City seeks restaurateurs in historic building on Old Sacramento Waterfront
A walk-up café could open in the historic Steamers Building on the Old Sacramento Waterfront.
The city released a call Tuesday seeking operators for the two-story building. It is a replica of a California Steam Navigation Company office — which had a near-monopoly on Bay Area steamship transportation in the 19th century — and had previously served as an ancillary kitchen to another restaurant until the tenant recently vacated, according to city spokesperson Jennifer Singer. The vision: a service where visitors can walk up, grab food, and sit in the shade with a view of the iconic Delta King steamboat.
The solicitation falls under the Waterfront Reinvestment Program, a series of initiatives to revitalize the waterfront for the 4 million tourists that visit the site each year. In November 2024, former Mayor Darrell Steinberg secured city approval to invest $25 million for the first phase of the program.
“This is a rare opportunity to bring fresh energy to a high-visibility waterfront location and help transform the next phase of Old Sacramento,” Valerie Mamone, project manager at the city’s Office of Innovation and Economic Development, said in the news release.
This is not the first time Sacramento has tried to revamp its waterfront. After floods in the 1850s and 1860s devastated the city, residents worked to raise the street level by 10 feet. Rapid industrial development and the emergence of suburban malls eventually left Sacramento without a hub that showcased the city’s history, culture and local businesses, according to residents quoted in Sacramento Bee articles from the 1980s. The city responded by redeveloping downtown in the mid-20th century, transforming the waterfront and surrounding areas into what is now Old Sacramento.
Bee reporter Don Stanley, writing about the downtown project in 1986, envisioned “a place that brings in people for something more than going to the office and holds them there after work and on weekends.”
It’s similar to what the city hopes the Waterfront Reinvestment Program will accomplish decades later. But it does not come without challenges.
Rio City Cafe, a beloved waterfront restaurant, shut its doors in August 2024 after 30 years of operation. The city could not pull together the $5 million needed to repair the cafe’s river deck and ordered it closed for safety reasons.
Though the Waterfront Reinvestment Program will invest in repairing boardwalks, decks, and docks to allow continued visitor access, the city’s response to Rio City Cafe have left residents skeptical about the call for restaurateurs in the Steamers Building.
“Who’s gonna enter into a new agreement in Old Sac knowing this?” wrote one user on the Sacramento subreddit.
“Good luck with your search for a tenant,” wrote another.
Others were more optimistic. One user, who has lived in Sacramento for over 30 years, wrote, “I hope to open a concession there!!”
The replica building, which stands on the Embarcadero boardwalk, is separate from Steamers Bakery and Café located on Front and K streets. Responses to the city’s call are due Aug. 29, 2025 on the city’s online bid portal.