Tower’s a Power BROADWAY LANDMARK KEEPS GETTING YOUNGER
Photos by Linda Smolek
GS By Greg Sabin Restaurant Insider
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wenty years ago, I wrote, “Tower Café is the kind of place you take your out-oftown friends to show them Sacramento is cool.” Today the restaurant scene shines much brighter, with culinary gems in every neighborhood. But there’s still something magical about dining at Tower Café, one of the
city’s great outdoor spaces, sheltered by palm fronds and lit by neon from The Tower Theatre’s majestic marquee. When Tower Café opened in 1990, the “world cuisine” concept was novel. Going to a single restaurant and choosing among curries, tacos and jerk chicken made one feel like Carmen San Diego with a fork and knife.
Now, restaurants are more likely to focus on regional or national cuisines— Nashville hot chicken, Thai street food, Sinaloan home cooking—instead of spanning the globe from the kitchen. Has this forced Tower Café to change? Not a bit. Emerging from a 16-month COVID shutdown, Tower Café reopened in July without even changing the font on its
