Taste of Sacramento: Citrus Heights favorites include burgers, crepes, boba and hummus

Crepes and Burgers is a counter-order creperie/burger joint that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.

It’s a casual place with a simple layout. The dining area is one big room (capacity: 122) with lots of tables. You can also opt for one of the outdoor tables on the patio.

The diner has a large, chalkboard-style menu at the front. Newcomers may need a few moments to take it all in.

Crepes are a versatile food; they’re good for breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert. But they’re not your only option.

The menu offers a list of scrambles, omelets and “Ben-Addictions.” The latter ranges from “Eggs Benedict” to “Divorced Benedict.” (Wait. What? Is divorcing eggs a thing? Turns out, it’s not. The name is just an homage to support a friend going through a divorce.)

Burgers range from $11.99 to $14.99. Customer favorites include the habanero burger (Fiscalini habanero jack cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato and red onions combined with habanero mayonnaise) and the Auburn burger (applewood bacon, avocado, grilled onions, cheddar cheese and thousand island on sourdough bread).

Everything is made from scratch, right down to the mayonnaise on the habanero burger.

It’s a point of pride for owner Martin Garcia. Unlike some other restaurants, they don’t buy liquid egg for their scrambles and omelets.

“Over here, we crack the egg,” Garcia says.

It’s a philosophy he carried over from his first restaurant gig. Garcia didn’t set out with any great culinary aspirations. In 2001, he was just a guy trying to earn a paycheck. He got a job as a dishwasher at the Esquire Grill, a Paragary Co. restaurant in downtown Sacramento.

He worked his way up to food prep, then through pantry, appetizers and grill, eventually becoming kitchen manager.

“In one year, I learned the whole kitchen completely,” Garcia said. “The whole system.”

Over time, his resume expanded to include some of Sacramento’s best-known restaurants — Cafe Bernardo, Bistro 33 and Lucca Restaurant & Bar, where he often served then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. (According to Garcia, Schwarzenegger often ordered the salmon plate).

And then there was Crepe Escape. Crepe Escape was a previous incarnation of Crepes and Burgers.

The ill-fated creperie had two locations, one on Freeport Boulevard, the other at 57th and H streets. Both were destroyed by arson less than 18 months apart.

For Garcia, it meant financial devastation. He couldn’t afford to reopen, so he gave up his lease and went about finding another job. He was working as the kitchen manager for Cafe Bernardo when he got a phone call.

It was his old landlord from the Crepe Escape, George Gudie. Garcia recounts the conversation.

Gudie said, “Martin, I want to help you. Go find a place. I’m going to give you whatever you’re going to need to open a restaurant.”

It was a gift of $290,000, with no strings attached.

Garcia found a place at 8000 Auburn Blvd. in Citrus Heights, and he opened up Crepes and Burgers.

Address: 8000 Auburn Blvd, Citrus Heights

Phone: (916) 735-5143

Hours: Friday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Open ⋅ Closes 10PM

Menu: crepesandburgersch.com

Extreme Hummus

Extreme Hummus is a Mediterranean restaurant with an authentic fast-food vibe, right down to the bullet hole in the drive-thru window.

But it’s not your standard fast-food fare.

Everything is made from scratch, says owner Farid Akbarpour, who runs the place alongside his wife, Shahnaz, and their kids.

The menu offers an array of plates, gyros and bowls. They all come with your choice of hummus, either on the bread or on the side. Customers have about eight different hummus options to choose from, including extreme signature, artichoke and pesto, and baba ganoush (roasted eggplant).

You can also opt for meals that are vegan or gluten-free.

“We just customize your food,” said Akbarpour. “You can be as picky as you are, but we’ll make what you like.”

Address: 7820 Zenith Dr, Citrus Heights

Hours: Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 9 p.m.

Menu: extreme-hummus.com

Phone: (916) 727-2500

Tea It

Tea It (short for “Just Tea It”) opened in August of 2019.

It’s a boba tea house that also serves an array of sandwiches (you can “just pastrami it,” or “just veggie it”), as well as Gunther’s ice creams and fruit freezes.

Boba tea, sometimes called “bubble tea,” is a trendy Taiwanese beverage made from some variation of milk, tea and little tapioca balls, or boba.

There’s no shortage of boba tea places. But it’s the atmosphere at Tea It that sets it apart, according to owner Amy Liang.

It’s a relaxed place to hang out. There’s counter seating around the diner’s perimeter. Or you can sit at one of the four-top tables, or on the couch by the coffee table. There’s a TV, an aquarium, and a shelf full of board games.

“We wanted it to be a homey feel,” Liang said.

It’s a family business, but Amy runs the day-to-day. Her sons, Jason and Jeffrey, work down the street at another of the Liang family’s businesses, The Aquarium and Reptile Depot.

Liang spent over 30 years running the Liang family’s restaurants. They included Japanese food, Chinese food, a buffet and Mongolian barbecue.

It was a lot of work, and Liang tried to retire. It just didn’t take.

“I got bored at home,” she remembered. “I needed something to do.”

Liang wanted to go back to work, but she wanted something less stressful.

She liked dealing with customers. But she didn’t want to hassle with a bunch of cooks and servers.

“I wanted something that we could basically handle without having a lot of employees,” she said.

Boba tea was the perfect answer.

“I’m here a lot too, but its a different kind of work. It’s relaxing, it’s not the same. This is more fun,” she said.

Address: 8516 Auburn Blvd, Suite A, Citrus Heights

Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day

Menu: justteait.com

Phone: (916) 696-6988

This story was originally published February 17, 2020 at 4:00 AM.