Michelin honors a single Sacramento restaurant in its latest roster of ‘new discoveries’
The Michelin company added a new set of restaurants to its famous list of recommendations this week, and just one from Sacramento, Hawks Public House, was honored.
The seven-year-old gastropub style restaurant and bar at 1525 Alhambra Boulevard in East Sacramento was among 17 spotlighted by the French tire and tourism company, which reviewed California restaurants for its statewide guide updated only once a year.
“The straightforward menu reflects the seasons, offering a small selection of familiar plates heightened with a touch of oomph,” the inspector wrote.
Hawks Public House is the second restaurant owned and operated by husband and wife team Molly Hawks and Michael Fagnoni. It is more casual and streamlined than their flagship restaurant Hawks, located in Granite Bay, which is considered by many to be the finest in the region.
Since 2020, Sacramento native and chef Derek Sawyer has been heading the operation and slowly making it his own. In between lunch and dinner service, he told The Bee that the restaurant’s style can be characterized as “California cuisine done with Italian flair and French technique.”
For instance, their menu takes familiar foods such as a burger, and elevates it using premium ingredients like wagyu beef, fried mortadella and hot mustard aioli all prepared from scratch.
“We are pushing more in this space than we have in the seven years that this place has been open,” Sawyer said.
“It was a huge inspiration growing up in the kitchen making tortillas with my grandma and aunties. Seeing how they reserved grease and fat (showed me) how everything in the kitchen should serve a larger method. That’s how I want my kitchen to be… Making sure that every single thing goes back into another dish.”
Hawks Public House opened during a period of culinary revival in East Sacramento where new businesses focused on delivering high-end dishes in more casual settings instead of the white-tablecloth fine dining options often found in the west part of the city.
Sawyer said that the food scene in Sacramento is in fact living up to the city’s latest moniker as “America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital” and that the recent recognition the restaurant has earned would not have been possible without local farmers.
“I’ve been back on the scene now for three years, and a lot has changed – the music, clothing and yes, even the food,” Sawyer said. “Times are changing. Food nowadays needs to look beautiful too. People eat with their eyes. You can either get with it, or stay stubborn and roll over.”
Hawks Public House is open for indoor dining and takeout from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and closes at 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Located just a few steps away from the restaurant is Hawks Provisions, which offers coffee, pastries and lunch items on the go from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 5:00 AM.