Sacramento Style: What Is It? Do We Have It Yet?

The movie Lady Bird brought a lot of attention to Sacramento. Soon after its release last fall, California's capital was written up as a travel destination in the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times. So now that the spotlight is on us, have we arrived as a destination and place to visit/live/exist?

Listen to the podcast of our "Sacramento Style" discussion we held last month with some of Sacramento's taste-makers and trend-setters talking about what that style exactly is, or isn't in the city's fashion, decor, architecture, and how Sacramentans dress, decorate and live. Do we have a signature style yet, or are we still coming into our own?

This photo (thanks, Phoebe!) includes some of our stylish panelists, including (from left to right) Josie Lee of Rire Boutiques; Maritza Davis of Unseen Heroes and Display California; Ryan Brough of Sacramento Fashion Week; Phoebe Verkouw of the Dress Fiend blog and the Fabulous Thrift Tour; and Jake Favour of Romp Creative.  (It's a shame that Anthony Giannotti of Anthony's Barbershop and Bottle and Barlow, was seated too far left of Jake to be included in the photo, because his hairstyle rocked).

Listen to their great discussion -- podcast links and more info are here.

We're Taking Over the New Sofia Theatre for a Saturday Night "Cocktail Conversation"

We're hosting our next event at the hottest venue in Sacramento - the Sofia, new home of the B Street Theatre. They're letting us take over the lobby on a Saturday night for our next "Food for Thought" discussion.

And this will truly be a "cocktail conversation" -- we'll be talking with Ryan Seng of Can Can Cocktails.

Seng served as head bartender at the Grange in the Citizen Hotel and created some of Sacramento's creative cocktails (bacon maple Manhattan, anyone?) for eight years before deciding to do something even more unusual -- create cocktails served out of a can.

He launched Can Can Cocktails, which mixes spirits and mixers in aluminum cans and are just as tasty as the ones he made at the bar, like Boar's Bourbon Root Beer (those two ingredients, plus angostura bitters) and White Linen (vodka with cucumber, elderflower and lemon).

Join us from 8-9 pm on Saturday, February 17, as we have a  mini "Food for Thought, " a 30-minute Q&A with one of the people who shaped and built Sacramento's craft cocktail scene, and is still doing so today.

This will be a great discussion for anyone interested in creating cocktails, creating a new business, or a combo of both. You get to take the mic and ask your own questions to Seng, and you can also try his drinks -- Sofia sells Can Can Cocktails at its bars.

NOTE:  This event is in the Sofia's lobby and is free for anyone to attend. It does NOT get you tickets to the 9 p.m. showing of "One Man, Two Guvnors." That is sold out . . . however, the Theatre does have a Wait List for the show, and you can call the Box Office at (916) 443-5300 to be added to it. (We've been told Wait List-ers actually do have a good chance of scoring tickets.)

Listen to "The Future of Downtown Sacramento"

John Dangberg, assistant city manager for Sacramento, had this to say about the Golden 1 Center, which opened a little over a year ago: "We've gone from a valuation of $22.5 million to well over $1 billion in value. " And with the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel, Punch Bowl Social, TheBank_629J, and a bunch of new eateries on the 700 K block opening up, Dangberg only expects that valuation to rise.

Listen to Dangberg and our other panelists in the podcast recording of our "Future of Downtown Sacramento " discussion at the Crocker Art Museum talk about housing, parking, restoring historic buildings, revitalizing the riverfront, new modes of transportation, bringing in new jobs, and putting more arts and culture into downtown.

We broke the podcast down into specific parts (refer to our "Podcast Timeframe" to go to certain sections), but the whole discussion is a great way to learn more -- and get excited about -- the future of Downtown Sacramento. There's a lot in the works.

Our "Swanky Saturday" Talk at B Street Theater

To celebrate #shopsmall, we're co-hosting a "Swanky Saturday" talk at B Street Theater with three of Sacramento's coolest small businesses.

We'll talk with the owners of Andy's Candy Apothecary , and Oblivion Coffee and Comics near the Capitol (they're both past winners of the "Calling All Dreamers" business-plan contest run by Downtown Sac) and Classy Hippie Tea in Oak Park about their businesses - why they took the plunge, how they think big, the pros and cons of doing business in Sacramento, and advice they'd give to other aspiring entrepreneurs who want to set up shop.

We'll be chatting in the Star Room of the B Street Theater before the 9 pm showing of "A Moving Day" (the LAST SHOW that will ever be held here before the crew moves to its posh new digs at the SOFIA on Capitol Avenue).

Our talk is free for anyone to attend -- grab a drink at the lobby beforehand -- but it will be even more of a Swanky Saturday on the Grid if you pair it with tickets to "A Moving Day."