Dec 28, 2021
What would our city look like if gardens replaced vacant lots? If composted soil took over lawns? And if backyard hens produced our eggs? Oak Park resident Alex Hoang, along with some neighbors and community partners, is finding out.
Hoang is founder of Oak Park Eggery and Tanama Garden. “It was a trash lot, a dumpsite, for decades,” Hoang says about two parcels of land near 12th Avenue and Stockton Boulevard. With the help of community members, the lots are being used to make compost and grow food for the neighborhood.
Nov 28, 2021
In 2010, Matt and Yvette Woolston opened a new restaurant in Carmichael. A follow-up to their much-lauded North Sacramento spot, The Supper Club, this new enterprise was more of a neighborhood joint, with a focus on wine, pizza and scratch cooking.
More than a decade later, Matteo’s Pizza & Bistro still attracts local diners looking for an upscale but unfussy evening of quality eats.
On a recent visit, my wife and I ran into good friends, the Au family of Carmichael. They were leaving as we were coming in. They gushed about the meal they just finished.
Nov 28, 2021
Dill havarti, mozzarella with homegrown basil and fresh warm ricotta. What do these cheeses have in common? Kim Mack, the Cheese Queen, makes them all.
Since beginning her cheese-making venture almost four years ago, Mack has experimented with about 40 different types of hard and soft cheeses.
Mack was born in Sacramento and works as a contracts analyst for the county Department of Human Assistance. She’s always been interested in culinary arts.
Oct 28, 2021
Poppy by Mama Kim is a new restaurant in a new neighborhood serving new American food. The small dining room and patio overlooking Sutter Park may be humble, but the food is some of the best I’ve had this year.
Sutter Park might not be familiar to some readers. Cut from the footprint of the demolished Sutter Memorial Hospital in East Sacramento, the neighborhood comprises several blocks centered on 53rd and E streets. The new community features a variety of homes, apartments, retail and a spacious central park.
Sep 28, 2021
Baking sourdough bread is not just for professionals and pandemics. For many Sacramento home bakers, making sourdough is therapy, even a necessity.
It’s a cool October day. A fresh loaf of sourdough with golden crust cools in the kitchen as the aroma of warm baked bread and melting butter swirls in the air. As Alison Clevenger says, “Nothing beats fresh bread with some homemade jam on it and some salted butter.”
Sep 28, 2021
Twenty years ago, I wrote, “Tower Café is the kind of place you take your out-of-town friends to show them Sacramento is cool.” Today the restaurant scene shines much brighter, with culinary gems in every neighborhood.
But there’s still something magical about dining at Tower Café, one of the city’s great outdoor spaces, sheltered by palm fronds and lit by neon from The Tower Theatre’s majestic marquee.
When Tower Café opened in 1990, the “world cuisine” concept was novel. Going to a single restaurant and choosing among curries, tacos and jerk chicken made one feel like Carmen San Diego with a fork and knife.
