and ranked the 50 largest metro areas to determine whether buyers or sellers have more negotiating power in a given market. In this analysis, a sellers’ market is not necessarily one where home values are rising, but is a market where sellers are more likely to sell their home for close to asking price and where listings spend less time on the market. A buyers’ market is one where buyers have more bargaining power, thanks to listings lingering longer on the market and sellers being forced to cut asking prices.
Hmmm, really? So I dug a little deeper and came across this article about Sacramento housing prices and trends.
The median sales price for homes in Sacramento CA for Apr 12 to Jun 12 was $133,000. This represents an increase of 8.6%, or $10,500, compared to the prior quarter and an increase of 1.9% compared to the prior year. Sales prices have depreciated 54.9% over the last 5 years in Sacramento. The average listing price for Sacramento homes for sale on Trulia was $217,102 for the week ending Jul 04, which represents an increase of 0.6%, or $1,272, compared to the prior week and an increase of 2.1%, or $4,536, compared to the week ending Jun 13. Average price per square foot for Sacramento CA was $105, a decrease of 54.9% compared to the same period last year. Popular neighborhoods in Sacramento include East Sacramento, Pocket, Parkway, South Natomas, Natomas Park, and South Land Park.
Ah, there it is. All about how you look at it, right?
So, what do you think of this information?
With potential arena operator AEG backing out of any future arena plan that did not include a major tenant, local news is reporting that Mayor KJ and his “Think Big” group are planning to pursue Major League Baseball. Specifically, it appears the Mayor is planning to seek the Oakland Athletics franchise. (Apparently the group doesn’t “Think Big” about hypocrisy.)
As this is still a town that was too dysfunctional to acquire a Minor League team, losing the River Cats to West Sac, I don’t know how they can promote this with a straight face. I think forcing the River Cats out of Raley Field would be a colossal mistake even if Sacto could support an MLB franchise, a question to which everyone except apparently the Mayor and the people advising him knows the answer: No it can’t.
But even as the arena negotiations were falling apart the Mayor had no problem getting reelected. So don’t expect the pro sports silliness to cease anytime soon.
Matthew Schmidt, checking in for Bleacher Report, makes the case that the Kings will be able to contend for the 8th playoff spot in the Western Conference in 2013. His ambitious claim is based on a prediction that Cousins will continue his rise and give us a 20 and 12 season, and that the backcourt of Evans/Thornton/Thomas will also improve their play. He barely takes Thomas Robinson into account.
Personally I don’t think he’s that far off. Cousins and Thomas are really exciting, and adding Evans and Thornton almost makes up for the lack of a true small forward.
What do you think, is the future looking bright for the Kings? More importantly: would it only serve to make them a better investment for another city?
Every year I forget to mention the great deals on kids movies at Regal Theaters. In the last few weeks it has not been hot enough to make being indoors in the late morning into much of a thing, but it appears the heat is coming at last, so taking a matinee movie suddenly sounds appealing.
Most of the Regal theaters in the area, including the screens at Market Square and Natomas Marketplace (a great place to see a movie, if you don’t go mad from the parking), have a selection of family movies for $1 every Tuesday and Wednesday. The always crystal clear “portion of proceeds” goes to the Will Rogers Institute.
In what I hope is a weekly installment (trust me, I’m well aware that this will quickly devolve into a once-every-three-and-a-half-month obligation that gets forgotten almost immediately) I present “The Best Thing I Put In My Mouth Last Week.”
Picture it, Sunday morning brunch at The Porch. New Orleans tunes coming from the band, sun dappling through the Midtown trees, a plate in front of me of ridiculously savory proportions. The duck McMuffin is basically eggs benedict but with duck confit and greens in place of the socialist bacon. Amazing. Creole hollandaise topping the whole thing and a random piece of bacon thrown in for good measure (hey, this is The Porch after all). Side of potatoes, perfectly toothy and just ready to sop up the leftover sauce and yolks. And since it was brunch I felt perfectly fine washing the whole thing down with a pint of Monkey Knife Fight.
So, if brunch is on your agenda this weekend, check out The Porch, and skip the Disney-esque lines at Tower Cafe.
Beer festivals in Sacramento in July 2012 include the California State Fair Beerfest, Rubicon Firkin fest.
Extreme Pizza continues to prove that they are one of Sacramento’s leading proponents of extreme beer. Propietor Fred Munday frequently pours collections of the hoppiest and/or booziest beers from throughout NorCal. This Friday, Fred hosts Speakeasy Brewery, featuring Prohibition, Big Daddy IPA, Double Daddy Double IPA, and Vendetta (you guessed it, an IPA). Extreme Pizza will also have kegs of two locally made Triple IPAs: Auburn Alehouse ZZ Hop and Knee Deep Simtra. Next Friday, July 6th, he will feature several hop monsters from High Water Brewing Company as well as a few seasonal treats. Beer flows for both events at 4:30pm.
Also this Friday, Whole Foods in Folsom hosts Firestone Walker for a Total Tap Takeover, with tasting and pint specials from one of America’s most award winning breweries.
But wait, there’s more!
Continue reading “Summertime beer events”
The Sac Rag 