Block Craft Beer Kitchen opens in Pocket

Sacramento’s Pocket neighborhood just got a new beer-and-food anchor. Block Craft Beer + Kitchen opened on Friday at 7485 Rush River Drive, in the space many locals still think of as the old Device Brewing location. That matters because this is not just another restaurant opening — it fills a pretty visible gap in a neighborhood that lost one of its casual hangout spots. Basically, Pocket now has a new place trying to be both a taproom and a community living room. ### What actually opened? Block Craft Beer + Kitchen is a brewhouse-style restaurant with craft beer, a full food menu, and a big emphasis on hanging out rather than just grabbing a drink and leaving. The business is using the former Device Brewing Co. space, so the bones were already there for a neighborhood beer spot — large industrial room, taproom feel, easy familiarity for Pocket regulars. Who's behind it? The project comes from local partners Jason Jokerst and Tim Giordano. Their pitch has been pretty clear from the start: elevated food, craft beer, and a place built around community. That sounds like standard restaurant copy, but in this case the details line up with that goal — family-friendly positioning, nonalcoholic options, and live-entertainment ambitions all point to a broader neighborhood hangout, not a narrow beer-geek bar. ### Why does the old Device space matter? Because openings like this are easier to understand when you know what came before. Device Brewing had already given the Pocket site an identity as a beer destination, so Block Craft is not inventing demand from scratch. It is inheriting a location that people already associate with everything from the tap list to the vibe. ### What’s the draw beyond beer? The place is leaning on food as much as drinks. Its own site calls it a craft kitchen as well as a brewhouse, and online ordering shows a full restaurant-style menu rather than just snacks built to support alcohol sales. That matters because neighborhood concepts tend to last longer when they can catch more than one use case — lunch, family dinner, game-night drinks, and weekend meetups instead of only late-night traffic. ### How big is the beer program? One of the clearest specifics out there is the 16 rotating taps. That is enough to make the beer side feel serious, but not so huge that the place reads like a specialist bottle-shop bar. Turns out that middle ground is probably the point — broad enough for regulars to keep finding something new, simple enough for casual customers who just want one good pour with dinner. ### Why is this a Pocket story, not just a restaurant story? Pocket is the kind of neighborhood where a single hospitality opening can change the weekly routine. Residents do not always want to drive into Midtown for a decent tap list or a social dinner spot. So when a recognizable local space reopens with a fresh concept, the impact is practical — fewer reasons to leave the neighborhood for that kind of night out. ### Is this part of a bigger Sacramento pattern? Yes — at least in a modest way. Sacramento’s food-and-drink scene keeps churning through closures, replacements, and second-life spaces. Block Craft fits that pattern neatly: one operator exits, another comes in, but the address stays part of the local hospitality map. That is usually healthier than a dark storefront, especially in a neighborhood commercial strip. ### Bottom line The simple version is this: Pocket lost a known brewery space, and now it has a new one with a broader restaurant angle. If Block Craft can turn those 16 taps, the food menu, and the community pitch into a real routine for locals, this opening will matter more as a neighborhood reset than as a one-day launch.