The Doctor's BBQ

Undisclosed Elk Grove Location

The good doctors, a married couple who both earned nicknames that include "Doctor" hosted our Thursday this week at their house. I wasn't there, which will become painfully apparent when you keep reading.

Things I know.

• Two 2-year olds went into the side yard "spaceship" and looked for the "moon" in the trash and ended up inside the dog house.
• The adults barbecued all sorts of animal flesh and vegetable combinations and enjoyed beer on the back patio and did not end up in the dog house.
• 3-month old blue great dane puppy visited and left a present in the yard.
• Girl 2-year old decided to walk boy 2-year old with a leash. Inevitably the boy ended up crying.
• Some drunks were missing, claiming lame reasons like "work", "sick", and "in Canada". Jerks.

Moral of the story? The blog writer should probably skip work next time.

The Tail of Two Drunks

Undisclosed Donner Lake Cabin - AND -

Bonn Lair
3651 J St
Sacramento, CA 95816
(916) 455-7155

Captain Crabby Pants finally proved his worth by digging up an uncle with a kickass cabin on Donner. For some reason the uncle let us all use said kickass cabin for the weekend. A few of us were left behind for crappy reason and therefore I will now refer to the kickass cabin as the lame cabin because I am bitter. And hostile. And angry. And cabin-less. Yes, I was left behind.

So, the remaining awesome drunks ended up at Bonn Lair to drown our bitterness in beer. We love to go here when we are a small group since it's a tiny place. The fish and chips are delicious and enough for two. The have lambic, Allegash white on tap and other great beers. They really have a wonderful selection to choose from. Many sausages were consumed as well.

We had a guest star, John who joined us which was fun! He put our sad party of three up to a merry band of four. And he bought me a beer. I like him.

BBQ at the Orange House

Undisclosed Roseville Location


Oh Orange House, why are you so fun? It seems simple enough. A hot grill, a few cocktails, a dozen drunks and their family members, one ugly bird and a backyard. If only everyone was so lucky on a Thursday.

Hostess TheJenny served up prosecco cocktails with Chambord and hibiscus flowers. Yup, it was that fancy! Boys brough huge slabs of meat to grill and eat with giant utensils. Yours truly ended up with fiberglass in her legs. For the record, the best way to get that out is packing or duct tape. Totally works. You'll thank me for that Cliff Claven moment.

Journal Tidbits
"I'm kind of fancy", TheJenny's brother
"You're going full sausage?", Scribby
"It's all well and good until you end up in the bathroom", Mr.Chem

Magpie Cafe - TheJenny's Birthday

Magpie Cafe

1409 R Street #102

Sacramento, CA 95811

(916) 452-7594

We love Magpie! We first came here in August 2009, then came back in December. It's one of the few places that are on a more-than-once-a-year rotation. It was TheJenny's day of birth celebration and she has just the bestest taste in places!

We took over the restaurant with a near record 17 drunks! Four of them were very welcome newcomers that we hope come back...even after our long conversation about plushies and furries. (Google it. But not at work.)

I couldn't even keep up with what everyone was having, but here are some highlights. White bean & kale soup. Grilled wild mushrooms and white bean spread. Duck gnocchi. Penne with peas, mint & asparagus. Steak tartare. Shrimp & crab louie salad. Vegan chocolate mousse. Carrot cake cookie.

The best part of the night was the gift that Jarla hand-crafted as TheJenny's birthday gift. A papier-mache mounted havalina head. It's even covered in quotes from the Royal Tenenbaums. That damn Jarla is really making the rest of us look bad.

Journal tidbits:
"He was the master boner." Scribby, regarding Bump at Thankskiester
"This just in...beer is delicious." - C. Pants

Rivercats Baseball at Raley Field

400 Ball Park Dr

West Sacramento, CA 95691-2824

(916) 376-4700

I'm not going to lie, I know nothing about baseball. What I do know is that for $20, you can hang out with your friends, eat tasty stadium food, have some beer and enjoy a warm spring evening in a great ballpark.

Who did we play? I have no idea. I do know that by the 2nd inning (look, I know a word!), the other team had scored 10 runs. And that's when I checked out and got some more food.

There was a smaller crowd of just seven drunks, but with $2 beer night in effect and Blue Moon on tap, we were having all sorts of fun. If you doubt the copious amounts of food we consumed, here is the list:

gourmet nachos

regular nachos

cotton candy

3 corn dogs

3 pretzels

hot dog

burrito

merlino's fruit freeze

churro

2 glass of Blue Moon

10 glass of $2 Bud Light

The drinking was on the low side, but in our defense we had a pregnant drunk who was not pulling her weight.

Shooter was by far the most informed baseball fan and every time he shouted something odd, we had to have him explain it to the rest of us. My favorite... "Can of corn!"

Play ball!

-- Post From My iPhone

Holy Chick n' Waffles

10113 Folsom Blvd #D

Rancho Cordova, CA 95670
(888) 786-1648

This place came to our attention from someone we know on Twitter. One day he posted a picture of his chicken & waffles and we were intrigued! We have had this amazing combination at Sandra Dee's before but since it's actually in their name, we just couldn't pass it up.

It's located in a strip mall along Folsom Blvd and yes, time has sort of forgotten this area. There's not a whole lot else in the area, so just make a special trip to have the best chicken and waffles in Sacramento!

The staff are friendly, if a little bit disorganized - but who cares! They have 5 beers on tap and will be getting wine soon. The Po Boy menu are all $5 items including the chef's choice chicken and waffles. Some people got a leg and wing, others got 2 legs. If you are picky about your chicken parts, you can order specific ones for only a couple of bucks more.

The chicken is freaking delicious! It comes out flaming hot, just salty enough and spiced to perfection. It sits on top of a fluffy cinnamon flavored Belgian waffle and collects all those little crispy pieces of batter of the chicken.

Other folks got BBQ chicken and tri tip. Their sides are pretty good as well. Collared greens, mac & cheese made with pepperjack, even chicken gravy. When you can walk out of a place full and your bill is $10 (including a beer), you really just can't complain.

Most of us have been craving this since we walked out the door. We'll be back.

Before...

After...

Dad's Kitchen

2968 Freeport Boulevard
Sacramento, CA 95818
(916) 447-3237

The saga of Dad's Kitchen continues. We were lucky enough to visit this little gem in Land Park back in September of last year before they closed down and reopened with a new owner. Since then owner #2 shut it down again and it reopened a little while back with owner #3. From very biased accounts, owner #2 kind of sucked and owner #3 seems to be doing right by the joint, so far.

In our opinion, the place may not be the same for the die hards, but for the casual visitor it's back to what we expected. Improvements to the porch means you can actually see your food at night and the menu changes didn't break our hearts.

They still have a nice selection of local and craft beers on tap (Monkey Knife Fight, and Two Rivers Blood Orange Cider were two favorites). And they are still slinging pitchers of PBR! Sandwiches were fresh and tasty and the servers were super friendly, had character and were very cool with our snarky little LexieBot, even bringing her food quickly and first.

They forgot some of Nairbies food, but were very cool about it - so no harm, no foul. I think overall this place is going to do just fine. Still local and family friendly but with enough character and sass that it won't get boring.

On a final note, I suck because I took no pictures that night. Instead I delight you with this treasure on display in the Sutter Hospital waiting room in Davis, CA. Who thought this was a good idea?