Strings Urban Kitchen, located at Capitol Towers at 7th and N Streets, will open on Friday, March 21.

Here's Ed Murrieta's description of the place in early February, via the Sac Biz Journal.

Strings Urban Kitchen is an up-market offshoot of Strings Italian Cafes, the Gold River-based chain of casual eateries...

Gelber said Strings Urban Kitchens lunch menu will include pastas, salads and sandwiches (meatball, sausage, chicken picatta) in the $8 to $10 range. He said dinners -- fish-forward, with frutti di mare pizza, cioppino, plus pastas and steaks -- will be priced between $12 and $15.

Here's a little more from a press release issued on Wednesday.

Strings Urban Kitchen is the brainchild of founder, Michael Gelber, with the able support of Strings Italian Café founder, Al DeCaprio, and local sommelier and Strings Urban Kitchen general manager, Michael Chandler. Gelber is also the owner of Rail Bridge Cellars Winery, Rail Bridge Cellars Penthouse Lounge, Alexis Catering and Libations by Alexis...

In conjunction with Strings Italian Café head chef, Eric Hunziker, and the Strings Urban Kitchen chef de cuisine, Antonio Morales – Gelber, DeCaprio and Chandler created the menu, which offers soups, salads, paninos, pizzas, and classic Italian pasta favorites, as well as many fresh seafood dishes including steamed clams and mussels, cioppino and salmon. The restaurant also offers vongole and eggplant parmesan, a rare find in downtown Sacramento.

“The food is going to pleasantly surprise people,” said Gelber. “We offer a broad menu, with seasonal and traditional favorites.”

One of the most unique features is the Vino Cantinetta, stocked with fine, affordable wines hand-selected by Michael Chandler. The comfortable Vino Cantinetta provides customers the opportunity to taste and purchase bottles of wine to take home, or to enjoy during their dining experience. Chandler, Strings Urban Kitchen’s general manager and sommelier, is active in the wine industry and his past experience includes working with David Berkley Fine Wines and Specialty Foods. He has also advised a number of local restaurants and retail wine shops. Joe Anthony, mixologist, former general manager at Zocalo and the inspiration behind Sacramento’s Cocktail Week, crafted the cocktail menu.

Strings can be found online at https://www.facebook.com/stringsurbankitchen.

More News:

The Beer Run: Amazing Sacramento Beer Week exceeded expectations - Beer Week wasn’t big; it was huge. It wasn’t impressive; it was amazing. Tens of thousands of people participated. Breweries had lines like they’d never seen before. Specialty beer pubs set records for sales. And all of us had the chance to taste many tremendous craft beers...From my vantage point, no one embraced Beer Week better than Ken Hotchkiss, owner of Capitol Beer and Taproom, the craft beer pub and bottle shop tucked away near the corner of Fair Oaks Boulevard and Howe Avenue. Hotchkiss had special events all 10 days, and he has quickly become known for his exciting and ever-changing selection of beer on tap. Blair Anthony Robertson in the Sac Bee.

Sacramento's small breweries enjoying early success - A collection of small breweries are making a big impression on Sacramento's craft beer scene. Device Brewing Company, Mraz Brewing Company and Bike Dog Brewing Company have refused to allow size constraints or minimal marketing budgets to stand in the way of immediate success. All three are growing in popularity despite being open less than a year, operating in facilities that combined would be cozy for a family of four and marketing themselves largely with a Facebook page and Twitter account. Paul Janes on News 10.

Five businesses that made a mark in Sacramento region in 2013 - Track 7 Brewery – This tiny brewery in an industrial area off of Sutterville Road in Sacramento epitomizes the craft beer craze, fed by numerous breweries that have popped up all over the region. Track 7 recently doubled its capacity by expanding into the space next door in the warehouse-style building it occupies on West Pacific Avenue. Its wares are found in local stores, including the Nugget grocery chain, and on tap at downtown and midtown restaurants. Its production facility also contains a tasting room that’s become a neighborhood hangout. Mary Lynne Vellinga in the Sac Bee.

Riverside Clubhouse is the closest sit down restaurant to where I live. That means I should be a regular there. But instead of being my go to place, its decent, but routine menu keeps me from eating there more than once or twice a year.

Apparently, Sac Bee restaurant critic Blair Anthony Robertson and I see eye to eye on this restaurant.

Should a neighborhood restaurant actually have amazing food? If that were the case, Riverside Clubhouse would be full of strangers, outsiders and interlopers who drove clear across the county for an inspired lunch or dinner as they do for the amazing pizza at Masullo and the fine cooking at Taylor's Kitchen. That does not happen at the Clubhouse because the food is not in the neighborhood of amazing.

Indeed, with all of the friendliness, the neighborly feel, the lively bar scene and the cool, stylish setting, one is reminded that Riverside Clubhouse does a lot of the little things to make you feel welcome and appreciated, but it doesn't handle the heavy lifting well enough to elevate the dining experience from a neighborhood meal to a memorable, meaningful meal.

The food is ho-hum at best, largely uninspired, lowbrow, clichéd, forgettable and, like a certain nearby wall, trickle-down.

Read the entire review in the Sac Bee.

Click here for more posts about Riverside Clubhouse.

More News:

New Thai restaurant on J Street: Sawasdee - Say goodbye to Mongo Mongo and say hello to the new Thai restaurant, “Sawasdee,” which also means “hello,” in Thai. The family-run restaurant held its cold opening last week at 1830 J Street, the location of the short lived mongolian barbeque place, Mongo Mongo, which recently closed in March. There have been two restaurants at this location over the past two years, but this hasn’t deterred the new owners who say they’re ready to be there for the long haul. Dominick Costabile in Sac Press.

Review: Istanbul Bistro - Turkish food, prepared simply and well, finds a home in East Sacramento...If you’re seeking a culinary cultural experience and crave—as I do—honest, simple, beautifully prepared food, take the time to visit this friendly new restaurant. I am certain the Bozkurt brothers will provide you with a meal you won’t soon forget. Kira O'Donnell in Sac Mag.

The holidays are a time for giving. But to me, they're a time for saving too. Restaurants try to entice people into purchasing gift cards for their friends by giving the buyer a little something extra. When I worked near Il Fornaio, I'd eat there once a week (or more). I figured that at $5 a visit times 52 weeks, I'd spend $260 there per year. I purchased $200 in gift cards each year in December for myself, got an extra $40 in bonus money as part of their holiday promotion, and saved a little money.

Just last week, I went to Selland's Market Cafe to purchase what I figured I'd spend at Sellands, Ella & The Kitchen over the next year. It was a lot of money to spend all at one time, but I saved nearly 20 percent by spending the money now. (If you got that type of return on your savings account or the stock market, you'd be thrilled.)

This past weekend, I was shopping at Costco and noticed that they had a full compliment of restaurant gift cards available at a discount, including:

$70 for $100

• Ten 22
• The Firehouse

$75 for $100

• Paesanos
• Pronto
• Mangia

$40 for $50

• Dos Coyotes
• Jamba Juice

I work really hard to make sure that the happy hours listed on Cowtown Eats are as accurate as possible. Here are 10 happy hours that I've updated recently:

• Spataro
• Scott's Seafood on the River
• Ella Dining Room and Bar
• Biba
• Chops
• Firestone Public House
• Esquire Grill
• Tequila Museo Mayahuel
• Riverside Clubhouse
• Bistro 33 Davis

If you see any that are wrong, please let me know at [email protected] and I'll get them updated.

Whether it's Valentine's Day or the Superbowl, a lot of restaurants think that's an excuse to charge an arm and a leg for a special menu. Well, fear not, loyal Cowtown Eats readers. Here are 5 restaurants that will be serving their normal happy hour during the big game in Sacramento.

• Ten 22
• Mikuni (Midtown & Davis) / Taro's by Mikuni / Mikuni Kaizen
• River City Brewing Company (with a special $12 BBQ plate special with ribs, chicken and a hot link plus a side)
• Riverside Clubhouse (with a $15 all you can eat buffett with hot dogs, etc.)
• El Torito

Do you have a spot you'll be hitting up for the Superbowl? Leave it in the comments below.