Peruvian restaurant opening in midtown Sacramento after success in Placer County

Sacramento’s second Peruvian restaurant — and first in the city center — will open in a well-trodden area of midtown after a successful debut in Roseville.

Chicha Peruvian Kitchen & Cafe is coming to 1501 16th St., Suites 101 and 102, formerly home to Uncle Vito’s Slice of NY, owner Giancarlo Zapata confirmed. He hopes to open on the ground floor of the Fremont Building by March 2024.

Zapata and his wife/co-owner Marleny Chávez cooked in Lima before immigrating to the U.S. and working at La Huaca, Roseville’s original Peruvian restaurant.

They opened Chicha at 1079 Sunrise Ave., Suite O in November 2021 with Zapata as the head chef and Chávez as the pastry chef. Four types of ceviche along with weekend breakfasts and dishes such as lomo saltado made Chicha a quick favorite of Placer County residents and it was named one of The Sacramento Bee’s Top 50 Restaurants in 2022.

Yet Chicha’s Roseville location will undergo major menu changes, Zapata said, to ensure the midtown expansion opens with dishes somewhere between time-tested and updated.

Peruvian food is marked by influences from different cultures — indigenous people, Spanish colonizers and Arab, Chinese, African and Japanese immigrants — and Chicha regularly adds its own California stamp as well.

“This historical integration gave rise to the fusion of a multi-cultural country and that is what we are going to represent in each dish that we will make in Chicha,” Zapata wrote. “There is always a story behind a dish, there is a heritage.”

Jimmy’s Peruvian & Mexican Restaurant is currently Sacramento’s lone Peruvian restaurant, an oasis for lomo saltado, ceviche and aji de gallina (chicken in a yellow pepper sauce). It’s found at 3032 Auburn Blvd. across Capital City Freeway from Haggin Oaks Golf Complex.