Steve Benson, one of Sacramento’s finest and most beloved men’s clothing store owners, died in September from complications of the motor neuron disorder ALS, or Lou Gehrigs’s disease. He was 76.
Steve founded S. Benson & Co. fine men’s clothing in 1995. The East Sac shop was a high-end boutique with exceptional style and inventory.
Treasured for his old-school service, Steve was expert at custom-fitting clients or helping choose ready-to-wear apparel. Fathers and sons became generational clients.
Robert Caro’s legendary book, “The Power Broker,” turned 50 this year and holds up remarkably well. The 4-pound tome about the notorious New York urban planner Robert Moses stared down from my bookshelf about half that long before I finally hauled it out and read it.
It takes commitment to open a 1,286-page book, which was even longer before Caro’s editor, Robert Gottlieb, trimmed 350,000 words. But it’s still a riveting read, now in its 74th printing and new digital version.
With concern in Sacramento over the dangers faced by pedestrians and bicyclists on local roads, this is a good time to read about a planner who championed the automobile.
Laura Lofgren can’t stop lending her voice to the Sacramento Master Singers. As the group opens its 41st season, Lofgren sings alto and serves as board president.
Her relationship with the nonprofit choir dates from 1990, when Lofgren and husband John auditioned to sing. One year later, they joined the board, Laura as choral liaison and secretary, John as vice president.
“It’s not just a choir, it’s more like an extended family,” says Lofgren, who spent 37 years in education before retiring from the Twin Rivers Unified School District in June. “We all truly care for each other.”
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.
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.
For an artist, inspiration comes from anywhere. With ceramic artist Peter VandenBerge, anywhere equals a lifetime of adventure.
“Adventure can take any form,” says VandenBerge, born in the Netherlands in 1935. “It can be in the studio making art, it can be in Indonesia in the rice fields riding the big, horned buffalo. Everything is an amazing adventure. Those are the kinds of things you can remember and that come out in your work.”
