The area's first Tin Star restaurant opened in Elk Grove a couple of months ago, and is celebrating its grand opening June 21 with a benefit for Project R.I.D.E., which makes horseback rides available to people with handicaps. A second location is slated for Natomas, and No. 3 will likely go into Roseville, both planned for 2006. The Elk Grove location will offer free lunch from its modern Southwest menu for diners who donate to the charity. The restaurant is at 9624 Bruceville Road, on the corner with Elk Grove Boulevard. The casual quick-serve restaurant offers items such as burgers, ribs, fries and tacos, and has made a name for itself with original creations like cheeseburger tacos, barbecued chicken quesadillas, chipotle chicken and sweet and sour salmon. The first Tin Star opened in January 1999 in Dallas. The company has four corporate and seven franchised locations, plus the one in Elk Grove, totaling a dozen. Local franchisees Brad and Maria Bruckman are working on the second location, which will open early next year at Del Paso and Truxel roads in North Natomas. The Roseville location hasn't been nailed down yet. The Bruckmans are also considering Folsom and downtown, but those would be more than a year off. The couple is pretty familiar with the area: They were the area franchisers who opened all the Krispy Kreme doughnut joints in Northern California. Family Italian bound for Elk Grove: The Toccagino family is opening an Italian restaurant this summer in Elk Grove. Giovanni Toccagino owned and operated Palermo Ristorante Italiano for 14 years in Palo Alto. He sold it in March and joined his kids, who had moved to Elk Grove. The new Palermo Ristorante Italiano is going into 2,000 square feet in what used to be an Indian restaurant at 7632 Emerald Oak Drive, just off Elk Grove Boulevard. The Palo Alto restaurant featured white linens on the tables, but the Elk Grove incarnation will be a bit more subdued, says Oriana Toccagino, who is opening the restaurant along with her brother, Giovanni Jr., and their father. "We want families to come in often, not just once a year for a special occasion," she says. The menu is southern Italian, with a variety of seafood and shellfish specialties, as well as an assortment of pasta. Like the predecessor, it will be a family operation, and they will make the family's own recipes. The prices aren't fixed yet, but they'll likely hover around $9 for a basic pasta dish to $23 for a rack of lamb. More Italian downtown: Sofia Restaurant, at 11th and H streets in Sacramento, will hold its grand opening next week. The restaurant has been open for a couple of months, but now all the furniture and decorations have arrived, so it's time to celebrate. The new operators have also added outside seating on a new patio. The restaurant is in the space most recently occupied by Nine Doors. It has also been home to Grapes, Scorpio and the Bull Market. New general manager Lucas Lucas and head chef Giancarlo Bortolotti know about the building's past, but they plan on being in the location for a while. http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/retailing_restaurants/restaura... 2 of 2 6/21/2005 4:06 PM The restaurant's front door is recessed off H Street, which is one-way, so drivers have only the blink of an eye to spot the place once they pass the blocky back of the massive CalEPA building. "A lot of the best restaurants in the world are hidden," Lucas says. "That's OK. Food brings people back." Lunches tend toward salad and pasta dishes, with some focaccia sandwiches featuring prosciutto or grilled vegetables. Dinner has more substantial fare, served on linen tablecloths. 9 million bottles of beer on the wall: Several parties are looking hard at buying Sudwerk Restaurant & Brewery in Davis. Put on the market quietly at the end of last year, the land, building and brewery trio was priced at $7 million in February. There was interest early on for portions of the operation, but the owners want to sell off the whole thing, including the restaurant with 300 seats indoors and 200 seats outside, 2.7 acres, 210 parking spaces and the 28,000-square-foot building. The brewery and bottling plant can produce 26,800 barrels of beer annually, which is 9 million bottles. Contact Mark Anderson at
[email protected].
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