Profiles
Making It All Popp
Call him an an interior designer, a home designer, a furniture maker, a graphic artist, a chef or a classic car collector—or all of the above. Whether he’s crafting the look and feel for a hot new restaurant, a neighborhood taproom, a high-end chocolaterie or someone’s home, Curtis Popp has carved out an eclectic career as one of the city’s most sought-after visual thinkers. Sacramento, meet the modernist Renaissance man.
Mid-Century Makeover
In 1959, two ambitious young architects and one soon-to-be-world-famous artist finished work on a building that caught the eye of the design world and introduced this city to the “International Style” that was sweeping America at the time. Today, that mid-century modern edifice, the original headquarters for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, is about to be born anew after an $86 million face-lift. Turning 60 has never looked so sexy.
Designs Within Reach 2019
Over the next few years, new structures totaling well over a million square feet will rise in the central city. Here's a sneak peek at five potentially transformative projects that will help shape Sacramento for generations to come.
The Boy with the Dragon Tattoo
The list of his regulars reads like a Rolodex of Sacramento’s culinary elite. Randall Selland. Molly Hawks. Ginger Elizabeth. Now, two years after opening the sophisticated expansion of his celebrated restaurant Kru—known for its exquisitely crafted sushi—top chef Billy Ngo is going underground, literally, for a new venture with a concept as unpretentious as he is: a basement ramen bar. How did a boy born in a Hong Kong refugee camp become a thirtysomething star of Japanese cuisine in Sacramento? The story, it turns out, is written in ink. On his skin. And luckily, for those who haven’t seen him naked, it’s also told in the pages that follow.
Field of Screams
By day, they are nurses, schoolteachers, lawyers, students and auto mechanics. By game night, they are the beating heart of the Sacramento Republic FC. Meet the 800-strong Tower Bridge Battalion, a whopping, stomping, self-organized army of men and women whose bond with their team is uniquely fierce. Fair-weather fans, they are not. With the new soccer season starting in March, the fever pitch is already rising. Hear them roar.
The Big Sick
In 2015, Melinda Welsh was given shattering news. Despite battling cancer for a year and attacking it with chemo, radiation and surgery, the disease had progressed to Stage IV and doctors told her she had six to 12 months to live. But this past December, thanks to the latest advances in immunotherapy, she received equally stunning news: The cancer had disappeared. All of it. The Davis-based journalist chronicles her incredible journey through the “kingdom of the sick” and her new life after near death.
Dolores Huerta
Arguably no woman wielded more influence on 20th-century California history than Dolores Huerta, who transformed state politics and the lives of millions as a community organizer and the co-founder (with Cesar Chavez) of United Farm Workers. Huerta, 88, speaks about her early days as a lobbyist in Sacramento, the value of sacrifice, and seeing her legacy among the next wave of American leader
Toasty Toasts
Got the winter blues? We’ve got the winter booze to chase them away. From a spiked Mexican hot chocolate to a warm apple pie elixir and a rum-based butterbeer, here are 10 soul-lifting cold-weather cocktails around the region that bring the heat and pack a punch. Get ready to zip up and sip up.
Flights of Fancy
Food flights! From a trio of house-made ice cream to a quartet of bacon strips and a quintet of frozen cocktails, we’ve got eight great medleys that are triple (or quadruple or quintuple) the fun. Sacramento, get ready for takeoff.
The Ice Blocks Cometh
It is, by all appearances, an urban utopia. Come this spring, more than 500 people will work there, more than 200 will live there, and thousands more will dine and shop there. And this bustling village within a city—elevated by art and cutting-edge architecture—all exists within a two-block span in the coolest district in town. Could the Ice Blocks be the new model for modern living in Sacramento?
Holiday Gift Guide 2018: Made in Sacramento Edition
Region’s greetings! From a mid-century modern birdhouse built in Nevada City to sweet chocolate toffee crafted in Gold River, here are eight locally made presents that are sure to make the holidays merry and bright.
Fields of Gold
Every autumn on the Sacramento State campus, bright yellow ginkgo leaves fall from their branches and form vibrant canvases for environmental artist Joanna Hedrick, who patiently shapes them into mesmerizing designs. With a humble rake as her paintbrush, she creates ephemeral works of art that make a lasting impression.
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