Bee Appetit: This tucked-away wine bar is starting a tinned fish club. Where?
Driving past the north side of McKinley Park in East Sacramento, the neighborhood becomes quite idyllic, lined with quaint early 20th-century homes under the canopy of stately trees.
That is, until you hit the corner of McKinley Boulevard and 35th Street, where an incongruously boxy building pops up, containing a small collective of businesses. Smack in the middle sits a small restaurant that specializes in Spanish wine and tapas-style small plates — including tinned fish.
Owner Joe Holmberg opened The Nook in 2023 after his real estate agent pointed him to the space as it was about to come up for rent.
“It was basically the exact thing I’ve been imagining for the space of my concept and what I wanted to do. I’ve always wanted something small and intimate and not overwhelmingly big, something that wouldn’t be troublesome,” he said.
Holmberg is from the area, and after living in Austin, Texas for a spell, he wanted to move back to be closer to family — but not too close. He craved the bigger-city energy that San Francisco offered.
He worked at various restaurants there, including Spanish tapas bar El Lopo. That’s where he fell in love with Spanish wines.
“What really caught my attention with Spanish wines is that the white wine is more palatable for me, more interesting, more complex, and I fell in love with the style of Spanish tapas.” he said.
Small plate eating wasn’t new to Holmberg, though. He’s the youngest of four siblings, and after the other three moved away, his single mother would rely on easy meals based on little bites.
“She would always get tins of fish, tins of smoked oysters and crackers and cheeses and meats, so she didn’t have to cook a full meal. It would just be things that we could just sit down and relax and eat together,” he said.
Holmberg’s small plates harken to Spanish tapas, but with a decidedly Californian bent. Sure, there’s boquerones (marinated white anchovies) and gambas (shrimp in a garlic sauce). However, he leans on local bounty for dishes like carrot three ways, with grilled carrots perfumed with berbere spice on a bed of carrot hummus and topped with fried ribbons of carrots.
The wine list pulls heavily, but not exclusively, from Spanish varietals, as well as Spanish vermouth. There’s also beer plus mocktails and soft drinks.
And then there’s the tinned fish. The Nook’s menu features dozens of them.
Holmberg has a Pokemon-like obsession with them, hunting down new and rare tins.
“There are ones that have been coming out in the past couple years that I had never tried before, newer companies like the Great Lakes coming out of Michigan. There’s some really cool tins out there. It’s almost like a scavenger hunt for me to try to find new ones,” he said.
Part of the challenge is that some European producers don’t release all their flavors stateside. Holmberg notes Portuguese producer Jose Gourmet releases flavors like mackerel in curry and trout with dill and fennel across the pond, but not here.
“They gatekeep them. I think they’re just trying to mess with us,” he said.
To drive interest in the tinned fish program, Holmberg plans to roll out a subscription program, hopefully by the end of this month.
He’s ordering tinned fish journals from 33 Books, which prints pocket-sized letterpress books. This way customers can hone their appreciation of the tins. Holmberg will create monthly curations for club members to enjoy and take notes on.
“I just thought it would be fun to have a club where people could come in and meet each other, create a community around it,” he said.
It’s also hopefully a way to attract more people to the tucked-away wine bar.
“The community over here is really great, especially 36th and 37th Streets. They really do take care of me. I know almost every single neighbor at this point, and they come in weekly, sometimes twice a week,” he said.
“Sometimes I get frustrated with it, because it’s so off the beaten path that people still, after three years, don’t know that I’m here, but at the same time, it’s kind of that niche little spot, and it works with the name as well.”
The Nook
Address: 3610 McKinley Blvd., East Sacramento
Hours: 4-9 p.m. daily
Phone: 916-228-4065
Website: thenookwinebar.com
Vegetarian options: Several
Noise level: Moderate
