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.
I’m back from an extended Fourth of July weekend in the San Juan Islands, a charming Washington archipelago butting up against the Canadian border. Thanks to Keyla Vasconcellos for writing last week’s City of Treats in my absence; I’ve had an eye on Dây Là Flour’s impressive-looking pastries for a while, and I’m jealous (but happy for her!) that she made it to one of their pop-ups before me.
The short family vacation had many highlights, including hiking, bioluminescent night kayaking, a visit to a particularly charming pottery studio and watching fireworks over the water from a dock. One of my favorite parts, though, was visiting the same crêperie and bakery every morning we could, even getting up early before a ferry ride to make it happen.
The sticky morning buns and crêpes topped with mushrooms and goat cheese were delicious. But more than that, they helped us establish a bit of routine amid the inherent chaos of travel. When my partner and I went to Rome earlier this year, we began each morning by walking to the longstanding Bar San Calisto for espresso and maritozzi (brioche buns overflowing with whipped cream). It was the ritual as much as the flavors that drew us back time and again.
Now back to my non-vacation routine: writing City of Treats. This edition includes a vegan restaurant that’s upped its game in recent years, two new businesses that expanded in the suburbs and one more story from the Pacific Northwest. Buckle up and dig in.
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Benjy’s Bites
Veg Kitchen & Bar | 2431 J St., Sacramento (upstairs) | 916-448-8768
Teary-eyed over Mother’s recent closure? Another meatless Midtown restaurant is the best it’s ever been just three blocks away. Veg Kitchen & Bar, long known as Veg Cafe & Bar or simply Veg, opened a decade ago above Suleka Sun-Lindley’s other restaurant Thai Basil. Sun-Lindley then sold Veg to employee Calvin Born in 2023, and the new chef/owner has taken the all-vegan restaurant to further heights.
Veg’s quarterly-rotating menus are constructed with sustainability at the forefront, which leads to an emphasis on fruits and vegetables plus scant use of Impossible or Beyond meats. The whole damn carrot ($10) appetizer exemplifies that minimal-waste model: Six smoky Nantes carrots from Terra Firma Farm (Winters) pile over a black garlic-tahini sauce, covered with their own fried skins and a chermoula made from carrot tops.
The peach and feta salad ($18) mixes Sacramento summer favorites — Twin Peaks Orchards yellow peaches, grilled corn, fresh greens — with ras el hanout-tossed chickpeas and tofu feta, while the lion’s mane chop ($29) offers an umami-rich marinated mushroom, peppery chimichurri and summer squash over buttery polenta. End your meal with an olive oil cake ($10) served with strawberry-basil compote and feathery whipped cream (made from lentils, incredibly) and you’ll hardly notice it was all animal-free.
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.
On our first full day in the San Juan Islands, my family visited Westcott Bay Shellfish Farm for an absolutely delightful shuck-your-own-oysters experience. A few days later, we had moved onto Orcas Island, but my craving for raw oysters — and cheaper prices for those willing to do the manual labor — had returned.
I then rode my rented moped to Country Corner Market, Deli & Spirits, a gas station on the island that promised to sell oysters farmed a few miles away in Judd Cove. My family was dubious at first, but the oysters on ice outside Country Corner had the requisite tags to show their veracity, and the local chamber of commerce co-signed the gas station as a legitimate option. I threw two dozen oysters and some ice into plastic bags, grabbed a lemon and a shucking knife and met my family down by the water, where four of us slurped up all 24. They were seriously briny, and a perfectly PNW treat.
In the news
Ever wonder about the tomato trucks cruising down the Sacramento Valley during the summer — or why they spill their haul on the roads? Read this story from Lisa Thibodeau, a farmer with a soft spot for a signature area fruit.
With triple-digit temperatures expected Tuesday and Wednesday, it’s the perfect time to whip up peach-elderflower spritzes, Zoe Barrie’s latest Cooking in Season recipe. Her 15-minute riff on the popular Hugo spritz uses yellow peaches currently booming across the region. At least three Abridged staffers (including myself) made it last weekend, and it was a universal hit.
Happening this week
- The California State Fair, that hub of deep-fried everything, kicks off Friday at Cal Expo and will run through Aug. 2. For boozy refreshments, visit the (shaded!) Save Mart Wine Garden or The Beer Den nearby.
- Toasted Rooster Cafe opened its second outpost on July 9, this one at 8841 Greenback Lane in Orangevale. The original has become an Arden Arcade brunch favorite for its skillet dishes, pancakes and Coyote Eggly breakfast tacos.
- Rooftop Coffee Tea & Macarons will open its Roseville location Friday at 731 Pleasant Grove Blvd., Suite 185. It’s the second location following the original in South Sacramento, with similar Vietnamese coffee drinks, Italian-style macarons and happy hour specials.
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.