Rancho Cordova’s historic Sheepherders Inn has reopened after a remodeling effort that dragged on more than two years. The Folsom Boulevard restaurant is now serving a menu of “comfort foods” that includes braised lamb shanks and barbecued salmon.
Parlare Euro Lounge has opened at the corner of 10th and J streets, beside and above Rodney’s cigar shop in downtown Sacramento. The name comes from the Italian verb “to speak”. It offers a “small plates” menu, along with a full bar and a diverse helping of musical entertainment.
The construction of the new lounge took over a year and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars of family money,
Safeway has remodeled its Fair Oaks supermarket into its lifestyle format. The remodel of the 46,000 square foot store, which opened in 2003, took about a month and a half.
The Safeway at 5450 Dewey Drive gained a soup cart and olive bar; a gourmet cheese table; a culinary center with the latest cooking gadgets; and expanded organic, wine, bakery, floral, and pharmacy departments.
Safeway has converted a dozen of its 19 Sacramento area stores to the new format, leaving seven more to remodel. Safeway began switching to the new look four years ago and expects to transform all of its 270 stores in Northern California within two years.
2801 Capitol Avenue, 916-455-2422 A setting of understated elegance and a style of cooking that changes with the seasons. Sacramento’s top rated restaurant. Biba appears every Tuesday of the KCRA-TV news to prepare something special.
Aioli Bodega Espanola, one of Sacramento’s best restaurants is located at 18th and L streets in Midtown Sacramento, 916- 447-9440
They feature tapas from the traditional to the original, along with regional specialties of Spain, are presented in a friendly atmosphere.
Dallas-based Brinker International Inc. has dedided to sell its Romano’s Macaroni Grill restaurant chain after same-store revenue fell flat during the company’s fiscal year ending June 27, 2007. Romano’s Macaroni Grill has 40 outlets in California and four in the Greater Sacramento area. The local restaurants are in the Arden-Arcade area of Sacramento County, Elk Grove, Folsom and Roseville.
Brinker has owned, operated or franchised about 1,800 restaurants, including Chili’s Grill & Bar (1,220 stores), Romano’s Macaroni Grill (230 stores), On The Border Mexican Grill and Cantina (158 stores) and Maggiano’s Little Italy (41 stores).
One of our favorite restaurants is Il Fornaio. Every month features a different region of Italy. The island of Sicily is featured this month. The Pasta chi Purpetti was wonderful. It had housemade tagliatelle pasta, tiny veal meatballs, peas, pecorino, parmesan and aged ricotta; served with a red wine-pancetta sauce. We also enjoyed the Scaloppine Conca d’Oro, sautéed veal topped with mozzarella, eggplant and tomato sauce; served with seasonal braised greens and roasted fingerling potatoes.
We also had a bottle of Nero d’Avola, Scurati Ceuso. This supple and delicious red is produced from native Nero d’Avola grapes cultivated in the mountains of Sicily. It is a complex and medium-bodied wine with intense aromas and flavors of fresh plum, blackberries, black cherries and spice.
We went to the Il Fornaio in the Roseville Galleria, but there is also one in the Wells Fargo Building on Capitol Mall in Downtown Sacramento.