They killed Sutter Street

On a recent weekend outing to Folsom, CA with my family I had the opportunity to enjoy lunch at Samuel Horne's on Sutter Street. I also observed two things that disturbed me. First off, they killed Sutter Street. In the quest for increased traffic ($$$) and visitors ($$$) to the Historic area, somehow it was decided that they should widen the street, cut down the trees, and remove the overhangs and the plank walkways that made Sutter Street, well, historic. Sutter Street 2.0 now sports a few additional parking spaces, and European-inspired outdoor seating. Nothing says "the Wild West" like stamped concrete! It was this same seating that was being occupied by what appeared to be vagrants, or maybe they were hangovers from the prior night at the Sutter Club. Either way, this was not the Sutter Street I had grown up with. Sure, Snook's candies and the Folsom Hotel are still there, but the ability to envision this famous place as a once-bustling town at the turn of the century has been paved over by the brilliant minds of the folsom city council.



After I walked in disbelief of the construction, I picked my jaw up off the ground and headed to Samuel Horne's for a cold pint. This place is pretty cool, decorated with historic beer memorabilia, and anchored by a beautiful bar with about a dozen shiny draught beer taps featuring the likes of "Hoptimum Ale" from Sierra Nevada and "90 minute IPA" from Dogfish Head Brewery. Draught offerings are written on the wall, with descriptions of color and bitterness/hoppy-ness as well.

There's at least 100+ more bottled beers available too, with some hard-to-find and off-the-wall tastes to be had for sure. The lunch menu was short and sweet, with burgers and sandwiches the fare. I had the "Johnny Cash" burger, paying homage to the original man-in-black who made Folsom Prison infamous. It featured a good size patty with BBQ sauce and thick-cut bacon. A side of crispy fries flanked the burger. It came without lettuce, tomato, onions - which I thought it needed. The BBQ sauce was on the sweet side, reminiscent of Sloppy Joe gravy, and without the produce to shield the bun from sogginess, it began to fall apart on me early. It was good, but not the best I've ever had. But I didn't go there for the food anyhow, I was after the local beers. A great offering is their local brew happy hour, where all beers made within 100 miles are half-priced. Now that's dangerous. My hamburger was $8, beers averaged $5/pint.

While waiting for lunch to arrive, a mother and her teen-aged daughter sat down at the table next to us. They were both wearing spandex and biking shoes, likely out on a "mother-daughter" date. Mom stared blankly at the menu, while daughter toyed with her mobile phone. Mom obtained the daughter's order which I thought was a feat in itself since the girl did not even look up from her phone, too transfixed on her tiny screen, thumbs battling over the mini-Qwerty keyboard. A short time later, mom returned with an iced tea and a glass of white wine for herself. White wine? At a pub that is blatantly beating you over the head with their extensive list of beers? *sigh* OK. Food arrived quickly after that, and of course I spied their decisions. A hamburger for mom and a tri-tip sammy for daughter. Decent order I thought to myself, there might be hope yet. Then I observed that daughter had still not looked up from her phone, although she was somehow able to insert her ipod headphones in an effort to completely block out the surrounding world. Mom now had her ipod fired up and headphones plugged in too! Daughter ate half her sandwich, mom put a little larger dent in her burger. Iced tea was gone, I'm sure daughter was parched from not talking to anyone with her mouth and only her thumbs all day. Mom maybe took two or three sips from her chardonnay. Maybe she was expecting something with a more pronounced hop character?

I guess my parents Victorian-era request that we not have ANY distractions at the table, no matter where that was, is totally outdated. For all I know, mom and daughter were talking to each other through their phones, but is that an adequate substitute for true personal exchange? It brought me to this troubling thought: people don't celebrate each other enough, let alone food. In this age of status updates, incessant tweeting and increased competition for your attention, it's nice to have a place you can rest and enjoy a good meal and spend some time connecting with your friends and family, not downloading them. Make that place the dinner table.