Opened only weeks ago in the new Citizen Hotel on J Street, Grange has bought in completely to the three buzzwords of modern dining: fresh, local, organic. But really, what choice did they have? If a modern chef these days doesn’t claim to cook with an eye toward the local, the sustainable, the organic; doesn’t claim to know all their local farmer/suppliers by name — or for that matter know each lamb, pig, and chicken they cook by name — doesn’t claim that the best meal they ever had was eaten while sitting in distant goat pasture under the shade of a hundred-year-old oak, cooked by a peasant that spoke no English and cold-pressed his own olive oil; if a chef doesn’t claim all that, then he might as well advertise that he regularly cooks with baby seal blubber as a thickener and uses dolphin tears as a base for his stock.  Mixing the farm-fresh ethos with the slick, upscale vibe, going for height-of-the-season freshness while trying to please the fickle public- it seems as if every restaurant opened in the last three years has been doing the exact same thing.
The challenge, I guess, then becomes to do it better than everyone else is currently doing it. How is Grange Chef Michael Tuohy doing it? He’s doing things well, not spectacularly, not unbelievably, not orgasmically, but well. Some dishes, like his fried chicken soaked in buttermilk for two days, was exceptional, really incredibly swell. Almost ruining it though, were the soupy mashed potatoes served with it, so heavy with cream and butter that they could have been mashed milk crates. Also on the plate was a side of unpleasant greens still bitter enough to make the mouth pucker.
On the other hand my dining companion Paul Somerhausen, leader of the Sacramento Epicureans and expert in international relations at the State Capitol (see Greg Lucas, I can drop names too), had an nice dish of lightly pan-fried petrole sole with a side of french fries that were the purest expression of fryolator expertise.
As far as the wallet goes, Grange is pretty much right in line with your typical upmarket establishment. Entrees range from the low $20s to the mid $30s. However, each day a blazingly good special is offered at $17 for lunch with your choice of salad, and at $45 for dinner with salad and dessert. Check out the online menu for the each day’s special.
More than the food, however, I give all involved with the project highest marks for opening a white tablecloth joint on a stretch of road that hasn’t seen a glimmer of hope since the Ford administration. Joie de Vivre hotels has done a fantastic job with the Citizen and Grange. We can only hope in the next few difficult years to have more thoughtful business folks like those at JDV bringing a little life to the otherwise unispiring parts of our fair city.
So, while not being exceptionally original, and also not necessarily hitting the ten-ring on some basic recipes, Grange still does a lot well. The price isn’t so much that it’ll keep you away on a Wednesday night (unlike nearby Ella) but it’s not a jeans and t-shirt joint either. It’s a good new addition to downtown, and with a few small tweaks will probabaly be a favored fixture for years to come.
Grange Restaurant & Bar– 926 J St
Food **1/2 Atmosphere*** Service***
The Sac Rag 
Okay. I confess. I haven’t eaten here yet. But first Blair puts up with a 2 hour wait for his dinner. And then you get bad mashed spuds and nasty dandelion? Come on?? This should be basic stuff that any restaurant worth it’s beans gets right. Are we giving this place some slack because we really want it to succeed? It appears to be the case. However, are they reading these reviews and saying to themselves, “We’ve gotta do better?” I sincerely hope so because this type of poor performance reflects on all of Sac. Hey Micheal Tuohy, show us what your made of!! Get your house in order dude!!! We deserve better and you do too. In my humble opinion. – DK
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I have eaten at this establishment twice. The first time one week after they opened…the food was very very good, the service was very very good. The second time I went for lunch on a Friday, the place was packed….it took two hours for lunch! We were barely attended to, and two times, I noticed that they would go to deliver food to a table, that had already been delivered. The food was good this time too. Luckily the GM of the restaurant did right by knocking off some drinks that we had since the service took so long. I am going again this Thursday, so I hope that things will be different in regards to the service. Nice place overall.
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I recommend going down the list of appetizers, soups and salads if you want to get a good sampling of the different flavors and offerings at The Grange. The Carpaccio was fantastic (the beef is one of the few locally available items that is not local, as Chef Tuohy is in love with the premium grade beef he gets from…. Iowa, I think). I tried a number of small dishes, including the fritto misto, the ahi tartare, and the goat cheese salad. All excellent.
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Excellent review..and you make me laugh. I have yet to try Grange. I’ll wait a few weeks.
Speaking of reviews, I like the new Bee food critic. Loved his review of Morton’s. Compared hearing the menu choices, while being shown a board of raw meat, to banging your thumb (extremely hard) with a meat mallet. 🙂
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how about a star rating for price (or a dollar sign rating) too? that puts all the other criteria in context. i was here, though it was OK, would have been pretty good for half the price but for what I paid it was ridiculous. Some restaurants think that a high price makes them good; others concentrate on being good first and pricing the food accordingly after that. This is the former kind of place, most definitely not the latter.
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You know Moe, you might have something there. While I don’t always find the $$-$$$ type descriptions to be helpful, I might try to come up with some kind of “affordability index.” My original thought is to mention how many cents on the dollar the experience is worth, or what other things you could have bought with that same money. But I’m open to ideas.
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Went tonight with my wife and folks. Place looked great and we were given a great table upstairs. No problem getting a reservation the morning of since it was a Monday night.
Dinner took well over 2 hours which felt like forever, food was good, but certainly not amazing. Entrees seemed like they should have cost 25% less. I had a pork chop which was good, but the one I had at Mulvaney’s B&L a couple months back was twice and big, equally tasty and had better accompanying food.
Others had short ribs, salmon and flat iron steak I believe. I had a bite of all and they were fine, but nothing I’d ever look to order. Overall glad I went, but won’t be back.
Oh, server was very knowledgeable and helpful.
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