Behind it is Deneb Williams, the chef and restaurateur who has been cooking in Sacramento since 2007, first at the Firehouse and then at Allora<\/a>, the Michelin-recognized Italian restaurant he opened in East Sacramento in 2018. He is opening Aiona with his wife and partner Elizabeth-Rose Mandalou, an advanced sommelier and co-owner who helped design both the wine program and the room itself.<\/p>\n \t\tSign Up for the City of Treats Newsletter<\/p>\n Get the latest Sacramento food news from Benjy Egel in City of Treats \u2014 delivered every Tuesday.<\/p>\n Asked what Aiona means, Williams pointed to Greek mythology.<\/p>\n \u201cAion is the Greek god of cyclical time and rebirth, often linked with the harvest or the renewal of spring,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mandalou is Greek, and so is Angelo Tsakopoulos, the owner of the building. The name, the space, the timing \u2014 it all came together.<\/p>\n Fire as a philosophy<\/p>\n The heart of the restaurant is a central charcoal- and wood-fired\u00a0 grill, and Williams is deliberate about why. At home on summer weekends, he\u2019s grilling. On Thanksgiving, he\u2019s cooking the turkey on the barbecue. Executive Chef Lee Hinton, who has worked alongside Williams at Allora for eight years, shares the instinct. He hikes into the mountains, builds fires at 10,000 feet and cooks for friends in the snow. When the two started talking about what their next restaurant would be, Williams said, they were both drawn to fire.<\/p>\n They traveled to Spain together to visit the Mibrasa factory (Aiona has one of the 50 grills the company makes each year), spent three days wandering the fish markets of Barcelona and cooked with the chefs there. The experience was research as much as inspiration.<\/p>\n \u201cThe food of the Mediterranean is very much iconically linked to cooking on charcoal and wood,\u201d Hinton said. \u201cThat communal sense of, \u2018we\u2019re going to all share, break bread, become friends and drink wine in this very communal experience.\u2019 You\u2019re not separated from the people next to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Hinton describes the restaurant experience as a chance to recreate the feeling of a holiday table, where you order everything and share it with people you haven\u2019t seen in months.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s order three bistecas, two roasted chickens and three branzinos,\u201d Williams added. \u201cAnd then all of our side dishes.\u201d<\/p>\n The menu<\/a> reflects that. Williams calls the main dishes \u201cplates from the fire\u201d \u2014 protein-centered preparations designed to be shared and paired with eight rotating sides. Right now the sides include gigante beans, roasted beets with farmer\u2019s cheese, balsamic-glazed carrots with dukkah, papas bravas and asparagus grown in the Sacramento Delta.<\/p>\n If you want a more intimate approach with dinner coursed out, or a plate of pasta and a glass of wine solo at the bar, Aiona accommodates that, too.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not fussy tweezer food,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe have that restaurant. This is not that.\u201d<\/p>\n The anchor dish is the wood-roasted branzino. Hinton calls it the most direct expression of what the restaurant is trying to do. The fish comes with a pil pil sauce, a Basque preparation Hinton and Williams first encountered in Spain. Fish bones and skin are infused into olive oil with toasted chili and garlic, then emulsified into a sauce with the texture of hollandaise.<\/p>\n \u201cGrilled fish over charcoal is about the best possible expression of that kind of thing you can have,\u201d Hinton said. \u201cIt\u2019s just iconically Mediterranean.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooking from scratch<\/p>\n The slow-food philosophy Williams describes is more a marketing term than a production method \u2014 it\u2019s how good chefs have always cooked. Their rotisserie chicken is organic Mary\u2019s chicken, wet-brined for 24 hours, rubbed with toum, a Lebanese garlic marinade, hung on racks for a day and a half, and then roasted. The 72-hour short rib is sous vide at 130 degrees for three days. Every stock, every sauce and every pastry is made from scratch.<\/p>\n \u201cSlow food is really just about cooking with the season,\u201d Williams said. \u201cSlowing down.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mediterranean menu does not fuse cuisines so much as let them coexist. The restaurant\u2019s \u201ckalamari\u201d is Greek, served with skordalia (Greek garlicky sauce) and fried lemon. The mussels are Spanish, with chorizo, piquillo and focaccia. The pasta is Italian. Hinton handles much of the North African and Lebanese influence \u2014 chermoula (herb-and-spice marinade) on the short rib, lamb arayes (grilled sandwiches) on pita, harissa throughout.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t do fusion,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI do dishes that are representative of that culture.\u201d<\/p>\n The room and the wine<\/p>\n The restaurant itself is a statement. Williams worked with interior designer Emily McCuiston and Mandalou over several months, the three of them spreading fabric swatches, dish samples and material references across every surface of the Williams home. <\/p>\n They went for texture and warmth \u2014 coral banquettes, wood paneling and a large-scale mural by Los Angeles artist Mike Willcox, known for his art deco work rooted in ancient Greek imagery. The ceilings are high, a wraparound bar runs through the space, the open kitchen puts the fire front and center and a full view of the wine cellar is visible from the dining room. A private dining room sits off to the side for larger groups, and a heated covered patio is built for year-round use.<\/p>\n The wine program is Mandalou\u2019s. She is one of a small number of advanced sommeliers in Sacramento and, according to Williams, the only one actively working the floor at her own restaurant. The menu runs from a $45 bottle to a $6,500 one, organized by grape variety with regions listed alongside so guests can navigate it without assistance.<\/p>\n \u201cI want people to be able to look at the wine list and if they don\u2019t want to talk to me, can still select the wine,\u201d Mandalou said.<\/p>\n Her current pairing of note is a Cuv\u00e9e Monsignori Assyrtiko from Santorini, made from ungrafted vines over 200 years old.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s briny and salty and like lemon peel,\u201d she said. \u201cSuper expressive and dry with really bracing acidity.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked what she would pair it with, she pointed to the branzino.<\/p>\n K Street and what comes next<\/p>\n On the question of K Street and its long struggle to find its footing, Williams points out that Aiona is technically at the corner of 13th and K, bookended by the Sheraton Grand and the Hyatt Regency, across from the convention center and the performing arts center, next door to the Esquire IMAX Theatre. The restaurant already has a booking for an 80-person corporate happy hour on the patio, where Brett Walker, a bartender who has been with the team for six years, will be running the cocktail program. Valet parking will be available for guests who find downtown parking a deterrent.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, this location is about captive audience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Williams sees the stretch immediately around Aiona as already strong. Ella<\/a>, Mayahuel<\/a> and Brasserie du Monde<\/a> are neighbors. Brasserie draws him in twice a week. Ella, he said, is the business model he hopes to emulate \u2014 not in style but in longevity and consistency. What he wants for the broader corridor is patience. The railyards will eventually fill in what\u2019s between DOCO and K Street.<\/p>\n Not chasing awards<\/p>\n Williams has been cooking in Sacramento for 19 years. He is not chasing Michelin at Aiona, just as he wasn\u2019t chasing it at Allora.<\/p>\n \u201cI think chasing awards is a fool\u2019s errand,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019d be kind of like a musician writing a song that they think people want to listen to.\u201d<\/p>\n He is more focused on what\u2019s happening around him in Sacramento and where Aiona fits into it.<\/p>\n \u201cI tell you what is inspiring is so many other people in the city cooking in such an inspired way,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like the rising tide raises all boats.\u201d<\/p>\n Aiona<\/p>\n Address: 1213 K St., Sacramento<\/p>\n Phone: (916) 790-3473<\/p>\n![\"Deneb](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC06562-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Deneb Williams, the owner of Aiona, on April 16, 2026. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"72](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC06621-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
The 72-hour short rib is sous vide at 130 degrees for three days at Aiona. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Chef](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC06535-1024x577.jpg.webp.webp\")
A chef prepares the wood-roasted branzino dish at Aiona. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Dishes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC06671-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Dishes at Aiona, including the wood-roasted branzino in the center. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Carpaccio](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC06583-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Carpaccio dish at Aiona. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Lamb](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC06653-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Lamb souvlaki dish at Aiona. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Aiona](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC06495-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
The interior of Aiona on 1213 K Street in Sacramento on April 16, 2026. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Aiona](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC06478-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Aiona on 1213 K Street in Sacramento on April 16, 2026. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Chefs](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC06514-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Deneb Williams, third from left, poses with chefs at Aiona on April 16, 2026. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n