One way to heighten the already big anticipation of the annual Tower Bridge Dinner is to have the chefs unveil the menu for the night, which falls on Sunday, Sept. 8, this year. It’s always a fun challenge to come up with something new to build excitement, and this year it’s about the protein. The chefs are adding two new proteins never used before in previous dinners — crawfish and goat.
Cecil Rhodes, chef and owner of Nash & Proper, is the lead chef
for the Tower Bridge dinner. He said he didn’t want to make a
chicken dish so he made aquachile instead, a Mexican seafood dish
that features blue crawfish from the Sacramento Delta.
Just so you get a sense of the culinary undertaking for that night, the five chefs have to serve 880 people sitting at festively decorated tables that cover the closed-for-the-night Tower Bridge. The locally-sourced menu is planned months in advance, and the food prep begins about five days before at the industrial size, 40,000-square-foot Central Kitchen, which makes 43,000 meals a day for children in the Sacramento City Unified School District.
This year, the starter course, or mezze, will be muhammara, a Turkish spicy dip, and mutabal, a Middle Eastern roasted eggplant dip, served with lavash from Upper Crust Bakery in Davis. The dinner itself is five courses, starting with a carrot habanero aguachile, a Mexican seafood dish, made with blue crawfish, scallops, clams, shrimp and corn pudding.
“We’re going to do 180 bowls of this,” says Cecil Rhodes, chef and owner of Nash & Proper. “It’s an aguachile with crawfish from right here on the Delta. I get it from Cliff’s Marina. It’s actually a blue crawfish that they grow in the rocks out there, so they’re not as muddy, not as dirty.”
The menu for the five-course Tower Bridge Dinner on Sept. 8.
“I was inspired by my mother’s zucchini casserole and two things that used to grow rampant in her yard when I was a kid — zucchini and blackberries,” she says. “Ricotta gnocchi is seared with Twin Peaks’ mixed baby squash served over a zucchini cream with fresh blackberries, which we get from these (Bea’s) blackberries in Clarksburg.”
On to the third course which is chicken ballotine, a French dish which is a stuffed boned chicken from Mary’s Chicken in Fresno. It’s paired with wild and tame mushrooms, charred figs, crispy chicken skin with chicory greens and blistered grapes. That’s followed by goat tagine, an Armenian stew cooked in a clay pot accompanied by chilled celery root puree, summer squash and roasted Jimmy Nardello peppers.
“The great thing about the goat here is, I got to meet the goats. They are from Superior Farms. If anyone’s seen the fire protection goats kind of chomping around, those are goats,” says chef Yekaterina Balagian, who is Armenian, of Seasons restaurant.
Finally, if you still have room, the fifth and final course is smoked beef rib from Flannery Beef in San Rafael with grilled peaches, sticky rice and a Vietnamese herb salad.
The $300-a-seat Tower Bridge Dinner, which immediately sells out each year, is served home style, with the entrees passed around each table on serving platters. This is the 11th year of the event.
The pink-hued Cabana Club recently opened in DoCo. It has a Palm
Springs desert oasis vibe with craft cocktails such as Cactus
Cooler and Pink Flamingo.
Cabana Club
There’s a new hot spot at the Downtown Commons across from the Golden 1 Center. Cabana Club is a pink flamingo hued, Palm Springs-inspired cocktail bar that offers fun drinks like the Coachella Cool Girl, a luscious cocktail made with fresh strawberry puree, vodka and Thai basil; or the Cactus Cooler with tequila, aloe vera and fresh citrus. The truffle popcorn is sooo yummy. Owner Paula Thompson, who also owns Smic’s Sip & Quip on K Street, used to live in Palm Springs and wanted to bring the desert oasis atmosphere to Sacramento.
Séka Hills Tasting Room
I was lucky to be hosted by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation at their Séka Hills Olive Mill and Tasting Room in Brooks a few years ago and loved their rich olive oils and vibrant pomegranate, fig and elderberry-infused balsamic vinegars. They also sell honey, nuts, jarred pickled vegetables and beef from their ranch.
Seka Hills opened a new tasting room in Midtown. The spot offers
olive oil and wine tasting, sandwiches and small plates, and
flavored vinegars, honey and beef from their Capay Valley ranch.
While the original site in Capay Valley is well worth the scenic drive, you can now get their estate-sourced products in Sacramento. Located at 18th and S streets in Midtown, drop by for an olive oil or wine tasting, a sandwich or hot and cold small plates of the season to eat on their outdoor patio, or to pick up a tasty gift for you or a friend.
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