The following is from City of Treats, a food and drink newsletter by Abridged senior food editor Benjy Egel. Want it sent directly to your inbox? Sign up here.
My commute to PBS KVIE’s offices passes by Discovery Park, one of Sacramento’s best in-city places to see the leaves turn. Red, orange and yellow have started to mix into the green canopy as we move into late October, and my car’s thermometer now reads in the 50s on those morning drives in.
As the seasons change, I’m holding onto the last vestiges of summer (Vitamin D-filled walks and Brentwood corn risotto) while also excited for fall’s drizzly weather and cozy bowls of soup. In this City of Treats, I also dig into biryani from a longtime friend’s mom, highlight a trio of new Sacramento County restaurants and ask Kings players about their favorite local places to eat.
Let’s bundle up and dig in.
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Benjy’s Bites
Preserve | 200 Railroad Ave., Winters | 530-795-9963
A kitchen window lined with jars of jams and salted lemons offers a peek into Preserve’s focus. Cole and Sara Ogando’s restaurant, which celebrated its 15th anniversary this year on Winters’ main drag, shuttles plates of dried, fermented and otherwise life-extended foods into a dark dining room and multiple patios. Options change with the seasons and chef Gene Hall’s fancy, but the horseshoe bar bookended by stuffed boars’ heads remains a preferred cocktail spot in the small Yolo County town.
Caesar salad ($16) fans will find a sterling rendition at Preserve centered around crisp baby gem lettuce, studded with housemade croutons and finished with smoked manchego shavings and lemon zest. Get the creamy late-summer risotto ($25) while you still can: surrounded by a sweet Brentwood corn purée moat and popping with sun-dried tomatoes, beech mushrooms and Fresno chili specks, it’s the taste of a season in a bowl.
Egel’s Nest
I live, play and cook in this community just like you. This recurring section is a window into my life outside of restaurants and bars, always with a food and/or drink angle.
Lunch at Preserve marked the midway point for a bike ride with my longtime friend Shlok, who was back in town from New York this weekend. When we got back to his house, I stopped in to see his mom Sangeeta, an acclaimed food scientist and straight-talking force of nature whose work creating the LemonZest LUNA Bar was lore throughout our childhood.
Sangeeta sent me home with a large jar of chicken biryani as well as a green sauce modeled after the one her grandmother used to make. She sautéed radish and turnip greens from the UC Davis Student Farm’s CSA box, puréed them with garlic and peppers and mixed in yogurt and date syrup to counteract the bitter greens. Its cooling creaminess was a lovely complement to the spiced rice with chicken, potatoes and tomatoes.
In the news
The Kings’ season tips off Wednesday, so I asked players: where are your favorite places to eat around Sacramento? You might catch center Maxime Raynaud at Binchoyaki in Southside Park, forward Keegan Murray at Masa Masa in Roseville or forward De’Andre Hunter at Fixins Soul Kitchen in Oak Park.
Rain on the forecast this week marks the start of Sacramento’s transition to soup season. Start it off with Lisa Lin’s latest Cooking in Season recipe, Thai-spiced kabocha squash soup. Makrut lime leaves, lemongrass, coconut milk and ginger add nuance and brightness to the sweet squash, which is also known as a Japanese pumpkin.
Happening this week
- Lakeside Cafe had its grand opening this morning along Lake Natoma in Folsom, sharing a building with Crawdads on the Lake at 9900 Greenback Lane. It’s open for breakfast and lunch, with pastries, salads, sandwiches and lake views.
- After a year-and-a-half of pop-ups, Brewtik Coffee & Tea is in the midst of its soft opening at 4805 Laguna Blvd., Suite 103 in Elk Grove. It serves premium matcha from Japan’s Uji region, along with Vietnamese coffee and milk teas.
- Three miles down the road, Savi Mexican Grill celebrated its grand opening Saturday at 8234 Laguna Blvd., Suite 140. It’s centered around a Chipotle-style concept of build-your-own burritos or bowls, but also offers quesabirria tacos and street tacos on hand-pressed tortillas.
