Tower Bridge Dinner chef’s debut restaurant pops up to tout upcoming opening
Last week, Visit Sacramento announced the lineup of featured chefs for this year’s Tower Bridge Dinner: Kate Sutherland of Waterboy, Giancarlo Zapata of Chicha Peruvian Kitchen, Francisco Rivera of Hawks Public House and Joe Pruner of Bocce.
That last one cocked a few ears. Unlike the first three chefs, who helm kitchens of established restaurants, Pruner’s Bocce isn’t even open yet. In fact, prior to the announcement, most people hadn’t even heard of it.
Pruner hopes to open Bocce early next month in the East Sacramento space that formerly housed V. Miller Meats at 4801 Folsom Blvd.
“We’re still waiting on a couple electrical approvals and fire safety, but everything’s kind of on track for about four to five weeks,” he said.
Bocce has been an objective of Pruner’s for several years, but it started to become reality last year when the V. Miller space became available. Paul DiPierro and Scott Ostrander, owners of adjacent restaurant Origami Asian Grill, encouraged Pruner to talk to the landlord when the space vacated.
Pruner’s concept is to open a neighborhood Italian spot, featuring fresh and extruded pastas, pizza, sandwiches and more, all through a California lens.
“There will be lots of seasonal vegetable sides, whether it be a nice salad with some beautiful baby lettuce from Watsonville, or roasted broccoli with lemon anchovy vinaigrette with shaved parmesan,” he said.
The space will be small, with seating for only about 20, but they plan to add outdoor seating as well. Bocce will be offering takeaway, both in the form of prepared food and things customers can cook at home, like pasta and sauces that come with instructions.
Pruner is an industry veteran locally, having been part of the inaugural team at Empress Tavern and worked at Obo’, Mulvaney’s B&L and the now-defunct Woodlake Tavern, among other places.
While not Italian-American himself, Bocce’s menu reflects Pruner’s passion for the cuisine.
“The concept just comes from the food that I like to eat and cook, and the food that I’ve been cooking in the Sacramento region for the last 20 years, hyper-seasonal food that’s local and whenever possible organic. We have such beautiful products around here,” he said.
To drive interest in the new spot, Pruner held a pop-up event at Origami, which is normally closed on Sundays. The diminutive menu contained just three sandwiches, two salads and a single dessert. Still, it took a significant amount of preparation.
“ I was at Bocce until 1 a.m. Saturday night rolling 600 meatballs with my wife and kids, who went home a little earlier than that,” he said.
The pop-up was announced by only one social media post, but word spread. By the 11 a.m. opening, people began to queue up outside the restaurant, and the line continued to grow.
Neighbors Jack Keys and Courtney Klein have lived around the corner for four years. They had their eyes on the hand-pulled mozzarella sandwich and the chicken parm smash.
“Can’t go wrong with that,” she said.
Bailey Hicks also lives just down the street. She was vacillating between the chicken parm and the bocce ball sandwich, a meatball sub on baguette from Duc Huang in South Sacramento.
Like others, Nikki Halsey learned of the event via Instagram and felt compelled to give it a try.
“Chicken parm smash. Yeah, I think that’s my three favorite words of all time there. And then the panna cotta,” she said.
Pruner plans to have future pop-ups on June 21st and 28th in advance of the opening.
