Anti-LGBTQ violence at Roseville pizzeria sparks concern, support: ‘There is no room for hate’

Blaze Pizza’s 96 California pizzerias are known for build-your-own pies rapidly fired in 800-degree ovens, along with Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James’ corporate investments. Last week, its Roseville location made headlines for an uglier reason.

A delivery driver walked into the Highland Reserve Marketplace restaurant about 10:15 p.m. Sept. 19, saw a Pride flag hung by employees inside and tore it down to the ground, according to the Roseville Police Department.

When a manager and employees confronted the man, he reportedly uttered a homophobic slur and left. He then returned with two other men, at least one of them wearing mixed martial arts gloves, and kicked off a brawl with two employees that multiple passersby caught on video.

The attack is being investigated as a hate crime and the suspects are still at large, police spokesman Lt. Chris Ciampa said in the release. He did not respond to requests for further comment.

Blaze’s Roseville employees weren’t given permission to comment to the media. A corporate statement decried the violence without delving into details of the altercation.

“The safety and security of our staff and guests is of the utmost importance. While we cannot comment on specifics given this is an ongoing investigation, we absolutely condemn this type of violence and will work with authorities to bring resolution to this isolated incident,” Blaze’s statement read.

The Blaze altercation was startling but not too surprising to Ruby Shields, who owns Anchored Eats snack shack and food boat in Granite Bay. Shields grew up in El Dorado Hills and lives there today with her wife, Rebecca, in a political environment she described as similar to Roseville.

It wasn’t an easy place for a lesbian to grow up, Shields said, though it has gotten better over time. People stopped giving her and Rebecca strange looks at grocery store a couple of years ago, she said.

While she and Rebecca have never had issues with customers — many know they’re married — they’ve also never felt comfortable flying a Pride flag at their establishment. Anchored Eats opened in 2021, but Shields only added the “LGBTQ-owned” badge to its Yelp profile two months ago, and doesn’t bother correcting guests who assume business partner Ben Shirley is her husband.

“We’ve been looked at with respect, but it’s always on the back of your mind, you know, ‘should I be saying this?’” Shields said. “It’s not even something that I really even want to put out there because you never know. I mean, it’s horrible that it’s so close to home. Roseville is right down the street from where we’re at.”

Anchored Eats will open a second Folsom Lake snack shack at Beals Point in summer 2025 or 2026, perhaps with a pizza oven. Meanwhile, Shields said she’d look for ways to support Blaze’s employees, including being more vocal about her own identity.

Rapid population growth , especially from Bay Area transplants, has reshaped Roseville over the past 15 years. Different ideologies regarding LGBTQ+ issues have particularly clashed at times in conservative-leaning Placer County and its largest city.

The city council voted down a proposal to fly Pride flags from government buildings in 2021, and a planned Roseville High School drag show was canceled last year after parents sent more than 2,000 emails expressing their concerns. Placer County has no physical LGBTQ+ center , which advocates say leaves vulnerable people at risk.

Yet last Thursday’s violence was condemned even by figures such as Matthew Oliver, the outspoken House of Oliver restaurateur, Roseville pastor and Rocklin City Council candidate who has opposed past Placer County LGBTQ+ initiatives.

“There is no room for hate in our community,” Oliver wrote in a Facebook post , along with the hashtags “#blazepizza” and “#WeStandUnited.”

What I’m Eating

Stockton Boulevard’s northern end has the UC Davis Medical Center. Further south, you get into Little Saigon’s crackly bánh mì spots and soul-warming pho joints. Forgotten Bakery aims to revitalize the thoroughfare’s oft-overlooked middle section.

Opened in March by business and life partners Robby Naim and Paul Dollar, Forgotten Bakery makes bagels and empanadas, two baked goods that are hard to find done well in the Sacramento area. Naim’s parents ran Bagel Mania Bakery in the Bay Area, while Dollar’s Chilean heritage inspired the hefty hand pies now made in Forgotten Bakery’s small kitchen (all seating is outdoors) on the border of the Fruitridge Pocket and Colonial Heights neighborhoods.

The bagels are fermented in Pabst Blue Ribbon overnight, rolled by hand and boiled in honey water. You can take home sesame, poppy seed, plain or everything bagels ($3 for a single, $16.50 for six or $34 for a baker’s dozen) with eight ounces of plain or scallion cream cheese ($7.50 and $8.50) , or indulge in a bagel sandwich.

There’s the classic Loxann ($15) with smoked salmon, dill fronds, pickled onions and tomatoes, or the summertime sando ($13.50) bearing sliced avocado, English cucumber, red pepper flakes and housemade tahini-lime sauce in lieu of cream cheese. Though the bagels had the requisite chewiness and crackly crust missing from many area imitators, the ingredients’ distribution could be a little screwy, resulting in some bites full of flavor and others that were lacking.

Empanadas de pino are Chile’s classic beef-raisin-hard boiled egg-black olive turnovers, salty and savory with thick dough and a lingering kick. They’re certainly worth trying at Forgotten Bakery, along with ethereally creamy spinach-and-cheese with smoked Gouda and gently tangy guava cream cheese empanadas (each $6.50) born in Cuba.

Forgotten Bakery

Address: 4650 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento

Hours: 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday

Phone: 916-476-6224

Website: forgottenbakery.com

Drinks: Coffee, tea and a few carbonated soft drinks

Vegetarian options: Two empanadas and most bagel sandwiches

Noise level: Not much from customers or business operations, but some from Stockton Boulevard traffic

Outdoor seating: Six tables on wood chips and a small patio. No indoor seating, and no bathroom

Openings & Closings

▪ Tacos El Rey opened its first brick-and-mortar restaurant last Saturday at 10535 Folsom Blvd. in Rancho Cordova. It previously served tortas, quesadillas and more out of two taco trucks, one of which will continue operating at 2225 McGregor Drive.

▪ Elsewhere on Folsom Boulevard, Bollywood Pizza will open Tuesday near Sacramento State’s campus. The fusion pizzeria gives pies Indian-inspired toppings such as shahi paneer, butter chicken and achari gobi at 6601 Folsom Blvd., Suite 100.

▪ Le Bon Vin Boutique opened Sept. 13 at 6099 Horseshoe Bar Road, Suite A in Loomis. The wine bar with charcuterie and a retail section debuted just nine days after owner Natalie Simonoff, formerly Fourk Kitchen’s operations manager, gave birth to a baby boy.