Business Journal: TBar And Fusion Cafe, Sac City Brews, Sac Yard Tap House, Wine Symposium

A Chico-based fast-casual eatery will open a site in midtown Sacramento later this year. It'll be at The Sofia, the B Street Theatre's new complex at 27th Street and Capitol Avenue. The Sacramento Business Journal's Digital Editor Sonya Sorich says it's called TBar and Fusion Cafe.

"As its name suggests, it has an extensive tea menu," says Sorich. "We're talking about hundreds of tea beverages: sparkling tea drinks, latte tea drinks, frozen sorbet beverages and more. And if you want traditional hot tea, you can get that too."

The menu will include wraps and bowls. The Sofia opens next Tuesday, but the TBar and Fusion Cafe isn't expected to open until May or June.

The Sacramento area tap house scene continues to get more crowded. Sorich says two new beer places have opened: Sac City Brews in Tahoe Park and Sac Yard Community Tap House in East Sacramento.

"Both of these places are designed as community gathering places with a family-friendly vibe," says Sorich. "These new businesses don't brew beer, but instead they serve beers from several existing brewers."

Another brewery that just opened in El Dorado County is Stash Brewing in Garden Valley near Coloma. At least two more new breweries are scheduled to open next month: Red Bus Brewing Company in Folsom and Moksa Brewing Company in Rocklin.

Fasten your belts for the future. That was the message from wine industry researchers to people who attended the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium at the Sacramento Convention Center this week. Sorich says, now that more people are buying groceries online, there's a sales change looming for the wine industry.

"Because a lot of wine purchases in stores are impulse buys," says Sorich. "Now that's a different dynamic when your shopping for groceries and other household items online."

Researchers say about 30 percent of wine purchases in retail stores are unplanned. Numbers also show that consumers who shop in stores spend about 6 percent of their bill on wine. But online it's only 1 percent.