Gourmet hot dogs, frosé and beer on tap await at this new Martinez restaurant

Martinez has a new taproom steeped in the city's history and offering beer, hot dogs, frosé and more.

Martinez has a new taproom steeped in the city’s history and that’s offering beer, hot dogs, frosé and more.

The restaurant, owned by couple and business partners Preston Cerezo and Casey Spragens, specializes in quarter-pound sausages — twice the weight of standard hot dogs — spicy chicken sandwiches and craft beers. They also offer frosé (frozen rosé concoctions) made in-house and served in flavors like guava peach and tropical mimosa, according to Spragens.

The creative sausage offerings ($11-$15) range from the Martinez, a quarter-pound Cajun sausage topped with fresh jalapenos, barbecue sauce and grilled onions, to Chicago style, Hawaiian inspired, pastrami-topped and more. Expect to see vegetarian and vegan options for those sausages, too, and sides such as shoestring fries, macaroni salad and potato salad, and frozen sangria.

Cerezo grew up in Martinez and learned to cook with his brothers on the barbecue as an alternative cooking method when the power bill was unpaid and power and gas were periodically shut off, according to Spragens. He loved to read cookbooks and cook for his friends and always dreamed of opening a restaurant. Meanwhile, Spragens grew up helping out at her parents’ business and is a newer Martinez resident, she says.

After years of saving up from Cerezo’s work in construction and carpentry, the restaurant location became available, and the couple decided this was their chance.

They rooted their restaurant, its name, logo and decor in local history. The name, Hillside, comes from Cerezo’s childhood neighborhood, while the logo — a buffalo head with a mountain in the background — is inspired by a local hill where a herd of buffalo once grazed and where Cerezo and his childhood friends rode dirt bikes. The restaurant structure dates from at least 1900, and the couple tracked down photos of the structure from local historical associations to share inside the restaurant. 

“400 Ferry Street was a disaster when we leased it, but after 8 months of blood, sweat and tears we got to open our dream shop,” Spragens says. “It came out so much more beautiful than we ever could have imagined,”

Details: Open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday at 400 Ferry St. in Martinez; hillsidemartinez.com.