New ‘Lord of the Rings’-themed cafe, gaming lounge opens in downtown Sacramento

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

Heidi and Ross Rojek’s new downtown Sacramento cafe, There & Back Again, aims to test that quote from dwarf Thorin Oakenshield in “The Hobbit.” The Rojeks are designing There And Back Again as not just a coffee shop, but a communal gathering place for fantasy fans, Catan settlers and anyone who might need a friend.

“We want it to be a welcoming area for people who may not have a place to go hang out and be themselves,” Heidi said.

The owners have a long way to go in converting the former Oblivion Comics & Coffee at 1020 11th St., Suite 100 into the cafe they envision.

A back area will eventually house rental movies and video games, with large-screen TVs and PlayStations for customers to test games before purchasing. It’ll also be a spot for karaoke nights, trivia quizzes and poetry readings when it’s finished, COVID-19 numbers permitting.

Customers can bring their own board games or rent them. They’ll soon be able to play on custom tables from a local woodworker, Heidi said.

Ross is working on setting up a giant chess board outside in Cathedral Square. There & Back Again will put out calls for customers to come down and play as the pieces. The cafe aims to provide a similarly sized Catan settling board as well, of which there’s already a smaller version painted on the wall behind the bar.

An $8,500 hand-drawn linoleum map of Middle Earth greets customers as they walk in, followed by a giant poster of Gandalf the Grey donated by the neighboring Esquire IMAX Theatre. Food specials will riff on that week’s featured book: during “Lord of the Rings” week, Heidi prepared “Shire-cuterie” boards with a nest of quail eggs, “Frodo’s mushrooms,” cured meats and Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op cheeses.

There & Back Again also sells housemade hand pies and halloumi-topped avocado toast. Coffee and espresso drinks come from Reno-based Old World Coffee Lab, and the Rojeks plan to eventually apply for a California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control permit to sell beer and wine.

Owners of Capital Books a block-and-a-half away from There & Back Again, the Rojeks have had front-row seats to downtown Sacramento’s decay during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet the K Street bookstore has doubled its business during that time thanks to community support and innovations like “Feast and Fiction,” a private date night where couples dined in and browsed the otherwise-closed store.

Downtown restaurants have struggled since their typical lunch crowd shifted to working from home. But the Rojeks aren’t counting on state workers to make up most of There & Back Again’s clientele, and they’re not deterred by the recent hard times.

“Ross and I truly believe in downtown, and we wouldn’t have opened the bookstore even pre-COVID if we didn’t believe in it,” Heidi said. “That’s not saying it hasn’t been hard the last couple of years, but we’re still here.”

This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 3:25 AM.