Tag Archives: Banded Family Ranch

Beat the Heat at Break Even Beermakers

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A friendly goat at Banded Family Ranch, where hops are grown for Break Even Beermakers.
A friendly goat at Banded Family Ranch, where hops are grown for Break Even Beermakers.

Amador City, CA — Like so many Chico State students, Aaron Wittman drank his share of beer. But he started making his own then, too.

Today, that master’s of English graduate, is putting those other skills to work prominently as beermaker-partner of Break Even Beermakers, where he’s making exceptional brews now carried by the likes of Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurants State Bird Provisions and The Progress, as well as their sister establishment, The Anchovy Bar.

Break Even's Summer Bummer.
Break Even’s Summer Bummer.

“Tiny but mighty” is how he describes the brewery. It was founded nearly four years ago by Kevin Carter and Cassie Davis, who also own the Imperial Hotel a few yards away, as well as the nearby 90-acre Banded Family Ranch that plays an important role in the beer making.

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A Visit to California’s Smallest City

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The incredible seared house-made ricotta at the Imperial Hotel restaurant.
The incredible seared house-made ricotta at the Imperial Hotel restaurant.

Amador City, CA — At 0.3 square miles, this Gold Country town is indeed the smallest in the state by size.

It amounts to roughly 6 blocks.

What it lacks in magnitude, though, it more than makes up for in its rich history and present-day charm.

Jose Marie Amador, a wealthy rancher and gold miner, founded this Gold Rush town that’s one hour east of Sacramento. By the time its most famous mine closed in 1943, an estimated $24 million in gold had been mined, according to Visit Amador City.

The downtown is teeny, all of a block and a half, made up nowadays of wine tasting rooms, home-ware shops, cafes, and the Amador Whitney Museum. At its heart is the Imperial Hotel, a historic brick building originally built in 1879.

The historic Imperial Hotel.
The historic Imperial Hotel.

Last fall, Kevin Carter and his partner Cassie Davis took over the hotel, refurbishing it, before reopening it this spring. Two weeks ago, I was invited as their guest to check out the redone property, which includes a 130-seat, on-site restaurant headed by an executive chef who will be familiar to South Bay folks: Max Benson, whose family operated CB Hannegan’s in Los Gatos for 37 years. When Benson’s mom moved to Amador City, he eventually decided to follow suit.

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