“Review: Casa Garden Restaurant an overlooked gem” |
| Review: Casa Garden Restaurant an overlooked gem Posted: 11 Dec 2010 11:22 PM PST One day in early December, we walked in, said hello, sat down, looked around, glanced through the window toward the lovely garden, ordered lunch … and noticed something practically criminal: We were the only customers there. Even with all the distractions and frayed nerves that come with the holiday season, it was a shame to see Casa Garden Restaurant so quiet, so overlooked. Maybe we can do something about that, for the food is reliably impressive, the service is charming, the room has a chaletlike elegance and, best of all, the tips go toward making the world a better place. This week's focus strays somewhat from critiquing restaurants that vie for your business. Instead, it's a moment to encourage you to visit – and revisit – a place that stands for the best of what Sacramento can be. And if you fancy yourself a big tipper, this is where you can really strut your stuff. What better time than the holiday season to point you toward a restaurant that marries dining, volunteerism and charity? Casa Garden started in 1973, spearheaded by a woman named Janet Schei. The concept was simple: Keep the number of paid employees to a minimum; recruit a battery of volunteers to chop, cook, serve and clean; then turn over all the tips to the Sacramento Children's Home next door along Sutterville Road. I'm told there were naysayers. This pie-in-the-sky idea was supposed to fail, and fast. Nearly $3 million in donations later, Casa Garden is a local institution, though an often unsung one. It does catering, hosts weddings and handles meetings of all kinds. Today, we will look at the easiest way to support this restaurant – by visiting for its very appealing lunch. Without dessert, all the lunches we encountered cost $9.25. When you add dessert, beverage and a standard gratuity, it comes to $16.10, though guests are free to tip as much as they like. Great idea, excellent price and richly rewarding to help children in need. So why was the restaurant this quiet? We have so many choices these days that we occasionally need to be reminded about an operation that truly gets it right, time after time. And maybe some folks assume that dining at a place like this – a nonprofit with noble intentions – means sacrificing on food, service and atmosphere. What we found might surprise those skeptics. Casa Garden was charming. It was classy in an old-fashioned, non-trendy way. It was simple. You didn't have to shout to be heard. Best of all, it was delicious. That's something Christina Airola has known for years. She's the director of fund development and communication at the Sacramento Children's Home. "It's very much a hidden secret. People tend to forget it is there," she said. "It provides an opportunity for people to make a difference in a sort of easy, fun way. Every time you dine or have a meeting, you know it's going to a greater good." The Sacramento Children's Home has a long history and is this city's oldest active charity, according to Airola. What began as an orphanage has evolved into an organization that provides a broad range of child abuse prevention, intervention and treatment programs. In addition to the home on Sutterville, where 43 children reside, there are eight locations that offer everything from a crisis nursery to life skills training for those about to enter the adult world. If you're used to hearing about the worst of times and all the sad stories, consider the many happy endings that bubble to the surface. Former Children's Home residents include a NASA scientist, scores of lawyers and physicians, prominent local business owners, even licensed counselors who returned to work at the very place that kept them safe and healthy when they were most vulnerable. Those are some of the reasons a visit to Casa Garden can be about more than good cooking. Still, the food we had during our lunches hit all the right notes. The menu is short and sweet, and it changes weekly: There's a main entree and an alternate entree, usually a large salad. There's also a salad and half-sandwich option. You won't find anything cutting-edge or exotic, but you will enjoy accurate cooking, nice presentations and thoughtful approaches to flavors. Take the pork loin with roast potatoes, a truly accessible dish. The kitchen elevates this offering with a garlic crust, roasting it precisely so the lean pork is tender and moist. It's sliced thick and, given the mild flavor of this cut, is finished with a sauce made of honey, sherry and orange juice. The salad one week was a Caesar with chicken, topped with Parmesan and excellent house-made croutons. Desserts? How about enough intensely flavored raspberry sorbet to feed a family of four. Our other dessert was a warm chocolate cobbler. What words in that last sentence would dare make you think this was less than a home run? "Chocolate" plus "warm" equals melt-in-your-mouth. On another occasion, we went a little different route, picking the main entree, then going with the salad and half-sandwich, which was pork roast with caramelized onions and Swiss cheese on a French roll. Quite good, especially with the sweetness and texture of the onions. The main dish on that second visit was a golfer's dream – straight down the middle. We're talking roast chicken breast done right. It's served with delicious wild rice accentuated with dried apricots, currants and a splash of triple sec to make it extra festive. This time, we split a fine chocolate cheesecake, as the other dessert was the massive raspberry sorbet I knew I couldn't possibly finish. All the servers are volunteers, and the two we chatted with had similar backgrounds. After they retired, they were looking for something fulfilling, found Casa Garden and have been at it for years. In the kitchen, one of the volunteers is 93-year-old Teresa Sardelich, who is known as an outstanding home cook. Only recently has she begun to slow down and take an abbreviated, two-hour shift. Casa Garden has few paid positions – five of them, including the chef, Joan Simmons. "The job is challenging," she told me, "but it's really good to work at a place where everybody wants to be here." Volunteer positions at Casa Garden are always available. After a training period, you can wait tables, slice and dice in the kitchen, or tend the lush garden that is the focal point through the dining room windows. The windows – volunteers wash those, too. All this began as an idea that was destined to fail but didn't. Our visits exceeded our expectations, and it was rewarding to know that a good tip was heading for a good cause. I highly recommend making this charming and enduring little hideaway a regular lunch stop. © Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.  Call The Bee's Blair Anthony Robertson, (916) 321-1099. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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