Why this San Francisco racial justice-focused bakery is opening in an East Sacramento church

I’m back from a week hiking through the Swiss Alps, followed by a week of eating all the pizza and gelato I could by the Italian lake Lago Maggiore. Many thanks to Irene Adeline Milanez for “hijacking” the newsletter in my absence; hopefully everyone enjoyed learning about Elk Grove’s food scene from a city native.

Rize Up Bakery isn’t rooted in the Sacramento region, unlike Irene, but the racial justice-focused sourdough shop has become a culinary superstar down Interstate 80 in San Francisco. Now it’s opening a satellite bakery in The Table at Central United Methodist Church, found at 5265 H St. in East Sacramento, by the end of August.

You might know Rize Up if you’ve been watching the Bay Area’s food scene this decade — or the Olympics over the past few weeks. Bon Appetit named it one of the nine most exciting bakeries in the United States earlier this year, and founder/head baker Azikiwee Anderson can be seen making his distinctively purple ube loaves in a Comcast Business commercial aired during the Paris Games.

Anderson began baking sourdough in spring 2020 as a homebound way for him to process George Floyd’s murder and the United States’ subsequent racial reckoning. He began selling loaves from his house in San Francisco’s Richmond neighborhood later that year, then found his way to Bay Area farmers markets and grocery stores as Rize Up moved into a commercial kitchen space.

Sourdough became a pandemic and post-pandemic food craze, but bakers of color have rarely been in the movement’s limelight. Anderson, who is Black, has centralized those people at his bakery, from the Black Lives Matter fist in Rize Up’s logo to a “K-Pop loaf” made with Volcano Kimchi’s gochujang, sesame seeds, roasted garlic and fresh scallions.

“I’m really trying to build community with who I work with and the quality of the product and the story I tell, so that it’s not just a commodity, not just bread. It’s representative of a culture that I feel is lovely and, at the same time, underrepresented,” Anderson said.

He found a like-minded partner in The Table UMC, which has an urban farm that sells produce and flower CSA boxes and is largely staffed by volunteers. The church previously had a small commercial bakery, too; leaders sought out Rize Up to fill that built-out space.

Rize Up goods can be found at dozens of farmers markets, cafes and grocery stores across the Bay Area, but the wholesale bakery doesn’t have its own storefront. That’ll be the case in Sacramento, too.

Loaves and pastries will initially mostly be available to Sacramento-area residents through a subscription delivery system, though Anderson said Rize Up would have weekly pickups from The Table UMC kitchen as well. He hopes to eventually place Rize Up products at Sacramento-area farmers markets, then in local restaurants and stores.

What I’m Eating

In Old Sacramento, it’s been a rough ... while. A $47 million planned renovation announced in 2019 was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and violent crime spiked last summer in the historic entertainment district. Even Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s announcement last week that the revitalization funding was mostly back came on the heels of Rio City Cafe closing after 30 years on the waterfront.

One spot of hope? V’s Paradise, a steakhouse that opened in March in the 7,000 square feet of Front Street that once housed Fat City Bar & Cafe. It’s clubby enough to have carousels of bright cocktails presented with dry ice, historic enough to include original fixtures and interesting enough to pull in complementary Armenian and Asian tastes.

Take the Armenian Caesar ($16), a steakhouse staple with one or two key differences at Vardan Sargsyan’s restaurant. The salad includes radicchio alongside romaine lettuce and is topped with a mountain of shredded Parmesan as well as chaimen, an Armenian spice mixture that adds extra crunch and a hint of heat.

Local chef Tyler Bond (formerly of Lemon Grass Restaurant, now working to open modern Chinese-Vietnamese concept Chu Mai) consulted on the opening menu, and his touches still appear in items such as the Pacific black cod ($43). Served over a reduced congee base with broccolini, the tender fish was partially slathered with a terrific miso mustard sauce and dusted with charred leeks.

Meatier options range from steak frites ($42) with shallot jam to rib-eyes ($69) with bordelaise sauce. Yet some of these entrees feel like more flash than finesse, such as salty, boneless Wagyu short ribs ($57) in a rich demi-glace.

V’s Paradise

Address: 1001 Front St., Sacramento.

Hours: 5-10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m-midnight Friday and Saturday, closed Sunday-Tuesday.

Phone: (916) 888-8800

Website: https://vsparadiserestaurant.com/

Drinks: Full bar, including an arak-rum-date-rose water cocktail called “jalabi,” and a high-end wine list.

Vegetarian options: No entrees, but sides and small plates such as tomato gazpacho and warm Brie with apricots.

Noise level: Loud.

Outdoor seating: None.

Openings & Closings

▪ Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant Tu Hy opened July 28 in south Sacramento’s Little Saigon neighborhood, opened at 6035 Stockton Blvd. on July 28. One specialty is hu tieu, a South Vietnamese noodle soup with 14 variations on Tu Hy’s menu.

▪ Séka Hills, an olive oil/wine/honey brand produced by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation in the Capay Valley, will open its Sacramento tasting room on Aug. 10. It’ll be on the ground floor of the new ARY Place apartment building at 1717 S St. near midtown.

▪ Zest Kitchen will close on Aug. 28 unless owner Angelique Miller finds a buyer, she announced on social media. The vegan restaurant at 2620 Sunset Blvd., Suite 1 in Rocklin has a range of plant-based items, the most popular of which is its tiger mountain mushroom burger with housemade herb cheeze sauce.

This story was originally published August 8, 2024 at 5:30 AM.