Founded in 1858, Petaluma is brimming with old-school charm. Add in a pedestrian-friendly downtown full of excellent restaurants, wine tasting rooms, craft distilleries and shops and you’ve got all the makings of a primo Wine Country getaway. Click through the gallery above for a few favorite things to do in Petaluma.
Mya Constantino and Maci Martell contributed to this article.
Alfresco food and wine pairings are a dime a dozen in Wine Country this time of year, but a special outdoor dinner at the end of May at Healdsburg’s Preston Farm and Winery is creating a lot of buzz this spring.
While culinary experiences at Sonoma County wineries usually focus on wine, the upcoming dinner in Healdsburg is all about honeybees.
“It’s going to be something totally different,” said Candice Koseba, the founder of Sonoma County Bee Company, who is organizing the event in collaboration with Preston Farm and Winery and Field Day CA.
A first of its kind in Sonoma County, the Bee Inspired Dinner on May 20 is shaping up to be a delicious event for people passionate about bees, food and wine.
Preston Farm and Winery will provide the wine and the beautiful Dry Creek Valley setting, to the tunes of live music. Chef Aaron Koseba (Candice’s husband and former chef de cuisine at Single Thread restaurant in Healdsburg) will prepare a multicourse meal. And the Field Day CA bus, a school bus turned prep kitchen by local chef Naomi Mcleod, will be parked in the vineyards.
“The dinner will be constructed around what’s available on the farm and the bounty of Candice’s hives,” said Ken Blair, Sales Director at Preston Farm and Winery. “The wines will be chosen to complement Aaron’s dishes that he constructs from these raw materials.”
The dinner menu is yet to be revealed but it will, of course, feature honey as its star ingredient. Guests also will be able to taste different kinds of honey side by side and with the aid of a colorful honey flavor wheel, making it easier to detect differences in flavor, aroma and texture.
“I am infusing herbs and flowers into honey as we speak, and also fermenting garlic in honey,” said Koseba. “I want [guests] to taste some fun honey creations that I enjoy at home … I want everyone to feel a little more love for bees than they already do and have a tasty meal.”
In addition to serving up honey for the dinner — in collaboration with her beloved bees, Koseba plans to take dinner guests on a journey through the lifecycle of a honeybee colony. While showing guests the newly designed beehives she tends to at the Healdsburg winery, she will explain how beekeepers determine when it is safe to harvest honey and why bees are so fiercely loyal to their queen.
The Bee Inspired Dinner on May 20 at Preston Farm and Winery is $165 per person, which includes a Sonoma County Bee Company gift set to take home. Preston Farm and Winery, 9282 West Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg. Purchase tickets at fielddayca.com
Sonoma County Bee Company’s Instagram account has a wealth of information for people eager to learn more about bees and beekeeping. It features videos and posts on a variety of bee-related subjects, from an enthralling video of Koseba rescuing and relocating honeybee nests to educational posts on how to infuse honey or what to do if you see a honeybee swarm (don’t panic, give Koseba a call).
You can learn more about how Koseba got into beekeeping in this Sonoma Magazine article, and purchase raw honey and other products, like beeswax candles and herb salves made with beeswax, lavender, calendula and olive oil, on the Sonoma County Bee Company website. Koseba’s products also are available at Montage Healdsburg, where she leads excursions that offer guests a fascinating glimpse into the daily lives of Wine Country’s hardworking honeybees.
After nearly 25 years as the lead chef of Madrona Manor (now The Madrona), chef Jesse Mallgren is stepping down from the Michelin-starred restaurant he put on the map.
Best known for his forward-thinking menus and dedication to locally sourced ingredients, Mallgren brought a refined approach to California cuisine that made the restaurant a star long before Healdsburg became the internationally known dining destination it is today.
Mallgren will take over as executive chef of Jordan Vineyard & Winery, named one of the top 50 wineries in the world in 2022.
“It’s better for my family and me,” Mallgren said from the Jordan kitchen on his first day of work earlier this month. He said family obligations and an increased workload contributed to his decision. When new owners reopened The Madrona last year, they added lunch and brunch services open to the public.
“Twenty-one meal services a week was just difficult to have a family with. With the staffing issues in Sonoma County, it was impossible not to be at the restaurant every moment,” Mallgren said.
“I had dinner with my family this Saturday night, which is insane. I don’t think I’ve ever done that,” said the 53-year-old father of two who started his career at Madrona Manor as a dishwasher.
Jordan’s culinary program has long been a notable standout, using 2 acres of culinary gardens and offering everything from wine-tasting menus and casual outdoor wine club events to elaborate private dinners for colleagues and friends of owner John Jordan.
“I’m looking at dishes that are really planned out to go with the wine. There’s a lot of room for creativity. It’s just a different way of looking at food,” Mallgren said. He will replace chef Daniel Beal, who had a short stint at the winery after another brief engagement at the Farmhouse Inn.
Before Beal, chef Todd Knoll headed the Jordan kitchen for many years. Knoll took on a chef position at Bricoleur Vineyards in 2022.
J Vineyards & Winery has announced a second year of its groundbreaking culinary series Shifting the Lens, highlighting underrepresented cuisines and chefs.
Curated by chef Preeti Mistry, the mission of the four-part program is to expand Wine Country’s narrow vision of wine and food pairing — cheese, charcuterie, European cuisine — to include global ingredients and the culinary talents of women, people of color and international food thought leaders.
Chef Tu David Phu kicks off the series with a residency at the winery from May 11 to 21. Guests can experience his personal take on Vietnamese food — inspired by his mother — at the J Bubble Room tastings or on May 13 and 21 for a multicourse seated dinner and conversation.
According to the website, each Shifting the Lens residency includes weekend tasting experiences in the Bubble Room as well as two special dinners where guests may partake in the five-course pairing menu and join an intimate discussion with the guest chef, winemaker Nicole Hitchcock and other winery leaders about their perspectives on food, wine and culture.
Other chefs in this year’s series include Ana Castro of Lenga Madre restaurant, named one of Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chefs of 2022 (Sept. 14-24).
Mistry (who uses they/them pronouns) will take their Indian-inspired menu on the road to share the concept outside the Bubble Room and create “a greater platform to showcase these important conversations and experiences.”
I went to two events last year, and both were palate- and eye-opening experiences that reflect — sometimes painfully — the lack of diversity in fine dining and wine pairing. Find more details and reservations at jwine.com.
The Good Food Award, the blue seal of approval from the Good Food Foundation, is a big deal for artisan producers.
The Good Food Foundation celebrates sustainably made, socially conscious, credibly-crafted beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, cider, coffee, confections, drinks, elixirs, fish, grains, honey, oils, pantry items, pickles, preserves, snacks and spirits. Chosen by panels of food and drink professionals, the awards are an honest reflection of the best food and drink in America.
This year, Good Food Awards judges sifted through more than 2,000 entries, choosing 237 winners from 18 categories. For a complete list of winners, go to goodfoodfdn.org.
The North Coast (and a few other nearby friends) had 16 winning products, including:
Bellwether Farms: Organic A2 Whole Milk Cow Milk Plain Yogurt (Petaluma)
Ethic Ciders: Pommeau (Sebastopol)
Tomales Farmstead Creamery: Atika (Petaluma)
Wine Forest: Sea Buckthorn Shrub, Haskap Berry Shrub (Napa)
Pond Farm Brewing Co.: Dark Mast Black Lager, Devil’s Gulch Hazy IPA (San Rafael)
Pennyroyal Farm: Reserve Boont Corners, Boonter’s Blue cheese (Philo)
Humboldt Distillery: Humboldt Organic Vodka (Fortuna)
Fiocco: Canteen Meats (San Rafael)
Local Culture Ferments: Garlic + Ginger Kimchi, Golden Beet + Dill Sauerkraut (Grass Valley)
Gowan’s Heirloom Cider: Estate Gravenstein Cider, Estate Spiced Apple Cider, Classic Dry Cider (Philo)
Abundant winter rains have set the stage for some spectacular spring hikes in Sonoma County. Gushing waterfalls, vibrant green hillsides and carpets of wildflowers in vineyards, meadows and on coastal bluffs await those who venture outdoors this season. Click through the above gallery for a few favorite springtime hikes.
Sofia Englund, Maci Martell and Dana Rebmann contributed to this article.
I am a huge fan of the “Today” show. Before I joined Sonoma Magazine and became editor in chief, I was an at-home parent working harvest as a side gig. And for all those years at home with my two boys, the “Today” show was my constant morning companion, kicking off the day with a sunny positivity and sense of community.
So attending the taping of the Sonoma County edition of the show at St. Francis Winery & Vineyards, right in my hometown of Kenwood, was a true full-circle kind of moment. I loved the window into how the show comes together and did more than my fair share of whooping and cheering for the cameras.
Here’s some of what you might not have seen if you watched the show on TV Friday morning:
The team behind the scenes was huge—more than a few dozen, including producers, assistants, camera people, and security—all wearing special Today show lanyards. My press badge made me feel extra included in all the action. Funny story: more than a few times, fellow audience members approached me to ask about this or that on the show, maybe because I had a badge. But of course, I didn’t know any more than they did!
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I was relieved to run into a couple of familiar faces right away. In the parking lot at St. Francis, I saw Ari Weiswasser of Glen Ellen Star, who was there for the food segment that closed the broadcast. (Glen Ellen Star has been on every Best Restaurants list we’ve done at the magazine since the restaurant opened.) Once inside, I spent a bunch of time with the charming Stéphane Saint Louis from Table Culture Provisions in Petaluma, who was a part of the same food segment. I saw later on Instagram that Al Roker ate at Glen Ellen Star the night before the taping—great call!
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Press people and audience members were shepherded through metal detectors and then out onto the lawn next to the St. Francis vineyards. I was there with Sara Edwards and Dan Taylor from our sister publication, The Press Democrat, and we were next to Brent Alan from KZST Radio and Kari Hall and Marcus Washington, morning show hosts from NBC Bay Area’s Today in the Bay. Lots of people recognized Kari and Marcus and approached them for selfies, which they were super gracious about. Kari said how happy she was to be out of the studio on such a gorgeous day, and we all laughed when Marcus did a Golden State Warriors rally dance with a woman all decked out in Warriors gear.
The set was impressive. The main table where the hosts sat for the intro was set up on a raised stone patio just off the tasting room, with several cameras and big white scrims overhead to filter the sun and avoid harsh shadows in the bright midday light. There was a separate area on another patio set up for the cooking segment, and the walking interview with track star Allyson Felix circled the lawn where we all gathered. The vineyards were a little on the bare side given that it’s still so early in the growth season—but I heard the hosts remark several times how lush the setups and scenery looked on camera.
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Stephanie Mansour, one of the Today show contributors, arrived about 15 minutes before taping began to warm folks up with a stretching and cheering practice. Stephanie chatted people up about the signs they’d brought from home and asked people where they were from. Several people shouted out that they were from out of town—Arizona, Seattle, Atlanta. The producers asked us to cheer and wave our arms in the air, whooping it up with lots of enthusiasm to welcome the team. And when host Dylan Dreyer came out to shake hands and say hello, we knew the main event was about to happen.
Taping took about two hours, which included the intro with the wine sabering, the cooking segment, the walk with Allyson Felix, the chat with the Garcia Twins, and the small business shopping segment, plus lots of waving and cheering and a few separate little intros and throwbacks. For logistical reasons, including the time difference with the East Coast, the show wasn’t taped in real time. They did the “buddy up” segment at Bricoleur Vineyards in Windsor on Wednesday—that’s where the hosts did the wine blending seminar, the olive grove bathing, and the hot air balloon ride. The main taping at St. Francis was on Thursday from about 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and it aired here in Sonoma on Friday at 9 a.m. Because it was being taped in advance, there were one or two times when we heard the crew stop and ask to do something over again. At the very beginning, for example, Al Roker stopped the intro because he said his teleprompter was lagging a bit behind. In general, it’s impressive how utterly unflappable the hosts are, just rolling with it every time!
If you ever get to go to the Today show, by all means wear a costume! If you’re going to do it, you might as well go all in. There was a woman dressed up as a bunch of grapes to fit the Sonoma County theme, and she got to be on camera a ton! People who had clever signs or who were extra enthusiastic in the crowd also got lots of attention from the hosts and camera operators—a group of school nurses with a sign about healthy living got a callout, as did a woman with a sign about how she’d made her husband into a Today show fan!
I loved that the hosts and guests were extremely generous with their time. Sheinelle, Craig, Dylan, and Al (look at me, calling people by their first names, haha!) each approached the crowd at breaks in the taping to chat and shake hands. Al Roker was kind enough to take a moment with an older woman sitting near me, one of the few who needed a chair to rest in, who was attending with her two grown daughters. You could tell she was over the moon at the attention!
I had been prepped the week before to be a backup host for the Shop Today segment with Sonoma County small businesses. Evidently, they weren’t sure if regular contributor Jill Martin’s flight was going to land in time for her to make it to the taping, and so they asked me to be ready to go on backup. But then she did indeed make it to the winery with plenty of time, so I didn’t have to—and to be honest, it was so much more fun to be able to enjoy Jill’s banter with the hosts. She is a pro! (A shoutout to the very kind—and remarkably organized—Today show producers Kayiu Wong and Phoebe Curran, who reached out to me at the magazine and took time to chat yesterday, in the middle of a super busy production. I’m happy you had such a good time here.)
I got to spend a few minutes interviewing the hosts after taping was finished, and they came across just as warm, natural and genuinely friendly as they appear on TV.
Dylan Dreyer reflected on the beauty of driving over the Golden Gate Bridge from the airport the night before, and how, waking up in Sonoma the next morning, everything looked “more and more beautiful as it all lit up.”
Al Roker picked up on something we all appreciate about Sonoma when he remarked on how beautiful, accessible and family-friendly Sonoma feels to him.
Sheinelle Jones said everything in Sonoma had been “absolutely delightful”—and joked with me about my old-school habit of recording interviews on my laptop.
Craig Melvin talked about his dad, who worked in the postal service for over four decades, and how that reminds him of the long-term commitment of many of his NBC family.
And Al Roker also called out the Today show staffers. “It is really a team,” he said. “We are literally the tip of the iceberg, but underneath, supporting what you see at the top is this massive cohesive team.”
Thank you so much to the Today Show and to Sonoma County Tourism for making Friday’s show possible. Sheinelle, Al, Craig, and Dylan: please do come back–we’d love to share even more with you about this beautiful place we call home!
Beloved by wine geeks near and far, the Garagiste Wine Festival: Northern Exposure will return to Sonoma County on Saturday, April 29, at the Sonoma Veteran’s Memorial Hall.
Launched in Paso Robles in 2011, with satellite events in Sonoma County since 2018, the Garagiste Festival invites winemakers who produce 1,500 cases of wine or less per year to share their wines with consumers at the one-day event. The Northern Exposure edition will feature wines from Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and El Dorado counties, as well as Lodi, Sierra Foothills, Suisun Valley, Anderson Valley and Santa Clara Valley.
More than 40 micro-wineries will be on site to pour their limited-release wines, tiny gems that are often difficult to come by given that 90% of these winemakers don’t have a tasting room. This year, 17 new wineries are scheduled to participate, including Monroy Wines of Geyserville.
“As a virtual winery, we don’t have many opportunities to pour wine for people, so it’s easy to get lost in the crowd,” said Adolfo Hernandez, who founded Monroy Wines with his wife, Nohelia, in 2018. “The Garagiste Festival lets people to sample our wines. Once they taste them, they love them.”
Hernandez, who also works as an associate winemaker for Benovia Winery in Santa Rosa, produces about 400 cases of wine per year for Monroy Wines, which focuses on barrel-fermented cabernet sauvignon from Chalk Hill and sauvignon blanc from the Fountaingrove District.
“Barrel-fermented cabernet sauvignon is a unique, labor-intensive process, and it’s something I like to share with others,” Hernandez said. “I’m really looking forward to telling people what we’re about.”
Coined in Bordeaux, France, in the early 1990s, the term garagiste was given to rebellious winemakers who were fed up with the region’s strict, centuries-old rules for winemaking. Rather than adhere to tradition, these adventurous men and women made small lots of uncharacteristically robust wines in garages, warehouses and anywhere else they wanted. Threatened by this novel way of making wine, the traditionalists called these turncoat winemakers garagistes. While the term was intended to insult, it became a badge of honor to those who took pride in going rogue.
The Garagiste Festival was inspired by these independent French winemakers and their determination to forge a new path.
For Ashley Holland, founder and winemaker at Read Holland Wines in Santa Rosa, the Garagiste Festival is not only a chance to connect with fellow winemakers. It’s an opportunity to share her story with consumers.
“I am often so busy that it can be difficult to get my wines in front of people,” said Holland, who launched Read Holland in 2016. “The Garagiste Festival gives me a huge advantage to make my brand come alive and tell the story I’m often too busy to tell.”
You can reach Staff Writer Sarah Doyle at 707-521-5478 or sarah.doyle@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @whiskymuse.
Can a Michelin-starred restaurant experience be replicated at home? Two restaurateurs are banking on the idea that it can.
During the pandemic, John Stubbs of the James Beard award-winning Jewel of the South in New Orleans and Jon Sybert of Tail Up Goat in Washington, D.C., watched as fine dining restaurants around the country struggled to stay alive.
Some turned to upscale takeout, others to elaborate outdoor dining tents, but most were forced to wait it out and hope for the best.
“During the pandemic, things were happening in the restaurant industry out of sheer necessity and survival. But no one was offering the ability to partner directly with the restaurants to provide a Michelin-level caliber,” Sybert said.
The two reached out to 10 of their compatriots, including at Compere Lapin (New Orleans), Octavia (San Francisco), Birdie G’s (Los Angeles), Roots Southern Table (Dallas), Dirt Candy (New York City) and Ernest (San Francisco) with a daring idea — bringing the restaurant experience home with semi-prepared meals delivered to diners’ doorsteps as a DIY dinner party meal kit. Their chef friends jumped at the novel idea.
In March, the duo soft-launched Moveable Feast. Similar to meal kits from providers like Blue Apron or Hungry Root, ingredients arrive in insulated boxes with detailed cooking instructions. But that’s where the similarities end.
Moveable Feast is everything you need to throw a Michelin-quality dinner party for four or 12 people. In addition to the fancy-pants food, each kit includes a printout of the menu for each guest, extensive plating instructions and multiple courses served family-style.
Moveable Feast isn’t DoorDash but a luxury experience delivered with the care and details you’d find at a fine-dining restaurant (with a price to match).
“We wanted all the little touches from the restaurant that make it unique,” Sybert said.
Sybert and Stubbs built a high-end central kitchen in downtown Napa that can reproduce each chef’s unique meal concept with local ingredients. Each chef creates a multicourse menu and detailed cooking instructions.
The chefs are compensated for their intellectual property and are equity partners in the company.
Wine Country, Stubbs said, was the perfect place to locate their central kitchen.
“The prerequisite was the produce, diversity and availability of foods, along with the longevity of the seasons. We wanted proximity to the product. There are such intrinsic benefits that belong in Wine Country,” he said.
The proof, however, was in whether the experience would translate.
“The biggest question is can we do it — offer an honest expression of that restaurant in that voice of some of the most talented people in the country?” Stubbs said.
After trying one of the meal kits from Chef Brandon Rice’s Ernest restaurant in San Francisco, the answer is yes and no.
Unboxing is one of the most fun parts of the experience. Most ingredients are beautifully packaged in reusable aluminum containers. Sauces arrive in clear bottles. One of the courses, the Dungeness crab Rangoon dip, came in a piping bag. Also included in the kit was a ring mold for perfect plating. Pre-portioned balls of chocolate-chip cookie dough were too tempting not to nibble on raw.
The meal can be refrigerated for a day or two, and the detailed instructions (and videos) outline each step, from when to start to how to decorate each dish. There aren’t any special tools needed that most people don’t already have in their kitchen.
The whole thing came together in about a half-hour or so. The most challenging part was making sure not to burn the potato terrine. Easy-peasy. And my husband was gobsmacked by the chop salad with togarishi ranch dressing, perfectly cooked prime NY strip steak (it comes sous vide; you just warm it up) and crab dip with fried wontons.
Also included were cacio e pepe profiteroles, cornbread with cultured butter and the chocolate-chip cookies that simply need to be cooked in the oven for a few minutes. It was delicious.
We also live in the Bay Area, where luxurious fine dining experiences aren’t hard to come by. But, no, our home doesn’t rival the restaurant experience. There wasn’t a beautiful dining room or accommodating waitstaff. We gobbled it up a bit too quickly.
People in places without a lot of high-end fine dining are the prime target for Moveable Feast.
“The idea is access. We want more people to have access to the talent, creativity (and) expression that happens in the restaurant and art that goes into it. That’s only available to a very few,” Sybert said.
Feasts for four are $385 and go up from there. A membership for four feasts per year is $1,400 or $3,960 for a dinner each month. Each month features a new restaurant. For details, go to moveablefeast.io.
A farmhouse renovated in 2016 recently sold in Sonoma for $3,850,000. The property, which includes a 3-acre Syrah vineyard and a meditation labyrinth, offers plenty of design inspiration.
Architect Paul Berger, who renovated the home, employed signature farmhouse-style design elements, including high ceilings, board-and-batten siding and a white exterior. The interior is flooded with light through numerous large windows and the airiness is balanced by rich, if not weighty, textures: wood-grain tile in the bathroom, deep grays in the cabinetry and on the walls, and many natural stone surfaces.
The yard is designed to encourage a variety of activities. An attractive dog run sits adjacent to a window-walled and carbon-covered structure that functions as an office or workout room. There’s a lounging area and a dining area on the deck by the pool, but also a walking path, cordoned off by a wall of succulents, that leads to a meditation labyrinth. The vineyard spans the length of the property and can be viewed from every spot in the yard.
Click through the above gallery for a peek inside the home.
The property, which is under contract, is listed with Mary and Vincent Bienek of Sotheby’s International Realty – Wine Country – Sonoma Brokerage, 722 Broadway, Sonoma, 707-939-2230, 707-939-2231, sothebysrealty.com
