When times get tough, the tough get glossy

You own a coffeehouse and suffer through all the headaches such a mug-spinning act requires. Then your landlord drops the bomb: Due to the success of the area around your business—success that your business helped create, mind you—your rent is going up. Considerably. Oh, and those higher payments are due when your lease is up. Ding! Ding! Ding! Your lease is up.

Capitol Garage owner Gerald Mitchell, who prefers Jerry, thought his moderately successful coffeehouse was permanently garaged when that happened to him in 2004. The business that the Inland Empire transplant started with no previous cafe experience 15 years ago this month inside a former automotive facility, that the former Costco systems manager started because it sounded like a much cooler thing to be doing than giving another dozen years of his life to a membership warehouse store, was suddenly homeless. Or garageless.

With no intention of moving out of the area—“I would hate going anywhere else,” Mitchell says now. “I love Midtown. I love downtown.”—he found a new space a mere block from the original Capitol Garage location at 15th and L streets, which has since sprung the more shi-shi Mason’s Restaurant, Ma Jong’s Asian Diner and the Park Ultra Lounge, collectively known as The Park.

The potential for disaster loomed. 15th and L gets a steadier stream of vehicle traffic than Capitol Garage’s current spot at 15th and K streets. The building, whose ground-floor corner the relocated business would occupy, required tough love.

So, naturally, it all turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Capitol Garage.

“By far, this is a better corner,” Mitchell says. “Instantly, when we opened, more people said it is easier get to. We were not expecting that.”

Sure, those who frequented the old Garage can wax eloquently about its grunginess; how it helped foster a local all-ages music scene; how the house would be so packed for bands like Cake, patrons would line up to watch through the windows. But Mitchell’s rent is much lower in the new space, and he has classed things up. The former coffeehouse is now a full-fledged café/restaurant/bar/nightspot where state workers go for early morning eye-openers, a diverse lunch crowd swoops in at midday and the local swankeratti can lounge until closing.

The menu reflects the ever-changing clientel, with traditional on-the-go items, caffeinated battery acids and the usual diner fare sharing menu space with gourmet appetizers, an impressive wine list and executive chef Jonathan Clemons’s more inspired main dishes.

Capitol Garage’s full bar doomed what had been one of Sacramento’s rare all-ages music venues back in the day. But its shiny modern incarnation still nurtures local talent with weekly jazz jam sessions, live rock, blues and hip hop nights, and reggae dancehall spun by a DJ. It even nurtures non-talent with karaoke.

To celebrate its 15th anniversary, Capitol Garage is draping a special banner down the side of the building. Check www.capitolgarage.com for details on upcoming special events, including new wine-pairing dinners. Up first on October 11: Chateau Ste. Michelle. An invite-only bash featuring local bigwigs is scheduled at the end of the month.

“To be where we came from to where we are now, it’s just night and day,” Mitchell says. “I’m very proud of my roots, but I’m also proud we’ve really been able to progress and get better.”

Capitol Garage is located at 1500 K Street. Call (916) 444-2366 for more information.