Calzones, cupcakes and late-night cocktails: Eclectic bakery coming to downtown Sacramento

Odd Cookie Bakery Cafe & Bar is betting downtown Sacramento workers and bar-hoppers want something different.

Different like a fried-chicken-and-waffle cupcake. Or a tomato soup cupcake, topped with a meatball. Or a panzerotti, a deep-fried miniature calzone described by co-owner Frankie Fusco as “an Italian Hot Pocket.”

“We’re trying to make (Odd Cookie) unique and something people haven’t seen before, something that would make people come back where we can attract all ages,” Fusco said.

Odd Cookie is slated to open around mid-December at 1013 Ninth St., where Bar Rouse previously stood and Blackbird Kitchen & Bar before it. The restaurants endured multiple extended closures and concept transitions stemming from ownership disputes, financial problems and water damage before Bar Rouse closed in September 2017, allegedly leaving several employees unpaid for weeks of work.

There’ll be more typical menu items at Odd Cookie, too: sandwiches, salads and soups, plus sweet cupcakes topped with Fruity Pebbles or Cap’n Crunch. The 4,100-square foot restaurant will also have a full bar with alcohol service upon opening at 6 a.m., Fusco said.

That liquor license opens the door to make booze-filled cupcakes, including a blood orange Old Fashioned and rosé strawberry-and- cream. Odd Cookie will also rotate seasonal cocktail specials and might use a mezzanine loft area for monthly wine tastings alongside local art exhibits, Fusco said.

Odd Cookie will stay open until about 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, then push closing time back to about 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights to catch downtown clubgoers in need of a sandwich or cup of coffee. It’ll be closed Sundays, Fusco said.

A Rocklin resident, Fusco currently manages a San Francisco nightclub. Most of his 25 years in the hospitality industry have been at clubs, though he’s managed restaurants and bars as well, he said.

Co-owner Anna Rodriguez will work as the pastry chef, and Odd Cookie is still looking for its head chef, Fusco said. Rodriguez graduated from the now-closed Tante Marie’s Cooking School in San Francisco in 2012 and ran her own catering business from then until 2017.

The Sacramento Business Journal broke news of Odd Cookie’s opening Tuesday.

This story was originally published November 6, 2019 at 11:59 AM.