Downtown Lincoln, Lincoln, CA

Downtown Lincoln is the old center of Lincoln, California, laid out in 1859 for a railroad meant to end here, and it still revolves around Lincoln Boulevard and Fifth Street. It is the one part of the city where you can park once and walk to lunch, a bakery, a library and a pint. Clay turned up while people were digging for coal, and the Gladding McBean pottery works that grew from it is the reason the downtown park carries the McBean name. Houses around the core are older, smaller-lot homes with newer infill mixed in, quite different from the villages out on the city's edges. Beermann Plaza and McBean Memorial Park anchor the outdoor life, and Joiner Park sits just beyond the boundary. The Carnegie Library and the Lincoln Area Archives Museum are both downtown, and the Art League of Lincoln runs a gallery on the main street. Eating is the draw in Downtown Lincoln. Old Town Pizza has earned local best-of recognition 14 years in a row, according to the downtown association. Buonarroti Ristorante is a family-run Italian dinner spot, Crumb Bakeshop bakes pies and pastries from scratch, and Slice Beer Company and the Lincoln Speakeasy Taproom cover the evenings. For coffee, people point to Brood Coffee, East Ave Cafe and Rebel Hen Cafe on Lincoln Boulevard, and Easy Company on Fifth Street gets mentioned too. A Walmart Neighborhood Market and Earth & Vine Provisions handle groceries, and Safeway is a short drive away. Highway 65 is the quick way to Roseville. Plenty of daily errands can be done on foot here, which is rare for Lincoln. The walkable core is small. Past the blocks around the boulevard you are back in a car, and the busy hours depend on events and weekends, so a weeknight can feel quiet. The same blocks laid out for the railroad in 1859 still host the town's lunch rush, only now it is pizza and pastries.