Late-night sandwich shop with bar opening in midtown Sacramento this fall

Carmichael ghost kitchen Jet’s has a name that’s half eponymous, half acronymous. Soon, though, the latter won’t really make sense.

Jet’s American Bar & Grill will open around mid-October at 1226 20th St. in midtown Sacramento, co-owner Jet Bonanno confirmed Monday.

It’ll be the first brick-and-mortar location with seating for Jet’s, which stands for Just Eat Takeout. Bonanno and his brother Trent started running Jet’s as a pop-up in May 2020 and established a Carmichael ghost kitchen at 4706 Arden Way last October, meaning food was only offered to-go through the website or DoorDash and Uber Eats delivery.

“Our sales had just been growing like crazy, so we thought it’s just good time to open a brick-and-mortar,” Bonanno said. “We kind of like the area here on 20th Street. There’s a lot of late-night activity, and we focus on late-night food, so we’ll try to attract people from the bars or people just in downtown or midtown late at night.”

The Bonannos’ four ghost kitchen concepts (Jet’s, Fries, Diogi’s Dogs and Chicken Nerd) will still be available to-go from the 1,800-square-foot midtown space, which previously housed Plan B Restaurant. The owners of de Vere’s Irish Pub applied for a California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control permit there in March to make their Snug Jr. pop-up permanent, but by late June, the Bonnanos had signed their lease.

Jet’s American Bar & Grill will serve the same food as the ghost kitchen: loaded fries and hot dogs, chicken strips and sandwiches stuffed fat with cheese and meat. That includes items like the Sacramento Cheesesteak (thin-sliced ribeye, onions, mushrooms, jalapeños and provolone, $13) and King’s Chopped Cheese (ground beef, grilled onions, four types of cheese, ketchup and mayonnaise, $10).

The ghost kitchen is open from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week, and the 49-seat restaurant will stay open that late but might also serve lunch or dinner, Bonanno said. Jet’s is also applying for a full liquor license, and hopes to eventually establish an in-bar beer pong league.

Jet Bonanno, 21, was a St. Mary’s College business student with no professional cooking experience when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Yet good returns from pop-ups convinced him and Trent they could run a ghost kitchen, and strong sales there gave them the confidence to open the brick-and-mortar restaurant, where they plan to eventually hire about 20 employees.

“I think we have really good food, great sauces. Our Jet sauce (similar to Raising Cane’s pink sauce) is getting pretty well-known in Carmichael right now, and our cheesesteaks are going crazy right now,” Jet Bonanno said.