Vintage Cafe

Uh. Wow. ROTD for 8−13−10?
Don’t waste your time, folks. This place bit the dust a while ago.
But, if you wanna see a UFC fight, or other sports event, this is your place.
MVP Sports Grill has not only taken over this corner (which used to be Stonegrill come Hashi), it has spread on into what used to be a great little coffee/​sandwich/​pizza/​breakfast spot.
Although, they seem to be trying to keep the coffee shop vibe going, as this spot is somewhat of a satellite of the main restaurant/​bar.
RIP Vintage. I’ll miss you, you lovely cheesy breakfast burrito you, and your vintage price point.

Wow, I can’t believe that a small coffee is only $ 1, and the next giant size up is a fraction of the cost more! Those prices are unthinkable in today’s world. Plus, they serve Peerless Coffee, the coffee served at the student union during my college days in which I still adore dearly today.
I didn’t get the luxury to sit around the cozy-​looking café when I went there, but it’s quite alright. I was sweating up a storm just waiting for the lady to serve me up my Soy Café Au Lait. A/​C please! Next time when I’m brave enough to lounge around, a veggie burrito for $ 3 seems very nice to try. I will give it another shot at a later date.

cool, kitschy little spot for an inexpensive bite to eat or a cup o’ joe. I enjoyed lunch here with a friend. I tried their persona meat lovers pizza — excellent. Homemade pizza with plenty of toppings and that great doughey-​lots-​a-​cheese extra bit of personal attention to my pie. Loved it.
My little table was pretty loose (the two-​top in back). I felt a bit like I was eating aboard a ship on the open sea with the table flopping up and down.
Comfy, cozy spot with good cheap eats. A bastion of vintage sanity. I will return — maybe with some tools for that table.

«Vintage» as in vintage prices. You will not find better coffee or breakfast burritos anywhere else in Sac for such 1980’s prices.
The folks are super nice and the ambiance is quaint and welcoming.
The flies are a bit annoying but I have not come across a coffee shop in Sac that is sans these devil insects. Blasted bug, why must you exist?
On the flip side, there is Charlie. The cute alien who just landed in the River City. If you’re looking for good people, Vintage does not seem to be in short supply.

Cheap food, good ambiance, and tasty! I’m a happy customer and will be back soon!

Wandered into the Vintage Café after having dinner at Hashi. A crazy music promoter, Kevin, who introduced himself as the Sacramento Bill Graham, invited us in to listen to the band. Their set started w/​some cuban/​salsa rhythms which degraded into some bad rapping. So my focus switched to the menu, which had some amazingly cheap prices. $ 4.50 for mini pizzas, one even had shrimp. Pabst Blue Ribbon beer was going for $ 1.50. If I lived in the area, I would definitely make it a point to have lunch there.

The manager always offends me with the smell of clove cigarettes, talk of high income, FREE TEA, eves dropping on my conversations; and the fact that the pizza tastes good is still making me suspicious.
Plus, some indie girl hanging out there told me I have nice hair.
5 STARS!

Vintage Café is a great place to sit read a book and people watch. They have great pizzas and the staff is really a fun bunch once you start talking with them.
Great local gem that is waiting for more visitors to come and enjoy its splendors.
I was able to read all four Twilight books there and I couldn’t have asked for a better place.

The idea of naming a place «Vintage Café» in a brand-​new building seems kind of odd, but there’s something about the place that seems a lot older. It’s not somethign I can put my finger on, but Vintage Café seems to have tapped into a Sacramento coffee shop vibe that has been around for decades: one that was commonplace here in Sacramento back when «Starbuck» was the character Dirk Benedict played on TV. It feels a bit like the original version of Java City, or No Jive, or Terra Roxa. Maybe that’s why the name works, and why the first time I walked through the door I felt like I had been hanging out there for years. The main modern touch is free Wi-​Fi, a nice thing.
The décor is just sort of eclectic and random, but it works. The help are friendly, cute downtown indie girls who smoke cigarettes. The coffee is inexpensive (99 cents for a 12 ounce cup ain’t bad in this day and age) and my cup of Italian roast was very, very good: just the right bite but with a surprisingly smooth and non-​bitter finish for a dark roast. I didn’t recognize the band playing on the radio when I came in because I’m old and hopelessly lame, but I liked the band immediately. They sell sandwiches and sushi and pastries at reasonable prices.
My only complaint is that they close early: this is really the sort of place that should be open late at night, with crowds of semi-​employed urbaneenies smoking cloves, arguing philosophy and talking mad smack about any of their social circle who doesn’t happen to be sitting there at the table. Hopefully someday they will be.

Vintage Café is connected – both spatially and by way of management – to the abominable Stonegrill restaurant on the corner of 21^st and L. My first visit, though pleasant, did little to excite me about the prospect of returning. Good news first: they do have both a strong, reliable wireless signal and comfortable chairs, which is more than can be said for Naked Lounge or Hina’s. All the employees were helpful, friendly, and enthusiastic. North facing windows brighten the cozy interior, and do much to advertise an otherwise nondescript space. My latte and muffin were both solid.
VC gets its pastries from Dante’s bakery on Fulton, and its coffee from North Bay Roasters in Sonoma. I had a latte and a chocolate chip muffin, and found each somewhat inferior to what is available through Old Soul, Freeport Bakery, or Bella Bru. I asked the (very friendly) barista if they had considered Old Soul as a supplier, and he said, «I know, right? Their pastries are hella good.» Totally.
The term «vintage» can mean any number of things, and the design element reflects the unhappy ambiguity of the term. The décor is cheery and sparse, but thoughtless and haphazard. The color palette – bright reds and yellows, accompanied by gray tables and countertops – reminds one of McDonald’s circa 2000. Kitschy metal advertisements are strewn carelessly across a large red wall. They do more recall the gristly, cluttered tackiness of Cracker Barrel than anything that is recognizably «vintage.» One sign reads, «Frosty Milkshakes: They’re Delicious!» I agree. The opposite wall seizes on an entirely different sense of «vintage,» and features art deco posters littered with Italian phrases and stylized depictions of coffee cups and industrial machinery. This result is not a harmonious blend of varied elements, but a chaotic jumble of contradictory concepts.
The carelessness with which VC is decorated perplexes but does not surprise: its owners are responsible for the similarly confused aesthetic of the adjacent Stonegrill and the utterly atrocious décor of Nishiki. The little things count, and VC seems to me to suffer from a certain inattention to detail. It is patently not a bad place, but neither is it a good one.