Appetizers: Pair fires up wholesale bakery and coffee roaster

In the growing gastronomic village called midtown Sacramento, even the alleys are starting to yield culinary surprises.

In the alley connecting 17th and 18th streets between Capitol Avenue and L Street, Jason Griest and Tim Jordan have converted a spare old warehouse into Old Soul Co., a combination bakery and coffee roaster.

It's a utilitarian but snazzy space with an espresso island in the middle of the room, the coffee roaster in one corner, convection ovens in another, a cluster of couches off to one side and abstract art on the brick walls.

It's a tidy spot, but don't stop by expecting to enjoy a latte and a blueberry muffin. The roll-up door may be open and the aromas inviting, but Old Soul Co. is strictly wholesale.

Griest and Jordan, however, encouraged by neighborhood interest in what they are up to and by early reaction to their baked goods and coffees among restaurateurs and grocers, are scouting the area for a possible retail outlet.

A native Sacramentan, Jordan was a printer for more than 20 years before realizing that baking is his passion. He's learning on the job, though he's being tutored by one of the Sacramento area's more highly regarded bakers, Casey Hayden.

(Hayden, who has prepared desserts for several restaurants as well as his own store, is back from Eastern Europe, where he'd signed on with Habitat for Humanity to help build houses in Armenia and Poland. He's resumed his culinary career as a consultant to the Leland Stanford Mansion Foundation and is a candidate to become the mansion's event director, coordinating soirees at the historic residence for the governor and legislators.)

Griest, from Pittsburgh, has been a presence on the local coffeehouse scene for years, most notably as a former partner of Naked Lounge at 15th and Q streets. He tends the roaster and coordinates Monday coffee "cuppings" -- or tastings -- for prospective clients who want to learn more about coffee and might want to come up with their own custom blend.

So far, Old Soul Co. coffees are being served and sold at Taylors Market and are being poured by nearby restaurants Mulvaney's Building & Loan and 58 Degrees and Holding Co., and at the coffeehouses Coffee Garden, Java Lounge and Temple. Its breads are just starting to enter the market, with Tortugas picking up its rolls for the Mexican sandwiches called tortas.

Griest came up with the name Old Soul to evoke a sense of the Old World craftsmanship the two want their artisan products to represent.

One step forward, two back

The continued growth of midtown's dining village isn't without occasional loss. Two restaurants are closing, but they're in such choice locations they aren't likely to remain empty for long:

• Zen Toro Japanese Bistro and Sushi Bar, a fixture on the corner of 15th and I streets for five years, is to close at the end of August. Owner-chef Masa Nishiyama says he's giving up the site to concentrate on a Davis branch of Zen Toro he opened in January.

"With two restaurants I can't provide the quality I want to provide," Nishiyama says. "I love Davis so much, and handling two restaurants is pretty tough for me to do; I'm getting older."

The Davis restaurant, at 132 E St., seats just 42 compared with the nearly 80 he can accommodate at the Sacramento site, but business started fast and has remained brisk even during the university's summer break, he notes.

He also will give up the sushi stand he's manned at Arco Arena during the Kings season.

• Joey B's, an ambitious sports bar at Capitol Avenue and 17th Street, is to close this week, probably Friday, says manager Julie Reynolds.

The closure may be brief. Joey B's, on the ground floor of the state Department of Health Services building, has been operated by vendor Frank Rompal Jr. through the business enterprises program of the state Department of Rehabilitation.

The intent of the program is to provide the blind with remunerative employment by operating cafeterias, vending machines, coffee kiosks and the like in state buildings. Under the provisions of the program, however, a vendor can operate just one "permanent" facility at a time, explains Marta Bortner, an information officer with the Department of Rehabilitation.

Rompal also operates another permanent business at the U.S. Army's Fort Irwin near Barstow, so he is giving up Joey B's.

Officials of the Business Enterprises Program will seek bids to run the restaurant from prospective vendors until Aug. 18. They hope to have the restaurant operating again by Oct. 1.

Tasting menu at Biba

Including today, people who like a little celebration and history with their Italian food have just four more nights to take advantage of a special tasting menu at the midtown Sacramento restaurant Biba.

To recognize the restaurant's 20th anniversary, owner Biba Caggiano is overseeing a supplemental tasting menu made up of 10 popular dishes from the first three years the place was open.

Her opening menu, for example, included a salad of green and yellow tomatoes with red onion and fresh basil, and a dessert of baked peach with a zabaglione laced with Amaretto. We had those dishes the first week Biba was open two decades ago and we had them again the other evening -- paying the same prices we paid 20 years ago, $3.50 each -- another twist to the birthday party that ends Saturday night.

Because the anniversary menu is a tasting menu, portions are smaller than they were 20 years ago, but still generous enough for diners to easily get their fill for a total outlay that is a bargain.

Other dishes we sampled from the menu included juicy breaded lamb chops with sweet-and-sour onions ($13.75), a rich toss of penne with prosciutto, shallots, tomatoes and peas ($8.75), and cold veal sliced as thin as paper, topped with a marvelous sauce of mayonnaise, capers and tuna ($6).

Because several diners these days seem a bit more interested in variety when they dine out, and a little less insistent on getting massive servings, the time may be right for Caggiano to continue this party with a permanent multicourse, fixed-price tasting menu.

If it happens, however, it may not happen soon. First, Caggiano has to finish preparing for a tour across the country to promote her eighth cookbook, to be published in September.

About the writer:

• Reach The Bee's Mike Dunne at (916) 321-1143 or mdunne@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/dunne.