0920_September Comstock's Magazine September 2020 | Page 30

TASTE
Jess Milbourn opened Devil May Care
Ice Cream & Frozen Treats in 2016 in
the Washington District.
pizza, and peanut butter and jelly. “The
landlords want the food to be unique,”
Milbourn says. “They’re not pushing for
your Applebee’s or things like that.”
Devil May Care’s West Sacramento
location was previously a
Greek deli and, before that, a Subway
sandwich shop. Seeing Third Street
developing all the way up to Sutter
Health Park (née Raley Field), Milbourn
knew he wanted to be a part
of it. He concedes he still has doubts
about if what he’s doing can work.
“This was a trial balloon kind of
thing,” Milbourn says. “For me, it wasn’t,
‘Oh, my God, this is the perfect space
to go and open an ice cream shop.’
It was like, ‘I generally like the area,
and I could see some other businesses
moving in.’” His business has
done well enough that he is opening
another location in Sacramento.
Four doors from Milbourn, Steve
Tatterson and a former business partner
opened La Crosta in 2018 in an old liquor
store. Tatterson, a former co-owner
of The Rind, a high-end cheese restaurant
in Midtown Sacramento, attempted
a similar approach with La Crosta.
“We thought that might be something
that people would really enjoy,
and it didn’t work as well as we would’ve
liked it to,” Tatterson says. “I think that
West Sac appreciates its comfort food
more so than the fine-dining piece.”
Tatterson teamed with Jarosz earlier
this year and is now working on rebranding
La Crosta. They plan to add a bottle
shop to the pizzeria and rename it Anonimo,
which is Italian for “anonymous” and
a tribute to watchmakers in that country
who plied their craft with a low profile.
“When I heard the story, I was like,
‘What a great name for a restaurant,’ to
really be about the craft of the food and
not to worry about who owns it or who the
chef is,” Jarosz says. “It’s just people coming
together to make an amazing thing.”
Then there’s Delgado, a longtime
friend of Jarosz’s who would talk with him
about West Sacramento while they were
board members of the California Restaurant
Association. “I’ve always been truly
excited to be part of West Sacramento,”
Delgado says. “’Cause I’ve always seen
that West Sacramento thinking was similar
to my thinking, and, you know, they want
to develop … a new style of a city.”
Work remains, though. These are
challenging times for restaurateurs,
who’ve been forced to rapidly transition
operations due to COVID-19. “We’re in the
space in between right now,” Jarosz says.
The city continues to work on
improvements to the neighborhood,
including the I Street Bridge conversion
and replacement. “Additional river
crossings are very important for supporting
sustainable development and
walkable development,” Jacobson says.
Jarosz is hopeful. “I always say about
Broderick in West Sac, as many of the
mistakes as I’ve made and as hard as it’s
been, Broderick has always been this weed
that somehow finds its way back out of
the cracks and grows and flowers again,”
Jarosz says. “I feel like that’s the Broderick
and Washington neighborhood. It’s been
through tough times for many, many years.
But it just seems to keep finding its way.”
Graham Womack is a freelance writer
based in Sacramento. His work has
appeared in a variety of publications,
including the San Francisco Chronicle, The
Sacramento Bee, and Sacramento News &
Review. On Twitter @grahamdude.
30 comstocksmag.com | September 2020