Burger & Brews

1409 R Street
Sacramento, CA 95811
(916) 442-0900



A smaller crowd tonight for burgers, beer and deep fried things. We headed to the new Burger & Brews in the great little R street area of downtown. We have already hit the Shady Lady, gone to R15 a few times, planning on hitting Magpie in the next few weeks - so we are working our way around the area.

It's a smallish place and the guy seating people was a little fussy. Maybe he was just tired of people, let's hope so. They have a great selection of burgers including buffalo. I would have loved to see ostrich on the menu, but I had a regular old cow burger and it was delicious!

Obviously handmade, a little charred on the edges and juicy in the middle. Mine was covered in jalapenos so I was a happy girl. You can choose garlic fries, curly fries or onion rings and everyone liked what they got. Overall, the food was great and the portions were huge.

The beer selection didn't disappoint. The wine selection was pretty good too so really, if you can't find something you like to drink, you're just not trying.

The only odd thing... It's August in Sacramento and they had their fancy gas fireplace going. Really? It's f-ing hot! Stop showing off they fireplace, you have all winter to bust that thing out.

Journal tidbits:
"The guy at the bar next to me recommended the buffalo burger. He has a mustache. Needless to say, I'm getting the buffalo burger" - RobotGoBen

"I'm on prohibition, I mean probation" - NakedBob

Waitress asked NakedBob if he needed a box... "No thanks. I'll just put my stuff in TheJenny's box" - Naked Bob... TheJenny's response - "Yeah, you will!"

Tour de France & Birth of Dr. Beaky

Undisclosed Natomas location that houses RobotGoBen & Scribby


Welcome back to the honorable Doctors!!! Dr. Smooth & Dr. Beaky have moved back to the area, we like to believe because of us. They bring with them the 2 year old Fire Pig (TM) and newly made Natty Ice. Poor kids have nicknames since birth. I'm sure they will grow to hate them. Heehee.

Anyhoo, it's Dr. Beacky's birthday so everyone came over to cram in 13 people and 3 kids into our condo. She got a lovely handmade puppet of her very own from Sluggy. She even made the same face as the puppet without even trying, just lovely.

We had one of our faves, French Lunch. Basically, everyone just brings an item that is delicious and goes well together. Our spread was french bread, challah, foccacia, bruscetta, crackers, prosciutto, pepper salami, brie, goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, grapes, apples, olives, basil tomatoes, red peppers, artichoke hearts, olive & vinegar, roasted garlic and turkey. Get yourself a plate and mix & match how you like it. Oh, and lots of wine.

To add to the French flare, we also watched the Tour de France individual time trial in Anncey. The tour was pretty damn good this year and the time trial didn't disappoint.

We were so busy catching up, being loud and eating, we forgot the journal for most of the night. Sorry journal, we still love you -- just not as much at the good Doctors, wine and food. Next time, we promise.

Basic Urban Kitchen & Bar - Birth of Shooter

112 Pacific St
Roseville, CA 95678
(916) 749-4641

We are back to reality after a lovely Sierra cabin. This week we celebrate the birth of Shooter at a lovely little establishment call Basic. More bar, less restaurant, it suits our needs just fine.

There was an young over-achiever gathering there to start so we got as far away from that as possible and camped out in back with our 15 or so people. We took it over real nice.

Our server Mollee was very nice and put up with us, so you know we liked her. The pizzas are super thin, red or white sauce and pick your own toppings. Here is what we got, go ahead and drool a little, we won't watch.

White, pepperoni, onion
Red, artichoke hearts, tomato, bacon
Red, pepperoni, mushroom olive
White, mashed potatoes, basil, bacon

Yeah, the bacon is good on any of them.

One down side, I always forget to forgo the wine here. I got one glass, but it had been sitting on the counter a day too long, not delicious. Changed over to Malibu rum & coke and I was a happy girl. Morale of the story: stick to beer and hard alcohol.

Shooter got a really awesome blue puppet from our ever talented seamstress Sluggy. Of course it looked just like him. Someone needs to get me a picture of that.

Notable quotes:
"I didn't see any butt sniffing. Did I miss it? Did I arrive too late?" -TheJenny
"Slower means it lasts longer" - NakedBob
"That's what date rapists say" - Sluggy

Cabin Weekend

Undisclosed Sierra City location.

Shooter has connections. Mainly to his family that has a cabin in Sierra City. Not just any old cabin - a kick ass Norwegian stacked log cabin. That's right, it's down right beautiful! And we had it for 5 days.

DAY ONE: Thursday was a small crowd of Shim, Caddy, Nairb, Shooter, TheJenny, RobotGoBen & me (Scribby). We started drinky around 2pm, cause we could. Hung out in the sun, walked to the river, ate some pizza, looked at the view, ate Nairb's freshly made apple pie...yeah, it was about as terrible as that sounds.

DAY TWO: Next day consisted of a day at the lake. Activities included hiking, swimming, kayaking, sitting and napping. Also sucked balls. Every else showed up Friday night to a meal of burgers and hot dogs. Walked to the river, some Rock Band and hung out by the fire. There was lots of burning of things, including some leg hair and for some reason Bump & Crabby couldn't use their hands when they were lighting things on fire.

DAY THREE: Boys played a 5 hour game of Talisman and the girls "got the hell out of this nerd hole" There was some biking, some hiking. Tonight was our Thankskiester celebration - full turkey dinner in the spring, just cause. Boys decided to take on making a Turducken (duck inside a chicken inside a turkey). Bump & Crabby rocked out the deboning of the birds, (you can do that?), and we basted the damn thing in a huge portion of butter. We ate a little late, but it was extra delicious with lots of buttery goodness. Also played a rip-rousing round of pictionary with our own clues - always good!

DAY FOUR: French toast breakfast followed by some folks leaving. Girls went hiking while boys recovered from finishing the kegs. By the afternoon, only Shooter, Nairb & I were left. We went over to Shooter's Great-Uncle's house and hung out, listened to stories and visited his own personal portion of the river. Had some dinner in town and watched movies.

DAY FIVE: Mostly just packed up and headed home. It was all so lovely and so easy. We are hoping to be invited back again, because I really can't explain how awesome this place was! Thanks Shooter for having kick ass family!

Hot Italian

1627 16th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 444-3000

This place seemed to take forever to open, then we took forever to get there! It's on a great corner of 16th & P (old fireplace building, anyone remember?). The outside is a very graphic black on white, large graphic kind of look with awesome bike racks.

It's half store, half gelato cafe, half bistro/restaurant. The wine list is great (Nero d'Avola with dinner, Moscato d'Asti for dessert) they have Peroni on tap and they have the best bellinis in the area! Actual crushed white peaches in prosecco. Nice! RobotGoBen & I showed early and got drinks at the bar (very uncomfortable stools), and a salumi plate that had a nice light selection of meats and cheeses. Smaller portions than other places, thank god!

Dinner was a group of 12 of us which was a little bit of a tight fit at the tables meant for 8, but we made it work. Menu is refreshingly simple. Pizza had good quality Italian options with dough that is thin but a little chewy. You love it in the first couple of pieces than your jaw gets a little tired. They also had a very traditional white bean & tuna salad that was super tasty!

For the first time ever, every drunk ordered dessert - very good gelato! Tastes ranged from the mint chocolate to orange chocolate. I got the vanilla gelato, espresso gelato served with a shot of fresh espresso over it. As I said in the journal "Holy crap on a cracker delicious!" I would get that any day of the week.

The older Italian guy that works the crowd is great and adds some class to the joint.

They also have the Dyson hand dryers in the bathroom - they rock! Super high powered hand dryers. NakedBob would like them to have a pivot point, some rock climbing hand grips and have a courtesy *ding*. Example: *ding* Your junk is dry *ding*. Yup a Junk Dryer - we could be rich.

Moral of the story - go here. It's great.