GRASS VALLEY – Everyone is so nice here. Not goober-sweet, insulin-shock nice. Just friendly and open and, you know, nice.

After two days of hitting this amiability everywhere – in the restaurants, the bookstores, the shops, the wine tasting rooms, the saloon at the Holbrooke Hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, even the Safeway at the bottom of the old town – I had to ask about it.

After breakfast at Tofanelli’s, a popular bistro with a killer patio (and 100-plus omelet choices), two of my servers were outside on a break. So I asked, nicely of course: “What is it with this town?”

“Everybody knows each other almost anyplace you go,” said Melenie Teehee. “So we just treat everyone like a neighbor.”

“We all have a sense of comfort here,” said Riley Frederking. “There’s no reason not to be nice.”

Both of these young women are natives. Mike Witter over at Booktown Books has lived in Grass Valley for 14 years; he came to town after running a bookstore in San Francisco for years. He has the same perspective, sort of.

“It’s something in the water,” he said. “I think it’s the mercury.”

See, this region was a mining center, and anyway, you get the joke.

“Seriously, when we first moved here,” Witter said, “we instantly noticed there’s no tension in the air.”

That doesn’t mean nothing’s going on in Grass Valley. Last weekend was WorldFest, a world-music celebration, at the Nevada County Fairgrounds on the edge of town. A few weeks back, it was a bluegrass festival. Every Thursday evening there’s a street fair.

The old town area also has a couple of bars with live music – one, the Copper Top Lounge, has jazz. There’s an actual, old-school, free-standing movie theater, the Del Oro on Mill Street. Plus, there are eight wineries in five tasting rooms, all within a couple of blocks of one another.

And Booktown Books (a co-op where 12 owners sell used books) has that name because it’s one of 19 independent new- and used-book stores in the Nevada City– Grass Valley area.

“This is a surprisingly literate and culturally sophisticated area,” said Witter, one of the co-op owners.

That’s just one of Grass Valley’s surprises. This foothill community is just an hour’s drive from downtown Sacramento. It has commuters to Roseville and other spots. There are plenty of high-tech and telecommunications companies in the area. Yet it feels so relaxed and removed in mood and style from the suburbs and cities not so far away.

And the sibling towns of Grass Valley and Nevada City are themselves a good bit different from each other. Nevada City is the one that seems to get the exposure – it’s got the bike race, the charm-heavy main streets, more places to eat and drink.

So I went to Grass Valley. Let’s hear it for the underdog.

Except Grass Valley isn’t just sitting in Nevada City’s shadow. It has its own growing energy and an appeal very different from its civic relation four miles up Highway 49.

If Nevada City is about Victorian charm, Grass Valley is more of a working town. It feels like its historic core – the old town centered on Mill and Main streets – is rooted and connected to the people living and working in the area.

The streets are narrow and the sidewalks are tight to the walls of buildings that go back to the mid- and late 1800s. It’s got a clean, blue-collar feel, not Disneyfied but neat with a new coat of paint. The houses are an eclectic mix: a midsize Victorian next to a small clapboard next to cottages next to a large, 125-year-old beauty.

The old town area is loaded with brick walls inside and out, white trim and overhanging roofs. It feels lived-in and interesting, as if it has stories to tell. It also has – this is a biggie for a place with growing tourist allure – lots of parking.

Much of that new tourist allure is thanks to the collection of tasting rooms, many of them new. They’ve turned the old town into a genuine mixed-use district (it could use a couple more restaurants, but I always think that) and a mini-wine region. One tasting room seems suspicious – like, would you trust it to be any good? But eight wineries in five rooms? That feels solid, and in truth, the quality goes from solid to very good.

There’s a touch of elegance to most, and all have a legit wine-country feel, not the kitschy countrified tourist thing that overwhelms some foothill towns. A couple are almost art-gallery sleek. The attitude in all is the same: understated, accommodating and – say it with me – nice.

Linda Clough, who owns Lucchesi Vineyards with her husband, Mario, helps staff their tasting room, with its big windows looking at the corner of Mill and Neal streets. They’re open seven days a week.

“Some weekdays, there isn’t much traffic in here,” she said. “But we’re open anyway. We want people to be able to count on us. And if it’s after 6 o’clock and someone is in here, we’ll stay open.”

Smith Vineyard’s new, graceful tasting room just up Mill Street stays open until 7 on Friday and Saturday nights. “We sell wine by the glass, too, so it gives people another thing to do in that time,” said Chris Smith, co-owner with her husband, Gary. “It’s good for us, and we think it helps the town, too.”

The spirit of cooperation seems to run through downtown, and getting along is a requirement for Grass Valley Wine Co. on Mill Street. It just had its official grand opening Friday. The thing is, four wineries are banded together in there – Pilot Peak, Montoliva, Solune and Bent Metal – and visitors are likely to find a few, or all four, winemakers behind the bar trying to stay neutral about which wines to taste.

“We’re still learning about each other,” said Lynn Wilson, Pilot Peak’s winemaker. “The good news is we like each other and we like building something together.”

The modest storefront doesn’t do justice to the airy, stylish room with couches, tables, murals and art, plus the tasting bar. Grass Valley Wine Co. will also be a center for downtown events.

And lots of people in the area, from the folks at Villa Venezia, a restaurant nearby that serves only local wines, to locals hanging at Caroline’s Coffee Roasters, to people shopping in old town, said they’re glad for the energy and the travelers the tasting rooms are bringing in.

“Grass Valley has really made an effort to improve the town in the last couple of years,” said Don Wright, who was shopping last weekend on Mill Street with his wife, Blenda. “We can see the difference. Those wineries really helped.”

“And we live in Nevada City,” Blenda said. “But we come here.”

This gathering of tasting rooms is a bit of a necessity for vintners in the area because the wineries themselves aren’t lined up easily for tasters along a few roads.

So the in-town rooms are, first off, helping make people aware that this piece of the foothills produces some classy wines. And they draw traffic to each other.

“It was the best business decision we ever made, coming into town,” said Jack Starr, who runs Sierra Starr Vineyard with his parents, Phil and Anne Starr.

The Starrs were the first, opening a room in 2003. They moved last year to a spot on Main at Mill. Jack was working there on a quiet afternoon recently. His wife, Molly, was there, too, watching their sleeping son, 6-week-old Benjamin. On the floor in front of the bar, Chewy and Bruno, a pair of extremely friendly dogs, snoozed, too.

“Watch out for Chewy,” Jack said. “He’ll sleep on your feet.”

It’s that kind of tasting room and that kind of town. No pretense, but people watching out for you.

At the Golden Gate Saloon, the bar at the classic Holbrooke Hotel on Main, bartender Masu Moghani and local Bobbie Boge were saying the same thing on a recent Friday night.

They’re both relative newcomers. Moghani has been in Grass Valley less than two years; he came from Florida “for a girl,” and good news, they’re still together. Boge has been here seven years after a long stretch in the Bay Area. She said she’s fallen for the casual atmosphere.

“You can go anywhere in jeans,” she said. “I brought a bunch of suits from the Bay Area, and I can’t even give them away to the consignment stores.

“What I really love is how comfortable I feel here. I can walk into a bar by myself, and it feels welcoming and low-key. You know what it is? Everyone is so nice.”

TOUR OF THE TOWN

FOOD AND DRINK

1. Tofanelli’s Gold Country Bistro, 302 W. Main St.; (530) 272-1468, www.tofanellis.com.

A town favorite with a great courtyard and barbecue on the weekends. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

2. The Holbrooke Hotel, 212 W. Main St., (530) 273-1353, www.holbrooke.com.

Grill-style dining room with lunch and dinner daily. The bar, called the Golden Gate Saloon, is a classic spot and another local favorite with live music and a casual feel.

3. Cirino’s at Main Street, 213 W. Main St.; (503) 477-6000, www.cirinosbarandgrill.com.

Mediterranean cuisine in a room with Mediterranean murals. It’s a big menu with lots of good choices. Lunch and dinner daily. The bar stays open late and is a popular local hangout.

4. Kaido Japanese Restaurant, 207 W. Main St.; (530) 274-0144, www.kaidosushi.com.

Sushi in a stylish room. Dinner Wednesday-Sunday.

5. The Owl Grill and Saloon, 134 Mill St.; (530) 274-1144, www.theowlgrill.com.

The room is all old town, the food is quality grill style, and the saloon is friendly. Dinner nightly except Monday.

6. Copper Top Lounge, 133 Neal St., (530) 274-2260, www.coppertoplounge.net.

Arty but comfortable jazz bar and live-music spot. It stays open late most nights. Food from Pete’s Pub Style Pizza.

7. Kane’s Restaurant, 120 E. Main St.; (503) 273-8111, www.kanesrestaurant.net.

An elegant dining room and a comfortable front patio for a more fine-dining style. Open for lunch and dinner daily. Sunday breakfast starts at 9 a.m.

8. Jim E’s Club 141, 141 E. Main St.; (530) 273-3600, www.jimesclub141.com.

A quirky, fun tapas-and-wine bar. Thursday-Saturday.

9. Villa Venezia Ristorante, 124 Bank St., (530) 273-3555, www.villavenezia.info.

Terrific Italian food, complex menu, all-local wines in a charmer of a Victorian. Lunch weekdays, dinner every night.

WINERY TASTING ROOMS

A. Sierra Starr, 124 W. Main St.; (530) 477-8282, www.sierrastarrwine.com.

The first tasting room in town, it has moved into a bigger, brighter room. Be sure to pet Bruno, the chocolate lab, and Chewy, the shepherd mix. Bruno is very, very friendly. Chewy is more friendly. Wines are approachable but still complex. Open noon-5 p.m. daily.

B. Avanguardia Wines, 209 W. Main St.; (530) 274-9482, www.avanguardiawines.com.

They make unique blends from uncommon varietals. The tasting bar with its brass rail fits the street. Open noon-5 p.m. daily.

C. Smith Vineyard, 142 Mill St.; (530) 273-7032, www.smithvineyard.com.

The wines match the sophisticated room, which could be in wine country anywhere. Open noon-6 p.m. weekdays, noon-7 p.m. weekends. Closed Tuesdays.

D. Grass Valley Wine Co., 151 Mill St.; (530) 205-9513, www.gvwineco.com.

Cool, airy room for Pilot Peak, Montoliva, Solune and Bent Metal wineries. Each has a different style, which makes for a fun tasting time. Open noon-5:30 p.m. daily.

E. Lucchesi Vineyards, 167 Mill St.; (530) 274-2164, www.lucchesivineyards.com.

A good, long list of wines in a bright, cheery room on a corner with large windows looking out on the town. Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. daily

LODGING

• For a full list of places to stay, including charming foothill bed-and-breakfast inns: www.grassvalleychamber.com or (530) 273-4667.

• What makes the old town area of Grass Valley a bit unusual is that it has a Holiday Inn Express right on its edge at 121 Bank St., (530) 477-1700, www.thegoldminersinn.com.

• A hotel built in the 1860s that might – maybe, depending on whom you talk to – be haunted. That’s the Holbrooke Hotel, 212 W. Main St., (530) 273-1353, www.holbrooke.com.

– Rick Kushman

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