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.
After exponential expansion throughout most of the 2010s, Sacramento’s beer scene is in a time of transition.
At least six area craft breweries — Track 7, Device, Big Sexy, Super Owl, Mraz and Big Stump — have shut down in the past three years, following a nationwide trend. Yet newcomers are taking over their barrels, often with tweaked approaches or styles.
Geisthaus Brewing is one of those newer brewers, and already making waves in Sacramento County and beyond. The Rosemont brewery’s Soulhound session beer won gold out of 65 entries at the Great American Beer Festival, the nation’s preeminent brewing competition, last weekend.
Established favorite Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse also won gold for wood- and barrel-aged strong stouts (2025 Demon’s Run Reserve), silver for British strong ales or aged beers (Clash of the Tartans) and bronze for American or export stouts (No Tricks). The Monk’s Cellar in Roseville claimed silver for Belgian-style strong specialty ales (Diabolique), while Rancho Cordova’s LogOff Brewing took bronze for Irish-style red ales (Dragonfire).
Mimosas, coffee or fresh-squeezed juice feel more apropos at a West Sacramento diner, which I checked out before taking off for a long weekend in Connecticut. And new Thai and Vietnamese restaurants just started greeting customers in Downtown and South Sacramento, along with a one-day Armenian food festival coming this weekend.
Let’s dig in.
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Benjy’s Bites
Serrano’s Cafe | 3021 W. Capitol Ave., West Sacramento | 916-376-0860
The mural on Serrano’s Cafe’s northern wall depicts the Port of Sacramento’s rice silos, a big Latino family, the Ziggurat Building — hallmarks of West Sacramento, along with images of the Tower Bridge and the Capitol building across the river. The strip mall diner has been a comfort food destination for the past 14 years, with discounted senior options and fresh-squeezed beet-carrot-orange juice to accompany heavy dishes.
Slide into the bacon-scented dining room or shaded parking lot patio for well-executed breakfast staples such as The Heart Breaker omelet ($17 with toast plus grits, hash browns or roasted potatoes with onions and peppers) teeming with artichoke hearts, spinach, mushrooms and cheese. If visiting closer to lunch, dig into The Smokin Jacks sandwich ($15 with salad, potato salad, fries or dill-flecked coleslaw) featuring pepper jack cheese, the house “bang sauce” and chicken marinated in Italian dressing. Or get a housemade patty on the Serrano’s burger ($14 with the same sides as sandwiches) loaded with charred pastrami, grilled onions, pepper jack and serrano chilis.
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.
I spent the last few days in Connecticut as a +1 for my partner Abbey’s grad school reunion. We’re years past showing each other around our hometowns, but as she took me to old haunts (the farmers market where espresso machines whirred inside a converted bus, the barbecue joint airy enough to accommodate pandemic distancing), I had that same feeling — like I understood her life before me just a little more for having seen it with my own eyes.
About 20 alumni and their partners spent a night in university-affiliated cabins out in the woods, ripping bourbon shots, tending to a raging campfire and hiding Smirnoff Ices. We all gathered around one long table for dinner that night: split pea soup, vegetarian pasta all’Amatriciana, green salad and hefty dinner rolls, all prepared in bulk and shared among friends. After bowls of ice cream from a local creamery, we slinked off to our bunks like it was summer camp.
In the news
Craft beer consumption is down nationwide, and former Sacramento flagships such as Track 7 and Device Brewing have closed in recent years. New breweries are still emerging, but they’re thinking carefully about their approaches — no IPAs or sours at one, for example, and no distribution for many. Ben Ward, a former brewer and brewery owner himself, has the story.
“The Endurance Capital of the World” also boasts a diverse range of restaurants, charming boutiques and a booming arts scene. Dan Araujo, who fell in love with Auburn after moving there a decade ago, shows us how to spend a great day in the Placer County foothill town.
Happening this week
- Chicken Hub Thai Chicken & Rice began its soft opening Oct. 7 at 1023 K St. in Downtown Sacramento. Owned by the people behind Noodles to Thai For, a much-loved Curtis Park restaurant that closed after a 2023 fire, it specializes in khao man gai, Thailand’s version of Hainanese chicken rice.
- May May Foods is in its soft opening phase as well at 7235 Franklin Blvd., Suite 2 in South Sacramento. Founded as a seafood-focused Vietnamese catering company, its brick-and-mortar restaurant is dishing out items such as shredded chicken bánh mì and tapioca dumplings called bánh bột lọc.
- St. James Armenian Apostolic Church in Citrus Heights will host its 79th Armenian Food Festival on Saturday. Stop by the outdoor celebration for barbecue, choreg (sweet bread similar to brioche or challah) and an eggplant casserole that proved popular last year.
