Food & Drink
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.
The Happiest Little Place on Earth
A new 300-square-foot speakeasy opens in Old Sacramento that’s a little Enchanted Tiki Room, a little Indiana Jones, and a whole lot of exploratory fun. Adventure is in there.
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.
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.
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.
Q&A with Cookbook Author Erin Alderson
As Sacramentans, we are all intimately familiar with the concept of farm-to-fork, but according to Erin Alderson, we should be eating farm-to-cupboard-to-fork too. In her recently released vegetarian cookbook, The Yearlong Pantry, the Fair Oaks-based food blogger and author makes the case for thinking seasonally, not just when it comes to fruits and vegetables, but also for shelf-stable staples
The Meat Lover's Guide to "Meaty" Vegan Dishes
Bacon bits from coconut? Fried chicken and oysters from mushrooms? Indeed, creative innovations in plant-based food have led chefs around the Sacramento region to develop mouth-wateringly meaty dishes that happen to be deliciously—even surprisingly—meat-free.
Some Nog for Your Holiday Nosh
From richly aged, rye-whiskey eggnog to decades-old, non-spiked hometown recipes, here are four creamy reasons to skip the mass-produced carton this year, raise a glass to the holiday season, and drink local.
Northern Exposure
A transporting Caesar salad taco, a comforting cortadillo stew, a tender cabrito en salsa. The talented teams behind two local Michelin-rated restaurants, Nixtaco and Canon, come together to open Cantina Pedregal and bring the signature flavors of northern Mexico to Folsom.
Right on ’Cue
Texas collides with California as the team behind LowBrau and Beast & Bounty gets cooking at Slow & Low Smokehouse, plating up succulent ribs, juicy tri-tip and standout brisket. In this showdown of meaty flavors in Elk Grove, diners don’t need to choose a side in the great barbecue debates—just the many scrumptious side dishes.
Paradise Found
Marrying old-world charm with new-world optimism, V’s Paradise in Old Sacramento is a love letter to our city’s rich immigrant history. A classic American steakhouse with a dash of Asian-inspired umami and a sprinkle of Armenian spices, it’s a destination restaurant where the menu is brimming with unexpected flavor twists.
The 2024 Sacramento Coffee Lover’s Guide
To say that Sacramento’s coffee scene is, well, hot right now is as understated as the subtle notes of dark honey in Temple’s new ode to the Sacramento Kings. So we sipped and savored our way through the highly quaffable offerings from dozens of regional roasters to bring you our ultimate guide to local coffee. But enough teasing. Light the beans!
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