Renowned Hawks gears up to open another restaurant in Sacto

We’ve been longtime fans of Hawks Restaurant in Granite Bay, and have written about it in our Sierra FoodWineArt magazine for several years.

Hawks has won widespread praise in Food & Wine magazine, Bon Appetit magazine, Zagat and others. It has been a pioneer in the Sacramento area “foodie” scene. The Bee just wrote: “Hawks is doing enough to be considered the best restaurant we’ve got.”

Now a long-simmering deal has been sealed for Hawks to open a second restaurant in east Sacramento, to go along with the one in Granite Bay, Owner Molly Hawks told us.

The second restaurant — tentatively named Hawks Public House & Provisions or something similar — could open as early as late summer.

The restaurant will be located near the intersection of Alhambra and Stockton boulevards (in a new, freestanding building with lots of parking adjacent to the Sutter Medical Plaza. There’s also outdoor seating.

Hawks had been scouting out the location, but now it’s a “done deal,” Molly said. The exterior is built, and now the rest of the work is underway — with several months of construction still left. More images of the restaurant are here: 04112012 Restaurant – Alhambra & Stockton-3.

Some doctors who were regular customers of Hawks and worked at the Sutter Medical Plaza were a catalyst for the deal coming together at this location, according to Hawks and David Padgham, asset manager of Separovich/Domich Real Estate Development.

Hawks is owned by the husband-and-wife team of Molly Hawks and Michael Fagnoni. Nearly everything in the restaurant is made in-house. The focus is seasonal.

Hawks menu also features local artisan food, such as Shaft’s Cheese from Roseville and fresh food from the PlacerGrown farms, as we mention in our current issue.

Hawks new location will fuel a trend that even San Francisco — Northern California’s longtime “foodie” capital — is celebrating. As the Chronicle wrote last month about Sacramento: “Fed by a homegrown generation of chefs and farmers working collaboratively, this formerly beleaguered bastion of blah has blossomed into a vibrant village feasting on fresh, locally grown produce, meat and fish.”