Cowtown Eats first brought you a sneak peek at Meet & Eat, a new Curtis Park restaurant by the owners of Cafe Dantorels, last week.

Since then, it's held its soft opening.

Sac Biz Journal's Sonya Sorich paid a visit took a look at the menu:

The current menu, which displays words such as "artisan" and "organic," features a variety of interesting options. Morning selections range from french toast ($10) to breakfast tacos ($12). Later in the day, a "taco bar" option features three tacos served with tortilla chips for $13 to $15.

There's an assortment of salads, burgers and sandwiches as well. Many include unique twists, such as the veggie sandwich ($13) that filled with beets and eggplant and served with fries. The salmon salad ($13) is equally intriguing, as its toppings include paprika-filled green olives.

Read the entire story in Sac Biz Journal.

The Sac Bee's Bob Shallit also has a couple more details on the place:

The plan is to offer “high-end” burgers and tacos, salads and a lot more. Breakfasts, traditional and European style, also will be served. Once its alcohol permit is awarded, the restaurant will have 24 craft beers on tap along with a diverse wine selection.

Read the entire article in the Sac Bee. (Third item.)

From what I hear, the liquor license will be in place before Thanksgiving. I look forward to giving the place a try.

Meet & Eat is located at 3445 Freeport Blvd.

More News:

Paragary’s marketing chief moves to start-up - Long-time Paragary’s marketing director Callista Polhemus has a new gig. Starting Monday, she’s taking over promotion duties for Requested, a start-up launched by Sonny Mayugba, her one-time boss at the Paragary Restaurant Group. Bob Shallit in the Sac Bee.

So bubbly: High Mountain Tea Creama, ShareTea Davis - Because it's from the birthplace of boba, we expect Taiwanese company ShareTea to craft pretty legit tapioca drinks, even amid its rapid expansion across the United States. Luckily, the Davis post meets those lofty expectations. Janelle Bitker in Sac News & Review.

Sienna New American Grill - This elegant El Dorado Hills restaurant, which offers over 20 bourbon options on its menu, is hosting its first Bourbon Dinner Nov. 19 with a lavish four-course meal and drink pairings. Heather Kemp and Johanna Pugh in Sactown Magazine. (Fourth Item.)

Happy Hour Hound: Club Pheasant - I can easily see myself heading to West Sacramento for happy hour or a proper dinner at Club Pheasant in the near future. While I was there I overheard customers raving about the lamb stew and steak sandwiches, both of which I’m excited to try. Club Pheasant’s happy hour is Tuesday through Friday from 4 p.m.–6 p.m. Ronnie Cline in Submerge Mag.

In an effort to cover $22,000 in unexpeted renovation costs, Binchoyaki owners Craig and Toki Takehara launched a Kickstarter to ease the financial burden of opening the Japanese BBQ restaurant.

In doing so, they revealed a couple more details about the restaurant. Here's a partial transcript of the video, where they describe their new venture:

It's a Japanese BBQ restaurant. We do yakitori, and kind of an izakaya-style dining...

Sacramento's also the Farm-to-Fork Capitol of America, so we're going to take some authentic Japanese recipies, use our local ingredients, and make a different kind of food with it...

So our concept is fabulous yakitori plus good sake plus awesome company equals Binchoyaki experience.

Their Kickstarter expires in two weeks.

Click here if you want to contribute.

When it opens, Binchoyaki will be located at 2226 10th St., and can be found online at http://binchoyaki.com/.

More News:

Sammy Hagar space in downtown Roseville finally has a new tenant - Ninja Sushi & Teriyaki will fill a downtown Roseville space at 238 Vernon St. previously occupied by an ill-fated Sammy Hagar restaurant, officials with the city announced on Tuesday. Sonya Sorich in Sac Biz Journal.

Dramatically different use planned for former Carrows in Placerville - A well-known El Dorado County brewer is opening a dining concept in a space previously occupied by Carrows. Jack Russell Farm Brewery plans to fill the former Carrows site at 209 Main St. in Placerville with a restaurant and tasting house, according to Matt Dillon, a bartender at the company's brewing facility. He said the new concept is slated to open in December or January. Sonya Sorich in Sac Biz Journal.

Caviar - San Francisco-based food delivery service Caviar has launched in Sacramento. Meals from 20 local restaurants—including Lotus Thai Cuisine, Ink Eats and Drinks, Pizza Rock, Osaka Sushi, Liquidology Bar, Oscar’s Very Mexican Food and Bombay Bar and Grill—can be brought to your door, typically within 60 minutes (there is an 18 percent service fee and a delivery charge ranging from $1.99 to $4.99 depending on location). In Sactown Mag.

Fox & Goose Public House - Jessa Berkey and Peter Monson, two former general managers of Fox & Goose Public House, took over ownership in September from the original owners’ daughter Allyson Dalton. In Sactown Mag. (Second Item.)

Cornflower Creamery now scooping in downtown Sacramento - At last, downtown Sacramento’s only ice cream shop is open for business. Cornflower Creamery held its grand opening celebration over the weekend at 1013 L Street, in what used to be Cafe Roma. The walls got a fresh coat of neutral paint, but otherwise, the interior looks about the same. Janelle Bitker in Sac News & Review.

Longtime readers of Cowtown Eats are familiar with this recurring thought. Just like movie critics, some will share your taste and other's won't. It's not a matter of facts, but a matter of opinion.

A recent review of Oak Park's Aurthur Henry's and the two different critics' opinion of the restaurant concept is a perfect example of that.

The Sac Bee's current food critic wrote recently that she enjoyed cooking her own food on the grill.

Why in the world, one might ask, would you pay $23 to grill your own rib-eye? Because it’s great fun. Eating a steak cooked by a professional is dining out. Grilling one’s own steak, and especially doing it alongside pals, is a party.

At least that’s the case at Arthur Henry’s, where a limited, old-school menu (highlighted by steaks, bourbon and garlic bread) combines with permanent-midnight lighting, velvet floral wallpaper and a jukebox partial to Steve Miller and Conway Twitty to send one back in time – to that period, roughly between 1965 and 1981, when mustaches, Corvettes and smoke-filled barrooms were held in equal esteem.

Read Carla Meyer's entire review in the Sac Bee.

But that's distinct from the opinion from former Sac Bee restaurant critic Blair Anthony Robertson in January 2014:

This is possibly the clumsiest restaurant concept we have ever encountered. The food comes heavily wrapped in plastic and is unsightly on the table – a skewer of raw vegetables next to a slab of raw meat next to a piece of stale bread with pale butter. The paper plates are on top of the porcelain plate we are expected to eat off of, something we found unappealing. When we unwrapped the plastic, we all made “yucky” faces...

Did we have a good time? Yes, we did, but our conversation – and many of our laughs throughout the evening – centered around how we actually like people with skill and passion handling our food, where we would discard our blood-soaked plastic wrap and who would bug the server to bring us more Handi-wipes.

I happen to agree with Meyer that Arthur Henry's is a good time. I've been there several times with friends for both drinks and for a full dinner. I'm glad that I don't have to go to the store, set up my grill, wait for the charcoal to light, and clean up. For that convenience and the restaurant's unique ambiance, it's worth an occasional visit. But that doesn't mean that Robertson is wrong. Sometimes your tastes are just different from a restaurant critic's.

Arthur Henry's Supper Club and Ruby Room is located at 3406 Broadway and can be found online at http://www.arthurhenrys.net/.

Click here to check out Arthur Henry's Happy Hour menu.

More News:

Dinner is a battlefield - The chefs at the restaurants participating in the Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge are up for the test. As of press time, the full list of eateries in the friendly monthlong competition had not been announced, but the V Word is particularly excited to see what Blackbird Kitchen+Beer Gallery (reopening mid-October, according to its Facebook page) concocts, after nailing it with a risotto burger last year. Shoka in Sac News & Review.

Farm-to-scoop shop comes to downtown grid - After several small delays that stalled the shop’s opening from August into autumn, Cornflower Creamery is expected to start scooping on Oct. 10 at 1013 L St., the space formerly occupied by Cafe Roma. Broughton’s hand-crafted flavors will be far from ordinary. Instead of plain chocolate or strawberry, expect such creative offerings as pistachio-apricot, candied fennel or baklava. Debbie Arrington in the Sac Bee.

Buggy Whip restaurant locks its doors - The sign on the front door of the once-iconic restaurant has disappointed a community of diners since it was posted Sept. 15: “The Buggy Whip thanks you for your patronage. It is with much regret that we must close.” With no fanfare, business partners Larry LeSieur and Steven Segal put up the sign and walked away. Customers have learned of the closure as they have shown up for lunch or dinner, only to find the doors locked and the restaurant dark. This is the second time the Buggy Whip has closed. The first was in 2012, reopening last October. Allen Pierleoni in the Sac Bee.

Vela Cafe - Nadeem Haddad, who formerly ran Gyro Supreme at Downtown Plaza’s food court, and first-time restaurateur Feras Jowaniyah are set to open a new downtown Greek and Mediterranean cuisine restaurant in October. The cafe, which will be located near 10th and I streets, will feature a salad bar and deli station where customers can expect to see favorites like falafel and gyro sandwiches with pita bread (tossed in a garlic-based olive oil), shaved lamb and beef and tzatziki sauce. In Sactown Magazine. (Fifth item.)

Local maker of small-batch craft sodas to launch Burly Beverages - Oak Park resident Gabriel Aiello is on a mission to combine the benefits of natural foods with the flavor of sweet, fizzy soft drinks for Burly Beverages, his new collection of sodas made with local ingredients that is expected to launch in mid-November. Dani Anguiano in Sactown Magazine.

Cornflower Creamery will open on Saturday, Oct. 3 across the street from the State Capitol at 10th & L streets, reports Dani Anguiano in Sactown Magazine.

Sacramento native Cynthia Broughton decided to launch Cornflower after noticing a lack of ice cream makers in the downtown core. “We’ve had some really landmark ice cream makers in [other] neighborhoods, like Gunther’s and Vic’s, which I grew up with,” says Broughton, a former chef. “Especially now that downtown and midtown are developing so much, I think it’s time to add another ice cream maker to that environment.”

Not to mention, add a farm-to-scoop element to the mix. “Farming is in my roots,” says Broughton, who once ran her own 5-acre organic farm in Lake County, where she raised dairy goats and grew fruit trees. “I’ve always been a fan of the local movement and I want to work in as much seasonal produce [at Cornflower] as I can find.”

Read the entire story in Sactown Magazine.

Cornflower Creamery will take over the space formerly occupied by Cafe Roma. That restaurant closed in June 2014.

It will be located at 1013 L Street, and can be found online at http://www.cornflowercreamery.com/.

More News:

Sturgeon and succotash served under a blood orange moon in Gala Dinner - A blood orange supermoon hung in the sky above the Tower Bridge Sunday night as guests of the third annual Farm-to-Fork Gala Dinner, one of Sacramento’s most glamorous events of the year, tasted bite-sized rounds of steak tartare on puff pastry and soy-ginger marinated quail eggs. Brenna Lyles in the Sac Bee.

Why it's great that the International Food Blogger Conference is coming to Sacramento - We just got some news that I think is great for Sacramento. One of the best (and my favorite) food bloggers' conferences is coming to Sacramento in July 2016. Next year's theme: Farm to Fork (big surprise). That means about 500 of the nation's top food bloggers (and a few international) will be coming to town. Catherine Enfield on Munchie Musings.

Freeport Bakery plans major expansion - Sacramento’s venerable Freeport Bakery is planning to nearly double its space by leasing an additional storefront just two doors down from its current building in the Land Park neighborhood. The new space – which has hosted numerous businesses over the years, including Tuesday Morning, Yogurtopia, Shoe Daca and House of Pilates – will become the bakery’s “Annex” and be used for wedding cake consulting and cake decorating. Bob Shallit in the Sac Bee.

Organizers celebrate huge crowds, new ideas for farm-to-fork festival - The Farm-to-Fork Festival on Capitol Mall last Saturday was so well attended, next year’s event will be expanded -- again. An estimated 50,000 people were drawn to the third annual free festival on Saturday, said Mike Testa, chief operating officer of the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau. Mark Anderson in Sac Biz Journal.

Gastronomicon: Burger King's new Whopper blackens Halloween's name - Your friend arrives to your Halloween party. His costume is clearly just a cheap mask he had in his closet. Are you happy? Do you wish he tried harder? Or do you just let it go, knowing that he could have shown up in something significantly more offensive and/or racist? The Halloween Whopper from Burger King is that guy, if that guy was put together from spare parts by a PR-obsessed bioengineer with an eye for synergizing branding opportunities. Anthony Siino in Sac News & Review.

One of my favorite things about Sacramento's food scene is the accessibility of all the chefs, brewers and other movers and shakers.

I've run into Randall Selland at the Sunday's farmers market. I chatted with Dave Gull of New Helvetia at a fundraiser for Fairytale Town. I've said hello to Billy Ngo at an event for the Sacramento Zoo.

Before I come up to them, they have no idea who I am, but they're more than happy to spend a minute to say hi and answer any questions I might have.

Another one of these events where you can meet some of Sacramento's best chefs and eat great food not available in their restaurants is this Sunday's Have an Offal Day event.

I went to the first one and was blown away by the variety and quality of food. (For those of you who aren't familiar, offal generally refers to the "other," less popular parts of an animal, including feet, organs, tongue, ears, etc.) You have to be adventurous, but you're not forced to eat anything.

Here's the all star cast of chefs participating in this year's event:

• Carina Lampkin (Blackbird Kitchen & Beer Gallery)
• Danny Origel (Roxy Restaurant)
• Tyler Bond (Dirty Feet Dining, Kru)
• Keith Breedlove (Culinerdy Cruzer, Food Network contestant)
• Hank Shaw (well known blogger, Hunter Angler Gardener Cook)
• Patrick Mulvaney (Mulvaney's B&L)
• Brian Mizner (Hook & Ladder)
• Brenda Ruiz (Biba's)
• Brock MacDonald (Block Butcher Bar)
• Wes Nilssen (de Vere's Pubs)
• Don Dickonson (Yang's Noodles and instructor at IOT Culinary School)
• Andrea Reiter (Capital Dime, soon The Patriot)

If you end up going, my advice is to eat it and then find out what it is. None of it will hurt you, but I can guarantee that most of it will be delicious.

I also spotted on Twitter today that there's a code to save $10 $5, via Hank Shaw, one of the participating chefs.

I'll be cooking wobbly bits at Sacto's Have an Offal Day​ on SUNDAY: Her'es a link 4 discount tix: http://t.co/qm39MsjpeA Code is: barber

— Hank Shaw (@Hank_Shaw) August 10, 2015

You can buy tickets here.

Want to learn more? Listen to Catherine Enfield's interview with Kitty O'Neal on KFBK.

Have an Offal Day will be held at Mulvaney's Next Door (1215 19th St.) from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 16.

More News:

Land Ocean New American Grill - This popular Folsom seafood eatery is expanding with a new location in Roseville at the Westfield Galleria mall, which is set to open in late August. In Sactown Magazine.

Vinegary bubbly: Jade nectarine shrub soda, The Mill - Hip cafes no longer serve Italian sodas for good reason: they're sugary sweet and ultimately one-dimensional. An excellent alternative? Shrub sodas, which sub out the Torani for a fruit- and vinegar-based syrup. The Mill recently started serving shrub sodas in two seasonal flavors, apricot and jade nectarine. Janelle Bitker in Sac News & Review.

Here’s the scoop - The City Council approved the lease for her shop, Cornflower Creamery, last month. The opening date is Sept. 1...Broughton said she will keep the shop open in the evenings, often until 11 p.m. That puts her in a group of merchants envisioning a different sort of downtown that’s alive long after state offices close, said Valerie Mamone-Werder, business development manager with the Downtown Sacramento Partnership. Bob Shallit in the Sac Bee. (Second item.)