Appetizers: A tasty-looking, if limited, addition to dining in Winters

As new restaurateurs, Anthony and Rhonda Gruska have a magic touch. All their dinners through mid-August are sold out.

But here's the catch: They're serving just two dinners through mid-August, and they're serving them in Winters, a growing farm town that nonetheless doesn't yet have a lot of competing restaurants.

The Gruskas are cautiously entering the restaurant business, starting with one seating only on Saturday nights through August. The Aug. 19 dinner is the first one with seats still available.

In September, they will add Fridays to the schedule.

They're calling their place Monticello Bistro. It differs from most other restaurants in two other respects. For one, it occupies another cafe, Steady Eddy's, which by day will remain a coffee house and juice bar.

Secondly, the Gruskas will serve just one multicourse, fixed-price dinner, and each week the theme will change. The two constants will be the price ($45 per person) and the commitment to local ingredients, especially produce in season. Their early menus, for example, include such seasonal dishes as a fig tart with lavender honey cream on Aug. 19, an heirloom tomato gazpacho on Sept. 1 and 2, steamed okra with lemon gnocchi on Sept. 8 and 9, and a succotash of black-eyed peas on Sept. 15 and 16.

Anthony Gruska owns Tastebuds Catering in Davis, which he will continue to operate weekdays; Rhonda Gruska is a former events planner at the state Capitol.

The bistro, at 5 E. Main St., Winters, can be reached at (530) 902-5520.

Sushi showdown: Taka Watanabe, owner of Taka's Sushi in Fair Oaks and partner in Kru in midtown Sacramento, will be the area's lone representative in the second annual California State Sushi Competition, also known as SushiMasters.

He's vowing to salvage Sacramento's sushi reputation following last year's disappointing local showing, when Kotaro "Taro" Arai and Ranee Delacruz were shut out in the competition.

"I'm going to win. I have something up my sleeve," says Watanabe.

He will compete against eight other chefs, including last year's overall winner, Jerry Warner of Cafe Japengo in San Diego. Four are from the San Francisco Bay Area, two are from Los Angeles, and one more is from San Diego.

The chefs, chosen by a panel of sushi instructors and chefs convened by the sponsoring California Rice Commission, will be judged in three categories: morikomi, signature roll and the "California governor's roll," the latter to be based on a list of ingredients drawn up by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Morikomi is a traditional combination sushi plate that is to include nigiri, maki and temaki styles.

Tickets for the Sept. 18 competition at Memorial Auditorium -- $50 each -- are available at www.tickets.com and the Sacramento Convention Center Box Office. The event is to include sushi, a buffet, and wine, beer and sake.

About the writer:

• Reach The Bee's Mike Dunne at (916) 321-1143 or mdunne@sacbee.com.