At long last, a spark in Old Sacramento

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 bike ride to PBS KVIE’s offices takes me down the Old Sacramento Boardwalk. On the best days, I spy sea lions in the Sacramento River and overnight tourists boarding the Delta King. On the worst days, it’s easy to see why that waterfront corridor, the subject of revitalization dreams dating back to pre-pandemic days, is perhaps the city’s greatest unrealized commercial potential.

Kids come on field trips, the California State Railroad Museum is one of Sacramento’s best and out-of-town guests may enjoy walking through the cobblestone streets. But as a colleague of mine said recently, there’s little that attracts locals to spend time and money there, particularly given safety concerns as darkness falls. His recent visit was eerily quiet, he said, aside from the occasional scream from someone hanging out a car window.

That’s why I was so excited to hear the big reveal in Mayor Kevin McCarty’s State of Downtown address last week: Der Biergarten will open a second location along the waterfront, taking over an ancillary kitchen of the old Rio City Cafe. Another to-be-announced restaurant (I’m told it’s likely to be new to this market) and a retail shop will move into the main building following substantial repairs to the city-owned deck. And in more tucked-away news, the 1920s Bookstore just revealed it’ll open as a literally underground book shop and speakeasy on 2nd Street.

If you don’t know Der Biergarten (also known as Midtown Biergarten), you haven’t spent much time bar-hopping in Sacramento. The communal tables, cornhole boards and shipping containers make up one of Midtown’s favorite places to grab a beer, particularly on balmy days. It’s not the most true-to-Bavaria beer garden this region has — that’d be Kathrin’s Biergarten in Rocklin — but imports doppelbock and hefeweizens from Germany, makes a solid schnitzel and is nothing if not lively. That’s what Old Sacramento needs.

Can’t wait for Der Biergarten 2.0 to open? Grab a pint and a plate at a roomy British pub in Old Sacramento listed in the section below. Elsewhere in today’s newsletter, I’ve found a celebrity’s cookbook, filled with family recipes from the Southeastern United States, to be my new favorite. And an Elk Grove restaurant opening Friday promises healthy, customizable options.

Let’s dig in.

Benjy’s Bites

Here’s my favorite item or two from a local restaurant this week. Send me yours at begel@kvie.org.

Bear & Crown | 1022 2nd St., Sacramento | 916-497-9115

One of Old Sacramento’s more intriguing current options is Bear & Crown, opened by U.K. native Joe Wilson and his husband Jesse Ledin in 2023. The expansive British restaurant, bar and gift shop on the historic Orleans Hotel building’s ground floor leans hard into the decor, with tartan booths and customized telephone booths backing modernized pub grub in Old Sacramento.

Start your meal with Scotch eggs ($16), a pair of eggs boiled for seven minutes, surrounded in herbaceous housemade sausage and encrusted in a thin, crispy outer layer. Served with a bright curry sauce, they’re a pub staple done with a little extra care here.

The fish and chips ($25) rendition is an excellent one as well, centered around buttery, flaky Pacific cod and served with an outstanding housemade tartar sauce. It comes with triple-cooked chips, a British method that involves boiling the potatoes before frying them, but scraggly battered fries are available upon request.

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’ve been cooking my way through a surprisingly strong cookbook over the last couple of weeks: “Does This Taste Funny?” by late-night TV host Stephen Colbert and his wife Evie McGee Colbert. The couple spends much of their time in Charleston, South Carolina, and many of the book’s recipes are from their lives in the Lowcountry. There are the cheeky photos and clever quips Colbert’s fans have come to expect, along with heartwarming family stories and genuinely scrumptious recipes.

I’ve made quick-pickled apple-onion slaw, curried chicken salad, glazed farmers market parsnips and “The Colbert Bump” (Heering Cherry Liqueur, gin, lemon juice and soda water) to pregame Cardi B’s concert at Golden 1 Center. Yet the first recipe I tried remains my favorite: McGee Colbert’s father’s deviled eggs, which disappeared rapidly off my family’s Passover table last spring. It’s a stellar addition to a home cook’s bookshelf, and having been released in 2024, there are secondhand copies floating around for those who want to save.

In the news

More than 100 readers wrote in with local burgers they said should’ve made my “best of” list. The most common answers included a Carmichael roadside stand, a longtime bakery favorite and a local chain that uses Niman Ranch beef. 

Popular Midtown watering hole Der Biergarten will open its second location, this one in Old Sacramento overlooking the Sacramento River. Owners Sean and Erika Derfield also own Sean Finnegan’s Pub in Old Sacramento. Read more here.

Happening this week

• The 16th annual Capitol Beer Fest returns Saturday afternoon along Capitol Mall. GA tickets are $55 to taste nearly 100 stands’ beverages, with proceeds going toward local nonprofit Runnin’ For Rhett. 
• Doña Mari Cocinita held its grand opening Feb. 27 at 4204 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in South Oak Park. It became known for its quesabirria tacos and pambazos (sandwiches dipped in a guajillo chile sauce) while operating out of a red truck in South Sacramento.
• Bohl, a health-focused restaurant from local Dutch Bros franchisees Hailey and Kyle Garrett, will open Friday at 9257 Laguna Springs Drive, Suite 100 in Elk Grove. Signature bowls include the Ranch Hand salad (grilled steak, roasted sweet potatoes, avocado and garlic-herb cottage cheese over spring mix) and Feta Late Than Neva (two types of feta, fried chickpeas, Kalamata olives, and tzatziki over rice).

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.