Our local social model was selected as Small Business Member of the Year by the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber on Friday Night. The Guru had the opportunity to speak about ethical capitalism and voting locally with your dollar to 600 to 700 attendees at the Annual Installation Banquet at the Hyatt Hotel after Mayor Kevin Johnson swore in the Board of Directors and in between Ambassador of the Year, Jeff Louie, of Capsity Offices, and the Honeree, 46th President pro Tempore, Senator Darrell Steinberg.

Karen Nelson and the rest of the staff of the Asian Chamber outdid themselves with this beautifully executed event bathed in red just after the Lunar New Year.  

Thank you to Pat Fong-Kushida, President and CEO of the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber, for the opportunity to serve our community!

We look forward to what we can accomplish in 2009 and beyond.

The Grid Guru

See the video here: http://cbs13.com/video/?id=45326@kovr.dayport.com

Lunch Break with Tina Macuha: 1/9/2009
Stuffed Mushroom and Goat Cheese Chicken Breasts Reporting presented by sacramento.downtowngrid.com's co-founder Julia Seebach.

Ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts
1.5 cups chopped mushrooms
1 medium size yellow onion
1/4 cup boat cheese
1/3 cup finely chopped almonds
Salt, pepper, olive oil, pat of butter

Preheat oven at 350 Degrees
1. Caramelize onions in olive oil
2. Add some butter and mushrooms and continue to saute, adding salt and pepper as desired - then set aside
3. Rinse and dry the chicken breasts and slice in half like a peta pocket for the stuffing
4. Lightly oil a baking sheet and place sliced breasts on sheet
4. Stuff each breast with your sauted mushroom and onion stuffing and add the goat cheese.
5. Now spread the almonds on top of the chicken breasts, drizzle each breast with some olive oil and place in oven for about 15-20min.

September 24th, 2008

Dear Members,
As we head into the fall and Holiday seasons,  we would like to make sure you are getting the most out of your Grid membership. In this month's business newsletter, we guide you to some of our unique services that you may or may not already be taking advantage of.

We also have two upcoming mixers that will take place before the end of the year. The next Midtown Mix-It-Up! is Tuesday, October 14th. See details below.

As always, send us your feedback and thank you all for your
participation in The Grid and allowing us to promote our local business community!

- The Grid Team

This Month's Tips...

 
Best of Sacramento...
sacramento.downtowngrid.com voted #1
Thank you for voting us #1 Sacramento website and a big congratulations to all our members who also won! > See the Best of List

Shop the Grid Fall/Winter 2008 New maps will be out next week at participating locations, featuring 38 local businesses, as well as 39 Art Walk hot spots. Shop local and independent!

Eat the Grid Sponsors
Sign up for the next Eat the Grid dining map or be a sponsor with an ad. Sign up deadline is October 24th.  Contact Rebecca Sykes for details: rebecca@downtowngrid.com (916) 410-6168.

Midtown Mix-It-Up!
Tuesday, October 14th, 6-8:30pm at Bows and Arrows at 1712 L Street: Many of our members tell us that their best marketing comes from word of mouth. So please join us on Tuesday, October 14th for our mixer and celebrate the release of the Fall/Winter 08 Shop the Grid Maps! This is a great opportunity to meet other Grid members and promote your business. There will be delicious food, live music and lots of friendly faces! We hope to see you there. See video clip of our June Mixer at Green Sacramento.


Wine Down Wednesdays
A fun alternative to traditional happy hours, This weekly mixer is sponsored by sacramento.downtowngrid.com and Sac Wine Tours. Meet us every  Wednesday at The Park Ultra Lounge at 1116 15th St, Sacramento, 5:30pm - 7pm. Weekly featured wine specials for $5 per glass, appetizer menu and live jazz.  > More info and video
Also, there is an 8 hour wine tour to Calaveras County this Sunday,  Sep. 28th and tickets are still available for $35 each.


Reviews
All profiles have a Review tab, where users can post reviews. Take a look at your review page and encourage your customers to get involved. Positive reviews are a great way to gain new customers. Reviews can also serve as valuable feedback.  Here is an example of a profile page with many valuable reviews - click on review tab In Touch Therapy

Below are links to the reader's choice's for the Best of Sacramento. You will find that our members are all over the lists. Congratulations and keep up the good work!

-The sacramento.downtowngrid.com team

People & Places

Food & Drink

Arts & Entertainment

Sports & Recreation

Goods & Services

Green & Natural

Sex & Love

It's that time of year everybody. Spread the word, get on your soapbox, tell the world (of Sacramento) all about your favorites. Restaurants, boutiques, movie theaters, bars, clubs, website (ahem).

There is no better way to show your love for the hardworking folks behind your awesome local businesses than to help them get voted "Best of Sacramento".

Register and vote! Deadline for entries is August 27^th.

Thanks, and please vote sacramento.downtowngrid.com best local website in Sacramento!

-the sacramento.downtowngrid team

1. Register or login (top right corner of page) to sacramento.downtowngrid.com.
2. Write a review for 4 of our featured businesses.
   It's super easy: Click the review tab on any business' profile page and click "Add Review" (see it here).
3. Add a comment to this blog letting us know that you've accomplished this small, yet immeasurably helpful feat.
4. Get your free stuff (i.e. gift certificates to some of the best businesses in Sacramento) - we'll contact you for a mailing address.

Prize Give-Aways
This round we are giving away prizes to these fantastic locally owned businesses:

Haus   |   Dara Denim   |   Nishiki   |   French Cuff Consignment   |   and more...

The details:

The first 10 people to post three (3) reviews are getting hooked-up with the gift certificates.

Add a comment to this blog letting us know that you've accomplished this small, yet immeasurably helpful feat.

Please, make it a real review. You don't have to write a novel, but it needs some substance.

Have fun. Pick a place you go to often and you know well. There's no need to try a new joint and spend a bunch of dough - but if you need an excuse ;)

If you have any questions, suggestions, general feedback: email us.

Thanks for your time, and good luck!

 

Creating a blog topic

• Log in to sacramento.downtowngrid.com
• Hover your mouse over the "Blogs" drop-down menu (in the orange  navigation bar, top/middle of your screen), and then click "Create a Topic"
• In the new screen, name your blog whatever you like and add a description (optional)
• Highlight the categories you would like to be featured in (select multiple categories by holding down the control/ctrl key while you click)

Click "Save"

• Posting to your blog
• Click on "List Blog Topics" found in the same orange navigation bar as above
• Your new blog should be at the top. If not, search for it in the "find in entries" search box
• Once you find your blog, click the pencil and paper icon to enter the "Create Post" screen
• Title your blog post and add a summary (optional)
• Click in the "Post Content" text field to activate the text editor.
• To add text you can type your new content here, or simply cut and paste from your previous work
• Choose which blogs you would like to post to (especially your own), select multiple blog titles by holding down the control/ctrl key while you click
• Click "Save"

Always make sure to add links to your sacramento.downtowngrid.com profile page, your company website, and any other sites you are affiliated with; this will increase everyone's google rankings and increase overall traffic.

Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, June 12, 2008
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1

 Brian Fischer doesn't just think big. He thinks epic.
We're talking long-term, big-picture, good-of-humanity thinking, the kind of cogitation that might have earned him a spot on the Socratic ticket back when philosophy was a viable career path.

Since that's not an option these days, Fischer settled for the Internet.

The guy behind the community site downtowngrid and the Oak Park advocacy group 100 Minds, Fischer, 36, has what you might call "vision." When he saw midtown was becoming a regional hub, he wanted to encourage greater fellowship. When he fell for Oak Park's rich history, he became a champion of its future.

But to Fischer, it's about more than just that. He believes true democracy is built on equal parts economic and social opportunity. By forming a community, for example, small business owners strengthen themselves while creating a place where others are more likely to follow, the shared prosperity improving everyone's quality of life.

It's a mouthful of a mantra the entrepreneurial Fischer has been developing since he was a child in L.A. He started his first business – a late night coffee shop – in college before grudgingly attending law school at UC Davis.

"I knew I didn't want to practice (law) from the moment I was there," he said.

In 1994, he took off to travel after his first year only to abscond again, this time back home to start a social networking site before MySpace was a gleam in the legendary Tom Anderson's eye.

His last year of school was marked by weekly trips home to run the business, the pressure eventually leading to a stress-induced stye that caused him to go blind for two months.

"Basically, I was killing myself."

He finished law school and folded the business, finding his next opportunity on the streets of midtown, the untapped community he'd been looking for all his life.

"It immediately struck me that this was a canvas waiting to be painted," he said.

The only problem was finding the perfect easel. A serendipitous introduction to a Web site that matched his philosophy led to a partnership with the couple behind it, which led to the downtowngrid we know today: a public space comprising 250 small businesses and organizations that celebrates community.

His other focus, 100 Minds, is the nonprofit complement to downtowngrid. Aimed at seeding social and economic change in Oak Park, the group has gained closure of two liquor stores, he said, and negotiated another away. Neighbors still wear T-shirts bearing what Fischer says is a quote from a police officer that reads "It's Oak Park, what do you expect?"

The back of the shirt carries Fischer's own addendum: "Nothing but the best."

"It's about what we can become," he said. "It's about reaching for it."

But, of course, someone with that outsized an entrepreneurial spirit has many more irons in the fire. He wants to open a coffee shop that offers micro-loans, a citizen travel fund, a farmers market in Oak Park.

Most of his ideas will probably never leave the flame, but they always burn blue.

Balance is still a struggle for Fischer, but becoming a father has taught him something about rose-smelling.

"I wake up jazzed every single day," he said. "The pursuit of happiness? I don't think that should be abstract."

And hey, if the whole thing comes crashing down tomorrow, he'll still have that lawyer gig to fall back on.

Biz Buzz: That's HOT! Paris would be proud of new Old Town moniker Also, readers respond to RFP for 238 Vernon

By Nathan Donato-Weinstein, Press-Tribune staff writer

Say you’ve got a once-derelict city center that’s suddenly happening. Bars, restaurants and housing – formerly unthinkable projects there – are now leaping out of what-if conversations and into the planning pipeline. Think you’re off to a good start?

Not yet. What you need is a really good area name.

Take midtown Sacramento. Merchants there are eschewing the amorphous sounding “midtown” in favor of “the grid,” a vaguely techish and “Matrix”-y moniker referencing the district’s cross-hatched streets. As in, “eat the grid,” or, “live the grid” (to borrow the names of two booster Web sites).

So it’s not surprising that amid the hoopla leading up to last week’s party celebrating a revamped Old Town, with all its updated infrastructure and new projects (including the restaurant Basic, which, speaking of area names, hails from the newly hip Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego), a freshened name for the district would begin to emerge....read more.