Mmmmmm Beer!

You know it's coming... the sun has come out, the weather is getting warmer, I have gotten something that could be considered a tan... yes it's time for BeerFest season! I love the beer festival. Everyone is happy, the beer is always good, and the weather is even better. I was excited to get my sort of regular email from Hoppy Brewing notifying me of several upcoming brewfests. It prompted a bit of research on my end, but in the name of service to my people, here we go. (BTW - Book out all Saturdays in May. You're going to be busy!)

Boonville Brewer's Festival: May 2nd, in Boonville (North Coast). 1pm-5pm, $40. You can camp too, and that's only $12/per person. It's also a pirate theme, which in my opinion, makes this festival 40 thousand times cooler. I can tell my one joke over and over again! (Hey Pirate--did you know you have a steering wheel down your pants?)

Raley Field Brewfest: May 9th, at Raley Field (duh). 1pm-4:30pm. $25 for 10 5oz tastings. There are VIP tickets too, but I don't remember how much they are or what the benefit of that was. (I'm not so up on the VIP)

West Coast Brewfest: May 16th, at Miller Park in Sacramento. 1pm-5pm. $25 and I don't think they limit tastings. You can buy tickets online or at Brew It Up, Hoppy, River City or the Shack.

I'm sure they'll be more, so let me know and I'll keep updating! If you're an international traveler click here and will give you lots more fests across the world (make sure to keep your passport in a plastic bag).

And if anyone wants to camp for the Boonville Fest, let me know... I'm up for it!

More Lunch Specials

I was walking to the Safeway shopping center today and walked past one of my favorite fast-Mexican food restaurants in Midtown, Chita's. They have lunch specials for $2.99 Mon-Fri!! It's too far for me to trek over for lunch during work, but I know someone out there can take advantage of it. I don't remember what was on the specials, but since it's Chita's I don't doubt that the food is both outstanding and plentiful.

DIY Meals

Like most people, I'm seriously watching my budget lately. Unfortunately for you, this means few new posts. My budget is more the $2 beers at Round Corner (I'll drink Sierra when I'm feeling flush) than $10 martinis. Anyway, lucky for me I love to cook (this is probably more lucky for my friends than me, but it works out). I'm obsessed with cookbooks and recipes and am always trying to find new places for interesting recipes. I get tired of the same old stuff all the time, and I've found that not eating meat makes the search even harder. I came across a great blog the other day with tons of cool recipes--and it's not a vegetarian blog--so I thought I would share www.bitchincamero.com. It also has a super cool name, which helps.
This is no way means that you can stop reading our blog, by the way. If you cook the Thai soup with fried egg for breakfast can you tell me how it turns out?

Happy Hour Update

With new places opening and new happy hours popping up, it was time to update the Master Happy Hour List. Enjoy:

http://sachappyhour.blogspot.com/2007/10/cheers.html

And remember, if you have recommendations, corrections or any other comments, please post them so we can keep the list as complete and current as possible. Cheers!

$5.99 Lunch

The Bali Wine Bar and Grill at 2416 18th Street in Sacramento is offering $5.99 lunch specials. The deal includes salad bar, Balinese rice and your choice of:

• Chicken Satay
• Beef Satay
• Pork Choop: grilled & marinaded in Indonesian Soya sauce
• BBQ Chicken
• Mi Sayuran: stir fried egg noodles, greens and tofu

Lunch is served from 11:00 to 2:00 pm, Monday through Saturday

It's the Economy

There is a silver lining... apparently to drum up business in Sac, local restaurants and bars are throwing lots of deals our way. Here are a couple of highlights (please comment and add more--I'm sure I missed some!)

From Hoppy (please excuse the cut and paste):
* On weekends from 10:00am to 3:30pm, we feature a tasty
Brunch Menu with $5.00 top-shelf Bloody Mary's.
* On Sundays we feature the BEST deal in town, where we
include a bottle of Hoppy brew to go with every
Brunch/Lunch/Dinner entree purchased.
* On Sundays & Mondays we feature $0.99 children's meals
with an adult meal purchase.
* On Mondays we feature $3.50 pints & $12.00 pitchers all day
from when we open until we close.
* On Tuesdays we feature $2.00 tacos for dinner starting, and
at 10:00pm a quick session of trivia.
* On Wednesdays we have half price appetizers from 9:00-10:00pm,
and a South Park special with $3.50 pints & $12.00 pitchers
starting at 9:30pm with South Park at 10:00pm.
* On Saturdays we feature $2.50 pints when you wear your Beer
Ambassador t-shirt.

Esquire Grill and Spataro: $20 3 Course Meal. Call the restaurants for resis and use the code "IEat" to score the deal. (both menus look fabulous)

Masullo Pizza: Wine for 1/2 off per bottle (this is apparently only on Mon & Tues and only through March, can somebody who knows better add some details please?)

See--there's some benefit to the financial meltdown... right?