By Jan Ferris Heenan

New downtown restaurants are opening in record numbers.

Apparently, the way to the heart of Sacramento is through its stomach.

Nearly 40 restaurants have opened their doors in Sacramento’s downtown in recent years, at the vanguard of the city’s push toward revitalizing its flagging core. A number of others will follow in the months ahead, including a few—such as the Selland family’s bistro, Ella—that are eagerly awaited.

One or two newcomers quickly flamed out, but local restaurant business overall rose 40 percent between 2000 and 2005, according to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership. Best of all for the discerning diner, menus cater to every palate, from the simple to the intrepid.

“We’ve given people choices, real choices for dining downtown,” says Michael Ault, the association’s executive director. “We’ve really seen [downtown] change into a regional dining destination.”

From the vitreous glow of Restaurant 55 Degrees on Capitol Mall to the warm tones of Temple Fine Coffee & Tea on 10th Street, the influx is at an all-time high as civic boosters, public servants and investors chisel away at Sacramento’s “new” downtown.

How the balance will be maintained between a critical mass and oversaturation has become a topic of discussion among area foodies. But clearly some of the city’s most established restaurateurs have banked on success.

Paragary’s Restaurant Group opened Spataro Restaurant and Bar at 14th and L streets in 2005, just blocks from the group’s Esquire Grill at 13th and K. The 4th Street Grille’s Ron Fleming and Geoff Flynn launched Chops steakhouse directly across from the Capitol in 2003, and they hint of a third downtown venture in the months ahead.

Since late 2003, the region’s Mikuni sushi empire has enjoyed heady success with its 16th Street location straddling downtown and midtown. Bistro 33 Midtown, with its Kobe miniburgers and smoked-duck risotto, set up shop earlier this year at the corner of 16th and K. And the Selland family, owners of The Kitchen and Selland’s Market-Cafe, plan to open Ella, a “new-American bistro,” in the Cathedral Building at 12th and K streets by March 2007.

“We’ve been waiting for downtown to blossom for a long, long time. We feel now is the time,” says Josh Nelson, Ella’s general manager and son of chefs Randall Selland and Nancy Zimmer.

“Sure, there’s going to be a lot of competition. But to be honest, we’re going to be truly, distinctly different.”
Ella’s menu will likely be more adventurous than The Kitchen’s, Nelson says. Along with the décor (to be designed by the Dutch design house UXUS), the restaurant will be “cutting edge”—not just for Sacramento, Nelson promises, “but cutting edge period.”

Sacramento’s gourmet growth spurt is taking place in no small part with an eye cocked on the central city’s housing boom and the significant addition of new hotel space.

At 55 Degrees, owner Ali Mackani and his partners are prepared to wait, even if the year-old restaurant moved in a good two years before build-out in its immediate neighborhood was scheduled to be complete. Two mammoth projects are under way nearby: the 54-story twin Towers on Capitol Mall, with its 800 condominiums and InterContinental Hotel, and a 23-story office tower at 500 Capitol Mall.

“We are going to grow into it,” says Mackani who, along with wife Lisa Watts and executive chef Luc Dendievel, operated Baccaras Restaurant & Wine Bar in Folsom before moving downtown.
Restaurant 55 Degrees boasts a sophisticated menu, from roasted monkfish and pan-seared sweetbreads to mussels prepared a number of different ways. Mackani, for one, says he welcomes the influx of “upper-caliber” restaurants to Sacramento’s downtown.

“It not only allows for consumers to have more o ptions, but they’re more educated as to what good and mediocre is,” he says. “These new restaurant scenes . . .  bring a new perspective as to what dining is about.”
Not all comers have fared as well. The highly regarded Il Posto, a sister property to Osteria Fasulo in Davis, closed in June after 10 months downtown. Co-owner Mina Fasulo says the Ninth Street location enjoyed a following among some legislators and Capitol staffers but lacked broader appeal.

“We were just too überprogressive for Sacramento,” Fasulo says. “People didn’t get the menu: foie gras, lobster at lunch.”

Flynn knows a little something about local restaurant trends. He and Fleming opened the 4th Street Grille in 1992. “We were young knuckleheads,” he jokes. What they learned over the years, however, was that most diners aren’t willing to walk more than a couple of blocks. “They don’t take cabs [to get around downtown], and if they get in their cars, they’re going home,” he says.

That means good parking is essential, says Flynn. When Chops took over the space formerly leased by Brannan’s, the restaurant spent $100,000 in its first year on customer parking at adjacent garages. Still, the location has been a success for the steakhouse, which draws heavily from the Capitol and the Sacramento Convention Center and recently added an on-site catering facility.

The infusion of housing, and the expected retail revival of the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street, will certainly help, Flynn believes.

Spataro also draws heavily from the Capitol, the convention center and the adjacent Sacramento Community Center Theater. A performance night easily boosts business by 50 percent, says owner Randy Paragary, who also appreciates Spataro’s midpoint location between the Sheraton Grand and Hyatt Regency hotels.
The flip side, of course, is when the legislature adjourns and the other venues are quiet. “How many Sacramentans are coming downtown for restaurants [when that’s the case]? Not enough,” Paragary says.
Paragary has another concept on the drawing board: a restaurant and 200-seat cabaret in the former Woolworth building at 10th and K streets. Partnering with California Musical Theatre Executive Director Richard Lewis, Paragary is hopeful the team can secure city subsidies to help with rehabilitation of the historic property.

About a block away, coffeehouse owner Sean Kohmescher and his staff have a more singular approach: “We just work hard and focus on the coffee, and the people come,” he says.

Kohmescher opened Temple in September 2005 in the English Tudor-style building on 10th Street that was formerly occupied by Levinson’s Books. Drawn by the foot traffic and proximity to the Capitol, Sacramento Superior Court and other hubs, Kohmescher spent some eight months building furniture, removing 10-foot-high bookshelves and painting the interior prior to opening.

The comely spot is open 365 days a year, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and boasts free Wi-Fi. With its “bliss tea” and other specialty drinks, “sacred coffee tastings” on the weekends and beans that retail for up to $44 a pound (Bolivia’s famed Juan de Dios variety), Temple caters to the coffee and tea aficionado as well.
“It’s an example of a real urban experience downtown. It’s not a traditional ‘vanilla’ coffeehouse,” says Ault of the Sacramento Downtown Partnership. “[Kohmescher] takes a tremendous amount of pride in what’s down here and put a lot of sweat equity into it. He wants to be part of this community.”

At the corner of 15th and L streets, Mason’s—once home to Beers Books and the original Capitol Garage cafe—and its “modern American” menu also have been well-received, says general manager Daniel Sneed. The Park Downtown, as the complex is called, also includes Ma Jong’s Asian Diner and The Park Ultra Lounge.

“It really surprises us what we’re able to sell out here,” says Sneed, who comes from San Francisco. The foie gras (served with a black-pepper pineapple upside-down cake) does well, as do lesser-known fish such as fluke and branzino. Mason’s “crispy-topped” macaroni and cheese is a favorite with more conservative diners, Sneed says.

National restaurant groups, such as P.F. Chang’s China Bistro on the corner of J and 16th streets, have helped shape downtown in recent years. McCormick & Schmick’s—the upscale Oregon-based seafood and steakhouse chain—has begun refurbishing restaurant space in the historic Elks building at 11th and J streets.
One skeptical restaurateur believes it will be difficult to sustain the restaurant growth, even at the current level. It is already a tough draw from Sacramento’s outlying communities. “We are more of an afterthought,” he says.

Ault and others disagree. The latest growth has occurred without draining revenue from some of the region’s more established fine-dining spots, such as The Firehouse and California Fats in Old Sacramento and Frank Fat’s at Eighth and L streets, he says. Ault is confident that the market can handle the boom.
 “Restaurants don’t just site somewhere and get caught up in the excitement; these folks do their homework,” he says. “That’s given us some real validation that continued growth of the restaurant environment is still here.”

The way Josh Nelson of Ella sees it, the region deserves better options when it comes to eating out.
“You see people conforming to what they think Sacramento is. But we believe there’s not enough sophisticated food in the region,” Nelson says. “We give the market a little more credit than that.”

This article appears in the September 2008 issue of Sacramento Magazine.