Author: TownNews Staff - Amanda Keim-Morrison

Shortys Gelato Bakery

Best of the City 2025:
Best Over-the-Top Hot Chocolate

Brewed with Belgian Callebaut chocolate, topped with scratch-made marshmallow fluff and chocolate mousse, then brûléed to perfection, this tasty treat is among the dozens of people, places and things that have added a dollop of delight to this year. Here's one of our picks for Best of the City 2025.
Sean Timm,

Best of the City 2025:
Best Rockers for the Ages

Selling out venues across the country and launching their 10th studio album, this Sacramento-born rock group is keeping the music going, earning them a place among the dozens of people, places and things that have rocked this year. Here's one of our picks for Best of the City 2025.
Sean Timm,

Out and About in Fall 2025

Cyndi Lauper heads to Wheatland as she wraps up her farewell tour, the Sacramento Ballet and Capital Stage launch their new seasons, A Flock of Seagulls (plus nine more ’80s sensations) take flight at Thunder Valley, a pop-jukebox sequel to Romeo and Juliet  delivers verses from bards like the Backstreet Boys and Kelly Clarkson at Broadway Sacramento, and more. Here are 15 reasons to fall for the arts around town.
Sean Timm,

Pit Mastermind

Renowned chef and pitmaster Matt Horn expands his culinary empire with a new meat mecca in Elk Grove. With Michelin-rated, melt-in-your-mouth brisket and ribs, the down-home Horn Barbecue delivers unfancy feasts that are worth ’cueing up for.
Hillary Louise Johnson,

Fairs and Festivals to wrap up summer with a blast

The Nevada County Fair kicks off this week; the Japanese Food & Cultural Bazaar prepares a feast for your eyes and your appetite; midtown's chalk and music festival returns for its 35th year; and more. Here are the fairs and festivals rounding out the end of summer.
Sean Timm,

Best of the City 2025:
Best Inclusive Trail Angel

Co-author of Moon Travel Guide’s new Northern California Hiking  guidebook, this attorney-turned-writer, and inclusive-hiking champion, is one of the dozens of local people, places and things that have made us balloon with hometown pride this year. Here is just one of our picks for Best of the City 2025.
Hillary Louise Johnson,

Q&A with Agustín Arteaga, new CEO and director of the Crocker Art Museum

On July 1, the Crocker Art Museum welcomed its first new director and CEO in a quarter century. Before taking the helm of the Crocker, Agustín Arteaga spent eight years as the director of the Dallas Museum of Art. He has also led major museums in Puerto Rico, Buenos Aires and Mexico City, where he was the director of the country’s national art museum; has overseen or curated major retrospectives of renowned creatives like Frida Kahlo, Roy Lichtenstein, Diego Rivera and Christian Dior; and has served on the board of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts since 2020. Weeks before starting his new position, he talked to us from Dallas about his vision for the Crocker’s future, the need for museums to reflect their communities, and the importance of raising our museum’s international profile.
Rob Turner,

The Picasso of Positivity

He is the most prolific public artist in Sacramento, with hundreds of works—from large-scale commissioned murals to decidedly uncommissioned guerrilla pieces—beautifying the urban landscape. Now, J.M. Knudsen is expanding his vision for a more creative city. As one of his influences, Pablo Picasso, said: “Action is the foundational key to all success.” But for all Knudsen’s ambitious goals, the core of his message for us all remains deceptively simple: “YOU ARE GREAT.”
Hillary Louise Johnson, Photos by Max Whittaker,

Fun in the Sun at these June Fairs and Festivals

The El Dorado County Fair is off to the races, Sacramento Pride brings a dose of joy to Capitol Mall, the Sacramento French Film Festival offers up a slate of French exports, and more. Here are the fairs and festivals delivering tons of summer fun in June.
Sean Timm,
The City

Your 2025 Guide to Outdoor Movie Screenings in the Sacramento Area

Break out the lawn chairs and the popcorn, bring a light jacket for when the Delta Breeze rolls in, and cozy up with your friends and family for some outdoor movie screenings this summer (and a few in the fall, too). Whether you’re in the mood for classics like The Goonies and Big, recent blockbusters like Wicked, or animated family fare like Moana 2, these grassy lawns, museum courtyards, and even swimming pools are the place to be.
Sean Timm,

Pretty Enough To Eat

Over the past year, Jeff Nebeker’s ceramic doughnuts have gone deliciously viral, with each new batch attracting lines around the block outside midtown’s Elliott Fouts Gallery. With National Doughnut Day fast approaching on June 6, we talk to the 68-year-old Sacramento artist and former baker about his “yum aesthetic.”
Sean Timm,

Q&A with NBA Great Bill Cartwright

As a five-time NBA champion, Bill Cartwright is unequivocally the winningest basketball star to ever emerge from Sacramento. Drafted by the New York Knicks in 1979 straight out of the University of San Francisco—where he landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a student in 1977 and currently serves as director of university initiatives—the 7-foot-1 former big man is best known as the starting center who competed alongside Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls team that three-peated in the early ’90s. (Later that decade, he earned two more rings as an assistant coach for the franchise.) Now 67, the Elk Grove High alum and Gold River resident—who recently published his autobiography, Living Life at the Center—talks about growing up on a farm, his thoughts on today’s NBA, and why Sacramento “is the place to be.”
Mark Kreidler,

Field of Dreams

Build it, and they will come. On March 31—after decades of trying to land a Major League Baseball team—Sacramento finally got its civic wish when the Athletics played their first home opener at the newly renovated Sutter Health Park. The team may have lost the game to the Chicago Cubs, but fans packed every corner of the stadium for a chance to witness history and, of course, to root, root, root for the home team.
Max Whittaker,

In the Name of the Mother

With Chu Mai, James Beard Award-nominated chef Billy Ngo honors his mom and the dishes he grew up loving, while putting his own spin on Vietnamese and Chinese classics. The result is a noteworthy new restaurant whose dishes taste both comfortingly familiar and excitingly fresh.
Carla Meyer, Photography by Jeremy Sykes,

Out and About in May and June 2025

There’s an Englishman in Wheatland as Sting takes the Hard Rock Live stage; the ninth annual Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival lights up the screen at The Sofia; Leon Bridges at Thunder Valley, and more. Here are 10 local events rounding out the spring.
Sean Timm,

Where She Was From

Life for E.A. Hanks, who grew up in the Fabulous Forties as the daughter of Tom Hanks, may have looked like it was coming up roses. Too often, though, the reality was anything but, as the self-described “Sacramento girl” details in her poignant new book, The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, which follows a childhood shaped by her mother’s mental illness and a writer’s search for the truth, thorns and all.
Hillary Louise Johnson,

Think Global, Spend Local

By most estimates, only about 9% of plastic products actually get recycled. According to NASA, 2024 was the planet’s hottest year yet, and the National Weather Service reports that last summer was downtown Sacramento’s warmest on record. But now for the good news: There are more local retailers than ever that are making it easy to be green. So with Earth Day just around the corner on April 22, we’d like to introduce you to seven of the most eco-forward stores in our region. In the 1967 film The Graduate, young Benjamin Braddock was given one word of advice: plastics. Well, in 2025, we have two: dryer balls. Trust us.
Sean Timm, Photos by Max Whittaker,

A Sporting Chance

Nearly 30 years after 2Pac’s “California Love” debuted, a snippet of its lyrics—“from Oakland to Sactown”—rings prophetic these days as the team formerly known as the Oakland A’s prepare for their home opener at Sutter Health Park on March 31. Of course, it’s been far longer than three decades that the capital city has been chasing its baseball dreams, and now they’re about to come true (at least for a few years). But what does it all mean for Sacramento’s prospects as a permanent home to America’s Pastime? Mark Kreidler—a longtime journalist for ESPN and The Sacramento Bee, and one of our city’s most astute sports observers—weighs in on why the next few years could be a home run, one way or the other.
Mark Kreidler,

A Swinging Good Time

Playground swings are for kids—or so we thought. It turns out grown-ups love them too. In fact, such urban amenities are a surprisingly popular trend for people of all ages in cities like Boston and Tulsa. So what do you say? Let’s give this idea a big push.
Rob Turner,

The Art of Appropriation

A new museum retrospective spotlights the late Sacramento painter and professor Wayne Thiebaud as a master student of art history. From da Vinci to Picasso, great artists have always studied and copied their predecessors on the way to creating their own singular masterpieces. As this exhibit shows, Thiebaud is still teaching. The lesson: Imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery.
Hillary Louise Johnson,

Coming into Bloom

More than a decade after the idea was first planted, the Hanami Line might just be poised to give us all a sneak peek of its annual cherry blossom showcase. Sacramento, get ready to be pretty in pink.
Hillary Louise Johnson,

Garden Party

A new design-forward beer garden in East Sacramento offers dozens of craft brews on tap and craveable mix-and-match dishes from 10 different purveyors. At Garden at the Line, you can have your fresh Kru sashimi and eat your hot Nash & Proper fries too.
Carla Meyer, Photography by Jeremy Sykes,

Out and About in March and April 2025

Proud Mary keeps on burning in Broadway Sacramento's Tina Turner musical, everything beautiful happens at night for Capital Stage, Jack Gallagher is both funnyman and front man with his musical comedy show at The Sofia, and more. Here are 10 events helping this spring bloom that much brighter.
Sean Timm,

Can't-miss events kicking off in February

A seldom-told part of World War II history lands at the California Museum, Drag Race winner and author Sasha Velour takes the Mondavi Center stage, star-crossed lovers dance a world premiere at the SAFE Center, and more.
Sean Timm,

Step It Up, Sacramento

In cities around the world, well-designed yet uncomplicated elevated structures have provided simple pleasures for locals and tourists alike. Can we rise to the occasion too?
Rob Turner,