Taking over the family restaurant in West Sacramento, and starting a new one

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.

When I was growing up in Davis, my family often went to a downtown restaurant called Thai Recipes — or, as we called it, Bryan’s Restaurant. Bryan was my first-grade classmate, and after ordering chicken satay or pad Thai, I’d disappear into the backroom to play Nintendo with him and his brothers until my family’s food was ready. And nearly every day at school, Bryan’s parents brought him … McDonald’s. He was sick of Thai Recipes’ food, he told us, an overexposure that turned him away from the family business as a kid.

It’s not always easy to be born into a restaurant family. Thai Recipes closed a long time ago, but many kids who grow up in restaurants that last are eventually faced with a choice. Do they spread their wings, go off to college or a new city, follow their degree or interests down an uncharted path? Because if they do, there might be no one left to keep the “bonus family member” running as their parents age.

Jen Havson and Kevin Ericson seem to have struck the right balance for themselves. Their grandfather founded Whitey’s Jolly Kone, an old-timey West Sacramento fast food joint, and their parents kept it running into the 21st century. Havson and Ericson moved away to Utah and Los Angeles, met their spouses and eventually moved back to take over the family business, which they’ve kept nearly the same as when it was founded in 1963. Yet Havson, Ericson and their partners also fed their ambitions with Emile’s Cafe, their charming new hangout a few miles away. It’s a completely different vibe than Whitey’s, and that’s good for everyone involved.

Elsewhere in today’s newsletter: an unfortunately light apricot season is upon us. A new brewery is replacing Device Brewing in southeastern Sacramento, and a new brunch spot is hitting downtown Roseville. And if you’re drinking this summer, consider Clarksburg chenin blanc, a recent darling of the Northern California wine scene.

Let’s eat (and drink)!

Benjy’s Bites

Emile’s Cafe | 1300 Lake Washington Blvd., West Sacramento

Peach milkshakes from Whitey’s Jolly Kone are a quintessential sign of summer around these parts; I’m told they’ll return to the West Sacramento fast-food stand on July 7. In the meantime, check out Emile’s Cafe, opened last year by the late Emile “Whitey” Boisclair’s grandchildren and their partners (who also took over the burger joint). Located amid the construction of Heritage Oaks Park, which is scheduled to complete a $7.8 million buildout this fall, it’s the modern counterpart to Whitey’s, with a house Temple Coffee Roasters blend and bottles of local wine as active decoration.

A small indoor space gives way to a spacious, covered patio with herbs in planters, a lovely setting for sandwiches such as the grandfather ($17), an Italian classic with prosciutto, salami, pepperoncini and grated Parmesan on ciabatta (with crusty sourdough or gluten-free bread available upon request). The spring pasta salad ($14) is worth ordering as long as it’s on the menu: a cold mix of asparagus, snap peas, pickled watermelon radish slices, goat cheese, arugula and curling strozzapreti pasta, with a caramelized lemon vinaigrette and half a beet-dyed soft-boiled egg. Pastries, like bread, are baked in-house; I recommend the wide, thin oatmeal raisin cookie ($3).

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.

Early-to-mid June means apricots in the Sacramento region. In years past, I’ve downed as many as five a day in an effort to disarm my parents’ tree, which booms suddenly and heavily.

This year, though, it’s been a down crop between the same late-season rains that curbed cherries and a couple of particularly audacious squirrels. I’ve treasured the few apricots my parents were willing to spare, and gotten my fix in other ways. The apricot jam we made from the last crop was still good enough to spread over crackers with goat cheese, and an old bottle of apricot liqueur has felt like a seasonal choice for a nightcap.

In the news

Kupros Craft House owners Keegan Currey and Steve Tokuhama have finally opened The Golden Pineapple, their Midtown-adjacent restaurant that’s been five years in the making. One side of the building serves deli sandwiches, while the other serves the kind of Hawaiian plate lunches Tokuhama ate as a kid on Oahu. There’s even some overlap between the concepts: try the ahi poke sandwich in lieu of a tuna sub. Keyla Vasconcellos has the story.

Winemakers bought chenin blanc grapes grown in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for decades — to throw into jug wines. Now they’ve become a choice commodity for producers in the Clarksburg region and beyond. This white wine, adaptable to the winemaker’s preference, is perfect for Sacramento summers, Mike Dunne writes.

Happening this week

• Roseville’s Downtown Tuesday Nights began last week and are set to run through the end of July. The free weekly street fair has live music, classic car shows, a kids’ zone and food trucks stationed around the Vernon Street Town Square.
• Live in Roseville, but want to beat the heat indoors? The Daily Nosh will begin its soft opening Friday at 105 Vernon St. Owned by local catering magnates Lisa and Randy Peters, it’ll serve hefty breakfast and lunch plates out of a former Pontiac dealership.
• Balance Beerworks is celebrating its grand opening all day Saturday and Sunday. Bruce and Katie McPhee’s craft brewery at 8166 Ave., Suite A in southeastern Sacramento (formerly home to Device Brewing) has a roster of mostly lagers and IPAs, with seltzers to come.

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.