Local restaurateur Chris Jarosz found success with his Wicked ‘Wich food truck before turning his eyes to a full-scale restaurant in West Sacramento.

Roll Out!

Food truck owners are driving new opportunities

Food truck success is leading to brick-and-mortar spin-offs for mobile restaurateurs ready to expand in Sacramento and beyond. For some, a fixed kitchen was always the goal, but for others, the choice to settle down was unexpected, the result of cultivating faithful patrons spreading the good-food word to more and more hungry friends.

May 31, 2013 Douglas Curley

Double Taste

How Rick Mahan hedged his bets on two very different business models

In the past 13 years Rick Mahan has not only learned a lot about launching, financing, owning and staffing a business, he has also experienced first hand some of life’s toughest lessons. Today, as the well-respected proprietor of The Waterboy restaurant in midtown and One Speed pizza shop in East Sacramento, he is willing to share those lessons.

Apr 30, 2013 Douglas Curley
Quinoa citrus salad, soft taco, chili relleno, vegetables, cedar roasted tofu and mango chutney. Paired with 2011 ZD Chardonnay, California

Seasons Greetings

Arden Fair Mall gets a farm-fresh eaterie

To this day I lament the closing of the California Café at Arden Fair Mall.

For years I would describe it as “my favorite restaurant that I never go to.” It had a great vibe, comfortable ambience, cool bar, eclectic wine list, intelligent bartender and a seasonal, farm-fresh menu long before that was trendy. I just couldn’t get over the fact that it was located in a shopping center. I take partial blame for its demise nearly a decade ago; I should have frequented it more often.

Mar 31, 2013 Douglas Curley

The New Wine Country

Opportunity abounds for California varietals

Let’s say you’re in a glitzy Beijing restaurant. Your waiter uncorks a $300 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. He pours you a glass and you sip it, savor it, let it breathe. But around the table, everyone else gulps theirs down one swallow, like a shot, yelling “Gan bei!”

Welcome to wine culture in China.

Mar 31, 2013 Jeff Wilser
Allyson Dalton, owner, Fox & Goose Pub & Restaurant

Breakfast of Champions

I’ve long believed that just about the worst way to begin a workweek is scheduling an in-office staff meeting. Employees start dreading it by mid-day Sunday. The gatherings usually get off to a late start, drag on and are deemed worthless by most participants.

Enter the breakfast meeting.

Mar 1, 2013 Douglas Curley
Biba Restaurant Chef Steve Tosso

Cuisine Under Construction

Biba Restaurant endures some neighborly development

What Biba Caggiano describes as the “bing, bang, bong noises,” began on Jan. 26, 2007. That’s when the building next door to one of the region’s most established destination restaurants was being demolished. What followed was a three-sided, multi-year Sutter Medical Center construction project that continues to this day.

Feb 13, 2013 Douglas Curley