Dec 28, 2025
Two recent coffee additions serve more than coffee. Zoe Coffee & Tacos pairs excellent dishes from Mexico and El Salvador with traditional coffee shop fare. The Coco Cafe draws on its Thai roots. Both expand what coffee shops can be.
Zoe Coffee & Tacos, opened in June 2024, is a fantastic little shop tucked into a corner of Poverty Ridge in Midtown.
A stone’s throw from the construction site where The Sacramento Bee stood, this tiny spot makes the most of its footprint. Once, it was part of the Bee’s delivery truck garage.
Owner and chef Josue Acosta recalls his Salvadoran roots to make excellent pupusas, tacos and more.
Dec 28, 2025
Liz and Markus Bokisch created a bucolic, organic and sustainable wine oasis where Spanish roots shine in vine after vine.
Burgundy and amber grapevines tangle against each other. Liz and Markus exchange stories of their years working the land in California and Spain.
Bokisch Vineyards and tasting room in Clements Hills east of Lodi showcase the Spanish varieties Markus helped introduce to the U.S. in the 1990s. He grew up in La Jolla, but his mom is from La Rapita, a fishing village on Spain’s Catalan coast.
Nov 28, 2025
Sacramento’s glide path to all-star status in the food world gained momentum when the Terra Madre Americas conference took over SAFE Credit Union Convention Center and surrounding Downtown streets for three days in September.
Food was the focus for thousands of ranchers, farmers, vintners, distillers, chefs and community members, all sharing ideas for more environmentally responsible, productive and sustainable ways to grow and consume food.
Booths featured all things food, including olive oil, cheese, wine and spirits, ranching, fruit production, restaurants and policy experts. Renowned chefs Alice Waters, Ann Cooper and Jeremiah Tower, along with local grocery stars Darrell Corti and Danny Taylor, spoke at free public seminars.
Nov 28, 2025
Opening a new restaurant called Stepdad’s on Father’s Day is cheeky. It’s also fun. And fun is what Stepdad’s owner Tyler Williams is all about.
“Getting the doors open on any new project is a lot of work, takes a lot of people and requires a lot of compromises,” he tells me. “But once you get the doors open, it’s time to have fun. And that’s my favorite part.”
Williams, his wife Melissa Williams and chef Oliver Ridgeway are the ownership team at Stepdad’s in Land Park.
You may know Oliver Ridgeway from his Michelin-recognized restaurant, Camden Spit & Larder. His reputation is sterling, and his ability to highlight local farm-to-fork bounty while staying true to his English roots says everything about his ability as a chef.
Oct 28, 2025
In place of an Irish pub, a sophisticated Mediterranean restaurant has emerged. Field-N-Flame Midtown, open since March, took over de Vere’s Irish Pub with an extensive remodel. What had been a convivial, rustic spot is now an elegant, cosmopolitan dining room.
The 1500 block of L Street has seen significant turnover since the pandemic. The block was once known for pubby good times, drinking at de Vere’s or the Public House, noshing pub grub and catching whatever game was on TV. Now the stretch is home to impressive dining.
David English’s delightful Juju, a cocktail bar and small bite room, holds down the block’s west end. An upscale taqueria is moving into the old Public House at 16th Street. Field-N-Flame shores up the middle.
Oct 28, 2025
When I moved to Sacramento, people called it a cow town.
Coming from back east, I had no idea what this meant. I imagined feedlots filled with cattle, their feet kicking up dust. But the city, lush with fruit trees and palms, ringed by farms, divided by two major rivers, has no cows.
After almost 12 years in Midtown, I still don’t know what cow town means, other than a reference to put down the city and tie it to its agricultural roots.
