With summer around the corner, it’s time to start relishing the season. Eating is one good way to do that. Why not enhance the experience with a few local luxuries available in Sonoma stores? We’ve picked just a few of our favorites. Get in those stores and find them plus a few favorites of your own — click through the above gallery for details.
Asking a vendor whether the poutine fries at a music festival are “authentic” would be ridiculous anywhere but at BottleRock Napa Valley, the annual music, wine and food festival that features top Wine Country restaurants and Michelin-starred chefs in its culinary lineup.
Quelle surprise — the classic poutine with beef gravy, chewy cheese curds, green onions and crispy fries were on point. Maybe they weren’t as extraordinary as the pastrami-smothered fries from three-Michelin-star chef Christopher Kostow of Loveski Deli and the Restaurant at Meadowood, but they were delightful nonetheless.
Though it’s only been nine months since the 2021 BottleRock in September — delayed after cancellation in May 2020 and 2021 — crowds have returned to hear Metallica, Pink! and KYGO and taste dishes from more than 67 food vendors, down slightly from 75 last year.
More than just cold hot dogs and flat beer, BottleRock’s food lineup includes gourmet doughnuts, paella, lobster rolls and oysters along with craft cocktails, beer and local wines. If you’re going, here are nine to check out.
Black Piglet Back BLT, $19: Toasted bread with ripe tomatoes, lettuce and garlic aioli that will bring you to your knees. The bacon is from John Stewart and Duskie Estes’ Black Pig Meat. Find it in the food truck area.
Ramen Burger, Nombe, $18: A “bun” of fried ramen noodles with a 50/50 Kobe beef and pork belly patty, slathered in miso sauce with blue cheese and buttered shiitakes. A little greenery includes arugula in wasabi aioli, tomato and cucumber pickles. Add a sushi “burrito” with spicy tuna and rice rolled into a seaweed wrap. Near the Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage.
Salt and Vinegar Chips with Caviar Onion Dip, Charlie’s, $15: This forthcoming Napa restaurant has salty homemade vinegar chips, with onion dip studded with caviar. The caviar premixed into the dip was a bit of a letdown, but for $15, we were satisfied. VIP area.
Loveski Deli Loaded Fries, $18: Though chef Kostow was sequestered behind the VIP gates last year, this year us general admission festivalgoers can try his crinkle-cut fries with gooey white cheese sauce, pickled carrots and pastrami. Culinary Garden.
Root Beer Float, Mariapilar, $8: The float of creamy ice cream makes this drink an after-rocking cool down. Culinary Garden.
Classic Poutine, Poutine Brothers, $14: You know the drill: crispy fries, salty beef gravy and cheese curds. They’re crave-worthy and a perfect foil to those $18 craft beers. Culinary Garden.
Peanut Tofu Nachos at Azalina’s Malaysian, $9: A stomach-filling deal with braised tofu, pickled vegetables and a sweet-spicy peanut sauce atop ballpark tortilla chips. Culinary Garden.
Gerard’s Paella, $20: Heavenly saffron rice, vegetables and a topper of chicken and shrimp made in a giant paella pan. A festival staple and so hearty. Culinary Garden and VIP area.
Glazed Pork Belly Skewers, $18: The presentation of a giant hunk of pork belly on a skewer was more thrilling than the bland taste and chewy texture, but still a fun festival bite. VIP area.
Many people know Crooked Goat Brewing as a hub for great craft beer in Sebastopol, but what some do not realize is that the brewery has roots in Petaluma.
Before opening Crooked Goat in the Barlow complex in 2016, co-founders Paul Vyenielo, Rich Allen, Andy Erickson, Andy Cook, Scott Tieman and Will Erickson crafted their brews in a small office space behind Pete’s Henny Penny restaurant.
Crooked Goat has come a long way since those early days, expanding its Barlow location three times to keep up with demand. On May 14, the brewery added a new taproom in Petaluma, just west of downtown. To Vyenielo, it felt like a homecoming.
“I was born and raised in Petaluma, and three of my partners are also from here,” he said. “We’d been looking for a second location for a couple years, and it just felt right.”
The search led Vyenielo and his friends to an 1880s carriage house at the corner of Howard Street and Western Avenue — only a few doors down from his childhood home. In later years, the space housed a tractor dealership and, most recently, a t-shirt print shop and ballet studio. The partners gutted the building and restored it to its original character.
“We exposed those beautiful bones,” Vyenielo said, “and when we saw the old wooden beams on the ceiling it was just so cool.”
Temporarily operating at one-third of the building’s 200-guest capacity (Vyenielo expects to be running at full steam as of Memorial Day weekend), the taproom is open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays. Within the next couple of months, once permits are fully approved, Crooked Goat plans to open for daily business.
Like the Sebastopol location, Petaluma’s Crooked Goat is family- and dog-friendly, with a comfortable neighborhood vibe. The taproom is spacious and open, with bar seating and long tables up front, and a large living room-style lounge area at the back. While Crooked Goat does not have outdoor seating, wall-sized rollup garage doors give the space an airy feel.
Crooked Goat features 18 beers on tap — brewed at the Sebastopol location — plus hard seltzer, zero-proof kombucha and artisan root beer. The brewery specializes in West Coast IPAs, and also offers a wide range of rotating brews from sours to lagers to fruit ales.
Food trucks provide beer-friendly noshing options, and in a few months, once interior renovations are completed, Acme Burger will begin delivering orders to Crooked Goat patrons from its new digs just across the parking lot.
If all goes well with the Petaluma taproom, Vyenielo might just get to quit his day job as a tile contractor and become a full-time Crooked Goat proprietor.
“I’ve been doing tile for almost 40 years now and it’s not nearly as fun as hanging out at the brewery,” he said. “Everybody that comes in has a smile on their face, and they’ve got a smile when they walk out.”
Open (temporary hours) 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. 100 Howard Street, Petaluma, 707-559 5691, crookedgoatbrewing.com.
Collaborating quietly in their small theater in Santa Rosa’s A Street arts district, the Imaginists experimental theatrical company has been rehearsing a new project of potential artistic and social importance.
Titled “SDA (Someone Dies Again),” the experimental theater piece tackles the issue of guns and gun violence.
Developing the play during rehearsals, rather than from a previously written script, a local cast of 12 has been working for the past two months with acclaimed Hungarian director and playwright Árpád Schilling, who arrived in Santa Rosa in February to start planning the production.
Commissioned by the Imaginists and backed by a $150,000 William and Flora Hewlett Foundation grant, the piece premiered May 20 in San Francisco at Z Space, where the local company has worked twice before, and will continue June 2-11 at the Imaginists’ space in Santa Rosa.
Schilling said the intent of the play is not to deliver a lecture on gun violence but to examine the issue from a fresh point of view.
“We don’t focus on the gun. To have it onstage all the time would be like a Western movie,” Schilling said during a recent interview at the Imaginists’ theater. “Step by step, we formed our topic. We talk about the society behind the gun. We never say we know the answer.”
The playwright and director’s views on guns are influenced by his own background growing up in Hungary, he said.
“One of the strange things in the United States for me, coming from Europe, is guns. It is very rare there to read or hear that something happened with a gun. Here, if you go to visit someone, you can’t be sure if there is a gun in the house or not,” he explained.
He does not profess to be completely neutral on the subject.
“If you have a conflict, and there is a trigger in you, it may be much better not to have a gun next to you,” Schilling added.
During rehearsals, Schilling and the actors have experimented with characters, scenes and story.
“I am not a director who tells people what to do or to do this or that,” Schilling said. “We have given character onstage to be complex. Actors can propose changes, but I want to see good decisions reflected on stage. It’s editing and rewriting at the same time. People to accept that in the end, I decide.”
What Schilling and the Imaginists share is a commitment to developing theatrical pieces through interaction between author, director and cast, said Amy Pinto, artistic director for production at the Imaginists.
“Imaginists is a place that has developed over years of working with community members, emerging performers and professionals. We bring everyone together,” she said.
Schilling, 48, may not be a household name in the U.S., but he has built an international reputation and is respected in theater circles.
Between 1995 and 2008, his Krétakör theater in Budapest became the best-known independent theater company in Hungary and was recognized abroad as an innovative theater. Schilling disbanded the company in 2008 to create a performing and media art workshop called Chalk Circle. Schilling and his family left Hungary for France in 2018.
Founded in 2002 by artistic directors Pinto and Brent Lindsay, the Imaginists theater describes itself on its website as “a performance laboratory investigating the intersection of art and community.”
The roots of the Imaginists go back to 1994 and the performance collective KITUS (Knights of Indulgence Theatre United States), whose vision was a break from traditional and regional theater models. In 2001, the original group disbanded. Lindsay and Pinto went on to create the Imaginists.
What the Imaginists and Schilling share is a dedication to development of characters and stories through the rehearsal process, working with the actors to produce a performance piece.
The collaboration between Schilling and the Imaginists has a long history. In 2013, Pinto attended dunaPart, the Hungarian festival of independent theater, in Budapest and heard a talk by Schilling.
In 2014, Hungarian theater critic Tamas Jaszay took a tour of U.S. theaters in different cities. He saw a production by the Imaginists and suggested they collaborate with Schilling. Later the same year, Lindsay met with Schilling in Budapest and agreed to explore the idea.
In 2015, Schilling and his wife, Lilla, an actor, spent a week in Santa Rosa, meeting with the Imaginists and attending rehearsals, and plans for a collaboration moved forward.
Lindsay returned to Budapest in 2017, and then traveled with Schilling to Slovenia to see rehearsals and the premiere of “EXIT,” a theater piece directed by Árpád in three languages.
The collaboration got its big boost in 2018, when the Imaginists and Schilling received the $150,000 Hewlett 50 Arts Commission for their project. The plan was to premiere the work in 2020, but that was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
An initiative of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions were launched in 2017 to celebrate the foundation’s 50th anniversary. The five-year, $8 million initiative supports the creation and premiere of 50 new works from outstanding artists.
In April, another Hewlett 50 project, “Wicked Bodies (Sonoma),” by choreographer Liz Lerman, premiered at the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park.
For Pinto of the Imaginists, “SDA” is not only the culmination of a long collaboration, but an opportunity to tackle the important issue of gun violence in a valid and dramatic way.
“There is a gun in the show. It’s a character,” she said. “Even when the gun isn’t there, it’s a presence.”
But for her, the significance of the project goes beyond that.
“International collaborations are rare. It requires a trust, to fail, to learn together, despite all of our differences. And we recognize through this process that whether we live in the same country or not, how do we collaborate? Can we can truly listen to each other?” Pinto said.
“It is good to create something together when we are all coming from very different backgrounds and experiences,” she added. “This language of theater, in this context, is an antidote and an exorcism.”
This article was originally published in The Press Democrat. You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.
Haven’t made plans for the long weekend ahead? Enjoy three days of work-free bliss with our list of things to do in Sonoma County this holiday weekend. Click through the above gallery for details and don’t forget to tag us on Instagram (@sonomamag) when you share your weekend highlights.
Charles Swanson contributed to this article.
Let’s get the cutlery puns out of the way early.
Mike Benz and Chris Fracaro are sharp, incisive guys who forged a friendship over one shared value in particular: “Chris and I both had this similar distaste for instant garbage,” says Benz, “all these things that end up in landfills, that aren’t meant to outlast us.”
In February 2021, the artisans formed Seral Wood & Steel. Using reclaimed steel and wood sourced from Sonoma County, they produce hand-forged chef’s knives and kitchen tools of remarkable beauty, implements that straddle the line between utility and art. Their knives are designed to be passed down — “maybe even fought over,” says Benz, with a smile — from one generation to the next.
The two are intentional, deliberate, proudly old-school. The anvil in their Healdsburg shop dates back to 1860. The 7,000-pound power hammer has been around for a century. “Our table saw’s from 1969,” adds Fracaro.
“I absolutely love things that are built well, and built to last.”
Their process is the opposite of mass production. “We’ve mapped it out,” says Benz, “and any way you slice it” – that pun was unintended, he later confirmed – “with all the heating time and tempering and treating and gluing, we can’t make a knife any faster than about two weeks. But we can make a couple of knives during that time.”
Fracaro grew up with “crappy” stainless steel knives “that bent like a spring” – not a good thing in one’s cutlery, he explains. When someone gave him a high-end, Japanese knife, he noticed its rigidity, and how much better it performed. He started cooking more. His next thought: How do I make this?
The first car he owned was a 1970 Camaro. “I’ve always liked to take things apart and understand how they work,” says Fracaro, a graduate of Oregon’s South Albany High School, whose industrial arts program featured a strong metal shop class, where he first welded and worked in a foundry. “I started to grow a passion for metal then,” says Fracaro.
Benz is a native of Peekskill, New York, in the Hudson Valley. While working at a brewery in Ithaca, he met his future wife, Christine, then a student of viticulture at Cornell University. Their relationship blossomed. After she earned her masters degree, however, she informed Benz that she was moving to California.
Benz had a Sonoma County connection: He’d befriended Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo, cofounders of Russian River Brewing Company, at a hop farm in upstate New York. “I basically just followed them west,” he recounts, “and they kept me, like a rescue animal.”
Benz joined the brewery, and swiftly rose to become director of distribution and sales. While learning to roast coffee, during what he refers to as his “hobby time,” he met Fracaro, whom he describes as “one of the first friends I made who I could hang out with and not talk about beer.”
Fracaro began teaching his friend about forging and knife-making. In December of 2019, Benz and his wife embarked on a “delayed honeymoon” to Japan, where they visited a family engaged “in the ancient art of knife-making,” Benz recalls.
Witnessing the care and attention that went into the craft, learning how hand-forging heightened the structural integrity of each blade, filled Benz with “a new level of energy for the project.”
A year later, Seral opened its doors for business – after they’d moved Fracaro’s shop up to Healdsburg from Petaluma.
Two decades in the craft beer industry convinced Benz there was a growing population in Sonoma County of people who expected excellence, “but also wanted to know the story of the passion behind it,” he says. “So many people come here for beer, wine, food, and we have amazing versions of all those things. We wanted to create something made with materials from this area.”
Much of the stainless steel the pair uses was left over after construction projects at Russian River Brewing Company. Benz and Fracaro’s forging process uses two-thirds reclaimed stainless steel, which serves as the knife’s outer jacket. The final third is a high-carbon core in the middle, which allows the blade to take and hold a fine edge. Stainless steel is “tricky and finicky” and best forged in an oxygen-free environment, Fracaro explains. “If it oxidizes, we can’t stick the metals together.” So the metal is heated to 2,000 degrees, then pounded with a power hammer “that smashes it together at an atomic level. “
For blades featuring pattern-welded steel, they’ll repeat the process – cut, stack, and forge-weld each billet, a small, semi-finished rectangle of steel – until the desired pattern is achieved. It’s time-consuming, and results in 30% loss of material. But the results are stunning. The geometry of each knife the pair makes is specially tuned to its task.
Once the billet of steel is the correct size, they commence hammering out the knife shape by hand, on the anvil, forging the tip to a point. After forging the blade profile, they shape the handle. And after cooling, the steel is tempered to the desired hardness.
The handles of the knives come from oak, baywood, and laurel trees around the North Bay. Benz and Fracaro also use cast-off walnut from Cali’Co Hardwoods, a Santa Rosa company that makes gunstocks. The walnut Cali’Co can’t use goes into a pile called Fancy Rejects, “which is going to be the name of our band, once we get that started,” Benz deadpans.
The highest reward, the two say, is the nod of approval from an industry chef. “That’s when Chris and I high-five,” says Benz, “because we know we did it right.”
It’s also deeply fulfilling when they sell knives to home chefs, “and you meet them a year later, and their excitement for handmade culinary tools has skyrocketed. Because once you get one, you never go back. It’s like drinking craft beer. You don’t go back to Bud.”
Benz concludes with a riff on where they see themselves in several decades. They hope to be established figures, “the knife-makers in town.”
By then they might be “a little cranky,” he allows, slightly stooped “from all the handwork we’re doing. But we’re happy. We’re not trying to expand, to take over the world. We’re doing this thing that we care about. And we’re doing it consistently, and well.”
And with a bit of edge.
Goldfinch restaurant will be the successor to the recently closed K&L Bistro, according to the owners of The Livery on Main, a forthcoming food hall, coworking and event space in downtown Sebastopol that is operated by the “public benefit corporation” Farm to Coast Collective, a subsidiary of local company The Beale Group.
Farm to Coast Collective purchased K&L Bistro from longtime owners Karen and Lucas Martin in March. The Martins opened their French bistro in 2007 and won a Michelin star the same year for their French staples, like onion soup, Steak au Poivre and Mussels Mariniere.
Despite the restaurant’s ongoing success, the Martins struggled to keep the doors open during the pandemic, often operating with minimal staff. After selling their restaurant, they announced that they plan to retire in Oregon.
Goldfinch will be headed by Nick Izzarelli, formerly with Stark Reality Restaurants and currently the food and beverage director at The Livery on Main.
“Wood-fired, locally sourced and sustainable fare” will be the focus at the new restaurant, which will offer “creative plant-based dishes with seafood and meats as sides,” as well as an “excellent selection of both new and old-world wines,” according to the website. A summer opening is anticipated.
Located at 119 S. Main St., the former K&L Bistro space is just a stone’s throw away from The Livery at 135 S. Main St., but not attached to the 22,000-square-foot multi-use space. The Livery’s food hall will include several micro-restaurants, including El Charro Negro, Taverna Lithi, Cozy Plum Kitchen and Village Bakery. The owners are hoping for a 2022 launch.
From Balinese Babi guling to Toum on za’atar fries in Sonoma, here’s what our dining editor has been enjoying lately.
Standing in the middle of a rice paddy outside of Ubud, Bali, Chef Putu Ambara of Nusantara restaurant pulls a yellow button flower from the verdant overgrowth. “Taste it; it makes your tongue numb,” he says. A tiny nibble from the plant, also known as Szechuan buttons, instantly creates a tingling sensation that lasts for several minutes. It’s just one of the many, many edible herbs and flowers that have been used in Indonesia as both tonic and flavoring for thousands of years.
Bali is an edible wonderland and a forager’s dream, filled with edible greenery, seafood, fruits, vegetables, meat and native wildlife like no other place on earth, and I came to taste it all.
More than 8,300 miles from San Francisco, Bali is part of the Indonesian archipelago that straddles the Indian and Pacific oceans. More like its Southeast Asian neighbors than Pacific Islanders, Bali is an island jungle just 8 degrees south of the equator. The town of Ubud is a cultural center of dance, art and food that rose to fame as a destination in Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2006 travel memoir “Eat, Pray, Love.”
On a seven-day whirlwind trip this month, I ate at as many restaurants, warungs (the Balinese name for casual cafes), high-end spots and food markets as I could. My takeaway is how similar the culinary philosophies of Sonoma County and Bali are — making use of organic, local ingredients; eliminating food waste whenever possible; foraging for unique flavors; “nose-to-tail” eating that uses every part of the animal and plant; and honoring culinary traditions while adding new twists.
And while a week is barely time to scratch the surface of the fascinating food culture of just one small corner of Bali, here are a few favorite restaurants in and around Ubud, Bali, should you get the chance to go.
Locavore: Named the best restaurant in Indonesia and one of the 50 best restaurants in Asia multiple times, this sustainability-focused fine dining spot is as much a philosophy as a meal. Chefs Eelke Plasmeijer (a Dutchman who moved to Indonesia in 2008) and Ray Adriansyah set playful culinary scenes with unexpected ingredients like overripe bananas, nutmeg tree fruit and bok choy stems to demonstrate how food “waste” can be turned into Michelin-worthy dishes. It’s best to experience the nine-course menu with a sense of wonder and intrigue rather than expecting a traditional meal. And don’t flinch when raw goat meat is served in a leaf. It’s delicious. Jl. Dewisita No. 10, Ubud, Kecamatan Ubud, Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali 80571, Indonesia, locavore.co.id
Nusantara: This sister restaurant to Locavore focuses more on traditional home cooking inspired by local ingredients. Chef Putu’s Saturday cooking class includes a traditional food market tour, breakfast at a street-side warung for roast pig (Babi guling), a foraging tour through a local rice patty and a restaurant kitchen cooking class using local herbs, spices and meats prepared for a private lunch. Jl. Dewisita No. 09C, Ubud, Kecamatan Ubud, Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali 80571, Indonesia, locavore.co.id/nusantara
Room 4 Dessert: Dessert is the main event at Chef Will Goldfarb’s groundbreaking cafe. Enter through a culinary garden where many of the evening’s dishes find their inspiration. The full 21-course tasting menu with small savory dishes, cocktail pairings and 14 dessert bites can be a bit of a slog, especially if you’re jet-lagged. We recommend a light dinner and the seven-course dessert menu. Jl. Raya Sanggingan, Kedewatan, Kecamatan Ubud, Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali 80561, Indonesia, room4dessert.com
Hanging Gardens: Hidden deep in the jungle just north of Ubud, this uber-luxury resort is built on a 45-degree angle overlooking the Ayung River and ancient Dalem Segara temple. Embraced by a wild green landscape, the restaurant, pool and villas seem to hang in the air with an uninterrupted view of the plunging hillside. For a minimum of 300,000 rupiah (about $20) per person, you can ride the two-person funicular from the open-air lobby to the restaurant overlooking a double infinity pool. It is truly one of the most spectacular sights in the world (and awarded by travel magazines accordingly). Grab a few drinks on the patio and a snack while basking in the sun like a mogul. Buahan, Payangan, Gianyar Regency, Bali 80571, Indonesia, hanginggardensofbali.com
Ibu Susu: In the heart of downtown Ubud, it can be hard to find restaurants that don’t pander entirely to Western tastes. This small cafe is clearly frequented by foreigners but serves authentic Balinese and Pan-Asian dishes along with great cocktails. Hit up happy hour from 5 to 7 p.m. for drink deals. Favorite dishes include beef rendang (a slow-cooked beef in coconut milk), fresh betel leaf with salmon and tuna tartare or lemongrass chicken with papaya salad. Jl. Monkey Forest, Ubud, Kecamatan Ubud, Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali 80571, Indonesia, ibususu.com
Hotel Alila: The training ground for many local chefs, this hotel and resort typically offers high-end evening dining, but it has yet to reopen after the pandemic. Guests are treated to authentic breakfast dishes — rice porridge, nasi goring and gado gado and jamu (a tonic of herbs and spices). The poolside cafe also serves both Western and Balinese dishes. Desa, Melinggih Kelod, Payangan, Gianyar Regency, Bali 80572, Indonesia, alilahotels.com/ubud
Pyramids of Chi: Cleanse your soul and your stomach at this vegan wellness retreat and mystical energy garden. Centered around two soaring pyramids built to a one-sixteenth scale of the Pyramids of Giza, this place offers visitors sound and light healing classes inside the energy-channeling buildings. Though it’s easy to be skeptical, it’s hard to deny the feeling of body and mind renewal after an hour of meditating to ancient gongs and drums, especially for around $18 per person. The cafe offers plant-based, organic Western cuisine with fresh juices, baked goods, salads and even cocktails and wine. Jalan Kelebang Moding No. 22 Banjar Bentuyung Ubud, Tegallalang, Kec. Tegallalang, Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali 80571, Indonesia, pyramidsofchi.com
One note: Bali’s tourism has been ravaged by the pandemic. The country was closed to outside visitors for nearly two and a half years, collapsing much of the economy and closing many great restaurants and tourism spots. If you go, check to see if businesses have reopened.
There’s some hummus among us with the opening of Spread Kitchen in Boyes Hot Springs.
The former Sonoma Eats (18375 Sonoma Highway) is the first brick-and-mortar restaurant for chef/owner Cristina Topham, best known for her catering and farm market offerings. Chef de Cuisine Nick Urban heads up the kitchen, serving fresh pita with hummus, beef and chicken shawarma, chickpea and black bean falafel and beef and lamb kofta.
All proteins (including the vegetarian jackfruit shawarma) are available with pita, in a bowl with tabouleh and a fresh “grain of the day,” as a salad or as “dirty fries” with pickled onion, herbs and yogurt sauce.
Don’t miss the Toum, a creamy whipped garlic sauce that’s irresistible on za’atar fries (and available for takeout). A large outdoor patio is perfect for summer dining.
Open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Monday. spreadkitchensonona.com, 707-934-7559.
As we head toward Memorial Day weekend — the unofficial start of summer — the Napa Valley Wine Train wants folks to get excited for the holiday. The Christmas holiday, that is.
After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the one-of-a-kind Wine Country tourist attraction recently announced the beloved Santa Train is making a comeback.
“The Santa Train brings so much joy and excitement and with years missed due to Covid, this will be the best year yet,” said Nathan Davis, general manager of the Napa Valley Wine Train.
The Santa Train will run from December 1 to December 23. Tickets for the seasonal adventure are being sold exclusively to Napa residents through June 30. Locals must make bookings over the phone, as tickets can’t be purchased online. General ticket sales begin July 1.
Guests who hop aboard in 2022 can choose from a variety of new experiences and price points. Santa’s Cookie Car includes hot cocoa, a cookie and a photo with Santa. Tickets start at $50.
Guests who purchase the Gourmet Holiday Express are invited to arrive early to the train station in downtown Napa for hot cider, caroling and photo ops with Santa in his workshop. Once onboard, they will enjoy a three-course kid-friendly meal that includes a tableside visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Tickets start at $75.
The Very Merry Vista Dome includes the same pre-journey festivities and visits with Santa as the Gourmet Holiday Express, along with a three-course holiday inspired dinner served in the train’s observation-style dining car. Guests will also receive a box of homemade sweets to enjoy at home. Tickets start at $95.
The Napa Valley Wine Train is partnering with Napa-based foster youth organization Expressions of Hope for the holiday season. Donations of holiday socks, holiday-themed coloring workbooks and backpacks or suitcases are encouraged.
Napa Valley Wine Train, 1275 Mckinstry St., Napa, 707-253-2111, winetrain.com
Wine Country is a popular destination not only for its wineries but also for its charming inns and luxury hotels. Local properties offer a long list of amenities and special perks — from onsite spas and farm-to-table restaurants to customized tours and pools with vineyard views. Some also offer guests a chance to travel back in time.
Click through the above gallery for six historic Sonoma County hotels to check into this summer.
