talking to some of the local restaurateurs
like Brad Cecchi at Canon that came
from a Michelin-starred restaurant, it
attracts people to your restaurant. It’s
that credibility.”
Testa says he expects dozens of local
restaurants to be included in the guide,
even if potentially none earn a star. Testa
sold Michelin on the region’s high-end
farm-to-fork credentials, playing up the
fact that many of the top San Francisco
restaurants source produce from the
Sacramento area. “Ninety-nine percent
of the country’s sushi rice is coming out
of Sacramento, 80 percent of the nation’s
domestic caviar is coming out of Sacra-
mento. It’s more than just growing as-
paragus,” Testa says. “We are growing a
lot of the high-end products that are be-
ing utilized across the country.”
Michelin took the bait, and Visit Cal-
ifornia came onboard when the concept
of a statewide guide was broached, but
Testa ultimately gives all the credit to
the maturing Sacramento restaurant
scene. “We’ve got that end-user product
that fits with the production that hap-
pens already in this region,” he says. “I’m
optimistic we’ve got some pretty talent-
ed chefs in this market that will achieve
a star.”
Starred restaurants tend to cater to
the ultra-elite, especially those that earn
multiple Michelin stars. In the 2019 Mi-
chelin Guide, a third star was awarded to
Atelier Crenn, an eight-seat San Francis-
co restaurant with $335 tasting menus.
“At its root, it’s an old French book,”
says Pajo Bruich, a Sacramento native
and former executive chef at Bourbon
Steak San Francisco, which is owned by
multi-Michelin winner Michael Mina. “It
all ties back to a very old-school French
culture rooted in fine dining.”
When Bruich was hired in 2012 as
executive chef at the now-closed Eno-
tria Restaurant & Wine Bar on Del Paso
Boulevard, he made a conscious and ag-
gressive attempt to earn the city’s first
Michelin star. The restaurant habitually
struggled to draw diners away from the
grid, and Bruich hoped that Michelin
star power would make the difference.
“It was a personal and professional
goal that I held dear,” he says. “I could
not afford to throw all caution to the
wind, move to San Francisco and chase
that, so I was going to try to create it in
my own backyard.”
Bruich hired a sommelier from the
three-star The French Laundry, brought
in a manager from the three-star The
Restaurant at Meadowood, and em-
ployed a public relations firm experi-
enced in promoting three-star restau-
rants. Numerous media events were held
in San Francisco and at Enotria, and
Bruich and his team kept in contact with
the Michelin people through email and
social media. However, even though the
restaurant received rave reviews, no star
was awarded, and the public support
never emerged.
“We went for about two years, and
then people just weren’t getting it,” says
industry veteran Kathi Riley Smith, who
hired Bruich at Enotria while working
there as a consultant. “It’s a deep com-
mitment to go after a Michelin star. You
need an owner that’s willing to lose
money for years while you’re building
that reputation.”
The lack of a vast moneyed elite,
especially when compared to the Bay
Area or Los Angeles, is one of the great-
est roadblocks to Sacramento getting a
The seared ahi tuna with black garlic,
mustard, chimichurri and ginger at Canon.
What Sacramento area
restaurants do you consider
worthy of a Michelin star?
TWEET US @COMSTOCKSMAG.
April 2019 | comstocksmag.com
31