Feast on the past: The West End Revival dinner celebrates Sacramento diversity then and now

Want more food news? Sign up for the Food & Drink newsletter at sacbee.com/foodnews to get your weekly fill.

Downtown Sacramento’s annual Farm-to-Fork Festival will reach its climax this weekend, with the main celebration on Capitol Mall and free concerts from Grammy winner Gregory Porter and nominee Japanese Breakfast.

New in 2022: Sacramento’s most important fine dining event of the year.

The West End Revival dinner, scheduled for 6-9 p.m. Friday between 5th and 6th streets on Capitol Mall, is a step back in time to the first half of the 20th century, when diverse communities lived in enclaves between the Capitol and Sacramento River, known collectively as the West End.

There was Chinatown, Japantown, a Black neighborhood, Mexican and Portuguese communities – 70% of Sacramento’s nonwhite residents lived in the West End in the late 1940s.

Bustling jazz clubs attracted acts such as Billie Holliday and Gerry Mulligan, and those communities intermingled more so than their counterparts in many other cities, West End Revival organizer Ryan Royster said.

“You had sukiyaki and chop suey on the menu together, because Chinese and Japanese people were kicking it together,” said Royster, co-founder of Last Supper Society culinary collective. “All this creation and collaboration was such a beautiful thing, and I feel like most people don’t know the story, so to tell it is so important.”

It’s the first West End Revival dinner, and the list of participants reads like an All-Star team of some of Sacramento’s best chefs of color.

Japantown is represented by Billy Ngo of Kru; Craig Takehara and Toki Sawada of Binchoyaki; and Takumi Abe of Kodaiko Ramen & Bar. There’s Patricio Wise from Nixtaco and Emilio Flores from Tacos 916 catering company, Diana Dich of Happy Takeout and Mandy Lee’s pan-Asian bites, Tyler Bond representing Lemon Grass Restaurant.

Black chefs include Cecil Rhodes of Nash & Proper; Greg Desmangles of Urban Roots, Bawk and Pangaea Bier Cafe; Quentin Bennett of Q1227; N’Gina Guyton, formerly of South and now working to open Miss N’Gina; Byron Hughes of Last Supper Society; Nina Curtis of Plant’ish & Co. pop-up; Dennis Sydnor Jr. of Renegade Dining pop-up; Jamie Mack of Spider Monkey Dessert Studio; and Gerine Williams, formerly of Devil May Care.

Each of the 16 chefs will prepare sample-sized bites traceable to one of the ethnic groups, accompanied by live jazz, a DJ set and a historic photo installation. The dinner is all-you-can-eat once you buy a $100 ticket (https://visitsacramento.ticketspice.com/the-grand-tasting-west-end-revival), and the first drink from Clayton Club or Kru bars is covered as well.

In all this cultural celebration, there’s the acknowledgment of a less-savory part of Sacramento’s history. Development projects displaced thousands of low-income West End residents in the 1950s and ’60s, sending them out to select Sacramento neighborhoods without redlining policies, such as Oak Park.

Japantown residents caught the worst of it, uprooted first to World War II internment camps. then again in the 1950s Capitol Mall development project that drove a nail into the West End’s coffin.

It’s a notable inclusion for Visit Sacramento’s Farm-to-Fork Festival, which draws 150,000 people annually to celebrate the brightest bulbs in the region’s contemporary food scene. That includes all these chefs of color, who aren’t letting their predecessors be forgotten.

“We’re really telling a specific story with this,” said Royster. “We are in the farm-to-fork capital, we are in the Farm-to-Fork festival, but we’re telling this story of this diverse, multicultural history of Sacramento through the lens of food.”

What I’m Eating

Some people mark the start of fall with pumpkin spice lattes or trips to Apple Hill. For me, it’s when I can finally comfortably dig into south Sacramento’s wealth of noodle soups that warm the belly and soul.

When the first substantial rain since April starting falling on Sunday, I made a beeline for Phở Le at 8785 Center Parkway, Suite B180 in Laguna Village shopping center near the Elk Grove border. I wasn’t alone, and waited 30 minutes for a table.

Phở was obviously a necessity, and the combination phở ($12 for a medium bowl, $13 for a large) was the best way to try every beef cut in a salty, umami broth. That meant paper-thin steak cuts, tendon and beef meatballs that were delicious, and brisket and tripe that seemed excessively fatty.

Shellfish lovers need to seek out the Northern Vietnamese soup bún riêu ($14). Its orange broth so assertively smacked the palate with tastes of crab and shrimp paste, buoyed by spiced ground crab meat and complemented by pork, tomatoes, tofu and extra-thin vermicelli.

Coagulated pig’s blood cubes are optional; if you’re curious but intimidated, Phở Le is a good place to try them, as these cubes didn’t have such a strong taste as some others.

Knowing Sacramento, we’re not done with hot, sunny days just yet. When the next one comes along, opt for Phở Le’s take on gỏi gà ($13), a refreshingly chilled chicken salad with shredded cabbage, daikon, carrots and white onion.

Openings & Closings

• Crazy Fruit & Ice Cream Trujillo has opened at 710 K St., replacing fellow ice cream shop Devil May Care near Golden 1 Center in downtown Sacramento. Based in south Sacramento, Crazy Fruit offers tamales, tortas, mangonadas and much more in addition to Gunther’s Ice Cream.
• Folsom-based wine bar and tapas restaurant Citizen Vine has expanded east to El Dorado Hills. Jose and Lisa Gomez opened sister concept the Vine at 3907 Park Drive, Suite 100 on Tuesday, billed on social media as Citizen Vine’s “sexy, sassy sister.”
• Chicken-N-Waffles expanded last week from Natomas down to 8235 Laguna Blvd., Suite 100 in Elk Grove. The Southern-inspired halal restaurant makes crêpes, jambalaya, salads and more in addition to its namesake sweet-savory dish.