Hawks is a food-and-wine haven located, perhaps unexpectedly, within a strip mall in Granite Bay, Calif., an affluent, primarily residential suburb east of Sacramento. When the restaurant debuted in 2007, Granite Bay wasn’t known as an area for fine dining, yet owners Michael Fagnoni and Molly Hawks were convinced that locals were eager for a good restaurant.
“There was a void of chef-owned restaurants,” explained Fagnoni. “It was all chain restaurants. We just wanted to create a really nice, casual restaurant serving honest food.”
Seventeen years later, Hawks has deeply embedded itself into its neighborhood as a haunt where locals often become repeat visitors, some even requesting servers by name. Fagnoni—a New York native who had previously worked in Bay Area kitchens such as Wine Spectator Grand Award Winner the Village Pub in Woodside and the now-shuttered Jardinière in San Francisco—said a big part of their success is individualized hospitality.
“We’re not in a big city, where you can make your money on reputation,” explained Fagnoni. “We need the return guests. We make a point to go to the table and say, ‘Hi.’ It goes a long way. Eventually, we started to form friendships and learn people’s names. We see fifty percent of our clientele at least once a week.”
Farm-to-Fork Food
With its proximity to hundreds of local farms, the Sacramento area owns the moniker of California’s “Farm-to-Fork” capital. But Fagnoni said he brought that philosophy to Hawks before the city’s reputation was established, working with local farms and applying French and Italian cooking techniques to the ingredients—preparing honest food from scratch. “We make everything as special as we can, down to making the brioche [bun] and pickles for our hamburger.”
The refined, seasonal menu runs the gamut from a beloved burger to handmade pasta to elegantly plated crudo and tartare. Among the signature dishes is the housemade charcuterie, which includes a rotating selection of cured meats, terrines and pâtés. A staple entrée is the slow-roasted short rib, which Fagnoni sweats in onions for eight hours. “We’re basically cooking it in French onion soup,” he said, noting that they then strain and reduce the braising liquid with veal stock and red wine to coat the dish.
Building an Award-Winning Wine List
In 2024, Hawks was upgraded to a Best of Award of Excellence, with a wine list boasting more than 500 selections. Wine director Marc Jensen is the man behind the promotion. Jensen joined in 2020 and, taking cues from the restaurant’s guest-first philosophy, built a comfort level with diners while slowly expanding their palates.
Early on, diners ordered what they knew. “Napa, Napa, Napa,” Jensen laughed, noting that wine sales used to be 90 percent California; now, wines from elsewhere make up nearly two-thirds of sales. He explained that much of this change is attributable to tableside education. “Everybody was very one-track minded because, in our backyard, we have some of the most iconic producers in the world. But after a couple years of developing relationships, they trust what we will put in front of them.”
Per Jensen, getting to know guests’ interests, and earning their trust, has even translated into diners letting him choose their wines for them. Still, for him, it’s first and foremost about the guest: “Let them tell you a little about themselves before making recommendations. It’s about the somm and the guest coming together to find that perfect bottle.”
With a curious clientele that enjoys the finer things, Jensen has also been able add plenty of marquee Napa Valley bottles from the likes of Inglenook, Dominus and Lokoya, as well as top-notch international selections from Gaja, Château Mouton Rothschild and others. Yet, the list is, overall, relatively moderately priced, with affordable bottles like Pinot Grigio from Friuli’s Jermann and Pinot Noir from California’s Alma de Cattleya. There are also wines from smaller, up-and-coming labels like Senses and Hundred Suns.
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