Category: Towns

Discover Sonoma County destinations

Quivira’s Hugh Chappelle Makes a Rock Star Rosé

Hugh Chappelle had a precocious palate. While just a kid he was an everyday wine drinker, thanks to his German mother who gave him a taste of the finest rieslings. Chappelle is the winegrower behind our wine-of the-week winner — Quivira, 2015 Dry Creek Valley Sonoma County Rosé at $22. The Quivira is a striking […]
The "Raw Fish of the Day" is the chef's selection. This day it included cucumbers and blood oranges at Oso restaurant in Sonoma. (Photo by Charlie Gesell)

Sebastopol’s Ramen Gaijin Leads Sonoma County’s Passion for Japanese Restaurants

Written by Heather Irwin for BiteClubEats. Don’t know an izakaya from an omakase? Don’t worry, you will. Although nearly a third of Americans included in a 2015 National Restaurant Association survey said they regularly eat sushi or “Japanese” food, the lion’s share of that is Americanized sushi, strip mall teriyaki and Top Ramen. But homestyle […]

Trail of the Week: Laguna de Santa Rosa Trail

Written by Diane Peterson for The Press Democrat. The Laguna de Santa Rosa Trail is a popular destination for dog lovers such as Genevieve Jago of Sebastopol, who hooked up her energetic, 8-month-old English Cocker Spaniel in the Highway 12 parking lot and embarked on a restorative walk on a warm, spring day in early […]

Glen Ellen’s Gaige House: A Most Romantic Retreat

In the spring, when the roses and wisteria are in gorgeous bloom, the Gaige House inn welcomes a steady stream of guests. Nestled off the main road in Glen Ellen, Gaige House is one of the oldest homes in the area, designated a historic landmark by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in 1980. The […]
Briana Marie Photography

Pairing Sonoma Wine with Waterfowl

The birds are back — ducks, geese, egrets, avocets, grackles, pelicans, herons, hawks and sparrows — at the wetlands at Viansa Sonoma winery, and there’s no better place from which to view them than a wood-framed outlook equipped with binoculars, telescope, bird identification guide and blankets for chilly days. Not into focusing on fowl? The […]
Writer Dana Gioia served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and was appointed California State Poet Laureate by Jerry Brown in 2015. (JOHN BURGESS / The Press Democrat)

California Poet Laureate Returns to Santa Rosa

Santa Rosan Dana Gioia is the new California Poet Laureate, appointed to the post by Gov. Jerry Brown in December 2015. During his two-year term, Gioia will spread the art of poetry and inspire a new generation of writers while visiting schools and libraries in many of the state’s rural counties. He picks up where […]

Sonoma Film Fest Puts on a Show

Who doesn’t adore a rich bit of parody, bawdy comedy and a magic trick or two — particularly when it’s in the middle of gracious downtown Sonoma? The 19th annual Sonoma International Film Festival will be even more glamorous this year (March 30-April 3), thanks to a new entertainment village anchored by Le Tigre, a […]

Nice to Meat You: Legendary Butcher at Sonoma Broadway Market

By Ariana Reguzzoni Tom Geney arrives at Sonoma’s Broadway Market at 4 a.m. each day, flips on the lights and prepares for the steady stream of customers seeking steaks, chops, ribs and fowl prepared the old-fashioned way: by hand and to order. Geney, 75, is one of the longest-serving butchers in the county, having plied […]
Boston Terriers by Tim Shorten. (Courtesy of The Alchemia Gallery)

The Alchemia Gallery is Fostering Creative Gifts in Petaluma

For the artists who show at The Alchemia Gallery in Petaluma, art is not only good for the soul, it’s a pathway to independence and self-empowerment. Opened in 2010, the Kentucky Street storefront showcases the work of a unique collective: adults with a wide range of developmental disabilities, such as Down syndrome, autism and cerebral […]

BohLux: A Tradition of Luxury in Santa Rosa

Gail Fivis recently shopped in New York City, but not for herself. Instead, she searched for the perfect Cognac-colored ostrich leather for a client’s handbag. It was all part of a day’s work for the co-owner of BohLux, a custom leather goods shop in downtown Santa Rosa. After years of study, Fivis, 64, and business […]