11/20/2025
Hi! Just a reminder that we will be taking this Thanksgiving week to move into our new kitchen, so there won't be a dinner this Tuesday, 11/25.
Feeling excited and sentimental about our big move so I want to write a little background story about our new location... hoping to gather some photos too, of the "old days" so I will post them soon.
I first went to work in Dunsmuir in 1993, for Café Maddalena. My mom had just shuttered her restaurant, Bellissimo. I remember being a little bit scared because I had never worked for anyone besides my mother, and Maddalena's reputation preceded her. She ended up teaching me so much, and I chuckle to myself when I think of her yelling about my ugly pizze. "Liza, that's the ugliest pizza I've ever seen! Throw it away!" She would dump it in the trash, despite the packed house and the customers awaiting food.
Anyway… It was a transformative time for Dunsmuir, and for Sacramento Avenue in particular. When I look back on it, I can't believe all the amazing people, many of them strong and formidable women, who poured their creativity and sweat into the historic buildings that line the street and surrounding historic district.
Our building, the Van Fossen building, has been known as The Brown Trout ever since Wendy Crist and Michael Gilmore renovated it in the early ‘90s, transforming it from a derelict building to a beautiful gallery and retail space. The late Tom O'Hara painted the trout logo that remains on the storefront to this day.
A few years later, Cindy Martel created the Gandy Dancer café within one of the Brown Trout storefronts. It was later expanded into a full commercial kitchen and has housed a few different restaurants, including the much-loved and very missed Wheelhouse.
Wendy and Michael eventually sold the building but it continued as the Brown Trout for many years. When I think of all the great people, friends and family, that have worked in this place over the years, it makes me proud to inhabit the space with our family catering business, Lunchbox Dinners.
This entire street and its tributaries are full of memories of the amazing people that have left their marks here. Eric and Jill at the Nutglade Station, serving beer and the best cappuccino. Tim and Joan at the Rostel, who literally dug the basement out by hand with shovels and wheelbarrows. Cheryl at the Window Box nursery. Larry and Wesley at Turntable Books, and Wendi at the Cutting Edge. There was Jayne’s Nippers, Finley’s Stonewall Gallery, and the Doll Factory. Mario had the Shasta Mountain Playhouse, with Steve, Larry & Paul the poet.
So many of the people we knew have died, moved away, or just moved on to other projects. The life of Sacramento Avenue ebbs and flows. Still, we are happy to be back here, in this beautiful space, sharing the area with a new group of artists and entrepreneurs: Cobra Lily wine bar, Bee Kind Bakery & Catering, a new iteration of Café Maddalena… as well as Gold Stitch, Al’s Emporium and Dandelion Dust. We hope this next chapter brings new energy to Dunsmuir, filling more storefronts and continuing the legacy of creativity and community that has always defined this special place.
Have a great holiday week, and we will see you the following Tuesday, December 2, with a dinner prepared at 5841 Sacramento Avenue, the Brown Trout building ❤️❤️❤️
Liza and Aaron
