Early Fall in The Big Tomato

Fall is an amazing and beautiful time to live in The City of Trees.

The colors are slowly starting to turn and soon there will be explosions of color throughout Sacramento.

Walking Downtown on Friday (here at 10th and P Streets), the tops of trees are starting to turn toward red and the first signs of yello are also appearing!

Watch this space for more pictures and tell me where YOUR favorite spots are! I am looking forward to walks and bike rides along Capitol Avenue which is one of my favorite places to leaf peep.

OK, while on Capitol Avneue there might be additional viewing of trees from Rubicon Brewery

,The Waterboy or nearby Capitol Dawg on 20th Street  too.... 

Sacramento Airport to have Soul

Congratulations to Old Soul Co., one of our great, Sacramento coffee companies!

Old Soul Co. Sacramento

On Tuesday, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors made their final decision and the under-construction new Terminal B will have an important element of what is great about The Big Tomato.

Old Soul Co. will be there and have a local presence in the terminal.

For anyone that has done any air travel at all - most airports have become generic pass through spaces with little or no relativity to the community they serve. Let alone a spot for any traveller to seek out a taste of what it means to be in Sacramento.

Old Soul operates in three locations in Sacramento - Oak Park; Midtown and in their special Downtown location!  Click on the above link to find out more about the history of Old Soul Co., where they are and their history.

Not to diss national chains but when you run into the same providers of coffee and food in every airport in almost every country - you can see why the feeling of being in some sort of purgatory is more the airport experience rather than feeling you are in Sacramento (or any other city for that matter).

Thank you to the hard work by Sacramento County Supervisors Susan Peters and Don Nottoli to ensure there will be a significant storefront presence by a Sacramento owned and operated  coffee company providing exceptional coffee and baked goods.  Old Soul Co. will provide travelers and employees working at Sacramento International Airport an exceptional experience and why it is so great to live in Sacramento. 

Thank you Supervisors Susan Peters and Don Nottoli.

Congratulations to Tim and Jason.

Three cheers for the little guys that could!

And did!  

Traditions: The Downtown Ice Rink

As we transition into Fall and the big push to the holidays gets ready to start - one Sacramento tradition I am thrilled about starts back up this year:

Ice Skating Downtown.

The Downtown Sacramento Partnership - working with the City of Sacramento have completed the infrastructure work needed to house the rink at the corner of 7th and K Streets and now the rink is under construction and will be ready for the gran opening on Friday November 5.

With the fabulous change of weather to Fall - it is starting to feel like it is time to hit the ice and I can't wait to do it at St. Rose of Lima Park on 7th and K Streets.

Details are here on the Downtown Sacramento Partnership website:

http://www.downtownsac.org/DSPAPP/V/promo/holiday-ice-rink.html

Opening ceremony is November 5 and the rink will stay open through January 17.  This is a great, affordable Sacramento holiday tradition.  Thanks to the Downtown Partnership and all of their corporate partners for making this happen and returning to 7th and K Streets again to continue the fun!

The one, the only - The Fox and Goose!

Sacramento has some tremendous restaurants and the food scene keeps growing and getting bigger and better.

As great a selection there is now, nothing can replace my favorites.

My all time favorite spot in all of Sacramento is The Fox and Goose, 1001 R Street.

The Fox and Goose

When I arrived in Sacramento from England in July, 1981 - Sacramento really was a small town with some limited options that were not chain restaurants. The first day or two I was here, I looked through the papers, bought a Sacramento magazine and went in search of a real neighborhood pub.  I was homesick for my local, The Green Man in Tunstall, Suffolk England (A Tolly Cobbold pub at the time) and just needed a place to make me feel that connection between where I had just lived for four years and this new strange place called The Big Tomato where I had been sent by the USAF.

After going to two so-called pubs (bad bars with electronic dartboards) that were rubbish- I had a stroke of brilliant luck and found The Fox and Goose. It was hard to find that first evening - me not being familiar with Sacramento and the fact that R Street in those days still had railroad tracks on it and it really looked like a worn out warehouse district.

When I did find it, I walked in and it was the most fantastic feeling of a great place that was warm, fun and felt like a pub. I knew I could make it in Sacramento now! In those days, Colin Keenan ran the bar, sang songs with his guitar and cooked too! In time, he helped build up the music calendar and the Fox and Goose became a real night spot and not just a fabulous place for breakfast or lunch.

I salute the great work of Bill and Denise Dalton in their vision of starting the Fox and Goose - but not just starting it anywhere. They had the brilliant vision to see what The Building and R Street offered them and they stuck it out. The R Street Corridor is becomming a great urban place - thanks to the Dalton's and their vision, as well as the vision of the Capitol Area Development Authority (CADA) and the City of Sacramento.

Now owned and operated by Allyson Dalton - The Fox and Goosee still serves THE best breakfast in Sacramento 7 days a week and has fabulous lunch Monday - Saturday. At night, it is still the very cool, very English pub that I came to call home and proud that it is my local.

Come by for the great pub quiz Tuesday nights and accosutic music most evenings. Buy me a pint and I'll tell you a story...

Cheers to the Daltons and thanks for your contribution in making Sacramento a great, cool City!  

Low and Slow - The best taste of Sacramento

Congratulations and three cheers to Sacramento Restaurants:

Mulvaney's
Waterboy
Hot Italian
Ella
Grange
Selland's Market
One Speed
Taylor's
Tuli Bistro
Cafe Americain
The Kitchen
Magpie Caterers Market and Cafe
The Sacramento Natural Foods Coop Deli and Cafe

They are recognized for their commitment to sustainable agriculture and they champion locally and sustainably produced vegetables, fruits, wines, meats, and cheeses.

Good for food, good for jobs! The Big Tomato is a fan and thank you Chefs and Owners.

Go slow baby!

Slow Food Sacramento


  

Donating to Capitol Public Radio

I wanted to share why I believe my membership in Capitol Public Radio is so important and why I just donated with 100 percent going to CPR.

I arrived in Sacramento (the Air Force sent me here from overseas) in July of 1981 and began listening to the station shortly thereafter. I became a member (Student level) in 1982. At a time when Sacramento was arguably a sleepy Capitol City, the low power KXPR-FM had limited NPR broadcast and classical music, but immediately became a connection I so desperately needed in Sacramento to the rest of the world.

There was no other source that came close to bringing the world to Sacramento.  KXPR was a small station, operating in the Theater at Sacramento State. I used to volunteer for the fundraisers and worked at a fold up table in the middle of the room talking calls on the four or five phones set up as broadcast and station operations happened in and around the footprint of an apartment. It was small, but the service was excellent and, well, it was a lot of fun.

Capitol Public Radio hadn't been born yet, but KXPR-FM kept growing and the service diversified with jazz and the opportunity to pursue another frequency and strengthen the frequency and coverage we needed to feed us news and information junkies. Also to provide more ability to sooth our souls with expanding classical and jazz music as well as more choices in programs.

Throughout this time, our City and Region grew up alongside the station. The growth of our community and the growth and extension of excellent programming has kept pace, thanks to the commitment of the membership. We get so much from our public radio station and our investment in Capitol Public Radio is an investment in our community, in our lives and one of the reasons Sacramento is, today, a world class City. We are a cultural and educational hub in the Central Valley and Capitol Public Radio plays a huge role in the development and growth of our City and our Region.

Thank you to the members, the staff, the board and all who came before to help our station grow!

Please send your contribution today - http://www.capradio.org/

KXJZ 90.9 Sacramento

KKTO 90.5 Tahoe/Reno

KUOP 91.3 Stockton

KQNC 88.1 Quincy

• KXPR 88.9 Sacramento
• KXSR 91.7 Groveland/Sonora
• KXJS 88.7 Sutter/YubaCity

Investing in Our Historic Buildings

The Big Tomato has done a better job, over the years, investing in our historic stock of buildings. Preservation and reuse has helped maintain a unique architectural streetscape throughout our City and we are proud of this great heritage.

A long abandoned apartment building on a critical corner of Downtown/ Midtown, The Maydestone Building is being restored for reuse and will help reactivate the corner of 15th and J Streets across from the beautiful, historic Memorial Auditorium.

This 1912 building, being restored by D&S Development will help energize this key corner and provide more housing opportunities on the Downtown/ Midtown border! Congratulations to the City Council and SHRA for getting this project activated and to D&S Development for making it happen.

A project description is located on the Downtown Sacramento partnership website:

http://www.downtownsac.org/digital_assets/pdfs/policy/Maydestone%20Renovation.pdf

The Early Days of a Great Coffee City

When I first landed (actually I was sent here, under orders by the Department of the Air Force) in Sacramento in the summer of 1981, I must say I was pretty shocked at how small of a place The Big Tomato was! There were not a lot of restaurants (that were not chains) and there were few amenities. In some ways, if I had not discovered my beloved Fox and Goose on 10th and R Streets in week one, I might never have been able to have stuck it out and had the opportunity to grow with Sacramento.

Another thing that happened that was the first signs that Sacramento was going to become a great City - was the opening of Coffee Works, on the corner of 34th and Folsom Boulevard. I had moved off Mather AFB and then got out of the service in January of 1982. I found a lovely tiny apartment in the basement of an older house in East Sacramento. And then, luck of all luck, Coffee Works opened up right in the neighborhood!

Coffee Works roasted their own coffee and in the early days there was no place to sit and no real coffeehouse part of the operation. But still! I had a source of great coffee and I will always be grateful to these coffee and urban pioneers.  I have a coffee card and still get my coffee here. I enjoy their wonderful pastries and am glad to have the whole coffeehouse experience now, but will always be thankful for those early days.

See you there for a cuppa soon!

A Growing Bicycle Center

I have been a bike rider much of my life.  I have a sweet 3-speed retro bike and have used it mostly for fun rides and going out, but also riding to work for many years on and off.

One of the exciting changes about Sacramento over the years is that Sacramento has become a bike center! The number of bikes on the streets through Downtown, Midtown, East Sacramento is astonishing.

Some nights you can't find a bike parking spot in the racks next to Rubicon (time for a weekend Bicycle Valet?)! At some intersections you have to watch for bikes as much as you have to watch for cars. No, we are not Davis, or Amsterdam or Copenhagen - but we are getting there. The more, the merrier. Get that bike out of the garage, clean it up and see you out there!

My World Class City

I have been living in Sacramento since 1981, when the Air Force moved me away from the United Kingdom and dropped me off here  - at the end of July and the middle of the summer baking period!

Since 1981, Sacramento as a city has grown up to thrive and become a truly great city.  Somehow, the thing we still are missing is gaining our self esteem and our voice to say with conviction - Sacramento is truly a great City.

Can Sacramento be more? Sure! Can we make improvements and increase our City's visibility? Absolutely! Is Sacramento perfect. No.

However, the biggest thing we need today to truly become a great, world class city is to have Sacramentans stop feeling that we need to be like another City and start telling the world we ARE a great City! Today.

Join me as we celebrate The Big Tomato and we declare our love and appreciation for what life in Sacramento - our fair City - means to us and why we enjoy it so much.

Welcome to my City - Sacramento.

I'll get pictures up, some video and hopefully learn from you what you love about Sacramento.