Dining

The game is apparently over – at least for now – for Center Court With C-Webb, the sports-themed restaurant opened three years ago by former Sacramento Kings basketball star Chris Webber.

One of the nicest things I can say about Sofia Restaurant is that it's out of step with the trends.

"Appetizers" sends a happy one-week birthday to Owen Price Nelson, the newest member of the Selland restaurant family.

Lunch pals Greg, Vicki and Tom and I ordered way too much stuff at the busy counter inside JJ Fish & Chicken, then snagged one of the few remaining tables in the small, crowded restaurant.

All around the region, families are beginning to contemplate how they want to spend their Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.

Seems like most of the local restaurant news these days covers financial woes or a place simply shutting down.

Instead of the standard review of a single restaurant, today we're going to look at a variety of bargains on the dining scene. Some incredible, some good, some so-so.

Lunch pal Roger and I were cruising along Watt Avenue in the North Highlands area and spotted a sign – Pit Stop Bar-B-Que – so we pulled in.

Folsom has a long, rich history of which it is proud. Its Sutter Street historical district has remained largely unchanged for more than a century, and there is a story behind just about everything.

Seated next to a window in a room with the trappings of a prosperous bygone era, including rich wood and period fixtures, I look out and see the river, the glow of the setting sun, and notice the wind whipping through the trees.

Molly Hawks says she isn't worried about her namesake restaurant flying the coop despite her landlord's brush with foreclosure.

We strolled into the 26-story granite-and-glass monolith known as Five Hundred Capitol Mall and looked around the huge atrium lobby.

With the usual mix of delight, despair and simmering debate within the restaurant industry and among epicureans, the highly influential Michelin Guide for the Bay Area and Wine Country went on sale Tuesday.

Every so often, you will walk into a place of business not knowing what to expect, stay awhile, soak in all that is right about it and leave feeling so much better than when you arrived.

Lunch pal Barbara and I cruised tirelessly up and down the aisles of Oto's Marketplace, fascinated by what we saw. Maybe "overwhelmed" is a more accurate word.

With much fanfare, including personal calls to chefs awarded a coveted star, the Michelin Guide for the Bay Area and Wine Country announced the launch of its fourth edition Monday. The $17.99 annual guide goes on sale today.

Look for a new house of sushi and sake coming to Roseville in mid-December.

So here it is, mid- October, and we're still eating outside on lots of days – more lunch than dinner – but the point still stands that this region is huge on outdoor dining.

To the uninitiated, Czech food can be puzzling – not because it is highfalutin' or exotic, but because it resembles something you may have seen at grandma's house, especially if she happened to be a Bohemian peasant.

The question of where to find an inexpensive date-night dinner may be answered.

Took off for a drive in the country along Highway 49 and ended up at the four-star Andrae's Bakery in Amador City, two miles north of Sutter Creek.

A Roseville developer and his brother operated several restaurants under the T.G.I Friday's banner while failing to pay that company millions of dollars in franchise fees, a federal lawsuit claims.

They are two of the most expensive restaurants in town.

The color blue is the theme that runs through the new Bistro 33 inside the $23 million, 64,000- square-foot Mercedes-Benz of Rocklin dealership. Blue water glasses, blue carpeting, blue hand-blown glass globes in the massive chandelier. Even the fish in the aquarium behind the bar are blue.

In the dark chill of January, downtown Sacramento restaurants will be cooking up a deal for you.

Reno's food culture, long identified with all-you-can-eat casino buffets and steak-and-egg specials, is maturing and diversifying.

One of the best things about living in a melting-pot city like Sacramento is the easy access to world cuisines. Many of them are here – Thai, Russian, Indian, Spanish, Mexican, Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, French, Greek, Israeli and so on.

Tucked quietly near Sacramento International Airport along a sleepy, tree-lined stretch of Garden Highway, Swabbies on the River Restaurant & Bar is a big place, but it's not easy to find by car. That's not an issue for most of the restaurant's patrons, however. They arrive in Sacramento River style – on boats. And it seems everyone else gets to Swabbies on a motorcycle, especially those of the Harley-Davidson variety.

Restaurants rarely move – seriously change locales, not just shift a few blocks – but when they do, there are two upfront issues, one from each side of the eater/eatery relationship.

The selection is still impressive, the setting attractive, but the service, food fall short.

The annual Dine Downtown Restaurant Week has been extended to 10 days in January, the Sacramento Downtown Partnership has announced.

Ran into Allan Darrah the other day inside Corti Bros. Market on Folsom Boulevard. He's the longtime business partner of Darrell Corti, the internationally known food- and-wine expert who modestly describes himself as a "grocer."

Sacramento's central city now hums with energy, but 15 years ago, this was a different town.

In this, the third of our four-part look at wine bars in the area, my job here is to discern which restaurant will show up when you show up.

Last week, we told you about a Sacramento connection to "Top Chef." That would be contestant Jesse Sandlin, a Baltimore native who cut her teeth at such Sacramento restaurants as Esquire Grill, Spataro Restaurant and Lucca Restaurant and Bar.

Midtown's Le Petit Paris cafe is exactly the type of place where, in the movie version of your life, you'd first lock eyes with your other half.

We were sitting at a table inside the well-decorated Carmita restaurant, next to a Mr. Pickle's and a Starbucks.

Great wine, good food and trustworthy advice set Back Wine Bar apart.

If you're the least bit into food, surely you've noticed the explosion of pizza in California's capital. Really good pizza.

Want a little something to nibble? Go online to get a taste of the updates we offer you each day at www.sacbee.com/appetizers.

We dropped by Cal Expo on Monday – along with 16,000 other fair- goers – to sample some of the goodies sold at the 100 or so food and beverage setups spread throughout the California State Fair.

Parts is parts.

Shopping for a luxury car can really work up your appetite.

At Temple Coffee, baristas take coffee so seriously that they carefully eyeball, even sniff, an espresso before deeming it suitable for serving.

The Chef's Table opened just over two months ago. If the business plan was to preside over an unpretentious neighborhood bistro that highlights fine cooking and California wine, to make customers feel like friends and family, then David Hill and staff are already nailing it.

The courtyard at Slocum House on a recent morning was quiet, except for owner Kerry Kassis, and me, and the chickens.

Greens and purples and golds, oh my!

Want a little something to nibble? Go online to get a taste of the tidbits we offer you each day at www.sacbee.com/appetizers.

If you ask a local vegetarian where he or she likes to eat out, you're likely to get some familiar responses.