Main Street: Fine Dining in the Foothills
Mark and Tracey Berkner have made Taste Restaurant a destination
Tracey and Mark Berkner opened Taste Restaurant in 2006 and the nearby Rest, a 16-room boutique hotel, in 2016.
Startup of the Month: TagCarts
A veteran-owned startup looks to improve medical carts for health care professionals
Medical carts are mobile storage units for health care equipment, supplies and medication, and may include workstations for access to electronic data.
Back to Paradise
One year after the Camp Fire, some business owners have gambled on making a go of it again — but others see no reason to return
The biggest problem facing business owners is a lack of customers. No one knows what to do first: Build the customer base and create a demand for business, or rebuild the businesses and see if the customers follow?
Tricky Eating
Local experts and retailers work to prevent food fraud
With as much as 10 percent of all food products sold around the world mislabeled, experts at UC Davis and elsewhere are working hard to ensure what’s on the label accurately represents what’s in the food.
Buzzwords: Disruptor
A company, technology, good or service that is so innovative and widely adopted it disrupts an existing market
In ordinary English, “disruptor” might conjure up images of a kid acting out in class, or someone holding up traffic. Among the startup set, though, disruptor has become one of the highest compliments one can receive — or give to oneself.
In the Making: Where Flowers Bloom
“We are flower nerds to the max here,” Melissa Cowan, owner of Placerville Flowers on Main says. “We squeal on the daily when new products come in or when seasons change.”
Shopping Is Still Important to Sacramento’s Economy
Comstock’s publisher Winnie Comstock-Carlson on downtown Sacramento’s attempts to reinvent itself and how retail shopping was — and still is — one key element in its rejuvenation.
Taste Makers
Yolanda Vega is the driving force behind the family’s expanding food brand
At 11 years old, Yolanda Vega started selling buñuelos and other local foods at street festivals around Michoacán. When she relocated to Sacramento in 1996, she did the same thing, driving around town and growing her clientele.
Dilemma of the Month: Employees Taking on New Work for Extra Pay
“Can full-time, permanent employees do freelance work for our California-based company if that work falls outside their job description?”
Brand Builders
Cousins Katherine Bardis-Miry and Rachel Bardis continue the family legacy of building homes with their own approach
A latex unicorn mask hangs on the back wall near the window of Katherine Bardis-Miry and Rachel Bardis’ shared office.
“We’re kind of weird,” Katherine laughs.