Take Comfort: Fall Dining

As the weather gets colder, the offerings at Sacramento restaurants get richer, warmer and more filling. It’s comfort food at its best.

Take Comfort

By Marybeth Bizjak

Autumn in California’s capital city is a glorious time, when the thermometer-melting temperatures of summer blessedly dip from their triple digits and a slight nip in the air gives everyone a new lease on life. Sacramento restaurants gear up for the cold-weather months with new menus filled with exciting versions of comfort food. Here is a look at what you can expect this fall from 10 of the city’s top restaurants.

Ella Dining Room + Bar, a swanky, sophisticated restaurant just a stone’s throw from the new convention center, is known for its innovative cuisine, elegant presentation and attentive service. Here, you’ll dine on elevated versions of comfort food such as roasted bone marrow, lobster bisque and lobster truffled mac and cheese. Proteins such as beef tenderloin and Wagyu strip loin are roasted over a wood fire in the open kitchen. There’s a raw bar if you’re into fresh, briny oysters (always good in month with an R in its name!),

and the cocktail bar turns out exquisite farm-to-glass cocktails using seasonal and local ingredients. Ella is owned by the Selland restaurant group, whose demonstration-style restaurant The Kitchen on Hurley Avenue was Sacramento’s first restaurant to get a coveted Michelin star. 1131 K St.; (916) 443-3772; elladiningroomandbar

At Camden Spit & Larder, you’ll feel transported to a modern London brasserie. This Capitol Mall eatery (popular with local lawyers, lobbyists and legislators) is chicly designed with gleaming brass, rich leather and masculine haberdashery fabrics. Chef/owner Oliver Ridgeway is a British transplant, and his food may remind you of upscale takes on British schoolboy favorites such as sausage rolls and English meat pie. The rotisserie turns out hearty mains like spit-roasted chicken, and a grilled New York steak comes with beeffat hash browns, an addition sure to keep you fueled on a chilly evening. Happy-hour fare, served in Camden’s cozy bar (named Winston’s after Britain’s famed prime minister, Winston Churchill), includes English dip sliders (roast beef and smoked cheddar on brioche rolls), “dirty Winston fries” topped with chorizo and Cotija cheese, and some of those delightful sausage rolls, served with English mustard and curried ketchup for dipping. Wash it all down with a Larder Old Fashioned before heading out into the brisk night air and we promise you won’t feel a thing. 555 Capitol Mall; (916) 619-8897; camdenspitandlarder.com

One of the region’s original farm-to-fork restaurants, Mulvaney’s B&L is a genuine and much-loved Sacramento institution. Owner Patrick Mulvaney has relationships with virtually every farmer and rancher within 50 miles, and you can see the fruits of those relationships on every plate. The menu changes daily, so it’s hard to predict what you might find on any given night. But Mulvaney has a way with pork, and you really can’t lose if you order thusly. He also embraces his Irish heritage with a starter of house-smoked salmon served with Irish brown bread. Dessert is often whimsical; try the house-made Ding Dong (an individual-sized chocolate cake with chocolate glaze and the distinctive white squiggle you remember from your childhood) or the Pig Newton (cinnamon ice cream with candied bacon and figs). 1215 19th St.; (916) 441-6022; mulvaneysbl.com

Christopher Barnum Dann, the visionary chef behind Localis, has been on a bit of a roll lately: In the past year, he was a semi-finalist for a James Beard award, and he competed on the Discovery+ TV show “The Globe” and appeared on TV’s “Live With Kelly and Ryan,” cooking with show co-hosts Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Whew! And that doesn’t even take into account his role as one of the city’s most exciting chefs. At Localis, he serves up a constantly changing chef’s tasting menu based on the best ingredients available. Choose from two options—seven courses or 12—and prepare to be amazed as ringmaster Barnum Dann works his magic. Each dish looks like a work of art—exquisitely plated and as colorful as a painter’s palette. Sit at the chef’s counter if you want

Hawks Public House

to enjoy the show or in the dining room for a more intimate experience. 2031 S St.; (916) 737-7699; localissacramento.com

Molly Hawks and Michael Fagnoni are the talented and charming married couple behind Hawks Public House. It’s their second restaurant (their Hawks in nearby Granite Bay is justly acclaimed), and it is everything you would want in a dinner house, serving fine food in a cozy and unpretentious atmosphere. The Mediterranean-focused menu includes house-made pastas, such as rigatoni with a pork shoulder ragu, and hearty proteins like steamed mussels, roasted chicken and grilled wild salmon. Even the burger here is top-rate; they hand-grind Wagyu beef in the walk-in refrigerator to keep it cold and fresh, which results in a fabulous, beefy patty. 1525 Alhambra Blvd.; (916) 588-4440; hawkspublichouse.com

Kevin Fiscus

Binchoyaki

Helmed by the Michelin-benighted Brad Cecchi (who twice earned a star at Calistoga’s Solbar), Canon in East Sac is a neighborhood restaurant that draws diners from all over with its innovative cuisine. The seasonal menu concentrates on fun, sharable noshes such as chicken drumsticks with Urfu chili sauce, served in a puddle of yogurt, and house-made tater tots with a rich mole sauce. Entrée “platters” such as a whole chicken or whole fish can feed the whole family. Vegetables also get a whole lot of love here; you might find potato and cabbage pierogis on the menu, if you’re lucky, or perhaps grilled broccolini with trumpet mushrooms, peanut butter miso and house-made kimchi. Incidentally, Cecchi’s Franquette café and wine bar in West Sac is a smaller, more casual operation than Canon, but it, too, is a hit with both locals and out-of-towners. 1719 34th St.; (916) 469-2433; canoneastsac.com

It doesn’t matter if your group includes both diehard carnivores and passionate herbivores; Beast + Bounty has you covered. A massive open hearth with a roaring live fire is the stage for the restaurant’s inventive chefs, who use smoke, ash and coal as ingredients in many of the dishes. From the “beast” side of the menu, you might order a hearth-grilled half chicken with grilled treviso, or perhaps a mixed grill that includes hamachi collar, short rib and pork belly. From the “bounty” side, look for dishes like coal-roasted carrots with green harissa and dukkah, or soy-glazed grilled yam with miso aioli, pickled shiitake and leek ash. The menu also includes pizzas (cooked over wood, of course) and fresh pastas. Word to the wise: The Parker House rolls are not to be missed. 1701 R St.; (916) 244-4016; eatbeastandbounty.com

Frank Fat’s has a storied history: Open since 1939, it is the oldest restaurant in Sacramento continuously owned by the same family. Generations of Sacramentans and countless local lawmakers have gathered in its sophisticated dining room to enjoy Frank Fat’s upscale take on Chinese food, including favorites such as honey walnut prawns, New York steak smothered in sautéed onions and oyster sauce, Peking duck and brandy fried chicken. The food and service here are top-notch, with everything executed to perfection. Save room for dessert: Fat Fat’s is justly famous for its banana cream pie, a towering confection of custard, fresh fruit and soft clouds of whipped cream. 806 L St.; (916) 442-7092; frankfats. com

Located in East Sacramento, the modern Italian seafood restaurant Allora is a great choice for a special occasion or a leisurely evening over fine food. The prix-fixe menu offers a choice of three, four or five courses. Start with a raw course of carne cruda or oysters, proceed to a pasta such as fettuccine with lobster and prawns (all the pastas are made in-house, of course), then move on to the main course, with choices such as a meltingly tender 72-hour braised short rib. You can also order “additions” such as caviar service and seasonal offerings like truffles and wild foraged mushrooms. The owners are a married couple: Chef Deneb Williams handles the kitchen, while Elizabeth-Rose Mandalou, a certified sommelier, oversees the cellar, which concentrates on interesting Italian wines. 5215 Folsom Blvd.; (916) 538-6434; allorasacramento. com

Local foodies are positively wild for Binchoyaki, a Japanese izakaya-style restaurant in Sacramento’s Southside Park neighborhood. Binchoyaki is particularly well known for its little skewers of grilled meats, such as chicken thigh, pork belly, New York strip steak, duck breast, beef tongue and chicken hearts. But Binchoyaki also serves a wide selection of Japanese foods, including sashimi and ramen, perfect for a cold evening. There’s also an excellent kids’ menu, with options for chicken karaage, shrimp and vegetable tempura or chicken skewers. Each child’s plate comes with miso, edamame, furikake gohan or fries, and an arabiki corn dog. 2226 10th St.; (916) 469-9448; binchoyaki.com