Dining

Whoa! Cars were lined up on S Street, waiting to get into the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op's jammed parking lot.

Surprise your valentine with a treat to be shared and savored. The Bee's staff and its Sacramento Connect bloggers have suggestions for loving couples – and some that can be shared with the children in your life. XOXO

Few musicians have collaborated with as many other musicians as Willie K. has.

Whether you go into this good-time Old Sacramento saloon on a weekend, weeknight or just during lunchtime, there is always something special going on.

Mark Liberman is intense, dynamic, refined, whimsical and constantly striving for originality, that most elusive quality that has tortured every chef who ever aspired to take cooking to new heights.

As celebrated chef and cookbook author James Beard once observed, "Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods."

Get a taste of Ireland at Gallagher's Irish Pub, where the walls, ceiling, carpet and even chairs are green.

Ironically and somewhat sadly, the Las Vegas Strip has little room these days for Mr. Las Vegas.

Hot Italian, the popular midtown pizzeria, is opening a second location, entering the highly competitive Bay Area market.

The Sacramento restaurant scene just got bigger and more eclectic and, thus, more competitive.

Overall, El Patrón has a casual atmosphere of friendliness and fun. Tables and booths line up against the windows of this laid-back restaurant.

A tableful of foodies and I were talking about guilty pleasures and "best of" lists the other day. We agreed on the obvious – both lists are personal and subjective.

Food is one of the great entry points for learning about other cultures, seeing the world in new ways and, best of all, confronting new combinations of flavors and textures.

Things didn't start off so hot at the 13-week-old T&R Taste of Texas barbecue joint, but got better as lunch went on. Way better.

Chinese New Year is as big a holiday in the casino market as Christmas, sometimes bigger.

If you are meeting up with friends after work but you still need to save room for dinner (either here in the dining room adjacent to the bar or waiting at home), this is the place to go for Morton's "bar bites" and the special Mortinis or beer and wine specials.

The name of the restaurant is French: La Provence. The friendly greeting on the phone is in French: "Bonjour." Much of the menu is French, with English translations that seem to be as much for the servers as they are for the customers.

Sometimes we discover a dish that's so different and tasty we have to point it out. That would be the French toast made with panettone at Dianda's Italian Bakery & Cafe.

This French bohemian bistro has a delightful knickknack wall and friendly staff.

Republicans talk about taking a bite out of government, but we (Bee Capitol Bureau reporters Torey Van Oot and Jon Ortiz) have actually done it. With guests in tow, we sampled the lunch fare at state building eateries in downtown Sacramento over the past two months and posted a series of mini reviews on sacbee.com blogs Capitol Alert and The State Worker.

No one has ever declared West Sacramento a hotbed of cool restaurants and great sit-down meals. But a new place called The Eatery just might start reversing those long- established traffic patterns.

"I can do breakfast for dinner, but not dinner for breakfast," said my lunch pal, warily eyeing my plate of sautéed salmon with eggs, crispy-soft red potatoes and thick, addictive slices of toasted bread, fragrant with fresh rosemary.

Snag a couch or plush, oversized chair to enjoy your glass of wine.

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.

With another year's adventures in casual dining under the belt, so to speak, here's a totally subjective list of the 10 places my lunch pals and I especially liked in 2011, in order of preference.

Located in a building that was once a firehouse, the restaurant keeps the music soft and relaxing to ensure guests can easily converse.

You see them all across the country, in shopping malls and on street corners, in suburban towns and city centers: zombie restaurants.

What a year it was in the restaurant business.

Among the fares of the world, few get as hearty as Irish cuisine on a good day. Especially on a good cold day.

Enjoy a dollar off all 13 of its draft beers and $3 well drinks and house wines. If you're hungry, bring a large group and enjoy three appetizers for $10.

Last week, I argued that the much-admired Waterboy could be more interesting and creative. I also conceded that it is unlikely – unwise, even – for it to change, as business continues to boom.

Floyd Rothenberger was on the phone the other day. His customers know him as J.R., the 'cue-meister who opened J.R.'s Texas Bar-B-Que 25 years ago. He also opened two satellite joints, one four years ago in West Sacramento and one in mid-October on El Camino Avenue. He does a lot of catering, and the grazers who have tasted his smoked brisket at fundraisers around town don't forget it.

For better or worse, there are a number of misconceptions about The Waterboy, a prominent and much-admired midtown restaurant that just turned 15.

We were on our way to El Papagayo in Carmichael, lunch pal Don Burns at the wheel. He's the public information coordinator for the Sacramento Public Library, and knows something about eating.

Depending on which night you choose to visit Shenanigans, you may get an entirely different experience.

I may not be the ideal person to assess the pluses and minuses of two restaurants that do not serve meat, dairy or anything else that comes from living creatures.

Unless you're a guest at a hotel or work within walking distance of one, it's a good bet you seldom think of a hotel restaurant as a dining destination.

All beer, well drinks and house wine are half off during happy hour in the bar.

Enjoy draft beers for $3, well drinks and wine by the glass for $4, and house margaritas for $4.50 during happy hour.

The lasagna Bolognese that comes out of executive chef Atilio Carranza's kitchen is a little piece of performance art. It is culinary magic, and something of an illusion.

We drove to the back of the shopping center and found the year-old 7 Sisters near the Kmart big-box store.

Traditional Mexican décor, including decorated pots and artifacts, surround you in this laid-back, relaxed restaurant.

By the thousands, people are putting Thanksgiving in the hands of folks who get paid to cook and serve.

First Impressions visits dining spots in the region that are new or have undergone recent transitions.

Big portions of good food at fair prices. We found that rare triumvirate at the 5,500-square-foot Plates Cafe in the Depot Park commercial complex.

You can only enjoy happy hour in the bar area, except Tuesday through Thursday, when it's available on the terrace.

The strengths of the Monte Vista Inn – its location in a minuscule foothills town along I-80, the charming old building itself, the log-cabin décor, the lively bar and numerous home-baked pies that range from good to glorious – are enough to make this worth a stop on your way to or from Lake Tahoe. But they're not quite enough to cover up all of the restaurant's weaknesses.

Soul food for Sunday brunch? Well, yeah, that'll work.

Happy hour only works in the bar area, and the seats fill up quickly, especially on Thursday and Friday. Try to get a booth parallel to the bar. The red fabric and wooden tables and chairs are small and cozy, letting you have an intimate conversation with friends.