Aiona opened in downtown Sacramento on Monday, April 20, 2026, filling a long-empty storefront at 1213 K Street. The new Mediterranean restaurant comes from the team behind Michelin-recognized Allora and represents roughly four million dollars in buildout investment.
The project is from WM Restaurants, the Sacramento hospitality group founded by chef and operator Deneb Williams and advanced sommelier Elizabeth-Rose Mandalou. Lee Hinton, who spent eight years at Allora and was most recently its executive chef, leads the kitchen at Aiona. “The food of the Mediterranean is very much iconically linked to cooking on charcoal and wood,” Hinton told Sacramento Bee food reporter Sean Timberlake at a press preview on April 17.
The Team and the Concept
Williams has operated kitchens in Sacramento since 2007, beginning as head chef at Firehouse Restaurant in Old Town before launching WM Restaurants in 2016. His portfolio now includes Woodlake Tavern, Uptown Pizza Kitchen, and Allora, which has held a Michelin Guide Recommended listing in California since 2018. Williams has described the new concept as deliberately unfussy, telling Abridged, “This is not fussy tweezer food. We have that restaurant. This is not that.”
Mandalou, who passed the Court of Master Sommeliers Advanced Sommelier exam on her first attempt in 2017, designed the wine program. She has been publicly identified as Sacramento’s first female Advanced Sommelier and one of only three wine professionals in the city who have reached that level. Bottles at Aiona range from forty-five dollars to sixty-five hundred dollars and are organized by grape variety rather than region.
The Space and the Build
The roughly four million dollar buildout placed a central Mibrasa wood-and-charcoal grill at the heart of the kitchen. Mibrasa builds only about fifty of the ovens each year, and the installation anchors what Williams and Hinton describe as a fire-driven program. A 3,000-bottle wine cellar sits visible from the dining room, and a commissioned mural by Los Angeles artist Mike Willcox combines art deco and Greek imagery across a single long wall. The building is owned by Sacramento real estate developer Angelo Tsakopoulos through AKT Development.
Coral banquettes, wood paneling, a heated covered patio, a private events room, and an exposition kitchen visible from the dining room round out the design.
Menu and Opening Hours
The menu is built around fire-cooked proteins paired with a rotation of eight seasonal sides. Signature dishes include a wet-brined rotisserie chicken finished with toum, a 72-hour sous-vide short rib, fried kalamari with skordalia, mussels with chorizo and piquillo, and a wood-roasted branzino. Lunch entrees average thirty to thirty-five dollars and dinner plates run sixty-five to seventy-five dollars. Aiona serves lunch and a weekday happy hour along with dinner six nights a week, with the restaurant closed on Sundays.
Context in Downtown Sacramento
The K Street storefront had been dark for nearly seven years before the Aiona team took it over. Its previous tenant, Esquire Grill, opened in 1999 and closed in June 2019 after a twenty-year run, citing lease expiration and extended construction disruption from the adjacent Sacramento Convention Center and Community Theater project.
Aiona also opens into a steadily maturing Sacramento fine-dining market. The 2025 Michelin Guide California recognized seventeen Sacramento restaurants, including two one-star operations at Localis and The Kitchen, eight Recommended listings (among them Allora), and four Bib Gourmand selections. Sacramento hosted the August 2024 Michelin Guide California ceremony, the first time the organization brought its annual event to the city.
Sources
Abridged, Aiona Brings Wood-Fired Mediterranean Cooking to Downtown Sacramento
Comstock's Magazine, Elizabeth-Rose Mandalou, Sacramento's First Female Advanced Sommelier
Visit Sacramento, Michelin Rated Restaurants
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