I didn't start it. All these people brought up the subject on their own, and that tells you something.

At a recent event in San Francisco, I ran into a friend, Mike Smith, the owner of Sunshine Foods, a small, terrific supermarket in St. Helena. Almost before anything else, this is what he said:

"I love Sacramento. That's a great town you've got there."

Yup, and thanks, I'm taking full credit.

Seriously, Smith couldn't stop talking about coming to Sacramento for dinner and about the energy downtown and in midtown.

"We just went to Ella the other week," Smith told me. "Man, you gotta go. But I loved the way the whole area felt. There's a lot going on, but it isn't so crazy like in the City."

That's the City, of course, as in San Francisco. He wasn't knocking S.F., just praising Sacramento.

Smith, if you didn't catch it, is an energetic guy. But he wasn't the only person talking like that at the event that day.

Jon Ruel, vice president in charge of viticulture and winemaking at Trefethen Family Vineyards in Napa, said pretty much the same thing. He has a friend living in midtown and said he gets a real kick out of visiting.

"That area around J Street, it's alive," Ruel said. "You guys really have a good-feeling city."

A few days earlier, I was talking to Lee Hodo. She's the marketing manager for the Russian River Valley Winegrowers in Sonoma County. She was telling me that when she and her husband travel for a big night out, they come to Sacramento.

"We're overdue," Hodo said. "We need to get back up there for a weekend."

Not San Francisco, a weekend in Sacramento. Often, they head for The Kitchen, but, as she said, "we just really like coming there."

The point to all this, beside a little chest beating, is: See? See what we've become? See how Sacramento has developed its own distinct gravity and its own free-standing reputation based on what's here, on the zippy energy of the city's core, and on the culinary quality throughout the region?

Here are people who live in very nice places like Sonoma and Napa, who are surrounded by great food and wineries, who can travel to San Francisco with ease, and who developed powerful attractions to the Sacramento region for genuine reasons.

It's not exactly an eye-opener, because that sort of thing isn't new anymore. But it is a confirmation of how far Sacramento has traveled and the direction it's headed.

Also, I get that there's still some irony here. You're not truly a success until you stop worrying if you're a success. Folks in San Francisco don't go, "See, people like coming to San Francisco."

Still, our urbanity is new enough, and our nightlife and cultural scene have taken enough grief over the years, that some unsolicited raves are worth pointing out. At least for a while longer.

We win! We win!

And speaking of recognizing dining in the central city, Sacramento's Dine Downtown Restaurant Week just won an award of distinction from the International Downtown Association. First answer, yes, there actually is an International Downtown Association. (It's based in Washington, D.C., but didn't you want it to be someplace like Helsinki?)

Dine Downtown was the week in January when more than two dozen restaurants ranging geographically from Old Sac to the eastern edge of midtown offered up three-course, prix fixe dinners for $30 on the notion that in January both restaurants and their customers can use a lift.

Most people aren't this organized, but if you care, the next Dine Downtown runs for 10 days, Jan. 8-17.

And one more thing on downtown eating. Ella Dining Room and Bar is celebrating its two-year anniversary this week, and the quick reaction is to say, "Just two years?" Ella seems like a fixture at 12th and K streets, and since its entire existence has been during tough economic times, they're clearly doing something right there.

Through Saturday, by the way, Ella is offering an anniversary four-course prix fixe dinner for $50, and now that I think about it, I might look for my friend Mike Smith over there this week.

Call The Bee's Rick Kushman, (916) 321-1187. Listen to him Tuesdays at 8:40 a.m. on NewsTalk 1530 (KFBK).