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The Story Behind the Book

Inside Sacramento: The Most Interesting Neighborhood Places in America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital captures a city in all its glory

By Cecily Hastings
May 2019

The tables were turned on us in late 2018 when we released our The Second Edition of the photographic guidebook Inside Sacramento: The Most Interesting Neighborhood Places in America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital. Here’s why we published it.

Sacramento is known as America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital. No other major American city is more centrally located amid so many small, family-owned farms, ranches and vineyards—all producing year-round in our ideal Mediterranean climate. Sacramento adopted the Farm-to-Fork Capital designation through the efforts of civic and business leaders who wanted to sing the praises of our local food-growing and food-making experience.

Sacramento is also home to one of the largest farmers markets in the state: the famed Sunday farmers market downtown, an exciting marketplace of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, flowers and artisanal products. In Sacramento, some 40 other farmers markets attract tens of thousands of people each week seeking the farm-to-fork experience.

Sacramento celebrates farm-to-fork culture each September with a festival and other events capped by a gala dinner, at which hundreds of diners enjoy a locally sourced meal on the magnificent Tower Bridge. Guests are treated to a feast highlighting the delicious collaboration between the Sacramento region’s farmers and chefs. The honored chefs selected to create the dinner are given a special green logo on their restaurant’s page in this book.

But Sacramento doesn’t always get the respect it deserves. Even though it is the state capital, it’s often overshadowed by its larger and louder regional neighbors.

The discovery of gold in the Sacramento Valley in early 1848 sparked the historic Gold Rush. But in recent years, another rush has occurred: the development of the city’s many diverse neighborhoods. People are attracted to these neighborhoods by the sheer number of interesting shops, restaurants, cafés and other commercial establishments. In addition, the new Golden 1 Center downtown has encouraged dozens of new developments that enrich the central city and beyond, bringing people from all over to dine, shop, explore and be entertained.

This Second Edition book is a curated collection of Sacramento’s most interesting places. It’s designed to give readers an insider’s glimpse into the unique and exceptional Sacramento neighborhood experience. It’s not meant just for people who live in Sacramento, but also for visitors from all over the country who come on business or vacation or are considering moving here. The eight neighborhoods profiled in this book are among the city’s most pleasant to visit on foot and on bike.

This book was lovingly crafted as a guide to the delightful locally owned places we know about from living here and publishing neighborhood newsmagazines for the past two decades. Find yourself in Sacramento!