La Crosta Pizza Bar, hamstrung by pandemic, closes permanently in West Sacramento

La Crosta Pizza Bar has permanently closed in West Sacramento after more than three years, operators Sara Arbabian and Steve Tatterson announced on social media Thursday morning.

La Crosta opened at 330 3rd St. in September 2018, part of a revitalization effort on a West Sacramento block near the Sacramento River. A pizza oven named Penelope decorated with $140 worth of pennies was the centerpiece, but curried meatballs, Manchego grits and housemade pasta bolognese all became customer favorites as well, according to a Facebook post from the pizzeria.

Arbabian and Tatterson’s first restaurant, midtown Sacramento cheese-and-wine bar The Rind, was able to build out a substantive streetside patio and benefited from pedestrian traffic in the Handle District. La Crosta’s neighborhood, by contrast, doesn’t have the same walkability, and neighboring ice cream hotspot Devil May Care moved out in spring 2021. The pizza restaurant went into a pandemic-induced hibernation on Nov. 26, 2020 and never came out.

“The challenges of starting a new restaurant too soon before a pandemic simply were too much to overcome,” La Crosta’ Facebook post read. “You all gave us so much support, from when we opened, to when it was To Go only, to modified indoor dining. Your patronage and love humbled us and gave us hope. Unfortunately we have had to accept that some challenges cannot be overcome as we had hoped.”

Then-Sacramento Bee dining critic Kate Washington awarded La Crosta three out of four stars in a January 2019 review, praising the entrees, wine list and ambiance but bemoaning her pizza’s soggy crust.