Question of clever people, crossword puzzles and television contests: "Capital of California?". The vast majority of answers will be Los Angeles or San Francisco. Well, humble Sacramento is the true capital of the thirty-first state of the Union, to which the territory, first Spanish and then Mexican, was incorporated in 1850.
Before exploring it, a sip of history: the city was born at the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers, from a settlement founded in 1839 by a Swiss hustler, John Sutter, who managed to create a promising agrarian community. In 1848, the discovery of gold in a nearby sawmill attracted a flood of fortune seekers who turned the so-called "Sutter's Fort" into the center of mining and trade in the precious metal. The famous gold rush portrayed in so many westerns began.
Already with the name of Sacramento, taken from the river, and designated the Californian capital in 1856, the city lost steam as gold was extracted and vanished. It didn't take long for it to be eclipsed by two colossi: San Francisco first, and Los Angeles later. Reduced to an administrative center, she was labeled “boring”, and there must have been something true, because one of her most illustrious natives, the writer Joan Didion (1934-2021), crucified her with this phrase: “Anyone who talks about the California Hedonism has never spent a Christmas in Sacramento.
Didion's words, perhaps just in their day, have lost their validity. Something is happening in Sacramento, and one of the proofs of the change is its becoming one of the most appreciated gastronomic destinations in the United States.
In this town of just over half a million inhabitants, the food is very good, and at more affordable prices than those of San Francisco or Los Angeles. In its streets there are 14 restaurants selected by the Michelin Guide, two of them awarded with one of its stars (Localis and The Kitchen). The list is dominated by contemporary Californian and American cuisine, although we did find a couple of Chinese and an Italian.
Outside the umbrella of the prestigious guide, there are many other quality restaurants, local and foreign (from Mexico, Japan, Thailand and even Ethiopia, to name a few); and there is no shortage of tasty street fast food, like the one from the Mexican chain Chando's Cantina.
They all get their supplies from the fruits and vegetables grown in the surroundings of Sacramento, blessed by a climate and fertile soil that seem to have been deliberately set up to favor agriculture (Sutter had a good eye). California is the orchard of the United States: in addition to exporting, it produces three quarters of the fruit consumed in the country. And Sacramento is one of California's orchards. For this reason, the city promotes itself with the slogan "From farm to fork" (From the farm to the table), which responds to reality: if you eat vegetables here, rest assured that they have just arrived from a local producer.
It's a shame to leave without visiting any of the more than 40 regional farmers' markets. Every September, it's celebrated at the From Farm to Fork Festival, where farmers, chefs, craft brewers, and winemakers showcase their skills and products. To calmly enjoy the treasures recently plucked from the earth, the people of Sacramento recommend the Grange Restaurant
The explosion of new bars and restaurants in the last decade is largely explained by the need to recover local pride, disprove impressions such as that of Joan Didion, and take advantage of the momentum of the powerful regional agriculture. A fact that has accelerated, in recent years, with the arrival of numerous young professionals from the San Francisco Bay Area, who move as victims of the unsustainable increase in the cost of living, fostered by the success of large technology companies (Meta , Google, Twitter…) settled there.
Attracted by the prices and the calm of Sacramento – leafy, well-provided with parks and gardens and surrounded by nature – these skilled workers (often with small children) decide to change their environment and take advantage of telecommuting and the proximity of San Francisco. , located about 150 kilometers away, not much in such a large country.
Bay area refugees (refugees from the bay area, as some ironically call them) also want to have fun, and in Sacramento that has a lot to do with beer, which is pouring out in such recommended places as New Helvetia (they produce themselves the drink), Der Biergarten (with an amazing variety of German and Belgian beers) or Bike Dog, created by four friends who are crazy about beer, dogs and bikes, and not necessarily in that order.
There is also room for concert halls; cocktails and drinks at night, in settings as attractive as the Shady Lady Saloon, decorated in the style of the twenties; and for relaxing cafes like a Finnish sauna, such as Temple Coffee, which sells premium caffeine in six establishments; our favourite, the one in the central K Street.
We are in a predominantly flat city, ideal for bicycles and where, unlike many other American cities, the pedestrian is not a suspect. One of its most curious places is Old Sacramento, a neighborhood next to the river of the same name, which takes us to the Far West of the s. XIX. It looks like a movie studio, but it's not. You have to walk among its dozens of restored buildings, from the gold rush era, which make up a realistic theme park where horse-drawn carriages and costumed actors circulate.
The immersion in the past continues with a visit to two museums (there are another 30, including the Crocker Art Museum), which, quite logically, are located in the historic district: the Sacramento History Museum, and the of the California State Railroad, showcasing magnificently restored 19th-century carriages and locomotives, those used in praise by gold diggers. The presence of this metal was decisive for the city to have, in 1856, the first railroad in California, 37 kilometers of line to Folson. Wealthy Sacramento merchants helped finance the Central Pacific Railroad, and the capital was the arrival point for the Pony Express, the express mail service on horseback that crossed the United States.
One step away from this old urban West stands Tower Bridge, the drawbridge over the Sacramento River that forms one of the most famous images of the capital. Few travelers leave without their photo of this 49 meter high and 225 meter long construction, opened in 1935 and designed in the streamline moderne style, a late Art Deco trend. Its original color was silver, but in 2001 the city's inhabitants voted to paint it gold. And so it goes.
Our pleasant walk through the cozy streets of Sacramento takes us to the legislative center of this enormous state, inhabited by some 40 million people and with a G.I.B. only surpassed by that of the United States, China, Japan and Germany, which it is close to surpassing. It is the State Capitol, which in addition to being the government headquarters houses a museum. It is a neoclassical building completed in 1874, its style imitates that of the Washington Capitol and in front of its entrance there is a park where, on fine days, many officials can be seen eating.
Very close to there, in the direction of the river, the appearance of an elegant three-story Victorian house is surprising. It is the Stanford Mansion, built in 1856, and very well restored and preserved. No one will regret walking through its corridors and rooms luxuriously decorated with paintings, mirrors, lamps, bronzes and 19th century furniture. It stands in a charming garden, and is used to receive international leaders who visit California. The certain Stanford (named Leland) governed the State in 1862 and 1863, and founded Stanford University in 1885, considered one of the ten best universities in the world, many of the brilliant minds that are changing the world have emerged from its classrooms and continue to emerge. world in Silicon Valley.
