Hook and Ladder Manufacturing Co. – the new venture from the owners of The Golden Bear – is set to open by the end of the month, co-owner Kimio Bazett said Friday. The menu at the restaurant located at 1630 S St. is nearly complete, but Bazett said he’s keeping tight-lipped on what, exactly, will be on it. “We’re trying to be as secretive as possible,” he said. “We don’t want too many details, except that there’s going to be a lot of handmade stuff. We’re trying to do all of our baking in-house, have handmade pasta, homemade sausages and farmers market-sourced produce as much as possible.” He’s being equally mum about the interior of the building, saying that not even the workers are pe

Candidates for the Midtown Business Association's June 20 elections will need to be able to cast aside their own business goals and work together to make Midtown a better business environment as the organization goes through a transition, according to MBA staff and business owners alike. “We’re at this pivotal point in Midtown, and I’d like to see a focus on the greater good – a sustainable Midtown business environment,” said Kimio Bazett of The Golden Bear and the upcoming Hook & Ladder Manufacturing Co. Ten of the 25 Midtown Business Association Board of Directors seats are open to be filled by June 20, and only about seven incumbents are returning, meaning the organization will see ne

Local musician Brian Guido and Nick Miller, Managing Editor for Sacramento News & Review, have joined forces with five local restaurants to put together the first Sacramento Bacon Fest, held from Jan. 20 - 22. Guido said he got inspiration from reading about similar events in Des Moines and Chicago and decided that Sacramento needed something where local chefs can get together and showcase their talent to the community. “This is the place I call home,” Guido, who moved to Sacramento in 1992, said. “I felt that this city was just as good of a place to have an event like this, given the talented chefs that we have here.” Guido said that he approached Miller, who he has known for eight yea

The space that formerly housed Hangar 17 in Midtown has been taken over by owners of The Golden Bear, who plan to bring a “grown-up” version of their neighborhood bar and restaurant to the area. “We’ve been looking for a second location for quite a while,” said The Golden Bear co-owner Kimio Bazett. “It was preferably in Midtown and preferably a space that was built-out or established or had some unique architecture.” Hangar 17 closed in March, and the space still had all of its restaurant equipment intact, which saved a huge expense, he said. The approximately 4,000-square-foot building at 1630 S St. has about half of its space dedicated to the kitchen, an aspect Bazett said was import

A Sacramento neighborhood favorite, The Golden Bear, makes its TV debut on the Food Network early next month. The gastropub featuring chef Billy Zoellin, a friendly staff and sloping front porch is scheduled to be one of three restaurants starring on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" at 7 p.m. Jan. 3. Owners Kimio Bazett and Jon Modrow are bracing for a huge spike in customers once the show airs. "I don't know if it's more of an expectation or a hope. But from talking to other people who've been on the show ... Everyone said to expect anywhere from a tripling to a quadrupling of business in the year following the show," Bazett said. Food Network promoters told them new episodes of the show

Sacramentans will be forgiven for not expecting to find fried green tomato sandwiches, house-made kettle chips and prosciutto and peach paninis at The Golden Bear. Those who haven't yet discovered the neighborhood bar's new kitchen and chef, Billy Zoellin, may get their first "taste" on the Food Network's national television show "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" this fall. Earlier this month, a camera crew spent a day capturing footage of Zoellin in action at The Golden Bear, located in a converted old house at 2326 K St. A camera crew will soon return with the show's host, Guy Fieri, for the second day of filming. The place will be closed for production. Zoellin joined The Golden Bear in

Kimio Bazett doesn't remember exactly when he and buddy Jon Modrow came up with the idea to open a bar. It might have been while Modrow was sharing his misery over the lack of human interaction he found in his job as a genetics researcher working on fruit flies. Or it might have been one of those golden afternoons spent bombing down sugared white slopes at a Tahoe ski resort. Modrow on skis, Bazett carving turns with his snowboard. Whenever it happened, the result was one of Midtown's most popular and laid-back watering holes -- The Golden Bear. "We were two people who made a huge effort to make a dream become a reality," Modrow said last week. "The idea came from the kinds of places I