Knife nerds, rejoice, this Sacramento shop specializes in keeping your edge in the kitchen
Let’s get this out of the way: Gabriel Crocker and his East Sacramento business, Crocker Cutlery, are not related to the wealthy local family behind the city’s preeminent art museum.
No, this entrepreneur from a clan of “redneck Crockers from Alabama” came to Sacramento after 20-plus years cooking throughout the East Coast, Memphis, Portland and San Francisco. He cooked at a trio of local favorites — Canon, Magpie and OneSpeed — before opening his knife shop at 4601 H St., Suite C in early 2020.
Crocker Cutlery is three-and-a-half businesses in a 500-square-foot space, as Crocker likes to say. Chefs and home cooks often come to him for his knife-sharpening services, but it’s almost a loss leader.
The shop also sells knives and cutting boards as well as vintage dinnerware. He also imports and sells rare knives online to collectors around the world, who find him on social media.
Crocker took decent care of his knives throughout his culinary career, then took a deep dive into knife care at one restaurant when his staff needed help, he said. As he learned about Japanese whetstones and found an community of knife nerds, he became obsessed with high-end handmade blades, eventually amassing at least 30 that he kept in his bedroom.
The repetitiveness of professional cooking set in one day, when after 28 years Crocker found himself making yet another mirepoix. With a daughter on the way and the restaurant industry not known for work-life balance, he decided to focus on the part of the job he still really enjoyed — the knives.
“I was like, ‘seriously, I’m just cutting carrots. It doesn’t matter how high-and-mighty you are, you still have to cut carrots,’” Crocker said. “And once I got into sharpening and had my high-performance knives, it became, ‘hey, can I cut your carrots?’ ... All I wanted to do was cut veggies because it became so fun.”
Kru’s Billy Ngo, Localis’ Chris Barnum-Dann and Last Supper Society’s Byron Hughes have all had their knives sharpened at Crocker Cutlery. Many other top chefs sharpen knives on their own, but their cooks down the line are often eager to learn how and come to Crocker for that insight, he said.
He’s happy to brighten pro and amateur cooks’ knives while teaching them how to properly sharpen at home, which he said can take care of 70-80% of a knife’s needs. Crocker Cutlery is open 11 a.m-6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
What I’m Eating
A segment of Placer County already knows High-Hand Cafe as a go-to spot for birthday brunches and bridal showers. The rest of the region would do well to visit the restaurant within Loomis’ High-Hand Nursery, where a bevy of plants and a koi pond create an amiable backdrop for breakfast and lunch.
Scott Paris opened the nursery in 2003, and proceeded to build out a multifaceted complex on more than 40,000 square feet. It has an olive oil and vinegar shop, an on-site brewery, a boutique, an art gallery, a lumber showroom, a jewelry store, a scented candle shop, even a stage for concerts.
A separate coffee shop sells High-Hand fruit butters, olives, pickles and more to-go. Some of the High-Hand Cafe’s menu comes from the grounds, too, such as the butter lettuce for the grilled salmon salad ($25) with avocado and a sesame vinaigrette.
The almond wood bacon and pear pizza ($23) felt like a true High-Hand production as well, its meat house-smoked before the pie was baked in a wood-fired pizza oven. Topped with caramelized onions, a caramelly fig reduction and a restrained handful of bleu cheese, its chewy crust bubbled up into giant corniciones by the end.
Savory, sour and sweet met on the chicken cider sandwich ($18, including a side of potato or pasta salad). The symphony of flavors met on housemade bread (pies and brownies are baked in-house, too) with Brie, apple butter, Granny Smith slices and walnuts.
High-Hand Cafe
Address: 3790 Taylor Road, Loomis.
Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, closed Monday.
Phone number: (916) 660-0117, Extension 3.
Website: https://www.highhandnursery.com/taste-the-cafe/
Drinks: Full bar; beers are brewed on-site.
Animal-free options: Many vegetarian choices, including a southwestern veggie omelet or mandarin salad. Some can be made vegan.
Noise level: Pleasant outside, slightly louder indoors.
Openings & Closings
Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream plans to open a parlor at 2820 Del Paso Rd. in Natomas, The Bee’s Hanh Truong reported. Founded in Ohio in 1945, the old-school ice cream shop already has locations in Elk Grove, Roseville and Folsom.
Sizzle Shack will close Monday at 8359 Elk Grove Florin Road, Suite 109, in south Sacramento’s Calvine Corner shopping center, the Asian fusion spot announced via Instagram last Wednesday.
Grain bowl spot Musette will close on April 21 in downtown Davis, owners Cynthia and Michael Raub announced on social media last Friday. Founded as a pandemic-era concept called Pannier delivered via bicycle, it grew to occupy one of the last operating storefronts inside University Mall at 825 Russell Blvd., Suite 27.
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