The Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar is one of the driving forces behind Sacramento’s rise to craft-cocktail prominence

When Imbibe magazine listed Sacramento as one of the top 10 “places to visit in 2013” because of its surging craft-cocktail culture, it seemed as if by some divine alchemy the local drink scene finally made it onto the radar of cocktail enthusiasts on a national level.

At the crux of the movement promoting the local hand-crafted dram is The Red Rabbit Kitchen and Bar, where you’ll only find cocktails created from the ground up—homemade syrups, freshly squeezed juices and ingredients like fresh, hand-muddled herbs join the party in the glass.

“This year we’ve had a lot of national, and some international, focus on Sacramento as being a legitimate cocktail town,” says Matthew Nurge, one of the restaurant’s partners. “To be mentioned now in the same conversation as Portland, as Seattle, as New York and San Francisco is awesome.”

When longtime friends Nurge and Sonny Mayugba (chef John Bays is also a part owner) opened the doors to their hare-themed restaurant in February 2012, their vision was simple: to create a chill environment where cocktail nerds and neophytes alike could luxuriate in high-quality food and drink.

“The whole idea behind this restaurant is we wanted to do kind of a sexy upscale atmosphere, but we really wanted the attitude to be casual and easy and simple,” Nurge says. “So the whole idea between both the food program and the bar program is that we come up with simple, delicious, affordable food and beverage. We want to be a neighborhood craft bar, our motto is ‘Raising the Neighborhood Bar,’ so we wanted to have the same casual vibe of a neighborhood joint with some good stuff—good food and drink.”

A sentiment embraced by the cheerful and enthusiastic staff behind the bar.

“We work really hard to make sure that everyone who comes in here feels welcome. There’s a complete lack of pretension that’s in here,” says Christopher Sinclair, Red Rabbit bartender and president of the Sacramento Bartenders Guild. “It sort of oozes out of the walls. I mean from the way that we talk to each other to the way we talk to our customers.”

Much like the “farm-to-fork” movement that’s filled the bellies of local foodies, a burgeoning “farm-to-glass” campaign is starting to resonate with those looking to get their quaff on.

“People see beverages the same way they see food,” Nurge says. “They want great chefs using great products and making them great food, [and] they want great bartenders using great products to make great drinks.”

Nurge, a Sacramento native and self-professed “cocktail nerd” cut his teeth in the bar business as a youngster hanging out with his mother while she tended bar at Joe Marty’s on Broadway, but perfected his skills as a mixologist at R15 and The Shady Lady Saloon.

Boasting an eclectic roster of spirits, the cocktail menu is a throwback to the fine art of cocktail-making that was the hallmark of the pre-prohibition era.

“Some of them are from old recipes dating back to the 1800s and some of them are kind of modern twists on some of those,” Nurge says. “It’s kind of an amalgamation of that, some are mine, some are stolen, some were lost to history.”

Nurge credits partner Mayugba, yes, the same Mayugba that put out the seditious zine Heckler back in the day, as the “super-connector” for bringing together a brilliant cast of restaurant and bar industry talents—including longtime chef John Bays, who honed his culinary chops in the kitchens of heavy-hitting restaurants like Mulvaney’s B&L, Morton’s and Rio City Cafe.

“I’ve never known anyone in my life who can get things done as easily as he can, he just says things and makes them so,” Nurge gushes about Mayugba. “There’s almost something magical about it, he puts it out there and it just happens. So, Sonny put us together, basically.”

The cocktail menu is an exercise in restraint—you won’t find an encyclopedia-sized treatise of offerings—mixed with cheeky nods to social movements (Harvey Milk punch), historical references (Krakow salt mine) and literature, like the trio of tastings inspired by Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club.

“First rule of ‘flight club’ is you don’t talk about it,” Nurge jokes. “The ‘flight club’ is just a simple idea I had to help introduce people to things that maybe they haven’t tried before. It’s an affordable way to try new things or to try things that you already love. The price is ridiculously low. I mean it’s $15 for three tastes and some of the stuff you might get in there is $15 a pour on its own. It’s a fun way to get people to try new stuff; that was my intention, anyway.”

Nurge adds that bartender culture also served as inspiration for one of the libations on the Red Rabbit menu.

“With the ‘buck hunter,’ the style of cocktail is a buck (a class of cocktail that mixes ginger beer or ginger ale with citrus and spirits) and Buck Hunter is a video game that bartenders like to play,” Nurge says. “For whatever reason, I don’t know why [Buck Hunter], somehow became synonymous with bartenders.”

With Midtown Cocktail Week quickly approaching, another reason for the nod to the local liquid culture by the editors of Imbibe, Nurge and the rest of the Red Rabbit contingent are planning a bevy of activities surrounding the fete. From a competition that takes its inspiration from the three-legged races of family reunions and picnics, involving a suit in which two bartenders will literally be attached at the hip, to a pop-up event demonstrating the talents of its drink-slinging employees, the Red Rabbit is gearing up for the alcohol-infused festivities.

“On Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013, we have an event called ‘Best in Show,’” Nurge says. “We’re the last event, and the last event tends to be kind of what we’ve dubbed the closing party. It’s sponsored by Maker’s Mark, and we’re doing a blue ribbon county fair meets pig roast event, so we’ll have carnival games and prizes and a nice, big, fat pig roasting in a box.”

At the core of the Red Rabbit’s bar program is a dedication to quality ingredients, but it’s the partners’ belief in, and commitment to, the ideals surrounding the locavore movement that extends beyond the bar and spills out onto just about every facet of its business model that makes it so distinctive.

“We have a program, the employee incentive program; not that anyone’s made too many dollars from it, but every employee here is actually a part owner,” Nurge explains. “So the employees collectively own five percent [of the business].”

The partners are looking to expand the reach of the hare; Nurge alludes to a possible expansion effort into “The Kay” district and hints at even breaking with a few craft-cocktail traditions when Sinclair suggests the addition of milkshakes to the menu.

“That means we need a blender,” Nurge retorts. “I’ve been on a no blender rule for like eight years. When the whole cocktail resurgence started, everyone who thought they knew something, thought they knew everything, so all of a sudden there were all of these new rules. You know, like no one makes Long Islands, no one carries Jägermeister, no one has a blender, no one carries Red Bull or blue Curaçao.”

“Jäger’s actually great. Bros don’t shoot it anymore,” Sinclair chides. “Fireball took over, so now it’s socially acceptable to drink Jäger.”

After surviving a year in one of the toughest businesses to break through in, as well as a nasty smear campaign by a disgruntled Yelper, the Red Rabbit endeavors to follow in the footsteps of its block mates, notably, Harlow’s and Centro.

“I think we just have a rad concept. We have good product, at what I believe is a good value, and we have good people that work for us,” Nurge says. “That’s a big key to the success of this business.”

Nurturing the talent in its ranks, while looking to spread the gospel of the Sacramento craft-cocktail scene, Nurge is thrilled by, and, most importantly, supports his employees’ desire to travel the world in search of inspiration—from competitions in Chicago to Puerto Rico.

“I get to meet awesome bartenders and see what they’re doing outside of just our little bubble,” Sinclair says. “It also allows me to spread the good word that is Sacramento and get people really, really excited about coming here and getting excited about seeing this place and bring sort of the appreciation the city deserves, as well as this restaurant.”

The philosophy of craft doctrine also appears to be spilling out into the corporate market—with franchises like Disney and Applebee’s serving up their own craft-inspired cocktails on their respective menus. The movement looks like it’s gaining some serious mainstream credence.

“That’s why T.G.I. Friday’s has craft cocktails on their menu now,” Nurge explains. “It’s everywhere, it’s spreading, but in a good way. It’s a pain in the ass—just ask Carlos over there—to juice for five hours a day, but the end result in the product is irreplaceable.”

Best in Show, The Red Rabbit’s official Midtown Cocktail Week event, will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. on Aug. 25. Admission is free. For a full list of MCW events, go to Midtowncocktailweek.org.

Despite his mostly rock-based background, Zac Diebels aka Z Rokk is making big moves as an electronic artist

On a quiet and cold Tuesday night, students are coming and going from their lessons at Rock Inc., a music school and recording studio with approximately 150 students in Citrus Heights founded by Zac Diebels, better known to many as Z Rokk. Submerge is sitting down with Z Rokk to talk about his new electronic-based album Th Btchrs Bll, but we quickly sidetrack and start to rap about his past. At age 15, when most of us were getting jobs at McDonald’s or the local bowling alley, Diebels took out a loan from his father and purchased DJ gear and enough music to start playing corporate parties, weddings, you name it, as long as it was a paying gig (he eventually paid his father back every cent).

By his early twenties his rock band Simon Says was signed to a major label and touring the world playing alongside groups such as Kid Rock, Deftones and Filter. He’s worked with mega-producers like Rob Cavallo (who produced all but one of Green Day’s albums along with countless other huge bands) and Mark Needham (who has mixed albums and singles for everyone from The Killers to Lindsey Buckingham). He’s had, and continues to have, his music placed on TV shows like Jersey Shore and Project Runway among many others.

He has truly lived what many of us would consider “the rockstar life,” making music his job every step of the way. These days at Rock Inc. he teaches guitar, bass, drums, vocals, even audio engineering and offers producing and mixing for artists. If you can consider it a “day gig,” that’s it, but by night you can usually find him DJing local clubs, remixing songs on-the-fly and generally rocking the party. Check out this excerpt from our interview with the talented multi-instrumentalist to learn more about his upcoming record and what makes him different from a “drag and drop DJ.”

Producing and writing for other artists seems to be something you enjoy and have been keeping busy with lately. Have you always had a knack for helping other artists hone their talents?
Yeah absolutely. What you see now, there are guys like myself that are DJs, producers, writers, they play tons of instruments. They’re not just DJs or just whatever. You’re a go-to tool. Usually a lot of these guys have studios of their own and they’re able to do a lot of things. And for a manager, label, PR firm or an artist, it’s helpful to be able to hire a guy, one person, that can do a lot of these things really well rather than hiring a full team. But you don’t want to become a jack of all trades and a master of nothing, so I think because of my experience working with big producers and big artists, I have the experience of knowing how these guys make records. Now I can transpose that experience to your record.

What sort of projects are you working on now as far as producing and engineering goes?
Working with Jonny Craig a lot. Overwatch, I helped develop them. A lot of stuff for Diamond Dez. A lot of hip-hop stuff. I just got some syncs and licenses with Fox Clothing, Quiksilver and Roxy. A lot of publishing stuff. I do a lot of music for MTV shows, I’ve had so many songs on like Jersey Shore, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Project Runway, things like that. These days I’m concentrating more on duos or solo artists. I just like it. I feel like in a band setting I usually end up working with one or two guys anyway. I love doing remixes. I’m getting a little tired of the traditional rock band. Rock Inc. has been a godsend because I don’t have to do the studio to pay my bills. I only do records I want to do. I don’t need the money, my business is fine with that. I do records I want to do that make me happy that I enjoy. Jonny Craig makes me happy, Diamond Dez makes me happy, Overwatch makes me happy, Th Btchrs Bll record makes me happy. I’m lucky, not everyone gets to do that.

Tell me about Th Btchrs Bll. What can people expect from it?
Th Btchrs Bll is an electronic, remix, dubstep record. I like heavy music, period. I’m pretty intense and people that know me know that. I’m intense about love, happiness, whatever I do. And I love music that makes me feel emotional. I started listening to 12th Planet a lot more, the Crystal Method, Chemical Brothers, New Order, stuff like that, and I was like, “The songs I love the most are the ones that sound like they should be in a Transformers movie.” Just huge and dirty. I love MSTRKRFT and Death from Above 1979, and I was just like, “I want to make an electronic record that would be like an Automatic Static [Diebels’ solo rock project] record, just really heavy electronic music.”

Having had a mostly rock background, what do you love so much about electronic music and DJing?
My intern and I were just having a conversation about this. He was all, “It’s weird that you’re so into electronic music when you came from a rock band.” I was like, “Not really.” I’ll tell you why. Being in a band, it’s all about this group of guys being on stage performing for the people. When you’re a DJ, people don’t really care about you, they care about the vibe… They can barely see you. No one’s going, “What’s he doing? He’s playing some crazy solo!” You can’t even see what I’m doing. It looks like I’m at a table. No, what they want is, “What is he going to do to us next? What vibe or emotion is he going to send us next?” That’s what I like. It’s all about the energy that you get from people around you.

Let’s talk about your process when performing or DJing live as Z Rokk. You’re not simply queuing up songs and pressing play. You’re actually remixing songs live, right?
Yeah, I’m not a drag and drop DJ, that’s not what I do. So what I do is I’m more of a “remix DJ.” It’s not like I invented this. DJs do this. I use a program called Traktor—a lot of DJs use Serato. Serato is more traditional like playing a record, drag and drop and press play, or scratch over it type thing. Traktor is made by a company called Native Instruments and it’s really revolutionized things because it allows you to take every piece of the song apart. Kick loop, snare loop, hi-hat loop, whatever. I can turn those pieces on and off on the fly, I can put effects on them on the fly and then I can sync them to each other and play them to another track. I’m remixing live. You’re hearing a version that’s never been made that I’m making up on the spot and it’s different every time. And what’s cool is that I can broadcast it, so if you come to a gig that I’m doing as a remixer, you can dial in on your smartphone or your computer and download what I’m doing. So on Th Btchrs Bll record, what I’m doing is you will be able to download not just the stems like a normal remix record, you’ll be able to download all of the pieces so that you can take a song and remix your own live version with the pieces that I give you. It’s called remix decks. It’s becoming really popular. It’s like making music out of music. Like putting a mirror against a mirror, just endless. It’s really exciting. I love it. We live in a really great time.

What are some of the tools or technology that you use in the live setting to achieve this?
I used to have an MPC [Music Production Controller], but now I’m using Machine, also by Native Instruments. It allows it to also be a midi-keyboard so you can use it as a synth, you can sample your voice or whatever. And then it’s software-based, so it allows you to have it here [points to computer screen] and that way you can see what you’re doing. In dubstep and electronic music you’re using a lot of synths and stuff like that: wobbles, growls, LFOs [low frequency oscillators], performance oscillators. With Machine and programs like Massive and FM8, this is where it becomes literally engineering. You are engineering sound. You’re taking oscillators, frequencies and different things and then manipulating them by adding distortion, delay, reverb, modulation effects or whatever to the point where I’m making from scratch things that came from literally nothing. For me, it’s pretty much adapt or die. This is the way things are going, at least in this genre of electronic-based music. What I like to do is to make the technology an instrument.

Do you think you look at electronic music different than someone who doesn’t have a rock band background?
Probably, I think that’s a safe assumption. I look at electronic music as the future and a new frontier. But it doesn’t have to fulfill the stigma that I think it gets where it’s like, “Oh well it’s in the computer so it’s just so easy, anybody can do it.” That’s bullshit.

Now that you’re back “behind the decks” so to say, DJing and remixing whatnot, it’s sort of come full circle for you in a weird way. From the outside looking in, you’ve had a pretty crazy life. Do you ever think about that sort of stuff?
Sometimes you’re in your own bubble. I’m like any other artist, I’m really hard on myself and I get really down on myself sometimes like, “I suck, this sucks, I hate this, that sounds like shit!” Then sometimes I kind of have to shake my head and go, “Oh yeah, I’ve never had to do anything else but music, this is pretty cool.” The one thing I always try to remind myself as hard as it is, because, you know, the music business can be pretty fickle… But then I start to think that I wouldn’t have been able to do this this long if I sucked. I’m not that good of an actor. There’s no way I could have faked it this long. Or, I should just get an Oscar. I just love making music, I can’t help it.

Th Btchrs Bll by Z Rokk will be available in late March via digital label Authentik Artists. Keep an eye out at Zrokk.com or Facebook.com/zrokkmusic for more information. Catch Z Rokk DJing and remixing live on Wednesday nights at Dive Bar, Thursday nights at R15 and Saturday nights at K Bar. You can also see Z Rokk at Concerts in the Park on July 19.

6th Annual Sacramento St. Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl
This is arguably Sacramento’s biggest and best pub crawl! On Saturday, March 12, this giant drinking trek brought to you by 5hundy Social Club will kick off at 2 p.m. in Old Sacramento at River City Saloon. From there the mobile party will hit Vega’s, Back Door Lounge, O’Mally’s Irish Pub, River City Brewery, Cosmo Café, Vallejo’s, The Elixir Bar, Shady Lady, R15, Zebra Club, Press Club, Alley Katz, Capitol Dawg, The Depot, de Vere’s Irish Pub, Capitol Garage, Gallagher’s Irish Pub, Pyramid Brewery and finally Shenanigans, where there will be live music and dancing to round out the night, if you can last that long, that is. There is no cost to join this epic pub-crawl, but obviously drinks are on you at each location. Many of them feature specials, so keep an eye out for those. The event will take place rain or shine; for more information visit 5hundy.net/CalPubCrawl.