Appetizers: A Thai favorite returns to downtown

Downtown Sacramentans keen on Thai food have another reason to rejoice this week. Gaesorn is back.

The popular Thai cafe originally opened in early 2003 at 1020 12th St., but when that building began to be extensively renovated, owners Sommanadtida "Sarah" Pongpeerayos and Jerry Umnartyutithum closed up in spring 2005 and moved out to Fulton Avenue, where they opened another Thai restaurant, Mona's.

They hoped to eventually resurrect Gaesorn downtown, and on Thursday they did.

They moved quietly into 1015 Ninth St., quarters occupied most recently by the Italian restaurant Il Posto, which closed earlier this summer. The new setting will give them quite a bit more space than they had in the past.

The first few days, their menu was limited, but the full selection is to be available this week, Umnartyutithum said.

Gaesorn serves lunch from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. The restaurant's phone number is pending.

Pongpeerayos and Umnartyutithum will continue to operate Mona's.

An award to remember

The best small-city tearoom in the United States is right in Sacramento's backyard, according to readers of Tea Experience Digest.

That would be An Afternoon To Remember in Newcastle, along Interstate 80 just west of Auburn.

Amy Lawrence had been teaching autistic students in a special-education program in Placer County in 2002 when she decided to parlay her interest in tea into an entrepreneurial venture.

She left teaching, took classes to become a certified tea consultant, returned home to Missouri to round up a truckload of antiques fitting for a tearoom, and on Aug. 27, 2003, opened An Afternoon To Remember.

Tea Experience Digest, a magazine published quarterly in Stone Mountain, Ga., invited its 15,000 readers to nominate and vote for the best tearooms in the nation.

Franchia, a Korean teahouse and vegetarian restaurant on Park Avenue in New York City, was voted the best big-city tearoom, said Susan Yachiye McKeen, editor of Tea Experience Digest.

Readers only cast votes, without an opportunity to comment on the nominees, she added.

On the Web site www.teamap.com, however, where tea enthusiasts can post reviews of tearooms, An Afternoon To Remember has been described as an "elegant tearoom filled with lovely gifts and antiques," with a menu "remarkable," servers "all very knowledgable about tea" and the food "divine."

Tea service at An Afternoon To Remember, 452 Main St., Newcastle, is offered from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Several varieties of tea programs are available. The tearoom also is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays for shopping only.

To recognize her third anniversary in business, Lawrence is holding a series of special teas at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. For more information: (916) 663-6358.

Katrina cuisine

The first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's onslaught on New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities will be recognized Tuesday by Restaurants for Relief 2, a fundraising effort aimed at helping rebuild school cafeterias, underwrite meal programs, support community kitchens and provide other relief in the battered region.

On Tuesday, participating restaurants will donate a portion of their proceeds to Restaurants for Relief 2, a joint effort of the anti-hunger group Share Our Strength and American Express.

The number of participating restaurants grows daily, and in the Sacramento area includes Celestin's Restaurant & Voodou Lounge in Sacramento, and the Ruth's Chris Steak House, Buca di Beppo and Il Fornaio branches in Sacramento and Roseville.

Each restaurant determines its own formula for donations. Celestin's is donating 10 percent of the day's entire sales, Buca di Beppo is donating 5 percent of food sales, Il Fornaio is donating all proceeds from sales of its rum-based tropical cocktail "La Tempesta," and Ruth's is donating all proceeds from the day's wine sales.

In addition, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, which has six branches in the Sacramento region, is donating a flat $20,000 to the relief fund.

A similar effort immediately after Hurricane Katrina was joined by 850 restaurants around the country and raised more than $700,000, reports Share Our Strength.

Additional local restaurants that join the effort by Tuesday are to be listed on the Share Our Strength Web site, www.strength.org.

About the writer:

• Reach The Bee's Mike Dunne at (916) 321-1143 or mdunne@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/dunne.