Sacramento's paper of record has made it official: Empress Tavern is "the best new restaurant in Sacramento." Here's a snippet from Bee dining critic Carla Meyer's review:

Before Empress, moments of marveling occurred three times, max, at any one restaurant. At Empress, the majority of dishes I tasted had this effect...

I ate turkey six times in the weeks just before ordering Empress’ free-range turkey – a choice about which my similarly poultry-logged companions were not excited. Thiemann’s version reignited our enthusiasm.

Equally tender white and dark meat seems to soak up the reduced poultry stock – which Thiemann thickens with a bit of gravy – covering it. Cranberry sauce offsets the gravy’s slight saltiness, with green onion adding snap.

One anticipates, when eating any type of meat at a restaurant, to hit at least one dry and/or tough patch – an expectation born not from pessimism but experience. Such patches did not exist at Empress, where the “honey hot” fried chicken was as consistently tender as the walnut-crusted rack of lamb and smoked prime rib.

Read the entire review in the Sac Bee.

Empress Tavern is located at 1031 K Street, and can be found online at http://empresstavern.com/.

More News:

Menu returns - The wildly popular Broderick Roadhouse (319 Sixth Street in West Sacramento) got its start as a wildly popular food truck slinging Primanti Brothers-style sandwiches. But Broderick has since done away with its original hits, the enormous sammies stuffed with fries, slaw and meat. Last week it brought back its Pastrami ’Wich, so you can finally feel full again. Janelle Bitker in Sac News & Review. (Second item.)

Cheese Louise is ready for Roseville customers -- but there's a catch - A highly anticipated grilled cheese-sandwich restaurant in Roseville has finally opened ... without the cheese. Cheese Louise Diner & Grill, which in 2014 announced plans to open at 400 Vernon St., began its soft opening on Monday. But if you're hungry, there's something you should know. Sonya Sorich in Sac Biz Journal.

Fine French Frugality: Cafe Plan B - The special, mussels and frites (fries) for $10 and draught Kronenbourg 1664 lager for $3 from 2:30 to 5:30 on weekdays, can’t be beat if you’re looking for a more upscale late lunch or early dinner. Nur Kausar in Submerge Mag.

Feast Your Eyes on This - Located in the historic district of downtown Truckee, the couple’s culinary creations at Restaurant Trokay take center stage, but the presentation is no afterthought. Their food plating has been heralded as fastidious by a number of critics and well-known media outlets, including Sunset Magazine and The New York Times. “In the guest’s mind, they have an expectation of what they will get,” Weatherson says. “We like to build on that and surprise them.” Laurie Lauletta-Bashart in Comstocks Mag.

Ernesto Delgado, the owner of Mayahuel, is in negotiations with the city to open a taco bar at the spot formerly occupied by Cafe Soleil, reports Bob Shallit in the Sac Bee.

Valerie Mamone-Werder, a business development manager with the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, said the city is in “exclusive negotiations” with Delgado to take over the restaurant site but said no deal has yet been made...

Real estate broker David Herrera of Colliers International said he understands that Delgado plans to offer Mexican food, including a taco bar, along with beer at the new site if he can reach agreement with the city’s Parks Department.

Read the entire story in the Sac Bee.

Until then, you can still enjoy Mayahuel, located at 12th & K.

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Davis Beer Week - Third time’s a charm for the Davis Beer Week, Aug. 10 to 16. Now in its third year, the seven-day, citywide celebration of suds is set to kick off on Monday, Aug. 10. With more than 60 vendors and the addition of the Bike and Brew Fest at Davis Central Park, the event will be bigger and better than ever — all despite fears of cancellation earlier in the summer. Barbara Harvey in Sac Mag.

Café Plan B - Café Plan B, a French restaurant in midtown which opened in 2014, had caught my eye many times and recently I had just the right occasion to check it out. A colleague and I decided to venture out of the office for a rare midtown lunch outing and we were not disappointed. Right off the bat we loved the open-air feeling of the restaurant – an ideal mix of indoor/outdoor, even on a warm day. We decided to start our meal with an order of the Prawn Stix, pancetta-wrapped prawns which arrived on skewers with a spicy aioli on top. The dish was a perfect start to the meal and definitely had us excited for the next course. Liz Conant in Sac Foodies.

XOSO Presents Sactown Wings on Aug. 15 - Calling everyone who loves chicken wings, beer, and helping support the community (so yea, basically everyone) – Sactown Wings is nearly upon us! Mark your calendars and work up that appetite-this year’s Annual SacTown Wings Event, is put on through XOSO Sports and Social League. Laine Himmelmann on Girls on the Grid.

Beer Run: In the age of craft brew, big beer comes up short - In the interests of updating and calibrating my palate, I decided to do a more thorough big beer tasting. I invited celebrated beer enthusiast and world traveler Louie Toro, Burgers and Brews co-owner Derar Zawaydeh and Brandon Megowen, brewmaster of Zawaydeh’s in-the-works local brewery called Olde Ritual. On a recent afternoon, we sipped and scored some of the best-selling beers in the land...The best big beer we tasted? Budweiser. There, I said it. Budweiser was better than Stella Artois, which I had always considered a better, more sophisticated, pricier Bud. Blair Anthony Robertson in the Sac Bee.

Big Sexy Brewing Company - After their lease fell through in Auburn last June, James Thompson and Mark Taylor, owners of Big Sexy Brewing Company, took a year to find a place that would suit their needs for a local taproom. Now they are aiming for an October opening in a South Sacramento warehouse, which will provide them with 8,400 square feet of brewing and taproom space, outdoor seating and a hop garden. In Sactown Mag.

Join Cowtown Eats and the Queen of Dating for the Plan B for the Holidays Happy Hour on Wednesday, Dec. 17 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The informal happy hour will be held at Plan B Cafe (1226 20th Street), the newish midtown outpost for Plan B restaurant whose original location is at Watt and Fair Oaks.

We'll have free bites courtesy of Plan B Cafe and $3 Kronenbourg beer on draft and special $6 cocktail, which Plan B Cafe describes as lemonade for adults, with Amaretto. They'll also extend their happy hour discounts for the duration of the event. (Click here to see their Happy Hour menu.)

The happy hour will also be a fundraiser for Sacramento Steps Forward's Winter Sanctuary program, an effort to provide shelter for homeless individuals. Here's info about the program from their Web site:

The program, which runs from November 24, 2014 – March 31, 2015, is Sacramento’s only privately-funded and its most cost-effective emergency shelter option, at just $11 per person, per night. These funds provide our guests with screenings, transportation, food, sleeping accommodations and more. Winter Sanctuary allows us to connect our most vulnerable residents with essential services that can help them get on the path to self-sufficiency.

Learn more at SacramentoStepsForward.org.

We will be asking for a $10 (or larger) donation to attend the event. We'll also have a representative from Sacramento Steps Forward to talk about their charity and what you can do to help.

Free tickets are available online at http://cowtowndec2014.nightout.com/, and don't forget to check out The Queen of Dating at http://www.thequeenofdating.com/, where she proudly offers our high-quality services in dating coaching, date planning, couples date planning, singles events, and more.

Plan B Cafe
1226 20th Street
Sacramento, CA 95811
916 447-3300

Web site: http://cafeplanb.com/

Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/cafe-plan-b-sacramento

Happy Hour

Monday to Friday
2:30 to 5:30 p.m.