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.
Fifty years ago next Sunday, the Judgment of Paris cemented California wines as world-class. Chardonnays and cabernet sauvignons from the outlying Bay Area went up against counterparts from France in a blind tasting, and the panel of entirely French judges picked those from California, to the astonishment of many.
On Monday, UC Davis hosted a rematch — sort of. The university’s Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science welcomed 16 judges (ranging from Corti Brothers owner Darrell Corti to modern celebrity sommelier André Mack) for the Judgment of Davis, blind tasting chardonnay- and cabernet-based wines as in 1976.
An initial pool of roughly 270 had been whittled down to 12 whites and 13 reds. But this time, the wines came not just from California and France but Argentina, Chile and Pennsylvania. While no clear-cut No. 1s were identified, the judges’ top choices included Meadowbrook Winery’s 2023 reserve chardonnay (New Jersey), Oldenburg Vineyards’ 2024 Rondekop Una V (South Africa) and Roblar Winery’s 2021 Grace & Grit cabernet (Santa Ynez Valley).
“We opened it up to the whole world (because) we’re very interested in celebrating this, but not just focusing on the countries that are already well-known for wine,” UC Davis viticulture and enology department chair Ben Montpetit said. “Why not give the opportunity — kind of the same opportunity the judgment of Paris gave to California — for some exposure? We’re hoping that the same thing happens here, that we might shed some light on a family winery or a business in another country that’s doing something amazing and should be known.”
The rest of today’s City of Treats is decidedly more lowbrow. I crunched fried fish at a South Sacramento soul food den, chomped burgers at a South Natomas food festival and licked my lips at the thought of Ululani’s Shave Ice, a favorite of mine from Hawaii, making its area debut next weekend.
Let’s chow down!
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Benjy’s Bites
Louisiana Heaven | 6623 Valley Hi Drive, Suite A, Sacramento | 916-689-4800
Most of Louisiana Heaven’s weekday customers eschew the dining room’s Mardi Gras masks and multicolored beads in favor of takeout orders. It’s understandable but not recommended, since many of the South Sacramento soul food spot’s fried dishes are best eaten fresh out of the checkered paper lining their plastic baskets. Plus, you can’t add more of the house Cajun seasoning to taste when eating on the go, unless you’ve picked up a purple shaker at Frank’s Quality Meats (South Land Park), Taylor’s Market (Land Park) or Grocery Outlet (Arden Arcade).
Lashunda “Shaun” Cormier, the daughter of Pelican State natives, opened Louisiana Heaven at its current location in 2019 after nearly a decade of festivals and a short-lived preceding restaurant in Elk Grove. Now managed by her daughter Jakayla, it’s one of Sacramento’s few restaurants to serve boudin balls (two for $10), steaming bayou arancini stuffed with rice and sausage and fried to a dark brown. For a heartier option, select one-, two- or three-item dinner combo plates, each of which comes with two sides. The Cajun red snapper ($25) fried in a cornmeal batter is my top pick, though it could use a little extra of that seasoning.
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 pretty much swore off burgers after completing my list of the region’s 13 best in February. But I slipped out of greasy hibernation to judge the American River Burger Battle last Sunday, which pitted seven area restaurants (plus Sacramento Fire Department and Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District representatives) against each other at Discovery Park in South Natomas.
Some restaurants (Gami Burger, Moksa Barrel House) submitted the flagship burgers available on their daily menus. Others came up with new creations, like The Firehouse’s beef tenderloin/ribeye/flank steak patty with horseradish remoulade, blue cheese and pickled onions.
Metro Fire’s jalapeño inferno burger (two Oklahoma-style smash patties, housemade jalapeño salt and chipotle bacon onion jam on branded buns) was near the top of my book. But my No. 1 pick was the overall winner: Good Neighbor’s resuscitation of the Pangaea Bier Cafe burger featuring dry-aged beef, housemade pickles and bacon on a Bella Bru bun.
In the news
Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services raised nearly $420,000 during the annual Big Day of Giving, more than any other local nonprofit. That money will fund 1.2 million meals at the food bank, which feeds 335,000 people per month throughout Sacramento County. Read more from Rob Stewart here.
Zoe Barrie’s latest Cooking in Season recipe centers around a familiar vegetable from her farm-to-table restaurant days: artichokes. Steam them, then serve them with melted pesto butter — both leaves and heart.
58 Degrees & Holding Co. will close May 31 after 20 years in Midtown Sacramento. An early wine bar in the Handle District, it adapted to full steak dinners and “Chambongs” as the neighborhood became more popular.
Happening this week
- The State Fair isn’t until July, but you can whet your deep-fried appetite at the Sacramento County Fair this weekend at Cal Expo. Dishes at some of the stands include chipotle chicken fries, footlong bacon-wrapped hot dogs and soft pretzels with Sriracha cream cheese icing.
- The Sacramento Lebanese Festival will take over 12th Street between R and S streets in Sacramento from Friday-Sunday. Expect live music and dancing, a hookah bar, a beer and wine garden and dishes such as knafeh (melted cheese covered in shredded phyllo and drenched in syrup).
- Ululani’s Shave Ice will open Saturday at 1013 2nd St. in Old Sacramento. Maui’s most popular shave ice stand, founded in 2008, has begun a California expansion that also includes locations in Stockton and Livermore.
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.