A bright, colorful billboard with a bubbly font and an illustration of a smiling man looms over Folsom Boulevard, luring passersby to try some equally bubbly and colorful local ciders.

Nitty’s Cider, 3201 Folsom Blvd., is in an unassuming metal building on the corner of a busy East Sacramento intersection. Inside, you’ll find a charming bar with a detailed mural of apple trees and cider barrels.

Nick Vellanoweth started Nitty’s Cider in 2018 while working at a different cider company.

“My boss told me to start my own label,” Vellanoweth said. “He said, ‘If it takes off, take it and run.’ ”

In 2019, Vellanoweth expanded production on Nitty’s Cider.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and he had to shift his plans. He started doing home deliveries while lockdown restrictions were in place, which allowed him to grow his presence in the Sacramento area and open a tasting room in 2022.

Vellanoweth said he is plans to open a second Nitty’s Cider location in Lincoln sometime before Memorial Day, but no opening date has been set.

A Sacramento Bee reader suggested we stop by Nitty’s Cider for Take Five Thursday, a weekly event at the cider tasting room, as part of The Sacramento Bee’s On a Budget series.

On Thursday, fellow Bee reporter Veronica Fernandez-Alvarado joined me at Nitty’s Cider to see how far we could stretch $25.

Here’s what we found out:

What is East Sacramento Bar Nitty’s Cider like?

Nitty’s Cider is less than a 10-minute walk from the Bee’s office, so Veronica and I decided to head over after work.

There is no designated parking for the tasting room. I recommend parking on a nearby street or using a rideshare service such as Uber or Lyft.

On a recent evening, a few dozen customers sat inside Nitty’s Cider’s open building and on the patio adjacent to the street, enjoying ciders, grilled cheese sandwiches and music in the warm spring weather.

A food truck parked outside served grilled cheese sandwiches while bartenders inside poured from a range of ciders, beer and wine on the menu.

Since starting his business, Vellanoweth has created more than 160 flavors of cider, he said, but only about 25 are available at any given time. Fruit seasonality and flavor trends inform which ciders the company manufactures and distributes.

On the day Veronica and I visited, there were 11 cider varieties on tap. Many of the offerings had names related to popular music, a common theme forVellanoweth’s business.

According to Vellanoweth, one of his bestselling ciders is Gitchy Goomy, a pickle-flavored cider mixed with lemonade, named after the Neil Diamond song of the same name.

Yellanoweth’s Cry Yourself Dry original apple flavor is also popular, he said.

“(Cry Yourself Dry is) the foundation of our cider ... (and) a good indication of how dry the cider is,” Vellanoweth said. “People assume that it’s going to be overly sweet or just a sugar bomb. Our cider is not like that at all. .... (It) tends to be more on the dry side.”

Nitty’s Cider hosts Take Five Thursday events each week, offering discounts on pints and four-cider flights on Thursdays. The price of a pint is $5, compared to $8 as usual, and a flight is $10 rather than the usual $12.

As part of the weekly special, Nitty’s Cider hosts a free music bingo game that starts at 6 p.m. Players mark off spaces with song titles on a digital bingo card as the corresponding tune plays over the bar speakers.

During our visit, bar patrons with goofy screen names won over the course of four rounds of the game.

Vellanoweth said he started the weekly event to help a friend who wanted to operate music bingo, while also figuring out how to increase foot traffic on a slow day.

Nitty’s Cider customers can also play the bar’s Skee-Ball machines for free on Thursdays.

“Skee-Ball is always an added bonus, because I’m passionate about that arcade game,” Vellanoweth said, adding that he wants to “get people to play something I love and drink something I love.”

Take Five Thursday’s name pays homage to a music icon. It’s named after the Dave Brubeck Quartet jazz standard “Take Five,” according to Vellanoweth.

Nitty’s Cider itself does not sell food, so Vellanoweth and his team host a variety of food trucks at the tasting room. Vellanoweth said he sets a rotating weekly schedule so customers have different options every time they visit.

On the Thursday we visited, local grilled cheese business Tipsy Cheese had several specialty sandwiches available for sale. They ranged from a simple plain cheese sammy to sandos with barbecue chicken, spinach artichoke and apple brie fillings.

Nitty’s Cider shares its food truck schedule, as well as a schedule of other events at the tasting room, weekly via its Instagram account.

What we got on a $25 budget

I spent a total of $22 at Nitty’s Cider, before tip.

I ordered a $10 cider flight and a $12 grilled cheese sandwich. Veronica got a $10 cider flight and a $14 grilled cheese sandwich. Sales tax was included in the posted prices.

With our cider flights, we tasted a total of seven available cider varieties:

Purple Reign ube blueberry
Slow Jamz strawberry blackberry
Guavecito guava
Daddy Doesn’t Care choke cherry raspberry
I Love It When You Call Me Big Papaya
Bad Blood blood orange raspberry
Heavenly Smile blueberry pomegranate

At Tipsy Cheese, I opted for a plain grilled cheese sandwich, dubbed the Ultimate Grilled Cheese. The sandwich came with seasoned fries on the side and ketchup. Veronica went for a spinach pesto variety, which also came with fries.

I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. The warm and melty three-cheese sandwich was simple in its taste, which allowed me to appreciate the light dusting of seasoning on the fries and the range of flavors in the ciders I picked.

The only thing I — a self-proclaimed grilled cheese snob — would change to make the sandwich even better would be grilling the bread with salted butter instead of an unsalted alternative.

Here’s what Veronica had to say about her experience:

“As a fan of pesto and grilled cheese, the spinach pesto grilled cheese was absolutely delightful. The bread was nice and buttery, and the cheese pull was a visual experience of a white cheese canvas with green leaves. I’m a vegetarian and it’s always nice to see menu options that go beyond the side of fries. Though I would be remiss if I didn’t state that the fries were wonderfully seasoned with a nice crisp.

“Nitty’s Cider is a place that has fun with their flavors, which fills adults like me with childlike curiosity. Highlights on my flight of ciders include Purple Reign and Guavecito. Overall, I would 100% go again!”

Is Nitty’s Cider affordable?

It depends on whether you’re eating while sipping your cider, as each visiting food truck sets its own prices.

Tipsy Cheese is an affordable option, with full-sized sandwiches packed with various fillings costing roughly $10 to $15.

If you’re more focused on drink options, Take Five Thursdays are a wonderfully affordable way to try local brews. With a $25 budget, you could afford two flights and a pint.

On other nights, pints cost $8 while flights are $12 apiece, which still allows for some flexibility within a $25 limit.

Veronica and I were both quite satisfied with the amount of food and cider that came with our meals, and the freebie activities hosted on Thursday made the experience even more worthwhile.

Got suggestions for a future “On a Budget”? Let us know in the form below or email us at servicejournalists@sacbee.com.

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