Garden At The Line is East Sacramento’s new craft beer paradise with a twist for food-lovers

East Sacramento’s robust craft beer scene just added a 15,000-square-foot drink emporium with cornhole, Jenga and 76 taps across two bars. Yet Garden At The Line’s food separates it from its competitors most of all.

Opened Dec. 7 at 6415 Elvas Ave., Garden At The Line is the sit-down expansion of The Line, a ghost kitchen with 11 local brands. Some of those restaurants are well-known in pockets of Sacramento, while others mostly operate out of the East Sacramento conglomerate. All can easily be ordered by scanning tabletop QR codes across the spacious, dog-friendly patio.

Garden At The Line is the only Sacramento-area spot to reliably find Oklahoma-style smash burgers (grilled white onions, beef, cheese, buns and maybe pickles or peppers — that’s it) from cult favorite Okie Dokies. Binchoyaki owners Craig Takehara and Toki Sawada’s long-held visions of a bento box shop have come to life in Kizuna Bento, where chicken karaage or roasted salmon come with Japanese potato salad, rice and gingery pickles.

There’s La Mini Birrieria, the pink-hued spot for all things birria on Northgate Boulevard, and Nashville-style hot chicken favorite Nash & Proper. Meat lovers will also gravitate toward Bacon Mania and Slider Nation, while vegans can feel comfortable ordering pentagonal crunch wraps, chick’n strips or anything else from We Be Brunchin’ and Pure Soul Plant-Based Eats, along with several Garden of Eat’n salads.

There’s even a pared-down menu of sashimi, rolls and small plates from Kru Contemporary Japanese Cuisine, one of the Sacramento region’s true culinary stars.

All this food has been available for months, if not years. It’s just takeout only during that time.

The Line opened for takeaway service in 2022, and operators had always planned to eventually grow it into a sit-down space, general manager Adam Ono said. The expansion essentially lets local restaurateurs launch their concepts without requiring the investment of a traditional brick-and-mortar dining room, said East Sacramento resident Yesenia Rivera, who came to the Dec. 7 grand opening with her sister and friends.

“I think that the environment is a 10 out of 10,” Rivera said. “It’s great that all these small businesses get foot traffic. It kind of gives them the opportunity to have their own brick-and-mortar without, you know, really having to open up their own spots.”

While customers can try food from multiple QR codes on tables to order food from any of the 11 concepts, drinks have to be ordered at the “terrarium bar,” an indoor space with garage door windows that can seat 40 people sitting and 65 standing. Garden At The Line offers 13 types of wine in addition to beer, along with sodas, low-ABV cocktails and mocktails.

There’s ample space for kids to run around while parents cozy up to fire pits, and a patch of faux turf for dogs to relieve themselves in the back corner. Customers can rent out anything from a single fire pit to a private event space to the entire establishment, Ono said.

Garden At The Line is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The small parking lot only accommodates delivery drivers, but there’s some street availability, and 100 to 120 two-hour spots within three blocks, according to Ono.

What I’m Eating

Tomato Alley Free House predates Garden At The Line as a beer-and-bites hangout, open since 2019 in Richmond Grove. The pint-sized joint between T and U streets is usually filled with regulars on stools yammering over rock music, surrounded by neon signs and faux windows showing scenes of Sacramento.

While the British term “free house” merely refers to independent pubs that sell beers from multiple breweries, it feels like an apt descriptor for Steve Senn’s freewheeling, homey bar and grill. Three-dollar happy hour sake bombs flow from 5 to 7 p.m. weekdays at the watering hole, but Tomato Alley’s board games and warm welcomes make it easy to settle in.

While Garden At The Line is a more fully fleshed-out food concept, Tomato Alley exists as a social place for drinks and smaller casual eats — namely, hot dogs. There’s the Chicago dog with its electric green relish, a banh mi dog bearing the Vietnamese sandwich’s acid and heat plus Sriracha mayonnaise, a downtown dog (all $9.50) topped with bacon, grilled onions and jalapeños.

All use the same skinny, squeaky beef wieners, which can be substituted for a plant-based Lightlife Smart Dogs, between housemade buns. The chimichurri dog ($9.50) is the lone exception, deploying a fat, smoky hot link from Sacramento-based Burgess Brothers alongside pickled onions with a thin spread of the Argentinian green sauce over the top.

The roasted pork belly bao trio ($13) are a fun, shareable option outside of the glizzy realm. Three steamed buns are folded like tortillas, brushed with hoisin sauce and a tingly Sriracha-based spread, then filled with frilly scallions and slabs of pork.

Tomato Alley Free House

Address: 2020 16th St., Suite A, Sacramento

Hours: 5-9 p.m. Monday; 5-10 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday; 5-11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday

Phone: 916-228-4880

Website: tomatoalley.com

Drinks: Six taps and a long list of canned beers, with an emphasis on sours. Wine, kombucha, cider, seltzers, soju and sake also available, along with a decent crop of non-alcoholic beverages.

Vegetarian options: Veggie dogs can be substituted upon request. Grilled cheeses with kimchi or tomato soup are also available, as are sun-dried tomato/mozzarella panini.

Noise level: Loud

Outdoor seating: Small patio with heaters

Openings & Closings

▪ McGuire’s Sports Bar & Grill began serving customers Tuesday at 13570 Lincoln Way in Auburn. Look for items such as cheese curds, French dip sandwiches and spicy chicken salads while watching the game on TV.

▪ The Pantry opened Dec. 13 at 1410 E. Roseville Parkway, Suite 140, in Roseville’s Palisades Plaza. Natural light shines down onto flowers and eye-catching dishes such as beet hummus toast, cast iron skillet shakshuka and baklava pancakes at the halal brunch restaurant and mocktail bar.

▪ Gaspacho’s, a Mexican fruit cup and mangonada concept, closed its Howe Bout Arden shopping center outpost Sunday at 1600 Ethan Way, Suite 7Q. Julio Ortiz’s original North City Farms location remains open at 5385 Franklin Blvd., Suite L.