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If you're a regualr of this web site, you'll probably recall that a group of co-workers and friends get together every couple of weeks and enjoy breakfast together, and we call ourselves The Sacramento Breakfast Club.  Back on February 1, 2008, we had the honor of being the first paying customers at the beautiful The Terrace, which is a very upscale restaurant, in Sacramento's Town and Country Village, which is an equally upscale suburban shopping center.  The Terrace features delicious California cuisine and custom catering, and is only open for breakfast and lunch.  Considering that we're breakfast fanatics, that's a good thing, in our breakfast book, when a restaurant is only open for breakfast and lunch, as that proves to us that their heart and soul is embedded in breakfast, which is our favorite meal.  

Photo:  The Terrace is located in Sacramento's upscale Town and Country shopping center.  The outdoor dining is located to the left of the photo, under the green tree, in front of the restaurant.

Core breakfast club member, Dan MacLeod has a daughter, Amber,  who owns and operates Sisters' Boutique, which is a place where fashion-conscious ladies can purchase the latest and greatest clothing and accessories, and it's located just a couple of doors down from The Terrace.  Oh yes, Amber is very friendly, her boutique carries the latest trends and fashions, and treats all of her customers like they're a member of her family...  Dan, who just happens to be Amber's dad, and a very good friend of mine, is a frequent visitor to Amber's shop, so naturally he and Amber stop into The Terrace to have a bite to eat, and to chat with friendly co-owner Margo Powers. In talking with Margo, Dan found out that she and her husband Michael were planning a special menu offering for Easter Sunday, so he immediately made reservations for his family.  Dan told me about his plans, so I immediately invited my wife, Sharlene and myself, so we made reservations for a table of 14 at The Terrace for Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008, on Terrace's outdoor terrace, of course!

Photo:  Members of our families egerly await our delicious breakfast, as they're placed on our table.  

The word FIRST seems to be a, well, first with us and The Terrace, as we were not only the first paying customers when the restaurant opened, but we were the fist paying customers to reserve a table on their outdoor terrace! Since Easter Sunday is a very popular day with diner's, we reserved our table a couple of weeks in advance, in the interest of prudence.

Mother Nature cooperated with us; 10:00 o'clock in the morning, which was the time we'd reserved for breakfast, the weather couldn't have been better, as the skies were a clear, sunny, brilliant blue and the temperature was a perfect 65 degrees; how could you ask for better outdoor dining conditions?  Weather conditions were perfect, as Dan had reserved an outdoor table with seating for 14, to seat various members of our families. Given the spectacular weather, the pleasant surroundings, good company, and the knowledge that we were about to embark upon a never-to-be-forgotten breakfast experience, you could have not found 14 happier people on Easter Sunday, 2008, in Sacramento.

The owners of the restaurant, Michael and Margo Powers, put a lot of work into the menu Easter Sunday menu, as the special menu departed from the usual workday fare, and the menu took on a completely different personality, as replaced Terrace's normally elegant cuisine with special Easter entres that took their normally fine cuisine to a higher level of delicious excellence.  I might add that the menu for Easter Sunday 2008 was unique, and its offerings were not to be offered again.  The Powers' pride themselves in their culinary creativity, and the special Easter menu reflected their pride, skill, elegance, and their dare-to-be-different attitude.

Photo:  Delicious breakfast are placed on our table.  Note the elegant surroundings and the profesionally-dressed waiters, which enhance the total dining experience.

After all 14 of us were seated, our friendly waiters brought pitchers of ice water, and took our drink orders. Choices of drinks for Easter Sunday included coffee, (their in-house coffee machine was finally in operation, after suffering teething pains during our last visit...) tea, ice tea, soft drinks, fruit juice, and champagne... and more champagne, with a little champagne on the side. Breakfast entres could be described as elegant, unique and different, and included fare that you would normally not see on the menu of any "regular" restaurant, including The Terrace, on a normal Sunday morning.  The special menu included several exotic omelets, quiches, fruit trays, and something that I'd never even imagined prior to today for breakfast:  Fillet minion and eggs, which was the first item on the special menu.  I really didn't feel the need to look any further, except for curiosity, as I knew what I was going to order.

We placed our drink orders, and when our drinks arrived, we were ready to place our breakfast orders.  We decided to put it all on one bill, and each person contribute an equal portion of the tab, plus leave a generous tip.  Note:  In the U.S., the de facto standard tip is 15% of the cost of the meal.  My friend Dan came up with a very easy way to calculate the tip:  Just double the sales tax, which in Sacramento County is 8-1/4% and round up to the nearest dollar.  In the case of our Sunday meal at The Terrace, we decided to round up to the nearest $5.00, as this meal was going to cost in the hundreds of dollars.  A 16% tip is a reward for good service, and a good meal, prepared to our specifications, and either of the aforementioned conditions are lacking, the tip is pro-rated down, according how bad the food, service and attitude really is. I can recall a visit to a restaurant several years ago where the waitress was haughty, the service was nearly non-existent, the cook had an attitude, and the food arrived undercooked, and was cold to boot.  We didn't even finish our meal, and we left a few nickels and dimes on the table for the tip, which is more of a slap-in-the-face than leaving nothing at all. I'm getting off the subject of this article, as we didn't have to worry about poor service, sub-standard food, as The Terrace is a quality, upscale restaurant, and they do everything perfect.  In the unlikely event that we did have a complaint, we know that co-owner Margo Powers would do whatever was necessary to do, to resolve the issue.  As we were waiting for our orders to arrived the wait staff brought three plates of fruit, small muffins and scones to our table for us to enjoy as breakfast appetizers.

Photo:  Here we are, all 12 of us, with the two teenage grandsons missing in action.  From left to right:  John, in the red shirt, with his back to the camera, Terry, Keith, Amber, Dan, Eric, Sharlene, Bev, mostly-hidden Katy, Erin, and Matt.  Photo taken by our friendly waiter Taylor.  Note the attractive outdoor dining facilities The Terrace offers.

Service at The Terrace is fast, friendly and very efficient, and before we knew it, our breakfast entr้es arrived.  It took no less than two waiters to bring the fourteen plates of entr้es, plus the side dishes that accompanied each meal.  The food arrived hot, perfectly cooked to order, with a presentation that brought ohhhhs and ahaaas to the adult section of our breakfast crowd; the two teenage boys seemed indifferent to the presentation of the meals, as their major interest seemed to revolve around the quantity of the food, rather than quality.  OK, I'll admit when I was 18, I didn't give a care about the presentation of the meal, as all I cared about was just how much of it there was to eat!  

Don't ask me to remember what everybody ordered, as I can't even remember the exact variety of omelet that my wife ordered, but everybody agreed that the food was the best that Sacramento has to offer.  For starters, the meal are served on square, bone-white colored china plates, using heavy, premium silverware, and the table is set with a white, linen tablecloth, and there are little vases with sprigs of rosemary for decoration.  No plastic glasses need apply to adorn a table at The Terrace, as all of the glasses used at the table setting are made from clear glass, which adds an elegant look to the table, and seems to make the fine food taste even better.  Everybody agreed that the food was cooked to perfection, arrived on-time, exactly as ordered, was fresh, delicious, and featured attractive presentations.  The plates are quite large,  and at first glance, the large plates made the portions appear slightly on the small side, but that's just an optical illusion, as the portions are more than ample.  Case in point concerning the size of the portions:  Dan's grandson, Nathan, who is the size of a linebacker, couldn't finish all of his breakfast, which an amazing thing not to be able to accomplish, for a guy of his size.  For me, finishing my meal was not a problem, as I have a huge appetite for breakfast...

Photo:  How's this for an elegant breakfast?  My breakfast of fillet minion, eggs, over easy, and grilled red potatoes.

I ordered fillet minion for breakfast, as I love any kind of steak for breakfast, and I'd never enjoyed a fillet minion for breakfast prior to this date.  My breakfast arrived, hot and juicy, on a beautiful square plate, as per the protocol adhered to at The Terrace.  My petite steak was cooked perfectly to medium, as per my order, and it was seared on the outside, yet oozing lots of delicious juice which dribbled onto the plate, and presented a delicious odor.  The searing of the steak seals in the juices, making the steak juicy and tender inside, and it offers the meat an attractive presentation, to make the heart of any lover of fillet minion skip a beat.  The eggs-over-easy were done perfectly, which is much more difficult than you can imagine... The homestyle potatoes consisted of diced red potatoes, garnished with grilled white onions, fresh oregano, and a touch of fresh basil. Talk about delicious potatoes!  The potatoes were grilled, not fried, and were a crispy, golden brown on the outside, yet perfectly done and chewy on the inside, just the way I like them. The meal was presented with slices strawberries and oranges on the side, and included a sprig of parsley placed in the center of the meal.  Naturally a steak knife was included on the plate, placed at an attractive, jaunty angle, but it really was only for looks, as the steak was so tender, that you could have cut it with a spoon.  In the interest of being civil, I used the knife to cut my meat into small, bite-size pieces.

How can I describe this meal?  Perfect.  Delicious.  Juicy.  Ultra-fresh. Worth every penny. Perfect.  The service? Friendly.  Efficient.  Fast. Great. The atmosphere?  Imagine sitting around an elegant table, under a beautiful terrace on a perfect Sunday morning, with 14 people that actually enjoy each other's company.  Quite a dining experience!

There is nothing cheap about The Terrace, but every aspect of the dining experience is worth every cent of the price of admission. There is no free ride in life, and with The Terrace, you get what you pay for, and what you get is an elegant dining experience, set in a delightful environment, delicious food, crafted and served by wonderful, friendly, eager-to-please people.  Sidebar:  I did notice an interesting enhancement, as our outdoor dining experience was totally lacking of un-wanted visitors who are members of the insect kingdom, which frequently are uninvited dining guests to those who choose to dine outdoors.  How The Terrace manages to keep the bugs away must be a trade secret!

Photo:  "The beast" and "The beauty," as your author hugs co-owner, Margo Powers.  Margo is a lady in every sense of the word, and a hostess that welcomes you as a member of her extended family.

After enjoying a delicious meal, Dan and I went inside the restaurant to say hello to lovely co-owner Margo Powers. She has a fantastic memory, and remembered me from our visit of six weeks previous.  Of course my ever-present camera helps to etch to anyone's memory me as "the guy with the camera," as I have a tendency to take a few photos. Margo's radiant smile and bubbly personality really light up The Terrace, not to mention that she's very easy on the eyes, and is a wonderful person and a true lady in every sense of the word.

Easter Sunday breakfast at The Terrace was a memorable dining occasion.  If you're in the mood to enjoy an elegant meal, in an elegant restaurant environment, The Terrace is highly recommended by the MacLeod and Rench families.

The Terrace
Located in The Collection
Town and Country Village
2673 El Paseo Lane (Marconi and Fulton)
Sacramento, CA 95821
916 486-1904


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