Good eats

by Kati Garner | July 24, 2007 at 07:15 pm

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Casa Garden's joyful volunteers create gourmet food for a great cause

By Colleen Truelsen
The East Sacramento News

Lunch in a garden setting with fresh, gourmet food, expertly plated is a welcome indulgence.

Take that same lunch and know that the $15.34 meal supports the Sacramento Children’s Home, and suddenly it’s not pampering – it’s philanthropy.

Casa Garden Restaurant on Sutterville Road has raised some $2.5 million for the children’s home since it opened in ’74, yet the Los Niños Service League that operates it refuses to rest on its laurels.
Success lies in the details, they say.

"Our restaurant manager pays a lot of attention to color and presentation,” says league President Ginger Salmon. “She looks for what’s fresh and what’s pretty.”

The restaurant also insists on perfect presentation.

“There is someone at the end of the line, a plater, who makes sure the rim is clean, the garnishes are perfect,” adds 12-year volunteer Marlene Oehler. “It’s a final quality check.”

“And,” notes Salmon, “we pay attention to the table settings, to how the coffee cup is placed.”

The league knows it’s in a tough, competitive business with a restaurant. Its volunteers believe they have the edge with the cause they support, the food quality, the restaurant’s ambiance, and its location – at the confluence of highways 99, 50 and 80.

But while it’s a tough business, its volunteers make it look like a garden party.

A pre-noon visit during the week finds a dedicated group of volunteers in the kitchen, happily following directions by the professional chef in charge this day, assistant chef Jennifer Sopinski, while good-natured chatter keeps the atmosphere stress-free.

Even 91-year-old Teresa Sardelich is smiling while stirring the pot, literally and figuratively.

In the dining room, professionally-clad volunteers serve quickly and efficiently, but with warmth and genuine affection. Leave a big tip, and they say the kitchen staff will cheer. It’s all about the cause.

“It’s addictive,” Salmon says about volunteering at Casa Garden. “Everyone here wants to be here. Everyone is real committed to the cause. We get jazzed when the numbers are up.”

“In the beginning,” says Oehler, thinking back to the restaurant’s founding, “volunteers were clipping Betty Crocker coupons to buy the silverware.”

There were nay-sayers, too, during its earliest years. Some men of that era were still inclined to insist publicly that a women’s group could not run a business. Yet their organization skills and business management expertise have proven inarguably effective.
Cost-control is still imperative for the group – which donates all gratuities and profits to the Children’s Home.

“We encourage reservations,” Oehler stresses, “because we don’t want food prepared that we don’t need. We don’t want to waste food and cut into the profits.”

Reservations can be made daily from 11:30 to 1 p.m. Group reservations are frequent, with a minimum of 50 people required.

Oehler schedules three special lunches a year that feature music, or fashions, or food demonstrations to boost fund-raising further.

Ever-mindful they are fund-raising, the 450-plus volunteers (250 are active) of Los Niños Service League bought into Oehler’s lastest brain-storm a few years ago, turning a former gift shop into a meeting room. It’s been a hit, Salmon notes, drawing use from state and county government officials, and from businesses such as Proctor and Gamble and SMUD.

If there’s a penny to be made, these league volunteers are working it.

Besides the weekday lunches, private parties are always welcome – the dining room can hold 90 – and they offer weddings in a garden setting, with a wedding coordinator to work with the couple, and private bride and groom dressing rooms.

They’ll even open for a 7 a.m. breakfast for a minimum group reservation of 25.

A recruitment coffee is set for Sept. 26, for people interested in
volunteering. Both men and women are in the league these days.

Casa Garden Restaurant is located at 2760 Sutterville Road, on the grounds of the Sacramento Children’s Home. Phone (916)452-2809 for reservations and information.