30 of the best Sacramento restaurants that opened during COVID
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Sacramento Reopening Guide
This story is part of the Sacramento Reopening Guide, giving you everything you need to know as the state’s economy officially reopens June 15. Read more of the stories here:
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Amid the monotony of shelter-in-place (yes, Netflix, I’m still watching), new life sprung up across the Sacramento-area restaurant scene.
These 30 new restaurants grabbed my eye as they opened throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Some I’ve visited and can vouch for (helloooo, Ginger Elizabeth Pâtisserie). Others remain on my must-try list, boasting menus or settings that stand out from their contemporaries.
None of these places really had grand openings. They didn’t have the institutional support that carried existing neighborhood restaurants through the pandemic.
They’re still looking for their regulars. Maybe you’re one of them.
A Part Cafe
If the words “shwaco in a pitatilla” read like gibberish, you’re probably unfamiliar with this Middle Eastern fusion restaurant that opened in late November. A Part Cafe’s flagship dish is a shawarma-taco hybrid wrapped in a pita-tortilla shell, filled with za’atar-dusted halal meats or vegetables like qulaba (fava beans, tomatoes and onion). Tahini’s a key ingredient as well at Saudi Arabia native Areej Khan and American-born Michael Spencer’s restaurant; it’s used in everything from hand pies to chocolate chip cookies.
Antojo Street Taco Bar
Ramiro Alarcon closed down his popular East Sacramento restaurant Cielito Lindo to take the chef job at Antojo, located on the ground floor of the EVIVA building. Despite the cheap bites implied by name, he’s brought over a similarly elevated feel: chile relleno with squash blossom and huitlacoche, whole cod baked in a parchment paper wrap, pipian verde over slow-cooked chicken. There are done-up tacos too, of course, and weekend brunch with lots of huevos-based dishes and $15 for two hours of bottomless mimosas.
Babes Ice Cream & Donuts
Ice cream without the cream, doughnuts without the (typical) dough: Pushkin’s co-owners Olga and Danny Turner’s new baby is entirely vegan and gluten-free. Coconut milk subs for dairy in giant, flavorful scoops of blackberry vanilla or rocky road. Doughnuts with flavors like tiramisu, white chocolate cherry and churro twist are made with a mix of sorghum, rice and tapioca flours and almond milk. Babes is the rare accessible dessert shop for those with dietary restrictions, and worth checking out for free eaters as well.
Bear Dive
Mike Gouddou and Mark Landregan ran Bay Area restaurants and bars for decades before moving to Sacramento in 2019 and opening their “five-star dive bar” in December. The LGBTQ-friendly Bear Dive (yes, the name’s a play on words) prides itself on familiar bar bites done with an extra bit of care: housemade queso with Colby jack instead of Velveeta, for example, or twice-done fries for max crispiness. A mile away from Lavender Heights’ soon-to-be pulsating gay clubs, Bear Dive’s patio offers a more relaxed, grown-up ambiance for dinner, happy hour and late-night drinks. Read more
Brahma Bar & Grill
Meat is definitely on chef Billy Hartzell’s menu at this unapologetically American bistro and cocktail bar. They’re getting their money’s worth from their smoker with barbecue platters and sandwich meats, though dinner is dominated by a variety of steaks. Brahma’s design dances from casual to trendy — think corrugated metal and simple wooden booths topped with shiny-pot succulents — and dishes like a lamb burger from Dixon-based Superior Farms with Monterey Jack cheese, caramelized onions and tzatziki similarly balance comfort with hipness.
Burma Eat
For all the region’s culinary and cultural diversity, there’s still next to no Burmese food. Top 50 restaurant Green Elephant in Loomis was the lone representation until Burma Eat opened in downtown Davis in January. Fortunately, Myat Mon and Jordan Kyu’s new restaurant has a long menu full of hits, including a fried Burmese yellow tofu appetizer that goes from crispy shell from ethereally creamy interior and a delightfully bright, crunchy tea leaf salad. Mon and Kyu also own or co-own Burma Grub in San Francisco, Experience Burma in Pleasanton and Burma Unique in Walnut Creek.
Chulla’s Cafe
Chulla’s Cafe owner Tamba Keifa grew up in Guinea, went to a Sierra Leone university and now studies the Black diaspora. His restaurant is similarly unbound by borders, pulling dishes from across Africa as well as colonial outposts like the eastern United States and the Caribbean.Tangier stew, coconut shrimp and bagels might not be natural bedfellows, but they all go down with a swig of hibiscus tea at Chulla’s.
Darling Aviary
The grid’s third rooftop bar looks out over downtown Sacramento with nearly a birds-eye view of Golden 1 Center and Downtown Commons. Darling Aviary is best known for its fun, fruity cocktails, as one might expect from the minds behind The Flamingo House in midtown. Quarter-pound burgers have names inspired by both birds and a middle schooler’s sense of humor — try the Bushtit, topped with prosciutto, brie and onion confit, or the Pecker, featuring white cheddar and calabrian pepper aioli.
Fondue 152
Talk about plans altered by the pandemic. Carie Nakamura Toeller’s whole concept was based around four-course dipping dinners featuring meats familiar and exotic — Beef heart! Alligator! Mako shark! — prior to Fondue 152’s August opening. Without much indoor dining allowed, though, Fondue 152 leaned on to-go sandwiches, brunch and mini wellingtons, which range from pigs in a blanket to roasted lobster. Look for a full menu return now that things are opening back up.
Ginger Elizabeth Pâtisserie
Any Sacramento resident with a sweet tooth knows Ginger Elizabeth Hahn from her eponymous Handle District chocolate shop (and its macaron ice cream sandwiches). Hahn’s new French bakery is just as excellent, with astoundingly airy pains au chocolat and sticky whiskey monkey bread. Unlike the original Ginger Elizabeth, the pâtisserie also has less-sweet options like goat cheese-jalapeno biscuits and ham-and-Swiss in a croissant/sandwich hybrid called a croissandwich. Prices might seem a bit steep at around $6 per pastry, but they’re worth it.
Joon Market
Saba Rahimian grew up in Sacramento and ran Granola Girl food truck here before leaving for Austin, where she met native Texan chef Seth Helmly. The two relocated to Rahimian’s hometown at the pandemic’s start and opened Joon Market (Joon means “life” or “spirit” in Farsi) in January. Joon’s menu is sort of a mishmash of cultures, drawing from Rahimian and Helmly’s roots as well as the latter’s travels in Southeast Asia and Latin America. The result is items like pkhali, a Georgian vegetable pâté made with charred kale and pecans, or patty melts on Texas Toast with meat from Yuba County-based Richards Grassfed Beef.
Kin Thai Street Eatery
Inspired by the Thai night markets on which sisters Napis Lindley and Napak Kongsitthanakor grew up, Kin is really one of a kind in the Sacramento region. You’ll find the obligatory pad thai and yellow curries, but also chicken meatball dumplings called giew pou and “The Roots,” a veggie medley including fried golden taro, pumpkin, sweet potato and black bean cake. A meatless take on naam tok, typically a beef salad, features oyster mushrooms instead and washes down well with Bangkok Brewing Co.’s Tom Yum Beer, a 5% ABV wheat ale assertively flavored with galangal, lemongrass and makrut lime.
Madar
It’s Uzbek, Afghan and Indian cuisines’ turn for the fusion treatment at Madar, which opened in April 2020 in Arden Arcade. Spices like saffron and coriander infuse fast food dishes with new life, as seen in the chapli kabob burger with yogurt mint chutney. But Madar’s brief menu also has traditional items like housemade tandoori samosas, five varieties of bolani and an Afghan puff pastry called qatlama.
Majka Pizzeria & Bakery
Alex Sherry and Chutharat Sae Tong fell in love working together at Cheese Board Pizza in Berkeley, if you couldn’t tell from their new pizzeria. Like Cheese Board, Majka only serves one kind of pizza per day, always vegetarian with interesting seasonal combinations. Past toppings have included asparagus with red spring onions, green garlic, buffalo ricotta and arugula walnut pesto, or summer squash with red spring onions, peas, bulgarian feta and lemon-herb butter. The couple even brought over Cheese Board’s famous herby green hot sauce, a $2 addition that instantly brightens any pie. Majka’s been particularly COVID-conscious so far, and all orders must be placed in advance online for contactless pickup between 4-7 p.m. Read more
Mattone Ristorante
There’s a lot of history here, despite Mattone being the newest restaurant on this list. Former Biba bartender June Chang recruited several of his old co-workers to open where Espanol Italian Restaurant sat for 55 years. Biba regulars will recognize several dishes like the 12-layer lasagna, but Mattone’s placed a renewed emphasis on sourcing locally and introduced new items such as caviar-topped crab salad with fennel mousse. Read more
Maydoon
Idean Farid helped his father Mohammad run M. Shahrzad Fine Persian Cuisine for 17 years in Rancho Cordova. Now it’s dad’s turn to help out at Idean’s new-school midtown Persian restaurant, where yogurt-based appetizers come in Mason jars and lunch bowls target people eating on the run. There aren’t many other places around Sacramento to find dishes such as chelo morgh, chicken braised in a turmeric-tomato broth and served over rice. An intriguing cocktail list imagines a present-day Persia where alcohol is legal, as seen in drinks like the Alabaloo Surprise (vodka, sour cherry syrup, pomegranate liquor and currants). Read more
Midtown Spirits
Yes, it’s technically a restaurant — peep the loaded fries, brunch menu and hot dogs, the last of which nods to Truitt Bark Park across the street. Of course, Sacramento’s first post-Prohibition distillery is best known for its housemade gin-and-rice vodka, with rum, whiskey and agave spirits to come. Boozy slushies like Cucumber Cooler (cucumber-infused vodka, gin, mint syrup, lemon and cucumber juice) will surely make Jason Poole and Dave Abrahamsen’s Preservation & Co. offshoot popular this summer.
Mom & Pop Chicken Shop
Milestone Restaurant & Cocktail Bar owners Nick Dedier and Alexa Hazelton doubled down with their second El Dorado Hills Town Center restaurant in November. Mom & Pop uses Mary’s Free Range Chicken for wings, sandwiches and salads, emphasizing fun along the way and never taking the concept too seriously — just ask for the brine recipe if you want it. You’ll also find jerk marinade and nuggets on the menu as well as beer-based cocktails like a strawberry shandy made with an Anchor Steam lager. A second location is expected to open in Cameron Park later this year.
Nash & Proper
Cecil Rhodes and Jake Bombard’s food truck brought the hot chicken craze to Sacramento in 2018 and opened their first brick-and-mortar restaurant in September after winning the Downtown Sacramento Partnership’s Calling All Dreamers competition. Spice blends range from Naked to Cluckin’ Hot for chicken sandwiches, tenders and quarter-birds. Sides like collard greens are new to the brick-and-mortar but sort of old, derived from Rhodes’ father’s recipes. An Elk Grove location is expected to open later this month. Read more
Pho Vegan Asian Cuisine
Little Saigon’s umami-filled beef broths and porky banh mi don’t work for all eaters. This Vietnamese-leaning Asian fusion restaurant, which opened in Rocklin in 2015, adapts those traditional dishes for plant-based diets. Find soy meatball pho, mushroom tempura and oil-free tofu pancit at Pho Vegan Asian Cuisine. An extensive gluten-free menu also covers noodle dishes and soups for the celiacs among us.
Pizzasaurus Rex
Midtown’s “Crust-aceous Period,” as owners David Smith and Jamie Dougherty call it, began this dinosaur-themed pizzeria’s January opening. The high school sweethearts, who also own Old Town Pizza and Tap House in Elk Grove, sell a limited array of four-person pies for around $24, the most interesting of which comes topped with thin potato slices, sun-dried tomatoes and white sauce. Vegan options are available, as well individual slices for $4.50-$6.
Ramendou
You’ll find bowls of shoyu, tonkatsu and miso ramen at this restaurant across from Land Park, sure. Yet Ramendou stands out for dishes like a no-broth ramen called mazemen or eel burgers sandwiched between two blocks of firm egg noodles. There’s a good mix of other Japanese dishes such as donburi and takoyaki as well, plus hamachi kama when available.
Restaurant Josephine
Eric Alexander and Courtney McDonald met at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park and worked at restaurants across the U.S. before returning to McDonald’s hometown of Auburn, where they helped run the esteemed Carpe Vino from 2006 to 2019. Restaurant Josephine is their first solo venture, a highly seasonal tribute to French and Eastern European cooking that takes its name from the couple’s daughter and Alexander’s great-grandmother. The menu changes every couple of days; a recent iteration included salt-roasted beets with fennel and pistachio, mimolette macaroni and cheese and dark chocolate mousse with plum jam and crème fraîche.
Ro Sham Beaux
The third exciting new concept in The Didion mixed-use building alongside Ginger Elizabeth Pâtisserie and Babes Ice Cream & Donuts, Ro Sham Beaux is a low-ABV wine bar and bottle shop first. Food is simple but carefully curated — brie grilled cheese sandwiches with acacia honey, for example, or beetroot hummus with pretzel chips and feta — an interesting departure from Irish Hospitality Group’s other projects like de Vere’s Irish Pub. This time, the pitch is simple: come sip a wine that won’t get you drunk, nibble a bit and people-watch on the streetside patio.
Shake Shack
The Shake Shack vs. In-N-Out debate came to the Sacramento region in 2020, as the New York-based upscale fast food chain landed in the Ice Blocks development and Westfield Galleria. People lined up down the block at the midtown location’s June opening for burgers, hot dogs, crinkle-cut fries and frozen custards called concretes. Beer and wine are available, unlike most fast food restaurants, and a doggie menu includes biscuits and custards for pooches.
Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria
Nashville-based Slim & Husky’s picked Oak Park for its first expansion outside of Tennessee and Georgia, and got off to a hot start after an August opening. Oblong pizzas come in two sizes, Slim (10 inches) and Husky (16 inches), with 90s hip-hop-inspired names like “California Love” (spinach-basil pesto, artichoke, red onions and a house cheese blend). The restaurant and beer bar is equally well-known for cinnamon rolls like the “Ninja Tartle,” topped with a jalapeno cream cheese glaze and green apple sauce.
Snug Jr.
What started as a pandemic pop-up has turned into one of Sacramento’s hottest burger joints, finishing third in a January Bee poll despite being a write-in. Snug Jr. alludes to Irish Hospitality Group’s R Street Corridor bar but has actually sold beef, fish, chicken and vegan burgers out of de Vere’s Irish Pub since summer 2020. The de Vere brothers have filed a California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control application to give Snug Jr. a permanent home at 1226 20th St., where Plan B used to sit.
Song Pa Korean Restaurant
A July newcomer to the Rosemont area’s strong roster of Korean restaurants, Song Pa’s flagship meal is a spicy, vibrant red soup called yukgaejang (peep the URL). It’s traditional food presented in sleek, attractive dishware like most else at Song Pa, which stood out during the pandemic for sealing off little takeout containers of banchan with shrink wrap to ensure a safe journey home. Bee dining critic Kate Washington ID’d “a balanced spicy pork and kimchi stir-fry with tofu” as her favorite dish at the Bradville Square shopping center restaurant in an October roundup.
The Olive Branch
The Olive Branch is owned by former Hawks beverage director Jordan Anderson, who recruited the upscale Granite Bay restaurant’s old chef de cuisine Edward Lopez to run the kitchen. The Olive Branch meets by-the-book eaters where they’re at — then amps up the quality, with lots of local influence. Chocolate Fish Coffee drinkers munch on housemade seasonal Pop-Tarts or breakfast burritos, and Lopez has sourced bread for the cafe’s sandwiches from Rancho Cordova-based Rancho Roots since opening in April 2020. It’s part of an attractive Fair Oaks Village remodeling along with fellow new-ish restaurants Shangri-La and Brahma Bar & Grill.
Vons Chicken
Chicken comes both fried and oven-roasted at this popular Korean chain, which expanded first to Arden Arcade in December and then to a hotel-heavy Roseville neighborhood in April 2021. Within those two cooking categories comes a range of sauces and methods, like sweet-and-spicy yangnyeom seasoning, padak chicken in a wine/scallion sauce or build-your-own ssam wraps. Sides include fries, japchae and tteokbokki (spicy stir-fried rice cakes).
This story was originally published June 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
