A new bar, more TVs and a mural: Inside the remodeled R15 and Cafe Bernardo in Sacramento

The downtown Sacramento Cafe Bernardo and R15 are different these days. They’re brighter and lighter, more open and less divey, the result of a $250,000 makeover to move into the new decade.

The restaurant and bar at 1431 R St. are back open after being closed for five and seven weeks, respectively, for remodeling. It’s part of a broader-reaching ethos from Paragary Restaurant Group as Sacramento’s food scene has become increasingly competitive: spruce up existing places before adding new ones.

“I would prioritize making sure your existing businesses are fresh and customers are taken care of before you start spending money expanding just for the sake of expanding,” PRG partner Randy Paragary said in an interview with The Sacramento Bee. “Expanding’s fun, it’s creative, it’s exciting ... but you can’t ignore your existing places as you’re trying to expand in the restaurant business, and I’ve made that mistake before.”

All five Paragary Restaurant Group locations — the flagship Paragary’s, Centro Cocina Mexicana and Cafe Bernardos in Davis, midtown Sacramento and Arden Arcade’s Pavilions Shopping Center — have undergone remodels since 2014. The group also plans to open a new Cafe Bernardo and bar inside a 105-room midtown hotel this June.

Paragary’s was PRG’s first and boldest face-lift: the renovation bill had run north of $1 million by the time it reopened in June 2015 after a year-long closure. Ironically, major renovations of the Sacramento Convention Center also contributed to the closure of PRG’s Esquire Grill in June.

Stacy Paragary, Randy’s wife and business partner, came up with R15 and Cafe Bernardo’s design changes alongside architect Rachel Glabe Taylor. Among the alterations: R15’s red concrete walls have been sandblasted down to their natural grey, the preexisting horseshoe bar was ripped down to its studs and replaced, and four-legged barstools were swapped out for single-legged seats with metal bases.

More TVs now surround the bar, which was stripped of its rarely-used DJ perch and has new tiling. 1431 R St. housed a Wonder Bread warehouse in the early 20th century, and an Ali Futrell mural of bread slices dancing upon the brand’s logo now adorns the pool room’s western wall alongside Socrates’ quote, “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”

The chandeliers dangling from Cafe Bernardo’s ceiling are gone, replaced by plants in white containers from midtown-based Propagate. The shades of yellow and brown that used to dominate the dining room have been replaced by whites and greys, and spindle-back black wooden and mid-century modern chairs are in for their now-departed wicker counterparts.

Equipment in the open kitchen has also been swapped out by newer models, but both R15 and Cafe Bernardo’s menus remained more or less unchanged other than seasonal rotations.

The R Street Corridor of today scarcely resembles what was there when Cafe Bernardo and R15 replaced Sammy Chu’s, another PRG restaurant, 15 years ago. Iron Horse Tavern’s building was a state office, the Warehouse Artists Lofts were still a decade away and Ice Blocks was a run-down former ice manufacturing plant.

Times and competition levels have changed, but Cafe Bernardo and R15’s looks hadn’t. The Paragarys and partner/chef Kurt Spataro looked at their business and saw style choices rooted in the mid-2000s, fighting for the same dollars as newer neighbors like Mas Taco Bar and Bawk.

“Had we not done this, I wasn’t feeling that great about how it looked,” Randy Paragary said. “There’s a certain amount of pride. You want to be proud of your facility and know that customers are coming in and finding that it’s clean and fresh.”

This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 8:53 AM.