Michelin-starred chef takes over Sacramento wine bar: ‘Same quality … much lower price’

Betty Wine Bar & Bottle Shop was already a popular Southside Park spot for a drink and a small bite. After an ownership change, it deserves attention from across the Sacramento region.

Localis chef/owner Chris Barnum-Dann bought Betty on Nov. 25 and reopened it Dec. 5 with a new look, menu and ethos. The concept at 1103 T St. is his California-ized take on a Parisian bistro, open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week

Twelve-course dinners at Localis, one of Sacramento’s two Michelin-starred restaurants, cost a minimum of $266 per person including tax and tip. Dishes at Betty, meanwhile, range from $4 whitefish deviled eggs made with house-smoked black cod to $25 cheese-and-charcuterie boards, and are more consistent than Localis’ monthly-rotating menu.

Thai beef carpaccio ($25) feels like a Localis dish because it was — a favorite of Barnum-Dann’s from a past menu. Betty chef/general manager Amanda Smith, formerly Localis’ executive sous chef, pounds sheets of Mishima Reserve American Wagyu thin and elegantly plates them with a fish sauce-bird’s eye chile gastrique, pickled shallots, pistachios and droplets of black garlic purée.

“(People) order it, eat it, enjoy it, and realize that this is pretty much the same quality as what we would get at Localis at a much lower price range,” Smith said. “(We’re) bringing that same flavor profile of food and plating from Localis to here in a more casual aspect.”

Many dishes are linked on the menu to recommended wine pairings — green curry ceviche with an off-dry riesling from Germany, say, or housemade bucatini all’amatriciana with a Spanish red called Mencía — and bundled for a discounted price. A broad range of bottles are also available.

Breakfast features chorizo biscuit sandwiches ($11), shakshuka ($13) and bananas Foster crepes ($12), along with plain, chocolate and almond croissants on Sundays. An eclectic coffee and tea program is run by Sam Han, an alumnus of famed Culver City brunch spot Destroyer who runs a Sacramento-area pop-up called Everyday Having Fun.

Colleen Fleming, formerly the owner of Cadet Wine + Beer Bar in Napa, opened Betty Wine Bar & Bottle Shop in November 2022. Despite a more limited food menu (the kitchen doesn’t have a hood), it gained a reputation as a chic, unfussy place to enjoy a glass prior to Barnum-Dann’s purchase.

Gone is Betty’s retail goods section, replaced by the wine shelves that had previously blocked the eastern brick wall. All Betty employees at the time of the sale have been retained (with raises, Barnum-Dann said) but staff are now expected to bring customers’ food and drinks to them rather than the prior counter service model. Long, communal tables have been swapped out for two- and four-tops, and a back garden is currently off-limits while being renovated.

The name, though: that had to stay. Barnum-Dann was his grandmother Betty’s only grandson, and the two were “extremely close,” he said, even holding her hand as she died. Barnum-Dann honors her by sending each Localis customer home with a miniature banana bread loaf made from her recipe, loaves which Betty Wine Bar & Bottle Shop now carries for $5 apiece.

What I’m Eating

“Our freshly made food from local ingredients is not what you expect from a bowling alley!”

Cap’s Bar & Grill’s website makes the promise, and the kitchen inside West Sacramento’s Capitol Bowl largely delivers. The historic bowling alley serves not only chicken strips (four for $11.50) and mozzarella sticks (six for $10.25), but gyros ($15.75 with fries, sweet potato fries or salad) and fish tacos (three for $12.10), along with a full bar of $18 beer pitchers and pin-themed cocktails.

Capitol Bowl was founded in the early 1950s, but was slated for shutdown in 2000 before Ross Amin swooped in and bought the place. In 2015, Amin hired chef Dave Ball, an alumnus of higher-end Blue Prynt Restaurant & Bar and Source Global Tapas, since-closed restaurants in downtown Sacramento and Granite Bay.

Amin died in 2019 but passed Capitol Bowl’s ownership down to his son Ron, and Ball remains at the kitchen’s helm. He buys basil, lettuce, blue cheese and more from West Sacramento farms, Black Urban Farmers Association members around Stockton and a small garden at mixed-income housing complex Mirasol Village in the River District, where he and Cap’s staff also provide culinary training.

Ball lifted Cap’s balsamic chips ($6.50) recipe from Source Global Tapas, along with the detailed preparation that makes them stand out. Potatoes are cut into wafer-thin slices and fried to order, rendering them remarkably crispy before being finished with a balsamic reduction, blue cheese crumbles and fresh-cut basil.

Arcade staples are a step above, too. Cap’s signature burger ($20 with choice of side) is built with layers of bacon, tomato, red pepper aioli, American and pepper jack cheeses, lettuce, pickle chips and white onions around a half-pound patty grilled to perfection, all clasped by a Cap’s-branded bun. I’d also happily re-order the juicy chicken wings (six for $11.50), particularly those rubbed with lemon pepper seasoning, at any sports bar or pizza parlor.

Scratch-made dough and sauces buoy pizzas such as the buffalo garlic chicken ($13.50 for a four-slice personal pie, $25 for 12 slices). A puffy, Parmesan-sprinkled crust supports garlic sauce, melted mozzarella, red and green pepper ribbons, pico de gallo and grilled chicken tossed in a tingly, mild buffalo sauce.

Cap’s Bar & Grill

Address: 900 W. Capitol Ave., West Sacramento (inside Capitol Bowl)

Hours: 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-12:30 a.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-12:30 a.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Sunday

Phone: 916-371-4200

Website: capitol-bowl.com/caps-bar-grill

Drinks: Full bar, with a range of beers and cocktails such as the “10th Frame” (Smirnoff blueberry and Absolut Pear vodkas, DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker schnapps, blue curacao and lemon juice)

Vegetarian options: Several, including fried appetizers, salads, pizza and a veggie sandwich

Noise level: Clattering pins are the de facto soundtrack, aside from Prince’s “Purple Rain” after each Kings win.

Outdoor seating: Three-table patio available

Openings & Closings

▪ A new Indian restaurant, Kesar Grill & Sweets, opened Dec. 29 at 8136 Gerber Road in the Florin area of south Sacramento. Maninder Sandhu Rajajung’s deep menu and lunch buffet spotlight Indo-Chinese dishes, kebabs, chaat and specialty items such as saoji chicken, a spicy Maharashtrian curry.

▪ Karai Sushi began its soft opening Jan. 7 at 5691 Stockton Blvd. in south Sacramento’s Fruitridge Shopping Center. Sashimi platters and hamachi crudo steal the spotlight, but Karai also offers hot pot, teriyaki dishes and seven different heat levels of spicy kimchi noodles with meat or seafood.

▪ Gumbo King will close Sunday, the River Gardens soul food restaurant’s operators announced on social media. It originally opened at 2201 Northgate Blvd. in January 2022.