Nixtaco to open second Sacramento-area location, replacing high-end restaurant
Folsom’s most ambitious restaurant concept is shutting its doors after less than nine months in business. Its replacement: Placer County’s favorite taco joint.
High-end Northeastern Mexican restaurant Cantina Pedregal will close April 19, its operators announced Thursday. It’ll rebrand as the second location for Nixtaco, Patricio Wise and Cinthia Martinez’s acclaimed Roseville taqueria and distillery, at 185 Placerville Road, Suite 150 in Folsom Pointe shopping center.
Cantina Pedregal’s kitchen was four times the size of the original Nixtaco’s, Wise said. That’ll allow chef de cuisine Bucky Bray to keep some fine dining dishes such as steaks and shareable botanas while introducing Nixtaco’s comparatively casual fare.
“The pantry is pretty much the same. It’s just the sets were different and the steps of service were different, and the pacing was different,” Wise said. “We’re going to make it more lively, a bit more welcoming for casual crowds if you want to step in for 30 minutes to have a quick bite, as opposed to making a plan and going there on Friday night or for a special occasion.”
Cantina Pedregal married the Monterrey flavors of Wise and Martinez’s youths with the shareable plates and protein platters of Canon, partners Brad Cecchi and Clay Nutting’s East Sacramento restaurant.
It was named one of The Sacramento Bee’s Top 50 Restaurants of 2024 after opening that July, but struggled to win over all customers, accruing a mere 3.9 stars on Yelp after 137 reviews. Diehard fans embraced the restaurant, Nutting said, but it couldn’t attract the necessary volume.
“We still love the location, we love the community. It’s just, you know, Nixtaco has a very recognizable and beloved brand, and has a little more of a casual, day-in-and-day-out appeal that I think will just be more successful,” Nutting said.
Nixtaco’s $7 tacos faced a similarly uneasy reception when Wise and Martinez first opened their restaurant in 2016. But the taqueria at 1805 Cirby Way, Suite 12 won over fans with its house-nixtamalized blue corn tortillas surrounding sautéed octopus, short rib barbacoa or Mazatlán-style shrimp.
SF Gate deemed Nixtaco makers of “Northern California’s best tacos” in 2021, the same year it first earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand for great eating on a budget. An attached distillery produced vodka and gin for the bar program, and a Sacramento International Airport outpost operated by High Flying Foods is expected to open in November.
Wise, Martinez, Cecchi and Nutting will remain partners on Nixtaco’s Folsom location, which the operators hope to open before Cinco De Mayo. They began dreaming up Cantina Pedregal, a particularly personal project for Wise and Martinez, more than two years ago, Nutting said.
That brief chapter is now coming to a close.
“At this point, we put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it. But we also are savvy enough to understand when we need to make a change,” Nutting said. “We feel really blessed, honestly, to be able to transition to this amazing brand in Nixtaco. Folsom is really going to love it.”