Dining

Restaurants can succeed in one of two basic ways.

Scott's Burger Shack is bigger than a breadbox, but not by much.

Pearl on the River is a new restaurant that will make its mark on the Sacramento dining scene because of the good food and great location.

Noodles & Company, the Colorado-based chain of restaurants featuring sauteed Asian, Mediterranean and American noodles, will open a new restaurant Friday in the Fountains at Roseville shopping complex.

Quite a dining scene is going on in the Collection section of Town & Country Village. This column is a big fan of the Bistro at William Glen (hot and cold sandwiches, salads, soups, desserts), (916) 485-4335; and Buonarroti (Italian cuisine), (916) 645-7951.

Bee restaurant critic Blair Anthony Robertson offers a stinging review of Plan B, one Sacramento's newly relocated restaurants.

Lunch pals Ronda, Katie, Dino and I dropped by Alexandria's Cafe & Catering last week. We liked the looks of the eclectically decorated room, and paused to study the chalkboard specials and the menu board on the wall.

Pinkberry, the Southern California frozen yogurt craze, is spreading to Sacramento.

Q: Two readers had the same question about tipping this week, so we thought we would combine them. Shirley Blackham of Fair Oaks and Sonja Cupler of Loomis both want to know about tipping for takeout.

Winters is a cool little town populated with old-timers and newcomers, blue-collar workers and artists, conservatives and free-thinkers, old farmers and new urbanists.

Lunch pal Chris is a 'cue kind of guy whose favorite line at lunch is, "Barbecue is a process, not a sauce."

Some restaurants win us over because their cooking is undeniably superior; some because of the consistency, or the service, that all-around friendly vibe that makes us feel we are appreciated.

Do you have a dining out question? The Bee's restaurant critic Blair Anthony Robertson will do his best to find an answer.

We'd heard that the Utopia Grill in Roseville added a hand-formed, half-pound cheeseburger to its menu, using "chef's choice" ground beef from the prestigious Vande Rose Farms market in Granite Bay.

The food at Chanterelle was very good all the way through the menu, with the highlights being the succulent, perfectly cooked rack of lamb, the day boat scallops seared exactly as they should be, and a surprisingly good vegetarian entree.

Since 1970, when he arrived in Sacramento from New York, Sam Granite has opened and sold 30 restaurants.

A husband-and-wife team has turned their vision into a lively restaurant with a personal touch and sense of adventure.

I've never gone walkabout at the Pavilions shopping plaza without being impressed by the quality of the stores and the merchandise therein.

Thank heavens for Mom. Mother's Day, it turns out, is to some restaurants what the day after Thanksgiving is to retailers: the saving grace for an otherwise lackluster year.

See what Bee critic Blair Anthony Robertson is saying about four eateries in an up-and-coming stretch of Sacramento's R Street.

By literally watching pennies and constantly taking the consumer's pulse, Al DeCaprio is confident he can keep the Gold River-based Strings Restaurant Group out of the red.

While restaurants are looking to the bottom line, there are a few places that never seem to die down, recession or not.

One month, it seems there's a restaurant renaissance; the next month, three places go under without warning. Restaurants come and go, and it's not easy to keep up.

The owners of downtown Sacramento's beloved Texas Mexican Restaurant say they're "sort of hoping for a miracle."

Taylor's Kitchen, on Sacramento's Freeport Boulevard, is exactly what it wants to be: a warm, stylish and successful neighborhood restaurant.

Because of his name and nature, Billy Blaze was a natural to be the lunch pal of choice for the trip to Red Hawk Casino and its Waterfall Buffet.

At Stolichniy, there is plenty of food beyond the borscht, much of it between satisfactory and good. If it erred, it was on the bland side. If it tried to overcome bland, it did so by piling on staggering amounts of dill.

This column advocates small places where good discoveries can sometimes be made. We have two today.

One of the best dining experiences I've had in a long time happened at a place that used to be a doughnut shop and once was a Wendy's, on a street I would otherwise describe as infused with functional blight, this hodgepodge of buildings bereft of charm and architectural distinction.

Historically, we Sacramentans have shown the colors for the home teams. Last season, for instance, the River Cats drew 700,000 people to Raley Field to lead minor- league baseball in attendance for the ninth season in a row.

You might consider Old Sacramento strictly a tourist destination and, consequently, a place to avoid. You could say the same of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

The name of this restaurant is Pasta? I'm not asking you, I'm telling you.

Lunch pal Roger and I grabbed a table in the "Good Old Days" section of the crowded, cavernous dining room at the Granite Rock Grill.

Restaurants, from burger joints to fine-dining establishments, are using wide-ranging enticements to bring consumers to their doors. Many promotions make specific references to the recession, layoffs or government economic stimulus plans. Here are a few deals offered up locally, statewide and nationally:

Sacramento-area restaurateurs are pulling out all the stops to lure consumers - everything from value pricing to combo-meal deals to discount coupons.

Pappardelle with roasted chicken and mushrooms – wide ribbons of pasta cooked just right, brightened with a dash of preserved lemon. Gnocchi with sautéed garlic and pine nuts that complement the subtle flavor of potato.

Lunch pal Dino is a burger kind of guy, so last week, he guided us to the Burger Hut franchise near his place of business.

When Javier Del Castillo decided to open a Mexican restaurant in Lodi called Revolución 1910, he had a radical idea.

The sudden change that overtook Jackie's face startled us into a brief laugh. One moment, her features were serene; the next, her eyes widened, her face flushed and her mouth formed a gleeful grin.

If you're like me and your tastes run toward the clean, simple lines of modern design, you will walk into Evan's Kitchen and say, "Good grief, those chairs."

"I'm the zany person behind the counter," Shell Dogg was saying. "I'm here to put a little life in this town. Who doesn't want to see the woman with the crazy-colored rainbow hair and a sense of humor?"

If you were raised on meat and potatoes, on the kind of nourishment that is straightforward and safe, the idea of Thai food might seem intimidating.

Since December, this column has encountered a run of very good restaurants – Buonarroti in Town & Country Village (916-265-2110), the Marketplace Cafe inside the Embassy Suites hotel near Old Sacramento (916-326-5000), Johnny Garlic's in Roseville (916-789-2000) and Bamiyan Afghan in El Dorado Hills (916-941-8787).

I hesitate to describe one of California's finest and most expensive dining establishments as all-you-can-eat.

Recently, on a cold Sunday night, a group of us were at The Kitchen, oohing and aahing over its awesome February menu.

It's never failed. Whenever I invite lunch pal Hasty on another twisted adventure in lunchtime dining, something happens to thwart the plan.

Gönül Blum came to the United States from Turkey in 1984 because she fell in love and married an American.

It's always nice to walk into a fine dining establishment and find yourself standing there for 10 minutes without anyone saying a word.

Few burger-lovers have expressed the purity of their ardor – or, for that matter, the simple concept of credit – better than the cartoon character J. Wellington Wimpy.