Paradise Found

The most talked-about dish at the swanky new steakhouse V’s Paradise may just be the grilled Armenian kebab served with a Japanese pickled salad that you’re invited to roll up like a Vietnamese lettuce wrap. What to make of a menu that leans hard into traditional steakhouse tropes, yet samples Asian umami notes for some soul and Armenian spices for some jazz? It seems like it shouldn’t work, but the fact that it hits is a testament to the particularly Sacramento story behind this restaurant’s creation.

Vardan “V” Sargsyan was strolling through Old Sacramento with his family on Christmas Day 2022 when he passed the former site of Fat City Bar & Café, which had closed down in 2019 and since stood empty. The now 37-year-old entrepreneur had arrived in Sacramento from his native Armenia in 2002 at the age of 15 and immediately rolled up his sleeves, eventually starting his own company, European Auto Recycling, in Rancho Cordova. But he comes from a restaurant family—his brother has a fine dining establishment in Armenia and his father-in-law and brother-in-law own Shogun Sushi in Carmichael, for example—so he always knew he wanted to open a restaurant of his own. This was the right opportunity.

The rib eye with potato mille-feuille and Bordelaise sauce

“I wanted to do something for Sacramento,” Sargsyan says, citing his admiration for the Fat family’s own immigrant success story—Chinese-born Frank Fat opened his eponymous restaurant on L Street in 1939, and China Camp and Fat City side by side on Front Street in the ’70s in an effort to spur revitalization in Old Sacramento. Seeing the chance to continue that mission, Sargsyan bought the Front Street building from the family last summer, and V’s Paradise launched in March, unveiling a menu that’s a nod to the Fats’ Asian heritage and Sargsyan’s Eastern European roots.

“When V and I started talking about the building, it became obvious what he was trying to do was really special,” says Richard Kazanjian, a second-generation Armenian American whom Sargsyan recruited as his general manager. “Essentially we’re trying to carry on a larger story of immigrant-family-makes-good in California.” Where China Camp was designed as an homage to the Chinese American railroad workers, for instance, V’s Paradise picks up the storytelling with a tribute to the Armenians, Kazanjian says, “who helped build out the agricultural infrastructure for California.” Armenians were among the first fruit and nut farmers and packers in the Central Valley.

“This is what we call the American dream with international flavors,” Sargsyan adds.

In with the new and the old: V’s Paradise adds dramatic Art Deco flair to the historic space and also pays tribute to its predecessor, Fat City, incorporating hallmark elements from the erstwhile restaurant like the medallion ceiling.

The same melting-pot sensibility guided Sargsyan’s hands-on approach to the design of the new restaurant, which retains beloved elements from Fat City, like the medallion ceiling and the ornate carved wooden bar, while imbuing the space with theatrical drama. The new petal-shaped chairs and elegant banquettes against the classic black-and-white tile floors evoke a Parisian cafe. Sculptural, Art Deco brass partitions create a soaring verticality, with matching oversized globe chandeliers that recall the nightclubs through which Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers swirled in 1935’s Top Hat. A “wine wall” stretches to the high ceilings, with rows of hundreds of bottles floating horizontally up between gold columns.

The gleaming gold of the Tower Bridge is echoed in the most arresting piece of new décor: a shining, soaring geometric sculpture in the shape of a tree that fills the back dining room, its gold branches spreading out over diners’ heads. “The golden tree matches the color of our bridge and also represents Sacramento as the City of Trees,” Sargsyan says. Speaking of which, you can order a pretty, summery drink called City of Trees, a green gin martini laced with fresh cucumber, one of a beautifully curated menu of classic cocktails that are all a little extra—the Paloma Breeze gets a dash of bittersweet Aperol in addition to tequila and grapefruit, and the take on a rye Manhattan, the Two One Two, gets both sweet vermouth and Amaro.

The City of Trees martini with gin, cucumber and aperitif

To pull off this same level of harmonious eclecticism in the kitchen, Sargsyan and Kazanjian enlisted two prominent Sacramento chefs, Tyler Bond and Joe Pruner, as culinary consultants to develop the menu. Bond, who rose up through the Selland Family Restaurants group, served as chef de cuisine at Billy Ngo’s celebrated Japanese restaurant Kru before moving on to partner with chef Mai Pham at her Vietnamese-Thai restaurant Lemon Grass. (Bond and Ngo are set to open a new Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant, Chu Mai, together in October.) Pruner’s pedigree reads like a Sacramento greatest hits list, including Mulvaney’s B&L, Allora, Empress Tavern, Magpie cafe, The Kitchen and the original Mother. The two responded enthusiastically to the charge of marrying Asian and Armenian flavors to preserve and further the location’s cultural lineage.

One of their first collaborations? A signature Caesar salad. A longstanding steakhouse staple invented in Tijuana during the Jazz Age, the Caesar traditionally uses anchovy, Parmesan and garlic to layer up the umami as a counterpoint to the bursting crunch of fresh romaine lettuce, the tart brightness of fresh lemon, and the halo of softness provided by a coddled egg. But for the Armenian Caesar at V’s Paradise, that century-old recipe goes through a series of twists: Instead of whole ribs of romaine, the salad is based on a chiffonade of romaine and radicchio, for lively bitterness. Instead of anchovy, it’s spiked with Asian fish sauce. Instead of croutons, it’s topped with a toothsome crumb flavored with Armenian chaimen spice mix redolent of cinnamon, clove cumin, paprika and fenugreek. These come together in a way that is utterly unique and memorable, yet still cries out, “Hail, Caesar!”

From left: V’s Paradise owner Vardan “V” Sargsyan, chefs Joe Pruner and Tyler Bond, and general manager Richard Kazanjian

Another successful cross-cultural foray has been that kofta kebab, which appears deceptively rustic on the plate but plays a sophisticated flavor game on the palate. Succulent, spiced, medium-rare ground lamb blended with tender bulgur is so soft and pink inside that it eats almost like a seared tartare, drizzled with yogurt sauce and accompanied by red onion, lettuce leaves fit for wrapping, and the juxtaposition of Japanese sunomono—a cucumber salad pickled in rice wine.

The entrée menu is succinct, focused on hearty steaks and composed seafood plates. The day boat scallops with baby carrots and polenta are Pruner’s spin on one of his personal culinary obsessions, shrimp and grits. The black cod, marinated in miso and sake, is served on a clever bed of savory, soupy rice porridge often served for breakfast in Asian households. “Our congee is firmer, like a risotto, but without the cheese and butter,” Bond says. “We want people to think steakhouse, but taste Japan.”

Kofta kebab with yogurt sauce and pomegranate molasses, served with sunomono

The rib eye, ordered medium rare, arrives smoky and caramelized, garnished with a sprig of watercress and accompanied by a fondant potato mille-feuille that is the size of a matchbox (you will wish it were the size of a bread box—it’s that delicately melt-in-the-mouth) next to a dainty dollop of Bordelaise. As flavorful as the sauce is, the grilled meat wants no adornment, the better to taste the sear imparted by the specialty Josper grill-style oven imported from Spain.

Armenian American vintner Greg Nemet of Kareen Wine in Amador County curated the wine list. Those are Kareen bottles ripening on the decorative wine wall, while selections from places like Clarksburg, Napa, France and Armenia round out a list that looks at vino through a historic lens. “The oldest evidence of winemaking comes from the Areni cave in Armenia,” Kazanjian points out. So if you’re feeling historical, you can order a glass of Malahi Reserve from Armenia that’s a blend of Areni and other Malbec-style varietals.

V’s pavlova, a baked meringue layered with vanilla cream and fresh fruit

It would be hard to close out the meal with any dessert other than Pruner’s take on the pavlova, a steakhouse staple named after the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova and thought to have been created in Australia or New Zealand in the 1920s or ’30s. Traditionally an ostentatiously messy baked meringue topped with whipped cream and fruit, V’s version is diminutive and delicate, layering cream with fresh seasonal fruit and other toppings (ours featured sliced strawberries and rhubarb curd) atop a sand-dollar-sized meringue. But the aha moment here is a bright scattering of tender, herbaceous microgreens from Sacramento’s Finz Farms. The green note vibes with the sweet cream and tart fruit in perfect resonance—if this flavor were a sound, it would be the voluptuous, lingering, well-rounded hum of a Tibetan singing bowl. Small wonder that late-evening diners have been showing up after a night at the Golden 1 Center just to savor the sweet dish, along with other fourth-course faves like the affogato with Armenian coffee.

This summer, look for new seasonal menu items to debut. “In July, we’re really looking forward to tomatoes, all sorts of whole beans, stone fruit, summer squash, summer corn, peppers and cucumbers,” Pruner says. “As Sacramento heats up, I like the food to cool down a little bit, be more refreshing, just let the produce talk for itself.” When it does, it’ll be speaking in myriad languages, no doubt—because Vardan Sargsyan’s version of Paradise is as multilingual as Sacramento itself. 

V’s Paradise. 1001 Front st. 916-888-8800. vsparadiserestaurant.com

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