These kayakers were spending a dry, sunny and balmy Super Bowl Sunday paddling leisurely up and down the American River just below Folsom Lake. We were on the trail far above, trying to compensate for an unusually caloric weekend even for a restaurant critic:
- To prepare for a review for The Bee's Ticket+ this coming Sunday, we returned to the new Roxy Restaurant & Bar along Fair Oaks Boulevard for breakfast. Dinner will be the focus of our critique, but we were eager to see if Roxy's daring originality extends to its weekend-only breakfasts. It does. How many other restaurants make their own donuts, and these were spectacular - hot, tall and fresh, with a hybrid texture not as cakey as customary cake donuts, and almost as airy as glazed donuts. Roxy's donuts ($3.95 for three, plus donut holes, plus chocolate, orange and caramel dipping sauces) aren't the only hefty and unusual items on the breakfast menu. The buttermilk Cheddar biscuits came with a sweet, spicy and creamy ancho chile pepper sauce enriched with a robust sausage ($8.95), while the chilaquiles with black beans and fried eggs were hearty and smoky with a red chile-pepper sauce ($9.95). On the basis of this meal alone, we should have been in those kayaks.
- During dinner at Booyah Greenback Grille in Citrus Heights, we picked up a flyer touting the restaurant's Valentine's Day prix-fixe dinner. The festive meal, to be available Saturday as well as Feb. 14, costs "$90 per couple" or "$45 per individual." The math is correct, but the image of a diner sitting down to lobster bisque, rack of lamb and a Meyer-lemon mousse all by himself or herself on Valentine's Day just doesn't compute.
- Several Sacramento streets over the years have shown the potential to develop into the region's Restaurant Row - Fair Oaks Boulevard, Broadway, J Street - but when it comes to number and diversity of restaurants, Folsom Boulevard has them all beat, as the Light Rail ride from midtown to Folsom reminded us. Not every station provides easy access to interesting restaurants, but most do - Japanese, Mexican, Korean, Chinese, the Tumbleweed Inn for great burgers, Rudy's Hideaway for lobster, the Old Spaghetti Factory for bargain pastas and so on. The list is long, enticing and reason enough to become acquainted with Light Rail, especially if you are concerned about global warming and would like a second glass of wine with your meal.
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