Nov 28, 2024
Despite its deep farm-to-fork roots, Sacramento is not an easy place to find locally raised and processed poultry.
When scanning the meat section at area stores, local poultry seems almost invisible.
There are large California operators—Mary’s Chicken and Diestel Ranch—but few local producers. Searching for local birds, I found Sinclair Family Farm in Newcastle.
Situated in the Sierra foothills, Sinclair boasts a range of humanly treated meat products. Karin Sinclair told me her farm provides much more than poultry. She raises and sells meat from cows, sheep, pigs, rabbits, ducks and goats, plus chickens and turkeys.
Nov 28, 2024
Eight years ago, the Selland Family Restaurants debuted their newest concept, OBO’ Italian Table & Bar. The Folsom Boulevard space once housed Andiamo, a beloved East Sacramento institution. OBO’ kept the Italian fire burning and became a neighborhood favorite.
Similar to Selland’s Market-Cafe, OBO’ combines hot case and cold case foods—beet salad, Caesar salad, chicken breast, mac and cheese. The similarities stop there.
OBO’s menu runs deep into Italian recipes and preparations. Pasta dishes and Italian sandwiches fill the menu and leave room for pizza.
Oct 28, 2024
Hidden in plain sight, a tiny kitchen sits on a busy Curtis Park street. Called Good Things to Eat, the storefront produces amazing scratch-cooked meals.
It’s not exactly a restaurant, but mother-daughter team Delcy and Elinor Steffy create delightful, satisfying meals. I want more of it.
Let me set the stage. Picture a hot October night on Franklin Boulevard. There’s a line out the door at Gunther’s Ice Cream. Flavor of the month is pumpkin.
Oct 28, 2024
Sacramento is a locavore’s blessing. Within 40 miles of the city, farmers produce diverse fruits and vegetables, bountiful olive groves and vineyards. Ranchers raise world-class beef, lamb, poultry and pork.
But one important food category is elusive: a local cheesemaker.
When I searched for a nearby dairy that produces its own cheese, I found just two: Jollity Farm Goat Dairy in El Dorado County’s Garden Valley and Spenker Family Farm in Lodi. Both make goat cheese from animals raised on their farms.
Sep 28, 2024
Kristyn Leach is a farmer and seed producer with a mission. She wants to spread seeds from her Korean heritage and share stories from the Asian Diaspora, enriching our connections to locally grown, culturally significant food.
The journey carried Leach from farm fields around Winters, Sunol and Sebastopol to South Korea. She grew Korean-based crops for San Francisco restaurateur brothers Dennis, Daniel and David Lee, whose modern Korean cooking captivated the Bay Area before the pandemic.
“They really helped me get started,” Leach says of the Lees. “We worked directly with each other, and we started growing exclusively for them.”
Sep 28, 2024
On Jan. 26, 2023, James Takashiba woke in the early morning to a fire notification from his alarm company. His family’s restaurant, Hana Tsubaki, was burning.
The fire department was on scene and quickly subdued the fire, but not before the kitchen suffered major damage.
For many longtime residents, Hana Tsubaki, a Japanese restaurant in East Sacramento, had been there forever. The butterfly roof and red and black paint stood out on J Street almost unchanged since 1978.
But that’s too simple. To keep a restaurant open for nearly 50 years, an operator must push through adversity. The Takashibas pushed hard.
