Add this to your summer grocery shopping list: Raley’s White Linen cocktail mix

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Sacramento’s best-known grocery chain is now selling the city’s flagship cocktail. You just have to add the alcohol.

Raley’s around the region are now selling a White Linen cocktail mix, developed in-house and first introduced in February. The mixes include lemon and lime juice concentrate, organic agave syrup and water, a simplified take on the drink invented by Ella Dining Room & Bar and The Shady Lady Saloon bartender Rene Dominguez during Sacramento Cocktail Week in 2008.

A White Linen typically calls for gin, elderflower liqueur, soda water, simple syrup, lemon juice and cucumber slices to garnish, as described in The New York Times’ 2017 story “Cocktails Only a Local Could Love.” Raley’s cross-compared several of their food developer’s mock-ups with the made-from-scratch version until they found the closest match, director of alcohol Anthony Dyer said.

“It’s very rare that you have a cocktail linked to Sacramento, right? So we thought, ‘that might be interesting,’” Dyer said. “It’s traditionally a spring or summer cocktail, but it can play all year long. It brings something new to the set, but it pays homage to the hometown spirit of Sacramento. Overall, it’s just a great everyday cocktail.”

Dyer recommends people combine the mixer with their gin of choice, shake, pour over a Collins glass of ice and garnish with sliced cucumber. I looked for a Sacramento-area distillery such as J.J. Pfister or Dry Diggings on Raley’s shelves but settled for Sebastopol-based Gray Whale Gin, which uses botanicals from six California destinations, including Capay Valley almonds.

It was fruity and floral, more pronounced that a traditional White Linen due in part to the botanical-forward gin (try something like Hendrick’s for a closer approximation). I’m not sure about it as a year-round cocktail, but for the dog days of summer we’re currently in, it’s quite refreshing.

Raley’s concoction isn’t the first home-bound White Linen to come out of Sacramento. Can Can Cocktails, founded by former Grange head bartender Ryan Seng, also debuted a canned White Linen in 2017 that was featured in Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart Living. But Can Can ceased production in 2019, leaving Raley’s mixer as the quickest DIY option.

The 25.4-ounce bottles of White Linen mix retail for $7.99 (they’ll go up to $8.99 at the end of the year, Dyer said) and can make about 13 cocktails. It’s just the second Raley’s-brand cocktail base currently for sale, joining a smoked pineapple mixer on the West Sacramento-based chain’s shelves.

What I’m Eating

Taylor’s Kitchen has been a charming Land Park destination restaurant since 2009. That relative longevity pales in comparison to the adjoined Taylor’s Market, founded in 1962, but even so, it was time for a bit of a spark after 13 years.

Enter former Ella Dining Room & Bar executive chef Rob Lind, a Yuba City native who took over Taylor’s Kitchen earlier this year. Lind’s expertise, creativity and seasonal focus have breathed new life into the refined New American date night restaurant at 2924 Freeport Blvd., as evidenced by dishes such as the fried green tomatoes ($15).

The tomato pucks were lightly fried to create a crisp exterior layer without robbing the fruit of its juices. Served atop a layer of lemon-caper aioli with none-too-fatty pork belly bricks, frisée and a smoked cherry tomato marmalade, it hit all kinds of notes — sweet, salty, acidic and smoky, with a nice crunch from the fryer.

The entrees’ most interesting aspects were normally not the base, but the flairs. Such was the case with the pappardelle ($31), where San Marzano tomatoes, chunky Mt. Shasta porcini mushrooms and braised suckling pig ragout (a little salty for my taste, admittedly) weaved around ribbons of pasta.

Lind’s lobster cioppino ($46) brought its bevy of seafood to the forefront by minimizing the amount of smoked tomato-fennel broth in the bowl. Mussels, clams, Monterey Bay squid and two enormous butter-poached, shelled Maine lobster claws rose from that shallow red sea, creating a dish as memorable for its appearance as its decadent flavors.

Openings & Closings

• I look forward to checking out the new Local Kitchens mini food hall, which opened at 500 1st St., Suite 13 in downtown Davis on Monday after previously making its area debut in Roseville. Davis’ opening restaurants include Nash & Proper, The Melt and Oren’s Hummus.
• Korean-inspired cafe Kindred Seoul recently opened inside a downtown Sacramento state building at 1215 O St. Look for fusion items like bulgogi hoagies, kimchi bacon cheeseburgers and “cupbop,” or bibimbap in a cup.
  
  
• Jess Milbourn’s much-loved downtown Sacramento ice cream shop Devil May Care shut down on July 22 after being issued an eviction notice, as The Bee’s Amelia Davidson reported. The parlor known for its creative flavors, which started in West Sacramento, may open again in another location, Milbourn said.