A bustling bistro blossomed to life on the edge of Midtown in the summer of 2015, delivered by Sacramento’s leading restaurateur in a space he knows intimately well. Randy Paragary, wife Stacy and executive chef Kurt Spataro spent more than a year remodeling the corner of 28th and N streets for the third time since 1975.
Each Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Midtown Farmers Market transforms the outdoor community center of the historic and eclectic Midtown neighborhood. Dozens of vendors with fresh, locally grown and frequently organic produce and flowers blend with numerous artisanal food sellers. Shoppers wander and sample regionally produced honey, fresh almond milk, zesty beef jerky and hand-rolled pastas.
Marvin and Bridgette Maldonado are in pursuit of the perfect pizza. The Florin High School sweethearts and owners of Federalist Public House—the infinitely cool farm-to-fork Sacramento restaurant in the alley between Capitol Avenue and N Street, 20th and 21st streets—spent a year researching pizza before opening their eatery in December 2014.
Regional Mexican cooking inspired by recipes, ingredients and styles rarely found in a Sacramento restaurant have made Centro Cocina Mexicana a festive Midtown jewel for more than two decades. Paragary Restaurant Group executive chef Kurt Spataro, whose attention to detail and insistence on authenticity have established his legacy as one of Sacramento’s most respected chefs, spent months observing kitchens in Mexico’s coastal towns and inland cities to prepare the original Centro Cocina Mexicana menu.
Snug, friendly and warm, Block Butcher Bar is the meat, whiskey and wine hideaway established by entrepreneur Michael Hargis next to his LowBrau beer emporium. The two Sacramento restaurant locations could not be more different in appearance, ambition and style, but they operate in complete harmony and thrive within their contrasting environments.
