Whatever the case, I'm a fan of the meal. In Sacramento, there are more than enough choices: Tower Cafe, The Porch, Fox and Goose, 33rd Street Bistro... and being someone that is always on the lookout for a great place to eat, and always game to try something new, a friend and I decided to try a place I'd never visited but she'd been to before...
...and had been rather disappointed.
I wasn't sure what to think about Bacon and Butter, a brunch and lunch place on 21st in Midtown Sacramento. My friend was disappointed with her last visit, but I'd also heard claims of deliciousness from others. I'd also heard negative comments about their service; a couple friends ended up walking out because no one had visited their table once they'd been seated.
I would now find out for myself.
It was starting to get busy when we arrived. The dining area is pretty sizable and includes a dining counter. It's a hip little joint that kind of reminds me of what you'd find in a trendy diner in the Bay Area. I guess this means that the decor and vibe of Bacon and Butter are pretty contemporary. It's an inviting and casual enough place.
The menu is pretty simple, which I like. Too many choices makes me take forever to decide what to eat. I decided to order the Steak and Fries, which comes with two eggs (ordered over medium), and "smashed" fries, with French onion gravy on the steak.
Whenever someone asks how I want my beef cooked I always check to see if the server knows where the beef is from. This accomplishes a few things: 1) I'm just curious, so I want to know, 2) I get to see how informed the servers are about the food they serve, and 3) if the beef is from a reliable source (ie. a known name ranch, from which I can assume the quality of the meat will be top-notch) I will order it medium rare. The server didn't know but did assure me they served quality beef, so I ordered medium rare. After taking our order, he took it upon himself to go ask where beef was from and upon his return informed me that it was from a ranch in Iowa (I forget the name. Bad, Phillip). He very quickly ran through a short list of why they chose the ranch they use - something about a low carbon footprint - and I accepted his answer.
Which leads me to this: Bacon and Butter makes a point of saying they rely heavily on locally sourced and sustainable ingredients, very California farm-to-table. I have no doubt that this is true for much of their product. But I also have no problem with eating non-local foods. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I don't think you always have to eat local foods, depending on what you want to eat (that's a whole other discussion). And I know that Bacon and Butter never said they only use ingredients from California. But perhaps if they're going promote and make a big deal of their use of California-sourced ingredients, they should also be transparent about the other ingredients they use, especially a main ingredient like beef. After all, there are plenty of high-quality cattle ranches in California, which they did not choose.
I figure this: You're proud to use local ingredients and be farm-to-fork, and that's great. Shouldn't you then be proud of all of your food sources? Hell, you want to get beef from Iowa because you really, really, really believe in what a particular ranch is doing and you love the quality of their product? Great! Awesome! But to leave that out and only promote your use of California-grown foods is just marketing and not transparency about your food to your customers.
But I digress.
Everything was delicious. Well-seasoned, sizable portions. The "smashed fries" were just fingerling potatoes that looked to be, well, fried. And they were some of the best fingerling potatoes I've had for breakfast: crispy and not overcooked (you know how it is, getting potatoes cooked to the point where the flesh is too soft and mealy). The French onion gravy was slightly sweet and was a nice counterpoint to the salty meat and fries.
That said, I do have a few nitpicky negatives.
First, they cut my steak. My first thought was a joke/comment one of my culinary school teachers made: "I'm not a child. I want to cut my own steak." Yes, that's a preference. But more importantly, cutting my steak before serving means means the slices cool faster. This was verified by my first bite: a single slice had already cooled. Luckily, the rest was very warm, thanks to the eggs sitting on top. Speaking of eggs, I had to cut my slices of beef anyway so I could eat them with eggs, so why slice it for me?
Second, the steak was cooked to slightly over medium rare to the point where there was no pink. Now, this in no way made the beef tough to eat. It was still very tender and it was damn delicious.
Third, the eggs were cooked over easy, not over medium. Again, it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the meal. The eggs were tasty.
So why even mention these negatives if they didn't detract from my enjoyment of the food? Aside from writing from a standpoint of delivering a well-rounded assessment?
Well, some people really care about this stuff to the point of sending the plate back (I did not). Also, I figure, with this caliber of a restaurant the price of $15.50 for steak and eggs kind of make the small technical things like these stick out. Everyone makes mistakes, and I'm okay with that. And cooking is hard. Cooking on the line is hard. I know this first hand. The cooks are doing their best to put out high quality food at a rapid rate to get their tickets done. So it's easy for me to sit at my table and notice these small things. But it's also easy for the price of a meal to make me notice these small things.
Oh, and the bed of arugula upon which our side of bacon sat? Unnecessary. It didn't make the plate look any better and it was kind of a waste of food (yeah, we could've eaten the dry, undressed arugula, but it just didn't belong as part of the meal).
Lastly, there was a small problem with the check; they almost over-charged me by 50 cents. Yes, 50 cents. A minuscule amount, to be sure, but it shows a lack of attention to detail.
Again, these are nitpicky things. That said, I'm going to end this review on a positive note:
The food was freaking delicious.
You should absolutely eat here. I didn't experience any customer service problems, so perhaps I was lucky in that regard. Our server was friendly and helpful and made us feel welcome. What he didn't know he went to find out. The food came relatively quickly for how full the dining room was. The ingredients were top-notch, prepared well, seasoned well, and I enjoyed the hell out of my brunch. Whatever teeny, tiny mistakes were made were overshadowed by the fact that I had a delicious meal.
 | I will go nowhere else for brunch. |
 | This makes the shortlist. |
 | Better than "hm... not bad," worse than "ermahgerd nom nom." |
 | Meh. Just... meh. |
 | Why did I eat here? |
Let's give Bacon and Butter 4 stars for now. I will return. Hopefully I will have the same service experience and taste the same delightful food as during my first visit. As long as they take great ingredients and focus on preparing them in a mouth-watering manner, I'll be back.
Bacon and Butter
1119 21st St.
Sacramento, CA 95816
916-346-4445
