Offering steak and seafood, joints reeling in customers

After eight months in business, Blu Seafood restaurant in Town Center in El Dorado Hills has changed its name and is expanding and revamping its menu.The name already has been switched to Blu Steaks and Seafood and the menu will be enlarged within several weeks to include a variety of steak selections.The restaurant is owned by brothers Fred and Matt Haines of Sacramento, who also own the adjoining Bistro 33 bar and restaurant on Town Center Boulevard. Blu and Bistro 33 share a central kitchen."We just wanted to expand," explained Craig Mohatt, manager of both restaurants, about the changes. "We're offering both menus on both sides now. Diners can order from either menu."Blu hasn't begun serving a full offering of steaks yet. "We're still working with purveyors to lock down what premium meats we're going to serve," he said. New steak selections should be on the menu within weeks "at the most."Blu, occupying space that used to be the Wine Konnection, is open for dinner only, Wednesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. After dinners are served, around 9:30 p.m., the restaurant transforms into the Side Bar, a nightclub featuring live music Thursday and DJs Friday and Saturday for listening and dancing.Last call for drinks on Friday and Saturday is 1:30 a.m.So far, said Jesse Layton, 24, manager for seafood, business at Blu is "going good. The night club is doing well and business is picking up." Happy hour at Blu runs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday through Friday. A late happy hour is 10 p.m. to midnight Thursday and Friday.Happy hour offers drink specials and a food menu that includes mini-burgers, clams, calamari, chicken wings, Bistro corn dogs, pork sliders and swordfish skewers and more.The restaurant schedules banquets for private and non-private parties and the Sidebar is available for private parties, as well as events and corporate presentations. Quality audio/visual equipment is available.On the seafood side of its soon to be expanded menu, Blu serves seafood ordered fresh, such as crab on the half shell, clams, oysters, prawns, and in-house made clam chowder, Dungeness crab Louie salad, seared ahi tuna, plus weekly specials.Diners are accommodated if they wish to choose their meal from the Bistro 33 menu, which highlights everything from steak strips and hamburgers to a kids' menu that includes pizza, chicken fingers and hamburgers.Layton lives in Placerville and is a recent business administration graduate of California State University, Sacramento. He's been working in restaurants for the past seven years and said the food business "probably will be my career."