It’s that time of year again, when we all get a little green with envy at the thought of the ever exclusive Tower Bridge Dinner. This year, the envy is at an all-time high because the one and only Jeremiah Towers is hosting! I know, hold the applause. Traditionally, each chef chosen from the community brings one dish to the table that is specially created, cooked and plated. But this year, the Tower Bridge Dinner is celebrating community and the dinner will be a totally collaborative effort by all chefs, for a menu that is as cohesive as it is inspired. Oh, you’re gluten-free and dairy-free, you say? No worries, the chefs have made sure this dinner is inclusive for all.
Although we didn’t make the guest list, we were lucky enough to partake in the next best thing, the menu preview event! Five courses of beautiful, local, inspired and above all, delicious food. P.s. for more photos head to our Instagram.
So let’s start with the bread. Delicious, flavorful, sesame encrusted bread. Called Epi Bread, this really should have been called EpiC bread because let me tell you, that’s what it was. Served with olive oil and cultured butter, because, of course.
Course 1: Roasted fresh local veggies. Oh boy, why doesn’t every meal start with an overflowing bounty of summer squash, cherry tomatoes, roasted eggplant and blistered peppers? I think we should all, as a society decide to start all meals this way from now on. Especially when it comes with a side of sesame seed gremolata.
Course 2: Sturgeon. This dish was my favorite dish we sampled. Smoked sturgeon with sturgeon skin chicharon, a lightly pickled lemon cucumber salad, and of course, caviar. The deep flavor of the fish paired amazingly with the briny caviar and rich Russian dressing. Spy that pink sauce in the background? Remoulade. Fantastic.
Course 3: Duck. Confit leg of duck and roasted breast was served with cardamom and black pepper roasted figs, mahgoney and black rice, and charred grapes in late harvest zinfandel. Chef Brad Checci described this dish as duck served with everything a duck would eat. I’m sold.
Course 4: Lamb. Braised shoulder of lamb with roasted cipollini onions, tomato confit, heirloom been gratin and salsa verde. I will admit, I’m not the biggest fan of lamb, but this dish might have converted me. The lamb was so tender and flavorful, and the roasted onions were the perfect counterpart.
Course 5: Cheese. Ricottage cheese with preserved peaches and lemon verbena, chicories and baked pears, preserved Meyer lemon vinaigrette, and tomato oil crackers. The Chef’s inspiration for this dish is the man himself, Jeremiah Towers. Jeremiah ate canned peaches and cottage cheese when he was a kid, so the chefs of the Tower Bridge dinner stepped it up a notch with a local ricotta and cottage cheese blend paired with preserved summer peaches. The best part, the cheese maker from Orland Farmstead Creamery will be on the bridge serving this iconic dessert.
And now for the main event…the chefs!
Food Delivery Apps Bring Sac’s Best Food Right to Your Door
by Harrison Reilly
Technology has changed the way we go about our daily lives, making simple tasks as easy as pressing a button. One of those tasks is ordering food. Tech startups have made it easier than ever to get fresh and prepared food delivered straight to your door through apps, websites and around the clock employees. Here are a few of the food delivery options you can use right here in Sacramento:
Postmates
The first food delivery app to launch in Sacramento, Postmates delivers food from many of the most popular places in Sacramento, usually in under an hour. The app will deliver food from chains such as Chipotle or Panda Express or local restaurants like Petra or The Coconut On T. Similar to Uber and Lyft, users can rate and tip their “Postmate” after receiving their order. Getting lunch at work or a late night snack has never been easier.
Caviar
An alternative to Postmates is Caviar. Caviar prides itself on delivering food from local restaurants, offering only what they consider the best restaurants, saying on their App Store page “we have standard pizza and noodle fare, but it’s the best pizza and noodles around.”
With more exotic options to choose from, Caviar is a great way to explore the diverse food selections in Sacramento. It’s not just for meals either, on Caviar you can order cookies from Goodie Tuchews or salami and cheese from Block Butcher Bar. For the Sacramento food lover, this app does wonders.
Amazon Prime Now
For those of you who don’t like grocery shopping, Amazon Prime Now is a dream come true. Available to Amazon Prime members, Amazon Prime Now offers select cities one-hour deliveries for $7.99 and two-hour deliveries for free. Now you can have produce, dairy and snacks delivered straight to your door in the time it takes to watch four episodes of The Office. But Prime Now delivers more than just food; you can also order electronics, toys and household items. Amazon continues to change how we shop for everyday things.
Beers In Sacramento
While not a delivery service, Beers In Sacramento is a useful app for the craft beer lovers in the city. The app provides a convenient pocket guide for the breweries and bars in the greater Sacramento area. It includes a map of breweries, an updating list of beer events, a tip calculator and offers special deals such as credit for Lyft.
With companies constantly innovating, it will be interesting to see what food apps will be developed even a year from now. For now though, there is plenty to choose from for the Sacramento foodie. So tonight, sit back, relax and let the best of Sacramento’s dining scene be delivered right to your door!
Farm to Office: May 19th
by Brandon Smith
Today’s finds feature a Capitol Mall Farmers’ Market classic and delicious in-season berries.
“Spicy Gyro” from Gyro 2 Go:
Fresh, local blackberries:
The Capitol Mall Farmers’ Market takes place every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., May through September.
Check back next Thursday for more of our favorite “Farm to Office” finds.
For Elegant Dining and Craft Brews, Blackbird Soars
By: Amanda Frew and Jake Ferguson
For those of us that work in downtown Sacramento, keeping us in the area after work hours is not easy to do with midtown’s many bars and restaurants luring us away after we leave the office. On a recent visit to Blackbird Kitchen + Beer Gallery though, two of us Sac Foodies found ourselves happily whiling away the evening without the slightest thought of our usual midtown haunts.
This February, Blackbird reopened its doors with a new identity. They now feature dishes starring local farm-fresh produce and incredibly fresh fish for their many raw offerings and to live up to their namesake as a “Beer Gallery,” Blackbird also boasts over 50 beers on tap from all over the world. It’s not often you have the chance to partake in upscale food with such a wide range of craft beers, but we highly suggest you visit Blackbird soon to do so. Below is a recap of our delicious evening.
Salmon Crudo with Pickled Shishito Peppers
This dish was full of flavor and was the perfect size for an appetizer. The tangy peppers cut the fattiness of the salmon and the crunch of the sea salt on top created and exceptional bite.
Dawson’s
I had the opportunity to hang out with Jason Poole, the executive chef of Dawson’s last week, and learned that his restaurant is anything but an industry cliché. Located at 1209 L Street, Dawson’s is the Hyatt Regency’s in-house steakhouse. But don’t call it a “hotel restaurant.” Dawson’s stands on its own.
“We’re not a hotel restaurant. We’re better than that stigma,” Poole says. “Yes, we have rooms here, but we’re so much more.”
Unlike some hotel chains that implement uniform menus across all locations, Poole has free rein over 99 percent of everything that comes out of his kitchen. That translates into a delicious menu chock full of local items like SunFed Ranch grass fed beef from Sutter County and asparagus and other fresh veggies from the Delta.
With fresh local ingredients, Poole’s Chef de Cuisine Michael Grande has a wide variety of foods to work with, and he does so masterfully. The grass-fed beef bone marrow appetizer we sampled was luscious and buttery. We ordered the SunFed Ranch grass-fed flat iron steak and a California corn-fed flat iron from Brandt Beef for comparison. Both were delicious and cooked just to perfection, with sides of crisp asparagus as well as lobster mac-and-cheese. All these great flavors were delivered with incredible service (arguably the best I’ve had in Sacramento) courtesy of our awesome waiter, Ardy.
Beyond the great wait staff and cuisine, one particular source of pride to Poole is what used to be a cascading hotel fountain that’s now brimming with a variety of edibles like fragrant lemon thyme and ripening tomatoes. This is Poole’s vegetable garden, retrofitted by the hotel just for his use. Poole’s favorite plant is a hardy pepper plant that he likes to call, the “Charlie Brown pepper tree.”
“It’s the lone survivor of the garden’s first iteration,” Poole admits with a smile, touching the leaves of the plant. “It took some tweaks to get it right.”
To get the ingredients needed for Dawson’s beyond what his garden and the Charlie Brown tree provide, Poole says the best local foods are always just a phone call away.
“In Sacramento, it’s so easy, you just have to put in a request for whatever it is you want and it’s here,” Poole says.
Easy sourcing makes it even more fun for Poole to participate in the abundance of Sacramento Farm-to-Fork celebrations he enjoys, like BLT Week in July, Offal Day in August, Farm-to-Fork Festival in September and Baconfest in January. Poole says the events are great opportunities for him to showcase what Dawson’s has to offer Sacramento foodies.
“We’re out in the community,” Poole says. “We’re letting people know we’re way beyond just a hotel restaurant.”
Dawson’s
BAR: 4:00pm – 10:00pm Monday – Friday
5:00pm – 10:00pm Saturday & Sunday
Happy Hour: Monday – Friday, 4:00pm – 6:00pm
DINING ROOM: 5:30pm – 10:00pm Daily