Baby Grand and the Zebras. Come to check out Baby Grand cuz maybe George Wendt (their number one fan) will be there again.
Also, in some restaurant news, a Japanese place called Miso will be opening up in the space formally occupied by (gag) Eddies. Just as long as it's not called Miso Horny har har. Also, JD and smiller's prayers have been answered and Suzies is being resurrected. There's a coming soon sign on J st. for Chicago Fire Pizza, but there is also an "opening winter 2006" sign on that fish place near retrofit and another one on the place where Taka's was so I'll believe it when I see it.
By the way, anybody know what's up with the (gag again) boutique hotel by Temple? Is it another casualty of the building bust?
What do you have against the hotel? i think it's a cool project - way better than empty offices.
ReplyDeleteand to answer - "The Citizen Hotel" is scheduled for completion late 2008. they're working away tearing out all the crappy office configurations that have occured over the past 80 years.
the owner of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, Chip Conley, has held numerous workshops and fielded tons of community input on the project. i've had the opportunity to meet him, and he's shown nothing but the utmost concern in renovating a classic sacramento building, and creating a really cool hotel, bar, restaurant and ballroom for downtown sacramento.
SacBee article
perhaps i just have something against the term boutique hotel. perhaps.
ReplyDeletethat came up at the meeting i attended. "boutique hotel" is basically marketing speak for a site specific design and being around 200 rooms or less.
ReplyDeletei prefer "boutique" over "brand consistent" anyday.
where did you hear about the "Miso" restaurant - is there a sign up on the building? do you know when they plan on opening? Mana sucks bad, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThat building wasn't empty offices - it was full offices, mostly with non-profit type stuff. It was nicknamed the "good guys" building because of it. And I had a great 11th floor view, which I will never see again because there's no way I'll be able to afford the hotel.
ReplyDeleteSome of the offices had lots of original woodwork, fittings, etc., including the one I was in.
But I'm not opposed to the hotel, really. I doubt I'll set foot in the "really cool" bar or restaurant, but that's just me.
What's going on in the old Joe Sun building, next door? I know old man Miller got to salvage a bunch of old fittings and stuff from upstairs before it was gutted. (That would have made a nice hotel, since I believe it once was one.) Anyhow, anyone have any news on that place?
You mean Joe's Style Shop right?
ReplyDelete-middle aged man Miller
A. There is a sign for "Miso" on the side of the building and a huge construction mess on the patio. It's been there for a few weeks.
ReplyDeleteB. Yes, Joe's style shop. It was really fun to romp around up there with the older Miller. There was this door on the third floor that was practically in shards from someone practicing knife throwning into it.
C. Darin's right, there were some really great offices up there. It had character and a view. I loved going in there. The bathrooms were excellent, almost as good as the ones in Wheeler Hall at UC Berkeley.
D. Will one of you young whippersnappers who doesn't have myspace filtered at their jobs tell me when the damn show is tonight?
gbomb
the lineup goes: baby grand, zebras, george wendt solo project. supposedly starts at 8 at the press but you know that's a lie.
ReplyDeleteDon't get there at 8:00!! Roger told me it'd start around 9:30. It's only 2 bands so it shouldn't go too late.
ReplyDelete-miller
yeahyeah, Joe's Style Shop.
ReplyDeleteAll Joes are the same to me.
yeah, all millers are the same to me.
ReplyDeletegbomb
Come to hear the band, stay for the great jokes and the horn sexion.
ReplyDeleteresisting...making...dirty...joke...about....millers....
ReplyDeleteHopefully many people here are using the great Firefox browser. There's an addition that automatically logs you in to registration sites like sacbee. bugmenot.com takes you there, but with this Firefox extension, you can just right click in the space and it logs you in automatically.
ReplyDeleteGood for people like me who hate registering for sites.
http://roachfiend.com/archives/2005/02/07/bugmenot/
look, it's like dave smith is a spam
ReplyDeleteGreat site! I'll check back often. I found this great site about how all Miller's arent the same - check it out! www.allmillersareinfactnotthesame.com.
ReplyDelete-miller
I thought about that when I was posting. It seems like spam but I hate registering for sites.
ReplyDeleteYou should apply as GM at Tower. It's open. They're also looking for a GM at the Dallas/Plano movie house, too.
I was kinda looking forward to seeing what they'd do with this hotel project until I walked by one day and they were throwing every solid wood door from the building into a dumpster.
ReplyDeleteBut, I do have to admit that every office I ever went into there had a shitty 50's drop ceiling and zero original fixtures.
I guess I'm still hopeful that they'll do something marginally interesting with it, like the Gershwin Hotel in NYC...
i hope they're not throwing all that stuff away - but there's a good chance they chuck it in a dumpster and bring the stuff elsewhere to be sorted/reused or recycled for materials. it's pretty rare that anything just gets sent straight to the land fills now. it's more costly anyway.
ReplyDeletethe wood doors in the building were not original however. the original doors were glass. the wood ones were put in because of fire codes when the building was populated by the state in the 1960's.
there was an article in the news & review about the building a while ago. last year i think.
I've stayed at two Joie de Vivre hotels in San Francisco, and despite the term "boutique" they are actually on the more affordable end of the scale: Super 8 prices but in a downtown (well, Tenderloin) location and a much cooler hotel. Their hotels in SF are sort of a mix of preserving the original fixtures and building to the extent that's possible, and then coming up with something relatively original and cool for stuff that can't be kept intact (or restored). So instead of faux-Victorian you get an old building with new but kind of unique fixtures.
ReplyDeleteDone on the cheap, though. Their hotels are probably a little cheesy, but they always have an awesome on-site staff, and they are really great if you have to stay in a hotel in SF but can't afford anything fancy. Because otherwise, for the same price you pay at Joie de Vivre, you can wind up with cockroaches in the bathroom and bloodstains on the curtains.
I am thrilled that they are opening a hotel in Sac, because every time I stay at the Hotel Bijou in SF for business I wonder why we don't have anything like that here.
i stopped into sacramento last weekend and heard that records on k will soon be records on broadway...i guess it is moving into where tower video used to be and solomon's store won't be selling vinyl
ReplyDeleteI heard Dimple is moving into the Tower on Broadway location... Is that not true?
ReplyDeleteI had two brief temp jobs in that building about 4 years ago and both offices were as dreary and delapidated as an office can get, complete with the ceiling sagging over my desk in one office. Perhaps that was just a sad exception, but I remember feeling like the building really needed some love.
ReplyDeleteIn another life, I did some work with many boutique hotels, including the Joie de Vivre group, through a tourism program I helped to run in SF. I just looked at the term online and it appears that many of the hotels my friends and I have stayed in over the past decade qualify as boutique hotels (eg. the McMenamins).
These are all terrific and interesting places to stay and I think it's great that they're opening one here. I just hope that people in this town check it out, rather than passing it up as yet another thing that destroying the character of this town.
I think Dimple may be taking the Watt Avenue Tower location. The Broadway location will be whatever Russ Solomon is calling his store in the old Records location, The Avid Reader in the Books location, and Records on K in the old Video location. At least that's how I understand it.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of gigs, I'm playing tonight (March 22, Thursday) at the True Love on K Street (between 23rd and 24th) as part of the weekly "Songwriter Tune-Up," with David Houston and Kevin Seconds. It starts at 8 p.m., it's free, and I know I'm not the Finches or even the Bananas, but if you're at all curious to see a guy who turned 52 yesterday croak through a set of original material, feel free to stop by.
-jackson
Does anyone know anything about the sushi place going in near Cafe Morocco on Alhambra? "Sushi Cafe"?
ReplyDelete-Alisha
Hi-I was sick yesterday with vicious japanese flu but i'm glad you guys were all talking. I'm still sick but I read an entire rad Beryl Bainbridge book! Beryl Bainbridge is the best, you should really check her out. The book I read was the Dressmaker.
ReplyDeleteI just got into her, too! Her short story, "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie" is absolutely tits. I tried to read her book about the Titanic, but it was shitty. She does have the working class story down -- I'll take her over Roddy Doyle any day.
ReplyDelete-- Patrone
Beckler--
ReplyDeleteToo bad about the japanese flu.If you had it bad here you should of went to a japanese doctor.The one down the street has like 15 nurses helping your every need.When i had the flu the doctor stuck this patch on my chest and gave me all this crazy powder.The cost for the visit and meds was $12.00..Thanks goodness for naional health care.I couldn`t breathe at night and moxibustion only helped for that.Japanese pharmcies sell these moxi kits for like $15.00 .Do they have those in the states??They are so addictive if you enjoy the smell of mugwort.Ever heard of Erkin Koray??Turkish Pyschedelia...Nice Stuff.Gambette with the flu.
Jay