Rock climbing with a restaurant? Only at this Sacramento gym

Sacramento’s preeminent rock climbing gym, Pipeworks, is getting into the restaurant business.

Climbers will go from pinching holds to pinching panini at Pintworks, the cutely-named brewpub in Pipeworks’ parking lot, when its food program debuts in March.

Housemade beers with climbing-related names already flow from 18 taps (two others are reserved for wine) while Pintworks’ kitchen is under construction. The food menu has yet to be set, but it will skew toward clean eating and shareable plates such as charcuterie boards or vegetable platters, pub manager Kristen Madigan said.

Spent grain from Touchstone Brewing, the official name for Pintworks’ brewing component, has historically gone to C Bar C Ranch. Now Pintworks can complete the loop by sourcing beef and pork from the Rio Linda ranch.

“We’re going to go as local as possible and as organic as possible for everything that we’re serving,” Madigan said.

Indoor rock climbing’s popularity has grown over the past decade, with 618 U.S. climbing gyms open in 2022, more than twice as many as in 2012, according to Climbing Business Journal. Sport climbing debuted at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and climbing documentaries have produced crossover stars such as Sacramento native Alex Honnold.

Now Pipeworks and parent company Touchstone Climbing, which owns 15 other California gyms, are pursuing some crossover appeal in the form of tacos, salads and sandwiches. Few others have attempted to attach climbing gyms and food service; Ute & Yeti in Colorado Springs may be the only predecessor.

You won’t need to be a Pipeworks member to eat or drink at Pintworks, which will have a capacity of 75 people indoors and 120-150 on an adjacent patio. In fact, Madigan said the restaurant’s success will hinge on non-climbing customers coming to 116 North 16th St., still technically on Sacramento’s grid but at the northern tip of Mansion Flats.

Of course, if Pintworks customers want to try their hand at rock climbing (or lift weights, hit the treadmill or take a fitness class), day passes are only a stone’s throw away. Madigan envisions an “adult playground” where people climb, grab a bite, climb again and come back for a beer.

“We’re going to be able to expand into a wider, more diverse population at Pipeworks,” said Madigan, a former manager at now-closed Tower Brewing in East Sacramento. “There’s a stereotype of what climbers are, and I think bringing this food component in will really expand it. (The gym) will help us, but we’ll also be helping Pipeworks out in general by bringing in more people.”

Pintworks will first open for dinner service, and eventually expand to do lunch as well, Tuesday through Saturday.

What I’m Eating

Midtown is Sacramento’s hub for cutting-edge culinary innovation, yet still hosts a few restaurants that straddle modernity while taking inspiration from yesteryear. Aioli Bodega Española is one such concept, an art deco restaurant in the Handle District with many longtime fans.

Founded by Reda Bellarbi in 1994 and run today by his son Aziz Bellarbi-Salah, the man behind Brasserie du Monde and The Grand cocktail bar, Aioli looks out on the corner of 18th and L streets through nearly floor-to-ceiling windows. A beautiful garden patio is in hibernation for the winter, leaving customers to ogle metallic art pieces of goats and naval explorers inside.

The menu ranges from tapas to two-person paella pans, which take up to 45 minutes to prepare and should be ordered first. While it’s cooking, share a plate of pechuga de pato ($18), deliciously rich slices of braised and seared duck breast served in a fennel-sherry sauce with Swiss chard.

Aioli has six housemade pastas, including the slippery casarecce a la Siciliana ($21), short twists of dough tossed in a nutty mint-pecorino-pistachio sauce. Main dishes are typically meaty and heavy; paillard de pollo ($23), sheets of citrus-marinated grilled chicken breast pounded flat and laid around papas bravas, qualified as relatively light fare.

Finally, the main event. The paella Barceloneta ($60) was an eye-catching platter of cuttlefish, whole shrimp and scallops swimming in arborio rice dyed black by squid’s ink. All seafood was nicely tender, and there was a crunchy soccarat (crispy layer of rice at the bottom of the pan), but the dish’s connection to the sea seemed to unfortunately extend to salt content as well.

Aioli Bodega Española

Address: 1800 L St., Sacramento.

Hours: 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3-10 p.m. Sunday.

Phone: (916) 447-9440.

Website: https://aiolibodega.com/

Drinks: Full bar with an extensive wine selection. The cinnamon-forward sangria is a specialty.

Vegetarian options: A few, including two paellas.

Noise level: Loud.

Openings & Closings

▪ La Costa Cafe opened on Jan. 19 in midtown Sacramento at 701 19th St. Owned by Ignacio Ortega Perez, who immigrated from Mexico when he was 16, the Latin American-inspired cafe has a robust ceviche program, pastries and tamales.

▪ Gursha Ethiopian Kitchen will have its grand opening on Saturday at 1821 Douglas Blvd., Suite C5 in Roseville’s Placer Center Plaza. First opened as a takeout-only ghost kitchen, it’s the first Ethiopian restaurant in Placer County.

▪ Pho Mimia has closed at 25004 Blue Ravine Road, Suite 121 in Folsom, replaced by another Vietnamese restaurant, Pho N’ Roll. The latter serves up noodle soups, bánh mì and charbroiled meats over rice or noodles.

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