Musubi, inari, onigiri: This new Sacramento cafe revolves around all things rice
Meals at Lily Zhou’s Arden Arcade hot pot restaurant are sit-down spectacles, tables of friends and couples swishing raw meat and vegetables through bowls of boiling broth. Her new Hollywood Park cafe ditches that formality for grab-and-go convenience centered around the food her partner Jin Chen has at every meal: rice.
Zhou owned Boiling Avenue for nearly a decade before opening her second concept, Rice Theory, with Chen at 5005 Freeport Blvd. in August. Billed as Sacramento’s first dedicated musubi shop, it’s inspired by Oahu’s Musubi Cafe, which has six locations in Honolulu and a similarly eclectic mix of proteins and sauces.
“Every time I’d visit, I’d be like, ‘Huh, maybe something like that would work in Sacramento,’” Zhou said. “We saw all these Asian businesses in Hollywood Park and South Land Park and said, ‘Oh, we should just open something like that for fun.’ We didn’t know that it would turn out this good, with all the neighbors supporting us.”
Rice Theory’s mix of low-commitment items, cute branding and bold flavors tempered by sushi rice have brought steady lines since Day 1 to the mostly-Asian strip mall kitty-corner from Oto’s Marketplace. Word spread on social media early, and people continue to stop by for mid-morning or afternoon snacks in addition to hearty lunch hauls.
There are double-sided Spam musubi, and rice rectangles with sweetened soy sauce and shiso leaves tucked under eel meat. Japanese rice triangles known as onigiri have centers of spicy imitation crab salad, smoked salmon with cream cheese or (as a Lunar New Year special) abalone and truffle oil.
Yet it’s inari, rice wrapped in fried tofu pouches, that take up most of Rice Theory’s display case and have become the most popular items, Zhou said. Topped with sweet beef sukiyaki, roast duck, garlic ponzu hamachi and more, they’re as portable, tasty and affordable as anything in the cafe.
The abalone onigiri special, chicken feet and a couple of weekend-only desserts are the only items that cost more than $5.50, including a slate of wellness-focused herbal teas. Rice Theory doesn’t have a kitchen, so all musubi, onigiri and inari are prepared at Boiling Avenue (943 Howe Ave.) before being wrapped in cellophane and driven to Hollywood Park.
That central kitchen could soon get busier. Zhou and Chen plan to debut fan tuan, Taiwanese sticky rice rolled around savory fillings such as pork floss, pickled mustard greens and fried dough, at Rice Theory this summer. They also plan to add items made with brown, purple and mixed-grain rice.
Rice Theory is open 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. It’s closed on Monday and Tuesday.
What I’m Eating
In 12 years, BAD Bakers has grown from a single doughnut shop to five capital region locations, with a sixth to come in Woodland and a Southern California outlier in Orange County. While Kate and Vincent Tiuseco’s ever-evolving doughnuts come with cereal toppings, fruity centers and side syringes of syrup, other baked goods quietly showcase Filipino and American tried-and-true favorites.
Bakers at each location mix up batters, load into hoppers and fry doughnuts ($2.25-$3.75 apiece, or $38 for an assorted dozen) every morning, from chocolate old-fashioneds and maple crullers to Puppy Chow (a cronut topped with peanut butter icing, Muddy Buddies and a chocolate drizzle). My favorite of a half-dozen was the Love You Berry Much, which piled powdered sugar, chopped strawberries and white buttercream atop a pink, strawberry-flavored ring.
Those topping-laden creations can be difficult to cut, as I learned in The Bee’s newsroom kitchen. If sharing with a large group, I recommend a box of Staxx ($9.75/15 pieces up to $39/60 pieces), BAD Bakers’ name for señorita bread. The oblong Filipino twists with buttery, sugary middles are easy to wolf down, especially when hot, and ube-dyed purple versions are available on Friday and Saturday for a tad more.
Lone Star State transplants missing kolaches ($3.75) can find the soft, savory Czech-Texan pastries at BAD Bakers (they’re technically klobasnek, but “kolaches” has become an all-encompassing term). While some versions are stuffed with jalapeños and cream cheese or extra-lean ham, the classic features a hot dog between two rivers of American cheese and a crusty skirt on top.
BAD Bakers
Address: Locations in Sacramento (1140 Exposition Blvd.), North Natomas (2101 Natomas Crossing Drive), Elk Grove (8403 Elk Grove Blvd.), Roseville (1420 E. Roseville Parkway) and Folsom (195 Placerville Road)
Hours: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. daily at most locations. Roseville location opens at 6 a.m. during the week and opens at 8 a.m. on Sunday, along with the Folsom store.
Phone: 916-571-2118 (Sacramento); 916-900-4788 (North Natomas); 916-647-9151 (Elk Grove); 916-883-2253 (Roseville); 916-790-8042 (Folsom)
Website: badbakers.com
Drinks: Bottled teas, juices and coffee drinks
Vegetarian options: Most items are vegetarian, a few are vegan and mochi doughnuts are gluten-free.
Noise level: The small stores can feel bustling during a rush, but aren’t artificially loud
Outdoor seating: None, nor inside
Openings & Closings
▪ Cariño Mexican Cuisine is in its soft opening at 729 J St., the downtown Sacramento space vacated by Backbone Cafe in 2020. Cariño offers soups, salads, tacos and Mexico City-inspired street food such as molletes (beans, arugula, pico de gallo and melted Monterey Jack cheese spread across a halved bread roll called a telera).
▪ Silk Bar opened Feb. 10 at 303 Iron Point Road along Highway 50 in Folsom. It replaces another sports bar, the Iron Bulldog Sports Bar & Grill, with familiar items such as mozzarella sticks, onion rings and grilled chicken sandwiches.
▪ Popular barbecue joint Momo’s Meat Market closed Feb. 5 after 14 years at 5780 Broadway in Tahoe Park. Owner Glenn Miller suffered a stroke, prompting him and his wife, Sharon, to close the restaurant; a GoFundMe established to benefit them had raised nearly $19,000 as of Wednesday.