Rob Archie brought European beer to Sacramento. Now his own brews are recognized on world stage

Pangaea Bier Cafe opened in 2008 with a mission of introducing European beers to Sacramento’s nascent craft beer scene. Seventeen years later, its sister restaurants and bars showcase the city on international stages.

The Curtis Park restaurant and beer bar collected local accolades and customers for a decade before owner Rob Archie launched his second project, brewery and barbecue joint Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse, with brewmaster Peter Hoey.

Archie and Hoey then added three more concepts between 2020 and 2022: R Street Corridor fried chicken stalwart Bawk, connected speakeasy The Roost and East Sacramento taco-and-beer spot Cervecería by Urban Roots. Sacramentans filled each up, and people from outside the region took notice.

The California Craft Beer Association named Urban Roots its 2021 Brewery of the Year, and the Southside Park brewery’s “Extra Guacamole” double IPA won gold at the European Beer Star in September, leading Forbes magazine to call it the world’s best imperial IPA.

Meanwhile, renowned spirits magazine Whiskey Advocate named The Roost one of America’s Top 125 whiskey bars in its January edition, celebrating its collection of more than 700 whiskey bottles in the dimly-lit space behind a secret door. Honors also came in this week, as USA Today readers voted Urban Roots the nation’s fifth-best brewpub, the newspaper announced Wednesday.

Top-shelf whiskey and beer have thrust Archie and Hoey’s bars into the national spotlight, but the food is no afterthought.

Archie’s nephew Greg Desmangles first joined Pangaea as a 16-year-old busser and worked his way up to Urban Roots Hospitality Group’s culinary director, designing dishes such as Bawk’s sandwich that won the first Sac Hot Chicken Battle in 2022. Pangaea’s burger had its own winning streak, and Urban Roots’ smoked brisket shows up in barbecue platters as well as Cervecería tacos.

Archie, a Woodland native who fell in love with Belgian beer while playing professional basketball in Europe, opened Pangaea years before Track 7, New Helvetia and others ushered in Sacramento’s wave of local craft breweries. Some would-be customers were turned off by $30 bottles of imported beer at the Great Recession’s onset, but others saw them as substitutes for experiences abroad, Archie said.

“With the economy in the state it was, it’s not like people were traveling and buying new homes and stuff,” Archie said. “Introducing Belgian beers to people at that time was amazing because a lot of people had never tasted anything like that. Whether you’re tasting a Belgian quad or you’ve got these witbiers, you’ve got all these different flavors that people just weren’t used to.”

Archie still turns people onto great drinks. Now, though, some of them come from outside the region. Bawk and The Roost each saw 25% increases in business after the Whiskey Advocate write-up, he said, spurred by visitors tracing their way through the list.

What I’m Eating

Sacramento has few better ways to spend a spring or summer evening than eating at Pangaea Bier Cafe, washing it down with a California craft or Belgian beer, then walking across Third Avenue for a scoop of Gunther’s Ice Cream.

Chef and general manager Scott Macumber joined the Curtis Park beer bar in 2022 following stints at higher-end Grange Restaurant & Bar, Camden Spit & Larder and the since-closed Taylor’s Kitchen, and dusted off COVID-19 cobwebs to reinstate quarterly five-course beer dinners featuring brewers from across California.

Pangaea won the Sacramento Burger Battle three times in the mid-2010s, sweeping the judges’ and people’s choice awards in 2018 despite going up against fancier restaurants from across the capital. The Pangaea burger ($21 with fries or a side salad) is still arguably the best around, separated from other items in a box at the top of the menu.

A litany of complements — melted Tillamook cheddar, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, housemade pickle chips and Thousand Island-sambal “special sauce” — convene in perfectly-balanced harmony around a half-pound Harris Ranch patty between a pillowy Bella Bru bun.

Pangaea’s wings ($18/pound, which usually includes eight to 10 wings) are no lesser stellar. Halal chicken wings are coated in corn starch and rice flour, fried once before service, then finished off in a 375-degree fryer upon order.

They’re left surprisingly juicy inside despite being crunchy to the tooth through a coat of honey-habanero or buffalo sauce. My advice is to choose the former, which is more sticky than spicy, and save the latter for a buffalo chicken salad ($17). Fried thigh strips pop out against a frilly red and green spring mix, apple and carrot slivers, ever-present blue cheese crumbles and an apple cider vinaigrette thickened with egg yolks, which is also used in Pangaea’s slaw.

Pangaea Bier Cafe

Address: 2743 Franklin Blvd., Sacramento

Hours: 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday; closed Mondays

Phone: 916-454-4942

Website: pangaeabiercafe.com

Drinks: Beer on more than 20 taps, from local brews to Belgian imports. Wine, cider, seltzers and sodas also available.

Vegetarian options: About a quarter of the menu, including a soft pretzel, a falafel sandwich and a golden beet-pomegranate-goat cheese salad.

Noise level: Loud

Outdoor seating: Two patios, one on Franklin Boulevard and another on Third Avenue across from Gunther’s Ice Cream.

Openings & Closings

▪ Sacramento’s first Burmese restaurant, Chef Burma, began its soft opening Monday at 1020 16th St. in midtown Sacramento. It’s owned by Jordan Kyu and Myat Mon, who also own My Burma in Davis and Experience Burma Restaurant & Bar in Pleasanton.

▪ Dave’s Hot Chicken will open Friday at 10325 Fairway Drive, Suite 150, in Roseville’s Highland Reserve Marketplace. The Los Angeles-based fried chicken chain — with financing from a slew of celebrities — has additional locations in Arden Arcade, Fair Oaks and Folsom.

▪ East Sacramento craft butcher shop V. Miller Meats is shutting down this week, closing Saturday if its inventory makes it that far. Eric Veldman Miller opened the store at 4801 Folsom Blvd., Suite 2, in 2015, but told the Sacramento Business Journal that economic conditions had worsened over time, including a 40% drop in Christmas sales from 2023 to 2024.

This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.