Chicory Coffee & Tea — a Capitol fixture — reopens after more than 2-year hiatus

Chicory Coffee & Tea has reopened after a nearly 2½-year COVID-19 hiatus, proof that, at least for one business, there is life after death.

The location on L Street, across from the state capital, was a must for 17 years. Opening in 2005: coffee, tea, soup, and political banter were served, at least until COVID-19 turned downtown Sacramento into a ghost town.

Chicory Coffee & Tea General Manager Chris Garcia visited the coffee house several times after the March, 11, 2020 closing, but concluded reopening would be futile in the deserted State Capitol area.

“If there is nobody around, what’s the point of opening”? he asked. “There’s no money to be made.”

The coffee house did reopen in early May 2020, after COVID rates subsided, but a new rash of cases meant another shutdown only a week or so later.

Garcia said he got the phone call from coffee house owner Sheron Landis about six months ago asking if he wanted to come back for a definite reopening.

Garcia, who was working as an assistant manager at Steamers, a restaurant in Old Sacramento, didn’t hesitate to return to the coffee house where had worked for 12 years.

“We were all treated like family here,” he said.

The coffee house also had an advantage. Its owner, Landis, is also the owner of the 10-story office building that houses the coffee house at 1131 11th St.

In other words, Chicory Coffee & Tea didn’t have to worry about being evicted for non-payment of rent.

Landis said the business was never a profit-maker. It broke even, and she kept it open, because employees were like family to her, too.

She’s glad to be reopened, but worries the recent closure of The Capitol entrance at 10 and L, means it could be difficult to break even.

Construction is expected to last 4 years, making it much more difficult for state workers to drop by. State employees who have gone back to work at the Capitol, now have to walk around the building, to get to Chicory Coffee &Tea.

Optimism despite other closures

Many businesses in downtown Sacramento didn’t make it through the pandemic, including Ambrosia Cafe, a competitor of Chicory’s Coffee & Tea, a block away — and also a one-time hot spot for the Capitol crowd.

Garcia is optimistic that business will improve each day but as of now the 250 customers a day are about half the number before COVID.

He is gauging day by day how much food to stock because many state workers are only back in their offices two days a week, while they continue a hybrid model of also working from home.

Breakfast is back, sort of, at the coffee house. Fruit bowls, a MorningStar Farms vegetarian breakfast sandwich and pastries are featured, but the bacon and egg sandwich of old is still in the works.

Garcia said he doesn’t want “to be wasteful” and order food from suppliers that go uneaten.

Getting food to the cafe is also more complicated.

The pastries are from the cafe’s old supplier, Freeport Bakery, but the baking establishment lost its driver. Garcia or another staff member has to pick up the pastries daily.

Meanwhile, the line for Chicory’s five soups, which were changed daily before the pandemic, is no longer outside the door, and the soups are now changed weekly.

There is a morning coffee rush, but by 1 p.m. Chicory Coffee & Tea is virtually empty. The shop is closed by 2 p.m instead of the pre-pandemic 5 p.m. closing.

On Friday, Chicory Coffee & Tea closes at noon.

“It’s kinda of a ghost town again,” Garcia said of Friday and downtown Sacramento.

Chicory still has its fans

Customers still are enthusiastic to be back at the cafe.

Two lobbyists — they wouldn’t give their names — said they cherished the opportunity to get out of their nearby offices and hang out at Chicory Coffee & Tea again, even though it was nearly empty and lacked the political buzz of the past.

“This is the closest coffee house to the Capitol,” said one of the men.

Garcia hopes to build his staff gradually at Chicory Coffee & Tea.

“We have about half of our staff for right now,” he said. of his four employees. “We’re just kind of feeling it out and seeing what happens.”

On Aug. 23, Chicory Coffee & Tea saw its first political fund-raider since the pandemic in its homey, side room, featuring a fireplace, a couch and comfortable chairs. Seven more have been booked over the next few months.

Hundreds of political events yearly used to be housed in the side room before COVID-19, but Garcia said the new bookings are a start.

For now, Garcia is enjoying seeing old faces again for the first time since March 2020.

“It’s kind of crazy to see so many familiar faces and everyone’s now able to take off their masks again and I get to see some smiles,” Garcia said. “That’s been quite nice.”

This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 5:00 AM.