Top 10 restaurants in Sacramento

Three years ago, the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau established a program to promote the city as “America’s Farm to Fork Capital.”

[...] the marketing staff can make a strong case for its importance as an agricultural powerhouse for such distinctions as growing 80 percent of the world’s almonds and domestic caviar, and for its production of high-quality rice that fills the steamers in some of Japan’s best sushi restaurants.

“I feel that Sacramento has a cool soul about it,” says Michael Thiemann, who moved back to his hometown in 2013 to open Empress Tavern after cooking around the world and spending four years as Tyler Florence’s corporate chef working at Wayfare Tavern and other projects.

Never having spent time in Sacramento before my recent foray, I can’t prove or disprove that statement, but I did find a fresh energy in the dining scene, and while some places showed signs of ambition without the needed focused execution, I found some things to love.

For many years, Caggiano — along with the Kitchen, which serves a $135 fixed-price menu — were about the only places that garnered a national reputation.

For 25 years, Randall Selland has featured his own brand of dinner and a show with a dining counter surrounding the demonstration kitchen.

Selland and his wife, Nancy Zimmer, have been a force in the dining scene, opening Ella and Selland’s Market Cafe and in June debuting Obo Italian Table & Bar.

Thiemann credits McCown with shaking up the dining scene by creating a chefs’ collective.

McCown is one of the participants in September’s Farm-to-Fork Celebration, a month of farm tours, wine tastings, street festivals and restaurant events.

A Farm-to-Fork Festival on Sept. 24 culminates in a dinner the next evening for nearly 800 people who will sit at one long table stretching over the landmark Tower Bridge.

While the PR apparatus has shifted into high gear in the last couple of years, the Sacramento dining scene has gained even more traction as prices in the Bay Area have escalated and talented chefs are looking for less expensive alternatives.

[...] it takes vigilance to turn a profit.

When you see the dozens of little wormholes in the arugula leaves, you know he takes organic seriously, and it’s clear in all preparations that the produce is pristine.

[...] much of the buzz centers on some new players, including Saddle Rock, which opened earlier this month and took the name of a local restaurant that opened in 1849 and closed in 1995.

Chef Justin Green masterfully uses the area’s bounty in such items as Humboldt Fog goat cheese with local honey, summer bean salad with figs and fried almonds, and braised pork with bronze fennel.

Thiemann’s Empress Tavern, which debuted a year ago, also promotes a strong link to the past — it’s in the basement adjacent to the Crest Theatre, which opened in 1912 on K Street.

Thiemann also opened Mother, a vegetarian restaurant, a few doors down from the theater.

During the day, diners order at the counter at Mother, selecting from a blackboard menu that includes harissa broccoli with almonds and green olives; taco salad with black beans, corn nuts and cilantro aioli; and chicken-fried-mushroom po’ boy.

The scarred concrete floor, the makeshift open kitchen in the rear of the dining room and schoolhouse chairs bring the past into the present.

Fettuccine is tossed with two kinds of tomatoes, two kinds of squash, wax beans and loads of shaved raw garlic that adds pungent interest to the blend.

At this modest vegetarian restaurant on K Street, diners step to the counter to order such items as grilled cabbage drizzled with honey mustard and Cobb salad with falafel, cooked egg with a gooey yolk, several kinds of radishes and a market basket of other produce.

The basement interior looks kind of like a catacomb with its arched brick ceiling, focusing attention on the busy center bar that turns out excellent cocktails and the open kitchen built around a rotisserie that holds chicken, lamb and rolled free-range turkey.

Salads taste as if they come straight from the farm, and for dessert there’s a classic vanilla souffle or s’more pie where the marshmallow topping is torched table-side.

Whether it’s airy tempura or a finger of uni resting on a pad of warm rice, the precision and talent are evident.

With its expansive patio in front and cutting-edge interior featuring thick wood tables, concrete walls and floor, it’s a perfect place for beer and sausage.

From start to finish, the chef-owner shows why it’s earned its place as a classic, whether it’s the butter lettuce with a tangy Gorgonzola dressing and pine nuts; silken carbonara sauce with Parmesan cheese grated table-side; thin slices of veal topped with crispy prosciutto; or lasagna with 10 layers of handkerchief pasta draped over meat sauce and bechamel green from herbs.

When I saw Justin Green repeatedly pull sprigs of herb out of a large container on the counter between him and the open kitchen to garnish the plates, it became evident that this kitchen has it together.

Radishes with roots and tender leaves attached on black garlic butter; seared squid on a soupy bed of heirloom beans with generous chunks of sausage; and rack pork sliced and presented on a cutting board arranged with seasonal fruit, squash and black pepper honey.

The excitement I felt in the savory courses held through dessert, with an apricot tart and the signature Public House bar with chocolate, peanuts feuilletine and caramel.

The dining room, just blocks from the Capitol, feels a little incongruous, with draped columns and weathered shutters paving the ceiling and upper portions of some walls.

The tables are wood, the chairs are upholstered, and the tile floor would look more appropriate in a bathroom.

At lunch there’s a very good fried chicken served with a chile sauce and lemon wedges; fish tacos; chef’s salad; Reuben sandwich; pan-roasted salmon and flatiron steak salad.

At dinner the menu expands to include such items as Thai spiced lobster, seared scallops with mushrooms and wood-fired pork chop with rosemary grits.

Desserts are a highlight, including cherry croustade with cream cheese ice cream and coconut creme brulee.