0920_September Comstock's Magazine September 2020 | Page 28

TASTE
Cooking Up a Neighborhood
Food options abound in the up-and-coming
Washington District in West Sacramento
BY Graham Womack PHOTOS BY Debbie Cunningham
Ernesto Delgado bought Sal’s Tacos in 2019
in West Sacramento’s Washington District
to be part of efforts to develop “a new style
of a city.”
When it came time in 2019 for
Ernesto Delgado’s next culinary
venture, he did not have to look
far. Delgado opened Mayahuel in Sacramento’s
downtown in 2011, and opened
Mesa Mercado in Carmichael in 2016.
The next year, he opened La Cosecha in
Cesar Chavez Plaza, also in downtown.
He then only had to travel fewer
than 2 miles down the road from his
downtown eateries and over the I Street
Bridge to become the new owner of Sal’s
Tacos last year and join West Sacramento’s
Washington District. Once a
blighted area, the neighborhood has
transformed in the past decade, due
to efforts by the City of West Sacramento,
developers and entrepreneurs
like Delgado who saw the area as a
blank canvas for food operations.
The district could see even more
growth soon, with the city and other
stakeholders working on the conversion
of the top deck of the historic I Street
Bridge for pedestrian and bicycle traffic
and building a replacement bridge for
cars and pedestrians from C Street in
West Sacramento to Railyards
Boulevard in Sacramento.
The new vehicular bridge and converted
bike and pedestrian crossings
will flow into a district located along
the riverfront north of the Tower Bridge
gateway and with a mix of housing,
restaurants and retail. Katy Jacobson,
economic development and housing
director for the City of West Sacramento,
describes the district as a smart-growth
area, designated for transit-oriented
development, with walkable grid pat-
28 comstocksmag.com | September 2020