Category: Towns

Discover Sonoma County destinations

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 […]
Bob Pullum, the owner of Guerneville Bank Club, stands next to the old vault inside the building. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat)

Guerneville Bank Club: A Hip Sense of History

FOR 30 YEARS, the old bank building on Guerneville’s downtown strip stood vacant. After a meticulous renovation by Bob Pullum, who purchased it in 2014 without having seen the interior, the 1921 Carl I. Warnecke-designed building debuted in spring 2015 as the Guerneville Bank Club, a collective retail and art gallery space. “I wanted to […]

Sonoma Chef Getting Back to Cheese

Sheana Davis has been a fixture in the Sonoma Valley culinary community for more than 20 years. She cooked for and with legendary food writer M.F.K. Fisher, learned to make cheese from Ig Vella, founded The Epicurean Connection cheese shop and cafe, and introduced cheese education to Sonoma. Yet despite all her energy, Davis, a […]

A Grandmother’s Guidance: The Roots of Healdsburg Shed Owner

As a youngster, he helped in the kitchen of what would evolve into one of the most famous restaurants in the world, The French Laundry in Yountville. At 20, he was the sous chef at Auberge du Soleil in Rutherford, by 22 in charge of the kitchen at étoile restaurant in Yountville. At 25, he […]