Jamie's Broadway Grille

(I should have put the cornbread in the foreground.)

Jamie's Broadway Grille
427 Broadway
Sacramento


Holy Jebus, this place was delightful.  I was iffy about my boyfriend's instructions to "just push my way through the hallway to get to the bar", but it worked.  I settled atop a cushiony barstool next to an older lady plowing her way through a rather large fish entree.

My boyfriend pointed out that one of the bartenders sounded like Robert Downey, Jr.  Agreed.  When he began insisting he looked like it too, I politely asked him to stop drinking.

Calamari and Clam Chowder were ordered and subsequently devoured.  Best Clam Chowder in Sacramento?  Perhaps.  We split an embarrasingly large platter of BBQ chicken, ribs and links, and then I took a bite of the BEST THING EVER.  At least here.  And that would be the cornbread.



Cornbread everywhere else:  YAWN.  Cornbread at Jamie's:  "^&#* YEAH!"  

It's buttery.  It's spicy.  It's full of cheese.  It's just perfection.  I ordered an additional side of it and wasn't charged.  Dude!  You're the best, Robert Downey, Jr.

DeBrito Chocolate Factory

Get your wallet ready...

DeBrito Chocolate Factory

160 Briggs Road

Hollister

If you told me in 1993 there would come a day when I would spend the equivalent of two hours of hard-earned mall wages on a single Granny Smith apple, I would have thrown my AP Calculus textbook at you…because THAT math would have sounded preposterous.

Fast forward nearly two decades, and I’m walking out with a Rocky Road AND a Triple Treat.

Any idiot can dip an apple in caramel and roll it in a number of toppings.  Few, however, can do it well.  Overheat your caramel and it, along with any toppings, will slip right off that apple like a dress on prom night.

DeBrito has mastered the technique.  Crisp, sweet Granny Smiths are dipped in a buttery caramel, melted just enough to provide a thick coat and support an abundance of substantial toppings from gumballs to chili-lime salt to banana leather.  The result is amazing, due to the quality of the ingredients and the care taken as each sinful treat is prepared by hand.  This is a real fork-and-knife dessert.  Even I don’t have a mouth big enough to wrap around one of these things.

That’s what she said.

Piaci Pub & Pizzeria

Menu, schmenu.  Ask the bartenders for suggestions.

Piaci Pub & Pizzeria
120 W. Redwood Avenue

Fort Bragg, CA

Dubbed “Home of the Adult Pizza”, Piaci is the perfect neighborhood joint where you can take a date, meet your bros, or pick up a takeout order of some pretty phenomenal pizzas and salad.  Leave the kids at home, because that’s why men go to bars in the first place.

A wide variety of beers are poured by knowledgeable bartenders who sure as hell know how to make dinner suggestions, too.  Ten minutes were spent reading and re-reading the menu trying to make a decision until I heard one bartender offer another diner the option to order a half-and-half pie.  That’s the route we ended up taking.

Not long thereafter, it arrived: half Farmers and half Rosa, on a thin, crisp crust all blistered and smoky from the heavenly oven beside the old Italian in the kitchen who’d been twirling dough since we’d shown up.  The Farmers half was decadent with its fennel-rich sausage, caramelized onions and mozzarella; the Rosa was lighter and sweeter with Canadian ham, Roma tomatoes and mozzarella.  The entire pizza was complemented by a perfectly thin layer of tomato sauce and herbs, allowing the crunchy crust and toppings to shine through unlike so many inferior pizzas swimming in sauce these days.

At the end of our meal, we were sated and surrounded by the sounds of Tears for Fears.  Head over heels?  Yep.

Woodlon Diner

Cheap AND delicious!

Woodlon Diner

24335 N. Highway 99

Acampo, CA

I’ve probably travelled the stretch of Highway 99 between Sacramento and Stockton a jillion times.  Each time, the Woodlon Diner seemed to beckon “Stop and eat here.  Wait!  Where are you going…?” as I sped by.  But when I was tasked to choose a casual breakfast spot for a gathering of my screwball friends, I knew this was the perfect place.

Woodlon diner is a cool little truck stop in Acampo.  Minutes away is a skydiving facility where mere mortals voluntarily throw themselves out of airplanes; the only risk I was willing to take on this particular morning was to eat an enormous breakfast, knowing full well I had lunch plans with family a few hours later.

 

A no-frills atmosphere can be found here, and the only drawback for the other patrons was the lack of upholstery to help absorb my group's boisterous laughter this morning.  They seemed not to care, reading newspapers while sipping on coffee and stabbing piles of scrambled eggs with their forks.  Our cheery waitress took our orders (and apologies for our behavior) before scurrying off to the kitchen.

Chewing shuts us up quickly, and I have the feeling the kitchen was highly motivated to serve us as fast as possible.  Huge platters arrived, and my go-to breakfast of Chicken Fried Steak came on TWO platters, earning me ridicule from each knucklehead in my booth.

Then, silence.  Forks scraped plates as I sawed into my crispy steak smothered in country gravy and half a shaker of pepper.  Protein is good for you, right?  I wasted not a morsel as I methodically moved from steak to perfectly runny sunny side up eggs to toast (the dessert portion of breakfast).

At least two out of four of us soon sat back with our eyes rolled to the back of our head.  Stomachs? Extended to capacity.  Lunch?  Definitely not an option.  Dinner?  Well, a girl has to keep up her strength…

Mifune Restaurant

Objects in this photo are larger than
they appear!

Mifune Restaurant
1737 Post Street
San Francisco, CA


I should have seen the warning signs.

The word "Deluxe" in its title.

The $12.99 price tag.

Identical serving vessels being shuttled to families of four.

Yet, I went right ahead and ordered the Deluxe Nabe all for myself – even when the menu clearly stated it would be served in an iron pot.  Really?  An iron pot?  I felt compelled to order it for that reason alone.

I was given two soup bowls and two soup spoons.  Ha!  If I weren't such a lady, I would have dived right into the pot itself, head first.

Having two bowls actually came in handy.  Contents of one bowl would cool off while contents of the other were being methodically shoveled into my mouth.

Super generous serving of udon, cooked perfectly...no gluey mess here.  Shrimp.  Scallops.  White mystery fish.  Imitation crab.  Shitake mushrooms, other exotic mushrooms, and various greens.  All topped with a single shrimp tempura.

Wow.

The next morning I weighed two pounds heavier.  It had to be the sodium in the soy sauce, right?  Right...

Flaming Grill Cafe

Your mouth better be open for these
mammoth burgers, too.

Flaming Grill Cafe

2319 El Camino Avenue
Sacramento, CA


I haven’t seen this many exotic meats since the last time I was in San Francisco’s Castro District!

Flaming Grill Café’s menu is designed for repeat visits.  I came for the Ostrich, but ended up ordering the Wild Boar Café Burger, and created a mental checklist to come back for the llama and yak.

Although watching other patrons systematically devour a zoo’s variety of meats had me nearly salivating, my burger was only half-eaten because (a) of the sheer size and (b) my server unknowingly sabotaged my appetite by convincing me to substitute my fries with blue cheese and bacon fries, which I couldn’t stop eating.  Damn you, bacon.

Next time, the Carne Asada Fries…because my digestive system is a glutton for punishment.

Randy's Donuts

My kind of famous in L.A.!

Randy's Donuts

805 W. Manchester Boulevard
Inglewood, CA


To be honest, I came for the photo opp.  Giant donut on a roof?  Check.  Camera?  Check.

Eating was an afterthought, given the fact that the previous day I enjoyed a double-cupcake breakfast.

I couldn't resist, though; everyone seemed to be salivating over the smells of sugar, cinnamon and coffee that wafted from the kitchen and into the otherwise smoggy LA County air.  I chose a chocolate cake donut, and managed to shove each last tender, fudgy crumb into my mouth in seconds.  A jelly-filled monstrosity was saved for my mid-morning "snack".

Will I be back?  Maybe not for a repeat snapshot, but definitely for an apple fritter…tomorrow.