By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com
A small-but-growing Sacramento area cupcake shop chain is now also selling its frosting without the cake.
Icing On The Cupcake, with four stores in Folsom, Rocklin and Sacramento, announced it will sell frosting in 1 lb. containers for $5. The frosting comes in four flavors: chocolate fudge, vanilla buttercream, cream cheese and strawberry buttercream.
By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com
The Star Ginger food truck begins rolling at UC Davis on Tuesday.
Restaurateur Mai Pham entered into a licensing agreement in May with UC Davis Dining Services to bring a Southeast Asian food truck to the campus. The state-of-the-art statinless steel kitchen will serve complimentary samples from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Silo Union on Hutchison Drive, according to a press release.
By Mark Glover
mglover@sacbee.com
Grand-opening ceremonies will be held Thursday at the new Panda Express restaurant in Woodland.
The restaurant at 2041 Bronze Star Drive - just south of the Highway 102 exit off Interstate 5 - will offer customers a free two-entree plate and a 22-ounce fountain drink between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Panda Express bills itself as the nation's largest Chinese fast-food chain, with nearly 1,400 outlets in 38 states. It's overseen by Rosemead-based Panda Restaurant Group.
Call The Bee's Mark Glover, (916) 321-1184.
By Mark Glover
mglover@sacbee.com
Sacramento restaurateur Eric Schnetz plans to open a fourth local Chicago Fire restaurant at the Palladio at Broadstone shopping complex in Folsom.
Schnetz said today that he hopes to open the 7,200-square-foot outlet by November. It will be built in existing retail space near the entrance to the Palladio 16 Cinemas along East Bidwell Street.
Seating around 300 and employing 80 to 100, it will be the largest Chicago Fire restaurant, which serves Chicago-style deep-dish pizzas, thin-crust pizzas and other items.
Current Chicago Fire restaurants are at 614 Sutter St., in Folsom (the first, opened in 2003), 2416 J St., in Sacramento and 500 N. Sunrise Ave., in Roseville. Those outlets employ about 180.
See more details in Friday's edition of The Sacramento Bee.
Call The Bee's Mark Glover, (916) 321-1184.
The Sacramento Mobile Food Festival, aka SactoMoFo, is taking place from 12 to 6 p.m. today at Fremont Park (16th and Q Streets). Follow live updates from festival attendees below.
For more on the festival, read previous Bee coverage and view a photo gallery.
Chris Macias will be tweeting about the food and wine at tonight's Grape & Gourmet at the Sacramento Convention Center. Feel free to join the fun and send your own tasting notes on Twitter using the hashtag #gg2010. See all the tweets below.
Coming Thursday: A Sacbee.com photographer will be snapping photos of the Grape & Gourmet crowd. Look for yourself or your friends after 8 a.m. at www.sacbee.com/photos.
Photo: Mark Hess of J. Lohr Winery, pours a glass of wine as wine enthusiasts examine the various bottles J. Lohr has on display at their booth at Grapes and Gourmet at the Sacramento Convention Center on Wednesday, July 7, 2010. J. Lohr won for the "Golden Bear" at the competition for best white wine. Photo by Kyle Grantham kgrantham@sacbee.com
