Cafe Au Creme

Café Au Crème seems to no longer be in business, I went there today and ended up getting BBQ from some folks cookin outside in the parking lot. I was told they were taking the place over, and it would be called Paper Plate BBQ.
Paid $ 27 for a full rack of pork ribs. They were a bit dry, too salty, and very light on the sauce.
OH WELL

I had read about this joint here on Unilocal and have been wanting to try it for a while… finally got the chance a couple weekends ago. It was late in the afternoon and I was unfamiliar with the area but as I cautiously crept down Stockton Blvd I knew I was in the right place when I saw the smoke billowing out from behind some buildings. Sure enough, as I got closer I could see the big smoker out in front, just as I had read about.
The bbq is good — we got the 4-​meat sampler. Tender and great flavor. The mac and cheese is good too — usually I tend to «fix up» mac and cheese when I get home by adding cheese or other ingredients to it, but didn’t feel the need to do so this time. They didn’t have greens though — booo hoooooo!
I have to note about the customer service though — I was taken aback by how nice they were. And how the other patrons were inside as well. Let’s start with my fellow patrons — a couple of guys had strolled in and ordered a massive amount of food. I laughed to myself thinking they looked kind of hungover and this was going to be just the nourishment they needed. We proceeded to get into a discussion about bbq joints and they were impressed with my knowledge, but surprised that this was my first visit to the Café. When their food arrived they asked for an extra spoon and begged me to try their mac and cheese. Sweet, but I declined since I had already ordered some.
Now, Bobby and his coworker, a young gentleman, were very kind. So kind in fact that the young man ran outside after me when I left with my food to tell me they forgot to give me my bread. I told him no biggie (don’t need the extra carbs). I walk around the corner to my car and as soon as I get in, there is a tap on the window — the young man had ran in, got my bread, and ran it out to me! I thought that was above and beyond just for a couple pieces of white bread. I did appreciate it though as it helped later on to sop up my extra bbq sauce. Yyyuuuummmmmmm!

I got a weird vibe as soon as we drove up. I don’t recall seeing a rating in the window either. My husband ordered the tri-​tip dinner and I ordered bbq chicken and the young guy at the register told me the total was $ 34!!! I did a double take and asked him again what the total was and he repeated himself. I said I don’t think a $ 9 meal and a $ 10 meal with 1 drink adds up to $ 34. He «recalculated» the total on his notepad and told me the real total. Guess he was trying to make and extra $ 12 that night! Took awhile for the food to come and our drink took even longer about 10 minutes after we started eating. The food wasn’t all that good. I could cook that food and I suck at cooking. The mac and cheese was hard and the red rice had no taste. We will not be back.

The owner personally asked me to Unilocal about my first experience at Café Au Crème, so here goes…
The place is small, cluttered, and kinda dirty, but that’s to be expected of really good small BBQ joint.
Despite seeming creepy in his tv commercials, the owner is a friendly guy and pretty laid back, even when he’s busy.
I waited patiently while other customers were served and when it was my turn I ASKED «how’s your tri-​tip today?» The owner’s response was «it’s good, what’s left of it.» Wow, I thought, it’s only 4:30 and he’s almost out of tri-​tip! This place is really moving some meat. So I said «Wow! It’s not even the start of the dinner rush and you’re almost out of tri– tip, why’s that?» which garnered the response «why do you think» (with a big smile and a self-​assured nod, implying meat perfection).
After paying $ 12.00 for a half pound order of tri-​tip (a la carte!), I sat back and watched the Au Crème magic…
The owner instructs his teenage worker to take two small chunks of cooked meat out of a plastic box in the cooler and start slicing it. Then the cold slices of meat were weighed on a scale and dropped into a crock pot full of opaque, brown liquid. I was told it would be a few minutes wait, while my leftovers from yesterday were re-BBQ’d.
I already felt like a jackass, parting ways with my precious cash.
The next bit of excitement was diving for safety behind the sneeze guard as said teenage worker dropped a gallon-​size plastic tub full of hot BBQ sauce fresh from the microwave. I watched the hot plastic warp under the pressure of his towel-​covered hands and knew the splash was coming.
Luckily my moose reflexes saved me (I was wearing my Jerusalem Garden t-​shirt for F’s sake), but said teenage worker was covered from his waist to his hair. After making sure the kid was ok, I regaled him with a story of my own personal humiliation in order to help him feel better about his crappy job and obvious lack of experience.
After being handed my BBQ soiled napkins, BBQ soiled styrofoam clamshell, and BBQ soiled plastic bag, I bugged out of there with a quickness…
The Verdict: my tri-​tip was gray through and through and would have been a hockey puck had it not been sliced thinly against the grain. No smoke ring, no pink in the center, just tough leftovers that had been soaked in hot liquid and shot with a squirt of sauce. The sauce I found to be a little too weak and thin for my tastes.
If I had paid $ 5 for this, I would have been okay with it. But at $ 12, I felt robbed. Twelve bucks will get you a helluva lot more tasty food at a lot of other places (like $ 12.49 per POUND for tri-​tip at Big Joe’s BBQ).
Café Au Crème sucks eggs, especially because I ASKED the freak’n owner himself if the tri-​tip was good. If he considers that good BBQ, then everything else becomes suspect in my mind, so I won’t be returning.
There’s your Unilocal review dude.
(btw– you owe me about two more orders of tri-​tip)

We stumbled across this place because the Garmin directed us to a boarded-​up BBQ a little to the north. We knew we were headed in the right direction because of a trifecta of true BBQ indicators: a well-​maintained Baptist church, a street named after MLK, and a Church’s Fried Chicken.
It was a Saturday about 2pm and when we went to the door, it looked secured (it turned out to be a security screen door) and we went back to car to search elsewhere.
Luckily, Bobby came out and told us he was open before we left.
We try to find true BBQ everywhere we travel and «Cup of Joe, Bar-​B-​Que to Go!» is the real deal. There was a good smoke ring visible in the ribs and the hot links were hot-​damn hot. The sauce is Mississippi-​style which a little too vinegary in my opinion but the meat overcame this slight problem. Yep, they were smoked on-​site in the large steel pit at the front street.
Bobby’s homemade Mac and Cheese was perfect as was the potato salad. The Spouse liked the candied yams which, in my book, never are worth the effort. The red beans and rice was true home-​style which means not much spice, and certainly not what you’d expect after visiting New Orleans, but true to the genre. The white bread wasn’t the usual cheap sliced Wonderbread but quality, fresh, soft French.

You know a barbeque place is gonna be the shit when the tablecloths are made of leather.
Being that the owner Barbeque Bobby is quite the renaissance man — this is a half BBQ joint/​half fancified coffee shop operation — I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out he roped that steer, tanned the hides and then cooked up the ribs in his giant smoker out in the parking lot — he just seems about that awesome.
The scene is fabulous: One sweaty, busy man in a white Kangol running outside to the smoker to get meat, coming back in, carving up ribs, barista-​ing an espresso, bringing food to the tables, running back out to the parking lot smoker for more, all the while some chick who apparently works there too is just sitting on one of the comfy leather couches just texting away absently on her cell. There’s African and other art on the wall and just great furnishings and décor. And Bobby himself is really just one of those super kind people you want to have in your life any way you can get him — nice, smiling, gentle but totally real and he can cook real good — and if he smells like smoky BBQ sauce, even better.
The food is a pretty eclectic mix for a barbeque restaurant. The barbeque is straight Chicago style (Bobby is from the south side in the 60s near Halsted and moved out here years ago to give his kids a better life) but has beef ribs instead of pork I think, and offers tri-​tip and chicken, which is more straight west coast style. Instead of white Wonder Bread style bread, he serves it with a crusty kind of soft French style baguette, which is nice and tastes good. The links have the perfect amount of char and the ribs had great flavor. The chicken is big and meaty, but I would have preferred it a bit more charred, less just smoked, but it was still good. The sauce was just okay, I actually liked the meat a lot better without it — it’s a typical Chicago style sauce (a good Chicago sauce, though) in that it’s thin, spicy and kind of vinegary, whereas I just like a Oakland-​style, thicker, more complex sauce on barbeque and I’m just always a bit disappointed when barbeque has anything else on it. I’d recommend ordering the sauce on the side and then judging for yourself — you can always still dump the sauce over it later if you want. The macaroni and cheese was also pretty decent, but the sides I had were for the most part fairly average. If I’m ordering again I’m going to stick to the meat and the coffee and I’ll be very, very pleased.
Do not sleep on the drinks either! I had a few and got an iced caramel macchiato that was freaking fantastic and is the drink Bobby says he makes the best — I’m going to believe him, it was delicious.
The unique concept, great vibe and really cool man, along with pretty special smoky meat, makes this a must stop when in Sac town — just don’t go expecting staight west coast style fare.

Smoke signals on Stockton Blvd. in the Capital City of Cali sent we 2 ½ passengers into the gravel lot of Café Au Crème. That right hand turn at the end of a two-​week odessey West from Chi-​Town was one of the best decisions we made. Full disclosure. Driving from Sac-Town’s Old Town to see Mr. Barbecue Bobby was on a recommendation from a local Bee biz reporter.
Outside, BBQ Bobby was at a meat smoker the likes I used to see my great-​uncle cooking ribs, chicken and even venison (Bambi) in the backyard. But it’s the inside of Café Au Crème that made the biggest impact on me: a plush couch, a living room table, several raised stands covered in leather tablecloths and a menu that includes various coffees including Bobby’s caramel macchiato.
We ate everything that we could put in our mouths by ordering the 3-​way: barbeque ribs, chicken and hot links. (There is a 4-​way, but the tri-​tip wasn’t ready yet, Bobby told us. And when it comes to BBQ, we learned to trust Bobby.)
Everything tasted incredible.
Talking with the chef/​owner, a fellow Chicago South Sider, it was apparent why the food was so wonderful. Bobby cares that you enjoy your dining experience. I would recommend this place to anyone wanting barbecue.

Like a lot of people have mentioned, my first reaction when I heard about this place was, «A coffee shop?» Seeing as I eat and breath ribs, I was a bit incredulous. But I decided to stop by one afternoon to see what all the hype was about. Right when I pulled into the driveway and I saw the huge smoker sitting, I knew this place was no joke.
Now I’m not going to pretend like I sampled the whole menu of what BBQ Bobby has to offer. I came in and left with one thing: ribs. I have to say, if God gave a pig a backrub with holy water, this is what it would taste like. First off, the dry rub is awesome. In order to have a great rib, I really believe that it has to be able to stand on its own without any BBQ sauce. The ribs here come out with a nice crust and melt on the inside. They also fell apart with little effort. Having been to a couple of rib joints in Sac, I have to say that these have the most distinctive taste of the bunch. Really, you haven’t tried the ribs here till you’ve actually TRIED the ribs here. They were that good.
Just on another note: BBQ Bobby is very friendly. When I came over, I swear he had this big grin on his face the entire time. I guess if you had access to these ribs 24/​7, you’d be smiling too. But in any case, it adds a little something extra to the atmosphere. In all, greatly recommended.

Pros: inexpensive, great food; run by locals; hole-​in-​the-​wall goodness; the most friendly restaurant owner you’ll ever meet.
Cons: the location isn’t great for eating dinner, so you’ll probably want to take your menu to go; if the food you want hasn’t been roasting on the BBQ all day, sucks for you. You might want to call before you go to make sure they are cooking up your favorites (chicken, ribs, or tri-​tip) and that they will still have some when you get there.
Overall: The owner is fantastic. He makes you feel like you are the most important customer he’s had all day. The food is good. My husband loved the ribs. I enjoyed my chicken, but the sauce wasn’t my favorite. Different strokes for different folks. I wish they had had tri-​tip, but that’s for another day. :) The baked beans are a safe and easy side dish that goes great with BBQ.
Recommend? You bet.
PS — it’s a coffee shop, too… I didn’t try any coffee, though. :)

This place gets a high rating just for being what it is… half BBQ joint/​half AFrican-​art themed espresso shop. I haven’t tried the cappuccino, but if you’re going to drive down here, you might as well do it for the quality of the ribs and meat, which you won’t find just about anywhere else in Sacramento.
Be careful to time your trips… The meat is only available when it’s ready, and the guy has a particular schedule of when the meat will be best cooked… so call ahead and see if the tri tip, ribs, etc, are on the pit… It could be six hours before the next batch is perfectly made.
I’ve heard great things about the various side dishes… but the candied yams are fantastic.

We went about thirty minutes before closing as well but were pleased to find a clean joint in an otherwise dirty area. The ribs were OK. Not great, like a previous reviewer noted, nothing seemed really fresh. In fact, Barbecue Bobby cut our slab of ribs up and then stuck it in the microwave right in front of me. Not ideal for a ribs place. The tri-​tip was downright horrible. Tasted like cafeteria mystery meat according to my buddy. Macaroni and green beans sides, average, and cold.
Havne’t yet been to Sandra Dee’s, but my friends thought that was better than this place. I thought it was slightly steep as well.
Full slab of ribs: $ 25
1 lb tri-​tip: $ 17
Sides (large): $ 4.50 each
with 3 cokes, bill came to $ 57…kinda steep.
Overall, average place, would only go for the ribs, skip the tri-​tip, and maybe go earlier when stuff is more fresh. The guy behind the counter is nice though.

I’ve driven down Stockton Blvd. many times. It’s not exactly a street that offers the eye much to enjoy and I admit I’ve never really paid much attention to anything on it. What a shame. Thanks to a wonderful article in the Sac Bee, I now have a reason to pay attention to something on this street for once.
Next time you venture down Stockton Blvd., a stop at Café Au Crème is a prerequisite. The shop itself is non-​descript, but it’s what resides in the parking lot that will make you screech to a halt. There are three smokers tucked into a small shack in the front corner of the Café’s parking lot, and that’s where all the magic happens. I think there is a BBQ sign on the shack to let you know you’re at the right place. We were lucky that some fresh meat was smoking away the afternoon we stopped by. The smells seriously made my mouth water.
They were pretty busy and only two staff were on hand, one being the Café’s famous Barbeque Bobby. I’ve gotta say anyone who doesn’t like this guy has serious mental issues. He is warm, friendly, funny and can cook the crap out of some meat.
I wanted ribs and the boyfriend NEEDED some tri-​tip. Good thing both were available, although I should note that the tri-​tip had just been pulled off the smoker and needed time to rest. We placed our order and came back half and hour later at Bobby’s suggestion. Although I was a little annoyed by the wait (or rather, my stomach was annoyed), I would’ve wait three times as long considering what we were treated to upon our return to the shop.
Bobby himself proclaimed that the 1 lb. tri-​tip we ordered was the best he’d ever cooked and we weren’t allowed to leave the shop until we tried some first. We had asked for sauce on the tri-​tip and Bobby deined us. He said this was his tastiest tri-​tip ever and he didn’t want to ruin it for us. He did give us a sauce on the side, and it never was eaten, that’s how good the meat on it’s own was. The Italian spiced tri-​tip was the juciest and most flavorful tip either of us has ever tried. Bobby even let me stick my head in the bucket of spice rub that is his secret recipe. He told me paprkia was it in, and that’s all I was gonna get from him. Fair enough!
My ribs were the best I’ve ever had — smokey and deep and the meat fell off the bone just like it should. Bobby had been up cooking ribs since 6 a.m. and it showed. You could almost taste his love for barbeque right in those ribs. The sauce was different from any I’d had in Sacramento before — sweet, vinegary and a little spicy all at once and it was PERFECT. I also had the mac and cheese which was delish, but I should’ve warmed it just a bit in the micro first.
I’ve heard Bobby is quite the barista as well and I look forward to trying his specialty — a caramel macchiato — my favorite! I would’ve ordered one the day we went but it was just so busy. There is no other barbeque that compares to Café in all of Sacramento. Texas West would probably be my second favorite, but it’s a FAR second.

BUST OUT THE FLOSS!
Big ups to Barbecue Bobby for bringing tasty cue to Sac.
I’m not a fan of Sandra-Dee’s, Everett & Jones’ wasn’t great and has already bounced, and Memphis BBQ is downright terrible. As an aside, I do remember having kick-​ass all-​you-​can-​eat BBQ at Jamie’s on Broadway, but that was awhile back so I can’t be sure that they do that anymore (years ago, I’m talking ’bout the age of the pager!).
Café Au Crème is a strange place, but even with it’s seemingly split personality, its a welcoming establishment that has some mighty tasty food. Chicken was awesome, tri-​tip was pretty good, when I get up the gumption I plan on checking out the links.
Sacramento has enough Sushi, Crepes, and Mexican to choke a cat (and fill up a user-​driven website), and now it’s got at least one great Barbecue place to call its own.

This is perhaps the oddest place I have ever been. One does not happen upon a combination coffee shop/​rib joint very often, and the very idea of it struck me as so entirely weird that morbid curiosity– coupled with an enthusiastic review from Chris B – compelled me to visit. On the drive out, I wondered whether coffee and ribs might be the new wine and cheese.
Upon entering, one finds a study in chaos: a few pub tables and highback chairs are strewn about a cluttered counter, behind which one sees an astoundingly varied miscellany of goods – crock pots, fresh vegetables, flavor syrups, tea bags, and an espresso machine. Tribal artifacts and vintage posters litter the walls, and clash spectacularly with the fleur de lis tablecloths draped indiscriminately over a few of the tables. The design element is haphazard, mongrelized, purposeless, confused, slapdash – in short, everything one would expect from a coffee shop/​rib joint.
After taking in this most peculiar spectacle, I spoke briefly with the gregarious and infinitely charming proprietor before ordering. He detected a southern accent and inferred – correctly– that I was serious about my ribs. He asked if I wanted to try his special, spicy sauce, and I gleefully responded in the affirmative. I ordered pork ribs with potato salad and candied yams ($ 9), and washed it down with some sort of raspberry tea concoction ($ 2). It was served in a Styrofoam to-​go container, with two pieces of bread to mop up any leftover sauce. Forgetting time, place, and table manners, I plopped happily into my seat and got down and dirty with my plate of ribs.
It is difficult for me to overstate how much I enjoyed this meal. The ribs were better than any I’ve had outside the South: they were seasoned with a wonderful dry rub, smoked to tender perfection and slathered liberally with a delicious, punchy sauce. The consistency of the sauce is a perfect compromise between the thin, vinegar-​based Carolina variations and the thick, ketchupy glop more familiar to Texans.
My dining experience here was both unqualifiedly positive and entirely unique. There is, for better or worse, no replicating the madness of Café Au Crème. It is entirely and marvelously unconventional, but so much the better for it and so much the worse for our conventions. Maybe coffee and ribs isn’t so crazy after all…

When you encounter a plume of smoke obscuring your path along Stockton Boulevard, what should you do? Take a deep whiff! It’s bar-​be-​que grill smoke from the Café Au Crème. I had smelled and spotted smoke coming from a mysterious outside grill in a parking lot on the corner of Stockton and Parker while driving past, but I couldn’t figure out where the restaurant was. Finally, my need for down-​home flavor got the better of me and I explored this home-​cookin’ hideout.
I made my way into the Café Au Crème, the only logical nearby storefront that would belong to the outside grill. Sure enough, the place smelled G-​O-​O-​D, and the menu read: «Café Au Crème — Featuring Dave & LaMond’s Bar-​B-​Que». I doubt if anyone really comes here for the coffee, because the couple seated in front was putting away plates full of grub. A local guy on a mission made a beeline for the menu and ordered himself some hot links.
My rib meal arrived faster than his hot links (which are a cooked-​to-​order item). My pork ribs, on the other hand, were infused with love. Slow-​smoked until the meat was permeated and had turned that nice pinkish hue. And the dry rub applied to them gave a righteous peppery crust which was the perfect counterpunch to the sassy BBQ sauce they were swimming in. Come to think of it, my shoe would’ve tasted pretty damn good with that sauce on it! But the combination of flavors along with the tender slow-​cooked smoky meat was a serious barbeque lover’s dream come true.
For value and flavor, this was a five-​star experience. My rib meal was only nine bucks and change. The sides (red beans & rice and mac ‘n’ cheese) were small portions and needed a little seasoning, but this was really about those goddamn ribs! Amen, brother-​man!
I’ll be back for my baby back and because this baby’s GOT back!