Kupros owners to open takeout sandwich shop, Hawaiian restaurant near midtown Sacramento

Regulars Samara Palko, right, and husband Pater Palko, midtown Sacramento residents for 19 years, enjoy drinks in Kupros Craft House’s outdoor parklet in May 2023, on 21st Street.

Kupros Craft House’s owners are opening two takeaway food concepts where a downtrodden convenience store has stood, they confirmed Thursday.

Keegan Currey and Steve Tokuhama plan to halve what was once Sunny’s Market at 2800 G St. in the Marshall School neighborhood near midtown Sacramento, they said. The duo will then open a sandwich shop on one side of the building, and a poke, ramen and Hawaiian barbecue concept on the other.

Both the sandwich shop and poke joint remain unnamed, and won’t open for another six months to a year, Currey said. The partners recently broke ground on the project after waiting three years for city permits to do so.

Tokuhama is no stranger to long revitalization projects, having purchased the then-92-year-old building at 1217 21st St. in 2002 and opened Kupros in that space eight years later. Along with Currey, the general manager and co-owner, he’s built the midtown Sacramento gastropub into a choice happy hour and late night destination.

The former Sunny’s Market has a redwood frame, as does Kupros, Tokuhama said. He and Currey plan to remove the stucco covering to expose that wood, divide the interior with a wall and install three to-go windows along 28th Street.

Born and raised on Oahu, Tokuhama’s family owned a Hawaiian restaurant and a Japanese-inspired coffee shop during his childhood in the 1970s. That side of the building will draw on family recipes and traditions, he said.

“A lot of these concepts are going to be recipes directly from my grandmother, very traditional recipes that we’re going to bring to Sacramento,” Tokuhama said.

While alcohol service makes up a substantive part of Kupros’ revenue, the new businesses will be dry, Currey said. It’ll instead have craft sodas and other nonalcoholic drinks, along with grab-and-go food items prepared in-house.

Sunny’s Market closed earlier in 2024, according to the Sacramento Business Journal, which first reported Currey and Tokuhama’s plans for the space.

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