R15 should be more accurately written as R (subscript) 15, but I’m not quite sure how to do that on WordPress, so we’ll leave it at that. Located conveniently at R & 15th Street in Sacramento, the geonomous bar/grill/lounge has a number of flat screen tvs for sporting events. I headed over there to watch a couple of World Cup games.
The glass doors are red tinted, which give the interior a nice shaded look and thankfully doesn’t detract from the appearance of the food. A U-shaped bar greets most visitors, with televisions above the bar and around the walls, though the bar (annoyingly in my book) does not have a brass rail at the foot. A separated room contains 4 pool tables and the back of the bar is an attached eatery (Café Bernardo), whose menu is probably the same, but I ate in the bar side for the WC games.
I will give a high thumbs up to the calzone, though it may be salty for some. The dough is cooked crisply while still retaining moisture from the cheese on the bottom. The goat cheese/mozzarella ensemble brings an expected flavor with an unexpected one, and comes away with a pleasant feeling. The calzone is stuffed with Black Forrest Ham, which may contribute to the salt overtaste, but still good stuff.
Unfortunately the pizza needs a fork to be eaten properly. Taste wise, the chicken, cheese and asparagus combine to a smoky, salty feeling. However, structurally, the middle of the pizza detaches from the outer crusts too easily, resulting in essentially a bread piece in one hand needing a fork to scoop up the toppings. If you don’t mind that, go for the pizza as well.
Service was excellent, the servers helpful and the bartenders quick on a refill. The lunchtime crowd was sparse at best, even for World Cup games. The Italy/Paraguay had about half-dozen total and Brazil/North Korea perhaps an even dozen. A few office buildings in the area provided the crowd, and I have the feeling more folks headed to the Cafe side. If I lived downtown, I would head over there during the night, but given there’s a plethora of street parking and a cheap parking garage across the street ($2/hr), it’s an easy place to head to for lunch. They do offer valet parking for $5, but do not validate the garage.
Edit/Update-So I’ve made this my World Cup bar since it has side-by-side tvs and excellent food. I ought to give credit to Cafe Bernardo for the chow, since they’re the ones with the kitchen. And I’ve tried the Reuben (the fries are excellent, crunchy and salted well) and the pan-fried noodles (basically a chicken chow mein with cashew and vegetables). I thought I was ordering the Thai noodles, but I was mistaken, so something else I’ll have to sample in the next few days.