Richmond Grove

So this area of the city is one of the more dangerous areas in Sac in terms of crime, which makes it sound pretty bad, until you compare areas like this in Sac to Oakland or San Francisco which are both far more dangerous. You do get some assaults in this area—which is what you would expect for any place whose dive bars boast that they open their doors at 6 am.

Which brings me to the bars in Richmond Grove. It isn’t packed with bars, but there are definitely a couple of them—both fine representatives of the dive bar category. My favorite is the Flame Bar which is totally packed on the weekends with a cool college aged crowded, but is far more chill on the weeknights. If you prefer the kind of dive bar that might be a just the first stop on a trip to the hospital the Monte Carlo is your kind of place. It’s like being at a Raiders’ game. (And it opens at 6 am so you can start getting your drunk on with a true ‘early bird special’.)

In terms of restaurants, there are some pretty good sushi places and Chinese joints here. They are not amazing but they are good places if you don’t happen to go during lunch hour when they fill with government workers grabbing a bite to eat.

As far as living in the area, it is definitely affordable. You can rent a studio for around $650 here and you can outright buy most of the older homes in this neighborhood for under $300K.

I don’t know if I would rent here. There are just so many offices around here that in some ways it feels like more of a commercial area than anything else. Overall not that great an area unless you are heading for one of the bars.