This story is taken from Sacbee / Entertainment - Sacticket / Dining.

Restaurant review: Western mode

It's ranch style - with touches of Paris - at Roxy

By Mike Dunne - Bee Restaurant Critic
Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, February 11, 2007

Roxy Restaurant & Bar -- rhinestone or diamond? Rhinestones fit its Western theme, but after just two months, Roxy is the real deal, a diamond that restores glamour and excitement to Sacramento's Gourmet Gulch.
Ron and Terri Gilliland are Roxy's big sugars -- that's cowboy talk for the owners of a ranch. They're the real deal, too. He grew up on a farm in Ireland and runs cattle under the brand of Lucky Dog Ranch in Yolo County. She grew up on a horse ranch in Colorado.
They've owned popular Lucca Restaurant & Bar in midtown for the past four years but had a hankering for a place to celebrate their familial ties to the land in a way that's affectionate, fun and hip.

The result is Roxy, the most exciting, inventive and fully realized restaurant to hit town since maybe Barnum's, a place advertised in the very first Bee a century and a half ago. Thus the stampede to Fair Oaks Boulevard.

"Paris meets the ranch" is Roxy's theme, a design concept that could come off as hokey if not executed with sensitivity and wit. The Gillilands have that, too. A handsome early- 20th century back bar they found in St. Louis is paired with a sweeping and modern cherrywood bar to anchor one side of the prairie. The Parisian touch that balances it is an elegant chandelier dominating the dining room like a full moon over Montana.

The precise and tasteful interplay of Europe and the American West, of urbane enchantment and rural pragmatism, is coherent and charming. The horseshoe booths are upholstered with golden brocade, the banquettes with Brazilian cowhide. Whether by design or accident, the layout of curves and straight lines suggests the fence lines and rivers of Wyoming. Santa Fe artist David Devary's bold portraits of cowboy and cowgirl look down on diners with the attire and attitude of suitcase ranchers -- they ride out on weekends, but during the week they're back in the office.

The only architectural drawback is the lack of a view, or so I thought until taking one dinner while seated against the wall of glass overlooking the parking lot. Before long, the cars prowling across the asphalt began to resemble steers trying to squeeze up to a feedlot trough -- mostly German breeds such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Porsche.

From cocktail to dessert, the menu pays tribute to the American West and Southwest with a lighthearted creativity and an appreciation for specialty ingredients. Roxy is the latest in a growing number of restaurants to recognize on the menu purveyors of provisions they are especially pleased to feature, such as John Bledsoe's Duroc pork products from Woodland and Mariano Garcia's Fiscalini farmstead cheeses from Modesto.

Executive chef Jeff Ivaska oversees lunch, dinner and weekend breakfast menus that round up an unusually big herd of spirited New American dishes.
It's a diverse selection that updates refreshingly the frontier chuck wagon (chili with appaloosa and rattlesnake beans and sirloin beef, $10.95; burgers of buffalo and beef, $12.95 and $10.95 respectively). At the same time, an old cowpuncher might not recognize some of the choices (mussels in yellow curry with candied ginger, $9.95; lobster ravioli, $16.95).

By and large, the menu bears little resemblance to Lucca's Mediterranean menu, though the Gillilands had the good sense to bring with them the celebrated fried zucchini chips ($5.95).

Though the Gillilands weren't yet serving cuts from their Lucky Dog Ranch during my visits, steaks are featured prominently, including the signature "gaucho," a lean, tender and juicy flatiron whose rich flavor was accentuated perfectly with a concentrated parsley sauce, or what Argentines call chimichurri ($18.95).
With their steak, diners get a choice of one of several "side saddles," including macaroni and cheese with roasted poblano chili peppers, a cheddar enchilada with a sauce of ancho chili peppers, or garlic fries. I went with the roasted root vegetables, a colorful and sweet selection of parsnips, red onion, carrots and beets.
In assertiveness and weight, dishes tend to be more substantial than shy, with the confidence and litheness of a lead steer. Spicy arugula, perfectly ripe thin-sliced pears, the nutty and creamy Swiss cheese raclette and caramelized onions on grilled flatbread have the sweetness and spunk to become Roxy's signature appetizer ($7.95).

Bright and sweet roasted piquillo peppers from Spain were fat with rich braised beef and creamy goat cheese ($9.95), while a delightfully faithful avocado dressing brought soothing novelty to Roxy's version of the Caesar salad ($8.95).

Avocados also were cleverly reinterpreted in a mousse that with a Meyer lemon vinaigrette and a julienne of golden sweet peppers perked up a steak of pan-seared swordfish atop a black puck of the protein-rich South American grain quinoa, perhaps the fussiest dish in the place, what a weathered wrangler no doubt would call "fancy fluff-duff" ($24.95, a special).

Aside from the saltiness of a bouquet of sautéed parsnips and carrots that accompanied the biggest and stoutest boneless braised short ribs I've encountered ($16.95), and a soup of "white Syrian heirloom squash" that I suspect would have been bland if not for its generous portions of cream and bacon ($5.95), shortcomings were rare.

Roxy is one of those rare upscale restaurants that offers breakfast on weekends, with a menu that extends its sly reinterpretation of the American West -- the oatmeal includes pomegranates ($8.95); the marvelous housemade doughnuts include chocolate, orange and caramel dipping sauces ($3.95); and the gutsy buttermilk biscuits not only include cheddar but their gravy is sweet and spicy with sausage and ancho chili peppers ($8.95).

Pastry chefs Kristina Etchieson and Matthew Masera must be having a riot of fun in the kitchen, especially when it comes to dreaming up new ways to take advantage of "calf slobbers," a cowboy name for meringue. For one treat, they infused meringue with huckleberries, baked it, and then shattered it to look like slabs of slate talus on a comforting lemon buttermilk cream-cheese tart ($7). For the "s'mores pie," they gooey up the meringue topping with marshmallow, char it just short of burning, and spread it over melting dark chocolate in a graham-cracker crust ($7).

Other classic desserts given fashionable twists include a trio of custards -- peanut butter, butterscotch and vanilla -- embedded with shards of chocolate-coated caramel ($7), and bread pudding enriched with peanut butter, crème-fraîche gelato and a dark-chocolate drizzle, an overly busy special not as artfully conceived as Roxy's other desserts ($7.95).

At first glance, the wine list looks a bit gimmicky, with a Shoofly blended white from Australia and the Horse's Ass chardonnay from Sonoma, but both were first-rate wines attractively priced, and the overall makeup of the selection is extensive, considerate and smart. It's weak on regional brands, but savvy when it comes to choices to accompany steak, including four malbecs from Argentina.

Servers, in subdued Western attire, also are smart, showing uncommon knowledge of the menu. They also were unusually affable. Though I was recognized, they seemed as chummy and informative at other tables.

Roxy, directly across Fair Oaks Boulevard from Zinfandel Grille, has been discovered and was jammed on each of our visits for dinner. If the Gillilands look at all fretful, their apprehension likely has more to do with the lack of rain on their cattle pasture than a lack of diners. Reservations are highly recommended.

ROXY RESTAURANT & BAR
2381 Fair Oaks Blvd., Sacramento
(916) 489-2000
3 1/2 stars /$$$

FOOD: The modern chuck wagon that is Roxy celebrates the American West and Southwest with a brand of cooking that reinterprets and reinvigorates familiar staples of prairie and mesa.

AMBIENCE: "Paris meets the ranch" is a design concept that invites kitsch, but Ron and Terri Gilliland bring it off with exquisite taste, from vintage frontier back bar to centerpiece chandelier.

HITS: Santa Fe artist David Devary's romanticized and sexy photo-realistic paintings of lean cowboys and cowgirls. Each table gets its own stylish bottle of triple-filtered Sacramento water.

MISSES: Tables for two are way too small. Sourdough rolls fresh and tangy, but they'd be even better if served warm.

HOURS: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays, 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturdays, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays.

Go to: Sacbee / Back to story
This article is protected by copyright and should not be printed or distributed for anything except personal use.
The Sacramento Bee, 2100 Q St., P.O. Box 15779, Sacramento, CA 95852
Phone: (916) 321-1000
Copyright © The Sacramento Bee