A popular Sacramento burger spot is closing in Midtown — It’s opening 2 other locations
Broderick Roadhouse’s 10th birthday is bringing some major changes.
The popular burger joint and bar is closing its central location in Midtown Sacramento’s Handle District, opening a new sister restaurant in downtown Davis and reopening its original West Sacramento spot after keeping it closed for the last two years.
All this comes less than three months after owner Chris Jarosz opened Anonimo Pizza outside downtown Sacramento. Jarosz is also planning to debut a new food truck, details of which remain under wraps, in the next month or two.
So why the shakeup?
Broderick Roadhouse has a month-to-month lease at 1820 L St., Suite 103 in Midtown, and Jarosz is unhappy with the building’s state and his relationship with his landlord Robert W. Clippinger, he said. Clippinger, who owns several other commercial buildings around Sacramento, filed an eviction lawsuit against Broderick Roadhouse last month, the Sacramento Business Journal reported.
Jarosz is moving on from the space after seven years rather than trying to fight Clippinger in court. Though Broderick will close around May 15, he hopes to eventually open another concept elsewhere in midtown.
Drawing from Davis Farmers Market
In Davis, a yet-unnamed restaurant under the Broderick umbrella will replace D Street Steakhouse at 113 D St., Jarosz said. Cooks will source from the Davis Farmers Market to make healthier options, some vegan, than the burger joint, with more emphasis on the grill and oven than the deep-fryer.
“I always thought Davis was such an amazing little town with a really great international foodie audience,” Jarosz said. “There are so many different cultures being celebrated here and there’s access to an amazing farmers market ... there’s a million reasons why Davis is a good spot for the future.”
That 90-seat restaurant in a converted Craftsman house exemplifies the new Broderick — which, if you ask Jarosz, is the old Broderick, before he became focused on expansion and efficiency. Expansions to Roseville, Folsom and Carmichael all failed in the late 2010s. Jarosz also sold Localis, Trick Pony and Capital Dime (the latter two have since closed) around then as well.
“Broderick started out as this uber-farm-to-fork burger place, where farmers were showing up every day and I was figuring out how to spin what they (had) into Broderick,” Jarosz said. “Sometime in last couple of years, I got stuck in this mode of ‘economy’ and ... I kind of got caught in a trap a bit. And now the food is going be focus of restaurant again, not theatrics or asides or marketing or whatever.”
Johnny Cash Burger in West Sacramento
Broderick’s original brick-and-mortar West Sacramento location was founded in 2012 at 319 6th St. shortly after the concept debuted as a food truck. During the pandemic, Broderick pivoted to become a handful of ghost kitchens — a Jewish deli, a cheesesteak post, a Cajun-inspired sandwich shop.
The West Sacramento location will still have some of the dishes for which Broderick is known, like the Johnny Cash Burger with its applewood-smoked bacon and fried onion strings, when it reopens in the next few weeks. Look for a few changes there as well, though, Jarosz said.
“Expect Broderick 2.0,” he said.
This story was originally published May 5, 2022 at 5:25 AM.