Profiles
Homecoming Queen
Greta Gerwig proves that you can indeed go home again with her stunning directorial debut Lady Bird, a semi-autobiographical story about the Sacramento native’s senior year in high school. In her “love letter” to the River City, she fills the screen with nostalgia-soaked scenes of local landmarks and neighborhoods, revisiting her youth with the thoughtful perspective that only time can bring. And if growing Oscar buzz for the film is any indication, this is just the beginning for the first-time auteur and newly crowned Hollywood royalty. Long may she reign.
Center of Attention
After the Sacramento Kings traded their franchise player in February, all eyes turned to Willie Cauley-Stein, the new starting center and a critical component of the team’s plan to build a dynasty from the ground up. But with only two years of NBA experience under his belt, does this agile 7-footer have the right stuff to lead the Kings to the next level? If you ask him, it’s definitely within his prodigious reach.
Eat Drink Play Love
If you think you know Napa and Sonoma, think again. We’ve got the skinny on the region’s newest hot spots (and updates on a few old favorites), just in time to celebrate the harvest season.
Eyes in the Sky
This is flight club. More than ever, drone photographers are lighting up Instagram feeds in cities across the globe with seemingly impossible perspectives of landmarks and landscapes. And with their cameras’ unmatched ability to capture “nadir imagery”—looking straight down while hovering in place—from as high as 1,000 feet, even the most familiar sights can be rendered in strangely beautiful ways. Prepare to fly over Sacramento and see it as you’ve never seen it before.
White Gold
Call it farm-to-chopstick. Not only does nearly every bite of sushi rice in the United States come from California, but almost all of it—97 percent, to be exact—comes from the Sacramento Valley. And when it comes to ultra-premium Japanese-style rice (yep, there’s a difference), Yuba City’s Montna Farms is the American gold standard.
A Welcome Home
From Los Angeles to London, civic leaders are searching for creative ways to combine technology and high design to shelter their cities’ growing homeless populations. In Sacramento, where tent villages have brought unwelcome national headlines, a home-builder-turned-councilman and an ambitious MIT-trained developer believe they may have the answer to solving the housing predicament.
Best of the City 2017
Elvis cinnamon rolls crowned with peanut butter and bacon, heavenly angel food cake French toast, a hidden tearoom to cozy up to, a steampunk bicycle repairium, a mobile boutique in full bloom, grape-clove shrub syrup for your homemade soda, a basketball tale that became a Cinderella story, and much more. Behold this year’s top crop of the people, places and things that make our hometown a home run—or a slam dunk—for everyone.
Greener Acres
Longing for more breathing room, the co-creator of "Yard Crashers" and his wife, who owns Karen’s Bakery in Folsom, built a modern Orangevale oasis that lets the outside in.
Hot New Hoods
It’s no secret that Sacramento is at a tipping point. Amidst all the construction dust, however, there are a few areas, such as R Street, Oak Park and West Sacramento, that are ready for their close-ups right now, and they are where you should be heading this weekend if you want a taste or a sip of the buzziest neighborhoods in the region (a flaming Sex Panther cocktail, anyone?). Consider the next 18 pages your insider’s guide to these hot hubs, where new restaurants, bars, boutiques and one-of-a-kind urban experiences await your arrival. Ready, set, go out!
Troubled Waters
On Feb. 7, following heavy storms, a massive crater was discovered in the main spillway at Oroville Dam, the tallest in the United States, which led to the use of a second, emergency spillway. Days later, over 180,000 people in the region were forced to evacuate amid threats of the emergency spillway’s collapse. Photojournalist Max Whittaker chronicled the crisis as residents fled to seek safety and shelter.
The Place Maker
If you felt the pulse of the city quickening the last time you spent an evening out dining, shopping or gallery hopping in midtown, Oak Park or the R Street Corridor, Ron Vrilakas likely had a hand in that.
The Man Who Fell for Earth
The New Yorker has called him “one of the most important political writers working in America today.” Time magazine has called him a hero of the environment. But it’s being a science fiction author that has landed Kim Stanley Robinson on the global literary map and The New York Times bestseller list.
On Sale Now!
Stay in the know!
Get Sactown's top stories in your inbox by signing up for our weekly newsletter.
