It’s an especially sugary time of year. Pumpkin spice lattes are a hit at Starbucks, crisp fall air is begging for steaming mugs of apple cider and fun size Snickers will fill Halloween baskets in a few days.

For Rob Owens, known to the world as Rob-O, sugar is less a culinary ingredient than an artistic medium. A professional sugar skull creator based in Greenhaven, Rob-O’s services have been in high demand as Día de los Muertos approaches on Nov. 1 and 2.

Colorful, expressive sugar skulls (“calaveras” in Spanish) are a hallmark of the Mexican Day of the Dead. Families craft and display them alongside photos, trinkets and food on altars called ofrendas dedicated to their loved ones on the other side.

Día de los Muertos remembers friends and family’s time on earth while taking a bit of the fear out of death, a healthy acknowledgment of our shared inescapable fate. For Rob-O, it served as a coping mechanism after his mom, who had raised him and his sister as a single mother around greater Fresno, died 17 years ago.

At the suggestion of his wife, a first-generation Mexican American, Rob-O built an ofrenda in their garage for the next Día de los Muertos and invited over 20 friends who had also lost parents.

“As Americans, we look at death as a real negative or unfortunate situation, and we have no outlets for that,” said Rob-O, who is half Mexican American himself. “But at Día de los Muertos, you’re able to have that outlet by remembering them in a really positive way.”

The guests decorated sugar skulls, paid their respects, and eventually left. Rob-O kept going and soon began selling his skulls for $35 apiece at Second Saturday Art Walks. About 15 years later, he’s built a full-time career crafting and selling sugar skulls despite not having any formal artistic training.

The skulls, which can be seen at his website ilovesugarskulls.com, are mesmerizing. Psychedelic swirls of color erupt from the skinless faces, creating flowers and hairstyles and headdresses.

He frequently displays them at shows around Sacramento and the Bay Area, and has made commissioned pieces for Disney, Corona and private collectors. The 35-pound skull in downtown Sacramento restaurant Mayahuel? That’s his work as well.

Rob-O starts by sketching out his desired skull and filigree designs, then mixes granulated sugar, wet sand, meringue powder and water in molds. Once they dry, he traces the designs onto the skulls and goes over them in Sharpie, then airbrushes the colors onto them and uses royal icing for all the detail work.

When that colored coat dries, it’s followed by a clear coat and a resin coat. All that’s left is a signature, photos and mounting the skulls in custom frames (no, they’re not edible).

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What I’m Eating

Giovanni’s Old World New York Pizzeria’s arcade games, no-frills decor and presence in East Sacramento and South Land Park have earned it a family-friendly reputation associated with kids’ birthdays and Little League parties. But Mountain Mike’s or Round Table this is not: there’s a real Italian American bend to John Ruffaine’s humbly delicious food.

A Brooklyn native proud of his Sicilian ancestry, Ruffaine opened the first Giovanni’s at 5924 S. Land Park Drive in 2001 with his wife Jenny and Carlo and Allison Griffone. It was an instant hit, a New York-style star long before Masullo, Hot Italian, Uncle Vito’s and others arrived on Sacramento’s pizza scene. The second location opened less than two years later at 6200 Folsom Blvd.

Dough, sauces and salad dressings are still made from scratch, but Sacramento’s pizza scene has grown so much that Giovanni’s doesn’t quite carry the same prestige it once did (this is a good thing, by the way). Yet it’s still the only place to find house inventions such as stuffata ($14).

Stuffata is essentially a dough boat housing cheese and toppings in the center, with a ricotta-mozzarella mixture stuffed in the crust — similar to Georgian khachapuri minus a fried egg. I could happily nibble on just that crust, but ordered it with the Little Italy toppings ($1 more) to try Giovanni’s housemade meatballs.

Giovanni’s is also one of the few Sacramento places to serve fluffy, focaccia-like Sicilian pies, though you’ll need to order a half pan (12 rectangular slices) if none of the individual slices sitting by the counter grab you. I did so because I wanted to try the eggplant Parmigiana pizza ($20 for a 12-inch regular pie, or $42 for a dozen Sicilian-style slices) special, and enjoyed the visual of each eggplant circle on its own slice almost as much as I liked biting into the airy crust.

Exciting variants aside, it’s fair to judge a pizzeria like Giovanni’s on New York-style pizzas like the Coney Island ($15 for a 10-inch pie, $21 for 12 inches or $30 for 16 inches). Topped with baby clams, roasted garlic and a slew of herbs, it had a nicely thin and chewy crust with just a hint of char around the edges.

Address: 6200 Folsom Blvd., Sacramento and 5924 S. Land Park Drive, Sacramento. Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. every day. Drinks: touch-screen Coca-Cola Freestyle machine, beer and wine. Animal-free options: a handful of vegetarian items, and pizzas can be made with dairy-free cheese. Accessibility: differs based on location. Noise level: medium, but sound could bounce off the concrete floor when busy.

Openings & Closings

• Midtown Lounge replaced Cider House on Oct. 21 at 1111 24th Street, Suite 102 in Sacramento. It’s owned by the group of businesspeople behind Little Relics in midtown and Kau Kau Hawaiian restaurant in East Sacramento. They envision Midtown Lounge as a taproom with a food menu full of panini.
• Dave’s Hot Chicken opened its second area restaurant at 2379 Iron Point Road in Folsom on Thursday, adding to a two-month-old location in Arden Arcade. The halal hot chicken chain is backed by celebrities such as hip-hop artist Drake, actor Samuel L. Jackson and Boston Red Sox owner Tom Werner.
• Thai Nakorn will close in Davis on Sunday, nearly 20 years after it opened at 424 G St., the restaurant announced on social media last week. Once flooded with Thai restaurants, downtown Davis will only have two once Thai Nakorn shuts down.