A nook to call his own.
A new wine bar opens in a residential Sacramento neighborhood — no big deal, right? But to learn that the owner of this establishment cooked at a Michelin restaurant in San Francisco, cooked at one of the Bay Area’s buzziest spots, and worked for a famous chef — well, that changes things. The Nook Wine Bar in Sacramento is already generating buzz.
Joe Holmberg owns The Nook Wine Bar + Bistro in East Sacramento, where he serves Spanish wines and inventive tapas-style small plates with intriguing flavors and beautiful presentation that reflect the time he spent in top kitchens.
Holmberg’s Culinary Journey
He grew up in Galt in the Golden State, wanting to work with food. Holmberg’s mother was a passionate cook, and he shared her passion. After high school, he studied at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. He then worked at restaurants in the Central Valley and Austin, Texas, before returning to California.
He was familiar with Chris Cosentino, a celebrity San Francisco chef known for his TV appearances (“Top Chef Masters”) and so-called “snout-to-tail” cooking. Holmberg cold-called Cosentino and got a job working the wood-fire grill at Cockscomb, Cosentino’s meat-centric restaurant. He cycled through every station, from wood oven to sauté, ending up as lead line cook. Then he went to work at Michelin-starred Aster, also in San Francisco. “I learned how to build a dish to make it look beautiful,” he says. His next gig was Mission Chinese Food, a rule-breaking, game-changing restaurant with a national following.
From there, Holmberg worked at several wine bars in San Francisco. When the pandemic hit, he came to Sacramento, bought a house and started looking for a space to open his own wine bar. The East Sacramento property fell into his lap with the closure of Celestin’s Restaurant, the Caribbean eatery on McKinley Boulevard. As a result, Holmberg opened The Nook in May 2023. “The setup is perfect for a wine bar,” he notes. “It’s tiny and cozy.” There’s seating for 24 guests inside and 24 additional seats outside at wooden picnic tables under a shade structure in the parking lot. Overall, it’s a casual place where a single diner wouldn’t feel out of place sipping a glass of wine and enjoying a bite to eat.
Wine and Food at The Nook
The Nook ’s fare is light, hyper-seasonal and pairs well with Spanish wines. The spring menu offered a fried chicken thigh with a Lay’s potato chip crust. It also featured green gazpacho, made crunchy with a relish of tomatillos, kiwis, and cucumbers. For the main dish, garlicky shrimp gambas were served in a traditional Spanish cazuela. Holmberg’s signature dish, Carrot Three Ways, features carrot hummus, roasted rainbow baby carrots with berbere spice, and deep-fried carrot ribbons. The combination provides satisfyingly contrasting textures: creamy, firm, and crispy.
Holmberg curated the wine list in hopes of enticing Sacramento residents to try Spanish wines. At first, he says, customers were put off by unfamiliar varietals with names like Txakolina and Mencia. “There’s a lot of Rombauer here in East Sacramento,” he says with a laugh, “but it wasn’t hard to convince people.” He plans to increase the persuasiveness with a picnic package of food and wine that customers can enjoy at a nearby park.
