Zelda's Gourmet Pizza, the Midtown institution that nearly closed for good two years ago, is opening its doors for a six-course wine dinner and auction on August 30 to benefit Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with chef N'gina Guyton crafting the evening's menu and Amador County's Casino Mine Ranch pouring wine pairings throughout the night.
According to FOX40, the event also includes an auction of Sacramento experiences, with attendees able to bid on VIP access to the Aftershock Festival. That festival is billed as the West Coast's largest rock event, drawing more than 140 artists and 160,000 fans to Discovery Park each October while generating over $39 million in local economic impact, according to Visit Sacramento.
A Pizzeria That Almost Didn't Make It
Zelda's has a long history in Midtown Sacramento, tracing back to 1978 when founder Zelda Breslin opened the restaurant at 1415 21st Street after learning to make Chicago-style deep-dish pizza at Pizzeria Uno, according to background detailed by SacramentoRevealed.com. The restaurant closed in August 2024 amid financial strain under second-generation owner Kerry Matthews, a shutdown Hoodline covered in its piece Sacramento bids goodbye to Zelda's.
The pizzeria didn't stay dark for long. Regular customers Jon Stevenson and Beau Cornell purchased and revived Zelda's that November, keeping the original kitchen staff and recipes intact, a turnaround Hoodline followed in Zelda's reopens under new owners. The comeback earned recognition last October, when the Sacramento History Alliance presented Zelda's with its Preservation Sacramento Award at the Burnett Awards for keeping the local culinary landmark alive.
A Chef With Deep Sacramento Roots
Leading the kitchen for the wine dinner is chef N'gina Guyton, a familiar name in Sacramento's food scene. Guyton co-founded the soul food restaurant South in 2014 and later revived the landmark diner Jim-Denny's in 2023, though that restaurant closed abruptly this past July following a property dispute, as reported by CapRadio. Last September, Guyton was one of four lead chefs Visit Sacramento selected for the 12th annual Tower Bridge Dinner, where she helped craft a menu celebrating the culinary traditions of the Americas, according to Comstock's magazine.
Pouring alongside Guyton's six-course menu will be wines from Casino Mine Ranch, the Amador County winery owned by fourth-generation California brothers Jim and Rich Merryman. The winery expanded its production capacity last August by acquiring Turley Wine Cellars' facility in the Shenandoah Valley, a move that allowed it to shift toward 100% estate-based wine production, per Wine Business. Zelda's and Casino Mine Ranch have paired up before, having hosted a similar wine dinner at the Midtown location in June 2025.
Why the Food Bank Needs the Help
Proceeds from the evening go to Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services, an organization facing steep demand across the county. The food bank distributed more than 40.5 million pounds of food in 2025, the equivalent of nearly 33.8 million meals delivered through direct services and 112 partner organizations, according to GivingEdge.
The need behind those numbers is significant. More than 427,000 Sacramento County residents live below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, meaning more than 1 in 4 local neighbors are at risk of food insecurity, according to the Carmichael Times. For a restaurant that itself once teetered on the edge of closing, hosting a fundraiser aimed at keeping other Sacramento residents fed carries its own kind of resonance.
