SACRAMENTO MAGAZINE APRIL 2022

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38

RAISING THE BAR

Sacramento’s cocktail scene is on fire.

By Marybeth Bizjak

50 THIS COOL HOUSE

Bring in artwork and furnishings made by local artisans.

By Steph Rodriguez

62

WEATHERING THE PANDEMIC

Small business owners share their strategies. Photographed by Ryan Angel Meza

) Lap of Luxury cocktail from Prelude

LILY Patient — NEPHROLOGY/ENT

When Lily was born with branchio-oto-renal syndrome, a condition that quickly began to deteriorate her kidneys and hearing, her family turned to the pediatric specialists at UC Davis Health. Lily’s team surgically reconstructed her inner ears and helped ensure a future in which she could hear her calling. Find a UC Davis Health doctor you connect with today.

Enjoy$25off yourpurchaseof $250ormore showusthisadin-storeor redeemonline withcode:SACMAG25 scantheQRcodeto shopourwebsite

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Midtown owned and operated, Little Relics provides artisan and fine contemporary jewelry as well as custom and full-service repair. At the helm and leading the circus, Susan Rabinovitz, trained with Masters from around the world (over 1,000 hours with mentors) earned certified recognition as a Graduate Jeweler, Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts. Susan, also, had the esteemed privilege to be the only female competitor in Stuller’s International Battle of Benches, 2019. Visit Monday through Friday, 11—6. Saturday and Sunday visits are available by appointment only. In an e ort to continuously provide quality service, Susan is currently accepted and attending GIA, Graduate Gemologist Program (eta completion fall 2022).

PUBLISHER

Dennis Rainey

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Krista Minard

ART DIRECTOR

Gabriel Teague

EDITORIAL

MANAGING EDITOR

Darlena Belushin McKay

DINING EDITOR

Marybeth Bizjak

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Sasha Abramsky, Luna Anona, Daniel Barnes, Diana Bizjak, Cathy Cassinos-Carr, Ed Goldman, Dorsey Griffith, Jennifer Junghans, Angela Knight, Elena M. Macaluso, Reed Parsell, Kari L. Rose Parsell, Steph Rodriguez, Bill Romanelli, Thea Marie Rood, Nora Heston Tarte, Mari Tzikas Suarez, Catherine Warmerdam, Sara E. Wilson

ART

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Debbie Hurst

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Kat Alves, Gary and Lisa Ashley, Beth Baugher, Francisco Chavira, Debbie Cunningham, Wes Davis, Terence Duff y, Tim Engle, Kevin Fiscus, Aniko Kiezel, Ryan Angel Meza, Tyler and Christina Mussetter, Rachel Valley

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DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND DIGITAL MEDIA

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Barbie Baldwin

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Stephen Rice

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WRITERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS AND ILLUSTRATORS If you are interested in contributing to Sacramento Magazine, please send information to (writers) Krista Minard, krista@sacmag.com or (photographers and illustrators) Gabriel Teague, gabriel@sacmag.com. Include a cover letter, résumé and links to previously published work.

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Cocktail Hour

What a bunch of pretty drinks we’ve got in this issue! Marybeth Bizjak’s cover story shows o cocktails of many colors— brown, pink, green, yellow—in all kinds of gorgeous glassware with fancy garnishes and ice so beautiful that it’s part of the whole aesthetic package, not just a chilling device. The bar spaces, too, entice us. Dark and sultry and, oh, so stylish. That ladder at The Roost reminds me of stacks at the library (or in some of my writer and reader friends’ living rooms) and gives literal meaning to the term “top-shelf liquor.” Who isn’t intrigued by Darling Aviary’s design and décor? It all makes me wish I could drink.

Liquor is not my friend, though, so when I go out, I get a shrub or kombucha or plain old water with lemon or occasionally a glass of wine that I leave half full. Lately I’ve lived vicariously through my daughters, who each got into cocktails for a brief period after their 21st birthdays. For my younger one, that happened during the pandemic, so our kitchen would transform into a bar (with some of the tools recommended in Marybeth’s “Be Your Own Bartender” story, in the Taste section). My sister-in-law who lives in England had ingredients for a Pimm’s Cup delivered to the house from BevMo. The girls busted out the twisty-handled long spoon and some fruit and Sprite and got busy, saying they felt like they should be wearing fancy hats and heading to the horse races. They’ve made mules in copper mugs, vodka-lemon-pomegranate concoctions that involve a muddler and fresh herbs, and several festive things out of bubbles and berries. I’ll taste something with vodka or wine or champagne (one sip won’t bring on the hives or headache) but several experiences in college keep me from wanting to even smell anything that has rum or tequila.

In addition to the bars hopping again, public places in general are back to business. In this issue, we present Ryan Angel Meza’s project about small business owners and how they endured the pandemic. With pivots, of course—everybody’s favorite word—and lots of tenacity. Home remains a sanctuary, though, and Steph Rodriguez’s story about makers who create handcrafted items might motivate you to pick up a one-of-a-kind piece for your house: a handmade co ee table, a doublehandled co ee mug, a macramé hanging or artwork held together with local honey. Finally, as our Explore story suggests, on one of these sunny days, journey down to Lodi. It’s an easy day trip, and there’s wine and food and lovely scenery.

Thanks for reading. Happy spring!

KRISTA MINARD krista@sacmag.com

CONTRIBUTORS

Create + Gather

Husband and wife

photography duo

Gary and Lisa Ashley established Create + Gather as a way to showcase their collaborative efforts with artists, influencers and families in our community and beyond. They shoot regularly for Sacramento Magazine; their work covering beautiful interiors has often graced the pages of Sac Design. “We are always happy to get the chance to meet and shoot the creators and makers of Sacramento,” says Gary about the opportunity to photograph the artisans for “This Cool House.”

Marcus Meisler

“I love seeing restaurateurs and bar owners pushing the boundaries within the Sacramento food and beverage scene,” says Marcus Meisler, who photographed the bars and cocktails for the cover story.

“It was a joy to meet these people who are [helping] Sacramento enter its food and drink renaissance. As long as the trajectory of openings stays the same and people keep being willing to go out and support the businesses, there’s no doubt in my mind that renaissance will be here very soon.”

AND THERE’S MORE . . .

Thank you for the thank you, Phoebe Verkouw! “It is one of my greatest passions to promote sustainable fashion,” wrote Phoebe, one of the thrifters featured on the cover and in the story about secondhand stores in the March issue. “I was delighted to see so many stores featured. It was a vibrant issue and brought all the joy!” In case you missed it, see the March issue online at sacmag.com/digital-edition.

Sacramento Magazine’s free newsletter, The Daily Brief, goes to email subscribers every weekday. Catch the latest updates in dining, arts and entertainment, wine, recreation, health (including COVID case counts) and more. You’ll also find links to other community news and resources and social media posts that have caught our eye. Subscribe at sacmag.com/newsletters.

Ryan Angel Meza

“It is surreal to think that not long ago, our world literally shut down,” says Ryan Angel Meza, who created “Weathering the Pandemic” for this issue.

“While it is fortunate that some were able to survive and thrive in this wave, it is heartbreaking to know a lot didn’t. Many lives were lost in this historical event, including [that of] my aunt Mary Meza, who was a nurse in Michigan. [I will] never forget her and those that were on the front lines.”

That Golden Smile

Molly Riehl is up with the sun, bringing us the brighter side of the news on CW31’s “Good Day Sacramento.”

She grew up in East Sacramento and says it’s a dream, getting to tell stories about her favorite place in the world. To learn more about her, turn to the next page.

inside: Hometown News / The Taylor House / SWISH Style / Green Baseball

“THERE’S NOTHING LIKE WORKING IN TV IN YOUR HOMETOWN.”

Local TV’s Girl Next Door

For Sacramento native Molly Riehl, every day is a good day these days. Last September, the 33-year-old landed her dream job, working as a TV reporter for CW31’s popular morning show, “Good Day Sacramento.” “There’s nothing like working in TV in your hometown,” says Riehl. “And not just because my grandma gets to watch me every morning.”

She does live shots on location all over the region, interviewing farmers, athletes, doughnut shop owners and more. Charming, nimble and quick-witted, she can talk to anyone about, well, just about anything. One morning, for instance, she chatted with a 49ers superfan in Roseville about his massive memorabilia collection, then took a tufting lesson from a fabric artist in Loomis before trying to operate a pottery wheel with a ceramist in Auburn.

Riehl’s beat is the lighter side of the news. She has visited with a 10-year-old boy who makes “magical reindeer food” at Christmas and worn an inflatable beer pong hat while reporting from a garage sale in Natomas. At Halloween, with her castmates costumed as characters from “The Brady Bunch,” she dressed as Cindy Brady’s favorite doll, Kitty Karry-All. Animals are one of her specialties: She has appeared on camera with dogs, cows, horses and baby lambs. In one memorable segment, she deftly juggled two writhing ball pythons—one coiled through her fingers, the other wrapped around her neck—while interviewing a Stockton reptile handler known as The Lizard Lady.

Riehl spent the first few years of her TV career in Oregon, working in Eugene and Portland, before moving back home in 2020 to be closer to family. Her parents still live in the East Sac home where she grew up, and her two sisters (one is her twin) live nearby. Now, she gets to tell stories on air about her favorite place in the whole world: her hometown. “I can’t believe how much I love this job,” she says. “When I’m done with a shift at ‘Good Day,’ I get in my car and think, ‘I can’t believe I get to do this.’”

—MARYBETH BIZJAK

Sacramento native Molly Riehl reports mostly happy news on CW31’s “Good Day Sacramento,” where she landed what she says is a dream job.

Help Across the Gap

The Taylor House in Roseville assists young women as they take next steps after they have aged out of the foster care system.

BY DARLENA BELUSHIN MCKAY

Destiny Sanchez had lived in 12 foster situations, including group homes and shelters, and she was couch surfing when she heard about The Taylor House in downtown Roseville. The cheerful yellow home serves young women 18–24 who have aged out of the foster care system or are at risk, helping them bridge into adulthood. Sanchez was accepted in 2015, moved in and stayed for one life-changing year.

“The Taylor House set me up for success by providing a stable home to gather my thoughts,” she says. Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the home can accommodate eight residents, immersing them in individualized plans centering on employment, education, transportation, health and wellness, and budgeting/banking.

Executive director Lisa Addy-Peat founded the home after she started volunteering in 2007 with Child Advocates of Placer County and realized that some of the girls she mentored there would turn 18 with no support system or safety net.

The need for services is great. “When we do have an opening, it is usually fi lled with a girl who is in immediate need of housing,” says Addy-Peat. That’s why the nonprofit has unveiled plans to open a second home in 2023. With the help of donations from a new sustaining-members program, it has pledged $10,000 in scholarships this year to help former foster and at-risk youth further their educations, and it plans to expand its Aspiring Entrepreneur Program.

Sanchez, now 27, is engaged to be married and is in her last year of her sociology studies at UC Merced. She’s currently an intern at The Taylor House.

“These girls have experienced more in their short lives than most of us in our entirety,” says Addy-Peat. “They are survivors of abuse, neglect and abandonment, and while many can attest to feeling loved at times in their upbringing, many more say the opposite.”

“I had nowhere to go,” she says. “Instead, they pointed me in a direction that would change my life.”

Learn more at thetaylorhouse.org.

AS OF ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY . . .

The Taylor House has provided a home for 59 young women, helped 27 enroll in college, 10 receive a high school diploma, 51 create a professional resume, 33 obtain jobs and 90 obtain critical documents such as birth certificates, Social Security cards, California IDs and driver licenses.

Destiny Sanchez

Lisa Addy-Peat

Hometown Style

Stroll through the Sacramento Kings Team Store at Golden 1 Center and it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the lineup of jerseys, hats, sweatshirts, shorts and other sports apparel on offer—it’s nirvana for a Kings fan. Nestled among the usual athletic and leisure wear by heavy-hitting brands like Nike and Under Armour lies clothing created by a small, Sacramento-based company with big aspirations: SWISH AUTHENTICS.

This bespoke clothing line, created in collaboration with the Kings, moved forward last year (along with a similar collaboration with the Cleveland Cavaliers) despite the pandemic and supply-chain issues. The company’s fan apparel—marketed under the Team Issued Collection, including a sweater featuring retro elbow patches and a bomber jacket showing the Kings’ evolution from 1948 to the present—is sold exclusively at the Kings store.

“SACRAMENTO

HAS ALWAYS BEEN A LITTLE OVERLOOKED; THERE ’S NOT A LOT OF NATIONAL ATTENTION FOR FASHION.”

Jason Vu, SWISH’s founder and creative director, describes his design style as a “reinterpretation of clothes” vintage and modern. Focusing on quality, craftsmanship, fabric and fit, he says he wants his clothing to “flow seamlessly into people’s wardrobes” and tell a unique story.

Vu’s family emigrated from Vietnam to Sacramento when he was 3 years old. He wanted to hang out with his older brother and his friends, so he learned to play basketball and became a big Kings fan—just like his brother.

Vu was “immersed in the world of sneakers” in high school and estimates he had 70 pairs at the peak of his collecting days. To support his habit, he worked at Jack in the Box. “My parents hated it because we had no room in our house,” he says. “There’d be shoes everywhere.”

After Vu graduated from high school, his parents encouraged him to get a traditional college degree—in medicine, for example. He wanted to make his mom and dad proud, he says, but also, “I had a passion for fashion.” He earned an economics degree from UC Davis and an MBA from Sacramento State but stayed up nights learning about the fashion world. “Design was everything that I wanted to do, but I had to learn that on the side.” By then, he was working at Franklin Templeton and Target to pay the bills.

He thought he’d eventually need to move to Los Angeles or New York to pursue his career, but he wanted to stay close to family and friends. “I’m proud to be from here,” he says. “Sacramento has always been a little overlooked; there’s not a lot of national attention for fashion.” When he started SWISH in 2017, he wore all the hats. “I was the business guy; I was the designer; I was the production guy; I was the operation guy; I even took our own pictures . . . literally, everything from A to Z went through me.”

Last year, Vu brought in music industry veteran and former Sacramentan Kelvin Chu to act as SWISH’s chief operating officer; they share a love for the Kings. Together they hope to generate a Nike-like success story. But Vu also says he sees everything as a potential design project, and it’s only a matter of time before he starts pivoting outside the sportswear box: Dresses, furniture and, of course, shoes are on the table, he says.

—ANGELA KNIGHT

Jason Vu

Spring Strings

Fourth-grader Sloane Buckley-Unger has been playing violin for only two years, but she has progressed enough that she felt confident to stand and start the countdown to S. Suzuki’s “Allegro” and play as if she was the first chair. “It was really fun because I got to kind of be the boss, and it felt like it mattered,” says Buckley-Unger, 9, about her time in the spotlight.

Buckley-Unger is part of River City String Club, which meets every first and third Thursday at Clunie Clubhouse in McKinley Park. Ingrid Tracy Peters, founder of Sacramento Institute for Music & the Arts and a longtime violinist with the Sacramento Philharmonic, runs the club.

Tracy Peters is trying to get the institute’s youth music program back to pre-COVID levels. (The pandemic quashed in-person lessons and ended the institute’s revolving tour of downtown and midtown elementary schools.) It has proven to be daunting due to funding crunches and the need to reconnect with students after two years.

Twinkle and Star classes are for kids ages 3 to 5, and students learn proper form on homemade practice violins and bows. They progress to the Mozart and Vivaldi classes—for grades 3 to 5—and start playing real violins. From the beginning, they read music using the Suzuki Method, Tracy Peters says. Those classes are starting back up this month.

River City String Club is for more advanced students. String Club members get to practice and perform in McKinley Park, Tracy Peters says, which always draws a crowd.

“Before COVID, we were on the right track,” she says of the institute’s menu of classes. “But I like this better, being at the Clunie Center. It’s a more sustainable plan. We did have issues with maintaining the program at the elementary schools because it was hard to get a room sometimes. The schools have their own things going on. But we’re on the right track now, and if I can get this Twinkle and Stars class started (in April), and get a great group of kindergartners, then we’ll be on our way again.”

MARK BILLINGSLEY

Sporting Green

BY REED PARSELL

Springtime means the return of baseball, which triggers feelings of warm nostalgia in many of us “seasoned” fans. As kids we liked to play, and all our lives we have enjoyed attending games.

But . . . has there been an environmental price paid for our love of baseball and other sports? Sorry, that is the uncomfortable question that is being asked and addressed in this month’s bitter-pill sustainability column.

Let’s start by assessing the environmental cost of sports adoration at the individual level, and use carbon footprint as the metric. (Google defines “carbon footprint” as “the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds emitted due to the consumption of fossil fuels by a particular person, group, etc.”) In the interest of full and honest disclosure, I will use myself as an example.

Every spring for 24 years, I flew or drove, and sometimes flew and drove, to constitute two visits to Greater Phoenix to attend a few Cactus League baseball games. That city is roughly a 90-minute flight, or a 775-mile drive, from Sacramento. Justenergy.com’s simplified carbon-footprint formula suggests you consider every sub-four-hour flight as producing 1,100 pounds of CO2, and each roadway mile as tallying .79 pounds.

That means every time I flew round-trip to Phoenix, the carbon footprint of my base transportation alone was 2,200 pounds. For driving, it was 1,225 pounds.

continued on next page

Combine that with all the flying and driving around I did in the late 20th century to ballparks all over the country and, by sustainability standards, I am a swing and a miss.

Taking a big step back, Tayllor Henczel recently blogged on tentree.com that 85% of greenhouse gas emissions linked to professional sporting events are generated by the travel and accommodation of spectators. “When FIFA [Fédération Internationale de Football Association] was held in Russia in 2018, 5 million fans made their way over to spectate,” she wrote. Their travel and accommodations generated “the same emissions of 500,000 homes’ yearly electricity.”

Then there’s the environmental cost of the sports themselves and their stadiums/arenas. Those costs range from the micro (leather shoes and gloves, “pigskin” balls, etc.) to the macro (all the materials needed to make major venues and the energy required to run them). And returning to the fans for a moment: They tend to eat and drink at games. Lots of food, lots of drink, dispensed in lots of one-use containers.

Several sports franchises are addressing this issue aggressively. In a May 2021 post on greenbiz.com, sustainability expert Kristen

Fulmer cited the example being set by the Forest Green Rovers, a soccer team based in Gloucestershire, England. The Rovers have been “nominated by FIFA as the World’s Greenest Football club for their Another Way framework, which includes the procurement of 100 percent renewable energy, an organic football pitch, electric-powered equipment and even 100 percent vegan food and beverage at concessions.” Fulmer added that closer to home, “the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles incorporate on-site renewable energy generation including 11,108 solar panels and 14 wind turbines that line the top of the stadium to provide about one-third of the stadium’s energy. The Seattle Seahawks and New York Yankees lead composting initiatives to divert food waste from landfi ll, and stadiums such as Mercedes-Benz in Atlanta and the new Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle leverage sophisticated equipment to reduce energy consumption.”

What about Sacramento’s big-time professional sports franchise, the basketball Kings? Their home, downtown’s Golden 1 Center, reportedly is the fi rst fullservice LEED Platinum certified sports stadium in the entire world. It is powered by solar power.

The Kings’ home court, if not the team itself, is a winner.

Explore

Wine is just part of it.

Life in Lodi

In this agrarian valley region, vineyards, parks and a pretty downtown provide plenty of reasons to visit.

BY KRISTA MINARD

Anchored by a renovated old town and lots of wineries, the Lodi region (which includes the communities of Woodbridge, Acampo and Lockeford) lies about 40 minutes south of Sacramento. It’s an easy drive for a day of wine tasting or a weekend getaway. From the freeways (you can get there via Highway 99 or Interstate 5), it might not look like much more than a little Central Valley rural town that swelters in the summer and shivers under tule fog in the winter. But especially on the back roads, you’ll see vineyards just now greening up from winter bare, some of the vines beefy and gnarled from more than a century in production.

Then, as you poke around, you’ll discover more gems: cool winetasting rooms, restaurants dishing up farm-to-plate fare, shops and galleries downtown, a charming zoo and a river that winds behind wineries and into the town’s central lake. Things you might not expect: an upscale inn-restaurant-spa that blends the historic with the contemporary and draws besotted couples to exchange vows during wedding season; a Thursday-night summer farmers market that gathers residents in downtown’s streets for locally made sausage, nearby-grown fruits

and veggies, and live music; a museum/ store packed with snakes, lizards, frogs and big hairy spiders; beautiful valley sunsets

Here are some ways to experience the Lodi region.

Taste

Wine—Let’s start with the obvious. Wine started in Lodi in the late 1800s, and the region’s reputation as a wine-tast ing venue bloomed big after the 1980s, when it got approval as an appellation and the marketing gurus got down to work. Nowadays, some 80-plus wineries in multiple appellations dot these flats where loamy soil, hot daytime sun and evening Delta breezes combine to help stress grapes into prime ingredients. Thick, black, craggy vines produce thick, dark, “old vine” zins, a Lodi specialty; chardonnays, cabs and lots of other varietals crowd tasting room shelves, too. LODI WINE & VISITOR CENTER makes a great first stop. Located in the WINE & ROSES compound, it includes a demonstration vineyard, a vast selection of wines to try, maps and all kinds of information to help you plan your

Michael David Winery

An egret at a Lodi nature preserve

day. Word to the wise: Call and/or check websites before you make the trip. COVID has made it a little tougher to just pop in. Among many, to follow are a few to consider. At VIAGGIO , a sprawling estate with vineyards and walnut orchards on the Mokelumne River, a vintage red phone booth tempts tipsy visitors to pose and grin. The wrap-around patio o the tasting room is a comfy spot to relax over a few good glasses, and if they’re doing pizzas in the outdoor wood-fired oven, you’re really in luck. ACQUIESCE WINERY makes small lots of hand-crafted whites and rosés—award-winning ones, in fact (four Best of Class awards in this year’s San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition)— and holds its tastings in a 100-year-old barn. JESSIE’S GROVE is a great stop, in part for its vast grounds, friendly goats and historical mementos. (The winery has been around since 1868.) Similarly, BERGHOLD VINEYARDS ESTATE has a big collection of Victorian antiques, including an 1890s chandelier from Paramount Theatre in New York—and the tasting bars themselves. MICHAEL DAVID WINERY has a cafe

The Lodi region has plenty of ways to please visitors: wine, beer, good food, a cool downtown and beautiful nature preserves.

(omelets, burgers, sandwiches, housebaked pies!) and gorgeous grounds centered by a pond and a vast, stone outdoor tasting bar. CALIVINES WINERY AND OLIVE MILL combines two favorites—wine and olive oil—and serves flights of either or both in its airy tasting room or outdoors at umbrella-shaded tables. A couple of newish wineries include BLOCK 21 , with a patio overlooking the vineyard and locally created artwork available for sale, and INTERCOASTAL , where they make something called Pinotage Bianco—a white wine created by proprietor Mitch Spaletta and described as having the essences of a delicate white flower, crisp citrus, lemon grass, white peach and honeycrisp apple.

Walk the Streets of Downtown

The main drag is School Street, with brick streets, informational kiosks and colorful planters, and anchored by LODI STADIUM12 CINEMAS . Your best option is to just park the car and explore on foot. Along School and the surrounding streets, you’ll find the visitors center (ideal place to start),

wine-tasting rooms, a cheese shop, a couple of co eehouses (the couch at INSPIRE is a lovely place to sink in and fuel up), the WORLD OF WONDERS SCIENCE MUSEUM (bring the kids!), TOM’S USED BOOKS (an hour-eater, for sure), vintage shops and plenty of restaurants. Just opened, THE OXFORD serves dishes inspired by Britain, including English-style fish and chips (or chips and curry), Oxford shepherd’s pie, a classic beef Wellington and “Great Britain” chicken tikka masala. EL PAZCIFICO MEXICAN GRILL & CANTINA is expanding—more room for more people to devour combination plates and specialty Mexican seafood dishes (and margaritas!). THE DANCING FOX , with its beautiful vine-covered exterior, is a restaurant, brewery and winery, a family operation with a varied menu of sandwiches, pizzas and main dishes that include pasta, tacos, ribs and burgers. A couple of blocks beyond downtown’s main center, PAPAPAVLOS —the popular Stockton-based Greek eatery—has opened a Lodi location, bringing its brochettes, casseroles and all-important lemon-chicken soup. Also, an illustration of the fact that Lodi’s

The Oxford’s fish and chips

Lodi Beer Co.

not all wine: SCOTTO’S has cider tasting, too; BRIX AND HOPS has local craft beers and wine; and several brewpubs—including LODI BEER CO. , MOKELUMNE BREW HOUSE and FIVE WINDOW BEER —pour a rotation of beers. Several galleries and boutiques grace the area, including FRENCH AT HEART HOME & GARDEN (all kinds of French-inspired goods), THE LOCAL COLLECTIVE , a fragrant little spot opposite the transit station (you’ll find a careful curation of soaps and lotions, home décor and more) and ENDLESS BLOOMS (formerly Wood and Wick) with an inspiring collection of forever florals, candles, jewelry, baked goods and home décor. When you’re tired out, there’s nothing like a chocolate shake from MOO MOO’S BURGER BARN to perk you up. Finally, it’s a bit too far to walk, but GUANTONIOS , outside the downtown limits on W. Lockeford St., is a recently opened wood-fired pizza place that’s garnering rave reviews. It’s located in a former Texaco station, and pizzas are made with local organic flour, Cortopassi tomatoes (out of Modesto), Calivirgin Olive Oil (see Calivines Winery and Olive Mill above) and seasonal produce from area farms.

Visit a Small Zoo—Oh, how we have loved the pudu at MICKE GROVE ZOO , a small, 5-acre compound within MICKE GROVE REGIONAL PARK . The Chilean pudu is a member of the deer family, and it seems to never grow up. Its baby face and short legs send spectators’ voices into the upper reaches as they croon over the softeyed creature. Don’t scare a pudu, though,

UPCOMING FESTS

or it may scramble up a tree—a seemingly impossible feat for a stump-legged deer. The zoo also has reptiles, birds, primates, lemurs, a bobcat and a snow leopard to admire.

Seek Peace at the Japanese Garden— Cross the bridges and wander among the topiaries at the Japanese garden in Micke Grove Regional Park, across from the zoo. With vibrant koi, cherry blossom trees, lanterns, stones and islands, the 3-acre garden is especially serene in springtime, when the azaleas bloom against walls of green.

Learn Lodi’s History—While you’re at Micke Grove, pop in to the SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM to learn more about Lodi’s background as an agricultural hub, the Weber and Micke families and the region’s earlier wine industry. Check out historic buildings such as the Charles Weber Cottage from 1848 and the 1866 Calaveras schoolhouse. “In the Fields of the North ,” an exhibit honoring migrant workers, will be on display until April 10.

Create Nightmares at the Serpentarium

The fi rst thing you notice at the LODI SERPENTARIUM is the smell: moist and green and dense. Aquariums line the walls, lids locked down tight (thank goodness). You’ll see frogs (some brilliantly hued and deadly), tarantulas, scorpions and roaches. Snakes coil in corners and lizardlike things such as iguanas, bearded dragons and geckos cling to branches. Each step deeper into the place reveals some-

Approximately 40 wineries will be on hand at the Ole Mettler Grape Pavilion for the Lodi Wine Festival at the Lodi Grape Festival Grounds on Saturday, April 2. It will include wine tasting, food, music and more. For more information, go to grapefestival.com and click on events. On April 30, the Lodi Beer Fest happens at the same location—some 30 breweries will be pouring craft beers. For more info, go to beerfests.com/events/lodi-beer-fest.

thing new to gasp over: severe-looking beige spiders or putty-colored pokey reptiles with beady darting eyes and tongues that zoom out longer than their bodies.

Take a Treatment—The plunge pools, hot tubs and courtyard at WINE & ROSES SPA have been updated, so what better excuse to make an appointment for a massage, mud wrap, facial, scrub or wax? Afterward, have lunch or dinner at Towne House Restaurant on the premises— menus change daily, but you can expect upscale wine-country cuisine. If the house-baked brioche with maple-bourbon butter is on the menu, order enough for the whole table.

Go to the Lake—At LODI LAKE —created by the small Woodbridge Dam in the Mokelumne River—you can rent kayaks and stand up paddleboards from HEADWATERS starting April 1. On April 23, Paddlefest takes place, with food trucks and live music and all-day paddling fun. Headwaters runs tours as well—sunrise, sunset, starlight and full-moon paddles showcase the lake’s tranquility with nature’s best mood lighting.

Preserve Nature—Several nature preserves exist in and around the Lodi area, including WOODBRIDGE ECOLOGICAL PRESERVE (also known as ISENBERG CRANE RESERVE) in Lodi, STONE LAKES NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE in Elk Grove and COSUMNES RIVER PRESERVE in Galt . The main attraction among the flora and fauna: birds. During late fall and winter, the freshwater habitat draws sandhill cranes and other migratory waterfowl. Local birds populate the areas year-round, and the trails and boardwalks invite visitors to wander and watch. Bring binoculars and you’ll see ducks, red-winged blackbirds, kestrels, pheasants, hawks, herons and many others. Springtime is an opportunity to spot babies.

Lodi Wine & Visitor Center

Papapavlos’s mussel and clam pasta

Top left: Stephanie Russo/Lodi Winegrape Commission

Celebrate the best Sacramento has to offer. This year’s event will be outdoors and under the stars, at The Barn, a unique venue in the Bridge District. Mingle with the region’s most influential people as they experience food & drink from their favorite farm-to-fork restaurants, breweries, distilleries and wineries.

Find your way back to the little things that matter.

Don’t let joint pain put life on hold or remove you from the day-to-day that you once knew. When the pain is gone, the little things feel far more special. Like enjoying your morning coffee with two sugars and no painkiller. Taking the dog for a walk. Lifting your kids up on your shoulders.

At Dignity Health, we can help show you the way back to the things you’ve been missing. Our orthopedic specialists offer advanced non-surgical and surgical treatment options for a full range of joint conditions and provide personalized care for every patient’s unique needs. Learn more about our services and take an online joint pain assessment at DignityHealth.org/SacramentoOrtho

Ketamine Coming on

Strong

Wellness

inside: Help for depression and more

Ketamine therapy is the next big thing in treatment for psychiatric conditions, and clinics are popping up in the Sacramento region.

BY MARK BILLINGSLEY

Aself-professed “advocate of psychedelics,” Ryan Duey has begun experimenting with ketamine to expand his mind.

In February, Duey went to ShaMynds Healing Center in midtown for a dose of ketamine delivered intravenously and monitored by a doctor and a nurse. Coupled with psychotherapy sessions, ketamine has proven to be a valuable tool in treating drug-resistant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as providing some patients with greater insight, as Duey is seeking.

“I have a healthy mind according to my doctors,” says Duey, a 36-yearold business owner from Auburn. “I’m not depressed; I don’t have PTSD. But I do have areas in my life that hold me back from being the best person I can be. These tools, such as ketamine, give me insight.”

Duey says when he entered ShaMynds, he was welcomed into a room with soft lights and gentle music playing, although he elected to use headphones during his session. His vitals were taken by a nurse and the ketamine dosage was administered. Ketamine is known to elevate heart rates and blood pressure. Duey says he didn’t have a hallucinogenic experience, but rather could “see” his intentions.

“I still had a profound experience and noticed areas of procrastination,” Duey says. “I didn’t have the imagery, but I saw it nonetheless in my mind’s eye.”

Duey was scheduled for one more session and wanted some additional clarity on a pressing issue in his life: whether or not to become a father. He says it’s easy to come up with reasons not to become one, all selfish. But his first two sessions helped him see a di erent perspective.

“I’ve found that clarity and peace to become a father,” he says. “I used to think of all the reasons why a child would subtract from my life. But for the first time, I feel freed up, and I now see how a child would add to my life.”

Duey says he has had experience with psychedelics such as LSD, “magic mushrooms” and ayahuasca, another plantbased psychedelic. He’s also taken ketamine in a recreational setting but got nauseated, he says. This was the first time he’d taken a psychedelic in a controlled, clinical environment.

“Ketamine treatment isn’t cheap. It’s an investment, but it’s worth it,” he says.

“Your mind is still present compared to other drugs. I call ketamine a ‘graceful psychedelic.’”

The drug was first synthesized in 1962 and approved for use in the United States in 1970. It was used mostly in veterinary medicine in its early history, but also used extensively as a surgical anesthesia during the Vietnam War.

Ketamine in its powder or liquid form has been used as a recreational drug called “Special K” because of its hallucinogenic and dissociative e ects.

Ketamine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of psychiatric disorders in 2019, but only in a nasal spray called Spravato.

Tasnim Khan, M.D., is co-owner of ShaMynds. She’s been a family physician for 25 years and trained in ketamineassisted therapy at the Integrative Psychiatry Institute. Only recently has she become aware of the power of psychedelics in the treatment of psychiatric ailments. She opened ShaMynds last November.

“The [COVID -19] pandemic made me realize that there’s a mental health pandemic,” Khan says. “There are so many gaps in how we diagnose and treat mental health issues. I saw the data. I went on my own personal journey, and it was magnificently transformative. Everything became clear. It was hard as a doctor to admit that I had experienced depression, and that there’s help in a nontraditional health path. Now it’s all about how do we

increase access and deepen our toolbox to deal with chronic pain, opioid abuse, depression, OCD and PTSD?”

Khan says that ketamine is not a panacea, that patients must still do the work in psychotherapy. The insight that ketamine may provide means nothing if it isn’t applied to the real world. It is ketamineassisted psychotherapy, after all, Khan says, noting that therapy often includes sound therapy, trauma yoga and diet and exercise advice, as well as neuropsychedelics.

“It’s all very holistic,” Khan says. “It’s whole-ism of the individual and how they can then function in a community.”

Kaiser Permanente was guarded in its response to whether its doctors use ketamine as a therapeutic but did respond with this statement: “Providing highquality care that is safe and personalized to the individual needs of the patient is of the highest priority at Kaiser Permanente. We use a structured, robust evidencebased process in the evaluation of medications, and ketamine is used for treatmentresistant depression.”

Dignity Health and Sutter Health did not respond to inquiries, although Sutter Health does mention ketamine infusion therapy on its interventional psychiatry website. There are three ketamine clinics in Sacramento other than ShaMynds and one each in Elk Grove and Roseville. The UC Davis Health system is set to begin using ketamine therapy later this year, according to Jagdeep Kaur, M.D. Kaur is an addictive psychiatry doctor with UC

Davis Health and had experience prescribing and administering ketamine therapy when she practiced in Pennsylvania two years ago.

She says she is trying to get clearances through UC Davis Health to administer ketamine in the form of Spravato. She predicts those clearances will be made by July.

“Not everyone has dissociative e ects (with ketamine),” Kaur says. “But we do see the therapeutic e ects within 24 hours of taking a dose.”

Kaur says that the protocol for using ketamine for pain management is 1 milligram per 1 kilogram of patient weight. That jumps to 150 milligrams per 1 kilogram for use as an anesthetic, she says, while the first dose in ketamine-assisted therapy is 56 milligrams regardless of the patient’s weight, and 84 milligrams is the maximum single dosage. The usual length of treatment is twice a week for four to six weeks, and the maintenance schedule is usually once every two weeks, she says.

“It can get expensive. Our prices in Pennsylvania were around $800 a dose,” Kaur says. “A lot will depend on the health plans, but we’re talking about treatmentresistant diseases.”

David Olson, M.D., has studied the effects of ketamine and sees the benefits. But he also sees ketamine’s limitations. Olson studied chemistry and neuroscience at Stanford University and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He came to UC Davis in 2015 as an associate professor and researcher, and his lab was recognized last year with the UC Davis Innovator of the Year award.

“The last innovation in psychiatric medicine was Prozac back in the late 1980s,” Olson says. “Ketamine is a new way to treat an old disorder, and it promotes regrowth through neuroplasticity. But it’s an imperfect drug. It will be replaced by a safer alternative.”

That’s where psychoplastogens come in.

Working in his lab at UC Davis, Olson discovered that psychedelics promote neuroplasticity in the prefrontal cortex, where cognitive control takes place. The prefrontal cortex influences mood, joy, fear and impulse inhibition.

Olson coined the term “psychoplastogen” to describe small molecules that produce rapid and long-lasting psychedelicand ketamine-like e ects on neurons. His lab invented the first non-hallucinogenic, single-dose psychoplastogens that have produced long-lasting e ects.

With many neuropsychiatric diseases such as severe depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction, neurons in the prefrontal cortex atrophy and the gaps between them—the synapses—widen and are lost. Psychoplastogens are molecules that heal the neural networks, leading to regrowth and the possibility of rewiring the mind.

Olson has compared the brain’s neurons to a tree, with the receiving part of the neuron—the dendrites—as the branches and the synapses as the leaves. In neuropsychiatric diseases, the leaves fall o and the branches are pruned. Olson carries the metaphor further, comparing the psychoplastogen molecules to Miracle-Gro.

“We started to learn a lot around 2010, and by 2018 we showed demonstrable growth,” Olson says of his groundbreaking 2018 study in animals that showed psychedelics promoted synaptic growth. “We saw that LSD and psilocybins also promoted neuroplasticity. It works for substance abuse, PTSD and depression. But it’s not a panacea. They just target the prefrontal cortex.”

Delix Therapeutics was founded in 2019, and according to its website, the company has synthesized approximately 1,000 compounds within eight classes of psychedelics including LSD, tryptamines including “magic mushrooms” and amphetamines such as MDMA (ecstasy).

The company raised $70 million in financing last year, Olson says. He expects to have compounds in clinics within 10 years.

The stigma concerning psychedelics use is dissolving.

The psychoplastogens can heal the brain, not just treat the symptoms of neuropsychiatric diseases.

Olson says that firstgeneration psychoplastogens such as ketamine can be abused and have adverse cardiovascular e ects and hallucinogenic properties that make in-clinic administra tion and patient monitoring imperative. That increases cost and decreases the ability to reach more patients, he says.

“Each new discovery is advancing the field,” Olson says. “I want Delix to impact humanity. I want to see it through and get (psychoplastogens) into the hands of patients. Much like the mRNA platform from Moderna, I’m hoping that Delix has the same impact in neuroscience.”

“(Ketamine) abuse potential and the dissociative e ects dramatically reduce the scalability,” Olson says. “One in five will su er some sort of psychiatric issue in their lifetime, but we can’t have 1 billion people using ketamine.”

Olson is a co-founder and chief innovation o cer for Delix Therapeutics, a Boston-based startup looking to bring to the market psychedelic-like compounds that heal without hallucinations.

The stigma concerning psychedelics use is dissolving. With each medical advance, with new and compelling research described in peer-reviewed papers, and with each compound produced that moves toward full FDA approval and over-the-counter access, ketamine and other psychoplastogens are becoming more accepted and more mainstream.

Doctors Khan and Kaur are working in the now, while Olson is building for the future. Patients such as Duey stand to benefit.

“The stigma is absolutely changing,” Duey says. “Why is it changing? Because these psychedelics work.”

The Sacramento region is fortunate to have health care professionals who continuously strive to attain ever-higher levels of patient satisfaction through a blend of the latest technologies and careful listening.

The following medical professionals stand out in our community.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Richard Perez, M.D. Chief of Transplant Surgery, UC Davis Health

FOCUS: Leading one of the nation’s busiest kidney transplant programs, while researching how to bring the lifesaving procedures to even more people. EXPERTISE: Three decades of experience in transplant surgery, organ recovery and preservation. SPECIAL CLINICAL & RESEARCH INTERESTS: Addressing critical organ shortages through new methods of assessing and preparing donor kidneys. EDUCATION: University of Hawaii School of Medicine; Surgery Residency, University of Cincinnati; Organ Transplantation Fellowship, University of Minnesota.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

4010 V Street, Bldg. 12, Sacramento 916-734-2111 or 800-821-9912

transplant.ucdavis.edu

Kendall Homer, D.M.D. Eric Grove, D.D.S.

FOCUS: General Dentistry, including cosmetics, implant restoration, and emergency dental care. EDUCATION: Dr. Homer completed his B.A. at Sacramento State and earned his Doctorate of Medical Dentistry from Washington University. Dr. Grove received a B.S. from Pacific Union College and a Doctorate of Dental Surgery from Loma Linda University. PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS: Drs. Homer and Grove belong to the ADA/ CDA/SDDS. Dr. Grove is also an active participant in the SDDS. WHAT SETS THEM APART: Dr. Homer’s and Dr. Grove’s patients’ appreciation is evident in client loyalty, with 40-year plus patients bringing their children and grandchildren in for treatment. CHARITABLE WORK: Dr. Homer supports Save Ourselves, an organization that provides counseling and peer support to people living with breast cancer. Dr. Grove has participated in overseas dental mission trips and also participates in the Smiles for Big Kids program in Sacramento. FREE ADVICE: Studies have linked diabetes, heart disease and stroke to gum disease. Oral health is a significant part of overall well-being.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Kendall Homer D.M.D. / Eric Grove D.D.S. 9216 Kiefer Blvd., Suite 5, Sacramento (916) 363-9171 www.grovehomerdentists.com dentist@grovehomerdentists.com

Daniel L. Monahan, M.D.

FOCUS: Our goal is to help people enjoy better self-esteem, happiness, and health by treating unwanted varicose veins and spider veins. Dr. Monahan is Board Certified in General Surgery and Phlebology and specializes in vein disorders. EDUCATION: UC Davis, BA, Zoology, 1976. MEDICAL SCHOOL: University of Hawaii, 1981, M.D. MEMBERSHIPS: American Venous Forum; American College of Surgeons, American College of Phlebology. PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT: Marrying my wife, adopting my kids. Spearing a 100+ lbs. grouper while free-diving in Baja. (These are ‘gifts’ more than ‘achievements’.)

PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT: Published a research project which changed the understanding of varicose veins and treatment. INNOVATIONS: I treat varicose and spider veins in stages, reducing the amount and cost, resultant problems and improving results. All the most current knowledge and technology are used in our evaluation and treatment of patients with venous disorders. BEDSIDE MANNER: Patients frequently say ours is the friendliest medical o ce they have ever been to. We treat people personally, with compassion, and the best possible evaluation and treatment. OFF HOURS: Golf, fly-fishing, reading. CHARITABLE WORK: Long-time member of the area YoungLife committee; participate in YoungLife activities. ADVICE: People may think the treatment of vein disorders is purely for appearance or just for vanity. But how you feel about yourself is much more than “cosmetic.” It’s meaningful, confidence boosting and part of an overall health equation. Reach out for a consultation. You’ll be glad you did.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

David Kaufman, M.D., FACS Drew Davis, M.D. Plastic Surgery

FOCUS: Kaufman & Davis Plastic Surgery is focused on aesthetic plastic surgery with an emphasis on breast enhancement, body contouring and comprehensive facial rejuvenation. We also o er an array of non-surgical options for aesthetic improvement. EDUCATION: Dr. Kaufman and Dr. Davis are certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. Dr. Kaufman received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and subsequently attended Stanford University for his Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery residency. He is, however, most proud of his time at the U.S. Naval Academy and his active duty service as a Navy SEAL. Dr. Davis attended medical school at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and also, completed his residency in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford University. WHAT SETS THEM APART: A combination of exceptional training, extensive experience and a passion for excellence di erentiates Kaufman & Davis Plastic Surgery. Supported by a team of caring, fun and energetic professionals, our goal is to make patients feel confident they are in the right place. For that reason, we strive for patients to feel like “extended family” and to be excited about the prospect of self-enhancement. OFF-HOUR ACTIVITIES: Both Dr. Kaufman and Dr. Davis are family men who love spending time with their wives and young children—preferably playing and exploring outdoors. CHARITABLE WORK: Dr. Kaufman and Dr. Davis work closely with Medical Missions for Children to provide life-changing surgeries for children born with cleft lips and palates in the developing world. Dr. Davis is also a volunteer surgeon for ReSurg International. CHECK US OUT: Still a single location practice, we invite you to visit us at our newly built, state-of-the-art, Folsom o ce.

CONTACT INFORMATION: 1841 Iron Point Road, Folsom • (916) 983-9895 • www.thenaturalresult.com

SACRAMENTO'S

COCKTAIL SCENE IS ON FIRE.

BY MARYBETH BIZJAK

MEISLER

BARS ARE BACK, BABY. After two years of being cooped up at home because of COVID-19, people are finally coming out of self-imposed quarantine and looking for some fun. Luckily, Sacramento has no shortage of zippy bars and stylish cocktail lounges where you can let loose and socialize. Here’s a look at some of the top places right now to scratch your cocktail itch.

PHOTOS BY MARCUS

According to the Council for Textile Recycling, Americans throw away an average of 70 pounds of clothing and other textiles annually. By some tions have repeatedly documented abysmal work conditions at factories As people’s awareness about these issues grows, retailers and shoppers commissioned by thredUP, the world’s largest fashion resale site, the lar business models gain traction and more people become open to buying secondhand goods. That’s welcome news, because keeping clothes viduality, so that the thrill of finding a one-of-a-kind item at a thrift store

None of this is lost on uber-thrifter Phoebe Verkouw, who has made a the same. “What I love about thrifting is that it’s sustainable. It’s really cause there’s so much waste in fashion. I think of thrifting as a movement,”

Whether you’re a seasoned thrifter, a consignment junkie or totally new to the idea of resale retail, we’ve got you covered with a guide to Sacramento’s best-loved secondhand stores. And we’ll introduce you to

Kentucky Arm Candy from Trophy Club

When the pandemic hit in 2020, this massive restaurant/bar pivoted repeatedly, morphing into a food hall and ghost kitchen, then spilling out into a nearby park with live music events before settling into its current incarnation: a hip lounge that packs ’em in on weekends. Located just a martini olive’s throw from Golden 1 Center, Tiger sits on the 700 block of K Street, a stretch that right now is home to some of the city’s most happening bars. The two-story interior has a filthy/fabulous vibe, with tufted velvet couches set against walls covered in raw graffiti. Revelers come for the music (live 8–11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, DJs after 11) and the fruit-forward cocktails, with names like Blueberry Yum Yum, made with rum, lemon juice, blueberry puree and edible glitter. Drinks here have a craft-cocktail sensibility, but thanks to the crowds, bartenders need to pump them out fast. So concoctions like the Cherry Bradshaw—a cherry cosmo nod to Carrie Bradshaw of “Sex and the City” and its sequel, “And Just Like That . . .”—are whipped up in big batches to speed service along. Even so, you might have to wait on the pavement outside for up to two hours before getting in the door. 722 K St.; (916) 269-1439; tiger700block.com

THERE’S MORE : Tiger offers VIP accounts; pay $250 and get $300 in credit.

You walk through a door inauspiciously marked “storage,” bang on another door using a door knocker and wait until a third secret door masquerading as shelves stacked with rolls of toilet paper swings open like magic. And just like that, you’re inside The Roost, a speakeasystyle bar tucked behind Bawk!, Rob Archie’s fried chicken joint on R Street. Open since this past November, the dimly lit, brick-walled space is an intriguing addition to Sacramento’s bar scene. The beautifully illuminated back bar soars to the mile-high ceiling, with six sets of shelves holding about 600 premium spirits; to reach the top shelf, bartenders have to scramble up and down a rolling library ladder. Once seated, you’ll find your table set with cordial glasses for a complimentary sip of house-made punch to get you in the right frame of mind. Instead of scanning a QR code on your phone (so 2021!), you make your drink selection from a booklike menu that includes classics like the Old Fashioned, apéritifs (in case you’re heading out to dinner after), digestifs (if this is your last stop of the evening), champagne cocktails, Prohibition-era drinks and more. It’s Cli s Notes for cocktails. But if that’s too much reading for you, the bartender will slip you a choose-your-own-adventure coaster and a tiny golf pencil. Simply circle your picks from three categories (vodka/floral/short and sour, for instance), and they’ll make you the perfect drink on the spot. The Roost is open evenings only (closed Mondays); reservations (made on Tock) are highly recommended. 1409 R St.; theroost916.com

THERE’S MORE : Cocktails come in snazzy Riedel crystal glassware, and the ice rectangles (not cubes) are custom cut and clear as Lake Tahoe.

The loungey bar at this newly opened dinner house near the Capitol occupies the middle ground—both geographically and philosophically—between craft-centric Ella and fast-and-furious Dive Bar. “Craft lite” is how Luke A’Dair, who developed the bar program here, describes it. Bartenders make every drink to order (no batching), relying on fresh ingredients and premium spirits.

But when there are events at the nearby convention center, community theater and sports arena, it becomes a high-demand situation, leaving employees little time for the fancier fripperies of craft cocktailing. Specialty cocktails include the Lap of Luxury, a pretty, pink-tinged drink made with Tito’s vodka and lavender bitters and topped with a silky layer of aquafaba foam. Another popular option is the shrub margarita, made with Casamigos tequila (the brand founded by George Clooney and Randy Gerber) and a house-made shrub that changes with the seasons. Garnishes are elegant and simple: a fennel frond or a dehydrated wheel of citrus, clipped to the glass rim with a tiny wood clothespin. 1117 11th St.; (916) 898-1071; preluderestaurant.com

THERE’S MORE : The fenced-in patio, with its clear view of the Capitol building, is a sweet hangout spot.

Lap of Luxury

Like crows descending on downtown Sacramento after a day in the fields, people in search of a good time flock to this bird-themed bar and restaurant on K Street. Opened in October 2020 by the folks behind The Flamingo House in midtown, the dark, sultry ground-floor bar is one of the most eccentrically beautiful spaces in Sacramento. It was designed by Dacy Kolsky (who also did The Flamingo House) to resemble a Victorian aviary crossed with a futuristic Tokyo neon bar—it looks like a Hollywood prop closet exploded. Computerized LED lights bathe the room in vibrant colors that change to suit the mood of the crowd, while vintage birdcages hang from the ceiling and a large metal peacock perches on the bar. Most impressive is the giant gilded birdcage that doubles as a DJ booth and a spot where customers can take selfies. With its cozy banquette, velvet-upholstered stools and high-top tables for two, the ground floor is the perfect spot for an intimate têteà-tête over avian-named cocktails like the rum-based Bird’s-Eye Chai or the mescal-forward Oaxacan Sheartail. But if you want to party, head upstairs to the rooftop patio, known as The Nest, where you can enjoy a boozy frozen fruit slushy along with your four-napkin cheeseburger. The nesting picnic tables were designed to collapse to create a dance floor for live music and DJs on weekend nights . 712 K St.; (916) 758-5715; darlingaviary.com

THERE’S MORE : Up on the roof, shade sails and a high-end misting system will keep you cool in the hottest weather.

Since late 2019, more than 700 people have ponied up hundreds of dollars apiece to join this membership-based bar next to Golden 1 Center. If you’re not a member, don’t despair; you can still get in by knowing the password of the day, posted on the club’s Instagram Stories. It’s all part of the fun at this speakeasy-style bar, accessible through a hidden door in the alcove entrance to Flatstick Pub, a rowdy beer bar where customers play mini golf. (The two bars have the same ownership.) Once the host lets you in, you’ll pass through a velvet curtain into a di erent world that might have you thinking, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” It’s all very swank, with sleek gold starburst chandeliers, emerald-green velvet banquettes, a mirrored back bar and a piano where musician Doug Matson plays live music every Thursday from 7 to 10 p.m. The cocktail menu, printed to look like a Prohibition-era newspaper, features seven “club cocktails”—proprietary drinks created by the club’s three bartenders—and three classic drinks from di erent periods in history—say, a Garibaldi (from 1860), a Bijou (from the 1890s) and a Mai Tai (from 1944). The spring menu includes a Colt’s Neck Collins, a refreshing cocktail made with applejack, cognac, lemon juice and cascara cola syrup, and Punsch Drunk Love, a custardy concoction of Kronan Swedish Punsch, pisco, Galliano and an egg yolk. But the bartenders here really pride themselves on creating drinks on the fly to create a one-of-a-kind experience for each customer. “Our in-house creativity is damn near limitless,” says bar manager Tony Hicks. 630 K St.; (916) 872-0772; tipsyputt.com/trophyclub

THERE’S MORE : Hicks stocked the bar with some of his favorite spirits, including Writers Tears’ Irish whiskey (“tastes like vanilla birthday cake”) and Casa Dragones tequila.

Punsch Drunk Love

Kentucky Arm Candy

Clover Club from The 7th Street

At the 17-seat bar on the ground floor of the new Hyatt Centric hotel at Seventh and L streets, your order starts with the cocktailer’s version of 20 Questions. The bartender quizzes you—What’s your favorite spirit? Are you team refreshing or team aromatic? What flavors don’t you like?—before setting to work. The goal is a wellbalanced drink that meets the Goldilocks standard: not too sweet, not too bitter, just right. Open seven days a week from 11 a.m. till 10 p.m. (midnight Fridays and Saturdays), the bar caters to a diverse crowd of hotel guests, business folk and arena goers. You can order snacky foods—things like mini lobster rolls and sweetbread nuggets—from the bar menu or an entire meal from the regular menu, overseen by the highly regarded chef Ravin Patel, formerly with Ella. Upstairs, on the sixth floor, is a second bar called Clayton Club, a sexy indoor lounge that opens up onto a rooftop patio offering jaw-dropping views of downtown Sacramento. One half of the menu is devoted to classic cocktails that fall into the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” category, including cosmopolitans and amaretto sours. The other half features “vogue” cocktails, with drinks like the Marq-I, a fruity, refreshing qua made with Hendrick’s gin, bergamot and peach liqueurs and orange bitters, and the dramatic Black Dahlia, a savory tequila cocktail tinted deep black from the addition of activated charcoal and garnished with a crunchy red pepper ring. 1122 Seventh St.; (916) 898-1100; the7thstreetstandard.com

THERE’S MORE : The name Clayton Club is a tip of the fedora to Sacramento’s original Clayton Club, where Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and Cab Calloway used to perform.

Whiskey Sour from Clayton Club

This popular R Street watering hole is an exercise in one-stop shopping, a place where you can get a switchblade pompadour from celebrity barber Anthony Giannotti, then relax over an espresso martini or a whiskey shot and a PBR. The barbershop and the bar exist side by side in a shotgun building that has a sleek art-deco design crossed with a punk-rock-and-tattoos vibe. Bottle & Barlow’s owners took a cautious approach during the pandemic, closing completely for five months before reopening with heightened precautions. Now, with the staff fully vaccinated, they’re back to business as usual, serving serious cocktails with unserious names like the Snake Oil Merchant (scotch and apple cider vinegar topped with smoke foam) and Tequila and Some Shit. As the menu cheekily notes, “we know you stopped reading after tequila, but it also has agave, lemon, orange, cardamom and bitters.” Riffs on classic cocktails include the Old Fashioned Perfected, made with a house-selected single-barrel bourbon from Few, and the Kiss & Tell, a White Linen doppelgänger featuring Aperol in lieu of elderflower liqueur. Acknowledging consumers’ growing interest in spirit-free drinks, Bottle & Barlow devotes an entire section of its menu to nonalcoholic cocktails, starring distilled NA spirits from Britain’s Seedlip. Juices, bitters, spices and egg whites add complexity and interest without the buzz. 1120 R St.; (916) 379-7719; bottleandbarlow.com

THERE’S MORE : No food is served here, but you can bring in your own from a nearby restaurant or food truck.

It’s called The Green Room because, well, there’s a lot of green stu here, from the solid fence of faux ferns enclosing the sidewalk patio to the multitude of plants suspended in macramé holders from the skylighted ceiling. But there’s another meaning, too: In showbiz terms, the green room is the place where performers hang out before they go on stage. Owned by the folks behind Bacon & Butter and open from 3 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays–Saturdays, this Green Room is designed to be the place where you start your evening before going on to the main event. (Or, for people who like to be tucked in at a reasonable hour, where you end the night before heading home to watch Netflix in bed.) The concept is happy-hour-all-the-time, featuring craft cocktails with a twist: There’s a mule (thanks to Putin, we don’t say Moscow these days) made with apple cider and cinnamon; a spicy avocado margarita with a salty Tajín rim; and a Paloma topped with macerated blueberries, so you can have a little nibble while you sip. The food menu o ers noshy plates that beg to be shared with the table, such as fried cauliflower poppers, chicken wings and deviled eggs—and a pretty darn good smash burger that you’ll definitely want to keep all to yourself. 3839 J St.; (916) 475-1801; thegreen roomsac.com

There aren’t many places where you can drink a cocktail made with alcohol distilled on the premises. This is one of them. It’s owned by Jason Poole, a former bartender who made a name for himself in 2012 when he placed second in a national bloody mary contest. Poole took his winning recipe and bottled it for sale under the name Preservation & co., then expanded the line to include cocktail mixers, sauces and pickles that he produced and sold out of a warehouse on 19th Street. In the middle of the pandemic, he and partner Dave Abrahamsen opened Midtown Spirits, the first distillery to debut in the city since Prohibition. It’s a far cry from the typical distillery tasting room, with a full-service bar, a restaurant and a roomy street-side patio where you can hang with your pooch after an outing at the popular bark park across the street. From the dining room, you can view the gleaming 400-gallon hybrid still in action. Right now, Poole makes vodka, gin, coffee liqueur and, coming this summer, rum; whiskey, which takes longer to age, is several years off. Midtown Spirits also makes its own infused vodkas in 22 flavors that include sweet tea, apple cinnamon, dill pickle and, for you heat freaks, habanero. Adult slushies are available year-round, in fun flavors like cookies-and-cream and mangonada. 1717 19th St.; (916) 243-6991; midtown-spirits.com

THERE’S MORE : The house-distilled gin has bright, citrusy notes. “It’s gin for people who don’t like gin,” says Poole.

THERE’S MORE : The daiquiri is garnished with a chunk of fresh banana, brûléed by the bartender just before serving.

Margarita

Meg Myers' art studio

Th iS CooL Ho u sE

You can give your home a sense of place with artwork and furnishings by local artisans.

BY STEPH RODRIGUEZ

Sacramento creatives are a bunch of crafty innovators who see possibilities in everyday objects. They transform raw materials into your new favorite coffee mug or blend fragrances that capture the essence and beauty of California’s natural wonders. Whatever your aesthetic, whether you’re looking for squishy new throw pillows that show neighborhood pride or cute artwork of dancing buffalo ballerinas to brighten your baby’s nursery, these local artisans create handmade home goods to make your space a place you love to live.

PHOTOS BY CREATE + GATHER

Big, Juicy Rainbows

Meg Myers Glass

Glass artist Meg Myers remembers that when she was a little girl, the kitchen table acted as the ubiquitous craft, dinner and pretty much “everything” center in her household. One day, Myers’ dad showed her and her sister how to make a couple of simple, stained-glass candleholders, a practice he had picked up to impress their mom.

Decades later, that day around the craft table proved to be a valuable lesson as Myers leaned into her glassworking skills during a crossroads in her art career. It’s a decision that’s since brought her much success, with more than 6,500 Instagram followers and orders reaching as far as Australia, Japan and Germany.

Customer favorites include Myers’ 3-D glass terrariums that house succulents or insects and can be hung on walls. Her abstract suncatchers in forms like hands and lips are also in demand, casting cool shades of amber, blue and green. But it’s her water prisms that really shine a light on her true talent of brightening up a room.

“When it hits the sun, when it really catches right, it casts a big, really juicy rainbow in your house,” Myers says. “Every time that I see it in my house, I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s so good.’ It makes me feel like, no matter what, if I see it just for a second, it’s just so beautiful.”

She especially loves seeing photos of rainbows bathing her customers’ dogs and cats. It’s those little moments of joy she hopes to bring to homes across the world through a simple craft taught to her around the everything table years ago.

“They’re like these weird little therapy objects, especially over the past few years, and also since we’re all at home all the time,” Myers says. “It’s like this tiny moment of joy that is so beautiful, and maybe even fleeting because it goes away with the sun moving. But it’s not for nothin’. We gotta find those little moments whenever they come.”

Handcrafted, Homemade

Phill Built

PHILLBUILT PHILLBUILT.COM

When Phill Moskalets and his wife married in 2015, they needed a dining table but weren’t taken with the variety sold at big-box stores. So Moskalets decided to build one himself. He started reading articles and watching videos about basic woodworking and joinery techniques. He dug into his parents' garage for bare-bones tools and, over the course of three months, he built a beautiful dining table that continues to host family dinners to this day.

“I actually still have that walnut dining table,” he says. “After that, I kept going. I wanted a bed, so I built a bed—and then started buying tools.”

Chances are, you’ve seen Moskalets’ handiwork, as he’s created tables, chairs and reception areas for local businesses like Localis, Jam Baby, Faria Bakery, Canon and Mast Coffee Co.

Besides commercial pieces, Moskalets has handcrafted ergonomic desks for pandemic WFH customers, along with stunning coffee tables, cribs, dressers and bookshelves. He sources most of his materials from Hughes Hardwoods in Rancho Cordova and from Urban Wood Rescue, a company that takes fallen trees and sells them to woodworkers and artisans like Moskalets.

“Anything you need out of wood, I can make out of wood,” he confidently says. “The most amazing thing to me is when I pick up my materials and they’re flat boards, or rough and all warped out of shape—taking those, and shaping them into an actual product. I just love that. There’s so much satisfaction in standing back and looking at your work and thinking you were able to create that with your own two hands.”

Bohemian Chic

Madame Macramé Designs

MADAMEMACRAMEDESIGNS ETSY.COM/SHOP/MADAMEMACRAMEDESIGNS

A hobby spurred by the pandemic that eventually evolved into a small business: Olivia Ziter runs Madame Macramé Designs and sells handmade, 100% cotton fiber art for your humble abode through Etsy or Instagram.

Originally from Vermont, Ziter moved to California in search of more creative opportunities. With an affinity for bohemian-inspired home goods, she decided to make her very own macramé pieces to brighten up any space.

So she began with everyday plant hangers, then branched out to produce baskets and drink coasters with little tassels. Ziter also makes decorative, dreamcatcher-like pieces that hang on wooden dowels or found driftwood her father sources from Vermont.

“If there’s something people want and they want to work on it with me, I’ll do it. I really like to try different things,” Ziter says. “It’s just so relaxing and peaceful and you get something out of it.”

An avid animal lover and vegan, Ziter also volunteers at local area sanctuaries and has donated macramé art to raise money at raffles and benefits. Macramé ties into every aspect of her life.

“I macraméd a cow to donate to a sanctuary for an auction. It pushes me to make more than just a plant hanger, but something that’s more personal to who I am,” Ziter says. “It’s so versatile and it’s not perfect. It’s knots and string. It’s not like knitting, where it’s really precise. It has all sorts of leeway, so you can do whatever you want.”

Your Daily Ritual

Echeri Ceramics

ECHERI_CERAMICS ECHERICERAMICS.COM

Inspired by their personal conversations, shared experiences and cultural identities, Alejandra and Luis Magaña are the creative hands behind Echeri Ceramics.

The couple collaborates with small businesses such as Camellia Coffee Roasters, Beast + Bounty and Franquette, making unique small-bites dinnerware that’s easy to wash and comfortable to use.

“I’m really fortunate that we’ve been able to do so many collaborations with small businesses and restaurants,” Alejandra says. “The community always surprises me. There’s something really nice about how artistic Sacramento is. It’s very supporting and very embracing.”

Besides producing a variety of ceramics for the hospitality industry, Alejandra and Luis make pieces that are both useful and adorable, like their double-handled Muñecas mugs with hand-painted doll faces. “You could actually use this thing to start off your day,” Luis says. “I think that’s the best way to use our stuff. Allow it to be part of your daily ritual.”

Memorable Arrangements

Sadie Dunaway

SADIEDUNAWAY

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Sadie Dunaway found dead leaves and other forgotten foliage that nature was no longer using during her walks in the forest. She would bring those pieces of vegetation back to her house before turning them into one cohesive yet random creation.

It became the foundation of her current specialty: preserving floral bouquets from weddings, celebrations and funerals. She dries each flower, vine and leaf, then arranges them into a beautiful art piece that’s housed in either a shadow box or an open frame.

“I’ve always been passionate about reusing things that would otherwise be discarded,” Dunaway says. “I was noticing how many flowers were being tossed after people buy them for all sorts of occasions. So I just started preserving them and drying them.”

She receives the bouquets pre-dried from online customers or dries them herself by hanging them upside-down in her home out of direct sunlight. Once they’re dried, she assembles the crisp flowers into vintage-looking frames she finds at thrift stores, carefully covering every inch of white space.

“I’ve been super privileged to preserve these memories for people. Over so many years, flowers have been used as communication for so many different relationships, whether someone is in a hospital or sick or for celebrations and baby showers,” Dunaway says. “Flowers are quite sentimental to so many people and they’re worth preserving. It ties people back to a memory, so it’s not just a flower. These pieces can bring someone back to a specific time. It really moves you from the inside.”

Sweet Escapes

Good Honey Handmade

Honey sweetens Tonja Wilcox’s custom ink and watercolor paintings of California cities and Sacramento landmarks. The sweet nectar acts as a binder when Wilcox mixes pigments for her intricately detailed portraits of the most beautiful Victorian and Craftsman homes in the area, or realistic depictions of buzzing insects and cute animals, all brought to life with a little help from the honeybee.

“Just the flow of [watercolor] and the way the water and the paint moves, it’s always a little different, so every original piece really can’t be duplicated exactly,” Wilcox says. “There’s always an element of surprise with the way the paint reacts to the paper.”

Not only does Wilcox take custom orders, but she also sells affordable prints on her website or at the Midtown Farmers Market on Saturdays, so everyone can pick up a piece of art for their home.

Popular prints include the California picture map, a sweet outline of the Golden State with illustrated landmarks such as Disneyland and Lake Tahoe. The Sacramento skyline is also a crowd pleaser.

The comfort that art adds to a space keeps Wilcox inspired. She says, “I get a lot of comments when people are looking at my things, that it makes them smile, it makes them feel good.”

Outdoors in Your Home

Thistle and Fig

Lighting candles was therapeutic for candlemaker Nina Saferstein at different moments in her life. First, as a form of therapy when her father suddenly passed away when she was 13. Then, during the pandemic, when Saferstein started making candles as a means to pass the time creatively, getting lost in various comforting scents as the wick slowly burned.

Through that, she launched her own company, Thistle and Fig, bringing a little bit of California’s outdoors into people’s homes.

“The Yucatan candle is one of my favorites. It has palo santo, white sage and cedar. I think cedar is really grounding and earthy. It’s like a breath of fresh air and it’s really relaxing,” Saferstein says.

A lot of Thistle and Fig’s candles are inspired by California’s natural beauty. Pacifica, with notes of sandalwood, lavender and lemon, is one of the company’s top sellers. All of Saferstein’s container candles are made with soy wax and have a hemp wick, and the fragrances are derived from essential oils.

“It’s so special when you’re doing a pop-up or an event and someone comes up to you that you’ve never met before, and they’re like, ‘Oh, my God! I love your candles!’” she says. “It’s one of the best feelings to have created something that has brought someone else joy.”

Made With Love

I am the Artist Phoenix

IAMTHEARTISTPHOENIX

A full-time artist, Aimee Phelps shapes and solders beautiful stained-glass suncatchers that feature colorful portraits of beloved pets.

From her backyard workshop in Oak Park, she starts by drawing a pattern of someone’s favorite Fido, using a photograph for reference, before cutting out intricate glass pieces by hand, carefully sanding each down and soldering them together using lead-free materials.

“A lot of the orders that I get are for pets that have passed,” says Phelps, who’s created pieces for customers as far away as New York and Georgia. “People want something more personal to memorialize their pet.”

Phelps also has a knack for woodburning and can create custom portraits of just about anything. All it takes is an idea and a consultation with Phelps to make your ideal glass or wooden art piece a reality.

“I love to create, and if something that I made brings joy to somebody else, it makes me happy,” Phelps says. “When I make something for somebody, I get so excited to give it to them. I’m excited all the way through making it. The energy that I put into it is excitement, joy, care and love. When somebody gets that, and they can feel it, it’s so much brighter.”

“ Choose Weird! ”

Lionel’s Place

LIONELSPLACE LIONELS.PLACE

In their original children’s book, “The Little Lemon That Leapt,” mother-daughter creative team Karen Sanders and Hannah Howerton celebrate individuality with positive messages and cute characters that break barriers, like the Sporty Sloth or the Ballerina Buffalo. After the book was published in 2015, children and adults started asking for merchandise featuring their favorite quotes and beloved animals.

“My grandpa inspired the message of our book because that’s how he raised his kids—to just embrace people who are different and to never make fun of anyone for being different,” Howerton says. “We always target the kids who stand out, and what makes you stand out is always what makes you incredible adults.”

Now, Sanders and Howerton operate the online retail store Lionel’s Place, named after the man who inspired it all. With the book’s popularity, Howerton, the graphic designer and creative director, and Sanders, the writer and visionary, started selling everything from throw pillows to decorative 8-by-10 prints for nurseries featuring their brand’s message, “Choose Weird!” Since then, they’ve expanded beyond the book with designs that celebrate California as the “Land of the Weird and Wonderful” with tributes to cities and landmarks throughout the Golden State. Other goodies to add personality to your home include felt Oxford pennants, large banners with curly writing, quirky refrigerator magnets and more.

“Just the idea that something that came out of our brains is out there in the world is a fun thing that you don’t think about when you’re creating it,” Howerton says. “But when you have that happen, it’s just like, ‘Oh! I’m a part of the conversation.’”

Neighborhood Pride

Allie Studio

ALLIESTUDIO ALLIESTUDIO.COM

Alicia Kerr says she’s always been the crafty type, dabbling in jewelry making or learning how to sew on her grandmother’s classic machine. But once she started putting neighborhood pride on throw pillows of all sizes showcasing communities such as East Sac, Curtis Park, Alkali Flat and more, orders started pouring in.

As she expanded her designs to include any neighborhood or state a customer desires, she reached beyond the West Coast with online orders and expanded into local retailers such as DISPLAY California in Oak Park, Harvest Home in Sonoma and The Feathered Nest in Loomis.

“By my third or fourth holiday season, I just went for it. I had like 100 different neighborhoods between the different designs and was like, ‘Wow, I’m in it now!’” Kerr says. “It just took off.”

Kerr’s website is chock-full of her original throw pillow designs, which come in a cotton-linen blend with a down insert. You can also customize your own throw pillow to add a little extra comfort to your living room, outdoor lounge space or bedroom.

“One of the things I say is love where you live. People making their house a home is really important to me,” Kerr says. “I want people to get the most out of their homes. I feel really lucky to live here. And it’s just been a fun squishy little business.”

Shasta Smith, owner of The Vintage Monkey and The Altar Room

WeatheringPandemic

Many small businesses took a beating during the past two years. Some of the luckier ones remained open, and a few flourished.

PHOTOSANDSTORYBY RYANANGELMEZA

In spring 2020, we witnessed a shift in the atmosphere as the pulse of Sacramento ceased—venues closed, education and after-school programs halted, businesses boarded up and whole streets took on ghostly qualities. To some, it felt like an apocalyptic nightmare. People who serve the community in various industries were affected—and some worse than others.

The set of images presented here depicts the faces of a few who are grateful to the community for its continued loyalty, which granted them the ability to stay in business.

I sought out smaller mom-and-pop-style shops because small businesses drive a large portion of our nation’s gross domestic product—the lifeline of America. “Small business” drives the culture and lifestyle of a community.

Aaron Hood dresses for the occasion as he tends bar at B Side, a ’70s-influenced dive bar in downtown Sacramento. Like many restaurants and pubs, the business converted its parking lot into an outdoor lounge.

Jonathan “Big Body Johnny” Corona has been a physical trainer and owner of downtown’s Tensile Strength since 2013. When the pandemic closed the facility’s doors, Corona muscled his way through the tough times by allowing customers to take training equipment home.

Shasta Smith is owner of

The Vintage Monkey, a classic motorcycle restoration shop, and The Altar Room, an intimate event rental venue. Formerly located on 16th Street, the business relocated to East Sacramento.

decided to purchase his first warehouse in July 2021. The pandemic demand for WFH office furniture allowed for an 800% growth in sales.

Derrick Warmerdam, owner of Mid Century Sacramento, a midcenturymodern furniture dealer,

Mike Oliver, owner and teacher at Zen Martial Arts in East Sacramento, pivoted from giving in-person lessons to online lessons. As the city partially reopened, Oliver offered his dojo from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for tutoring services. This service has been extended as an afterschool program called Elevate Youth Academy.

Sam Hong is the owner of Fresh Cleaners, with locations in midtown and Natomas. Much of Hong’s business relied on downtown workers, many of whom have yet to return to work. Hong remains optimistic despite a 60% drop in sales and limited staffing.

Alfonso and Lorena Martinez, owners of The Colour Bar on K Street, shifted their business model to include online retail of hair care products. Since then, they’ve become the No. 1 seller of products by Bassett Salon Solutions.

graces

Back

michelle drewes

Neuman.

BY CATHERINE WARMERDAM

Timeless appeal. That’s what designer Laura Neuman of PepperJack Interiors was going for in the remodel of a couple’s Granite Bay residence built in the 1990s. “We wanted to keep a traditional element throughout the home, but make it lighter and brighter and fresher,” says Neuman.

Foundational to the project was replacing the original travertine flooring and brightening up the kitchen and living spaces with a fresh coat of paint. In the family room, Neuman retained the pretty wood-beam ceilings and interior window shutters but completely redesigned the fireplace, which previously had a French chateau-like faux finish, to o er the room a simple yet elegant focal point. “I love that the new look has a contemporary Napa feel to it,” says Neuman.

Art was the starting point for the kitchen redesign. “I’m not someone who likes to play with funky tile or a motif,” explains Neuman. “I would rather bring art into a kitchen because it’s personal and it’s changeable.” She kept the cabinetry “very

Kitchen (opposite and below left): The cabinetry is white oak, a material that “is having a moment,” according to Neuman. She chose the forged-glass pendant lights by Hammerton Studio for their “chunky, masculine look.” Above the sink, an original landscape painting by artist Mya Louw sets the mood.

Alcove (below): A former butler’s pantry gets a new life as a tranquil drop zone for keys, purses and shoes.

“I OFTEN FEEL THAT IT’S GOOD TO DESIGN FROM THE INSIDE OUT, THINKING ABOUT ALL THE FABRICS AND FINISHES FIRST.” LAURA NEUMAN

traditional,” opting for a narrow-banded style, sometimes referred to as a micro Shaker, in white oak. The layout of the tile backsplash takes its cue from centuries-old brick patterns—a signature move that lends the space a subtle sense of history.

Small but meaningful details—the crystal knob on the mesh wine cellar door, the linen drapes with a beautifully tailored leading edge—are central to how Neuman conceives a space. “I often feel that it’s good to design from the inside out, thinking about all the fabrics and finishes first,” she explains. “I can’t imagine designing a spac e without thinking about these details. It all goes together for me.”

Family room (above): By updating the outmoded fireplace with beautifully understated natural stone materials, Neuman transformed the entire look of the room.

inside: Some great spring events have sprung up

For information on this and other events, turn the page.

The Sacramento River Cats open their season by playing against the Sugar Land (Texas) Space Cowboys at Sutter Health Park on April 5.

It’s spring, and April is bursting forth with fun things to do. Here are 18 of our top picks.

BY KARI ROSE PARSELL

APRIL 5 – SEPT. 28 APRIL 3 3

APRIL 1 APRIL 1 – 10 APRIL 1 – 30

Don’t Stop Believin’—It has been quite a journey for Bay Area band Journey, thanks in part to decades of roster changes, but their 19 Top 40 U.S. hits, certified 15-times platinum Greatest Hits album and rich arena-rock sound keep fans coming back for more—faithfully. See them, along with Toto, at Golden 1 Center. golden1cen ter.com

Get Ogre It— Got stress? Laugh it off at “Shrek the Musical,” River City Theater Company’s spring offering at Tower Theater in Roseville. Talented youths from across the region bring this funny fairy tale musical—starring a green, grotesque yet lovable and lovestruck ogre—to life. rctcweb.org

Picture This— During Photography

Month Sacramento, a five-countywide celebration of the photographic arts, discover dozens of photography exhibits at galleries and museums, along with workshops, field trips, receptions and more. Among the offerings: The Humor Around Us, anexhibit of student work at midtown’sViewpoint Photographic Art Center. photomonth sacramento.org

APRIL 2

Creative Force— Controversial, cryptic and wildly creative on multiple fronts, Tyler, The Creator is an acclaimed rapper/musician, producer, director and visual artist. The LA native brings his Call Me If You Get Lost tour to Golden 1 Center, joined by Kali Uchis, Vince Staples and Teezo Touchdown. golden1 center.com

The Toll of Racism—The impacts of racism on the U.S. economy cost everyone, not just people of color, says political strategist Heather McGhee. Hear this New York Times best-selling author’s assessment of the economy and her actionable ideas of how to change it to benefit all Americans at the Mondavi. mondaviarts.org

Play Ball— Spring is in the air, and so are baseballs! The Sacramento River Cats—TripleA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants— open their 2022 season with a sixgame home stand against the Sugar Land (Texas) Space Cowboys—TripleA affiliate of the Houston Astros—at Sutter Health Park. rivercats.com

Heather McGhee: Heather Weston; Tyler, The Creator: Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock

Modern

Moves—Sacramento Ballet presents Catalyst , a performance of three works: the world premiere of Jennifer Archibald’s contemporary ballet Soar, George Balanchine’s classical masterpiece Allegro Brillante, and a new ballet by choreographer, Sac Ballet company dancer and Davis native Julia Feldman. At The Sofia. sacballet.org

Rising Star—

Nominated for four Grammys in 2020, including best new artist, and two in 2022 for Best Americana and Best American Roots

Song, British singersongwriter Yola continues to defy categorization as she captivates fans with her stellar voice and soulful, genrebending Americana sound. At Ace of Spades. aceofspades sac.com

Of Brothers

and Butterflies—B Street Theatre stages “A Great Migration,” a comedy by Preston Choi about three brothers searching for their father to avoid being drafted into the Korean army. It takes place on the eve of their mother’s TEDx Talk about monarch butterfly migration. At The Sofia. bstreet theatre.org

Wine Weekend—Discover the backroads, beauty and bounty of El Dorado County wine country during El Dorado Wines’ Passport to The Great Out There For one, two or three days, experience tastings, tours, wineand-food pairings and more at over 25 of the region’s top wineries. Reservations required. eldo radowines.org

Walk

for Woofs and Wags—Sacramento SPCA’s 29th Annual Doggy Dash is back in person this year! Lace up your sneakers, leash up your pups and join thousands of fellow dog lovers on a tail-waggin’ 2K/5K walk through William Land Park, followed by a Bark in the Park festival. Race pre-registration required. sspca. org/doggy-dash

Picnic Day in Davis—After a two-year pandemic pause, UC Davis welcomes everyone back to campus for its 108th Picnic Day, an open house showcasing the university’s myriad academic and cultural offerings. The free family event boasts science exhibits, competitions, music, entertainment and kids’ activities. pic nicday.ucdavis.edu

29–30

THROUGH APRIL 24

Witch

Is Better—Before Dorothy dropped into Oz, two rival witches—brilliant yet misunderstood Elphaba and bubbly blond Glinda—became friends. Experience their story— and how one became known as evil, the other good—when the national touring production of “Wicked” lands at SAFE Credit Union PAC. broadway sacramento.com

APRIL 24

El Animal

Nocturno—One of the most successful and celebrated Latin American singer-songwriters of all time, Ricardo Arjona revisits a lifetime of hits on his Blanco y Negro Tour. Don’t miss this Guatemalan superstar at Golden 1 Center. golden1center.com

APRIL 24 APRIL 28

Love Your Mother—

Celebrate the Earth at Sacramento Earth Day in Southside Park. Dedicated to sustainable living, this free festival features green goods and services, local agencies, community groups, cleanenergy information and electric vehicles along with art, live music, kids’ activities and plant-based foods. ecosacramen to.net

Keiko on Keyboards—

Internationally acclaimed keyboardist and composer Keiko Matsui is not only cherished within the contemporary jazz world but is a noted jazz ambassador and humanitarian. Hear the Tokyo native perform contemporary jazz, jazz fusion and New Age-inspired works at The Sofia. bstreettheatre.org

APRIL 29 – 30

Clay Days—

The 35th California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Arts the world’s largest sculptural ceramics conference, hosted by John Natsoulas Center for the Arts in Davis—offers lectures, shows, demonstrations and intimate venues where attendees can interact with top ceramicists. Dozens of ceramics shows take place concurrently in Davis. natsoulas.com/ ccaca-2022

APRIL 30 – MAY 1

Full Blume—

After a two-year hiatus, Sol Blume moves to Discovery Park for an expanded two-day music festival featuring more than 30 R&B, soul and hip-hop artists. Jhené Aiko, Jorja Smith, Summer Walker and PartyNextDoor headline the all-ages R&B concert—the largest of its kind in Sacramento. sol blume.com

EL DORADO HILLS | $1,654,000

This stylishly, classic Serrano Country Club custom home features four bedrooms, three and one-half baths, plus an upstairs bonus room. The living room has a fireplace and looks into the backyard's waterfall, fruit trees and gazebo. The formal dining area has a double door opening into the chef's kitchen that opens to the spacious great room. The owners' suite has outdoor access and a lovely bath.

Patricia Seide 916.712.1617 patricia.seide@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #00892540

FOLSOM | $1,599,000

Welcome to this Spectacular Custom Home in American River Canyon North. This great open floorplan features 5 bedrooms and 4.5

with fireplace, a formal dining room, game room with a bar, a primary bedroom with a designer closet & an office. This

& built-in refrigerator. Enjoy great views from second floor.

Ron Walker 916.225.1881 ronsonrj@yahoo.com | CalRE #00917637

AUBURN | $1,499,000

Enjoy an evening paseo at this beautiful approx. 10 acre compound on the Placer Wine and Ale Trail. Features a custom

house, guest

guest cottage totaling 6 bedrooms, 5 baths, over 4,000 sq ft, 2 ponds, 2 wells, fenced pastures, custom storage barn w/concrete floor and electricity, outbuildings, 2 carports, truly labor of love for seller!

Jane Miller 916.799.7397 jane.miller@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #00640671

garage, separate workshop building and RV/boat storage.

Melinda Shrader 916.747.7535 melinda.shrader@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #00994757

SACRAMENTO | $1,178,000

Updated 3br/2ba quintessential East Sac Tudor features an opened family area, upgraded chef’s kitchen & primary bedroom with walk-in closet. The outdoor area has a fireplace, covered seating area & landscaped backyard.

Elise Brown 916.715.0213 eliseivesbrown@gmail.com | CalRE #01781942

2br/1ba

NAPA | $1,199,999

#02150365

SACRAMENTO | $1,050,000

Stunning South Land Park 4br/4ba home with a remarkable 3 master suites! This beautiful home has wood floors, living room w/fireplace, formal dining area, inside laundry room, gourmet chef’s kitchen & backyard w/pergola. Wendi Reinl 916.206.8709 | CalRE #01314052 Emily Welch 916.639.2686 | CalRE #02145901 COVER PROPERTY

SACRAMENTO | $979,950

5br/4ba w/traditional living spaces, separate family room, & a tranquil primary suite. Kitchen w/SubZero refrigerator, a Dacor gas range & island w/dining bar. Also, a private backyard w/patio & thoughtful landscaping.

Richard Cazneaux 916.212.4444 rich@eastsac.com | CalRE #01447558

ROSEVILLE | $949,000

Welcome to this beautiful single-level home that sits on an amazing lot with stunning sunset views! Enjoy hardwood floors, a kitchen with granite counters, a beautiful fireplace, and a backyard with every detail!

Marco Esquivel 916.302.6535 esquivelrealtycb@gmail.com | CalRE #02048864

ROSEVILLE | $899,000

Stunning 4 bedroom home offers a flexible floor plan with a formal living & dining room, den with fireplace, breakfast nook, huge kitchen with center island, primary suite, game room & backyard with patio & fountain.

Betty Brody 916.300.5202 betty@bettybrody.com | CalRE #01415304

GALT | $975,000

4br/2.5ba semi-custom home on a fully fenced 1.83 acre site features a huge great room & kitchen with granite counters, stainless steel appliances, island & walk-in pantry. Enjoy the shop, covered seating & waterfall.

Marc Traverse 916.802.4141 marc.traverse@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #00876065

EL DORADO HILLS | $927,000 Gorgeous Formal Lennar Model home features an open concept floorplan, stunning kitchen, breakfast nook, family room with fireplace, master suite & backyard with California Room & a built-in stone BBQ.

Kathleen O'Neill 916.832.0333 kathleen.oneill@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #01440748

SACRAMENTO | $897,500

4br/3ba w/pool, spa, paid solar, covered patio, built-in cabinets, natural hardwood floors, gas fireplace, laundry & bonus room. Close to downtown!

Anna Ruiz 916.412.2675 annaruizrealtor@gmail.com | CalRE #01438238

ROSEVILLE | $775,000

Nestled on over a quarter acre lot, this home offers a chef’s kitchen, an expansive family room with a fireplace insert, formal rooms, an upstairs open loft and the romantic primary suite with an en-suite bathroom.

Melinda Shrader 916.747.7535

melinda.shrader@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #00994757

SACRAMENTO | $729,990

3br/2ba charmer features lovely hardwood floors, spacious rooms, tasteful updates, kitchen with stainless steel appliances & storage and a generous primary suite with an updated bathroom. Enjoy the backyard firepit.

Steffan Brown 916.717.7217 steffan@steffanbrown.com | CalRE #01882787

ELK GROVE | Price Upon Request

4br/2ba w/updated HVAC & blinds. Also includes a 3-car garage, fireplace, ceiling fans, carpeting and laminate flooring, granite counters, beautiful cabinetry & and a large private backyard with patio and greenspace.

Ken Tateishi 916.612.2462

kensellseg@gmail.com | CalRE #01490424

ELK GROVE | $765,000

Stunning Elk Grove home offers a formal living/dining space, kitchen with quartz counters, stainless steel appliances & island, family room w/fireplace & primary suite with spa-like bath. Enjoy the fully landscaped yard.

Mark DeGennaro 916.849.4810 Mark@MarkDRealty.com | CalRE #01394970

ROSEVILLE | $695,000

This former model 3/4 bedroom home has all the bells and whistles featuring a great room style floorplan, a stunning kitchen, downstairs owner's suite and office, an upstairs loft and a large, covered patio. Owned solar!

Melinda Shrader 916.747.7535 melinda.shrader@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #00994757

ROCKLIN | $650,000

OWNED SOLAR 4br/2.5ba near new home in gated community. Bright and open floorplan allows for easy entertaining. Gourmet kitchen & romantic owner's suite. Low maintenance outdoor living with spacious patio & built-in BBQ.

Melinda Shrader 916.747.7535

melinda.shrader@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #00994757

ROSEVILLE | $645,000

Single-story home in the Eureka Village subdivision of Johnson Ranch. It offers combination family room/dining rooms with high ceilings, well-planned kitchen & large primary bedroom. Enjoy the pergola covered back porch.

IONE | $610,000

Welcome to this Castle Oaks 3br/2ba home! Enjoy the stunning views of the pool and the golf course out the back of the home and relax on your covered patio ideal for enjoying the amazing California foothills weather.

Stunning Lennar 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom move-in ready home boasts an open great room, spacious kitchen with island, dining area, roomy loft, laundry room, spacious primary bedroom and more. Tracey DeMercado 916.849.6933 tracey.demercado@cbrealty.com | CalRE #01392325

Susan Slavik 916.873.0935 susan.slavikre@gmail.com | CalRE #01967494 RANCHO CORDOVA | $620,000

Tammy Goolsby 209.332.0250 tammy.goolsby@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #01987204 CITRUS HEIGHTS | $609,500

CARMICHAEL | $599,900

Gorgeous single-story gem in Carmichael features an open concept floor plan, huge chef's kitchen w/stainless-steel appliances & quartzite counters, spacious den, primary bedroom w/en-suite bath & cozy covered back patio.

Tim Comstock 916.548.7102 tim.comstock@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #01879462

IONE | $579,000

3br/2ba cul-de-sac home in Castle Oaks. Features an open kitchen w/beautiful cabinetry, pantry cabinet & pantry, plantation shutters & a spacious backyard w/patio cover. Great opportunity to own a home in Castle Oaks.

Tammy Goolsby 209.332.0250 tammy.goolsby@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #01987204

ELK GROVE | $465,000

3br/2.5ba former model home situated in the Laguna Pointe Community with over 1,700 square feet! It features a loft, plantation shutters, granite counters, custom tile work in bathrooms & beautiful stamped concrete.

Shanda Lusich 916.214.8479 shanda.lusich@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #01070238

ROSEVILLE | $599,000

Lovingly updated 3br/2ba ranch-style home boasts fantastic natural light, vaulted ceilings, kitchen with newer appliances, granite counters, tile flooring and a cozy eating area. Enjoy the backyard full of possibilities.

Joellinda Hannigan 916.316.1889 jhannigan@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #01039089

IONE | $579,000

Check out this beautiful 3br/2ba open floorplan home! The stunning view of the golf course from the kitchen, living room, primary bedroom and the backyard creates the ideal setting to enjoy the huge, covered patio.

Tammy Goolsby 209.332.0250 tammy.goolsby@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #01987204

CITRUS HEIGHTS | $445,000

Renovated 3br/2ba home on large corner lot with warm colors, laminate/ tile floors and modern fixtures! Expansive living room, updated kitchen with granite/stainless. Entertainer's yard w/patio, gazebo & RV/toy storage.

Melinda Shrader 916.747.7535 melinda.shrader@cbnorcal.com | CalRE #00994757

ANTELOPE | $425,000

3br/2ba beautiful Antelope home w/brick wood-burning fireplace, ceiling fan, vaulted ceiling, breakfast bar, stainless steel dishwasher, Bay window, covered patio & a primary bathroom w/soaking tub & double sinks.

Tim Pantle 916.834.6376 Tim@TimPantle.com | CalRE #01377493

SACRAMENTO | Price Upon Request

Beautiful home in Wildhawk Estates offers a living room, family room with fireplace, spacious kitchen, primary suite, pool, spa & entertaining area.

Tori Leicht 916.261.8546

Toni List 916.955.0169 CalRE #01212789 | CalRE #01307279

SACRAMENTO | $650,000

3br/2.5ba w/formal dining room, inside laundry w/cabinets, primary suite w/2 closets & bath & backyard w/mature orange tree, covered patio & more.

Wendi Reinl 916.206.8709 wendi@wendireinl.com CalRE #01314052

PENN VALLEY | $750,000

Lake Wildwood 4br/5ba (2 1/2 baths) home featuring a downstairs guest suite with a living room, fireplace, bedroom, bath and kitchenette.

Wendi Reinl 916.206.8709

Emily Welch 916.639.2686 CalRE #01314052 | CalRE #02145901

CARMICHAEL | $525,000

3br/2ba Carmichael charmer w/2-car garage, on a large corner lot w/many fruit tree. Located near schools, shopping & dining. Arman Khachatryan 916.200.5446 arman.khach@cbnorcal.com CalRE #01948420

SACRAMENTO | Price Upon Request This vintage Arden-Arcade home features a charming living room, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a large bonus room. Enjoy the large backyard with a beautiful built-in swimming pool. It offers plenty of storage & a 2-car garage.

#01873809

ELK GROVE | $699,900

4BR/3BA home in a peaceful neighborhood. It features an open family/kitchen combo, laminate wood flooring, backyard w/covered patio & so much more!

Alison Traverse Warren 916.690.6960 alison.warren@cbnorcal.com CalRE #01733854

SACRAMENTO | $449,000

3br/2ba beautifully updated home features an open floor plan, a family room with a fireplace & updated kitchen. Enjoy the private backyard.

Patrick Quan 916.812.4341 pquan@cbnorcal.com CalRE #01918240

SACRAMENTO | $684,000

Welcome to this unique 3br/2.5ba rarely available model with a front patio for entertaining, a living room brick fireplace, a primary balcony & views!

Jonathan Baker 916.837.4523 jonathan.baker@cbnorcal.com CalRE #00484212

CARMICHAEL | $439,000

3br/2ba Carmichael gem close to the American River. Features high vaulted ceilings, dual skylights, 2-car garage, fresh paint, private patio & more.

Arman Khachatryan 916.200.5446

arman.khach@cbnorcal.com

CalRE #01948420

Chefs Scott Ostrander and Paul DiPierro are bringing their high-end CHEF’S COUNTER dinners back at their East Sac fast-casual restaurant, Origami Asian Grill. The pair have a deep background in fine dining—Ostrander at Chicago’s Alinea, DiPierro at Napa’s Meadowood—and b egan the tasting menu dinners in 2018 as a creative break from their normal sandwich-and-rice-bowl routine. After a two-year pause for the pandemic, the dinners are resuming on Friday nights. Expect up to 12 courses featuring seafood and Wagyu beef, along with modern techniques. The cost is $155 per diner; for tickets, go to exploretock.com/origamiasian grill. 4801 Folsom Blvd.; (916) 4003075; origamiasiangrill.com

mike battey

Be Your Own Bartender

Craft cocktails at home aren’t out of reach—if you have the right stuff.

BY MARYBETH BIZJAK

Longtime bartender Chris Sinclair has made a lot of drinks in his time. Now, as the co-owner of Good Bottle Shop in downtown Sacramento, he helps regular people like you and me set up their own bar so they can play mixologist in the comfort of their own home. Here, he shares his expertise on what you’ll need for the perfect cocktail setup.

Essential Equipment

You’re only as good as your tools. These are the ones to have.

BOSTON SHAKER— Absolutely indispensable for making drinks that include a mixer, such as a margarita, daiquiri or cosmopolitan. “Typically, we stir drinks that are booze only,” says Sinclair. “When you start adding juice, cream or eggs, you’re going to need a shaker.”

BAR SPOON— It can be long or short, with a handle that is smooth or spiraled. Look for something that feels good in your hand, Sinclair advises. “Using a spoon is fun and makes you look like you know what’re you’re doing.”

HAWTHORN STRAINER—This tool strains out ice and leaves such as mint or basil. It should fit snugly in the glass or tin, says Sinclair: “You want to make sure it has a nice, tight fit without being too tight.” Some professional bartenders prefer a fine tea strainer, which catches every little bit of schmutz for a superclean drink.

JIGGER—This measuring implement comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes and styles. Most are made of nonporous metal, which doesn’t absorb flavors. But it comes down to personal preference. “A shot glass is perfectly acceptable,” says Sinclair.

MIXING GLASS—This vessel, used for making spirits-only cocktails such as martinis and manhattans, allows you to mix liquids without introducing air and breaking the ice, so you end up with a viscous, richly textured drink. Typically made of clear glass or cut crystal, it also looks pretty on your bar.

KNIFE— Used for slicing citrus and other garnishes, a good knife is “irreplaceable,” says Sinclair. You can use a paring knife or a bird’s

beak knife—just make sure to keep it sharp. Sinclair recommends shopping at Crocker Cutlery in East Sac. “It’s got really cool things.”

ICE MOLDS AND TRAYS— Nothing says “craft cocktail” like a large-format ice cube shaped like a cube or sphere. You can find silicone ice trays and molds in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Sinclair prefers 1-inch cubes—“they’re more versatile than the big cubes,” he says. “Use clean water, and make sure your freezer is clean, so your ice doesn’t capture funky flavors.”

Beyond the Basics

Once you’ve bought your spirits (vodka, gin, whiskey, rum and tequila), you’ll want some “modifiers” that allow you to play around with different flavors: sweet, floral, herbaceous, bitter and so on. Here are Sinclair’s picks: CAMPARI: Use this bitter liqueur for making Negronis and tiki drinks like the Jungle Bird.

APEROL: This zesty orange apéritif is the star ingredient in the popular Aperol spritz and can be used in other cocktails as well.

VERMOUTH: This is the foundation of an entire spectrum of cocktails, including the martini, manhattan and Martinez. “You’ve gotta have vermouth,” says Sinclair. “It’s delicious, and not enough Americans drink it.”

BITTERS: “Think of bitters as the bartender’s spice cabinet,” says Sinclair, who recommends three must-haves: orange, Peychaud’s and Angostura aromatic bitters.

LUXARDO MARASCHINO: This cherry liqueur is an essential ingredient in many preProhibition cocktails, including the Martinez and the manhattan. It is both off-bitter and sweet with a little bit of cherryness to it.

mike

Chris Sinclair

The Art of Tea

When Ilah Rose and Nick CookstonMinton launched Bouquet Co ee Roasters, their wholesale co ee and tea venture, in 2017, they were guided by a simple ethos: “connection to the land, connection to the plants, connection to the production process,” as Rose puts it. Five years later, the couple, who also operate The Mill cafes, have stayed true to that vision.

Rose, who oversees the tea side of the operation, describes how the work of selecting and processing the ingredients for Bouquet’s unique tea blends is deeply personal to her. “I felt this draw to create a tea the way you would if you were making it for a good friend,” she says. “It’s a very special process to me that requires a lot of e ort and care.”

THE SHEER VARIETY OF BOTANICALS IS A TESTAMENT TO THE COMPLEXITY OF CREATING A BLEND THAT DELIGHTS AND SURPRISES ADVENTUROUS TEA DRINKERS.

That process starts with procuring herbs, tea leaves and other plant matter, some of it from the couple’s 2-acre plot and the remainder from growers across Northern California and overseas. The sheer variety of botanicals that Rose works with—wild rose hips, yarrow, goldenrod, yerba santa, sweet lemon grass, sacred basil, chrysanthemum, shiso leaves, turmeric root—is a testament to the complexity of creating a blend that both delights and surprises adventurous tea drinkers.

Rose and her husband developed a proprietary method for drying the ingredients so that the ideal levels of aroma and flavor are retained, ensuring a tea that’s flavorful and distinct. She hand garbles the dried matter, often keeping identifiable parts of plants—a flower blossom, for example—intact as a reminder to the tea drinker of the beverage’s deep connection to nature. “It’s a dynamic, labor-intensive operation that’s very special to me,” she says.

Rose’s own nature-inspired artwork graces the Bouquet labels, a decision that runs deeper than simply promoting a pretty brand. “Having my art on the label is, for me, about being able to connect to a feeling, not just a product,” she explains. “There’s a lot of poetry and art that goes into my teamaking, and the way the teas are packaged is a reflection of that.”—CATHERINE WARMERDAM

Ilah Rose Cookston-Minton

Brunch GUIDE

Dine

As a reader service, Sacramento Magazine offers the following list of noteworthy restaurants in the Sacramento region. This is not intended to be a complete directory, and not all restaurants profiled appear every month. Before heading to a restaurant, call or check its website to make sure it’s open.

ARDEN ARCADE

CAFE VINOTECA Located in Arden Town Center, Cafe Vinoteca serves some of the loveliest Italian-inspired cuisine in the city. 3535 Fair Oaks Blvd.; (916) 4871331; cafevinoteca.com. L–D. Italian. $$$

DUBPLATE KITCHEN & JAMAICAN CUISINE This restaurant serves Jamaican specialties such as curry goat and jerk chicken. 3419 El Camino Ave.; (916) 339-6978; dubplatekitchencuisine.com. L–D. Jamaican. $$

FAMOUS KABOB Meat kabobs are the attraction here. Smokily delicious, the meats are served with basmati rice and grilled tomatoes. 1290 Fulton Ave.; (916) 483-1700; famouskabob.com. L–D. Persian. $–$$

THE KITCHEN Part supper club, part theatrical production, part cocktail party: This is like no other restaurant in Sacramento, and it’s Michelin starred. You need to make reservations months in advance for the multi-course dinner. The food is complex and mindblowingly creative. 2225 Hurley Way; (916) 568-7171; thekitchenrestaurant.com. D. American. $$$$

LEATHERBY’S FAMILY CREAMERY Go for the ice cream, all made on the premises and used in shakes, malts and towering sundaes. 2333 Arden Way; (916) 920-8382; leatherbys.net. L–D. Sandwiches/ice cream. $

BROADWAY

ANDY NGUYEN VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT This bastion of Buddhist-inspired vegetarian cuisine serves food that is fresh and flavorful. 2007 Broadway; (916) 736-1157; andynguyenvegetarian.com. L–D. Vegetarian/Asian. $

REAL PIE COMPANY At this homey shop, you’ll find the pies of your dreams, made with all-butter crusts and seasonal fruit sourced from local farms. In addition to dessert pies such as jumbleberry and butterscotch banana cream, you can order savory pot pies and shepherd’s pies. 2425 24th St.; (916) 838-4007; realpiecompany.com. L–D. American. $

SELLAND’S MARKET-CAFE Choose from an array of appetizers and hot items along with crowd-pleasing side dishes and pizza. This high-quality takeout food can be a real lifesaver on nights when you’re too busy to cook. 915 Broadway; (916) 732-3390; sellands. com. L–D–Br. Gourmet takeout. $$

TOWER CAFE This place is a hot spot on weekend mornings. Regulars swear by the New Mexico blueberry cornmeal pancakes and the thick-cut, custardy French toast. Breakfast is all-American, but lunch and dinner have a global flavor. 1518 Broadway; (916) 4410222; towercafe.com. B–L–D. World fusion. $$

ROAD TRIP BAR & GRILL This family-friendly joint serves up classic roadhouse fare, from salads and

burgers to chops. 24989 State Highway 16; (530) 796-3777; roadtripbg.com. B–L–D. American. $–$$

D’MILLER’S FAMOUS BBQ Ribs, hotlinks and tri-tip are served with traditional accompaniments such as cornbread, coleslaw and baked beans. The food, simple and hearty, arrives on disposable plates. 7305 Fair Oaks Blvd.; (916) 974-1881. L–D. Barbecue. $$

MATTEO’S PIZZA & BISTRO The menu is compact, and there’s no skimping on first-rate ingredients. The pizza crust is damned good, attaining that chewy-crispy-airy trifecta. You also can order pasta, steak or a burger. 5132 Arden Way; (916) 779-0727; pizzamatteo.com. L–D. Pizza/American. $$

CITRUS HEIGHTS

LEATHERBY’S FAMILY CREAMERY For description, see listing under “Arden Arcade.” 7910 Antelope

Road; (916) 729-4021; leatherbys.net. L–D. Sandwiches/ice cream. $

SAM’S CLASSIC BURGERS At this drive-up burger shack, the shakes are great and the burgers wonderfully straightforward. 7442 Auburn Blvd.; (916) 7237512. L–D. Burgers. $

CURTIS PARK

PANGAEA BIER CAFE While it’s known as a beer cafe and bottle shop, this casual spot also serves up tasty bar food, including an award-winning burger. 2743 Franklin Blvd.; (916) 454-4942; pangaeabiercafe. com. L–D. American. $$

DAVIS

BURGERS AND BREW The publike restaurant uses high-quality, locally sourced ingredients and serves an interesting selection of beers and ales. 1409 R St.; (916) 442-0900; burgersnbrew.com. L–D. Burgers. $

CAPAY

CARMICHAEL

Mary’s chicken breast from Cafe Bernardo

variations on the crepe theme, from entrée to dessert. 330 Third St.; (530) 750-2400; crepeville.com. B–L–D. Crepes. $

OSTERIA FASULO This restaurant has a beautiful outdoor courtyard bordered by trellised grapevines and punctuated by leafy trees strung with tiny lights. The menu is proudly Italian, with wonderful pastas and robust meat dishes. Try the vanilla panna cotta for dessert. 2657 Portage Bay East; (530) 758-1324; osteriafasulo.com. L–D. Italian. $$$–$$$$

SEASONS This attractive, upscale restaurant showcases seasonal products; the menu changes every three months. Pizzas are great; so are the bountiful salads. But you’ll find the kitchen’s real talent in its creative appetizers and entrées. 102 F St.; (530) 750-1801; seasonsdavis.com. L–D. New American. $$–$$$

YAKITORI YUCHAN This busy little restaurant focuses on skewered grilled meats, seafood and vegetables. Most items are meant to be shared; bring an adventurous palate and a group of food-loving friends. 109 E St.; (530) 753-3196; yakitoriyuchan. com. D. Japanese. $–$$

ZIA’S DELICATESSEN This casual, Italian-style deli makes hot and cold sandwiches, salads and hot entrées such as lasagna, penne with creamy tomato sauce and tortellini with pesto-cream sauce. 616 Third St.; (530) 750-7870; ziasdeli.com. L. Deli. $

DIXON

CATTLEMENS This classic Western steakhouse serves up big slabs of prime rib, porterhouse, T-bone and cowboy steaks, plus all the trimmings: shrimp cock-

250 Dorset Court; (707) 678-5518; cattlemens.com. D. Steakhouse. $$$

DOWNTOWN

BAWK! CHICKEN & BAR Along with crispy chicken coated with a red spice mix that kicks it up a notch, you can order salads, oysters on the half shell and collard greens. 1409 R St.; (916) 465-8700; bawk friedchicken.com. L–D–Br. Southern. $$

BRASSERIE DU MONDE This beautiful restaurant is based on a traditional French brasserie. The menu hits the high points of the brasserie canon, everything from onion soup to steak frites. 1201 K St.; (916) 3298033; brasseriedumonde.com. L–D. French. $$–$$$

BURGERS AND BREW For description, see listing under “Davis.” 1409 R St.; (916) 442-0900; burgers nbrew.com. L–D. Burgers. $

CAFE BERNARDO The menu offers straightforward fare guaranteed to please just about everyone. Breakfast includes huevos rancheros and eggs Bernardo, drizzled with hollandaise sauce. Lunch and dinner feature chewy-crusted pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and substantial entrées such as pan-seared chicken breast with mashed potatoes. 1431 R St.; (916) 9309191; cafebernardo.com. B–L–D. New American. $

CAFETERIA 15L Go to Cafeteria 15L for modern, approachably priced comfort food in a casual yet stylish environment. The menu emphasizes fun fare, such as mac ’n’ cheese, truffle tater tots, and fried chicken and waffle with gravy and pecan butter. 1116 15th St.; (916) 492-1960; cafeteria15l.com. L–D. Californian. $$

CAMDEN SPIT & LARDER Highly regarded chef Oliver Ridgeway opened this swank brasserie in a modern, glass-walled building near the Capitol. It appeals to lobbyists, lawyers and legislators with its ginforward cocktails (martini, anyone?) and a menu that’s an interesting mash-up of British chop-house classics, English schoolboy favorites and elevated pub fare. 555 Capitol Mall; (916) 619-8897; camden spitandlarder.com. L–D. Steakhouse. $$$–$$$$

ECHO & RIG Located in the lobby of The Sawyer hotel, this outpost of a Vegas steakhouse is sleek and unstuffy. Prices are considerably gentler than at most other steakhouses, but the quality of the meat is high. In addition to standard cuts like filet, NY steak and rib-eye, you’ll find butcher cuts such as hanger, bavette, skirt and tri-tip. 500 J St.; (877) 678-6255; echoandrig.com. B–L–D–Br. Steakhouse. $$$

This stunning restaurant (owned by the Selland family and designed by award-winning European architects) is an elegant oasis compared to the gritty hustle and bustle outside. From the open kitchen, the staff turns out innovative dishes and old favorites. The emphasis is on seasonal, local and artisanal. 1131 K St.; (916) 443-3772; elladiningroomandbar.com. L–D. New American. $$$$

FRANK FAT’S Downtown Sacramento’s oldest restaurant, Fat’s is a favorite of the Capitol crowd. The restaurant is well known for its steaks—especially Frank’s Style New York Steak—and its brandy-fried chicken. This is Chinese cuisine at its most sophisticated. 806 L St.; (916) 442-7092; frankfats.com. L–D. Chinese. $$$

GRANGE RESTAURANT & BAR Located in The Citizen Hotel, Grange proves that a hotel restaurant doesn’t have to be pedestrian. The menu changes frequently and spotlights some of the area’s best producers. At dinner, the ambience in the stunning dining room is seductive and low-lit. 926 J St.; (916) 492-4450; grangerestaurantandbar.com. B–L–Br. Californian/American. $$$$

MAGPIE CAFE This restaurant has a casual, unassuming vibe, and its hallmark is clean, simple fare that tastes like the best version of itself. 1601 16th St.; (916) 452-7594; magpiecafe.com. B–L–D. Californian. $$

MAS TACO BAR Tasty little tacos are the headliners at this casual eatery. They come with all sorts of delicious fillings: braised short rib, Korean fried chicken, banh mi shrimp and roasted cauliflower. You can also get Latin-flavored rice bowls, salads and starters such as elote (Mexican street corn) and habanero fire balls (a mixture of roasted chilies, cream cheese, bacon and pepper jack, rolled into balls and fried). 1800 15th St.; mastacobar.com. L–D–Br. Mexican. $$

MIKUNI JAPANESE RESTAURANT AND SUSHI BAR

This hip sushi bar serves its sushi with a side of sass. There are three sushi bars and a dense menu of appetizers, rice bowls, bento boxes and sushi rolls. 1530 J St.; (916) 447-2112; mikunisushi.com. L–D. Japanese/sushi. $$

NASH & PROPER The owners first rocked Sacramento’s food scene with a food truck featuring Nashville-style hot chicken sandwiches. Now, they have brick-andmortar locations serving their famous sandwiches, along with quarter and half birds, impressive sides and chicken and waffles (weekends only). You pick the heat level for your fowl, ranging from naked to cluckin’ hot. 1023 K St.; (916) 426-6712; nashandproper. com. L. Fried chicken sandwiches and plates. $

SHADY LADY SALOON

The charming faux speakeasy is an excellent place to meet up with friends for a round of cocktails and a first-rate meal. Bordelloinspired wallpaper and dim lighting set an alluring stage for the robust and flavorful food. 1409 R St.;

Pasta Bolognese from Cafeteria 15L

(916) 231-9121; shadyladybar.com. L–D. American/ Southern. $$

URBAN ROOTS BREWING & SMOKEHOUSE At this brewery, a massive smoker turns out succulent meats—brisket, ribs, turkey and sausage—in the tradition of the great barbecue houses of Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee. Sides include collard greens, mac and cheese, yams and poblano cheese grits. Sit indoors or out at long picnic tables. 1322 V St.; (916) 706-3741; urbanrootsbrewing.com. L–D. Barbecue. $$

EAST SACRAMENTO

CANON With Michelin-starred chef Brad Cecchi at the helm, this breezily chic restaurant offers an ambitious menu of globally inspired sharable plates. Much of the menu is vegetarian, vegan or gluten free, but you can also order from a small selection of hearty meat, poultry and fish dishes. 1719 34th St.; (916) 469-2433; canoneastsac.com. Global/New American. D–Br. $$$–$$$$

CELESTIN’S Gumbo is the signature dish at this charming, minuscule restaurant specializing in Creole and Cajun cuisine. It comes in six varieties, including chicken, vegetarian and seafood. But the pièce de resistance is the namesake Celestin’s gumbo, chock-full of chicken, sea scallops, wild shrimp, rock cod and sausage. 3610 McKinley Blvd.; (916) 2584060; celestinsgumbo.com. L–D. Cajun/Creole. $$

JUNO’S KITCHEN AND DELICATESSEN This tiny eatery serves some of the best sandwiches in town. Owner Mark Helms also offers an intriguing selection of salads and “pan” dishes such as shrimp mac ’n’ cheese. But you can’t go wrong with the smoked trout sandwich or the grilled chicken sandwich. Though there’s only a handful of tables, takeout is a tasty option. 3675 J St.; (916) 456-4522; junoskitchen.com. L. Bistro. $

KRU Kru turns out exciting Japanese fare, and there’s a craft cocktail bar, outdoor patios and an omakase bar. 3135 Folsom Blvd.; (916) 551-1559; krurestaurant. com. L–D. Japanese. $$$–$$$$

THE MIMOSA HOUSE This local chain offers a comprehensive lineup of breakfast fare: omelets, Benedicts, crepes, waffles, burritos and, of course, mimosas. The rest of the menu is similarly broad, with burgers, salads, grilled sandwiches and Mexican “street food.” 5641 J St.; (916) 400-4084; mimosa house.com. B–L. American. $$

OBO’ ITALIAN TABLE & BAR This casual Italian eatery is beautifully designed and efficiently run. There are hot dishes and cold salads behind the glass cases, ready for the taking. But the stars of the menu are the freshly made pastas and wood-oven pizzas. There’s also a full bar serving Italian-theme craft cocktails. 3145 Folsom Blvd.; (916) 822-8720; oboitalian.com. L–D. Italian. $$

ONESPEED Chef Rick Mahan, who built his stellar reputation at The Waterboy in midtown, branched out with a more casual concept at his East Sac eatery. The open bistro has a tiled pizza oven that cranks out chewy, flavorful pizzas. 4818 Folsom Blvd.; (916) 706-1748; onespeedpizza.com. B–L–D. Pizza. $$

ORIGAMI ASIAN GRILL This fast-casual eatery serves Asian-flavored rice bowls, banh mi sandwiches, salads and ramen, along with killer fried chicken and assorted smoked-meat specials from a big smoker on the sidewalk. 4801 Folsom Blvd.; (916) 400-3075; origamiasiangrill.com. L–D. Asian fusion. $–$$

SELLAND’S MARKET-CAFE For description, see listing under Broadway. 5340 H St.; (916) 736-3333; sellands.com. L–D–Br. Gourmet takeout. $$

3 HERMANAS With the 2018 opening of this little Mexican eatery, all three Saenz sisters now have their own Sacramento restaurants. Like its sibling restaurants, Tres Hermanas and Three Sisters, this one serves hearty, classic Mexican fare such as ensalada norteña and camarones a la diabla, along with vegan and vegetarian options. 3260 J St.; (916) 382-9079; 3hermanasonj.com. L–D–Br. Mexican. $$

EL DORADO HILLS

AJI JAPANESE BISTRO This casually elegant restaurant offers an innovative menu of Japanese street food, interesting fusion entrees, traditional dishes such as teriyaki and tempura and—yes—sushi. There’s a short, approachable wine list, sakes and a full bar serving handcrafted cocktails. 4361 Town Center Blvd.; (916) 941-9181; aji-bistro.com. L-D. Japanese/sushi. $-$$

C. KNIGHT’S STEAKHOUSE An upscale dinner house serving steaks, chops and seafood, this restaurant offers classic American fare that’s stood the test of time. Make sure to order the Green Phunque, a tasty side dish that’s like creamed spinach on steroids. 2085 Vine St.; (916) 235-1730; cknightssteakhouse. com. D. American steakhouse. $$$$

MILESTONE This unstuffy eatery serves great takes on comfort-food classics like pot roast and fried chicken. The setting is like a Napa country porch, and the service is warm and approachable. 4359 Town Center Blvd.; (916) 934-0790; milestoneedh. com. L–D–Br. New American. $$–$$

THE MIMOSA HOUSE For description, see listing under East Sacramento, 2023 Vine St.; (916) 9340965; mimosahouse.com. B–L–D. American. $$

SELLAND’S MARKET-CAFE For description, see listing under “East Sacramento.” 4370 Town Center Blvd.; (916) 932-5025; sellands.com. L–D–Br. Gourmet takeout. $$

SIENNA RESTAURANT The menu includes a playful melange of global cuisine, including fresh seafood, hand-cut steaks, stone hearth pizzas, inventive appetizers and a stacked French dip sandwich. Sunday brunch includes a made-to-order omelet bar and unlimited mimosas. 3909 Park Drive; (916) 941-9694; siennarestaurants.com. L–D–Br. Global. $$–$$$

STICK HOUSE ASIAN FUSION AND MONGO BAR This hot spot offers a new, tastes-fresher take on Mongolian barbecue—noodles or rice or mixed greens, choice of additions ranging from veggies to crispy toppings, and sauces galore. You’ll also find Asian-inspired street food such as crab wonton nachos, bao sliders and meatballs. 2023 Vine St.; (916) 673-9620; stick houseedh.com. L–D. Noodles/Asian street food. $

ELK GROVE

BOULEVARD BISTRO Located in a cozy 1908 bungalow, this bistro is one of the region’s best-kept dining secrets. Chef/owner Bret Bohlmann is a passionate supporter of local farmers and winemakers, and his innovative food sings with freshness and seasonality. 8941 Elk Grove Blvd.; (916) 685-2220; blvdbistro. com. D–Br. New American. $$–$$$

JOURNEY TO THE DUMPLING This Elk Grove eatery specializes in Shanghai-style dumplings (try the soupfilled xiao long bao), along with Chinese dishes such as green onion pancakes, garlic green beans and saltand-pepper calamari. 7419 Laguna Blvd.; (916) 5099556; journeytothedumpling.com. L–D. Chinese. $$

Obo’ Italian Table & Bar’s truffled mushroom pizza

LEATHERBY’S FAMILY CREAMERY For description, see listing under “Arden Arcade.” 8238 Laguna Blvd.; (916) 691-3334; leatherbys.net. L–D. Sandwiches/ ice cream. $

MIKUNI JAPANESE RESTAURANT AND SUSHI BAR For description, see listing under “Downtown.” 8525 Bond Road; (916) 714-2112; mikunisushi.com. L–D. Japanese/sushi. $$

NASH & PROPER For description, see listing under Downtown. 9080 Laguna Main St.; (916) 897-8437; nashandproper.com. L. Fried chicken sandwiches and plates. $

THAI CHILI This plain restaurant offers an entire menu just for vegetarians, plus interesting meat and fish dishes. 8696 Elk Grove Blvd.; (916) 714-3519; thaichilielkgrove.net. L–D. Thai. $$

FOLSOM

BACCHUS HOUSE WINE BAR & BISTRO With a seasonal menu packed with innovative, globally influenced dishes, this restaurant has plenty to choose from. 1004 E. Bidwell St.; (916) 984-7500; bacchus housebistro.com. L–D–Br. New American. $$–$$$

BACK BISTRO A warm pocket of coziness and urban sophistication in a retail center, this place offers an appealing menu of casual nibbles and swankier entrées. But it’s the wine program that really knocks this charming little bistro out of the park. 230 Palladio Parkway, Suite 1201; (916) 986-9100; backbis tro.com. D. New American/Mediterranean. $$–$$$

CHICAGO FIRE Oodles of melted cheese blanket the pizzas that fly out of the kitchen of this busy restau-

rant. Here, you get to choose between thin-crust, deep-dish and stuffed pizzas. 310 Palladio Parkway; (916) 984-0140; chicagofire.com. L –D. Pizza. $

FAT’S ASIA BISTRO AND DIM SUM BAR The menu his at thjis glamorous restaurant focuses on Asian cuisine, from Mongolian beef and Hong Kong chow mein to Thai chicken satay served with a fiery currypeanut sauce. 2585 Iron Point Road; (916) 983-1133; fatsasiabistro.com. L–D. Pan-Asian. $$

LAND OCEAN The menu hits all the steakhouse high notes: hand-cut steaks, lobster, seafood and rotisserie, entrée salads and sandwiches. 2720 E. Bidwell St.; (916) 983-7000; landoceanrestaurants.com. L–D–Br. New American/steakhouse. $$$

THE MIMOSA HOUSE For description, see listing under East Sacramento, 25075 Blue Ravine Road; (916) 293-9442; mimosahouse.com. B–L. American. $$

SCOTT’S SEAFOOD ROUNDHOUSE This restaurant offers a solid menu of delicious seafood, from crab cakes and calamari to roasted lobster tail. 824 Sutter St.; (916) 989-6711; scottsseafoodroundhouse. com. L–D. Seafood. $$$–$$$$

THAI PARADISE Standouts on the extensive menu include spring rolls, tom kha koong (coconut milk soup with prawns), green curry, spicy scallops and pad thai. Try the fried banana with ice cream for dessert. 2770 E. Bidwell St.; (916) 984-8988; thaipar adisefolsom.com. L–D. Thai. $$

GARDEN HIGHWAY

CRAWDADS ON THE RIVER This riverfront restaurant draws crowds looking for a great place to party on the

water during warm-weather. Boats pull up to the deck, where you can sip a cocktail, and roll-up doors blur the line between indoors and out. The Cajuninspired menu includes fish tacos and several fun entrées. 1375 Garden Highway; (916) 929-2268; sac crawdads.com. L–D–Br. Cajun/American. $$

THE VIRGIN STURGEON This quirky floating restaurant is the quintessential Sacramento River dining experience. In summer, a cocktail pontoon is connected to the restaurant, where you can drink and enjoy the breezy proximity to the water below. Best known for its seafood, The Virgin Sturgeon also offers weekend brunch. 1577 Garden Highway; (916) 921-2694; the virginsturgeon.com. L–D–Br. Seafood/American. $$

GRANITE BAY

HAWKS One of Placer County’s best restaurants, Hawks is known for its elegant cuisine and beautiful interior. The dining room has clean lines, soothing colors, and crisp white tablecloths. Framed photos of farmscapes remind diners of owners Molly Hawks and Michael Fagnoni’s commitment to locally sourced ingredients. The seasonal menu is full of delicious surprises, such as seared scallop and sea urchin. 5530 Douglas Blvd.; (916) 791-6200; hawksrestaurant.com. L–D–Br. New American/French. $$$–$$$$

GREENHAVEN/POCKET

CACIO This tiny sliver of a restaurant has only a handful of tables—and more than a handful of people who want to dine here. The fare is high-quality Italian comfort food, with an emphasis on pasta. Service is warm and homey, prices are gentle, and reservations (even at lunch) are a must. 7600 Greenhaven Drive; (916) 399-9309; caciosacramento.com. L–D. Italian. $$

SCOTT’S SEAFOOD ON THE RIVER Located in The Westin Sacramento, Scott’s has a patio and a view of the river. Breakfast dishes include crab cake Benedict, and lunch entrées range from petrale sole to a prawn Caesar salad. For dinner, splurge on a lobster tail or choose a more modestly priced grilled salmon. 4800 Riverside Blvd.; (916) 379-5959; scottsseafoodon theriver.com. B–L–D. Seafood. $$$–$$$$

MIDTOWN

BEAST + BOUNTY The beating heart of this chic restaurant is its open hearth, where meats and vegetables are roasted over a wood fire. The meaty rib-eye, served over potatoes roasted in the meat’s fat, is meant to be shared. So is the pizza, thin, flat and seductively charred from the wood-burning pizza oven. 1701 R St.; (916) 244-4016; eatbeastandbounty.com. L–D–Br. American. $$$

BRODERICK MIDTOWN This midtown outpost of West Sac’s divey Broderick Roadhouse serves the same fare, but in slightly nicer digs. The menu is dominated by burgers. Wings, fries and beer round out the bro-friendly menu. 1820 L St.; (916) 469-9720; broderickroadhouse.com. L–D–Br. Burgers. $$

58 DEGREES & HOLDING CO. This wine bar showcases an astonishing number of wines by the glass— all available in 3- and 6-ounce pours. There’s also an abbreviated menu of small plates designed to complement and enhance the wines. 1217 18th St.; (916) 442-5858; 58degrees.com. L–D. Wine bar. $$

THE GOLDEN BEAR Remember the adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Keep it in mind when you come here. Once inside the dim bar, you’ll find a surprisingly sophisticated menu. 2326 K St.; (916) 441-2242; goldenbear916.com. L–D–Br. Gastropub. $$

Land Ocean’s ahi salad

HAWKS PROVISIONS & PUBLIC HOUSE At this sophisticated gastropub, the food is rustic Mediterranean, with beautifully executed dishes like country pate and baked rigatoni. The pastas are made in-house, and even the burger is top-notch: Wagyu beef is ground in the walk-in fridge, and it’s served on a house-made brioche bun with hand-cut French fries. In addition to the restaurant (the “public house”), there’s a casual takeout shop next door serving coffee, pastries and sandwiches (the “provisions”). 1525 Alhambra Blvd.; (916) 588-4440; hawkspublichouse.com. L-D-Br. Mediterranean gastropub. $$$

HOOK & LADDER MANUFACTURING COMPANY Located in a Quonset hut, this restaurant is both hip and cozy. Despite the barlike ambience, Hook & Ladder is serious about food. All the pastas and desserts are made in-house. 1630 S St.; (916) 442-4885; hook andladder916.com. L–D–Br. Californian. $$

INK EATS & DRINKS Drop by this hip lounge for a first-rate meal. The kitchen whips up some of the best huevos rancheros in town, and the restaurant stays open late. 2730 N St.; (916) 456-2800; inkeats.com. L–D–Br. New American. $

JUNGLE BIRD At this kitschy tiki bar, the playful menu riffs on old-school “Polynesian” food: things like pu pu platter, macadamia-crusted mahi-mahi and mochi fried chicken. 2516 J St.; (916) 476-3280; thejunglebird.com. D–Br. Polynesian. $$–$$$

KUPROS This fun gastropub is housed in a beautifully renovated 1910 Craftsman building. Belly up to the ground-floor bar for a pint of beer, or head upstairs for a seat in the dining room or the outdoor balcony, where you can tuck into fare such as steak frites or pot roast. 1217 21st St.; (916) 440-0401; kuproscraft house.com. L–D–Br. New American/gastropub. $$

LOCALIS This upscale restaurant is a pleasant surprise. Localis (Latin for “local”) is a dinner-only restaurant with an inventive, prix-fixe menu of ingredient-driven dishes. Chef Christopher BarnumDann works with local farms to source most of the menu within 100 miles. 2031 S St.; (916) 737-7699; localissacramento.com. D. Californian. $$$–$$$$

LOWBRAU BIERHALLE This chic yet casual watering hole serves house-made sausages, duck fat fries and stand-out beers. Long communal tables make for an experience that’s noisy and convivial. 1050 20th St.; (916) 706-2636; lowbrausacramento.com. L–D–Br. Beer hall. $

MULVANEY’S BUILDING & LOAN Distinctive and cozy, this topflight restaurant exudes the generous affability of its owner, chef Patrick Mulvaney. It’s housed in a brick firehouse from the late 1800s, and the lush patio is a popular spot in warm months. The menu changes frequently and is focused on locally sourced, seasonal ingredients. 1215 19th St.; (916) 441-6022; mulvaneysbl.com . L–D. Californian. $$$

PARAGARY’S This legendary restaurant focuses on elegant, Mediterranean-inspired cuisine. 1401 28th St.; (916) 457-5737; paragarys.com. L–D–Br. New American/Californian. $$–$$$

THE RED RABBIT KITCHEN & BAR The menu is a playful jumble of dishes, some robustly American, others with an Asian, Latin or Mediterranean influence. 2718 J St.; (916) 706-2275; theredrabbit.net. L–D–Br. New American. $$

SAIGON ALLEY KITCHEN + BAR This hip restaurant and bar serves modern versions of Vietnamese street food, such as a “Pho-rench” dip (a French dip with pho flavors) and a “banh mi” burger (a rib-eye burger garnished with pickled daikon and carrot on a baguette). A big draw is the $3 happy hour, featuring snacks like banh mi taco, fish sauce chicken wings, taro fries and

sugarcane shrimp for $3 each. 1801 L St.; (916) 7586934; saigonalley.com. L–D. Vietnamese. $$

OAK PARK

FIXINS SOUL KITCHEN This bustling place serves up friendly Southern hospitality along with delicious Southern fare, including chicken and waffles, gumbo, fried catfish, and shrimp and grits. 3428 Third Ave.; (916); 999-7685. fixinssoulkitchen.com. B–L–D–Br. Southern. $$

LA VENADITA This inviting, casual taqueria has a concise menu that includes inventive street tacos, a brightly flavored ceviche and an enchilada with rich mole sauce. It also boasts a full bar and an enticing menu of craft cocktails. 3501 Third Ave.; (916) 4004676; lavenaditasac.com. L–D. Mexican. $$

OLD SACRAMENTO

THE FIREHOUSE Since opening in 1960, this has been Sacramento’s go-to restaurant for romantic atmosphere and historic charm. It’s white tablecloth all the way, with crystal wine glasses and top-notch service. The food is special-occasion worthy, and the wine list represents more than 2,100 labels. 1112 Second St.; (916) 442-4772; firehouseoldsac.com. L–D. Californian/American. $$$$

RANCHO CORDOVA

CATTLEMENS This classic Western steakhouse serves up big slabs of prime rib, porterhouse, T-bone and cowboy steaks, plus all the trimmings: shrimp cocktail, loaded potato skins, deep-fried onions and more.

12409 Folsom Blvd.; (916) 985-3030; cattlemens. com. D. Steakhouse. $$$

J.J. PFISTER RESTAURANT & TASTING ROOM In addition to a tasting room where you can sample locally made premium gin, vodka and rum, this family-owned distillery also operates a restaurant serving lunch and dinner. The all-day menu features salads, sandwiches and tacos, along with the whimsical “Adult Lunchable”—an assortment of cheeses, deli meats and accompaniments. Desserts get the boozy treatment: Order cheesecake topped with bourbon caramel and whipped cream, or fudge clusters made with Pfister’s Navy Strength rum. 9819 Business Park Drive; (916) 672-9662; jjpfister.com. L–D. Casual American. $$

THE MIMOSA HOUSE For description, see listing under East Sacramento, 3155 Zinfandel Drive; (916) 9701761 and 2180 Golden Centre Lane; (916) 822-4145; mimosahouse.com. B–L. American. $$

ROSEVILLE

CATTLEMENS This classic Western steakhouse serves up big slabs of prime rib, porterhouse, T-bone and cowboy steaks, plus all the trimmings: shrimp cocktail, loaded potato skins, deep-fried onions and more. 2000 Taylor Road; (916) 782-5587; cattlemens.com. D. Steakhouse. $$$

CHICAGO FIRE For description, see listing under “Folsom.” 500 N. Sunrise Ave.; (916) 771-2020; chi cagofire.com. L–D. Pizza. $

FAT’S ASIA BISTRO AND DIM SUM BAR For description, see listing under “Folsom.” 1500 Eureka Road; (916) 787-3287; fatsasiabistro.com. L–D. Pan-Asian. $$ Rachel Valley

Fried chicken sandwich from Hawks Provisions and Public House

LA PROVENCE RESTAURANT & TERRACE This elegant French restaurant offers some of the region’s loveliest outdoor dining. The seasonal menu features items such as bouillabaisse and soupe au pistou. 110 Diamond Creek Place; (916) 789-2002; laprovence roseville.com. L–D–Br. French. $$$–$$$$

MIKUNI JAPANESE RESTAURANT AND SUSHI BAR

For description, see listing under “Downtown.” 1565 Eureka Road; (916) 797-2112; mikunisushi.com. L–D. Japanese/sushi. $$

THE MIMOSA HOUSE For description, see listing under East Sacramento, 761 Pleasant Grove Blvd.; (916) 784-1313; mimosahouse.com. B–L. American. $$

PAUL MARTIN’S AMERICAN GRILL The bustling, comfortable restaurant is a local favorite. The kitchen offers a great list of small plates and robust, approachable entrées. 1455 Eureka Road; (916) 7833600; paulmartinsamericangrill.com. L–D–Br. New American. $$–$$$

RUEN THAI Simple and serene, Ruen Thai is a family-owned restaurant that offers a surprisingly large selection of fresh-tasting food. 1470 Eureka Road; (916) 774-1499; ruenthai.net. L–D. Thai. $

SQUEEZE INN For description, see listing under “Midtown.” 106 N. Sunrise Ave.; (916) 783-2874; squeeze burger.com. L–D. Burgers. $

ZELDA’S ORIGINAL GOURMET PIZZA Zelda’s is legendary for the greatness of its pizza and its attitude. But that’s part of Zelda’s charm, along with the dark, dingy atmosphere. It’s all about the food: old-school, Chicago-style deep-dish pizza that routinely wins “best pizza” in local polls. 1415 21st St.; (916) 447-1400; zeldasgourmetpizza.com. L–D. Pizza/Italian. $$

ZÓCALO For description, see listing under “Midtown.” 1182 Roseville Parkway; (916) 788-0303; zocalosac ramento.com/roseville. L–D–Br. Mexican. $$

SIERRA OAKS

CAFE BERNARDO AT PAVILIONS For description, see listing under “Downtown.” 515 Pavilions Lane; (916) 922-2870; cafebernardo.com. B–L–D. New American. $

ETTORE’S This bakery is a convivial spot for a casual meal. It’s hard to take your eyes off the dessert cases long enough to choose your savory items. But you’ll soon discover the kitchen’s talent extends to the wonderful pizzas, cooked in a wood-burning oven, hearty sandwiches and burgers, and fresh salads. 2376 Fair Oaks Blvd.; (916) 482-0708; ettores. com. B–L–D. Bakery/New American. $–$$

LEMON GRASS RESTAURANT Lemon Grass serves delicious, upscale Asian fare such as salad rolls, green curry and catfish in a clay pot. Everything tastes fresh, light and clean. 601 Munroe St.; (916) 486-4891; lem ongrassrestaurant.com. L–D. Pan-Asian. $$$

WILDWOOD RESTAURANT & BAR Owned by the Haines brothers of 33rd Street Bistro fame, this chic restaurant serves New American and global cuisine, with naan, ahi poke, pancetta prawns and rock shrimp risotto sharing the menu with an all-American burger. The spacious patio is a great place to grab a drink and listen to live music. 556 Pavilions Lane; (916) 922-2858; wildwoodpavilions.com. L–D–Br. American/global fusion. $$$

ZINFANDEL GRILLE Open for more than two decades, Zinfandel Grille is an enduring dining favorite, serv-

ing wood-fired pizzas, pasta, fish and other Mediterranean entrées. 2384 Fair Oaks Blvd.; (916) 485-7100; zinfandelgrille.com. L–D. New American. $$$

SOUTHSIDE PARK

BINCHOYAKI Small plates of grilled meats, fish and vegetables are the stars at this izakaya-style restaurant. But you can also order ramen, tempura and other Japanese favorites. 2226 10th St.; (916) 4699448; binchoyaki.com. L–D. Japanese. $$–$$$

SOUTH In a town of great fried chicken, this casual restaurant may serve the very best fried chicken of all. It’s moist on the inside, crunchy on the outside, and comes with braised greens and a flaky biscuit (made from a secret family recipe). Other delights include a fabulous hamburger and traditional Southern desserts such as sweet potato pie. 2005 11th St.; (916) 382-9722; weheartfriedchicken.com. L–D. New Southern. $$

TAHOE PARK

BACON & BUTTER Lively and delightfully urban, the place is packed with fans of chef Billy Zoellin’s homey flapjacks, biscuits and other breakfasty fare. 5913 Broadway; (916) 346-4445; baconandbuttersac.com. B–L. Breakfast/American. $–$$

MOMO’S MEAT MARKET This family-run business serves simply first-rate barbecue, smoked over wood in huge drums in the parking lot. Sides include pepper Jack mac ’n cheese, cornbread and deep-fried cabbage. 5780 Broadway; (916) 452-0202. L–D. Barbecue. $$

WEST SACRAMENTO

BRODERICK ROADHOUSE Burgers rule at this appealingly scruffy bar/restaurant. In addition to the juicy beef burgers, there’s also a selection of more avant-garde versions, including the duck burger. 319 Sixth St.; (916) 372-2436; broderickroadhouse.com. L–D–Br. Burgers. $

DRAKE’S: THE BARN Located in a stunningly modern indoor-outdoor structure along the river, Drake’s serves excellent thin-crust pizzas, along with a few salads and appetizers. You can get table service indoors or on the patio. But if you prefer something more casual, grab a folding lawn chair, find a spot at the sprawling outdoor taproom and order a pizza to go. It’s fun galore, with kids, dogs, fire pits and a tap trailer serving beer. 985 Riverfront St.; (510) 4230971; drinkdrakes.com. L–D. Pizza. $$

VIENTIANE RESTAURANT This dynamic spot offers some dishes you might not find at other Thai restaurants, such as garlic quail, deep-fried and lavished with pepper and garlic. The silver noodle salad is enlivened with lime juice and chili and punctuated with bits of pork, shrimp and cilantro. 1001 Jefferson Blvd.; (916) 373-1556. L-D. Thai/Laotian. $

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Paul Martin’s American Grill’s mac and cheese

Reflect

An Advocate for Justice

During World War II, Mary Tsukamoto, along with her husband, Al, and young daughter, Marielle Bliss, experienced forced removal from Florin, then a rural town south of Sacramento, due to Executive Order 9066. The order caused more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry who lived along the West Coast to be relocated to guarded camps. The Tsukamoto family spent 1942 to 1944 at a temporary camp in Fresno and then a concentration camp in Jerome, Arkansas.

Several years later, after the family returned to California to rebuild their lives, Tsukamoto started a teaching career in Florin-area schools that lasted a quarter century. She was a tireless advocate for redress for the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

“Wanting to transform her difficult experiences into a tool for teaching others, she became an activist for peace, civil rights, and redress after exclusion,” writes Michelle Trujillo, author of “Images of America: Japanese Americans of Florin” (Arcadia Publishing, 2021). “Her legacy was commemorated by the establishment of the Mary Tsukamoto Elementary School in Elk Grove.”

More information on the Tsukamoto family is contained in Trujillo’s book, which is available in local bookshops and at arcadiapublishing.com.—DARLENA BELUSHIN MCKAY

Reprinted from

“Images of America: Japanese Americans of Florin” by Michelle Trujillo (Arcadia Publishing, 2021)

This portrait of Mary Tsukamoto and her daughter was taken before they departed the Jerome, Arkansas, concentration camp in October 1944.