This North City Farms enterprise is a one-stop-shop for Mexican pastries and groceries
Past a used car dealership and a hardware store in Sacramento, a longtime business has positioned itself as a one-stop shop for delicious authentic Mexican cuisine.
La Esperanza — located off of Highway 99 inside the Century Shopping Center — operates a supermarket, deli, bakery and restaurant. All of its businesses share the same name and parking lot on Franklin Boulevard except for its restaurant, Los Jarritos, which sits about two miles away on Broadway.
La Esperanza Bakery was founded in 1969 by Salvador Plasencia, who immigrated with his family from Mexico to Sacramento with the determination to open a bakery of his own.
The other businesses opened shortly after.
Inside the bakery, workers dressed in white aprons and matching hats shuffled from the kitchen to the front of the store with sheet pans full of fresh bolillo, a French-style bread. The pans that hold churros, fritters tossed in sugar and cinnamon, and conchas, sweet bread with crackled sugar toppings, were nearly empty.
At a nearby watch repair station, a customer and clerk bartered over prices. A few feet away was a station for cakes, bags of hot chips and packs of corn-based drink mix.
I turned to my right to join a line of people waiting for baked goods.
After a short wait in line, I walked out with a churro, a concha, a polvorón, a bolillo and a guava-flavored soda for a total of $5.11. Check my full-length column about La Esperanza on The Sacramento Bee website.
My name is Brianna Taylor, The Sacramento Bee’s service journalism reporter, and I’m taking over for food and drink reporter Benjy Egel while he’s on vacation.
If you’re looking for ways to have a good time without breaking the bank, you’d probably enjoy my affordability series where I write stories similar to a snippet of what you read about La Esperanza. Once a month I try a Sacramento activity — big or small — per a reader’s suggestion while on a $25 budget.
February marks the second year of good eats and fun with “Sacramento on a Budget.” I hope you give it a read.
What I’m eating
Most coffee shops offer customers a moment of social interaction in addition to a caffeine fix, but this Sacramento spot takes socialization to the next level.
When the rush slows down, Natasha Sarron, owner of Tiferet by the Park in midtown, leads a game of gin rummy or gin, a classic multi-player card game. If you don’t know how to play, she’ll teach you.
Founded in 2014 by Sabrina and Makeda Berhane and taken over by Sarron in 2021, the shop is decorated with trailing plants, trendy mugs and coffee-inspired decor. The cabinets behind the coffee bar squeaked on a late January Wednesday morning while a man sipped a cup of Joe under a sign that read “Friends are like therapists you can drink with.”
The menu ranges from caramel macchiatos to sandwiches, which are stored in the cooler alongside sparkling water, soda and apple juice. Do yourself a favor and order a chai latte ($5.75 to $6.50), a warm and spicy caffeinated tea with pungent notes of ginger and cloves.
Tiferet has a long list of coffee options including espresso con panna ($4.75), a meld of fluffy whipped cream and bitter coffee. The food list is bread-heavy; the ham and cheese croissant ($9.00) is warmed and served with a napkin and fork.
As strange as it may sound, the bathroom is the main attraction.
The emerald-green walls are decorated with another collection of hanging plants and a gold-framed mirror. Fairy lights and gold embellishments drape across a full-length mirror.
Tiferet by the Park
Address: 3020 H St., Sacramento
Hours: From 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday; and from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Phone number: 916-790-0911
Website: https://www.instagram.com/tiferet_by_the_park/
Vegan options: A few, including cookies and pasta salads.
Noise level: Quiet.
Openings and closings
▪ Amy’s Drive-Thru at 119 Galleria Blvd. in Roseville is closed, the vegetarian fast food chain announced Friday on its Instagram. The drive-through franchise is known for its organic meatless products and milkshakes.
▪ Oregon-based Dutch Bros is planning a second site in Fair Oaks. The roughly 420-square-foot space will join a growing list of more than 40 locations across the region.
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