Sactown Magazine

For any of you having trouble reaching the Zagat link to vote for your favorite Sacramento restaurants, try clicking here.

As you may have read in our Feb/Mar issue (you can access a PDF of the original article here), we at Sactown have been lobbying for the esteemed Zagat Survey folks to add Sacramento to its annual America’s Top Restaurants guide, which surveys locals diners about the best restaurants in dozens of American cities. Well, we have good news. It turns out that Tim Zagat himself thought we were on the money about including Sacramento and made the call to add us to the list of Zagat cities and, starting tomorrow, May 15, Zagat.com will launch a section on its Web site for Sacramentans to vote for their favorite restaurants. Voting will continue through June 15 and the city’s top restaurants will be listed in 2009 guide. Bonus: Everyone who votes will get a free copy of Zagat’s 2009 America’s Top Restaurant Guide. Stay tuned for updates and see the June/July 2008 issue of Sactown for more details. But in the meantime, vote!

There’s a big piece in the Sunday New York Times about Sacramento-based and Tony Award-winning actress Faith Prince, who we profiled in our Feb/Mar issue. She’s currently starring in the Broadway production of “A Catered Affair.” You can read it here, but it may require free registration. An excerpt:

And far from missing New York, she rejected offers to return for various shows. Instead she left it even farther behind, moving from Los Angeles to Sacramento, where [her husband] Mr. Lunetta grew up, and where Henry, now 12, could be near his paternal grandparents.

“What’s not to like?” Ms. Prince said. “I worked 1.2 days out of 10, and the rest of the time I’m a mom in a house with a great pool.”

So, yes, we’ve been a bit remiss in our blogging activity in recent months. Apologies to those of you still checking in (Hi, Mom!). But, alas, you can soon see what’s been occupying all our time during these past 2 months. The April/May issue has started to land in a few mailboxes and will be hitting most newsstands by week’s end. Our cover story is on mayoral candidate and former NBA star Kevin Johnson, and it’s a story we’re really proud of. And at a whopping 6,300 words (most magazine features run from 2,500 to 5,000 words), it’s the biggest story we’ve published to date. But don’t worry, it doesn’t read long. Our senior editor Martin Kuz did a beautiful job reporting and writing the piece and our photographer Max Whittaker did his usual brilliant job at shooting it, including behind-the-scenes images moments before KJ announced his candidacy. If you have any interest in the race at all, this is, in our humble opinion, a must-read piece. And if you do get a chance to read it, please drop us a note at letters@sactownmag.com and let us know what you think. In a day or two, we’ll tease you with the contents of the rest of the issue on our homepage. We’ve got some good stuff in it, and we hope you’ll pick it up.

We’re a few days late announcing this, but the December/January issue is on sale now and it’s packed with lots of good stuff. The cover story is about Maria Shriver’s California Hall of Fame, with an exclusive look at some of the objects you’ll see in the new Hall of Fame exhibit. Incidentally, if you’re free tomorrow night, that’s when stars like Tiger Woods, Rita Moreno, Elizabeth Taylor, Steve Jobs, Willie Mays and more will be in downtown Sacramento, at 10th and O, as they arrive for the induction ceremony.
Also, in this issue, is an excerpt from the new book by Sacramento author and 2005 National Book Award-winner William T. Vollmann. It’s a beautiful passage about his train-hopping adventures around the West, many of which originated right here in Sacramento. We also have a great feature about the Rancho Cordova-based LED-lighting company that created the lights for the Times Square Ball. Also: a Q&A with Sacramento native and Golden Compass actor Sam Elliott; a travel story about revisiting the San Francisco of your childhood; a food story on the new midtown restaurant Tuli; a profile of Sacramento playwright Gregg Coffin, who is bringing his newest work to B Street; a holiday shopping guide where every store donates a portion of the sales to charity; and much, much more!

AT&T sure has been busy re-branding itself as the cool mobile phone company. First they partner with Apple on the iPhone, and then they hire Gen X director Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited) to direct six commercials touting the reach of AT&T’s mobile phone service. And that’s where Sacramento comes in…sort of. Our fair burb features prominently in this commercial. Not sure what the background represents for us. Looks like a military helicopter. And a shaky one at that. Still, anytime Sacramento figures in a Wes Anderson project, we’re happy campers.

Thanks to CBS 13 this morning for mentioning our article on the spectacular new lighting feature planned for the top of the new US Bank Plaza Building going up on Capitol Mall. If this link is still working, you should be able to see the story here.

If you love great photojournalism, make your way over to the Sierra 2 Center tomorrow night where Sactown senior photographer Max Whittaker will be speaking about his work at an event hosted by the Sacramento Art Directors & Artists Club (ADAC). As readers of the magazine probably already know, Max is an incredibly talented photographer (one of the best in the country, in our humble opinion) and counts among his clients publications such as The New York Times, Time, Newsweek and Fortune. He took what is still the most talked about image we’ve run to date—Maria Shriver and her mother Eunice looking at each other during the Governor’s inaugural weekend. The picture was one of only about 150 (out of over 9,000 submissions) of the world’s best pictures displayed in the August issue of Communication Arts magazine. Plus, he’s just a really nice guy. It’s at 6:30 pm tomorrow night. $10 for non-ADAC members. Details at www.adac.org.

Don’t forget, Sacramento’s very own Hollywood bigshot will be at the Crest today at 1pm. Tickets are a measly $10. Grab some brunch, then head on over for what it sure to be a thought-provoking Q&A.

Today we spotted an industrious young lad at around 34th and M in East Sac working a make-shift lemonade stand. Not an unusual sight around those parts in August. What was unusual was that he was also selling focaccia. Not cookies; not cupcakes. Focaccia. Well, it is East Sacramento. You could buy a square for 50¢ and wash it down with a cup of lemonade for another two quarters. Not a bad deal. Didn’t have time to try it out, but will let you know if we do.