After serving up lattes, homemade sandwiches, salads and made-from-scratch pastries for nearly a dozen years, Redding’s Caffé Pagato is preparing to close its longtime location on the corner of Butte and Continental streets.
The breakfast and lunch spot’s decision to shutter 1031 Butte St. to the public is in part fallout of increasing tariffs on coffee imports and rising costs that generally are hitting all kinds of small businesses, general manager Makayla Yaeger said.
The cafe’s located on the ground floor of the Davis professional building, home to the California Department of Transportation’s Redding offices. Post-pandemic, there are now fewer employees on site who can be potential cafe customers, said Yaeger.
The Butte Street location will close on April 30.
But there is also an upside to the changes coming to Caffé Pagato: It’s opening a new location inside the Shasta Community Health Center on Placer Street in July.
The new site joins a second cafe the company has operated in the lobby of Mercy Medical Center Redding for several years. And on the government service side, Caffé Pagato’s foods and drinks have been sold from a small counter set up inside the first-floor lobby of Redding City Hall.
The breakfast and lunch restaurant expects its new location at the Shasta Community Health Center to continue to draw health care workers and visitors, many of whom already make the two-and-a-half block walk to the cafe’s Butte Street location to pick up coffee, breakfast or lunch.
Personnel from the nearby Shasta Regional Medical Center and Redding Rancheria Tribal Health System also frequent the cafe.
The Shasta Community Health Center invited the cafe’s owners to locate on their campus, said Yaeger.
Customers also come from all over Redding to buy the shop’s pastries, which are made on site.
So, after the move to Shasta Community Health, the cafe’s spot on Butte Street will become a central corporate kitchen. Workers will use the site to prepare dishes for Caffé Pagato’s two restaurants and catering operation as well as supply foods sold at its Redding City Hall location, Yaeger said.
New leadership at the restaurant will oversee the transition and bring new food and beverage items, with that creativity always being one of the cafe’s hallmarks.
Yaeger took over last year as general manager of the cafe after longtime general manager Melissa Haun stepped back from her day-to-day duties after having a baby.
Tanner Noris is a Shasta College culinary program grad who’d already been working for the cafe and recently took over running the bakery department. He’s dreaming up their next mealtime hits, Yaeger said.
“I often will say, ‘hey, you know what sounds really good? Something with rosemary.’ And now we have a rosemary lemon scone coming out soon,” Yaeger said.
She added that Noris is “continuing a lot of our old recipes but then bringing in a new flare to them. Tanner is the one who’s been creating all our salads and wraps and sandwiches.”
Their specials rotate and vary by season.
Recently, sandwiches ($10.50-$11) served cold or as a warm panini pressed on sourdough included the Blackberry Bacon with cream cheese, thick-cut bacon, blackberry preserves, pepper relish, sriracha honey aioli and pepper jack cheese. Their Turkey Chipotle comes with turkey breast, thick-cut bacon, pepper jack cheese, cream cheese, tomato, red onion and creamy chipotle aioli.
The Ultimate Grilled Cheese and Veggie includes mozzarella, cheddar, hummus, red onion, tomato, roasted red pepper, spinach, herb aioli, cream cheese, cucumber, carrot and spring salad mix.
There’s also Turkey Quiche ($7), Sausage Breakfast Sammy ($7.25) and a variety of salads ($10)
People can call the cafe in advance to find out the rotating daily special.
As for beverages, there are a variety of hot, iced coffees or blended coffees, Italian sodas and loose leaf teas. Flavors made in-house include honey lavender, salted caramel rum and dulce de leche. Prices range from $4.20 for a small drip brew to $8.50 for a large flavored latte.
Their seasonal beverages for spring include a blueberry matcha with honey-lavender cold foam and a vanilla salt latte.
Check out the display case for an array of in-house made sweets, including lemon squares ($5.50), tiramisu ($7.50), and apple crumble or lavender sugar croissants (both $6.75.)
Both eateries will continue to offer an altruistic hallmark: an invitation for people to “pay it forward” by covering someone else’s bill, either because the other person is low on cash, or just to be kind.
At both sites, wall-mounted pinboards display handwritten notes from people who’ve anonymously pre-paid for coffees for another customer, said Yaeger.
More information can be found on the restaurant’s website.
Michele Chandler covers public safety, reports on trials in Shasta County Superior Court, writes about restaurants and foodies and handles whatever else comes up for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Accepts story tips at 530-338-7753 and at mrchandler@gannett.com. Please support our entire newsroom’s commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Craft coffee shop closes on Butte Street to open a new Redding spot
Reporting by Michele Chandler, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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