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.
We’re through the holidays, and into the new year. If dining out isn’t the first thing on your mind, you’re not alone.
January tends to be the weakest month of the year for many restaurants. December’s office parties are gone and Valentine’s Day is still a month away, but the cold, foggy, sometimes rainy skies that make you want to curl up on the couch have settled in.
The new year also brings new costs. It’s often the time for commercial rent increases, and California’s minimum wage just jumped 40 cents to $16.90/hour (though fast-food restaurants still start at $20/hour). Sacramento-area restaurateurs tell me about the rising cost of goods, which they often pass onto customers to stay afloat. Many of those customers are dealing with cost-of-living increases elsewhere in their lives, including housing prices and healthcare charges. If they need to cut costs, meals out seem a rational place to start.
But some local restaurants offer memorable experiences without breaking the bank, as we’ll explore below. Check out the Northern Chinese skewers at Da Fei Ge, or pop by the new Vic’s Ice Cream for a scoop and a house-roasted turkey sandwich. Downtown Sacramento and Elk Grove will both start restaurant weeks on Friday, which offer deals at more than 80 places combined. And since a splurge matters even more nowadays, consider spending it on Fassona beef, or on Calabash Caribbean’s curry goat.
Let’s eat!
Benjy’s Bites
Here’s my favorite item or two from a local restaurant this week. Send me yours at begel@kvie.org.
Da Fei Ge | 5635 Freeport Blvd., Suite 1, Sacramento | 916-391-2668
Southside Park’s Binchoyaki gets all the buzz, but there’s a similar skewer shop hiding in South Land Park, albeit with a Northern Chinese lens and a divier interior. Da Fei Ge is the rare place to serve lamb testicles, chicken gristle, small fish called capelin still containing their roe and beef pizzle pierced by thin wooden spears, which customers tick off on paper menus.
All that meat, and yet: the potato skewers ($3 for two) stand out. Check the box for “spicy” to add chili powder to these salty tubers, and pick up some crackly chicken skin skewers ($4 for two) swirling around their sticks as well. The preserved meat clay pot ($13/small, $19/medium) excelled among Da Fei Ge’s heartier dishes, its pork belly slices and candylike Chinese sausage leading down to crispy rice on the black cauldron’s bottom.
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.
PBS KVIE does my kind of office White Elephant gift exchange: all snacks, $10 limit. I had a hard time staying out of the Boichik Bagels bagel chips I brought, and watching as a deluxe coffee set was ruthlessly stolen from my hands.
But the latter gave me a chance to pilfer my ultimate prize: a sheet of cheddar and Jarlsberg cheese slices, cold-smoked by KVIE general manager David Lowe in his Big Green Egg. I’ve made my way through much of it over the past week, in quesadillas, on crackers and simply nibbled à la carte. The cheddar is more delicate, while the Jarlsberg is more in-your-face.
In The News
Vic’s Ice Cream reopened to long lines Saturday after a 13-month shutdown. Founded in 1947, the Land Park ice cream parlor is now owned by father-daughter duo Carlo and Samantha Grifone, who also debuted Brew Bird Coffee & Creative in the adjoined cafe space next door. While Vic’s underwent a full remodel to update flooring, tabletops, appliances and more, its look, recipes and general manager remain the same. Read more here.
After finding success in Dubplate Kitchen & Jamaican Cuisine in Arden Arcade, Wolete “Sunny” Atherley opened Calabash Caribbean in Sacramento’s Woodlake neighborhood, hoping to give Jamaican, Trinidadian and Guyanese food a greater level of respect than they often enjoy. Calabash dishes such as curry goat, seafood pepperpot and callaloo pumpkin stew are made with quality ingredients and plated with care, contributor Becky Grunewald wrote.
A handful of Sacramento-area restaurants serve beef from Fassona, a ranch outside Red Bluff that raises true Piedmontese cattle. The meat is so lean that it’s meant to be served raw or slow-cooked, rather than grilled. Contributor Keyla Vasconcellos has the scoop.
Happening This Week
- Dine Downtown begins Friday and will run until Jan. 18. Thirty restaurants across Old, Midtown and Downtown Sacramento will roll out three-course, $45 (plus tax and tip, with $1 going to the Sacramento Food Bank) dinners to drum up business during what’s normally the slowest month of the year. Visit the Downtown Sacramento Partnership’s website to see who’s participating and what they’ll serve.
- Elk Grove Restaurant Week follows the same schedule as Dine Downtown, but takes a slightly different tack. Diners are encouraged to download a mobile app, then check in at each of the 54 participating restaurants for discounts, prizes and exclusive options. Explore Elk Grove, the city’s tourism bureau, will donate money to the Elk Grove Food Bank for each check-in.
Benjy Egel is the senior food editor at Abridged. Born and raised in the Sacramento region, he has covered its local restaurants and bars since 2018. He also writes and edits Abridged’s weekly food and drink newsletter, City of Treats.