The hallway leading to Q1227’s bathroom shows Quentin “Chef Q” Bennett in two very different worlds.

To the right are dozens of photos of Bennett posing with celebrities — singer Shawn Mendes, actor Matt Damon and a slew of pro athletes from his time as the executive chef of downtown Sacramento’s Echo & Rig.

To the left, images show Bennett feeding Sacramento’s unhoused community through Daughters of Zion Enterpryz, the nonprofit founded by his pastor wife and Q1227 general manager Tamara Bennett.

Bennett lives his day-to-day life somewhere in between, less glamorous than the glitz of his fame wall and altogether removed from the grit of his community service.

As chef and owner of what is arguably Roseville’s hottest restaurant — not to mention, he thinks, the only Black head chef in Placer County — he’s on the cutting edge of the city’s new culinary scene.

Roseville, long known for chain restaurants and meat-and-potatoes diners, suddenly is attracting unique, interesting concepts in droves, pushing boundaries in one of Sacramento’s fastest-growing suburbs.

“Roseville’s (reputation) was like, ‘oh there’s a lot of chain restaurants out there.’ But you can see that changing a lot, man,” Bennett said. “For me, it’s the community feel out here in Roseville and the support ... and they want something different. They want to experience something new.”

Roseville is a ripe destination for a new restaurant in part because it’s one of California’s fastest-growing cities, and the new residents have the income for a night out. Roseville’s median household income was reported to be $101,101 in the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey, approximately $38,200 above the median Sacramento County household and $20,700 above the California median.

Customers line up an hour before Q1227’s 5:30 p.m. opening for Bennett’s elevated “modern comfort food” like bacon-wrapped meatloaf, wild mushroom risotto or jambalaya. The youngest of 10 children raised outside Gainesville, Fla., he opened Q1227 on his 50th birthday — Dec. 27, 2019.

“I’m a country boy at heart, so I reach back and grab my mom’s, my aunt’s, all of those those old recipes, and I pair it with California freshness,” Bennett said. “We give tons of flavor, large portions and (it’s) a marriage made in heaven.”

At least 17 new restaurants opened in the 147,000-person Placer County city over the last six months, outstripping other similarly sized suburbs around the region.

Trendy chains still love the area near Westfield Galleria at Roseville’s — freezer aisle favorite Amy’s Kitchen opened its first regional drive-thru restaurant across the street in December, and Raising Cane’s did so earlier this month. Mendocino Farms, which serves sandwiches and salads in midtown Sacramento’s Ice Blocks development, will open nearby on March 1.

They’ve been joined around town by Rose Cafe & Bagel baristas serving Pachamama Coffee, fast-casual halal bowls at Shawarma Stackz and the clay ovens of Tandoori Flame in the last six months. Stalwarts like Flour Dust Pizza, 105 Noshery and Bennett’s Kitchen Bar Market have opened in recent years, as did now-closed boundary-pusher A Part of Roseville.

A mix of Sacramento-area and Bay Area concepts will open later this month in Local Kitchens food hall: Nash & Proper, Garden of Eat’n, The Melt, Señor Sisig, and Curry Up Now. There’s an undeniable trend: Roseville’s dining scene is getting more and more interesting.

IT STARTED WITH TACOS

One restaurant best represents the start of Roseville’s modern culinary growth: Nixtaco. Patricio Wise and Cinthia Martinez began hosting supper clubs in their Roseville home after immigrating from the Mexican state of Monterrey in 2010, then finally launched their first restaurant in June 2016.

Placer County had nothing else like Nixtaco, where taco fillings like parboiled octopus or slow-roasted pork belly nestle in housemade tortillas. Jalisco- and Michoacán-inspired taquerias were common at the time, but most had essentially the same options, Wise said.

“Some were better examples than others, but it was pretty much the same menu (at every Mexican restaurant around Roseville),” Wise said. “You could expect to be able to order a super burrito or a rice-and-beans plate with your meal. It was always the same, and there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just ourselves, Cinthia and Patricio as a couple who had just moved to the area, saw an opportunity to try something different.”

Turns out, there was a huge appetite for it. Nixtaco was a hit from the jump and keeps piling up more accolades: a Bib Gourmand in the 2021 California Michelin Guide, a spot among The Sacramento Bee’s inaugural Top 50 Restaurants list last March, the title of “best tacos in Northern California” from SF Gate’s food & drink editor in September.

It’s still the concept many Sacramentans envision when they think of locally owned restaurants in Roseville. But Nixtaco is evolving into something more: Roseville’s first distillery.

After years of renovating the space next door to the restaurant at 1805 Cirby Way, Suite 12, Nixtaco plans to start producing vodka and gin soon, eventually revamping the restaurant’s cocktail program. Wise and Martinez are also ordering whiskey to create house blends, and will serve their own once it’s matured in a few years.

“I always wanted to run a distillery — I love tequila, I love mezcal. I thought about doing a brewery, but there’s many breweries out there that can do a way better job than me right now,” Wise said. “We already had the restaurant in place. I thought, ‘well, what if we added a distillery operation to it?’”

PERUVIAN FLAVOR

Among Roseville’s brand-new restaurants, few are as exciting as Chicha Peruvian Kitchen Y Cafe.

Lima-raised couple Giancarlo Zapata and Marleny Chávez are the showrunners behind Chicha, tucked away in a Bel Air-anchored shopping center at 1079 Sunrise Ave., Suite O. The couple moved to California to become the chef and pastry chef at Roseville’s other Peruvian restaurant La Huaca, now closed ahead of an in-town relocation, then opened Chicha in November 2021.

Chicha’s menu spans Peru’s diverse gastronomical range, which has been shaped over the years by the country’s mountains, coastlines and immigrants. It’s the only 100% Peruvian restaurant in the region, and it’s delicious.

“Today’s Peruvian food is a unique and delicious fusion of Indigenous, Spanish, African, French and Asian cuisine,” Zapata wrote in an email. “It can be spicy, or not. Our dishes are prepared to order.”

Four kinds of ceviche showcase the styles one gets throughout Peru, from the Port of Callao’s rocoto pepper sauce to whitefish in ají amarillo served near the northern shore. Dishes commonly served as street food get formally replated, as with the Chinese-influenced fried rice entree chaufa aeropuerto taypá.

Others like pesto con bistec over spaghetti channel Zapata’s years cooking in upscale Lima hotels. And some dishes of the chef’s own creation meld Peruvian street and haute cuisines, like the grilled salmon in anticuchera sauce (usually drizzled over meat skewers) with quinoa, aji amarillo and large-kernal Peruvian corn.

“Street vendors offer homemade style dishes that highlight our coveted, simple and flavorful comfort foods. A formal restaurant venue adds indoor ambiance and chefs use added culinary techniques to create unique plates that maintain that flavorfulness and enhance the visual experience,” Zapata wrote in an email.

Chávez is the pastry chef, filling Chicha’s dessert case with treats like cheesecake or torta helada, an orange jelly cake. The Peruvian travel shows consistently playing on TV are enticing, but for the time being, one can enjoy a great representation of the country’s food in Roseville.

ROSEVILLE’S GROWTH

Prospective restaurateurs could open in a hot area with many competitors and few residents, like downtown Sacramento. They could open in a neighborhood full of both houses and other restaurants, such as east Sacramento.

Or they could have the best of both worlds: a region with explosive housing growth and few other restaurants around to steal impressionable new neighbors.

“(T)he best opportunity is to open in a location that is surrounded by new houses and where there is very little or no competition at all,” Roseville City Councilman Scott Alvord wrote in an email. “As long as you don’t really suck, you will have immediate loyal customers and a big headstart over any competition that might come in later.”

That’s what Juli Hilton accomplished in west Roseville. Hilton developed Village Westpark retail center and opened its two restaurants in fall 2021: MoJoe’s Cafe in September, followed by Kitchen 747 in November.

As California lost population in 2020, Roseville added 3,382 new residents, the second-most of any city statewide. Nearly 70% of those people moved to west Roseville’s 95747 zip code — understand Kitchen 747’s name now? — according to state Department of Finance data.

Yet while housing boomed — more than 1,000 new single-family homes came online citywide in 2020 — retail development lagged in west Roseville. Hilton opened MoJoe’s and Kitchen 747 at 2330 Pleasant Grove Blvd. not with great culinary aspirations but to fill a void, she said.

“I got into the restaurant industry because I felt west Roseville needed a great place to hang out and eat.,” said Hilton, a former LPGA golfer who moved to west Roseville in 2005. “When we watched the whole western area being built and grow and grow and grow, I just thought, ‘God, someone’s got to go and build some cool outdoor place where someone can go enjoy the patio.’“

Both MoJoe’s and Kitchen 747 overlook Village Westpark’s scenic grounds, and both can be enjoyed at all times of the day. The cafe serves Rocklin-based Vaneli’s Handcrafted Coffee and pastries in the morning, then the in-house craft market and freezer full of Gunther’s Ice Cream get more action in the evenings. As if the new houses weren’t enough MoJoe’s is surrounded by three elementary schools, one junior high and a high school within a two-mile radius.

Kitchen 747 is the kind of restaurant one can find in most suburbs — Hilton described it as a step up from Chili’s, but a step below Paul Martin’s American Grill 20 minutes away across town. Its broad menu includes pizzas, sandwiches and salads as well as date night options like the 30-day-aged, house-butchered ribeye.

With neighborhoods like Sierra Vista and Fiddyment Farm adding so many more units in west Roseville, Hilton estimated the city now has about 40,000 residents west of Fiddyment Road. And with so few restaurants around, it makes sense to have something for everyone, Hilton said.

“I was basing our business plan more on people loving to hang out at these place, and if we offer good food and drinks, it would keep people from having to drive all the way across town,” Hilton said.

This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 3:00 AM.