Sacramento restaurateur Randy Paragary, who died Friday, revolutionized the Sacramento dining scene with a number of popular midtown and downtown dining spots. The Bee photographed him many times over the years. Here is a selection of those pictures:
Randy Paragary removes a pizza from a new $7,000 brick oven at his 28th Street restaurant 1983. Mitch Toll Sacramento Bee file
Randy Paragary, 39, stands in the dining room at Zito’s on Fair Oaks Boulevard in January 1986. The restaurant’s Italian cuisine differs from his other popular Sacramento restaurant, Paragary’s, which is focused on California cuisine. Dave LaBelle Sacramento Bee file
Owner Randy Paragary sits at the bar at Harry’s Bar and Grill at 400 L Street in Sacramento in June 1982. The nightspot is something of a musical laboratory, featuring some of the top New Wave club bands from San Francisco. “We’re exposing this music to people who have never heard it before,” said Paragary, who opened his first Sacramento music venue – the Parapow Palace Saloon at 30th and S streets – in the late 1960s. Owen Brewer Sacramento Bee file
Randy Paragary, owner of several popular restaurants in Sacramento, stands in the dining room of a new Mexican restaurant, Centro Cocina, under construction May 18, 1994. Jay Mather Sacramento Bee file
Randy Paragary’s midtown restaurant and entertainment empire expands with The Blue Cue, an upscale billiards venue, in 1997. Michael A. Jones Sacramento Bee file
Restauranteur Randy Paragary talks with project architect Sharon Okada on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2003, while looking over site plans of a 25,000 square foot complex in a renovated warehouse at the corner of 15th and R Streets that will have 10,000 square-foot nightclub, a restaurant and a third-floor art gallery. Lezlie Sterling Sacramento Bee file
A pantheon of influential members of Sacramento’s food scene in 2006: from left, longtime chef for the Paragary Restaurant Group Kurt Spataro, Mikuni chef Taro Arai (sitting), La Bou founder Trong Nguyen, Fat City chef and food director Lina Fat, Waterboy chef and owner Rick Mahan, Lemon Grass chef and owner Mai Pham, El Novillero founder Joe Davalos, Biba Caggiano of Biba, and Paragary Restaurant Group owner Randy Paragary. Kevin German Sacramento Bee file
Randy Paragary, left, and Sonny Mayugba, after they started a social networking web site for restaurant workers, in 2007. Kevin German Sacramento Bee file
Randy Paragary stands in the nearly completed Cosmo Cafe in 2008. Lezlie Sterling Sacramento Bee Staff Photo
B Street Theatre artistic director Buck Busfield, left, and Randy Paragary, a B Street board member, enjoys an evening of fund raising for the theater in 2010. Michael Allen Jones Sacramento Bee file
Randy Paragary, one of Sacramento’s most recognizable and successful restaurateurs, taste tests side dishes at Centro Cocina Mexican, one of his many restaurants in Sacramento, in 2015. Manny Crisostomo Sacramento Bee file
Restaurateur Randy Paragary finally takes the wrapping off his namesake restaurant after more than a year of redesigning and significant remodeling in 2015. José Luis Villegas Sacramento Bee file
Randy Paragary stands next to a table at Cafe Bernardo in midtown Sacramento on April 5. Daniel Kim Sacramento Bee file
This story was originally published August 14, 2021 at 10:56 AM.
