FOOD
n the months before the May opening of his Italian restaurant Mattone Ristorante in East Sacramento , June Chang fielded a lot of hopeful questions .
Some neighbors approached him while he worked outside to ask if he would be reopening Español , the 97-yearold restaurant founded in a downtown Basque boarding house , which closed in 1952 . Español , known for its large neon sign , served Italian food in the building on Folsom Boulevard from 1965 until it closed last August . Others recognized him as the former bartender of Biba , the Midtown Sacramento restaurant that shuttered in May 2020 . They asked if he planned to resurrect the legacy of founder Biba Caggiano , who died in 2019 after three decades as a major influence on Sacramento ’ s food scene .
The answer to both is no , says Chang . He ’ s kept a few of Español ’ s design elements , like the glass panel saved from one of its former homes , the Commercial Hotel , but he won ’ t be serving the red-saucejoint staples that Español was known for : fried ravioli , spaghetti with golf ball-sized meatballs , and minestrone doled out in plastic tureens . He ’ s also given the aging interior a thorough overhaul . Gone are the checkered tablecloths and wood panels , replaced with gleaming white linen and cream-colored paint .
As for Biba , Chang has hired some former employees and put a few of Caggiano ’ s signature dishes on the menu . His chef , Karel Mulac , adheres to the farm-fresh , seasonal philosophy that defined Caggiano ’ s cooking . But “ if Biba was a book , then the book ’ s completed and well-written and finished ,” Chang says . “ My restaurant , Mattone , it ’ s not a continuation or chapter two of Biba . It ’ s not the second book of Biba . It ’ s something completely new .” ( Caggiano ’ s heirs — her husband and their daughters — disagree . Their corporation Biba Restaurant , Inc . filed a complaint in Sacramento County Superior Court June 7 that accused Mattone Ristorante of false designation of association , trademark infringement , trademark dilution , false advertising , and violation of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act . “ There ’ s absolutely zero merit to the claim from top to bottom ,” says Chang ’ s lawyer , Larry Kazanjian , noting that the complaint hinges on media depictions of Mattone and that claiming classic Italian recipes are trade secrets would “ shut down all Italian restaurants in Sacramento .”)
Chang is one of several food entrepreneurs bringing new concepts to Capital Region restaurant and bar spaces that went dark in 2020 . Español and Biba are part of a crowd : More than 110,000 restaurants closed temporarily or permanently in the United States last year , and sales plummeted $ 240 billion below predicted levels , according to the National Restaurant Association . That includes at least 50 permanent closures in the Sacramento area , according to lists maintained by the Sacramento Bee .
Earlier in the pandemic , some market analysts predicted that chain restaurants , long covetous of legacy real estate , would rush in to fill the vacuum left open by independent closures . But if Mattone and other recent and upcoming openings are any indicator , that has yet to take place in the Capital Region . ( In fact , the opposite may be happening . At least three local businesses — Scorpio Coffee in Midtown Sacramento , Steve ’ s Pizza in East Sacramento and Pachamama Coffee Cooperative in Davis — opened in former Subway locations in 2020 .)
National statistics suggest that restaurant openings elsewhere in the country are buoyed by the same tide . In the last quarter of 2020 , 18,207 new food businesses were listed on Yelp , just 4 percent less than were listed in the last quarter of 2019 ,
June Chang , the owner of Mattone Ristorante , was the bartender of the Midtown Sacramento restaurant Biba until it closed in May 2020 .
according to the company ’ s year-end economic average report .
No statistics can cover up the scar that the coronavirus pandemic and other 2020 events left on the Capital Region ’ s hospitality industry . Some of Sacramento ’ s oldest and most beloved restaurants and bars closed last year — special-occasion spots , late-night haunts and lunch-hour standbys alike . Though every shuttered business will be missed , a new generation of entrepreneurs can now add their chapter to the region ’ s food history .
A ‘ restaurant bloodbath ’ starts to heal
The region ’ s restaurant woes began well before the pandemic : 2020 opened with a spate of high-profile restaurant closures that seemed to bode the end of an era for the local food scene . Between Dec . 15 , 2019 and Jan . 8 , 2020 , at least a dozen Capital Region restaurants announced plans to close , including Pluto ’ s , a sandwich shop that served hungry students in downtown Davis for 19 years ; Jim-Denny ’ s , a downtown Sacramento diner pushing its 86th birthday ; and Mother , a vegetarian spot downtown that got a Bib Gourmand in Michelin ’ s first guide to Sacramento . A Sacramento Bee headline called the closures a “ restaurant bloodbath ” — an ominous portent for the rest of the year .
These were restaurants that helped develop Sacramento ’ s reputation as America ’ s Farm-to-Fork Capital , drawing restaurant reviewers from Michelin and Eater as well as new residents and investors . But when a city receives positive
60 comstocksmag . com | July 2021