New 2023-2024 Sacto Cafe-Restaurant-Bar List (Sacramento, Vacaville: rentals, lofts, condo)

[Chimérique]

New 2023-2024 Sacto Cafe-Restaurant-Bar List

List your favorite places for good food, to hang-out, drink, and be merry.

Not in any particular order:

1. Tupi Cafe - 2 locations: downtown-Southside Park and Midtown

2. Roscoe's - Midtown , Full Bar, and good diner food

3. World Traveller Coffee - several locations: Downtown-DOCO-Kings Arena, Midtown, Folsom, Roseville, El Dorado Hills, Rancho Cordova

4. Tom's Watch Bar - Downtown-DOCO-Kings Arena

5. Tea Bar & Fusion Cafe - Midtown Sacto, Rocklin, Chico, Redding

6. University of Beer - several locations: Midtown Sacto, East Sacramento, Davis, Roseville, Rocklin, Folsom, Vacaville

7. Mother - Midtown Sacramento, Great Food - Mostly Vegetarian (moved from K street downtown to K street midtown)

Please add to the List, feel free to add why you like the place.

[sacreole]

My office holiday party was recently held at Hook and Ladder on S Street in Midtown. Great food and drink. The last time I was there, it was called Hangar 17.

[Chimérique]

Correction to above:

Tupi Cafe as only one location now at S & 8th Streets one block from Southside Park, downtown. It's a brand new space in a new condo/apt bldg. He closed the midtown spot. Brazilian food and drink with a rooftop patio, very nice!


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Old Sacramento is looking quite festive these days with the Christmas decorations, checkout:

9. Fanny Ann's Saloon on Second Street, or

10. Bear and Crown British Pub, Second Street

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by sacreole

My office holiday party was recently held at Hook and Ladder on S Street in Midtown. Great food and drink. The last time I was there, it was called Hangar 17.

It's been awhile since we've been there, I'll check it out soon.

8. Hook and Ladder

11. Philz Coffee fans....a new spot is coming to Fair Oaks Blvd and Howe Ave, Sacto. Other locales: Freeport Blvd near Tesla Charging station; R Street Downtown Sac; and Davis(downtown)

12. Milka Coffee, 11th & R Streets, downtown

13. Camellia Coffee, 12th & R Streets, located in the Artists Lofts Warehouse Bldg, downtown.

14. Seasons Coffee, 24th & N Streets

[tstieber]

I love reading about Sacramento's food scene and can't wait to visit again sometime.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by tstieber

I love reading about Sacramento's food scene and can't wait to visit again sometime.

I was thinking of listing eateries/bars within a 10-15 minute walk of the main Sacramento Train Station because plenty of folks come into Sacramento by train from the Bay Area or SoCal.

The following are walkable from main Train Station: there are a ton of places and of course you can just
google-map-it, but please comment about the places listed:

15. Jimboys Tacos - Downtown at the DOCO-Kings Arena Mall area, K Street (between 4th and 5th). Excellent ground beef "greasy" tacos and more. Local favorite since 1954.

16. Estelle's - Sandwiches, excellent pastries, coffee - Downtown K Street in DOCO Kings Arena mall area (between 7th and 6th); they have an even larger location on Arden Way near Fulton Ave.

17. Solomon's Vinyl Diner - Downtown - 8th and K Streets (on this part of K you can't drive, must walk/take light rail). Some Jewish Deli favorites.

18. Roots Coffee, Downtown 5th Street, (between J and K Streets), sort of hard to get to if you don't know the area

[wburg]

Milka Coffee is at 1501 G Street. 11th & R is currently the location of Plant Power, a vegan fast food place, which is all right for a veggie burger & fries.



Camellia Coffee is located across the street from the Warehouse Artist Loft building, not inside (they were originally located inside WAL but moved to the refurbished building across the street vacated by a Starbucks, 1200 R Street)


Some of my faves:


Tea Cup, 21st & P Street, is a long-standing Chinese restaurant, recently revamped their dim sum menu but also good for old-fashioned Cantonese lunches & dinners. I think they revamped their dim sum game due to the recent opening of Elk Grove's Journey to the Dumpling a block away in the Press building, hoping to keep some market share and get some overflow business. They're nice folks and reasonably priced, and the dim sum is quite good.



Jim-Denny's, 12th & Terminal (between H and I Streets)--this venerable landmark was reopened by N'Gina Guyton, the creative force behind Southside Park restaurant South, serving diner fare, hamburgers, hot dogs & breakfasts, but with many creative twists.


There and Back Cafe, 11th & K Streets across from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, is a fandom/gaming themed cafe, decorated with a mixture of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars themes. There are gaming nights, table rentals to run games, and fandom themed special events throughout the week; a popular destination for those attending comic and anime cons at the convention center.


KoJa Kitchen, 8th & K Street: Korean/Japanese fusion street food/snacks, including Spam musubi, waffle fries with various meaty toppings, and sandwiches served on rice cakes. Notable for its mural of a stylized Sacramento skyline with a Gundam.

[Chimérique]

First impressions of:

Tom's Watch Bar - Within easy walking distance of Sacto Valley main Train station and light rail stations, and nice Hotels.

Located steps away from front doors of Golden One Center - Kings Arena-Downtown Commons (DOCO) (K and 5th Streets)

Great location: Great place to watch "Light the Beam" mania.

Very very lively, very friendly staff, screens everywhere to watch your team, drinks were on the strong side, diner/sports bar food was very good, much better than average sports bar food, large food portions with reasonable-decent pricing.

Patrons: All type of folks, young families, middle-aged folks, gays/trans-identified, but mostly young folks in their 20's and 30's.

They have 2 outdoor patio areas and lots of indoor seating. Outdoor bar and two indoor bars, very nice seating at the bars. Security seemed focused yet friendly.

Twice they went around giving free shots. Energetic DJ on nights when Sacramento Kings have home games.

When went on a Sunday afternoon for the 49er game - beat Seattle; and a Monday night for Kings game - Kings beat Brooklyn - Light the Beam!

They validate for parking!! So you can park in the DOCO-City garage, don't park in Macy's garage, unless you shop there and get a Macys validation, but Macys closes early evening- don't get car stuck in Macys garage.

Currently, for the rest of the month (Dec). You can park for free on metered streets best bet for that is in Old Sacramento. This will allow you to re-discover Old Sacramento, riverfront, and do some shopping in Old Sacramento!

[wburg]

Be advised when taking advantage of the "free parking" in downtown Sacramento that it only applies between I and L Streets, only after 4:30 PM, and only lasts as long as the regular metered time limit, so if you park at a "free" meter at, say, 5 PM that's ordinarily a 1 hour zone meter, you can get a ticket if you're still there after 6 PM.


https://www.abc10.com/article/traffi...ugh-christmas/
Holiday Parking Program - City of Sacramento


However, those arriving in Sacramento via the Sacramento Valley Station will likely not have brought their cars, so theoretically won't have to worry about parking, nor will anyone taking light rail downtown to visit these fine establishments.


Tom's Watch Bar seems to be popular, personally I am not interested in watching sports when I eat so it has little appeal to me; typically when I find myself dining in the DOCO I just hit Jimboy's (it really is a local favorite) and park at a food-court table.


A few other downtown spots close to the train station:



Thai Lotus Cuisine, located in the center of the Chinatown Mall (between 3rd & 5th, I and J Streets), is kind of a "hidden gem" which, along with the rest of the mid-century Chinatown, was built circa 1970 at Sacramento's original street level. It's the one currently operating restaurant in Chinatown and a good spot for a quiet lunch. The whole area is a treat for fans of mid-century architecture, from the 1959 Confucius temple to the 11-story Imperial Tower/Wong Center building, with a museum dedicated to Dr. Sun Yat-sen (sadly, it's seldom open) who, according to local legend, wrote part of the Chinese constitution while staying in Sacramento on an international tour. Most of the buildings in the complex were designed by locally born Chinese-American architects.


Danny's Mini-Donuts, at 2nd & I Street in Old Sacramento, is a good spot for freshly made, hot miniature donuts, and the best deals on ice cream in Old Sacramento, although they no longer serve the sweet potato and pumpkin pies they offered when they first opened a few years back. A good spot for an inexpensive mobile dessert while doing Old Sacramento things.


The Bank, at 629 J Street, is sadly a disappointment, despite its location in the magnificently restored landmark D.O. Mills Bank building, designed by legendary architect Willis Polk and expanded by another master architect, Leonard Starks. The failures start with its beautiful main entrance with intact revolving door, which, also sadly, does not open; to enter the building you have to sneak in through a side entrance. Inside, instead of a large number of food vendors which one would expect from a food hall (the central idea behind The Bank), there are three bars--one at the mezzanine level, one at the main level, and another in the basement. The main level and basement bar levels also have a bunch of TV screens for watching sports. Because the building is a former bank, with a lot of marble and hard surfaces, and there is minimal "soft" decor like fabric or wood to absorb sound, it gets very loud inside even when it's not busy. The last time I visited there was a poke vendor and a pizza by the slice place, and there are still pictures of pizza and poke salad on the website, but no mention of any food vendors on the website at all, let alone any menus. They're also not open for lunch, just 4-10 PM on weekdays and 4-midnight on weekends, so I assume that they're basically 3 bars that may or may not have food available, like the old-school dive bars that had a cheaper "restaurant and bar" liquor license, but never actually served food because "the kitchen already closed" (and is covered with dust and cobwebs from disuse.)


La Cosecha, at 10th & J Street in Cesar Chavez Plaza Park, is open for lunch, and is so often used as a meeting spot for local consultants & politicos that it's likely to become the city's newest "political bar." Owned by Ernesto Delgado, whose flagship restaurant Mayahuel is on 12th & K Street, who is actively working to utilize the park as a Latino cultural space with events, gatherings, and pop-up dining. I generally get the carnitas, and while I hear good things about their chicken mole, I'm not the biggest fan of mole sauce--but if you do, it comes highly recommended.

[Chimérique]

I'll number the new additions to the list.