For food lovers, it’s the mother lode.
The Sacramento region is home to 120 crops grown over 1.5 million acres, and a staggering number of them will make appearances in September when the city celebrates its fourth year as America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital.
Hundreds of chefs at dozens of restaurants will showcase the bounty of late summer, along with the first picks of fall: Tomatoes. Squash. Corn. Peaches. Melons. Grapes. Figs. Pears.
This reputation as a dining destination may seem newly acquired, but the city’s culinary chops actually date back to the Gold Rush era, when the appetites of newly wealthy miners and the Big Four (Stanford, Crocker, Huntington, Hopkins) had to be satisfied. Surely you didn’t expect them to go all the way to San Francisco for their first gold-nugget meal?
Today, while much of this produce makes the trip to points south, the freshest stuff stays close to the source. That’s why food lovers from across the nation tried to snag tickets to this year’s Tower Bridge Dinner. And why 50,000 people will flock to this year’s Farm-to-Fork Festival.
You, too, can revel in all of this picked-this-morning produce. Here’s a guide to Farm-to-Fork events, restaurants that source locally and some of the farms that fuel this revolution:
THE FESTIVAL: Join the other foodies
This fourth annual event kicks off Sept. 8 with Farm-to-Fork Restaurant Weeks — nearly three weeks’ worth of special menus at restaurants from Davis to Folsom — and culminates Sept. 24 in a huge outdoor celebration of fresh food where you can commune with chefs, farmers, ranchers, gardeners, vintners and brewers.
Between those dates there’s a Sept. 10 Feast at the Fort, a dinner benefiting historic Sutter’s Fort, and the Sept. 16 Legends of Wine on the Capitol steps, with global wine legends Darrell Corti and David Berkley selecting the legendary varietals to be tasted.
Although the Tower Bridge Dinner, a feast on Sacramento’s iconic span with chefs Bobby Ngo, Kelly McCown, Molly Hawks and Allyson Harvie, sold out in mere minutes, there’s room at the Sept. 14 Guy West Bridge dinner hosted by California State University Sacramento.
The big finale, the Farm-to-Fork Festival on Sept. 24, features chef demos (Vegas chef Rick Moonen is a special guest this year); farm, ranch and gardening booths; bites to buy and bites to sample; wineries grouped by appellation; and craft brews. Some 50,000 foodies flocked to Capitol Mall for this free event last year, so organizers have added two more city blocks to the site.
Find restaurant week menus, festival details, tickets and more at www.farmtofork.com.
THE FOOD: Fabulous farm-fresh menus
These days you can’t throw a tomato in midtown or downtown Sacramento without hitting a restaurant that has a farm-to-fork focus. So this is just a starter list of seasonal, sustainable restaurants we’ve found F-to-F worthy:
Grange: If you’re going to call yourself the Grange, you have to live up to the agricultural promise. On executive chef Oliver Ridgeway’s menu: Mary’s chicken with Little Gem lettuce, smoked potatoes, gazpacho vinaigrette; heirloom melon salad with avocado, cucumber, fennel, Calabrian chile; and dessert fritters with pluots, creme fraiche sherbet. Details: At the Citizen Hotel, 926 J St., www.grangesacramento.com.
Hawks Public House: An outpost of the upscale Hawks in Granite Bay, this East Sacramento gastropub specializes in shareable plates with ingredients sourced from six farms. On chef Justin Green’s menu: Grilled quail with blackberry and cucumber panzanella; summer bean salad with Kadota figs, fried almonds, shaved pecorino; and Twin Peaks peach tart with basil gelato. Details: 1525 Alhambra Blvd.; www.hawkspublichouse.com.
Mother: This groundbreaking downtown eatery is where you take your meat-eating friends to show them that, yes, an all-vegetarian lineup can satiate them. On chef-owner Michael Thiemann’s menu: farro-nectarine salad with arugula; summer squash sandwich with fresh mozzarella; and the signature carrot-nut burger with caramelized onions. Details: 1023 K St.; http://mothersacramento.com.
Mulvaney Building and Loan: Owner-executive chef Patrick Mulvaney is no newcomer to the movement, having adopted a Green Promise years ago when he opened his namesake restaurant in an 1893 firehouse. On his menu: Watanabe squash tortellini with Del Rio cherry tomatoes, Brentwood corn, chanterelles, feta; Fort Bragg salmon with Jimmy Nardello peppers, okra, tomato, red onion; and Nina’s plum almond buckle. Details: 1215 19th St.; www.mulvaneysbl.com.
nOBO/Selland’s/Ella/The Kitchen: Chef-entrepreneur Randall Selland’s empire ranges from the casual OBO Italian Table and Selland’s Market Cafe to the stylish Ella Dining Room to The Kitchen, a demonstration arena where they turn the prix fixe dinner into a culinary show. On the various menus: pan-roasted king salmon with golden tomato bisque, roasted eggplant, summer squash; pizza with grilled peppers, roasted tomato pesto; and almond-melon sherbet cake with sake lime curd. Details: www.thesellandgroup.com.
Red Rabbit: This midtown restaurant’s official mission may be “raising the neighborhood bar,” but the farm-to-table fare gets equal billing with the artisan cocktails. On chef/co-owner John Bays’ menu: tagliatelle pasta with rabbit-pork sausage, tomatoes, corn, spinach, red onions; tempura-battered Dwelley Farms green and yellow beans with lemon-caper aioli; and peach panzanella with burrata, red onion, cucumber. Details: 2718 J St.; https://theredrabbit.net.
Empress Tavern: This is destination dining by virtue of its cavelike location under the beautifully restored Crest Theatre. Officially a carvery-rotisserie (where the dish to get is a hot-and-honeyed fried chicken), this subterranean supper house does right by produce, too. On chef-owner Michael Thiemann’s menu: smoked trout with melon, cucumber, basil, frisee; garden crudites with pimento cheese; and pear souffle with fig compote, blue cheese anglaise. Details: 1013 K St.; http://empresstavern.com.
THE FARMS: Between meals, go on a field trip
At some point, you have to pull away from the table. Why not head to the source? More than 20 farms and ranches in Sacramento, Yolo, Placer and Solano counties offer tours by appointment or the opportunity to buy vegetables and fruit right where they are grown. Here are some options; find more on the www.farmtofork.com site.
Soil Born Farms: To say that this nonprofit “farms” 55 acres of public land in Rancho Cordova vastly understates the group’s role in urban agriculture in Sacramento County. The staff and volunteers also educate schoolchildren, give tours, hold workshops, train farmers, make up CSA baskets and deliver to restaurants. Their farmstand sells produce grown on-site from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturdays from mid-May to mid-November, and you’re welcome to wander the fields, meet the farmers and soak up the rural setting. A fundraising Autumn Equinox Celebration is planned for Sept. 17. Details: 2140 Chase Drive, Rancho Cordova; www.soilborn.org.
Capay Organic: You may know Capay from their heirloom tomato booths at Bay Area farmers markets. But it was 20 acres of star thistle planted in 1976 that launched this organic operation. Forty years later, the Barsotti-Barnes family grows more than 130 varieties of produce on 500 acres of certified-organic land in Yolo County’s Capay Valley. Upcoming events include the Capay Crush, with wine tasting and grape stomping, on Sept. 17 and a farm tour Oct. 15. Details: 23804 Highway 16; www.capayorganic.com.
California Endive Farms: Bet you didn’t know that endive grows from chicory roots. Or that each leaf has just one calorie. Or that the nation’s largest grower of endive is located in Rio Vista in the Sacramento River Delta. California Endive Farms was founded in 1983 by Rich Collins, who became intrigued by endive while working in a French restaurant (of course) in Sacramento and traveled to Europe to learn growing techniques. Tours are available by appointment; call 707-375-1124. (BTW, when they answer the phone they pronounce endive “AHHN-deeve.” Just so you know.) Details: 15 Poppy House Road; www.endive.com.
Tom Tomich Orchards: Want to know what stone fruit tasted like before Americans started demanding those white peaches and nectarines derisively called “sugar bombs”? Stop by this small farmstand and buy some fruit from grower Tom Tomich, now in his 90s, whose family has been farming here for 105 years. They grow plums, peaches, nectarines, figs, persimmons and more in the former citrus hub of Orangevale, which still retains some of its rural flavor. Details: Open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (on Sundays, till 2) at 6331 Filbert Ave.; 916-988-0987.
Blue Diamond Almonds: The growers collective that operates the world’s largest almond-processing facility maintains a great gift shop that’s worth a stop. You can buy virtually every almond product (and sample lots) offered by Blue Diamond, from almonds for holiday baking (blanched, natural, slivered, almond paste, almond flour) to flavored almonds for snacking (sriracha, salted caramel, the ever-popular Smokehouse). Details: 1701 C St.; www.bluediamond.com.
Farmers markets: If you’re a farmers market fiend who likes to scout for heirlooms and varietals you’ve never heard of, one of California’s largest certified markets operates in Sacramento from 8 a.m. to noon every Sunday at 8th and W streets under the freeway. (Yes, under. For the shade.)
Executive chef Michael Tuohy, who oversees all food operations at the Sacramento Kings’ soon-to-open arena, has adopted an ambitious “farm-to-court” policy for the Golden 1 Center. He’s vowed to source all ingredients from within 100 miles.
Thunder Valley Casino wants in on the action. The chefs here will create a Farm-to-Fork menu for Restaurant Weeks.
The International Food Bloggers Conference, which met recently in Sacramento, has decided to return in 2017. “There were too many food stories left to tell,” said attendee Teresa O’Connor of the UC Food Observer.
