A Foodie Celebration—Restaurant Week in Sacramento
/One of my favorite foodie activities is Restaurant Week. What is Restaurant Week, you ask? Restaurant Week varies across the country but the general concept is that local restaurants partner with local tourist organizations or chambers of commerce to promote a week of lunch and/or dinner specials. Restaurants offer reduced prices for a prix fixe menu—the idea being that what they lose in price reduction they gain in sales volume. It is a win-win proposition. The restaurants get added exposure and foodies, like me, get to sample decadent dining experiences at some of the finest restaurants for an affordable price. (What’s that they say—something about champagne tastes/beer budgets?)
Food Literacy Center is a nonprofit dedicated to teaching low-income elementary children cooking and nutrition to improve our health, community and environment. Just $4.11 provides a week of food literacy for one child. During Dine Downtown, a party of four can make a difference in a child life.
My sister, Pat, her husband, Don, and I have been going each year to Sacramento’s Restaurant Week which is called Dine Downtown (maybe one of the reasons it's not called Restaurant Week is that it lasts 10 days.) This year Dine Downtown is January 7 – 16th. That gave me just enough time to squeeze in a foodie adventure before my trip to Albuquerque.
Half the fun for us during Restaurant Week is choosing the restaurant! Each year Pat and I scrutinize the list of participating restaurants, go over the menus, and visit the websites. This year our selection from a list of 30 restaurants is Ten22. This is largely based on the prix fixe menus (which you can find HERE) but other considerations include location, dress code, and the availability of free parking, (the need for valet parking can add as much as $20 to a night out.)
We had a great night out—our foodie adventure was truly satisfying! The restaurant is located in historic Old Sacramento and our reservations were for 5:30 pm. We had allowed extra time for parking, and arrived early about 4:30. We very quickly found on-street parking not more than a block from our restaurant. That left us with an hour before we needed to present ourselves. There are so many cute stores I knew we wouldn't have a problem keeping ourselves entertained until our reservation time.
It turned out that right on the corner where we parked was a little specialty store and tasting room for olive oils and balsamic vinegars called The Chef’s Olive Mix. This shop has been on my list of places to visit ever since it came under my radar about 6 months ago. I was thrilled when my sister and brother-in-law agreed to stop in.
What a wonderful find! There should be more olive oil stores like this! The sales staff is so gracious and welcoming. We were greeted immediately upon entering. The young woman named Anja asked if it was our first time and when we said “yes” she offered to get us started. She explained how the store was set up, demonstrated the proper way to sample the numerous selections of olive oils and balsamic vinegars, and mixed up my first pairing of oil and vinegar. She offered me a sheet with suggested pairings and indicated I was free to roam and test as many samples as I liked?
The shop is immaculate and welcoming.
The olive oils are from all over the world. New shipments arrive each month.. Anji told me they were in the process of changing out the Southern Hemisphere oils for the Northern Hemisphere oils. This is done based on the crush so that they olive oils are always the freshest. It keeps their product best in class.
I tend to be just like a curious, little kid and ask multiple questions. Where do you get the olive oils from? What’s your favorite pairing? Did you know this much about olive oil before you started working here? She was so patient and because she saw how interested I was she offered to ask the shop’s owner to come over and speak with me.
The large cisterns on the top shelf are called fustis. The fusti holds the olive oils ubtl the are bottled. The shop bottles, seals, and labels their product. Anja delivered amazingly, unbelievable customer service. Here she took the time to show me the simple bottling/sealing/labeling process.
I had a lovely conversation with the owner, Lisa Lubeley. I learned that she was from Southern California and her previous background was in computers. She had only owned the store a few months and she had never done retail before. (Lisa, in my opinion you’re doing everything right!) The store is delightful, the staff is gracious, knowledgeable and welcoming, and the product is outstanding. I will never look at EVOO (as Rachel Ray calls Extra Virgin Olive Oil) on the grocery shelf the same again. I will be returning to the Chef’s Olive Mix again and again to get my olive oil/balsamic vinegar fix.
I want to mention that the store was closing at 5:00. Even so Lisa continued to visit with us until almost 5:20. She never tried to rush us out of the store. She is passionate about her oils and that passion and enthusiasm was evident in her manner. She generously shared information on the olive oils and vinegars, the health benefits, and some of her personal experiences in her learning process. This was such a wonderful prelude to our dining experience and it set the tone for the rest of the night.
Now on to our dinner…
The name Ten22 doesn’t tell you much about the restaurant we chose. Here is the description from the website.
“Located in the heart of Old Sacramento, Ten22 prides itself in award winning cuisine and superior quality brews. Executive Chef Jay Veregge, offers a “New American” menu featuring locally sourced ingredients from our regional farmers.”
When we stepped up to the front door of the restaurant I thought I had discovered the meaning of the name—large numbers over the door announced the address as 1022. I made a comment to our server, Ryan, about this and he added that it was a little more than that. When the restaurant opened they served 10 craft beers and 22 wines, but he was quick to add they had expanded their offering of beers and wines since then.
On the Dine Downtown menu were 2 selections for starters, 4 selections for entrées, and 2 selections for desserts. I did also glance at their regular menu to get an idea of what they normally serve. I asked Ryan what exactly was “New American” cuisine. He explained it was a fusion between traditional American cuisine bringing in the flavors and cooking techniques of other cultures.
What hardly ever happens happened—all three of us went for almost identical selections. After we ordered, Ryan brought us a bread basket with an asiago and sun-dried tomato artisan bread. There was also a small bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar mix for dipping. For the starter we each ordered the salami platter. It was a wonderful taste combination—Soppressata Italian salami, thinly-sliced hard jack cheese with pickled peppers, and a delightful smear of house-made Dejon mustard.
Great starter. The house-made dejon was to die for.
Our entrée was the grilled New York steak (medium rare) with garlic mashed potatoes, and French string beans. The steak was much larger than any of us anticipated and it was grilled to perfection. Everything about the entrée was perfect!
Not only great looking but great tasting. The steak was grilled to perfection. I never even thought of asking for A1 Sauce.
Dessert was where we broke the pattern. My sister and I went for the Chocolate Brownie Cake with Chocolate Ice Milk. Donnie announced himself not much of a chocolate man and chose the Lemon Square with fresh whip cream and fruit coulis. Our brownie was dense, very chocolate-y, and was plated on a squiggle of salted caramel sauce. What a delicious touch! But the Lemon Square was fabulous! After one taste, Pat and I ended up wishing we had room for two desserts.
Two great desserts!
All the wait staff were attentive not just the server assigned to our table. Our water glasses were never empty. Even the manager stopped and asked if everything was all right. Ryan told us Chef Jay makes every effort to use locally sourced ingredients from Sacramento’s regional farmers. (Although I didn’t see much of that on our prix fixe dinners—the steak was from a ranch in Washington state and the salami was from a distributor in San Francisco. I didn’t ask where the rest of the ingredients came from.) The restaurant décor was modern with an open kitchen. It was kid-friendly with some great menu selections for the under 12 crowd on the regular menu. I can definitely see myself having lunch here with my grandchildren. I also heard there is a great back patio for al fresco dining that would be perfect for families was the weather warms.
My only regret was that I did not have a chance to meet the Ten22 Executive Chef, Jay Veregge. The décor can be fabulous, the service impeccable, but it is the talent of the chef that makes the dining experience. I must confess, being a dyed-in-the-wool foodie, I was up at midnight the night before cyber-stalking him. Here is a little tidbit I found out about him:
Classical training at the French Academy of Culinary Arts, a degree in enology (winemaking), an apprenticeship in France, and a string of subsequent kitchen work, including his own restaurant, Le Bistro, in Lake Tahoe in the 1990s.
I was suitably impressed!
This was another satisfying experience with Dine Downtown. I think I have found another great restaurant for those times when I want to eat a little more upscale. I have also found my connection for my olive oil fix. I am looking forward to next year!
