Take two: Dos Coyotes Border Cafe extends discounts for its delayed 30th anniversary

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Dos Coyotes Border Cafe is celebrating its 30th birthday this spring — and its 31st, too.

Founded Jan. 5, 1991 in north Davis, the beloved Southwestern-inspired local chain was to host a 30th birthday blowout in 2021 but pushed it back a year due to the pandemic.

Instead, Dos Coyotes made a select four items $10 on Mondays in January 2022. Those dishes — the Big Catch shrimp burrito, Yucatan chicken salad, mahi mahi taco plate and Coyote-ized chicken burrito — now accounted for more than 60% of the day’s sales each week, founder and co-owner Bobby Coyote said. The celebration was due to end in March but will roll through at least April as a result.

Born Robert Davidson, Bobby Coyote started working in the restaurant industry more than 50 years ago as a Jewish teenager in Los Angeles. That included a stint at The Source, a famous all-vegetarian restaurant owned by a cult, before becoming a 22-year-old manager at Cafe Figaro, one of the city’s highest-volume eateries in Los Angeles.

There’s been some debate in recent years about white chefs and restaurateurs who became successful by making other cultures’ food. Coyote, for what it’s worth, grew up taking family trips to Santa Fe and adapted an already fusion-ified cuisine for Norcal palates.

Those early lessons served Bobby well after he moved north to Davis and opened the first Dos Coyotes in 1991. When vegetarianism was still an afterthought to most restaurateurs, he tried wild meat-free combinations like brie-and-papaya quesadillas and made sure to have lean entree for the health-conscious. Trademark quick service, meanwhile, allowed Dos Coyotes to expand to 11 locations (and counting — keep your eyes out for a possible addition around Rocklin or Roseville in the future).

But most importantly, Dos Coyotes captured a niche. The Southwestern throuple marriage of Mexican, Native American and U.S. ingredients is its own unique cuisine marked by Hatch chilis and Frito pie, one that’s underrepresented throughout much of the area. As Bobby put it, Rubio’s Coastal Grill took the coast, Chipotle Mexican Grill spread the Mission-style burrito and Dos Coyotes made dishes like Santa Fe nachos and paella burritos widely available throughout greater Sacramento.

Dos Coyotes has adapted to the times while staying true to its soul: take the roadrunner chicken sandwich, char-broiled instead of fried with housemade green chili jam, avocado and honey-cured bacon. That’s not easy, and there have been hiccups along the way — the sandwich originated at the short-lived Coyote Bar & Kitchen in Folsom. But who knows where Dos Coyotes might be 30 years (or 31) years from now.

What I’m Eating

Mano and Stefanie Vrapi have made a serious impression on Sacramento-area diners over the last few years. Their Flour Dust Pizza started as a food truck in 2016, then blossomed into a full-scale restaurant in December 2019 at 5080 Foothills Blvd., Suite 5 in Roseville.

Opening just before the pandemic was inauspicious, but Flour Dust captivated eaters to the point where they named it the region’s best pizzeria in a December 2020 poll and voted it onto The Sacramento Bee’s 50 Best Restaurants list three months later.

Flour Dust’s most popular starter is the hand-pulled mozzarella ($13), a glob of cheese in olive oil surrounded by pizza crust flatbread. Piled on the flatbread with carmelized onions and red peppers, it created a pleasurable sweet-salty harmony.

Independent parts similarly played nicely in the apple salad ($13 for a small, $17 for a large), a medley of slivered Granny Smiths, mixed greens, chevre, candied walnuts tied red onions. Tied together by an apple cider reduction glaze, it was bright and inspired, a far cry from the usual pepperoncini-topped salad that comes with office pizza parties or AYSO end-of-season bashes.

Mano Vrapi learned to make Neapolitan-style, wood-fired pizzas in Florence, a training that shows in pies like the seasonal Brandon ($18) topped with roasted potato slices, housemade Italian sausage and pesto or the Ali’s Special ($18) with crushed pistachios, habanero honey and red onions between ricotta, chevre, Parmesan and mozzarella.

The crust was excellent, with stellar leoparding (slight charring around the edges), and the pistachios gave the Ali’s Special some nice texture contrast. Yet most toppings were pretty mild in flavor, I thought. Vrapi’s head is in the right place; if he can make the toppings sing or find better suppliers, Flour Dust will be golden.

Openings & Closings

• Not one but (technically) two Middle Eastern eateries opened in Elk Grove during the first week of March. Downtown Sacramento staple Crest Cafe added its second location at 8698 Elk Grove Blvd., Suite 2, while Rumi’s Oasis Bakery & Pâtisserie started selling bolani, wraps and more from a small cafe inside the larger grocery store at 9688 Bruceville Rd., Suite 107.
  
  
• Amber Michel and Billy Zoellin opened The Green Room last Wednesday at 3839 J St. in East Sacramento, where their brunch hotspot Bacon & Butter once stood. The new concept revolves around small plates and house twists on traditional cocktails.
• Insight Coffee Roasters’ cafe business is wrapping up, at least for now. The Southside Park roastery announced its storefront closure in a social media post last week, but hinted at more news to come soon.