Step aside, Spotify Wrapped: This list of 2025’s highlights was made by an actual human—inconsistencies, subjectivity and all.
One of the things I like most about working at the RN&R is that we have the privilege of playing a role in the way Reno’s vibrant local culture is defined and discussed. Here’s my own list of people, places and things that I learned about this year from our hardworking, well-connected contributors.
What’s the deal with all-you-can-eat sushi?
I have wondered for years why Reno (myself included) is so gaga over all-you-can-eat sushi, compared to pretty much everywhere else. For our newcomers guide in the January issue, I finally reached out to some experts—Miyuki Wong, the region’s main seafood salesperson, and Sushi Pier owner Heejin Polon—and wrote a short piece on the history and evolution of this beloved local food phenomenon.
It may have taken me years to get around to finally writing about Reno’s AYCE sushi scene, but I did scoop The New York Times, which covered it in May.
Not a thing of the past: Lonnie Feemster on the long, slow process of overturning housing discrimination
The RN&R has mentioned Lonnie Feemster—real estate broker and former president/current member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP—many times over the years. This year, he spoke with contributor Sarah Russell about the history of housing discrimination in our region.
Growing up in the 1960s, Lonnie, because he is Black, was prohibited from living in most areas of Reno and Sparks. He talked with Sarah about how he helped the get race-based restrictions attached to residential property deeds—many of which remain to this day—legally nullified in 2019, and he explained some of the discriminatory lending strategies that still occur.
“We haven’t solved the racial bias problem in America, because we haven’t educated our children,” Lonnie told Sarah. That’s one reason this story is high on my list of things we all should know about.
Learning to love: Arian Katsimbras distills a harrowing childhood into tender poetry
In the 1990s, Washoe Valley was quiet and not yet developed. Arian Katsimbras grew up there, in a mobile home. As a child, he saw and experienced violence and abandonment that left him restless, and also left him with a strong sense of wonder. As an adult, Arian channels all of those influences into heartbreaking, life-affirming poetry—the type of meticulous, heartfelt wordsmithing that can make people feel less alone in the world.
Lucky for us, RN&R contributor Max Stone is also a poet. His profile on Arian is captivating literature about captivating literature. I live for this stuff.
15 Minutes: Vinny Murgolo, AKA ‘The Knife Guy’
For better or worse, I wouldn’t recognize a deck chair or a hammock or a spa day if it knocked me in the head. I tend to spend my “non-work” hours engaged in some sort of additional labor. Mostly, this means hosting dinners and volunteering to cater events with a frequency that would not be recommended by mental-health professionals.
All of this is to say that I appreciated David Robert’s introduction to Vinnie Murgolo back in May. Vinnie, like me, is a busy person with an ambitious side hustle—a longtime firefighter who runs a knife-sharpening business on the side. That’s only one reason I’m glad he’s out there. As a recreational caterer, I also have a box of Victorinoxes ready for a trip to his shop.
The Dish: Kim Vandenhazel, dining room director for St. Vincent’s Kitchen, Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada
Hi! Food-prep-obsessed workaholic here again. Naturally, I was delighted when contributor David Rodriguez started doing The Dish, his Q+A column with local chefs, earlier this year. For the June issue, David looked beyond restaurants to another part of the food industry, where practicality and improvisation reign supreme. He introduced us to Kim Vandenhazel, the dining room director of St. Vincent’s Kitchen, which serves more than 1,400 meals a day on two campuses. I don’t think I’ll ever forget David Robert’s photo of Kim, smiling ear to ear, mixing a 45-gallon vat of sloppy-joe sauce.
Trees with benefits: The high-altitude whitebark pine is an ecological workhorse, but it’s threatened by a prolific fungus
I really like to hike. I absolutely love the variety of desert and mountain trails in these parts. And I get a kick out of learning the names and characteristics of plants as I encounter them. There are a lot of gaps in my knowledge, though.
In August, Helena Guglielmino, the RN&R’s outdoors columnist, helped get me up to speed on one species of tree, the whitebark pine. I’ve hiked at high elevations a few times since then, and now I know what that asymmetrically windblown tree up there with the short needles is, how it’s threatened by an aggressive fungus, and exactly what scientists are doing to try to protect it.
Best hike through an area burned by wildfire
Each time we compile the Best of Northern Nevada issue, I learn new things about the secret nooks and crannies of our region. This year, the one that most stuck in my mind was an unexpected rec from Alan de Queiroz, local science writer and occasional RN&R contributor.
After the 2024 Davis Fire, Brown’s Creek Trail offers less of a relaxing stroll and more of an educational (if also somewhat harrowing) experience. Alan wrote, “Why am I recommending this trail? Well, despite first appearances, it’s actually great for appreciating living things, because many local plants and animals have evolved to deal with wildfire. On a hike in June, almost every skeletonized shrub and aspen I passed had fresh green sprouts coming up from the roots.”
‘Facts over folklore’: Guy Rocha, Nevada’s ‘myth buster’ historian, is dead at 73
Guy Rocha is another name you’ll see in the RN&R many times if you look back over the decades. He was Nevada’s state archivist for 28 years. I only met him once or twice, and that was many years ago. But RN&R Editor at Large Frank Mullen knew him well, and his obituary from September is kind and personal, and it illuminates how Guy was someone we can all be proud to call a community member, whether we knew him or not.
Frank, recalling his days as a full-time Reno Gazette Journal reporter, wrote, “The unwritten commandment: Ask State Archivist Guy Louis Rocha to check any historical references in stories before the presses roll; that will save the ink (and embarrassment) of next-day corrections. His word, we knew, was gospel.”
I was also proud to publish a great picture of Guy from 2009 that photographer Lauren Randolph found in her archive.