The Latest Scoop – Cooks 2017

Keeping you informed of local food and drink news.

ILLUSTRATION BY GREG BRADY

Welcome to edible Sacramento’s new Edible Updates column. Here, we’ll share the latest news from our area’s restaurants and food purveyors, updates from regional agricultural producers, and more details about our burgeoning food-and-drink scene.

DINING NEWS

The Selland family opened their latest Selland’s Market-Café in April in a prime, central-Sacramento location — on Broadway on the edge of the Tower and Sunset districts. Like its sister locations in East Sac and El Dorado Hills, this one features wood-fired pizzas, farm-fresh salads, sandwiches, and hot food items for dining in or taking home when you don’t have time to cook for the family. Broadway’s Selland’s also features a large patio with olive trees and plenty of seating. A revamped menu also was introduced at all three locations.

Next door to Selland’s is a new tasting room for Bike Dog Brewing Co., ensuring that this complex will be popular and bustling at all hours. Keeping with downtown’s love of bicycles, there’s no shortage of bike racks located throughout the parking lot. For those unfamiliar with this area’s history, both businesses are across from the historic city cemetery. The site was once the home of the glorious glass Bell Conservatory that Margaret Crocker had built in the late-1800s so that fresh flowers always were available to those visiting deceased loved ones in the cemetery. Neglected, it was demolished in the ’50s, and the site was transformed into a supermarket, which later became a county services building. While some of the façade has been remodeled, the lines of the building still elicit memories of its era as a grocery store.

Meanwhile, Bill Ngo, owner of Kru and Fish Face Poke Bar in Sacramento, announced another new restaurant concept to be located near Golden 1 Center for the fall. Named Buudai in homage to Ngo’s childhood nickname, it will bring back a mixed Asian, dim sum-inspired menu, similar to the menu at his now-closed Red Lotus. Ngo actually had arranged to lease the K Street space long before the announcement of a new downtown arena there, and the project was postponed for several years, so it’s a lucky convenience for Ngo to have a prime arena location now. Ngo has plenty to keep him busy. After opening the new Kru in November 2016, he opened his second Fish Face at the Milagro Centre in Carmichael in March and will open a third location in Emeryville this summer.

Broderick continues to expand. What started as a single roadhouse in the historic Broderick section of West Sacramento has grown to include two more locations — one on L Street in Midtown and another in Walnut Creek. In fact, the Walnut Creek location is so popular, its daily sales often outpace those of West Sac and Midtown combined. Owner Chris Jarosz knows a good thing when he sees it and plans to open two more locations in Folsom and Roseville. With Broderick’s creative burger combinations and boozy milkshakes, it’s a good bet that there could be further expansion.

Another local name expanding her reach to the Bay Area is that of chocolatier Ginger Hahn of Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates fame. She’s announced that a San Francisco location of her chocolate boutique will open some time this summer.

UC Davis students are familiar with these two things: beer and ice cream. After all, beer is a mainstay of college life, and Davis Creamery is known for its extraordinary ice cream creations. One-time partner Jesse Sahlin has since moved on from Davis Creamery, but his ice cream creativity never left him. In his newest venture, The Craft Creamery, he will run a storefront bar/restaurant as well as a creamery. Sahlin plans to craft ice cream flavors around beers from area breweries, blending in spices and fruits, and then selling the creations at the breweries, including Track 7, New Glory, and Mraz. His plans also include an ice cream subscription service and selling wholesale to restaurants, bars, bottle shops, and markets. It’s sure to be a dream come true for many!

EXCITING ACCOLADES

For the 12th year in a row, 90-year-old Nugget Markets earned a spot on Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Eric Stille, the family-owned grocer’s president and CEO, said the fun, family environment makes everyone come together to create something special. In addition, the Woodland-based, 16-store company was voted one of the 100 Best Workplaces for Women, 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials, and 50 Best Workplaces for Parents.

FOOD HAPPENINGS

As this edition of edible hits the streets, attendees from throughout the U.S. and other nations will congregate at the Ag Innovation Showcase at UC Davis. Taking place May 8 – 9, the showcase will highlight emerging commercial innovations for high-value, nutritious agriculture and food. Subject matter will span innovations from the farmer to the consumer, and from climate-smart technologies to advanced food-safety solutions. Session topics will range from food and beverage processing to drones, robotics, and the digital age of farming.

Now until June 25, the Crocker Art Museum is featuring an exhibit called Forbidden Fruit, in which porcelain figurines feast on fruit, desserts, and other temptations. American sculptor Chris Antemann was invited by Meissen Porcelain Manufactory in Germany to create the figurines. She used the Garden of Eden as her metaphor to create a contemporary celebration of an 18th-century banquet. Inspired by the research of British food historian Ivan Day, she modeled many of her culinary creations after dishes found on his website, Historicfood.com.

With the success of Baconfest, the Sacramento Burger Battle, and Sactown Wings, it seems every type of food is being incorporated into festivals. Less well known are Sacramento’s Guac Off and Banana Festival. New for 2017 was the Sacramento Grilled Cheese Festival in April, the California Honey Festival (Woodland) in May, and now the recently announced Sacramento Donut Festival coming up in September. It makes you wonder how many specific food festivals the Sacramento region (and scheduling) can support.

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