Post #571807 by VampiressRN on Wed, Jan 12, 2011 9:08 PM

Can't wait to check the DIVEBAR out...grand opening soon. A whole block of awesome offerings. K Street Mall is getting some activity after work began again on a mermaid bar and two other nightlife venues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER6W_3NYiRo
http://divebarsacramento.com/

SACRAMENTO DIVEBAR

By Bob Shallit
The Sacramento Bee
Published: Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011

A visitor from Southern California is making a big splash in downtown Sacramento.

Meet Linden Wolbert, age 30, professional mermaid.

Wolbert travels the globe, silicone tail in tow, to promote water safety to kids and talk up ocean conservation.

She's here this week, helping train some of the women who will be donning mermaid costumes and taking periodic dips in the huge aquarium in Sacramento's soon-to-open Dive Bar at 1016 K St.

Wolbert, an expert free diver who can hold her breath up to five minutes underwater, was contacted after bar owners saw her featured on a recent episode of ABC's "20/20" TV show.

She says she was happy to help out after discovering a bar featuring her favorite breed of entertainer.

"There's nothing more beautiful," she says, "than watching fish in the water – other than (watching) a mermaid."

But being beautiful underwater is harder than it sounds. That's why she's working with the Dive Bar's mermaids-to-be, showing them how to move about gracefully, relax and be aware of the physiological effects of prolonged water exposure.

Untrained mermaids tend to look like inchworms under water, she says.

Another rookie mistake: Puffing out your cheeks.

"Puffer fish looks are never sexy," she warns.

Dive Bar's managers insist they're equal opportunity employers and would like to find a few good mermen to take shifts in the 40-foot-long, 7,500-gallon tank.

Alas, their best candidate, a reservist, recently was deployed for duty and bar "mermom" Lynda Karpaty says it's been tough finding others.

Wolbert, blond and gregarious, can commiserate. "I'm still looking," she says, "for my merman."

The mermaid tank is just one of the noteworthy elements in three entertainment venues that are simply very, very cool.

Some features are over the top, literally, like the huge "Creation of Rock" mural on the ceiling of the Pizza Rock eatery, which sits between Dive Bar and the third venue, the District 30 dance club.

Also over the top is the 10,000-pound big-rig truck cab jutting out of a wall above the bar at Pizza Rock.

Bartender Connie McConnell, one of 127 employees being trained this week in advance of the opening of Pizza Rock on Friday, admits it's "a little intimidating" working under the cab. But she figures the bar owners knew what they were doing when they installed structural supports.

George Karpaty, mermom Lynda's husband and the creative force behind all three venues, says, yes, indeed, they did. Supports are in place, he says, to handle a 30,000-pound load.

Part of Pizza Rock's appeal will be daily "pizza acrobatics" featuring dough-spinning champ Jay Schuurman.

"Think of the Harlem Globetrotters spinning a basketball," restaurant co-owner Tony Gemignani says of Schuurman's routine. "He'll do that with pizza, two or three at a time."

But the place isn't just about trucks and theatrics.

Gemignani promises the best pizza in town, coming out of four different ovens, including one from Naples that heats to 900 degrees and cooks a pizza in 90 seconds.

Doesn't everybody say their pizza is best?

"I have the (international competition) medals to prove it," he says.

Also noteworthy: the sound system at District 30, which opens for one night only on Thursday, then begins daily service Jan. 19. Karpaty, owner of several Bay Area night spots, says the system is the latest from EAW, which held off releasing the product "so we could be first."

The audio quality? "It's just insane," he says.

Most of the people getting sneak peeks at the three venues this week have been wowed by what's inside.

Developer Kipp Blewett is struck by what he saw outside: a once-derelict block now mostly occupied by hip restaurants, a cabaret, a theater and clubs.

"As good as it's going to get," he says of that block – and a preview of what all of K street could be like in a couple of years, with car traffic returning and development starting on the 700 and 800 blocks.

We've heard optimistic projections before. But Blewett just may be right when he assesses recent progress and says: "There's a sense of a real entertainment district (forming) here."

[ Edited by: vampiressrn 2011-01-21 19:48 ]