Dining

After a nearly four-year run, midtown Sacramento's Lounge ON20 will close at the end of business tonight. The nightclub's shutdown was announced Friday afternoon via Lounge ON20's Facebook page by co-owners Ali Mackani and Hayk Galachyan.

We last spoke with Aziz Fattahi some years ago, when we'd first encountered his marvelous Village Bakery in Davis, across from the train station.

While Ettore's remains a simple pleasure, it could stand a few tweaks - some with the cooking, some with the logistics of ordering and eating - that could elevate the experience without overhauling the concept.

Mike Brown is reinventing the hot dog. Again.

Select from 16 appetizers ranging from $1.50 to $9 during happy hour. The house favorites are the oysters on the half shell; five-piece barbecued albacore, and "Better than Sex," an albacore sashimi with chili oil, ponzu sauce and jalapeños.

Assessing The Porch and giving it an overall star rating is an exercise in feeling conflicted.

This historic building in Old Sacramento mixes a blend of a sports bar with just a hint of an island oasis. The restaurant's red-brick walls and black industrial piping complement each other.

Mother's Day returns on Sunday, when a projected 75 million of us will leave our homes to dine out. Which leads us to believe that a restaurant brunch with the whole dressed-up family seems mandatory. As does a mimosa or a Bellini.

It tends to be more casual and less expensive, while providing hefty portions. While there is the chance to enjoy an adult beverage such as a bloody mary or mimosa, there is less pressure to order booze than there is when you dine out at dinner..

Grange, the restaurant at the Citizen Hotel, touts itself as a farm-to-table experience whose menu changes almost daily.

Given that this casual lunchtime restaurant-review column appears weekly in a newspaper called The Bee, it seemed a natural for us to take a look at the Bee Bee Asian Grill, across the street from Executive Airport.

"Fine dining" is one of those impossibly imprecise terms that invites discussion and debate about what it actually means. Is fine dining formal dining?

"I love pie, and this is a great one," said lunch pal Bruce Parks, quickly demolishing (with a little help) a tall wedge of banana cream pie.

This laid-back restaurant is filled with bright colors such as orange, green and brown walls. There are always fresh flowers and a lighted tea candle on each table, and you'll hear anything from a Spanish love ballad to upbeat salsa music softly playing in the background.

First Impressions visits dining spots in the region that are new or have undergone recent transitions. Have a candidate for First Impressions? Email us at brobertson@sacbee.com.

Lial Jones had taken only one bite of her Buffalo chicken salad when we interrupted her lunch at the Crocker Cafe by Supper Club.

The Porch feels homelike. Wood floors, wooden tables, and a black bar top with contrasting white walls give the restaurant a laid-back feeling.

There's still plenty to admire about Paesanos, the casual but bustling midtown eatery that opened in 1996

Select from $3 draft beers, $5 well drinks, $7 featured wines, $8 specialty martinis and half-price appetizers at Dawson's Bar inside the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

You start off with an idea, a vision. You stake your claim, tell a story through your cooking and, if you want to keep the lights on, you adjust as the weeks turn into months.

In February, veteran sailors from around the world converged on San Francisco to scout the course they'll take for the two upcoming America's Cup World Series regattas on San Francisco Bay.

Kasbah Lounge 2115 J St., Sacramento (916) 442-4388 www.kasbahlounge.com. Happy hour: 5-7 p.m. daily, 10 p.m.-close Sunday through Thursday (drinks only)

In 1965, a relatively unknown singing group with the name the Fifth Dimension, very much in sync with the times, recorded a song called "Up, Up and Away" with unlikely lyrics about flying in a "beautiful balloon."

The Firehouse knows its mission and its challenges. The menu offers classic dishes and longtime favorites while showcasing new ideas and flavor combinations that suggest ingenuity in the kitchen. This is a dynasty. There's no room for slackers and little margin for error.

When we heard that Henry's high-end steakhouse was serving lunch on weekends, Billy Blaze and I hightailed it over to the Red Hawk Casino.

The real steal: Choose from bottled beers that range in price from $2 to $3.50, or beers on tap for $3.

Citing a host of factors that swelled the cost of doing business, Fresca Deli at 400 Q St. in Sacramento has closed.

This was our second of three visits to Bidwell Street Bistro in Folsom, and we were excited to be here. But unlike our pleasant if uninspired first encounter, this evening began to unravel like Mel Gibson after a traffic stop.

For a certain dining demographic, nostalgia is always the go-to dish.

Paesanos Midtown: 1806 Capitol Ave., Sacramento (916) 447-8646 Davis: 139 G St., Davis (530) 758-8646 Elk Grove: 8519 Bond Road, Elk Grove (916) 690-8646

Perhaps no new television show this year has been greeted with the negativity of "Rob," CBS' midseason sitcom about a white landscaper marrying into a large Latino family.

Foodies who purport to seek out and enjoy only "authentic" cooking – specifically, authentic ethnic cuisine – have a shtick that gets old faster than an episode of "Storage Wars."

Bombay Bar and Grill 1315 21st St., Sacramento (916) 441-7100 www.bombaybarandgrillsacramento.com

How best to describe the music of Stout Rebellion? The band's leader, Bobby Waller, prefers to compare it with that of bands such as the Pogues or Flogging Molly, calling it "traditional Irish music with rock intensity."

If you are in a big hurry, if you don't think good food takes time or if your boss gives you a mere 30 minutes for lunch, this place may not be for you. But you'll be missing plenty for the sake of expediency.

"Party hearty" is the mantra on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, when green beer flows and everyone is Irish for at least one day.

Chops has an upscale, relaxed vibe – with a view of the statehouse.

Can a palate be duplicitous? Can one's dining habits suffer from multiple personality disorder? Can folks sink their teeth into pulled pork, then turn around and nibble on grilled eggplant on gluten-free bread?

We missed Fat Tuesday (a.k.a. Mardi Gras) in New Orleans on Feb. 21 – darn it! – but to make up for it we tracked down some Creole-style cooking at the newly opened Original Po Boys.

If you're hungry, their full-size bar bites are $5.95 each. Garlic fries and boneless buffalo chicken are available only during happy hour, and other popular choices are the Baja fish tacos, grilled artichoke with lemon aioli or calamari.

This winter may not have had an abundance of blizzards at Lake Tahoe until recently, but that has not deterred seasonal celebrations.

Don't let the accent fool you. It may be thick and charming and very French, but Gerard Robert, chef and proprietor at the Village Bistro, is an American success story.

During a whirlwind tour of the city's best coffeehouses, we ordered the same thing from each: espresso, cappuccino and a standard coffee, also known as a "drip" coffee. We also ordered two pastries, considered the service, the ambience and factored in certain intangibles, with an admitted bias against solo customers staring at their computers in silence at the expense of the overall energy and volume of the room. A great coffeehouse shouldn't feel like a library.

Art philistines that we are, my dining pals and I were unfamiliar with sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680).

Choose from $2 well cocktails and select beers, $3 house cabernet or chardonnay wine by the glass, and $8 select pitchers.

In an unprecedented booking, the Eldorado has centered a long-running show on a single artist.

Hawks is a great restaurant. Is it the best in the Sacramento area? I visited this Granite Bay treasure over a period of several months, looking for answers to that weighty question.

River Rock Tap House 2326 J St., Sacramento (916) 273-4930

Restaurants come and go, leaving memories in their wake. Along Interstate 80 between Dixon and Vacaville is the classic sign marking the once-upon-a-time site of the Milk Farm.