Sonoma County natives Ozzy Jimenez and Christian Sullberg met in 2010 and launched their beloved Noble Folk Ice Cream & Pie Bar in 2013 on the Healdsburg Plaza (a second location opened in Santa Rosa a few years later).
The couple are deeply involved in their community and celebrate diversity in every way, from proudly flying the rainbow and trans pride flags outside their stores to giving back to local organizations. Sullberg served on the board of Positive Images, a LGBTQ+ nonprofit, and Jimenez is the former mayor of Healdsburg and the first Latinx immigrant to serve on the city council.
Their lives took on a new resonance last year when the couple became parents to son Henry, who will be a year old in September.
“The activities that we enjoyed before now come in through a different filter,” says Jimenez. “When we go to a restaurant now, it’s like, ‘Is it kid-friendly?’ ‘Is there room for a stroller?’”
The couple shop for gender-neutral baby clothes at Bon Ton Baby on the Healdsburg Plaza and love to try new baby-friendly restaurants and hikes around town.
Here are some of Jimenez and Sullberg’s favorite Sonoma County spots:
Jimenez and Sullberg visit Asiana Supermarket in Cotati for pickles, daikon radishes, marinated short ribs, bibimbap—and their favorite kimchi, locally made Ji’s Kimchi. “Sunday is the day you want to go to the market, because sometimes you’ll see older women in their traditional Korean attire, doing their shopping.”
Asiana Market, 707-664-0526. Ji’s Kimchi, ginajikimchi.com
When Jimenez served as mayor of Healdsburg, he helped establish the city’s flag-raising policy to celebrate Pride Month in June. “Christian grew up here in Healdsburg, and for the longest time, there really hadn’t been positive affirmations of our identities… Now, there’s a flag at the police station, at the community center, at city hall. And the city lights up Memorial Bridge in rainbow. It legit looks like you’re going to the Wizard of Oz, and it’s just magical,” says Jimenez.
Sullberg and Jimenez love the new Maria de Los Angeles mural at Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Center. “It’s just a beautiful representation of her life growing up in Sonoma County,” says Jimenez.
707-546-3600, lutherburbankcenter.org
Of course, they know all the most delicious things to try at Noble Folk Ice Cream & Pie Bar. “For summer, Christian love-love-loves the peach-raspberry pie and the Dutch cookie ice cream,” says Jimenez. “And for me, it’s the French macarons—there aren’t a whole lot of places in the county that still make them fresh.”
In Healdsburg and Santa Rosa, thenoblefolk.com
They can’t wait to bring Henry on their favorite waterfall hike at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, and, when he’s old enough, to the park’s Robert Ferguson Observatory to see the stars. “People drive from all over the Bay Area to participate in their programming in the summer,” says Jimenez.
707-833-6979, sugarloafpark.org, rfo.org