{"id":250451,"date":"2026-04-03T19:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/250451\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T19:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:26:13","slug":"magpie-cafe-celebrates-21st-anniversary-in-midtown-sacramento","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/250451\/","title":{"rendered":"Magpie Cafe celebrates 21st anniversary in midtown Sacramento"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BLT<\/p>\n

BLT sliders were one of the bites served at Magpie Cafe\u2019s in Sacramento, CA on Wed., April 1. The farm-to-fork restaurant celebrated its 21st anniversary with an event serving free food to locals and industry folk.<\/p>\n

Sean Timberlake<\/p>\n

stimberlake@sacbee.com<\/p>\n

Openings & Closings<\/p>\n

Popular Bay Area-based pizza restaurant Slice House by Tony Gemignani opens its Granite Bay location at 4060 Douglas Blvd. tomorrow at 11 a.m<\/a>. Gemignani will make a special appearance, Slice House hats will be given to the first 50 guests and customers can enter a raffle for the chance to win free pizza for one year.<\/p>\n

Following a five-year hiatus, poke and sushi burrito concept Make Fish Market reopened at their midtown location<\/a> at 1801 L St.<\/p>\n

After 17 years, Black Bear Diner shuttered its Davis location<\/a>. Seven other regional locations remain open.<\/p>\n

Two Bay Area Denny\u2019s franchisees are looking to bring three locations of Florida-based Keke\u2019s Breakfast Cafe, a subsidiary of Denny\u2019s, to the Sacramento region.<\/p>\n

Midtown\u2019s Magpie Cafe celebrated its coming of age in style \"A A server passes saffron risotto aranchini as a bite at Magpie Cafe\u2019s in Sacramento, CA on Wed., April 1. The farm-to-fork restaurant celebrated its 21st anniversary, on April 1, 2026, with an event serving free food to locals and industry folk. Sean Timberlake stimberlake@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

This past Wednesday, April 1, farm-to-fork restaurant Magpie Cafe hosted a special event for their 21st anniversary in business. It was a drop-in event, with passed bites for all who came.<\/p>\n

Co-owners Janel Inouye and Ed Roehr \u2014 the latter in his signature porkpie hat \u2014 worked the room, shaking hands, talking to customers, friends and industry folk who came to raise a glass to one of Sacramento\u2019s most esteemed eateries. A DJ was spinning Gen X-friendly tunes.<\/p>\n

Roehr told chef Brian Hawley he could serve whatever he wanted, figuring he might serve up just some sliders and fries. Hawley took the reins and delivered a cavalcade of tapas-style bites adapted from their main menu that came out in great lashings of food.<\/p>\n

We had the foresight to sit near the kitchen, so we were more or less assaulted with dishes for the first 20 minutes or so.<\/p>\n

Smoky BLT sliders were first to come out; how are they getting such good tomatoes in early April?<\/p>\n

A springy skewer with artichoke, charred green onion, asparagus and Ione\u2019s PT Ranch sausage<\/a>. PT Ranch\u2019s meat also starred in another skewer, this time with pork belly saddling a soft, citrusy confit kumquat.<\/p>\n

\"A A server passes skewers with artichoke, charred green onion, asparagus and PT Ranch pork sausage as a bite at Magpie Cafe\u2019s in Sacramento, CA on Wed., April 1. The farm-to-fork restaurant celebrated its 21st anniversary with an event serving free food to locals and industry folk. Sean Timberlake stimberlake@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Crisp saffron risotto mini arancini arrived in dollops of aioli. Another fried bite, a cauliflower fritter, sported dabs of bright chutney.<\/p>\n

Crostini are a passed hors d\u2019oeuvre mainstay. One was topped with tender steak tartare, while another conveyed a briny white anchovy on a smear of aioli.<\/p>\n

\"A A server passes Sardine crostini as a bite at Magpie Cafe\u2019s in Sacramento. The farm-to-fork restaurant celebrated its 21st anniversary, on April 1, 2026, with an event serving free food to locals and industry folk. Sean Timberlake stimberlake@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

The final bite we managed to taste, and we could barely consume another bite, was a \u201cpotato salad\u201d of fried gnocchi dribbled with a bright sauce gribiche.<\/p>\n

Drinks were not free, but we weren\u2019t complaining. I enjoyed a Farmer\u2019s Friend ($14), a refreshing cocktail of Meyer lemon-sage shrub, bourbon and ginger beer, followed by a glass of Haarmeyer\u2019s Field Blend ($12), a bone-dry blush of a ros\u00e9 made from 52 distinct varieties from a single vineyard.<\/p>\n

In the end, we left happily sated and buzzing with good vibes. Magpie has long been on my shortlist of favorite restaurants, and it remains firmly seated there.<\/p>\n

Magpie Cafe<\/p>\n

Address: 1601 16th St., midtown<\/p>\n

Hours: 4:30-9 p.m. Tuesdays & Wednesdays; 4:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. Thursdays; 12 p.m.- 10 p.m. Fridays & Saturdays; 12 p.m. – 9 p.m. Sundays; closed Mondays<\/p>\n

Phone: 916-452-7594<\/p>\n

Website: magpiecafe.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Vegetarian options: A healthy smattering of options throughout their regular menu<\/p>\n

Noise level: Medium-loud<\/p>\n

Loading\u2026<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Sean Timberlake<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Sean Timberlake is the food and dining reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He has been writing professionally for nearly 30 years, and about food for 20. A variety of well-known outlets have published his work, including Food Network, Cooking Channel, CNN, Sunset Magazine and SF Weekly.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BLT sliders were one of the bites served at Magpie Cafe\u2019s in Sacramento, CA on Wed., April 1.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-250451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}