Happenings

Farm to Fork in the Spring!

February 19, 2020

By Marybeth Bizjak; Visit Sacramento

“Favas and fiddleheads and ramps, oh my!

Sacramento restaurants dish up the best of the season’s agricultural bounty.” 

HAWKS PUBLIC HOUSE 

This is the second eatery from Michael Fagnoni and Molly Hawks, the husband-and- wife team known for their upscale Granite Bay restaurant, Hawks. Located in East Sacramento, it’s a bit more casual than its Granite Bay cousin. The floors are cement, the ceiling is covered in rustic shiplap, and the wood tables are naked. Servers wear jeans and aprons while Led Zeppelin plays on the sound system. Fagnoni and Hawks designed the food to be rustic, with a heavy concentration on Mediterranean flavors. The deceptively simple menu features dishes like steak tartare and rigatoni with pork ragù. But a deeper dive uncovers a distinctly uncasual level of execution. For the steak tartare, hand-cut Wagyu beef gets dressed with tiny shavings of egg yolk that’s been cured in salt and sugar. The rigatoni features house-made pasta tubes, fresh mozzarella and a delicately crunchy garnish of crushed croutons and fennel pollen. Not even the burger is phoned in. The beef is ground (twice) in the walk-in fridge so it stays cold and firm, and the burger is served on a house-made brioche bun with hand-cut french fries. Spring brings an exciting crop of seasonal produce that ends up in dishes like tombo tuna with snap peas and nettle puree, or a lamb T-bone with red beet spatzel and favas. Hawks and Fagnoni are popular fixtures on Sacramento’s season- al-and-local scene, and in 2019, Molly Hawks served as one of the lead chefs at the annual farm-to-fork gala dinner on Tower Bridge. 1525 Alhambra Blvd.; (916) 588-4440; hawkspublichouse.com 

 

Link to full article: https://www.pageflipr.com/Sacramento-Visitors-Guide-spring.html

Leafy winter greens Kale and Bacon Salad, Hawk’s Provisions & Public House

January 6, 2020

Leafy winter greens

Kale and Bacon Salad, Hawk’s Provisions & Public House
By

This article was published on .
Hawks Provisions has a handful of fresh salads made-to-order for any lunchtime craving. The Kale and Bacon Salad ($9) is comforting and comes loaded with lush kale topped with cranberries, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, hard boiled egg, crunchy sunflower seeds and, of course, bacon. The leafy dish is served on a large plate accompanied by a thick and creamy lemon Parmesan dressing with crushed garlic. Try it without the bacon for a vegetarian meal. This tasty mix of kale and hearty protein will keep you full ’til dinner time.1525 Alhambra Blvd., hawkspublichouse.com.

Here’s Who’s Leading the 2019 Tower Bridge Dinner

September 20, 2019

The 2019 Tower Bridge Dinner will feature a star-studded cast of women who have made their mark on the culinary scene led by Suzette Gresham of San Francisco’s Acquerello, who has held a two-star rating from Michelin since 2015. Joining her will be Sacramento chefs Allyson Harvie of Ella Dining Room and Bar, Casey Shideler of Taylor’s Kitchen, Molly Hawks of Hawks Restaurant, and Tokiko Sawada of Binchoyaki.

“We’re thrilled to have Chef Gresham and such a talented, local team leading this year’s dinner,” said Visit Sacramento President & CEO Mike Testa. “Together, the team offers a combination of skill, experience and diverse expertise that will result in what I believe to be one of our most exciting experiences to date.”

The annual Tower Bridge Dinner remains one of the hottest tickets in town as it heads into its seventh year, and it serves not only as a marquee event that showcases what Sacramento’s culinary community can produce, but it also serves as the major fundraiser for the free two-day street festival that leads up to it and welcomed more than 100,000 people in 2018.

Suzette Gresham became only the third American woman to be honored with two Michelin stars in 2015, and her work in San Francisco’s Acquerello has seen it land a spot in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Top 100 Bay Area Restaurant List for the past 22 years. Ingredients are one of the central pillars in her kitchen, and she seeks to provide diners with an experience. Additionally, she has long focused on providing a workplace free of fear and intimidation, regardless of gender, and focuses on passing on her knowledge to the next generation, including passing 63 interns through her kitchen.

Allyson Harvie spent more than a decade honing her craft in San Francisco at restaurants including Absinthe, Ragazza and Salt House before coming to Sacramento and working as chef de cuisine at The Kitchen in 2017. She became chef de cuisine at Ella Dining Room and Bar in 2018 and continues to value her authentic relationships with farmers to bring quality seasonal meals to her restaurant. Ella Dining Room and Bar was one of 10 Sacramento restaurants honored with Michelin Plate awards in 2019.

Casey Shideler was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, and, knowing she wanted to cook professionally, went to culinary school in her home state, and moved to Sacramento five years ago. Working her way up in Sacramento’s culinary scene at restaurants such as Blackbird Kitchen and Bar, and Mulvaney’s Building & Loan, she took a keen interest in using farm-fresh ingredients. She became the Executive Chef at Taylor’s Kitchen in 2016, and in 2017 was one of the lead chefs for the Tower Bridge Dinner. In addition to cooking, Shideler is an avid runner and an outspoken leader in conversations around mental health challenges and women in restaurant kitchens.

Molly Hawks is the proprietress of Hawks Restaurant in Granite Bay and Hawks Provisions + Public House in Sacramento along with her husband, Michael Fagnoni. Hawks attended California Culinary Academy and worked at San Francisco’s LiveFire and The Village Pub. Hawks Restaurant opened in 2007 and has been a staple in the community since. Hawks Provisions + Public House opened in 2015 and focuses on quality seasonal fare with local ingredients.

Tokiko Sawada is a co-owner of Binchoyaki with more than 17 years in the culinary industry. Being surrounded at a young age by inspirational food during summers in Japan inspired her to pursue an education at le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena. Upon graduating, she served as a sous chef in several restaurants in Southern California before opening an upscale bakery and restaurant le Pain Quotidien. Along with husband Craig Takehara, she opened Binchoyaki in 2016 in Sacramento, serving Japanese barbecue and soul food. Binchoyaki was another of the 10 Sacramento restaurants awarded a Michelin Plate in 2019.

Link to full article: https://www.farmtofork.com/heres-whos-leading-the-2019-tower-bridge-dinner/

Ladie’s Night – Sacramento Magazine September 2019

September 20, 2019

Ladies’ Night

For the first time, female chefs will lead this year’s Tower Bridge Dinner.

By MaryBeth Bizjak, Sacramento Magazine September 2019

In Sacramento, as in the rest of the country, female chefs don’t get as much publicity and recognition as their male counterparts. In part, it’s a numbers game: Fewer than 7 percent of American restaurant kitchens are led by women, according to a 2014 Bloomberg study.

So in this era of Time’s Up and #MeToo, it’s fitting that the organizers of this year’s Tower Bridge Dinner would select an all-female lineup of chefs to lead the high-profile, sold-out event on Sept. 29. Four of the five chefs are local: Allyson Harvie of Ella, Casey Shideler of Taylor’s Kitchen, Molly Hawks of Hawks and Tokiko Sawada of Binchoyaki. The fifth, Suzette Gresham, is the chef/owner of San Francisco’s Acquerello, an Italian res- taurant with two Michelin stars.

Sawada, who owns Binchoyaki with her husband, first heard a rumor a few months ago that women would lead the bridge dinner. “I thought wow, that’s awesome, because this industry is so male dominated,” she says. Still, she was shocked when she received an email inviting her to be one of the lead chefs. “I was like oh my God, oh my God,” she recalls. “I had to read the email three or four times to make sure I was
reading it properly.”

In late spring, the four local chefs met with Gresham to discuss the theme and direction of the dinner. It’s traditionally a four-course meal, served family style at long tables laid end to end on Tower Bridge, which is closed to traffic for the event. The women de- cided on an Italian theme for the dinner, with dishes including smoked sturgeon crudo, squash “timballo” filled with tomato- basil pasta, and pork loin with figs.

The local chefs already knew each other through the networking group Women in Food & Ag and by working together at events like the Sacramento Food Film Festival. As women, they had to develop thick skins in the male-dominated restaurant business. “Back in the day, we had to be tougher than men to prove that we’re able to do the same job,” Sawada notes. Harvie agrees. “I think we all experienced hardships,” she says. “I have some pretty gnarly stories, but I don’t really talk about them.”

Bobbin Mulvaney, co-owner of Mulvaney’s B&L, has carried the banner for women in the restaurant industry for years. Men and women in the kitchen are different, she says. Men tend to be aggressive and sarcastic; women are nurturing and collaborative. “You can taste it in their food,” she notes. “Their food is thought-FUL. Full of thought. Women give so much attention and detail to their food.” With the Bridge Dinner, Mulvaney’s thrilled to see female chefs finally get some recognition. “They’ve been bass players in the band for a long time,” she says. “This is their opportunity to step out to the front of the stage.”

She looks forward to watching Sacramento’s male chefs play supporting roles at this year’s bridge dinner. “Stand in the background and let the women take all the accolades and bravos,” she says. “It’s a great opportunity for the men in town to walk in women’s shoes.”

SacramentomagazineSeptember 2019

 

The Essential Sacramento Restaurants

September 17, 2019

From iconic favorites to fresh newcomers, these are the restaurants that define Sacramento!

Hawks Public House

Hiding in plain sight along the border of Midtown and East Sac, Hawk’s Public House presents a fantastic menu of high-end American food and drink with a creative edge. Notable dishes on the seasonally-rotating menu include the gently smoky St Louis ribs, accompanied by grilled avocado, sweet summer peaches, and drizzled with an otherworldly coffee-bourbon glaze; or the generously-sized grilled salmon with sweet corn and summer beans, smothered with a sauce of cucumbers, dill, and Calabrian chilies. Smart Sacramentans mark their calendars for “Fried Chicken Mondays,” the only night of the week that Hawks makes their famous buttermilk fried chicken, served with honey mustard, mashed potatoes, and their face-slapping pickled jalapeño coleslaw. Don’t forget to check out the craft cocktail menu, which many consider to be one of the most respectable in the city.

by Stephanie Stiavetti Updated

Link to the full article: https://sf.eater.com/maps/best-restaurants-sacramento

St Louis Pork Ribs from Hawk’s Public House
St Louis Pork Ribs from Hawk’s Public House
Rachel Valley

New York Magazine

November 29, 2018

Explore the New California Cool in Sacramento

No longer sitting in the shadow of cool-kid cities like San Francisco and L.A., California’s capital is showing off some newfound swagger. Its booming craft beer and cocktail culture, an explosion of noteworthy restaurants, and thriving arts scene are all turning heads like never before. But come for a visit, and you’ll find that even with its recent popularity, Sac still sticks to its old-school roots with friendly locals, tree-lined streets that beckon for a bike ride, and lively, welcoming neighborhoods.

By Blane Bachelor

(more…)

Saveur Stories: Libations

October 24, 2018

Saveur Stories is a series all about the food we eat, the people who make it, and the journey between courses. Every great meal starts with a drink. Libations transform food experiences, exciting our palate in anticipation of what’s to come. This episode features our very own Mixmaster and Cocktail Enthusiast Zeph Horn, and the creativity behind the craft cocktails at Hawks Public House.

Directed | Edited by Greg Gearhart

Special thanks to Sac Food and Booze for being a part of this project!