Former Hawks bar manager and chef de cuisine team up to open casual cafe in Fair Oaks
Jordan Anderson and Edward Lopez had done fine dining. Their new cafe and restaurant, built out from a former open-air market in Fair Oaks, needed to be casual.
Anderson opened The Olive Branch at 10239 Fair Oaks Blvd., Suite B on Tuesday with Lopez running the kitchen. They met at Hawks in Granite Bay, where Anderson was the beverage director for five years and Lopez was promoted to chef de cuisine.
Lopez’s culinary pedigree could land him atop nearly any local Michelin-star contender. Instead, he’ll open the relatively casual cafe at 8 a.m. and close it at 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Both chef and owner have kids around the same ages, Anderson said, and wanted to spend their evenings with them.
“I don’t want to be fancy at all. I want to be very comfortable and cozy while being focused on our crafts,” Anderson said. “No one is going for that formal concept at breakfast and lunch. We’re taking any of that formality out of it while still keeping the quality of our food at a high level.”
After 1 1/2 years of planning, The Olive Branch was slated and permitted to open March 17. Two days before the full-service cafe’s opening and the night before training, Gov. Gavin Newsom called for all restaurants to cut dining capacity by half.
When takeout-only became the rule in the coming days, Anderson laid off five of his 10 employees and began figuring out The Olive Branch’s new opening. Business has been about a third of what Anderson was expecting, though he said it’s picked up every day.
“What we’re trying to do is give the ER triage version of what the restaurant is supposed to really be,” Anderson said. “It’s difficult to put your best foot forward when you don’t have the ingredients you want, there are no tables or chairs and you’re running with a limited menu.”
That pared-down menu includes just three breakfast items: an egg sandwich, a croque madame and tomato braised kale stew, all between $9-$13. Produce used in lunch items such as the farm greens salad or turkey/bacon/cheddar/avocado sandwich on sourdough come from Rancho Roots, a Rancho Cordova couple’s urban farm. Pastries such as a Nutella chocolate chip cookie, coffee cake or butter croissant mostly hover around $3 apiece.
The Olive Branch is licensed to sell beer and wine, but Anderson’s beverage experience comes in handiest playing with Chocolate Fish Coffee products. All syrups are made in-house, allowing for drinks like a vegan dulce de leche latte that uses coconut milk to attain a caramel-like sweetness.
Additional syrups incorporate whole vanilla beans or Berkeley-based Tcho Chocolate, and The Olive Branch makes all salad dressings on-site as well. Anderson purposely declined to install a freezer to hold meats trussed and roasted in-house to keep turnover high.
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.