No mere refueling stop on the way to Tahoe, Sacramento is a bustling riverside city of bars, shops, and galleries, plus restaurants that draw from the bounty of the surrounding farmland. Midtown remains the center of action; in 2017, a gritty warehouse district was made over into a buzzing commercial hub. But it’s also worth exploring the residential areas that make the California state capital feel more like a small town—one in which family-run soda fountains lie down the street from artisan pizza joints. So forget politics for a moment (save the capitol building and its half-acre rose garden for another trip), and get to know the other side of Sactown.
10:30 A.M. There’s no shortage of good coffee around here, but you’ll find some of the best at The Mill in Midtown. Fuel up with a latte enriched by housemade almond and macadamia nut milk.6 P.M. Follow 11th Street and then Riverside Boulevard south to Masullo for an authentic wood-fired pizza like the Gilda, which is topped with mozzarella, fontina, olives, red onion, and persillade, then whisked straight from the brick oven to your table.
7:30 P.M. For a dose of nostalgia and a cranberry sherbet cone, head even farther down Riverside Boulevard to Vic’s Ice Cream. The old-school soda fountain has been making its own ice cream since 1947.