The color blue is the theme that runs through the new Bistro 33 inside the $23 million, 64,000- square-foot Mercedes-Benz of Rocklin dealership. Blue water glasses, blue carpeting, blue hand-blown glass globes in the massive chandelier. Even the fish in the aquarium behind the bar are blue.
Like the legendary German automobile itself, the decor is sleek, classy and contemporary.
"It's beautiful," lunch pal Gloria noted. "The ambience is perfect for a young crowd."
Perhaps that's why the music was so loud.
Why put a restaurant inside a car dealership? To find out, I phoned Rhett Snider, chief operating officer for the Von Housen Mercedes-Benz group.
"Two reasons," he said. "One is for customer convenience. People who bring their cars for service typically have to sit around and wait. Now they can have a meal in a comfortable space. Also, we wanted a destination restaurant to encourage people who don't ordinarily come into a Mercedes dealership."
This Bistro 33 is one of five in the Greater Sacramento area, part of the restaurant collection run by brothers Matt and Fred Haines. Bistro 33 has a breakfast menu ($5.95 to $12.95) and one that covers lunch and dinner ($4.95 to $24.95). The latter is presented in straightforward portions: small plates (grilled pancetta-wrapped prawns, sweet potato fries), salads (Mediterranean chicken, salmon Nioise), panini (a range of chicken, turkey, seafood, beef), pasta (lasagna, fettucini) and large plates (meatloaf, grilled rib-eye steak). It's obvious that a lot of thought and imagination went into the creation of the dishes, assembled from top-quality ingredients.
We started with excellent turkey sliders fat little patties of juicy ground turkey topped with retro Green Goddess dressing and Manchego cheese (made in Spain from sheep's milk), nestled in mini-burger buns.
"Appropriately messy," Gloria said.
The Kobe beef mini-corndogs were cute enough, presented with a trio of mustards, but we thought the lukewarm doughy jacketing could have been crisper.
The conveniently bite-size pieces of fresh Romaine lettuce in the Oregon blue cheese salad were studded with toasted walnuts and chunks of cheese, bonded with tangy blue cheese dressing. The star of the plate was the moist strips of Buffalo-style chicken, with just the right amount of zip.
Next up was the crunchy S550 Reuben panini, an OK interpretation of the traditional sandwich pastrami, Swiss, sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing on grilled rye. If it's lean pastrami you're after, this is the one even though a bit of fat adds flavor. The S550 prefix refers to a powerful Mercedes sedan with a "Pre-Safe system that actually anticipates and prepares for a collision."
We ended lunch with a plateful of warm, sugary doughnut holes served with three great dipping sauces honey-butter, chocolate-Triple Sec and berry. The holes were tasty and addictive, if a bit doughy.
After lunch, we walked through the dealership, marveling at the air-plant sculpture at Bistro 33's entrance and at the water sculpture in the main showroom. Though the dealership offers pre-owned Mercedes that start at $10,000, we hovered around the new ones. There was a blue one for $64,000 and a gray one for $52,000. They're part of the ambience.
I asked a sales team member if he and his colleagues were permitted to take home cars for the weekend.
"Those days are long gone," he said.
Well, as a potential customer, can I test-drive one over the weekend? Like, that white one over there for $85,000?
We both had a good laugh.