La Bombe
3020 H Street – Sacramento

Words by Adam Saake | Photos by Nicholas Wray

Veteran restaurateur Jennifer Dare Sparks, of the long-time Sacramento Spanish food establishment Aioli Bodega Espanola that’s been around nearly 20 years now, as well as the now defunct Habanero Cava Latina, Port Rouge and Barbarosa, has opened a new ice cream parlor in the heart of East Sacramento. On May 19, 2012 Dare Sparks and partner Bruce Strickley Jr. welcomed customers inside La Bombe, a small and attractively painted storefront in the McKinley Square shopping complex on the corner of H and Alhambra. Serving over twenty flavors of Gunther’s Ice Cream, espresso drinks and sandwiches, their real specialty is a unique frozen confection called bombes, or if you’re not into brevity, les bombe glacés.

Like Dare Sparks’ previous endeavors, bombes are borrowed from the European culinary experience. The typically French dessert is spherical and can be layered with ice cream, cake, waffle cone, fruit preserves or syrups. Besides the fact that they’re delicious, Dare Sparks didn’t have to travel across the ocean to make them just as you don’t have to to enjoy one.

“I’m interested in starting something that is unique to the American market by utilizing materials that we have locally like Gunther’s Ice Cream, and combining them and composing them into unique European items,” says Dare Sparks.

And she’s done just that. Her influence and points of reference come from when she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, Italy, in the early ‘80s and when she later married an Algerian chef (Aioli co-founder Reda Bellarbi), now her ex-husband and business partner. Dare Sparks spent time in Paris and Algiers and speaks four languages including French, Italian and Spanish. Her passion for European lifestyle and cuisine shows through on the specialty dessert menu that includes Affogatto, vanilla ice cream topped with espresso and candied orange peels or the Granitta di Café con Panna, an Italian iced coffee with sweetened espresso topped with whipped cream. But the dessert she says is most unique to the shop is the frozen hazelnut fudge in a cup and topped with whipped cream, Gianduia con Panna.

“I don’t know anybody, anywhere who’s doing that in the United States,” says Dare Sparks. “I’ve only had that in Italy.”

The bombes at first seem a little curious, but once you bite into one your sensory memory will remind you that it’s ice cream and other sweet goodies you’ve already had before and most likely already love. What is also attractive about these desserts is the portion size. It’s roughly equal to a scoop of ice cream and a cone, so you’re not trying to wolf down a giant dome of ice cream in once sitting. It’s just right. Some notable creations were The Colonial Bombe, a combination of coconut, chocolate and banana ice creams with chocolate cookie wafers, dusted with cocoa and topped with toasted coconut or The French Bomb, which has chocolate ice cream, black raspberry sorbet and vanilla ice cream layered with chocolate cookie wafers, raspberry jam with raspberry syrup. And as La Bombe gets all settled in, you can expect bombes du jour as well as rotating creations changing on the menu.

It’s July and it’s hot, and foot traffic and families spilling over from McKinley will surely keeping the ice cream scoops a-scoopin’, but La Bombe isn’t only serving up sweets. They’ve got a very focused sandwich menu that is killing with the cold cuts.

“I’m hoping to get the word out,” says Dare Sparks. “Between what the chefs are doing with the simplicity of adding herbs to mayonnaise and quick pickling the cucumber and then we have a great rep; Steve Campanelli at Tony’s Fine Foods.”

A great deli sandwich starts with two slices of quality bread, theirs being from Bella Bru. And then is closely followed by high quality meats; Tony’s Fine Foods has got it covered.

“I knew what I wanted. I wanted the purest flavors for our meats,” says Dare Sparks. “We’re trying to do something of a really high quality.”

Upon our visit we tried the Proscuiutto Cotto ham and Emmi Gruyere Swiss cheese sandwich on a baguette as well as the Deitz and Watson Rare London broil with white cheddar. Both were of exceptional quality–simple and delicious without being overcrowded or over complicated. It’s the perfect sandwich to pick up to go and hop across the street to watch the ducks in the park or pull up a chair at the bar that lines the bright front windows, perfect for people watching.

“We fell in love with this location and I said, ‘I’ve been working on this idea for five years.’ You know, when young people started saying, ‘It’s the bomb?’ And I like playing on words,” jokes Dare Sparks.

La Bombe is “the bomb” and it won’t take long before this place blows up.

Ten22
1022 2nd Street, Old Sacramento
Words & Photo by Josselin Bassaldu

It seems as though restaurateur Terry Harvego has given the Firehouse Restaurant a brother, nurtured to life just a block away. It’s a well-equipped younger sibling, ready to follow in its big bro’s popular footsteps.

Ten22 was slated to open on the 22nd of the 10th month, but arrived post-mature (three-plus weeks after due date) to 1022 Second Street in Old Sacramento on Nov. 13.

This restaurant had intention from conception. It aspired to be one to “Eat, Drink, and Relax” in and was nicknamed thus on its nametag. And I indeed found myself eating, drinking and trying to relax in Ten22 on Thanksgiving Eve.

The open, almost-chic, barn-like space made dining feel grounded and like all the air might collect at the top, the way the mass of a button mushroom gathers at the head. There was a country-ish openness to the structure that was accented by the multiple large-windowed doors on the building’s edifice.

Something was familiar about this environmental sensation. I realized after visiting the wooded, lit bathroom that the feeling was similar to that evoked by restaurants in South Lake Tahoe—the shiny wood, the wide ceiling space and crowded base, the “adventurous” menu and the earth-toned décor. It invited diners who’d enjoy South Lake Tahoe to enjoy it right here, in little old Sacramento.

The menu is suited for group grubbing with “shared plates” and family eating with kid-friendly dishes such as mini corn dogs and Rice Krispie-dusted salmon. The hungry, unaccompanied eater can be sated with an herb roasted half chicken; those lighter eaters have their choice of single portions like one pork slider.

Being with friends, I opted to share. We split three ways plates of Dungeness crab tater tots, brandy marinated beef skewers and the assorted bruschetta.

Crusty, doughy Bella Bru bread was a nice precursor to our sharing. But olive oil and vinegar sloshed easily over the top of the filled-to-the-brim, shell-shaped plate, making a mess of our table, napkins and clothes. Good intention, poor execution. Happens to the best.

It was like one, two, three as the shared plates arrived. Brandy marinated beef skewers ($8.95) were undoubtedly delish and the table favorite. Eight long, thin wooden skewers each lollipopped a small slice of yummy yum beef, served on a small hill of maple mashed sweet potatoes. The beef was tender, so sweet teriyaki-ed and flavorful with a grill-charred crunch. The potatoes were smoky and smooth. The menu said there was supposed to be a pomegranate-soy dipping sauce, but this was M.I.A. for us.

Next, we sampled the assorted bruschetta ($10.95). The six olive oil-crisped crostini came in flavor pairs: two salmon on crème fraiche with dill, two with pulled pork and two with olive and tomato tapenade. With toppling piles of salmon and pulled pork on nearly iPhone-sized crostini, this dish was satisfying with agreeable size and flavor. The salmon seemed poached and wasn’t over or under seasoned. The pulled pork was legit. Nearly too tender and sweet, smoky with a creeping spice that smacked the back of the tongue like an obvious afterthought, it tasted pleasantly just like peppered teriyaki beef jerky (kind of comical, no?). The tapenade consisted of Kalamata olives, black olives, tomatoes and seemingly red bell pepper and was salty as expected.

Tater tots of any kind excite many a persons’ palate. And as an adult, crab tater tots seem divine. The Dungeness crab tater tots were served with pineapple and a spiced chili “glaze.” Unfortunately, the crunch and flavor of these frutti del mare were feeble and dull. Sure, you don’t want to out-spice the delicate flavor of crab, but the combination of sesame seed, mustard seed, spice and what seemed to be chervil was off. Pineapple, chili and crab may work, but not in this preparation. It didn’t taste bad, but perhaps not preferential for all.

Although Ten22 had a “selective priority,” as the bf said, concerning its attention to detail, it seemed as though details were well prioritized. I can do with an unstable table, a crammed dining area, cheap fabric or iffy booth positioning if it means fluted beer glasses, proper wine coolers, nice televisions, good service and palatable plates.

When making a new restaurant’s acquaintance, it’s important to not be too harsh or judgmental. (Remember when you were just a wee one, figuring out what was wrong or right, good or bad?) But you deserve it, Submerge-ists: the truth about whether or not a restaurant is a bad seed.

But like the mustard seeds waiting to be noticed in the crab tater tots, the lasting taste of Ten22 is unfamiliar; ergo, indecipherably good or bad. Trendy. Expectantly interesting. But perhaps comfortable.

I mean, Ten22 wasn’t conceived with the intent to outdo, shock, entertain or fancify food. With nicknames like “Eat,” “Drink” and “Relax,” what’s to be expected?

Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” In the case of baby Ten22 it’s all about the name.