First-time visitors to Swabbies Restaurant may be forgiven for thinking they’ve missed it.  There’s a sign on Garden Highway, but it comes miles beyond anything but homes and farms.  “It’s hard to find and no one can get to it, but we’ve turned that to our advantage,” said Christopher Barabino, who with his wife, Michelle, has owned Swabbies since 2006.

The couple has worked at the restaurant since 2003. "We advertise it as a destination,” he said. “It has a resort feel to it almost.” Most of the seating is outdoors under giant trees, and offers a view of the river. “You can have a really good time out here for two or three hour,” said Christopher Barabino, who hires the entertainment and does long-range planning for the restaurant. He knows many customers by name.  Michelle Barabino is the menu creator and chef, and she’s in charge of the 35 employees and day-to-day operations. People wear whatever they like to dine there—even bathing suits.

“You can be sitting with a banker and biker, or farmer and a boater. We have a guest dock, so people who are recreational boating can stop in. That’s a big part of our business,” said Christopher Barabino, who adds that Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is a regular. Although there are 19 beers on tap, including Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat, the Barabinos say they want to be known more as a restaurant than a bar. “You can get a beer anywhere. But we’ve had many people say we have the best fish tacos they’ve ever tasted, and these are people who have traveled,” Michelle Barabino said. (The tacos are made of Corona beer-battered cod in Parmesan-crusted corn tortilla shells.)

The couple—he is 41, she is 38—spend up to 60 hours per week at Swabbies in the busy summer season, when the evenings are warm and the restaurant has live music. Although they operate at a loss in winter, they’re committed to remaining open then, too. “That way, if you do drive all the way out here, you’re not ticked off” to find the restaurant closed, Michelle Barabino said. The business’ annual revenue growth has been 10 percent to 20 percent in each of the past four years, and that’s due in part to finding a niche in catering parties for 30 to 60 people, including retirement, birthday and graduation parties.

“I’ve booked 40 parties so far this year. Sometimes, we have three to four at once,” said Michelle Barabino, noting the restaurant can seat up to 500 people. They also have a store that sells boating related merchandise, and you can book a waterskiing or wakeboarding lesson or just a pull behind a boat.

“The new thing is, on our Friday nights, you have to wait—sometimes an hour—to be served,” she said. “We’re trying really hard to educate people that we’re not compromising with the food. If it takes that long, it takes that long. “People hate it, but that’s why they love us,” she added. Rhonda Schubert, a sales representative with Sysco Foods who has taken care of food purchasing for Swabbies for eight years, said the couple has turned what used to be a bar with a few food items into an oasis-like destination with great food. “They each have their own distinct roles in the restaurant and they complement each other very well,” said Schubert, who used to own Rascal’s Pub on Folsom Boulevard.

“They’re not afraid to try new things, either, like a rib cook-off.”  “The music they book is key,” she added. “They book top-notch local bands, and that really draws the crowds.” Chris Rupprecht, general manager for Southwest Airlines in Sacramento, points out that the food is consistently good whether you go on a busy Saturday or a sleepy Tuesday.

“It can be a challenge handling hundreds of people, but they do a great job,” he said. “They’re able to make people feel really comfortable.”