Expect a Midtown restaurant scene shake-up this June, with a new Broderick Roadhouse and rebranded versions of Capital Dime and Trick Pony.
Broderick founder Chris Jarosz just inked a deal today to put a Broderick at the Wahoo’s Fish Tacos location at 1820 L Street, right across from Capital Dime.
“A large part of our demographic is Midtowners, and Broderick is really at a point that it’s so busy that the doors are falling off the place,” Jarosz said. “We really need to slow that Broderick down—it’s busier than the business can actually handle.”
And since Capital Dime’s and Broderick’s menus share pretty significant similarities—an emphasis on robust burgers, that pan-fried macaroni and cheese—it makes total sense to do away with Capital Dime.
Enter Saddle Rock. The name pays homage to one of Sacramento’s first-ever restaurants after the Goldrush, and Jarosz bills it as totally “Sacramento” restaurant with farm-to-fork fare that’s more upscale than Capital Dime but still remains casual. And it’ll be prepared by the widely celebrated young chef Kevin O’Connor, previously of Blackbird Kitchen & Bar. Jarosz admitted to normally controlling his restaurants’ culinary directions, but he’s giving O’Connor free reign at Saddle Rock.
Trick Pony, meanwhile, has been closed for a few weeks. An announcement on Facebook suggested it would be rebranded as Piccola Citta, an all-Italian osteria concept, in May. As it turns out, that was a little hasty. Trick Pony will actually be a fine dining establishment called Localis, which is Latin for local. Chef Christopher Barnum—most recently the executive chef at Cibo 7 in Roseville—will lead the kitchen. The cuisine won’t just be Italian, rather Mediterranean with potentially some Eastern European influences. Expect a Waterboy or Mulvaney’s B&L sort of fine dining experience with coursed meals.
“[O’Connor and Barnum] are guys I feel are really ready to break out as the top chefs in town,” Jarosz said. “I’m totally excited about the fact that these guys are going to help us take our business to the next level.”
Jarosz, though without the rest of team Broderick and outside of Midtown, is also opening an intriguing concept at the upcoming Milagro Centre in Carmichael. Milagro is expected to be similar to the Oxbow Public Market in Napa or the Ferry Building in San Francisco, and Jarosz’s restaurant The Patriot will likely be an anchor. It’ll feature a New York-style pizza and deli bar facing the stream of Milagro Centre shoppers, plus a full-scale, higher-end restaurant serving food that reminds him of his time living on the East Coast. That means lots of seafood. Somewhere in all that, Jarosz will also have a retail component with fish and charcuterie.
“It’s going to be a whole unique animal of its own,” he said.
