Sometimes a restaurant's sense of place meshes perfectly with its menu. That's true of Bulls, where I sat at a high-top table with lunch pal Gloria Glyer. She writes the weekly "Helping Others" column for The Bee and has an extensive résumé in restaurant reviewing.

"The food fits where we are," she said, as we eyed our surroundings: Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey signage, a life-size statue of the sour-mash distiller himself (1850-1911), hay bales, high ceilings, a country music-centric jukebox and a hand-painted mural showing a herd of bulls stampeding through an old Western town.

In a corner "corral" is a bucking mechanical bull ($4 a ride), a reminder of the 1980 John Travolta movie "Urban Cowboy." Some adventurous folks attending productions at the neighboring Music Circus will come in to ride the bull, said owner Andrea Martin.

Twice a month, the Bikini Bull Riding Contest features young women in competition for cash prizes. Wannabe cowboys cheer them on. Details are on the website, along with a rundown of nightly specials and upcoming events (including beer pong tournaments).

Though Bulls gets raucous once the sun goes down – yeah, it's a bar – lunchtime is quiet time. "It's slow now, but if you're going to bar-hop at night, this would definitely be a stop," Gloria remarked. "I would like to come back, sit at the bar and watch the action."

You'd best get your meat-mood on for lunch here. The difficult-to-read menu shows pork sliders, pot roast, tri-tip, pastrami, rib tips and burgers, along with a medley of chicken dishes (including wings), salads, soups, chili and sides ($3.50 to $9.75). Enrique Mondragon works the kitchen.

"I have always loved hot dogs," Gloria said, choosing the Chicago-style Cajun link (split and served on a crispy roll with diced onion, relish, tomato, cherry pepper, pickle spear and deli mustard).

"I don't need a definition from the Assembly to enjoy this," she added, referring to the so-called "hot dog bill" (the pending S.B. 946). That's where our legislators have come up with the ultimate definition for a hot dog. So far, our tax dollars have paid for this amazingly insightful summation: "A whole, cured, cooked sausage that is skinless or stuffed in a casing and may be served on a bun or roll."

We moved on to the list of "New Items" and dug into two tender pork shanks and a tri-tip sandwich served au jus. We agreed there was too much bread for the Cajun link and the tri-tip, though both were tasty. We also liked the retro tater tots and the skin-on garlic mashed potatoes ("These are worth the trip," Gloria said). The apple-studded coleslaw was OK; better were the mild, well-textured ranch beans, improved with squirts of hot sauce.

"This is the kind of lunch where you say, 'Let's go out and eat some fun food and worry about the calories and fat tomorrow,' " Gloria said.

Amen to that.

• The California State Fair, ongoing through July 31, is a buffet-lover's delight. But it's easy to overlook the basic food groups served there when the spotlight lingers on yak burgers and deep-fried Moon Pies.

So let's not forget that the Corn Shack is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a fair regular. Dominic Palmieri's California-grown oven-roasted "big barrel" corn-on-the-cob comes with help-yourself fixin's, including butter and a dozen condiments ($3.50).

For more on the State Fair: www.bigfun.org.

BULLS

WHERE: 1330 H St., Sacramento

HOURS: 11 a.m.-midnight Mondays- Thursdays; 11 a.m.-1 a.m. Fridays; 10 a.m.-1 a.m. Saturdays; 10 a.m.- midnight Sundays (weekend brunch is 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

FOOD: 2 1/2 stars

AMBIENCE: 3 stars (if you like Western bars)

HOW MUCH: $-$$

INFORMATION: (916) 235-8674, www.sacramentobulls.com

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