Cafe Zorro: A Rogue Trattoria

THOUGH PACKED WITH LOCALS, CAFÉ Zorro is also just minutes from I-80, making it an easy stop for visitors. You can enjoy fine dining and get back on your journey.

Don’t let the restaurant’s tucked-away location fool you: Its menu would hold its own in any food obsessed city.

“We reach across culinary boundaries to create original menus at affordable prices,” says Matt Williams, an Italian trained chef and wine connoisseur. “The menu might be Moroccan spiced chicken, seared soft shell crab with Thai vinaigrette, or pasta carbonara.”

The menu runs the gamut, with seasonal specials: fresh seafood; oven-roasted chicken (with house-made coleslaw); veal picatta; balsamic and rosemary marinated skirt steak (on a bed of arugula); and strawberry and spinach salad (with red onion and sliced almonds).

The pizzas are classics, made with home-made sausage and dough. Many of them are creative, such as “fowl play,” which has chicken, red pepper and artichoke hearts.

The entrees and pizza typically are priced in the $15 to $17 range. The atmosphere is casual, clean and modern, set with linens and local art hanging on the wall.

Café Zorro’s wine selection is eclectic and affordable, reflecting Matt’s wine expertise. Belgian beers and other craft brews are offered on tap.

Cafe Zorro’s menu capitalizes on fresh, local produce grown in the surrounding foothills. Loomis is famous for its fruit-packing sheds, which shipped peaches, pears and plums nationwide.

The restaurant also uses pasture-raised meats and eggs from local family farms, such as Flying Mule Farm and Sinclair Family Farm.

Matt is a fourth-generation Loomis resident, who graduated from UC Berkeley.

Along the way, he worked at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and he went to culinary school in Florence, Italy. But he decided to return home and become a restauranteur. “The town is super friendly,” he says.

Café Zorro
5911 King Road, Loomis
Owner Matt Williams
916-660-1612
CafeZorro.com