Taste of Sacramento: Carmichael has tasty pies, savory burgers and Fast Cat

Editor’s note: Taste of Sacramento runs every two weeks and aims to highlight local favorites that might not always be in the news. Have a neighborhood suggestion? Drop an email to jpatrick@sacbee.com.)

Robert Stokes is into vintage cars, fine coffee and gourmet food. He’s been to culinary school and he’s been to hot rod school.

“It’s all about trying to live a journey you enjoy,” said Stokes. And last summer, his journey brought him to Carmichael, where he opened Fast Cat Coffee.

Fast Cat is a bit of a hybrid. It’s a coffee shop with a gourmet grilled cheese bar. The walls are decorated with vintage car memorabilia.

The concept is inspired by the Cars and Coffee movement.

“There’s this global phenomenon … called ‘Cars and Coffee,’” said Stokes. “On the weekends, people meet in parking lots in Paris, Dubai.”

Sacramento also has Cars and Coffee.

“You’ll get four or five hundred cars there,” said Stokes. “And they sit around and talk about cars … And you know, they drink coffee.”

Tasty drinks, sweet and savory food

Fast Cat’s menu includes an array of espresso drinks, from mochas to lavender lattes. “Specialty Tea Concoctions” include items like “D-Minted,” a blend of Moroccan mint tea, dark chocolate, and heavy cream.

Grilled cheese sandwiches options include sweet and savory, breakfast and lunch. Sandwiches are made with locally-sourced cheeses — Stokes owns the Queso Kings brand of cheeses, currently produced in Woodland by the Rumiano Cheese Factory.

Breakfast sandwiches are served all day. Options include “Wake up Guanajuato,” made with carnitas, eggs, avocado, salsa, garlic jack and smokey cheddar on French bread.

For lunch or dinner, the menu offers items like “The Tony Soprano,” (fontina, Tuscan jack, Genoa salami, and prosciutto on sourdough) and the ”Smokin’ Pig” (havarti, smokey cheddar, sliced green apples, and pulled pork on cracked wheat sourdough).

Stokes plans to add a second Fast Cat Coffee location. He already has a car shop across town, where he builds custom cars and motorcycles.

“We really want to find a place that’s large enough to be able to house the entire thing in one building,” Stokes said.

“I’m a car guy, so I definitely envision people being able to come in on the weekend to see what the progress on the ’59 Porsche is,” he said.

Skip’s Kitchen’s intimate, casual dining

Skip’s Kitchen is a casual family diner for lunch and dinner. It’s a friendly place; a family diner. Bring the kids. Bring the dogs — they’re welcome on the outdoor patio.

The “Skip” in question is owner Skip Wahl. Wahl worked for Chili’s for 17 years before opening his own restaurant.

“You kind of look at your life at some point and say, ‘OK, is that all there is? Should I do anything more?’ And my wife and I, with a lot of conversation, a lot of prayer, we said, ‘Hey you know what? We can do this.’ So we opened our own restaurant.”

It’s a small diner, and Wahl likes it that way. He likes to get to know his customers. Wahl and his family live just blocks from the restaurant. “We’re a neighborhood family,” he said. “We want to be involved in the community.”

Skip’s Kitchen bills itself as “gourmet casual dining.” It’s a counter-order restaurant with a bit of a twist. Instead of handing you a number, the cashier fans a deck of cards across the counter.

Pick the joker and your meal is free. And if you pick any other card, well, at least they’ll know who ordered the pastrami sandwich.

Skip’s is best known for its burgers. In 2017, the restaurant made Business Insider’s list of the 50 best burger joints in America, placing 29th. In 2018, it was voted best burger in Sacramento on KCRA’s A-List.

“We do ... almost 90% of the stuff here from scratch. We make our own veggie patties, make our own turkey, make our own meat loaf. ... It’s done here in house,” Wahl said.

The diner is open Monday through Saturday. Sunday is family day for Wahl. “We go to church, spend the day as a family, and try to keep the balance that way.”

I Love Pie’s tasty treats

Diana Shockley always loved baking, but she never expected to go pro.

Shockley had a desk job, working nine to five for Sutter Health. Baking was just a hobby, but it was a hobby she became more and more preoccupied with. She became obsessed with learning to bake pies, and especially pie crusts.

Then, finally, she got it right.

“Once I was able to make a good crust, I was making all kinds of pies,” said Shockley. She began hosting pie-themed parties at her house. Eventually, she thought it might be fun to set up a pie stand with her daughter.

She did some research, got the necessary permits, baked a bunch of pies, and set up shop at the Sunday farmers’ market in Carmichael Park.

“We sold out on our first day,” said Shockley. “And it was so much fun.”

By the next week, she had repeat customers. Before long, early birds were gathering as she set up her booth. As word spread, Shockley found herself baking 60 to 70 pies and selling out in the first two hours at the market.

Then she saw potential for an actual business.

Shockley quit her job, found additional farmers’ markets and expanded her pie stand.

But she needed a real place to bake and sell. So in August of 2019, with the help of a small Kickstarter campaign, she leased a space on Marconi Avenue and opened the I Love Pie Bakeshop.

“I wanted to just throw myself in there and kind of sink or swim,” Shockley said. “And ... I swam hard.”

Shockley attributes the quality of her product to doing things the right way.

“We don’t take shortcuts on anything,” she said. “If we have to slowly whisk in egg yolks a little bit at a time .... we do it. We take the long way to do things the right way. I’m very, very strict about that.”

She also keeps batches small to preserve the homemade quality and taste.

“Once you start making things in huge batches, it just tastes more mass produced somehow,” Shockley said. “So all of our recipes are pretty small-batch.”

This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 4:00 AM.