2021 was a year of changes at Comstock’s magazine, just as it was for the rest of the world. Our editorial team welcomed new members, including Managing Editor Judy Farah and Assistant Editor Vanessa Labi, while longtime editor Sena Christian has moved on to personal projects but will continue to serve as editor-at-large. We’ve added several new names to our growing roster of talented freelance writers from around the Capital Region.
The Capital Region also saw many changes — new businesses, new residents from the Bay Area and beyond, and a constantly shifting economic landscape — as we learned to live with each stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Comstock’s covered it all, from policy changes to creative e-commerce models. But our readers showed a special interest in stories on our region’s oldest businesses, including a 53-year-old pasty shop, a 109-year-old Delta restaurant and two recently reopened hotels with roots in the 1850s. You also read and shared profiles on local rising stars, like former Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs and personal injury lawyer Anh Phoong.
These happen to be some of our favorite beats, and we’re looking forward to sharing more local histories and inspiring personal profiles in the years to come. Here are our 10 most popular stories of 2021, based on Google Analytics data.* Have an idea for what we should cover next? Send us a line at editorial@comstocksmag.com.
Top-Read Stories:
1. Remembering a Century of History at Giusti’s Place by Steve Martarano (September, print)
The ceiling of Giusti’s Place was decorated with over 1,500
baseball caps before it burned down in September. (Photo by Steve
Martarano)
Originally assigned for Steve Martarano’s monthly Off the Beaten Track print series, this story on Giusti’s Place became a posthumous homage after a fire destroyed the 109-year-old Delta hangout on Sept. 9.
2. How Asian Water Buffaloes Got to Sacramento County by Allen Pierleoni (August, web-only)
Kal and Yulia Morsey founded their water buffalo farm eight years
ago and have since grown the herd from eight animals to nearly
400. (Photo courtesy of Morsey’s Farm)
The late veteran journalist Allen Pierleoni, who died Dec. 22, visited Morsey’s Farm in Wilton to meet the curly-horned animals behind the dairy’s award-winning cheese and gelato. The story was one of thousands he wrote about Californian food and culture over his three decades as a Capital Region journalist.
3. Anh Phoong: The Woman Behind the Billboard by Becky Grunewald (September, web-only)
Anh Phoong’s advertisements appear around the Capital Region and
the Bay Area, including this billboard in south Sacramento.
(Photo by Robin Douglas)
Personal injury lawyer Anh Phoong, known for her ubiquitous advertisements on billboards and buses, gave us one of the few interviews she’s done with the press.
4. Career Detour by Marcus Crowder (February, print)
Michael Tubbs, who was born and raised in Stockton and left to
earn a degree at Stanford University, returned to become the
youngest mayor of a city with more than 100,000 residents when he
won in 2016. (Photo by Terence Duffy)
After losing his mayoral bid in 2020, former Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs let us in on his plans for the next stage of his mercurial career.
5. On the Rise: Gerardo Aceves and Amit Dhugga by Jeff Wilser (July, print)
Gerardo Aceves (left) and Amit Dhugga are the cofounders of
Platinum Express. (Photo by Terence Duffy, mural by David Puck)
Part of our annual Young Professionals showcase, this profile of two young trucking moguls reeled in admiring readers from their native Yuba City and beyond.
6. New Life for Iconic Sacramento Spaces That Closed During the Pandemic by Jennifer Fergesen (July, print)
Mattone Ristorante opened in May in the East Sacramento building
that was home to the Italian restaurant Español from 1965 until
its closure in August 2020. (Photo by Wes Davis)
Sacramento lost several iconic restaurants during the pandemic, but new businesses moved in to fill the vacuum. We checked in with a few.
7. Two Gold Rush Era Hotels Return to Glitz and Glamour by Steve Martarano (June, print)
Amber Woosley maintains the bar at the historic Golden Gate
Saloon at the Holbrooke Hotel in Grass Valley. (Photo by Steve
Martarano)
It may seem like a risky gamble to open high-end hotels in two out-of-the-way towns at the height of the pandemic, but Holbrooke Hotel in Grass Valley and National Exchange Hotel in Nevada City are attracting attention.
8. Neighborhood Favorite: Konditorei Austrian Pastry Café by Jennifer Fergesen (August, web-only)
Owners Albert and Gloria Kutternig of Konditorei Austrian Pastry
Café in Davis hold a fruit tart in the cafe’s patio area. (Photo
by Charles Vincent McDonald)
The most popular installment in our monthly Neighborhood Favorite restaurant column, which launched in January 2021, this article shares the globetrotting love story behind Davis’s favorite Austrian bakery.
9. Head Underground to See the Hidden World of Gold Rush Sacramento by Steve Martarano (June, web-only)
Buildings line what used to be an Old Sacramento street in the
1850s before sidewalks and buildings were raised about 10 feet to
escape the regular flooding that would occur. (Photo by Steve
Martarano)
Steve Martarano’s evocative photos brought readers below the streets of Old Sacramento to explore the remnants of its Gold Rush past.
10. How Cornish Pasties Got to California by Jennifer Fergesen (May, web-only)
Marshall’s Pasties owner Carrie Locks and her daughter, Elizabeth
Jackson, prepare a pan of pasties. (Photo by Steve Martarano)
This web-only sidebar for Sena Christian’s print feature on the checkered legacy of mining in the Sierra Nevada shared one edible remnant of the gold mines: Grass Valley’s love of pasties, popularized by miners who emigrated from Cornwall.
*We excluded Suzanne Lucas’s rollicklingly popular Evil HR Lady column from this roundup, not because we don’t love it, but because it’s consistently the most-read story every month of the year.
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