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Dining News: Big Changes at Trick Pony, Capital Dime

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Just one month after Trick Pony opened and about three months after Capital Dime hired a new chef, the ownership group has decided to bring in the folks behind Broderick to help right the ship, scoops the Sac Bee's Blair Anthony Robertson.

Chris Jarosz, co-owner of Broderick and the popular food truck Wicked ’Wich, said he and his team will assume control of Capital Dime, a high-profile restaurant located at 1801 L St., and Trick Pony, a fledgling pizzeria at 2031 S St...

Jarosz said he fell into the orbit of Capital Dime and Trick Pony owners Rick Lobley and Melissa Sanchez after seeing them having a drink at Broderick’s bar. Sanchez left Jarosz a voice mail and they eventually began talking and hammering out details...

The Broderick owners now own a large, but undisclosed, stake in both eateries, which will undergo significant changes, Jarosz said.

Capital Dime will return to its original vision and become an “American-style tapas restaurant,” with many items sold a la carte at $10 – the “dime” price point initially trumpeted by Zonca. The restaurant, which had cut its hours and eliminated lunch service, will be closed for a few days for cleanup and minor remodeling. It is set to reopen next week for dinner only, and the following week for lunch and dinner seven days a week. The restaurant will also continue its weekend brunch.

Read the entire story in the Sac Bee.

I don't have strong feelings about Capital Dime. It underperformed during each of the (at least) 3 times I ate there, so the change in ownership/management is probably a good thing.

I do think that Trick Pony wasn't given enough time to find its clientele and hit its stride as a restaurant. While I obviously don't have insight into the financial condition of the restaurant, I enjoyed my initial visit to the restaurant, mostly because the pizza was unique to the region. But then again I wasn't the one (presumably) with an underperforming financial asset.

The new owners say they will revamp the pizza so it's a thin crust, New York or Italian style pizza (per the article), but there's enough of that in Sacramento. Could they eventually be a little better than Hot Italian or Masullo? Maybe, but that would all be variations on basically the same style of pizza. What Trick Pony was doing was both good and truly different in the market. If they get rid of the pizza they served, Sacramento would have lost some of its pizza diversity.

But with that said, like I did with Trick Pony, I'll try not to pre-judge the food. Maybe what the Broderick team has in store for us will be great, and Trick Pony 1.0's pizza will be just a pleasant memory.

** Update at about 11 p.m. on Monday night. Ran across these two bits of info as I was catching up on Twitter.

Secondly, Johnny Breedlove appears to be the new pizza chef at Trick Pony. His Twitter profile formerly read "Chef, Line Cook extraordinaire i cook food in sacramento. @broderick1893" now reads:

Breedlove

More News:

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