By Sidney Burt
With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, it’s time to start making plans. And, with the holiday falling on a Wednesday, it’s the perfect opportunity to plan a week’s worth of fun-filled activities!
Whether you are planning a romantic date night or just looking to have fun out on the town with friends, there are plenty of options for everyone! Take a look at how you can celebrate this year’s Valentine’s Day in style.
Valentine’s Day Date Night Options:
Dawson’s Steakhouse Valentine’s Day Dinner – Indulge in specialties such as a Dungeness Crab Tower, Seared Scallop or a Niman Ranch Prime Beef Filet. And be sure to save room at the end for something sweet. (Reservations required)
Hyatt Regency Sacramento
1209 L Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Painted Cork Date Night – This Valentine’s Day, enjoy an evening of professional art instruction with all art supplies included. Plus, complimentary wine and chocolate with the class to celebrate that special someone!
The Painted Cork
1624 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Ella Dining Room & Bar – Enjoy a beautifully prepared and locally sourced prix fixe menu to celebrate Valentine’s Day! (Reservations required)
Ella Dining Room & Bar
1131 K Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Valentine’s Dinner Train – Treat your loved one to three courses of hearty American fare while taking a leisurely ride along the old Garden Highway in rural West Sacramento.
Sacramento River Train
400 N Harbor Blvd, West
Sacramento, CA 95605
Selland’s Market-Café – Spend the night at home with delicious bites. Menu is available for pick-up and don’t forget the bubbles! (Must place orders by February 12)
Selland’s Market-Café – East Sacramento, Broadway and El Dorado Hills
Valentine’s Week Celebrations:
Cupid Crawl – Grab a friend and head out to the Cupid Crawl. Indulge in some great eats and delicious libations from Milagro’s Restaurant Community.
Milagro Center
February 9, 2018
Advance: $10; Door: $15
Port, Wine and Chocolate Lover’s Weekend – Enjoy wines, ports, dessert wines, and sweet delights at the Old Sugar Mill Wineries. 15 Wineries will be offering wine tastings and pairings all weekend.
Old Sugar Mill
February 10 & 11, 2018
Advance: $29.50 Door: $40
Valentine’s Day Yappy Hour – Celebrate Valentine’s Day rain or shine with your furry friends and help the animals at the SPCA. For every pint purchased, $1 will go directly to the Sacramento SPCA.
Big Sexy Brewing Company
February 15, 2018
FREE
Dine Downtown 2018
Sacramentans, rejoice! Dine Downtown 2018 is officially our favorite way to kick off this rainy New Year. From January 12-21st, 32 del-oi-cious Sacramento restaurants are offering three-course meals for $35 in honor of Dine Downtown 2018. For ten days, your favorite restaurants will feature a special Dine Downtown menu, with one dollar from every meal purchased benefiting local social services and Sacramento’s Food Literacy Center.
As foodie fiends, we love the opportunity to try out specially curated menus because it gives chefs the chance to show off what they’re proud of, and we get to try something new. Earlier this week, we were invited to preview the Dine Downtown menus from Ten22, La Cosecha and Iron Horse Tavern.To no one’s surprise, everything we tried was inventive and tasty, with unexpected flavors and new takes on old classics that caught our attention in a big way! Take a look through the photos below for some highlights and some mouthwatering menu inspo!
To check out all participating restaurants and their specially-made menus for the occasion, click here. We’ve already picked out a few favorites that we can’t wait to try out – hope to see you there!
Looking for a Great Cause on #GivingTuesday?
Now that we’ve eaten our weight in turkey (and stuffing, sweet potatoes and pie) and slept for three days, we’re back and ready to talk about more food! Well, actually, we’re back and ready to talk about food literacy!
If you’re familiar with #GivingTuesday, you’ll know that the Tuesday after Thanksgiving is a day where people come together to donate to organizations that mean the most to them. In honor of this week’s upcoming #GivingTuesday on November 28, we are spotlighting one of our favorite local organizations and pro bono client – Sacramento’s own Food Literacy Center. As SacFoodies, we believe that food literacy is central to the farm-to-fork world, and we believe that all future foodies deserve the chance to learn about where their food comes from.
Food Literacy Center works to teach kids about how food gets onto your plate, where it comes from, and what types of food should end up on your plate at every meal. They inspire kids all over Sacramento to learn more, cook more, and eat more fruits and veggies, ultimately helping them be more healthy and in touch with their roots (wink).
A #GivingTuesday donation to Food Literacy Center will help teach children how to identify healthy veggies, make healthy snacks, read a recipe, and more. With more than 50% of Sacramento kids taking part in free and reduced lunch program and 40% struggling with childhood obesity, it’s more important than ever to give them skills to identify foods that are easy and healthy alternatives.
This Giving Tuesday, donate to Food Literacy Center and help kids all over Sacramento grow into bonafide foodies!
YOLO! So Taste Everything?
By Laurel Harrison and Cheyenne Cameron-Pruitt
Laurel:
On June 10th, I had the opportunity to represent SacFoodies at this year’s Taste of Yolo. Taste of Yolo is an event dedicated to celebrating the agricultural bounty available in Yolo County. This year, it was hosted in Davis’ Central Park (same location as the weekly Davis Farmer’s Market) and hosted a myriad of restaurants, breweries, wineries, and local agricultural businesses. The booths were divided up by town of origin, making the event feel like a miniature map of the county.
As a born & bred Woodland gal, I was happy to see a strong showing from Woodland. I would argue that the star of the whole show was Las Brasas Taqueria, which had a constant line throughout the day. Of course, Las Brasas is already a Woodland Main St. staple, but it was great to see the rest of the county get to try them out. Because TOY was held on the grass, there were lots of places to sit, rest, and enjoy my wine and snacks.
I had a mini-fangirl moment at the Robbins Black Fox Rice booth as well – if you haven’t tried Black Fox rice, you are seriously missing out. I’m a huge fan because they sell a brown rice that only takes TEN minutes to cook, as opposed to the usual 40-minute wait time. My grandpa (who lives in Seattle) orders this rice directly from Robbins since he can’t find it in Washington – that’s how great it is.
As I mentioned in a March SacFoodies post about the Golden 1 Center, we live in the largest arable valley in the world. The whole world. Events like Taste of Yolo are true showcases of our power as a leader in the national food-o-sphere and in the farm-to-fork movement. When you have out-of-state foodies, like my grandpa, special ordering rice from Robbins, CA, you know you have something special on your hands.
I hope that this event continues to grow, expand, and thrive, if only so I can come back next year!
Cheyenne:
We were so lucky to get the opportunity to be a part of the first annual Taste of Yolo. The weather was beautiful, the food was delish and the wine was flowing all the makings of a great event. I didn’t grow up in Sacramento so a lot of these locations were completely new to me!
The wide range of breweries, wineries and eateries that were in attendance assured that there was something for every taste.
I started my day by tasting some jam from Manas Ranch, I then proceeded to buy three jars because it was so delicious, that I had to make sure I could share it with my friends. There were so many flavors to pick from but I think that the Pomegranate and Apricot really stood out to me!
There were so many booths that it was hard to decide what I wanted to taste and sip on. I started with Blue Note Brewing Company’s Freshly Squeezed IPA. I’m honestly not the biggest beer drinker, but I loved this! It was mild and worked so well with those tacos from Las Brasas.
When I saw that Cobram Estates Olive Oil was there I was so excited! I had tried their oil before and have been a loyal customer. The oil is delicious and flavorful, and the bottle comes with a built-in pour spout!
There was so much to see and do at Taste of Yolo it’s hard to tell you all of it! It has been one of my favorite events I’ve attended. It did such a great job of telling the culinary story of Yolo County, from ground to gourmet. I can’t wait to attend next year and hope you will too!
To see more of our Taste of Yolo adventures, head over to our Facebook or Instagram!
Summer Sips, Greek-Style
Both Memorial Day weekend and the St. Anna Greek Food and Wine Festival in Roseville have officially marked the start of summer for me two years running. It’s never too early to mark your calendar for 2018 and plan to spend a day kicking off your summer, Greek-style.
When I think Greek festival, I think amazing, authentic Greek food – of course, custom and culture, too, but if I’m being honest, the food is top of mind for me. From Moussaka, to spanakopita, and a plethora of salads in between, you have to come hungry and try a little of everything.
But even better than the food this year was the special sampling of five imported Greek wines from vines throughout Greece. Didn’t know Greece was a wine producer, did ya? Well, Greece is one of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world, but Greek wine is not widely available here in the U.S. Well, until now that is, thanks to a local importer, Shaji Mathew, who is introducing Greek wines to festival-goers across the region. Now in their second year serving up the Greek Festival in Roseville, his imports are catching on and selling out by the glass.
Shaji and his wife, Vijna, have a belief in sharing the wines “from people who want to swim against the current,” Shaji says. They travel throughout the world to visit wineries and to meet winemakers, mostly those who produce 30,000 bottles or less from Greece, France, Spain, Italy, and Argentina, with plans for introducing some Mexican wines soon.
“I travel to meet the winemakers, get an understanding what the wines are about, to know what they’re doing in their vineyards, so I know what to expect in the wine. Authenticity is key. These wines are not mass produced and there’s a story behind each one.”
With each taste, I was instantly transported to the islands of Crete and Evia, with their blue waters and white rooftops. The white and light red blends were refreshing for a hot summer day: Pop Art, a dry white blend of Athiri and Malagousia varietals from Lykos Winery reflected subtle stone fruit flavors, and my fruit-forward favorite, a Grenache Rouge by Idaia Winery, was very pleasing to the palate.
All the vineyards Shaji works with grow their grapes sustainably, and many also practice organic and bio-dynamic farming. He brings the fruits of that meticulous labor here through his website Terra Vigna, wine club and at festivals, re-distributing throughout the U.S. (where possible), for all to try.
Visit Terra Vigna’s website to learn more about Greek wines, or consider visiting one of these two upcoming festivals to experiences the wines first-hand:
San Jose Greek Festival: June 2, 3 & 4
Reno Greek Festival: August 18, 19, 20
And, cheers! Or, in Greek, ΥΓΕΙΑ (phonetic pronunciation: Yamas)!
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