From cottage food business to pop-up kitchen to caterer to brick-and-mortar cafe in two short years: That’s the swift trajectory followed by Flora & Fauna Provisions, a hip new breakfast-and-lunch spot that opened a few months ago in the Park Tower office building downtown at J and 9th streets.

If you’re in the Capital Region, there are plenty of interesting options — and not only at Sacramento International Airport, which is set to have a major refresh of its dining program by 2025. Whether you’re flying a jumbo jet or a crop duster, you’ll find something to nosh on when you land in and around Sacramento. 

Whether in Sacramento or the upper climbs of the Gold Country, craft distillers are ready to give the drinking public a taste of all of the possibilities within libation. 

Carli Schrader and her family operate 43 McDonald’s in Sacramento, San Joaquin, Amador and Stanislaus counties.  

For three days in May, the floor of the Memorial Auditorium was transformed into a global foodways classroom where one could sample coffee from Honduras, eat a cookie made from Bolivian quinoa and spin an oversized wheel that directed you to pithy sayings by food journalist Michael Pollan.

Sacramento will serve as the site of a prestigious international food conference that could eventually bring thousands of tourists and millions of dollars into the region.

The canned alcohol trend isn’t hard to spot. Just stroll through your local grocery store and you’ll see those colorfully packaged cans of prosecco and prickly pear margaritas all dressed up and ready to go, perfect for a picnic or poolside party.

UC Davis researchers have created the first ever comprehensive pangenome for North American grapes, a blueprint that will allow breeders to select rootstock by its genetic propensity for specific desired traits — say, drought tolerance or heat resistance. 

Afternoon tea evokes something people have always sought — “a feeling of rarely experienced elegance and class,” Mueller says.