A Few Happy Hour Updates

In these tough economic times, happy hour specials are more important than ever!

The 4th Street Grille has happy hour from 11:00am to 7:00pm, Monday through Friday and from 5:00pm to 7:00pm on Saturdays. There are a bunch of appetizers for $5.95: potstickers, calamari, seared ahi, grilled artichokes, shrimp quesadilla, pulled pork quesadilla, garlic fries and boneless buffalo wings. Macaroni & cheese, ribs and sliders are $7.95. As for the drinks, there's quite a variety to choose from:

• $3 draft beer
• $5 house wine
• $4 well drinks
• $5 cal drinks
• $4 kamikaze shots
• $5 Tuaca shots

Earlier this month when I was singing the praises of small plates, I mentioned Lucca has added a happy hour. Here's the scoop. It runs from 2:00 to 6:00 EVERY DAY. There are a variety of small plates in the $3 to $5 range, including zucchini chips, bruschetta, grilled artichokes, fries and flatbread. The alcohol specials include:

• $3 house wine
• $3.15 draft beers
• $3.30 Grid Gulch Sour Squishy
• $3.45 Mojito
• $4 Cosmo
• $4.15 Cherry Surprise
• $4.30 Blue Goose
• $4.45 Martinis

I Love Small Plates

For some reason it makes me really happy when restaurants offer small plates. I love the change to try a couple of things and share with friends. Maybe it's my Mediterranean blood.

There's always been Tapa the World - the very definition of small plates. It's nice to see that they're catching on at other restaurants.

Earlier this week, Carmen and I stopped into Lucca for a glass of wine. We were both pleased to see that they have Happy Hour every day (yes, that means weekends!) and a small plate menu at the bar. There were lots of yummy sounding options -- beef carpaccio, flatbread with hummus, bruschetta, etc. We opted to split the spicy Greek style shrimp with feta and fresh basil. It was served with grilled olive bread. There was just enough spice to make it exciting, but not hot, and the fresh basil made my tastebuds very happy! The best thing was, it was just the right amount of food -- not too big, not too small. Carmen promises to blog more about the happy hour specials in a future post.

Last week, I went to see Sweeney Todd at the Music Circus. I'd had a rather large, late lunch so when we sat down at Michelangelo for dinner I was worried I'd be too full for one of their delicious dinners. Imagine my glee when the waitress set down their new small plate menu! There were several dishes that sounded great. I had the fresh spinach and ricotta ravioli with sage butter. Carmen had tiger prawns with capers and something else (note to self: take notes). My ravioli were light pillows that oozed freshness. The spinach wasn't wilted and the pasta wasn't the least bit heavy. Paired with a baked goat cheese salad and a glass of wine, this was the perfect light meal for a summer night.

This morning, I was flipping through Sactown's latest issue and came across an ad for Mason's. They're introducing a new small plate menu, which will be served daily from 5:00 to 9:00. Menu items include brushetta, vegetable frito misto, swordfish brochettes, spicy fish tcos, BBQ ribs, crab wontons and mini mac & cheese. I'm definitely going to check this out... especially during their half-price introductory week from August 18 to 24.

Wine Wednesday

Brew it Up has a new special that might be worth a mention. They call it Wine Wednesday and from 4:00 to 6:00 you can get up to 60% off selected wines.

Also, their happy hour is every day from 4:00 to 6:00 and from 10:00 to close, Thursday to Saturday. Specials include $1 off drafts, house wine, classic cocktails and well drinks. Selected appetizers are $3.

'Aura'ble Service

Apparently there isn't a bad pun I won't try!

Anyway... there once was the Black Pearl and then there was Gianni's. Now there's a brown suede restaurant and bar called Aura that has opened up between Centro and GV Hurley's on that coveted strip on J Street. According to the sign out front their grand opening was to be July 19th, but my friend and I wandered in on July 18th to check it out.

We're not going back.

When I arrived 10 minutes late, Nancy was sitting at a table in the bar. She had already ordered a glass of Pinot Noir that hadn't arrived. They couldn't find the bottle so the waitress offered her a big apology and a Pinot Grigio instead. Nancy said she'd wait and see if they found the bottle.

Finally we have our wines and are deep in chit chat. They bring over a basket lightly toasted white bread -- French perhaps -- and some dipping sauce. We'd each had a slice when the busser asked if he could take it out of our way. Since there were four slices left we said we were still working on it.

We talked for a while and decided to order. I tried to ignore the misspellings on the menu. There are a couple of appetizers, a couple of salads, a few entrees and two desserts. None of the items had descriptions, just names, so we asked the waitress what was on the Chopped Salad. She had to go check with the kitchen. Nancy liked the sound of it and ordered it with grilled chicken. I opted for the seared ahi brushetta with humus (sic). Our order took a really long time. I don't know how long because Nancy is a great conversationalist -- but mine was virtually raw and she had salad -- so the holdup didn't make sense. When it did come out, I am shocked at the size of Nancy's salad. I know I'm not at Buca de Beppo and I know we Americans' portions are too big but if there was a cup of salad in the enormous bowl I would be surprised. Plus, her $2 chicken add-on was three slices off a grilled chicken breast. The salad was more than $12 so I expected more. Oh... and it was the wrong salad. After all that, they brought her the California Salad (roughly three slices of avocado and three slices of tomato). The waitress came back with more genuine apologies and fixed the order. It was another 10 minutes or more till the right salad came back. It didn't get any bigger though.

My ahi was OK -- not great. It was that same white bread from the basket with hummus and a fairly generous portion of tuna. It just didn't have much flavor.

Midway through our meal -- we both have food on our plates -- the busser came back and asked if he could clear them. When we said that we were still eating, he asked if he could take the wine glasses. Both had several sips left in them. I wonder if all their plates and glassware wasn't making it's debut till the grand opening.

At this point the place, which was almost empty when we arrived at 8:30, was packed and loud in the bar area. the restaurant side still seemed sparsely populated. A annoying addition to the crowd was a trio of Don Julio tequila girls trying to tempt us with shots. We passed.

After what seemed like forever, the waitress brought our check. She was thoughtful enough to comp the salad, but still charged us for the chicken. We were also charged the wrong prices for our wines. It had taken so long to get the check and frankly we just wanted to leave so I didn't haggle and decided to eat the few dollars. We each gave a credit card and asked her to split the $50 check down the middle. Many minutes later she comes back with our cards -- both charged with $44.07. Now I'm no math whiz but $44.07 times 2 does not equal $50. It took another lifetime to get that corrected. The manager came over with more apologies and our revised credit card slips. She asked if everything else was OK during the meal and we gave an unenthusiastic "sort of" as a reply. She bounded off with a "that's great! we'll see you soon!"

No, she won't. I would say don't go at all unless you like a lot of apologies with your lettuce.

No Paradise Here

I found myself in Placer County last night. And while most know my distaste of all things Roseville, when I go to visit friends and family in the 'burbs, Roseville is usually the only place to go for food. I've had some good experiences (Blue Nami) and some really bad ones. Unfortunately, last night was a really bad one.

I've heard of Paradise Grill before, but never been. I like Paradise, I like grills, and we were looking for something fairly inexpensive. Should have been perfect. Paradise, even. No such luck.

We sat in the bar and waited for well over 15 minutes before anyone talked to us. But there were lots of servers around, but the two female bartenders (one in training) were too busy flirting with the table full of men behind us. When we were actually helped, it was strange service. Sort of on the uncomfortable side--I'm all for friendly service, but please don't call me "babe" or wink at me. That's just strange. (Although explains why the table of men were so happy.) It then took ten more minutes for us to get our drinks. My glass of wine was fine, but Mandy's pina colada was way more pina than colada. Whatever, we weren't expecting island perfection, it's Roseville after all. I did order a glass of water which took an additional ten minutes. Great.

Ten more minutes and they took our order. I ordered the tuna salad... Ok, I should have asked questions about it, but I really didn't want to engage in conversation with my winking bartender and her sidekick. I was expecting something really good when the bartender says, "Oh that's my FAVORITE salad! It's really good!" When it came out it was literally tuna salad, like the kind you make at home with mayo and all that, and I was expecting sliced tuna steak like the tuna in their appetizers. I actually make better salads at home. This was the lettuce mix from the bag (you know what I mean, the American variety), sliced black olives, peppercinis, shredded cheddar cheese, and half of an avocado. The tuna salad was in a mound in the middle (looked like from an ice-cream scoop) and when I took a scoop found half a tomato underneath it. Ok, whatever. I was more excited about the avocado than anything else, but when I turned it over so the inside was up, it was totally brown. Gross. I still ate it (I was starving) but couldn't believe they were charging nearly ten dollars for it. Mandy had the hibachi chicken sandwich with fries. The fries were nearly cold (though they tasted ok) and the sandwich was so big she could barely fit it in her mouth. But it was all fried onions, not the chicken or bacon.

It took another ten minutes after we were clearly done eating for them to clear our plates and get us our bill. The only time the service was quick was when they ran my credit card--probably in an attempt to get us out of there because we were clearly not pleased. Mandy commented that the bathroom was the best part--but when the bathroom is the highlight of the evening, you know it's bad.

I'll never go back again. The food was mediocre, but the service was slow, and weird. I also have never seen so many men in baseball hats in one restaurant at a time. I was so happy to get back to midtown!!

Throwin' em back

I was never frequented Hangar 17 before, but now that I know their happy hour specials, I can pretty much guarantee that I'll be back more.

They used to only have specials on food, but I guess they were encouraged by the mass amounts of happy hours in the Midtown region (and perhaps by this blog??) to expand their cheap eats and drinks. And they certainly are cheap!

I went on a Thursday night and was pleased to find they they have "Throwback Thursdays" where old timer drinks such as Manhattans, Harvey Wallbangers (what is that, anyway?) and other old school drinks are only $3! That includes martinis, and my current fav, the gimlet. I suggest getting the gimlet over ice, however, because it goes down really well...

They also have beer specials on Tuesdays, and 2-for-1's on Friday and Saturday nights from 10 to 11pm. Check out their website for all their specials at http://www.hangar17bar.biz/specials.html.

New Obsession

Those of you who know me at all know that I love PBS. Especially during the summer, when network television only produces such quality television as "Nashville Star" and "Man's Best Friend," I turn to PBS for quality shows like "Masterpiece Theatre" and "Nova."

But my real obsession is cooking shows. I loved Food Network when I had expanded cable, but, alas, they don't provide that station with basic cable. So I have PBS. And pretty much all day on Saturday it's nothing but cooking shows. (Well, at 9:30am it's Burt Wolf's Travels and Traditions, but really, who can argue with that?)

My favorite, and my reason for telling all of you about this, is Gourmet Magazine's "Diary of a Foodie." For those of us who love food, drink, and travel, it's the perfect television show. They manage to make food and drink both exotic and accesible, fun and informative. And they share great recipies, like today's coconut crusted marshmellows. Yum.

"Diary of a Foodie" is on Saturday mornings on KVIE at 10:30am. You can also check it out online at www.gourmet.com/diaryofafoodie. Check it out!