Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse
Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse in Sacramento, California is a brewery and smokehouse which attempts to provide customers with good times over smoked meat and chilled craft beer. Founded in 2018 by long-time friends Peter Hoey and Rob Archie, the idea of Urban Roots had occupied their collective imagination for almost a decade until the brewery finally materialized into the real world. The motivation behind the brewery is to offer people a place where they can get together with their friends or family and enjoy each other’s company with a range of delicious artisanal beer and scrumptious briskets thrown in.
Peter and Rob share a special love for saisons, which utilizes wild yeast fermentation techniques during production. Their love for saisons has taken them across the world to Germany and Belgium, where they’ve tasted their traditional wild ales. However, at Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse, you’ll be served a lot more than just saisons. You can expect to have a fill of light beer, dark beer, American ales, Belgian style lagers, and so much more. A variety of beer is made available to cater to every kind of person that walks in through their brewery’s doors. After all, Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse operates 46 taps.
The Story So Far
While Peter and Rob had been thinking of starting their own brewpub for a while, they were unable to until 2018, as Peter was working a job at a beer supply company which required him to travel a lot. So Rob opened up Pangaea Bier Café in 2008 and shelved the joint microbrewery business idea for the time being, as he didn’t want to proceed without Peter.
In 2016, as luck would have it, a 17,000 square foot brick and concrete industrial location became available in downtown Sacramento, and the duo agreed this must be a sign.
Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse offers a community space for people to come interact with strangers and potential friends or relax with a few pints shared among old buddies. The barbeque restaurant and taproom sell Texas-style house-smoked meats that you can bond over, while lounging around in oversized picnic tables out on the patio. The patio is beautifully covered with wall murals that pay tribute to the neighborhood’s culture and is sure to catch your eye when you visit.
Peter and Rob have left no stone unturned to provide customers with authentic Texan style barbeque. The custom smoker used to grill the meat here has been sourced from Mesquite, Texas itself. The machine can cook as much as 1,800 pounds of meat at once. Weighing all of 6.5 tons, it is equipped with a firebox in the back, which is filled with oak and almond logs. Unlike wood chips or pellets, which are commonly used, these burn hotter and release a lighter smoke. In turn, they are also able to produce a more clean tasting flavor.
Rob Archie persuaded his chef and sous chef at Pangaea to come down and join the team at Urban Roots. Gregory Desmangles, formerly a sous chef at Pangaea and currently working as the head chef at Urban Roots Brewing and Smokehouse, believes in offering simple and tasteful barbeque. He uses a secret blend of four spices for seasoning the brisket on Urban Root’s menu and serves the barbequed meat alone, along with four sauces you can pick as options.
Food, Drinks, and Vibe
Don’t miss out on Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse’s house-made pork sausages or even the turkey when visiting. Every portion of barbequed meat at this brewery restaurant is served alongside Southern-inspired sides such as coleslaw, collard greens, and poblano cheese grits. Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse really focuses on the comfort of its customers, and a home-like ambiance is what it is after.
The place has been designed keeping this home-like vibe in mind. It uses wood and more earthy material all over the open, airy premises. The outdoor patio is 3,300 square feet in area, and it looks right into the interior of the brewpub through the building’s signature windows from wall-to-ceiling. Local artists and illustrators had been roped in to paint murals both in the interiors and on the exteriors of the building.
When inside, you will be greeted by a concrete community table with metal stools strewn around it. Across the quartz bar, they pour a rotation on the 48 taps of Urban Roots’ in-house brews, guest draughts, and collaborations.
If you don’t have the time to spend soaking in Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse’s atmosphere, you can visit to pick up bottles or a canned four pack of your favorite brew. Urban Roots also provides crowler fills.
Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse beers which have widely gained acclaim are:
- Nice to Meet You: Unfiltered pale ale
- Push to Start: Porter with coffee, vanilla, and cocoa flavors
- Tomorrow’s Verse: Saison
- Riding a Bike: IPA
- Bier de Roots: Petit saison
- Fruits of Labor: Sour
If you’re confused about what to order, you can ask for samplers. Urban Roots also provides flights of six different beers. If you are not particularly fond of beer, you can order from their range of wines made available.
Customers love how family-friendly the brewpub is. Kids can come along and keep themselves entertained with the arcade machine. Even dogs are allowed on the outdoor patio, so you need not worry about leaving your furry friend home alone on a family night out.
Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse serves wild ales, porters, stouts, sours, IPAs, and an expansive range of craft brews for the discerning beer drinker. It also boasts of ciders and wines on its beverage menu. The briskets churned out here have become the talk of the town. The ambiance is warm, friendly, and comfortable. So really, a visit to Sacramento will be incomplete without dropping into this lovely smokehouse and brewery.
Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse is located at 1322 V St, Sacramento, California. For booking and more information about their beers, you can contact them by phone at 916-706-3741 or visit their official website.