A (Michelin) star is born: Auburn resident, Placer High grad achieves restaurant fame

Chris Barnum-Dann's time as a drummer and vocalist didn't lead to rock stardom, but a lengthy tour led to a fork in the road that took him down a path to restaurateur acclaim. Barnum-Dann, a 2001 graduate of Placer High School, was on the road with the death metal band Dismal Lapse several years ago, "trying foods from all over the place, and I kinda fell in love with those kind of things when I was on tour," he says. "When I came back, I realized I wasn't going to be a professional musician." Nor did he enjoy being an electrician. A commercial lured Barnum-Dann to apply for the Art Institute, and today, he's the owner and chef of Localis, a restaurant on the corner of 21st and S streets in downtown Sacramento that recently received a Michelin star. Sacramento has but one other Michelin-star restaurant: The Kitchen. "There are only 2,089 restaurants on earth with Michelin stars so it is a very, very serious honor," Barnum-Dann said Wednesday as he prepared a filet mignon. Barnum-Dann has come a long way since his first job at Hapa Sushi in Auburn. He moved on to Café Zorro in Loomis about 10 years ago before becoming the executive chef at Winchester Country Club in Meadow Vista and then opening Cibo 7 in Roseville. Barnum-Dann has owned Localis for seven years and has run the restaurant on his own since 2016. What vaults Localis to that Michelin-star level? His care for the employees, and technique in food preparation. "Fine-dining restaurants are notoriously bad for using their people to make the guests happy," Barnum-Dann says, and after "a pretty big thing" happened in his life, "I decided I was not going to step over the employees for the guests." His employees work a four-day week and are offered benefits and paid time off. "The increased happiness, concern and care for our team allows the team to be their best," says Barnum-Dann, a semifinalist for Best Chef in California by the James Beard Foundation in 2021 and Season 1 winner of "The Globe" competition on the Food Network. "It allows us to be at our best. "We have a lot of vulnerability conversations here, but they feel they can trust me and what we do here. That leads to really great conversations. People don't have to feel like they can't vocalize what's going on in their lives. It breeds better and better conversation as time goes on." His crew was busy and attentive Wednesday afternoon as they prepared food for another hungry crowd. Employee Adam Goldberg offered Barnum-Dann a taste test of salted cabbage. With farm to fork a Sacramento moniker, Barnum-Dann likes to offer "what's in season, most nutritious and it's delicious." He says there is a dedication at Localis "to technique and our uncanny ability to make things your average diner wouldn't eat accessible to them." While Barnum-Dann says he had to open Localis in a bigger city because, "I knew the level of food I was trying to do would not be accepted in Auburn – not yet at least," he's a partner with Pour Choice owners Melinda and Jordan Minyard in Kindred, scheduled to open in 2023. Kindred will be located at 875 Lincoln Way, a few buildings up the hill from the clock tower at the former site of Nancie's Tapes and CDs.