Why this Sacramento restaurant and bar owner started an industry boxing club
Reached by phone on Boxing Day of all days, Raphael Jimenez Rivera wanted to make it clear: He doesn’t run a fight club.
Jimenez Rivera is the co-owner of Bodega Kitchen & Cocktails in Greenhaven and the founder of Bodega Boxing Club, a four-month-old boxing group run out of neighboring business Velez Martial Arts. It’s designed as a healthy outlet for Sacramento-area hospitality workers, with a focus more on exercise and community than knockouts.
Jimenez Rivera grew up in the Mike Tyson era and shared an affinity for boxing with his dad, who hosted friends to watch Pay-Per-View prize fights. Jimenez Rivera gravitated towards Muay Thai as he got older but conceived of an industry-focused boxing club after talking to Grant Allen, a Golden Gloves boxer and former sous chef at the Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar.
It’s his way to push wellness in the world of hard-partying cooks and bartenders, a mixture of cardio and brain engagement that he hopes will lead to better balance outside of the kitchen for himself and others.
“I’m 45. I have two kids. I want to make sure that I’m here for them for a while,” Jimenez Rivera said. “A lot of industry people, they’re dying younger than they should because a lot of them don’t take care of themselves. They live hard, play hard, and I think that part of the industry was glamorized. But the other part is taking care of yourself.”
Prominent chefs have gravitated toward martial arts such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu and judo in recent years, drawn in by the combination of physical demands, mental stimulation and competitive nature. Boxing’s one-on-one nature is similarly fulfilling, Jimenez Rivera said, especially for those who interact directly with guests.
“It’s nice sparring and having that tête-à-tête going back and forth,” Jimenez Rivera said. “It’s like bartending almost, you know, because bartenders are going back and forth with the customer. It’s not a battle, but it’s fun and it’s engagement.”
Bodega Boxing Club typically draws three to five participants at its 10 a.m. training sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though Jimenez Rivera hopes to meet three or four days per week in 2024. Beginners start with learning the techniques behind throwing a punch or putting together a combo, while more experienced members will sometimes spar with each other.
Boxers have come from Fox & Goose Public House, Nixtaco, Sunh Fish, Mix Downtown and even Trick Dog in San Francisco. Though Bodega Boxing Club is geared toward food and beverage industry employees, all participants are welcome, Jimenez Rivera said.
What I’m Eating
Hop Sing Palace is an appropriately-located step back in time in the heart of Folsom Historic District. Founded in 1957 by Ken Jeong, the grandfather of TV personality and journalist Lisa Ling, the pink-walled interior with faux stone arches calls to mind San Luis Obispo’s Madonna Inn if it were covered in old Tsingtao beer or 1999 car show posters.
Owned by Bill and Lana Lam since 1986, Hop Sing is Folsom’s oldest restaurant, a place where you’re liable to see two senior men celebrating a birthday lunch or a 4-year-old girl thrilled at the simple prospect of hot tea. Its long menu is rooted in Chinese American tradition, a collection of familiar Cantonese-inspired dishes that have stood the test of time.
Hop Sing beef ($15) is a house specialty worth trying. Thin beef fillets were coated in a sweet sauce similar to a Korean galbi marinade with hints of five-spice powder, slow-cooked until they’re tender enough to be cut with a spoon, then topped with sesame seeds and served with colorful shrimp crackers.
Sliced crimini in the mushroom chicken ($14) packed a surprising amount of flavor as well. A mixture of baby bok choy, water chestnuts and other vegetables along with the namesake ingredients came smothered in a rich gravy begging to be soaked up by white rice ($4).
Two disparate dishes, the onion ginger scallops ($18) and Sichuan eggplant with shrimp ($16), were similarly buttery under their deep-fried shells. The former was salty and served with refreshing ginger slices, while the latter could’ve used more of the implied heat.
Hop Sing Palace
Address: 805 Sutter St., Folsom.
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. seven days a week.
Phone number: (916) 985-7309.
Website: https://hopsingpalace.com/
Drinks: Beer, wine, tea and soda, none of which are more than $5 a glass.
Vegetarian options: Many.
Noise level: Relatively quiet.
Openings & Closings
▪ Sacramento has its first dueling piano bar: The Silver Lining, which debuted on New Year’s Eve. William Houser’s restaurant and cocktail lounge at 1414 16th St., the midtown home to Luna’s Cafe & Juice Bar for more than 40 years, emphasizes small bites to go with its musical entertainment.
▪ Fans of Russell Okubo’s Aji Japanese Bistro in El Dorado Hills can now find a sister restaurant at the top of Land Park: Fuji Sacramento, which Okubo opened with his nephew Kevin Oto at 1235 Broadway. Fuji aims to put a modern twist on traditional Japanese cooking, and its opening menu shares similarities with Aji including honey-macadamia nut prawns, sukiyaki with sliced rib-eye and chirashi bowls.
▪ Mexico Lindo closed both its Roseville and El Dorado Hills restaurants for good on Christmas Eve, owner Andres Valencia announced in an Instagram post. The refined Mexican restaurants served up dishes such as mahi mahi tacos and vegan portobello mushroom enchiladas.
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