State capital is a lush oasis
Sacramento’s thriving culture is born from small-town affect that is earnest, unpretentious Fish Face, a poke restaurant in the Warehouse Artists Lofts Public Market.
As a travel destination, California’s capital gets no respect. Despite sitting at the confluence of two impressive rivers, with sprawling shade trees that make much of the city feel like a leafy urban park, Sacramento has a misplaced reputation as a lowly, unattractive place. But the state’s oldest incorporated city — founded in 1849, the year before California joined the union — remains a lush oasis of bougainvillea and palms, prolific fruit trees and mighty oaks.
It also has a thriving cultural scene and architectural character all its own. Along with neighbourhoods of midcentury modern homes, Craftsman bungalows and ornate Victorians, there’s the birthplace of Tower Records (the art deco Tower Theater and its kitschy, colourful Tower Cafe are both still operating) and the Crocker Art Museum’s bright white, modernist expansion, the 37,000-square-metre Teel Family Pavilion, which tripled the museum’s size in 2010.
Unlike California’s glittering, glamorous coastal cities, Sacramento’s location in the Central Valley gives it an earnest, small-town affect and a welcome lack of pretension.
FRIDAY 3 p.m. Lay of the land
Sacramento is an unusually bikeable city. The JUMP dockless e-bike share program ($1 U.S. for the first 15 minutes, 7 cents a minute after that) may become the best bet for getting around “the Grid” (as Sacramento’s core is known). The Crocker is the city’s must-see institution, but make your first stop the smaller California Museum ($9), based at the State Archives and is home to the California Hall of Fame. Afterward, take a walk through the 16-hectare, Victorian-style Capitol Park, where there is a trout pond, a cactus garden and a collection of native plants. 4:30 p.m. California crafted Cruise down to the R Street Corridor, a former railroad yard and industrial area, now home to intriguing shops and designers. For hyper-curated outdoor clothing and gear with a city-streetsmeets-Redwood-forests sensibility — think fleece sweatshirts in vibrant colours — head to the All Good flagship store, which also organizes hiking, surfing and bouldering trips in California and beyond. Down the street, the Warehouse Artist Lofts Public Market has a small but enticing food court with excellent poke — the Hawaiian-style raw fish salad that’s sweeping California — at Fish Face Poke Bar and an exciting collection of shops. 5:30 p.m. Beer overflow Sacramento is flush with beer. Try New Helvetia, named for the city’s original moniker. The brewery has a neighbourhood feel, with backyard picnic tables, a devoted running club and a resident mascot dog. Bike Dog is popular with bicyclists, dogs and serious beer geeks. For a funky outdoor beer garden with a shipping container kitchen, Der Biergarten has 32 taps of mostly German beer and a menu that includes classics such as currywurst ($8.06) and schnitzel ($12.67). There’s even Sac Brew Bike, a mobile pub that tours beer bars and resembles a pedal-powered trolley that can seat up to 15 people. Tours start at $27 a seat. 6:30 p.m. Hamburger happy hour Contrary to restaurant lore and signage, Broderick Roadhouse was not established in 1893. It actually started as a food truck in 2012 and quickly grew into a small and beloved local chain. During happy hour, the towering Old School burger and tap beer special ($10) is a steal. 8 p.m. Showtime Catch a show at the Sofia Tsakopoulos Center for the Arts (tickets, $9 to $46), the new performing arts complex by the 30-year-old B Street Theater.
The two-theatre venue includes both the 250-seat main stage and the 365-seat Sutter Theater for Children, which will host “family series” shows at 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sundays. For serious post-theatre cocktails, red velvet curtains, pressed tin ceilings, a horseshoe-shaped wooden bar and live music on weekend nights (starting at 9 p.m.), Shady Lady Saloon may be Sacramento’s sexiest cocktail bar.
SATURDAY 10 a.m. For the road
Grab coffee at Temple Coffee Roasters, a highfalutin caffeine palace that opened its grandest location in 2016 in an 1880s building in the trendy midtown neighbourhood. Coffee snobs will find Kyoto slow-drip and a custom tap system for nitrogen-infused coffees and teas. Then get a picnic lunch for the road at Roxie Deli & Barbeque, an East Sacramento corner store with a retro feel and sandwiches that will feed two adults for less than $10. A local favourite is the messy Meatball Mafia sandwich ($9.65) with smashed meatballs, provolone and parmesan cheeses, topped with tomatoes, onions and jalapenos.
Noon: Get out of town
The paved, 51-kilometre Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail starts in Old Sacramento’s Discovery Park and travels along the American River, a tubing hot spot during the scorching summer months. Stop at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, which has a nature trail. If you’re up for an ambitious ride (or a short drive), continue all the way to the town of Folsom — of Johnny Cash prison-song fame — which is loaded with Gold Country character.
5 p.m. Tacos alfresco
For a quick, quintessentially California snack, head to Chando’s, a local chain of taco stands where you can grab three flavourful street-food-style tacos and a fountain drink for just $7.49. Take your meal to the recently renovated pond at nearby McKinley Park, where 1,200 rose bushes bloom from March through May. The garden was featured in Greta Gerwig’s 2017 film, Lady Bird — a love letter to her hometown — which has inspired walking and running tours of the film’s locations.
7 p.m. Stadium city
Many cities have beloved sports teams, but few treat sports events as much like a nightlife activity as Sacramento, where eating a Merlino’s freeze while watching a Sacramento River Cats game at West Sacramento’s Raley Field is a favourite way to spend an evening. In 2016, the country got its first solar-powered sports stadium when the Golden 1 Center opened, transforming the city’s downtown. The $500-millionplus arena hosts the Sacramento Kings NBA team, as well as big-name musical acts such as Paul McCartney, Ariana Grande and John Mayer.
10 p.m. Playing with fire
In the Southside Park neighbourhood, Binchoyaki is a sassy little izakaya, where perky 1960s-era oldies play and the open kitchen makes the compact dining room feel like a party. Specializing in Japanesestyle charcoal grilled skewers, the restaurant serves salty, umami-packed bites of pork jowl, chicken gizzard, beef tongue, bacon-wrapped enoki mushrooms and more (starting at $1.50). From 10 p.m. to midnight, there’s a $1 oyster happy hour on weekend nights.
SUNDAY 8 a.m. Brunch and a Soak
Bacon & Butter, in the Tahoe Park neighbourhood, is worth both the trek and the inevitable brunch lines. The seasonal menu changes frequently, but might include, as it has in the recent past, an FGT benny (fried green tomato and ham hock with baby arugula, poached eggs, corn and béarnaise sauce, $15) and chili verde hash with tomatillo-stewed pork butt, black beans, pasilla chile, eggs, baby squash and corn ($17). After breakfast, head to Asha Urban Baths, an Old World-style, coed, swimmingsuit-required bathhouse with a soaking pool, sauna, steam room, sauna and cold plunge. Drop-in admission is $25. 12:30 p.m. All Aboard for Art Head to Amtrak’s Sacramento Valley Station, a 1926 Renaissance Revival train station that just received a major facelift, and hop the Capitol Corridor train 15 minutes west to the college town of Davis. From the 1913 Mission Revival Davis Station, it’s a 20-minute walk to the new Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, which opened in 2016 at the University of California, Davis. The museum’s porous, lightfilled Grand Canopy design is itself a work of art.