Coffee With E

Interview with Sachiko Baez: From Secret Club to Tuskegee Legacy at Coda Rouge

• Erica Rawls

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☕ What happens when a historic building once closed to people of color becomes a thriving restaurant built on legacy, purpose, and community? Meet Sachiko Baez, co-owner and executive chef of Coda Rouge, Harrisburg’s best-kept brunch secret. Step inside a space where history is honored on the walls and served on every plate.

✨ “We wanted this building to be a reflection of that… This is a safe space. Everybody, from every walk of life, can come in and just enjoy themselves.” – Sachiko Baez

This is not just a restaurant. It’s a story of transformation, honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, and creating a safe space where everyone belongs. With her partner Jameson Christopher, Sachiko turned vision into reality. Building a place that blends California cuisine, family recipes, and history in every bite.

☕ In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

  • How the name “Coda Rouge” directly honors the Tuskegee Airmen’s “Red Tails” legacy
  • The unexpected journey from a contractor’s private lounge to a community-focused restaurant
  • How a chef from California convinced a building owner to launch a restaurant (and found love along the way)
  • Why purpose drives every detail, from the speakeasy décor to the seasonal menu
  • How they’re mentoring local youth and building bridges in the community

📍 Visit Coda Rouge: 2013 North 6th Street, Harrisburg, PA | Open 8am-2pm Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm Sat-Sun

Follow their journey: Coda Rouge on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

⸻

#CoffeeWithE #EricaRawlsTeam #WomenInLeadership #NonprofitWork #LeadershipPodcast #InspirationalConversations #RealTalkPodcast #CodaRouge #SachikoBaez #JamesonChristopher #HarrisburgPA #HarrisburgRestaurants #BlackOwnedRestaurants #TuskegeeAirmen #RestaurantWithAPurpose #CommunityImpact #WomenInBusiness #BrunchGoals #CentralPAEats #HiddenGems #CulinaryMentorship



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Erica Rawls:

We are here at Cote Rouge. We have a special edition of Coffee with E. I'm sitting down with one of the co-owners, Sachiko Baez, and her co-owner, Damison Christopher. He's not with us. However, they both together have a dynamic story. You need to check this one out.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

Hi, I'm Sachiko Baez. I'm co-owner and executive chef of Côte-aux-Rouges Breakfast, brunch and Lunch. We've got it. We've got that boutique style very small, intimate and great vibe. We're located in Harrisburg, pennsylvania, 2013, north 6th Street. We're open 8 am to 2 pm Monday through Friday, 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday, so come and check us out.

Erica Rawls:

I don't know how to thank you for this opportunity to sit down with you, one of the owners at Cote Rouge. You are just so dynamic and I'm so grateful. I'm trying to think how I actually got connected with you, and I believe it was through one of mutual friends, leland. He had a surprise birthday party here. Yes, and that's the first time I ever walked through the building, I was like what is this place Literally, yes, the best kept secret?

Chef Sachiko Baez:

But you know what?

Erica Rawls:

We've blown the doors open because I think more people need to know about you, because this is a great experience. So tell us, how did you come to this point?

Chef Sachiko Baez:

Oh boy, well, Jameson, christopher, actually my partner owns the building. Yeah, he is actually the first african-american owner of this building, really. Yes, um, it used to be called the clover club, which was a private uh, white establishment and they wouldn't allow any anyone of color to be on property, work here, anything.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

So somehow, some way. Yeah, he was able to buy this property and own it and originally he wanted the space as his office space, um, somewhere he can come and calm after work, because he's a contractor, he has a contracting business okay, general contracting or painting, painting, okay, yes, um.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

So he wanted a place upstairs, you, he thought it was perfect for his office space. And then he thought, hey, why not have like a lounge space for my employees so they can come here and relax and, you know, shoot some pool or just, you know, watch sports? And that just developed into more, you know. Then he has one of those minds like mine we match pretty well where they just keep rolling with creativity. So then he thought you know, why not actually have cigars? Let's have cigars, yeah. So he ended up making that a private cigar lounge. Really, maybe his friends, yeah, yeah. So for Mario it.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

It was membership members only. Um, this space that we're actually sitting in was like a business meeting space that he wanted to um give to his members as an opportunity to just come in and have their meetings privately. It never got used. Never, ever once, did anyone have a meeting in here. It was just a table long business table chairs, okay, um, and the room out in the dining room, which you'll you'll be at later on, yeah, uh, was, like we called it, kind of like a wine room. Um, the wine was on the wall as the core and then you can just lounge there, yeah, and just hang out. You know, if you wanted to, if they brought guests or something. So this space here wasn't really being used for a lot and I had moved here from California. We met through my uncle. My uncle asked me to help him at Crawdaddy's. He was, he's the original girl, yeah, my uncle Diane, and she's so much yeah, they're the original owners of crawdaddies.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

And, um, he asked me to come help out for a little while. This is right after pandemic, like this is the time where you can start taking your masks off, right, um? And this is when I met jameson. So from there he said you know, I have, originally, that kitchen was built for his mother. She wanted to own a bakery, the kitchen for the business. Yes, okay, she wanted to own a bakery. That's her dream, his mother's dream, okay.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

So he said I have this kitchen and you know, originally it's for my mom. She doesn't want to be down here anymore, like they're from carlisle, okay. So she didn't want to drive to and from, and I have this empty kitchen. I have no idea what to do with it. Can you help me? So that's how we kind of started off. Yeah, I'll help you. Put things in the kitchen. That's what you need, this is what you need. And from there we just um, our relationship blossomed into more, more personal, romantic, romantic relationship than business as well. So I said, hey, what do you think about making this a restaurant? And then I convinced, him.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

Yeah, I convinced him somehow. So here we are. He has a beautiful mural outside by Brian King. I saw that, yeah, brian King, prolific, it meant some dedication to his grandfather. It was almost like, you know, like a memorial. His grandfather was a big, big part of raising him, you know. So it was just one of those things where let me, let me show the world my grandfather, which he was a Tuskegee Airman, his grandfather, his grandfather was so the mural outside, the face, the largest face you see on there, that is his grandfather, charles Petty Jr. Yeah, wow, so it's beautiful too.

Erica Rawls:

I mean it's absolutely beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Yeah, thank you, I appreciate that.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

So everybody, it was just a popular mural, you know, drive past 6th Street, everybody stopped wanted to take pictures. So we thought it would be great to kind of have the concept, part of the concept of the restaurant, reflect the Tuskegee Airmen and their grandfather. So the name of the restaurant, cote Rouge, actually derived from the nickname Red Tails, which were the Tuskegee Airmen nickname. So red is rouge in French and coda is tails in Italian.

Erica Rawls:

Talk about a business with a purpose.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

Yeah, and that's where that came from. Yeah, that is awesome bar lounge area that we're in right now. We wanted to make it look like the 1940s, kind of speak easy-ish, and really reflect, you know, that time period where his you know grandfather was hanging out. You know we have pictures on the wall where you see other airmen hanging out together at a bar similar, setting playing cards and just having a good time. It's kind of how we wanted things to be here. Um, and this bar is called 332, which was their 332 okay, their squadron number really.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, I don't know why I keep getting goosebumps just hearing you tell the story, because it's like everything had there. So I am a big person, a big proponent of doing things with purpose. So when you just talk about the building a mural, the name, the look, the atmosphere is all with intentional purpose. Yeah, definitely. So. In the experience too that you all give like, seriously, it's just, it is, it's. It's a really good experience, thank you even the name of the building.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

So we named, like, each part of, like, every room has a different name to it. Yeah, the lounge upstairs is called charlie's lounge trust fathers, charles. So, um, the building in its entirety. We actually named the continental. The continentalinental HBG is the name of it. Okay, and he actually came up with that name from the movie John Wick. I don't know if you've ever seen John Wick movies, why?

Erica Rawls:

is John Wick coming up all the time lately? I know I know that's like one of his favorite movies. I didn't know until my son told me yeah.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

Yeah, so in the movie you always see John Wick going into this big building, this big, grandiose building.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

It's called the Continental, and in that building, all like it doesn't matter if you're like the leader of the triads or, you know, the Russian mafia, whichever, they all came together in that one building. There was no animosity against each other, no grief, nothing was going on. You just came there to enjoy yourself, have a good time all together, okay, okay. So we wanted that building to be a reflection of that, where, you know, we are uptown but it's becoming gentrified as well. We have our, our locals and we have people coming out from all over the US coming into this. You know this neighborhood, yeah, and we wanted to kind of be the middleman, almost like a bridge between. We're still here, right, we're. You know we also are gentrifying. Yes, you know refining. You know our business as well, yeah, so this is that place. This is a safe space we can all be. You know everybody of every light come in and just enjoy themselves. Yeah, and thank you for telling me, you know, when you come here, like the vibe is that. It is that.

Erica Rawls:

So you probably have the best fan in my husband Like he. We literally went away on a vacation and he was telling my in-laws hey look, I have this brunch place I want you to go to. I'm like that's how much you had impressed him, and he's not easy to impress when it comes to food because he's such a foodie. Yeah, so yeah, he's like yeah, we should go on.

Erica Rawls:

I'm like, babe, I don't want to go every weekend, I don't. I mean, I'm sure they would enjoy it, but I want it to be something special. Can we just wait a couple weeks? Yeah, so we'll be back very soon, thank you for sure this is become one of those like special occasion places.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

Yeah, people come here to announce something to the parents, or engagements, or birthdays, anniversaries, we can get a lot of that, um, so I feel like it has become one of those like special occasion type atmospheres. But we also have been getting a lot involved with the community we were with. I don't know if I was telling you the last time you were eating here, but this summer it just ended this week. Last week actually was the last week, but we were in collaboration with Harrisburg Housing and they do a youth program in the summer and it's about 100 kids and it's pretty much all summer long. It ends in August, the first week of August, okay, and they actually choose a neighborhood and they clean the neighborhood and after they clean the neighborhood, they come in and eat and it kind of introduces them to meals that they probably would not have been exposed to somewhere else. What type of menu? Yeah, just how to order. They have a budget. You know how to stay within your budget. You know when you're ordering. Yeah, things like that, trying something new.

Erica Rawls:

So this is our second summer doing that with them that is so good and I bet the children are like, wow, we're going to this fancy place, yeah.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

And then they get the history lesson on top of it, because we will tell the story.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, that's awesome, that is so good. So then when someone walks in your doors, like what's the experience that you want them to have? Like we know the intentional and the purpose behind the building and everything, but what do you want them to feel when they walk? When they walk into the doors, like what's that one thing? Yep, we got them. You know, you won them. You won that customer over. What is that thing?

Chef Sachiko Baez:

I feel like when you step into inside Coderoo or inside the Continental Building itself, it almost takes you away from your reality of things. So when you come in here, your expectations, you don't know what you're going to. Just being in the location where it's at, you know outside, you know coming into it, it's the wow factor. So just taking them kind of away from, yes, we are on 6th Street, but also making you still feel Almost like you're at home, very comforting, yeah, that you belong here. You know, you do it, you do it.

Erica Rawls:

I promise you, because if you look outside, right, you don't expect this experience inside. So yeah, you're doing the darn thing.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

You are, you're really doing the darn thing.

Erica Rawls:

Thank you so much so let us know what your hours are, because, ok, y'all, you need to come to Cote Rouge. Ok, need to come to Cote Rouge. Okay, they're open. So, very conveniently, you can have work dinners here, you can have brunch, you can have date night, I mean, the list goes on. And the cuisine, y'all, I'm not kidding, I'm not exaggerating, it is one that you do not want to not experience, okay, so yeah, share what your hours are, yeah, are, and just share a little bit what's on your menu too, because I like.

Erica Rawls:

Well, I'm not going to share, I'm not going to steal it.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

Okay, you tell it. You tell it. Our hours right now are seven days a week. We're open eight to 2 PM Monday through Friday, and then Saturday and Sunday. We're open for brunch 10 AM to 4 PM. We have social media. We have Tik for brunch, 10 am to 4 pm. We have social media. We have TikTok Instagram. We have Facebook and I periodically put out invites to a pop-up that we do and it's a dinner pop-up, five-course dinner with live entertainment. It's something very elevated, very fine dining, something that we don't have here in Harrisburg. I also do private events, so you know you can contact us and we are looking forward to opening for dinner in 2026.

Erica Rawls:

So that is awesome, I love it. I love it. Ok, so if you're you're looking to become a chef and you're trying to figure out how to become one, like seriously, you need to contact, yeah, Sashiko, because she is the one she said that she likes to mentor. Here's the thing. It comes with a cost, so don't come with her and say, hey, show me how to do a thing, and you're not ready to do that thing right, or to hear and be open to it, because she is one that has actually earned her stripes, has worked with Wolfgang Puck Jameson, is a great co-owner too, so I applaud you both. So thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

Thank you Really quick. The menu it's based on California. I know you asked me. It's based on California cuisine, so it's a little bit of different cultures. We have an omurice omelette, which is a Japanese traditional omelette. It has New York steak in it as well as rice peas, a little bit of a tomato jelly that I add to it, and it's wrapped in an omelette, french style omelette. We have so many great if you have a sweet tooth so many great French toasts. I can go on with peach cobbler. We have blueberry strawberry cheesecake stuffed French toast. It's not fair. Yeah, jameson's mom, you know before I said she wanted to be a baker. She is our baker. So all of our baked goods, all of our coffee cakes, all of my fillings for the French toast are of her creation as well. So it's a joint family affair.

Chef Sachiko Baez:

I am changing the menu. I actually change the menu seasonally. I do a spring summer and then I'll do um a fall winter, just to, kind of, because I use a lot of local ingredients, fresh ingredients. I like to try to keep it, you know, seasonal. So this menu, the spring menu, is changing. Probably in a week or so I'll probably have the fall menu. Some favorites will stay, but then there will be some new options yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

Erica Rawls:

I, I love that. No, thank you for your time. I appreciate it Y'all. Please, in the comments, let us know what you thought of this dynamic woman and co-owner, jamison, and the whole just idea of Cote Rouge. I think it's amazing. And when you stop by, come back to the comments and say, yep, you were right, the food is absolutely amazing. So until next time, see ya.

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