The dining room at The Madrona in Healdsburg. (Matthew Millman)
Healdsburg’s Madrona Manor was a Victorian belle in desperate need of a face-lift. Built in 1881, for decades it remained an ode to the fussy aesthetics of another era, despite its world-class restaurant and opulent location in the Alexander Valley.
After purchasing the property in 2021, a group of investors led by St. Helena-based designer Jay Jeffers; his brother, Kyle Jeffers; and general partner Cory Schisler spent more than a year rethinking the space to honor the past but also offer a modern, luxury experience worthy of the sweeping vineyard views and world-renowned restaurant.
Reopened in mid-April, the property (now called The Madrona) has maintained its elegance with fun, even whimsical touches like rabbit-eared chairs, chicken portraits and an equine-theme wainscot made of horsehair in the old carriage house. But it’s the restaurant, headed by Michelin-starred Chef Jesse Mallgren, and airy dining rooms that are perhaps most changed.
Gone are the creaky and uneven floors, heavy white tablecloths and petticoat drapes that never jived with Mallgren’s forward-thinking culinary prowess. Instead, custom carpets, modern lighting and pinstriped outdoor furniture are a visual relief for patrons dining from Mallgren’s simplified new menu.
Now serving brunch, lunch and dinner, The Madrona has tossed aside complex molecular gastronomy for more approachable, but still opulent, dishes like caviar and onion dip with trout roe and homemade potato chips, a salad of fresh estate-grown greens and chicken paillard with spicy brown butter and rice powder.
Mallgren’s famous ice cream made with liquid nitrogen is gone from the menu, but so are the early 2000s. And we’re all ready to move on.
Best Bets
Onion Veloute: One of the only dishes that remain from the original menu, this creamy soup features a floating slow-cooked egg that melts into the dish, adding a second layer of luxury.
Warm bread: Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of these towering brioche buns with tart cultured butter. Bet you can’t eat just one.
Grilled local black cod: Gently poached cod gets a bath of lemon-thyme broth studded with fresh peas and estate-grown carrots. So simple, yet so good.
Guava Sour: Don’t overlook the house cocktail menu that plays to seasonal fruits and herbs. This tart vodka sour gets a mix of guava nectar, lime, orange oil and Lillet and black salt with just a hint of herbaceous absinthe.
Molcajete de 7 mares at La Fondita on Third Street in downtown Santa Rosa, May 11, 2022. (Chad Surmick / The Press Democrat)
There’s nothing understated about a bucket-size margarita, an 80-ounce beer tap at your table or a life-size, saddled-up plastic zebra outside the front door, and that’s what makes La Fondita the hottest fiesta in Sonoma County.
Downtown Santa Rosa’s newest restaurant is a quiet cantina by day with nine pages of regional Mexican and Californian classics ranging from breakfast burritos, tacos and enchiladas to ceviche and molcajetes. Things get wonderfully loco after 8 p.m. on weekends.
Mariachi bands fill the space with music and staff parade through the restaurant with flashing lights and whistles to announce the arrival of mega-margaritas. Wacky drinks like La Pitufina (Smurfette) with vodka, ice cream and blue Curacao seem like excellent ideas. Fortunately, the kitchen is open late so you can soak up all the booze in your belly. And watch out if it’s your birthday because you’ll be celebrated like a rock star with singing, picture-taking and clapping.
La Rubia y la Morena at La Fondita on Third Street in downtown Santa Rosa, May 11, 2022. (Chad Surmick / The Press Democrat)Mixed fajitas at La Fondita on Third Street in downtown Santa Rosa, May 11, 2022. (Chad Surmick / The Press Democrat)
“We think downtown deserves a half-time show of authentic, reasonably priced food. … You’ll be able to have a meal without breaking your wallet,” Ivy Reyes said.
Reyes works with her extended family to run both this restaurant and the original Roseland location started by her mother in 1996.
A large mural on the back wall of the new restaurant illustrates the journey of the Reyes family from Mexico to America.
Elena Maria Reyes started the original La Fondita with an old food truck she and her husband financed by selling their cars and asking her grandmother for a few thousand dollars in start-up money.
That same truck — which became the unmistakable orange Delicias Elenitas mobile kitchen — is permanently parked outside the 816 Sebastopol Road restaurant. It remains one of the most popular stops on Sebastopol Road and is open until 3 a.m.
Throughout the new restaurant is the hashtag #vamoscontodo, Spanish for “We’re all in,” Reyes said. After a drink or two, you will be, too.
Best Bets
El Mananero, $12.95: Eggs, pico, chorizo, Jack cheese, rice, black beans and sour cream wrapped up in a tortilla and ready to start your day.
Al Pastor Taco, $4: Spit-roasted pork with a sweet pineapple glaze. You’ll also find a variety of Mexican favorites, including lengua (tongue), stewy and delicious cabeza (head), tripa (tripe) and chicharron (pork rind), as well as tinga (shredded chicken), asada (steak) and cochinita pibil (slow-cooked pork flavored with citrus). You can watch the tortillas being made by hand at a small plancha near the kitchen.
Mariscos: Seafood is a specialty, and it’s worth perusing the many raw, fried and sauteed fish, shrimp and octopus options, such as Tostada de Ceviche, $7.95. It’s raw cod marinated in lime juice and mixed with onions, tomato and cilantro. A perfect balance of tart leche de tigre (the delicious juice of ceviche), buttery avocado, crunchy onions and cilantro.
Camaronillas, $17.95: Shrimp and cheese? Breaking the age-old taboo of pairing seafood with dairy, juicy sauteed shrimp and melted Jack cheese are tucked into a crispy folded tortilla and served with rice and slaw.
Molcajetes ($24-$27): A sizzling stone bowl is filled with meat, vegetables, nopales (cactus) and cheese swimming in a stew-like sauce and brought to the table steaming and sputtering. Go for the 7 Mares with shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, crab legs and baby octopus. It’s a perfect dish for two or more to share.
Elotes $3.95: The famous street cob corn covered in mayonnaise and cheese from the Delicias Elenitas truck is on the menu but hidden with the desserts. A favorite.
Banana margarita at La Fondita on Third Street in downtown Santa Rosa, May 11, 2022. (Chad Surmick / The Press Democrat)
Drinks: Margarita, schmargarita. There are, of course, plenty of fruity margarita flavors, either blended or on the rocks. But crowd-pleasers like the Flor de Capomo ($18), served in a wooden bowl surrounded by crushed ice, is a pretty pink passion fruit sipper with vodka, limoncello and pineapple juice.
El Chocolatzo, $17: Think grown-up chocolate shake with vodka, Kaluha, ice cream and chocolate sauce.
El Borrego, $150: A planter-sized pot with two bottles of tequila and margarita mix with a handful of straws. Dive in if you dare.
Happy Hour
Mexican Pizza, $12.95: With all the hubbub about Taco Bell bringing back the Mexican Pizza (why?), this version has it beat. A crispy flour tortilla with melted cheese, tomatoes, chives and a drizzle of chipotle sauce.
Open 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday. 630 Third St., Santa Rosa, 707-843-7595, Instagram @lafonditadowntown (no website).
If you would like to travel after sheltering in place for a couple of years but flying still feels too risky, why not explore the world-class destination that is our Sonoma County backyard?
People from all over the world are drawn to the area we are fortunate to call home and spend thousands of dollars to experience what we can so easily access.
Four local inns have wine-lover appeal. The Gables Wine Country Inn in Santa Rosa, Beltane Ranch in Glen Ellen and Raford Inn in Healdsburg have working vineyards on the property, while the newly renovated Madrona, previously best known for its Michelin-star restaurant, has a compelling wine list.
Beltane Ranch
A 25-acre vineyard, with sheep often roaming through it, gives guests a glimpse of the ranch’s holistic approach to grape growing.
Alex Benward, 38, and Lauren Benward, 41, are the fifth generation of family members to live and work on the ranch that dates back to 1936. Alex is president and oversees the farming operations, while Lauren handles sales and hospitality.
Alex and horticulturist Kelly Koeberer often give guests tours of the vineyard, planted primarily to sauvignon blanc, field blends and zinfandel.
“Alex and Kelly used to be focusing on sustainability but they’re taking it to the next level, drawing inspiration from the land stewards before us,” Lauren explained. “The management of grazing practices is one example. The sheep will eat the cover crops and their manure will fertilize the vineyard. We also have chickens roaming free in the olive orchards, with their manure fertilizing it.”
“Alex’s tours are tailored to what people want,” Lauren said. “He’ll be as technical as people want to get. He’ll explain how much hand work goes into the vineyard to coax the best expression out of the site. He covers the growing season, different blocks, soils and history.”
On the veranda at Beltane Ranch in Glen Ellen. (Courtesy of Beltane Ranch)At Beltane Ranch in Glen Ellen. (Alvin Jornada/The Press Democrat)
Guests can taste wines from the inn’s namesake Beltane Ranch label. Kevin Holt is the winemaker and he produces 1,800 cases per year, operating out of Fel Wines in Sonoma.
The ranch has four guest rooms, as well as a cottage suite and serves what Lauren describes as “farm to table” breakfasts. A typical entree is a poached free range farm egg over polenta and asparagus from the garden, along with fresh raspberries.
While wine-lovers likely will be most taken by the vineyard, the 105-acre property also has 4 acres of olive orchards to explore, as well as hiking trails. One path that loops around the property cuts through the vineyard, past the orchards by the horses, burros, the longhorn cattle, the sheep, the chickens and the produce garden.
While the bed and breakfast draws many Bay Area travelers, Lauren said more locals are reserving stays to reconnect with nature after being isolated during the pandemic.
11775 Sonoma Highway, Glen Ellen, 707-833-4233. beltaneranch.com
The Gables Wine Country Inn
With Taylor Mountain in the background, rows of riesling fan out in a vineyard near the Victorian Gothic circa 1877. Larry and Pam Willis purchased the inn, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, in 2012 and planted the vineyard in 2017.
“I think people are fascinated by the vineyard, especially people who don’t know a lot about wine,” Larry said. “It gives them the appreciation for the effort that goes into producing that glass of wine. And it gives them the chance to roam through the vineyard and discover what things look like at that particular time of the growing season.”
For curious locals, the inn is offering a tour of the vineyard and the inn, along with a taste of wine bottled from its grapes for $25 per person.
Visitors get to learn about the grape growing process, how vines are tended to endure over time and why each step of the process is important, Larry explained.
“The first question (visitors ask) is always ‘Why do you grow riesling,’” he said. “It’s not hot enough here to grow bigger reds and ground water level is too high for pinot noir and everybody grows chardonnay … so riesling it is,” he explained.
A bottle of Loxton Sencillo 2019 made with riesling grapes grown by Larry and Pam Willis at The Gables Wine Country Inn in Santa Rosa. (Beth Schlanker/The Press Democrat)
People are also curious about when to pick the grapes.
“We show them the refractometer and explain how it works to measure the sugar levels,” he said. “We monitor it about three to four weeks before harvest.”
The Willis’ son-in-law, Rosendo Avila, is the vineyard manager and the couple pick grapes alongside Avila and his crew. Chris Loxton of Loxton Cellars in Glen Ellen purchases the fruit and bottles a riesling/viognier blend.
The inn, with a mahogany spiral staircase and three Italian marble fireplaces, has seven guest rooms and a cottage. It serves three-course, decadent breakfasts with homemade breads, pastries and creative entrees like a “Cloud Souffle,” two eggs whipped and baked into an airy concoction.
An international destination, the inn has a world map on one of its walls that’s dotted with multicolored pins to track where guests are from.
“Europe, China, Australia, Minneapolis, the East Coast and Florida,” Larry said. “But we’re starting to see a bit more of locals who stay for honeymoon and wedding nights. We’re seeing a slight uptick in those kinds of visitors.”
4257 Petaluma Hill Road, Santa Rosa, 707-585-7777. thegablesinn.com
The Madrona
Following a $6 million makeover, this grand old Victorian opened its doors last month after being closed for nearly two years.
The inn has a brand new bar, as well as upgraded private dining rooms, and the restaurant has a wine list that will appeal to curious palates.
“The list is a mix of hyper local and then a nod to Old World traditional wines, with both sides trying to reward and showcase the odd and funky alongside icons,” said food and beverage director Ashley Luna. “It’s a list that matches and blends in the bohemian spirit of the property.”
The dining room at The Madrona in Healdsburg. (Matthew Millman)
With two categories — “Locally Collected” and “Curious from Afar” — the list features, for example, chardonnay bottlings alongside German and Austrian whites.
Locals, Luna said, don’t have to be overnight guests to dine at the restaurant and explore its eclectic wine list.
“One of the concepts we took from Jay (Jeffers, the inn’s interior designer) when he approached the design was, ‘What would this space look like if one family continuously lived here since it was built?’ Luna explained. “We thought of the wine list in the same way. If that family was throwing a dinner party, it would pop some bottles from neighbors, and then also grab some fun and peculiar bottles that they picked up in their far away travels to share with their guests.”
The front yard of this Victorian inn is ribbed with rows of pinot noir.
Co-owners Rita Wells and Dane Pitcher purchased the inn in 2004 and planted their vineyard — a third of an acre — in 2016. They produce a barrel or two each year, up to 576 bottles per vintage, offering a taste to their guests.
“Our employees and friends tend to the vineyard and Dane makes the wine on site,” Wells said. “We chose pinot because we like it and it does the best in this area.”
Pitcher gives the vineyard tours and loves being out among the vines, sharing the wine culture.
“The guests like that his tours are so up close and personal,” Wells said. “They really like the time he spends with them. He shows them how we grow grapes, how we make wine and finish with a taste.”
With its Queen Anne accents and wraparound porch, the inn is a designated historic landmark, dating back to 1880. It has six guest rooms and offers a full breakfast with entrees like Stuffed French Toast Soufflé or Artichoke Frittata with sun-dried tomatoes.
The inn’s website offers Sonoma County residents 25% off their first visit and 10% off future visits. Wells said as the world eases out of the pandemic, the inn welcomes locals who don’t want to step on an airplane just yet.
Chili crisp from Big Spoon Sauce Co. on noodles. (Nathan Bender/Big Spoon Sauce Co.)
Bayou On The Bay
Sebastopol and elsewhere
Waking up to the aroma of frying beignets at his grandmother’s house in Louisiana is one of chef Bradley Wildridge’s earliest memories. Cajun through and through, he has jambalaya in his blood and roux in his soul. “Yoo-hoo!” was his grandma’s call for him to get out of bed and make a beeline for the kitchen, where the warm, yeasty puffs waited.
Now Wildridge and his wife, Mandy, make the same beignets each Sunday at the Sebastopol Farmers’ Market under a small tent emblazoned with the name of the fledgling food business, Bayou On The Bay. It’s been less than a year since Wildridge got serious about his dream of French-Cajun fusion and offered his first pop-up menu. “I just asked some friends one night after beers,” he explains— and things grew from there. Dishes include curry jambalaya, crawfish meat pies, and muffuletta sandwiches, plus other rotating menu items. Mandy Wildridge’s Cajun Cake features moist, dark crumbs studded with pineapple, and takes me back to childhood granny cakes made with brown sugar, pecans and pineapple.
So. Freaking. Good.
With a small fryer, mise en place, chafing dishes, and portable cooktops, the couple dances around their 10-by-10-foot market space, turning out orders efficiently and smiling at curious passersby. They often host pop-ups at local breweries—at one recent event at Seismic Brewing, a new sushi rice lager (brewed with sushi rice in the grist) was the perfect pairing for the bright, bold, spicy, utterly fusion flavors of Bayou on the Bay. Ça, c’est bon, y’all.
Muffaletta sandwich at Bayou on the Bay. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)
Best Bets
Smoked BBQ Mac and Cheese, $15: Smoky Joe Matos cheese is the base for creamy macaroni topped with BBQ mushrooms (possibly my new favorite food), crispy onioavns, jalapeños, and BBQ sauce. You can add chicken, bacon, or andouille sausage, but it’s pretty perfect on its own.
Crawfish Deviled Egg, $7: Crawfish are the lobster of the bayou—they have a similar sweet and briny meat, just in an abbreviated package. At Bayou On The Bay, their little tails are sauteed in truffle butter and set atop a spicy deviled egg— they’re not three-alarm hot, but they do have a kick that’ll make your eyes water.
Curry Jambalaya, $15: Here’s where the fusion surfaces. Curry and coconut milk are added to traditional jambalaya spices and a Cajun “holy trinity” of onions, bell peppers and celery. Chicken and sausage stud the rich, aromatic stew, a delicious mash-up that somehow makes a ton of sense.
Big Spoon Sauce Co.
Occidental
Chili crisp is more than a condiment, it’s an obsession. A mix of crunchy shallots, garlic, red chiles and oil, this Chinese sauce is good on just about anything. The point isn’t to burn your face off, but to add a giant plop of sweet, salty, crunchy, zingy umami to everything from ramen to scrambled eggs to ice cream (really).
Chili crisp from Big Spoon Sauce Co. in Occidental. (Nathan Bender)
Of all the many crisps we’ve tried, the most complex, delicious, and fun to eat is from Big Spoon Sauce Co. Nathan Bender and Lani Chan have day jobs creating content for wineries, and in their off-hours, they make a Sichuan chili crisp inspired by their time in China. “We wanted to tailor a product to our own tastes, with an olive-oil base and playing with local stuff,” Bender says.
Bender and Chan use roughly 40 ingredients, including mushroom powder for umami, peanuts, sugar, cardamom, star anise, and fennel. They also craft a crisp made with fermented black soybeans, and plans are in the works for an extra-spicy version, too.
The vibe might be psychedelic, but this chef-inspired Roman-style pie isn’t messing around. This spring, the funky pizza pop-up from Bay Area baker Nicholi Ludlow and his wife, Leith Leiser-Miller, has found a permanent home in Sebastopol. The shop’s rectangular 9-inch-by-9-inch pizzas are sold by the pound, along with salads, wine, beer, and the world’s most buttery cookies. Ingredients are locally sourced and the pizza dough is naturally fermented. You can choose a fresh slice out of the oven, or a par-cooked pizza to finish baking at home, for a better-than-delivery experience.
Flavors change frequently, with face-meltingly amazing toppings including pepperoni and Estero gold cheese; potato, bacon, Fontina, spinach, and brown butter-leek Mornay sauce; or vegan tomato, olive, and fried rosemary sauce.
Berry granola waffles from Sunflower Caffe in Sonoma. (Sunflower Caffe)
What’s better than a hike in the green hills? A hike in the green hills, followed by fresh sticky buns or warm apple turnovers! Click through the above gallery for eight excellent hikes plus brunches in Sonoma County.
Lamb roasted over a live fire with shiso, nori, and housemade ssamjang at chef Joshua Smookler’s Animo. (Kim Carroll/for Sonoma Magazine)
Before opening his new restaurant, Animo, in the town of Sonoma, chef Joshua Smookler gained cult status for making some of the most slurp-worthy ramen in New York City at his former restaurant, Mu Ramen. Today, he has set aside the chopsticks for food that speaks to his heart. Inspired by the Latin term ex animo, which means “of the heart, sincerely,” Animo restaurant serves food that Smookler and his wife, Heidy He, love to eat.
“Many of the items on our menu were inspired by the things we eat at home — things that make us say, ‘Oh my God, this is so good!’” says Smookler. “That is how our menu came to be. It features the things we hold dear.”
Smookler and He arrived in Sonoma from New York with their two young daughters late last year, eager for a new beginning after closing Mu Ramen during the pandemic. They ruled out several other California locations before becoming intrigued by the small-town community of Sonoma and the opportunity to access high-quality ingredients from local farmers. “It was always a dream of mine to open a restaurant in Wine Country,” says Smookler, who once worked at Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York. “I knew we had to give it a shot.”
At Animo restaurant in Sonoma. (Kim Caroll/for Sonoma Magazine)At Animo restaurant in Sonoma. (Kim Caroll/for Sonoma Magazine)
The couple’s new restaurant is located just west of downtown Sonoma in a former tacqueria, now painted white and simply made over, with a large cooking hearth open to the dining area, stacks of wood out front to feed the fire, and tall palm trees arching overhead. One interior wall is lined with row upon row of fresh apples — an aromatic art piece inspired by New York chef David Bouley and by the couple’s former life in the Big Apple.
Smookler, who was born in Korea and adopted into a Jewish family in New York, has created a menu that ranges widely.
Many dishes are served family-style, including an elegant rib eye for two, lobster with XO sauce, and Manila clams with chorizo and fish sauce. “Everything here has deep meaning to me,” says Smookler, motioning to a large glass-front cabinet used to age prime cuts of beef, Iberico pork, along with whole turbot the size of dinner plates. “I use Flannery Beef from San Rafael — not just because it’s the best dry-aged beef in the country — but because they’re committed to quality, and I’ve used their products for years. I source Iberico pork from Acornseekers in Texas because I’ve witnessed how much they love and care for their pigs. It’s the most beautiful thing.”
While Smookler remains focused on perfecting the food, both he and wife He have become passionate about hospitality — something they know is imperative in Wine Country. Future plans for Animo include new decor, spots to dine outdoors, and seasonal updates to the ever-evolving menu and wine list.
“The goal of this restaurant is to make the very best food I’m capable of,” says Smookler. “This is just phase one. We can’t wait to see the evolution of this place, because it’s a living thing. The beauty is the growth of it. And I just want to put my heart on the plate.”
Animo Restaurant, Open Weds.-Sun. 18976 Sonoma Highway, Sonoma. No phone or website. Reservations available through opentable.com or via Instagram @animo_restaurant.
Shawn Phillips and Lise Asimont of Dot Wine. (Courtesy of Dot Wine)
Balance — it’s at the heart of fine winemaking, and it’s key for mom winemakers, too. While children and wines both have agendas of their own, especially during harvest, most winemakers with kids agree the art of balancing both comes down to flexibility, finding support, and being kind to oneself. For Mother’s Day, we pay homage to three Sonoma County winemaker moms who have each found balance in their own way — and who each make a delicious rosé, just right for the launch of summer.
“Before I had kids, harvest season was everything,” says Lise Asimont, winemaker and cofounder of Dot Wine, which has a new tasting room at Healdsburg’s Bacchus Landing. “I put my whole life on hold for three to four months a year. After I had kids, that just wasn’t possible.
Being a mom became the center of my life,” she says. Asimont credits her husband, Shawn, and her family and friends for lending a hand when she was in “a mom jam,” as she puts it. “Parenting doesn’t come with an instruction manual,” she says.
“Sometimes you have to figure out a lot on the run.” Winemaker Bibiana González Rave of Alma de Cattleya, who knew she wanted to make wine at age 14, spent the majority of her life trying to prove her worth as a female winemaker who could do it all. But having kids changed that. “Looking back, I wish I hadn’t been so hard on myself in the beginning,” she says. “I wanted to be a very present mom and pushed myself to the limits. Fortunately, my husband [winemaker Jeff Pisoni] has always provided a lot of help and flexibility — especially when I was breastfeeding and needed wine samples. I couldn’t imagine doing it without him.”
For winemaker and artist Alice Warnecke Sutro of Healdsburg’s Sutro Wine Co., a lot of support has come from not only from her husband, but also from a local community of women in the wine industry. “They can easily glide through a conversation about microbiology and wine packaging woes to breastfeeding and summer camps,” she says. “With my kids, I’ve been very focused on time management, to make sure I have quality time with them. Fortunately, they love to be around all the action at the winery, especially during harvest. Honestly, even the messy, frustrated, and imperfect times together are valuable.”
Mother’s Day plans can be difficult to predict.
“No plans are sometimes the best plans, as long as it’s with my husband and my kids,” says Sutro. “I don’t expect quiet time, though. I’ll have to find that another day.”
Three to try
Alma de Cattleya, 2021 Rosé, Sonoma County, 100% Pinot Noir. $22. Winemaker mom: Bibiana González Rave
Delicate pale pink in color, with aromas of strawberry, rose water, and orange zest. Fresh red berries and nectarine flavors combine with youthful acidity. 888-597-2297, almadecattleya.com
Dot Wine, 2021 Kobus Rose, Russian River Valley, 100% Pinot Noir. $32. Winemaker mom: Lise Asimont
Aromas of fresh summer strawberries, red cherries, and watermelon, with juicy guava on the mid-palate and balanced acidity. 707-385-9855, dotwinery.com
Sutro Wine Co., 2021 Rosé Saignée, Alexander Valley, 60% Merlot, 40% Pinot Noir. $28. Winemaker mom: Alice Warnecke Sutro
Beautifully perfumed aromas of strawberry jelly and plum, and on the palate, strawberry, raspberry, and red apple. 707-509-9695, sutrowine.com Sutro has joined with three other Sonoma winemaker moms to offer a Mother’s Day four-pack for $145, with bottles from Sutro Wines, Jaclynn Renée Wines, Camp Rose Cellars, and Carpenter Wines. To order, visit camprosecellars.com
The 8th annual Alexander Valley Film Festival, newly rebranded as AVFest, concludes this Sunday with the documentary Kaepernick & America and a closing night party at Healdsburg’s Barndiva and Matheson restaurants, capping 10 days of in-person screenings in Cloverdale, Geyserville, Healdsburg, Windsor and Santa Rosa.
This year, the festival included 38 feature films and 40 short films from 18 countries. On Saturday and Sunday — Mother’s Day weekend — it will screen two documentaries with powerful stories about family.
Jimmy in Saigon, a feature documentary by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Peter McDowell and executive producer Dan Savage, will make its West Coast premiere Saturday at the Clover Theater in Cloverdale and will screen again Sunday at Orsi Family Vineyards in Healdsburg. Mama Bears, a feature documentary by Emmy award-winning director Daresha Kyi, will play Sunday at Orsi Family Vineyards. Both directors will be in attendance for Q&As after the screenings.
Jimmy in Saigon follows McDowell as he embarks on a decade-long journey that takes him across the United States, Vietnam and France in a quest to learn more about the life and death of his older brother Jim, or Jimmy. Jimmy was drafted into the army during the Vietnam War and returned to Saigon after his tour ended. He died there, under mysterious circumstances, in 1972 when he was 24 and McDowell only five.
The years pass and McDowell’s family grieves Jimmy’s death in silence. But as he grows up, McDowell discovers that he cannot rest with so many unanswered questions about his brother. In an effort to discover the cause of his brother’s death and to find out more about who he was, he seeks out those who knew Jimmy during his final years.
In conversations with Jimmy’s friends and with family members, and by reading over 200 letters his brother wrote and sent, McDowell gains a deeper connection with the older brother he barely knew in life and learns that Jimmy was likely gay. McDowell, who also is gay, uncovers a powerful bond between his brother and a young Vietnamese man, who also has passed away, and ultimately brings their respective families together so that both men can be honored.
“When someone dies, I don’t think closure is really possible,” said McDowell. “Turning deeper within and learning more about oneself and the person is, to me, a more realistic goal. Our family is talking about this much, much more than we ever did.”
On Sunday, Jimmy in Saigon will screen just after Mama Bears at Orsi Family Vineyards in Healdsburg.
Mama Bears premiered at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, in March 2022. The feature-length documentary follows a groups of conservative, Christian mothers whose lives are transformed when they decide to “affirm and advocate on behalf of their LGBTQ children.” The women, realizing that their love of God cannot come at the expense of their gay and trans children, support one another in a private Facebook group, which they call “Mama Bears.”
The documentary explores the women’s emotional journey, from grief toward personal growth, as they lose the support of their evangelical community and later find a new sense of belonging through the LGBTQ community and the Mama Bears group. They come to realize that faith in God and unconditional love for the LGBTQ community can coexist and they decide to express this through action:
One mother fights an anti-trans bathroom bill in Texas while fiercely advocating for her young daughter; another launches the national Free Mom Hugs movement, which embraces people (figuratively and literally) who have been shunned from their families because of their gender or sexuality; a third joins the Reformation Project, a Christian organization that informs about “the biblical case for LGBTQ inclusion” and shows how Christians can “fully affirm both the Bible and LGBTQ people.”
In a time of pandemic, war and what often appears as irreconcilable political differences, we could all use a reminder that stories about family and love — stories that many of us can relate to, irrespective of who we are, where we came from or what we believe — have the power to bring people together.
Bacon Cheeseburger, Dirty Fries with Al Pastor and “Corn” Dog with elote at Buns Only food truck. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)
Personal anecdotes about everyday meals are one of the best things about the myriad food newsletters that clutter my inbox every morning. Maybe it’s a great eggs Benedict at a local diner, an unexpectedly tasty margarita or a friend’s towering Hawaiian burger.
Looking through my photo reel, I realized that so many of my own delicious moments end up on the cutting room floor, getting held up for a later print story or just forgotten altogether. What a tragedy!
So, this week, I’m sharing a few recent stops worth checking out. Let’s call it a peek behind the curtain while I’m crafting longer stories. If you like this format, let me know at heather.irwin@pressdemocrat.com.
Onto the eats!
Lagunitas Brewing Company Taproom
I’ve been to quite a few breweries lately for an upcoming story on food trucks. Even though I’m more of a wine girl than a hops girl, I’m amazed by some of the IPA-ternatives like sour beers, seltzers and thick smoothie hybrids. Oh, heavenly summer, I fell in love with Lagunitas’ Sumpin’ Tiki-ish and summer Mai Tai beer cocktail last weekend. These light and fruity fizzers are tasty, packing a walloping 9.2% alcohol content. The taproom menu is super approachable, with fish and chips, tacos, burgers and sandwiches. But the banh mi tacos with smoked short rib, soy glaze and sriracha aioli were the perfect pairing with an IPA and lemon drop DogTown seltzer. The large outdoor dining patio is dog-, kid- and bro-friendly.
Open 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday, 1280 N. McDowell Blvd., 707-778-8776, lagunitas.com.
Buns Only
This new-ish food truck is a marriage of burgers, hot dogs and tacos. Perfectly cooked burgers with cheese and bacon and a laundry list of other goodies are some of the most satisfying we’ve come across, along with wacky hot dogs (ours was loaded with elote and crema) and a mound of “dirty fries” with sweet al pastor, guacamole, onions, cheese, escabeche (pickled carrots and jalapeños) and crema. Seek this truck out.
Instagram @bunsonlysr for locations. (If you’re looking for the best way to track local food truck schedules, check out @socofoodtrucks on Instagram.)
Lila’s Streetside Eats
I’ve been tracking this truck for a couple of years but only recently sampled Lila Mathia’s eclectic pub-grub at Parliament Brewing (I’m loving their apricot sour beer). Lila’s Mojo Nachos are a messy mountain of deliciousness with smokey pulled pork, pickled jalapeños, sweet corn, black bean salsa and homemade lime-cilantro crema. The food lineup changes frequently, but her browned butter chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches are a warm-weather version of cookies and milk.
On the fourth Tuesday of each month, this Kenwood roadhouse makes a special four-course dinner on the patio for 50 guests (by reservation only). Long communal tables are a convivial way to try off-menu dishes paired with local wines. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to try Tips’ new pitmaster Damian Brugger’s tasty smoked meats. The next event happens May 24.
After the on-again, off-again ban on foie gras in California, it’s been hard to follow whether the fatty goose liver is legal. We must have missed the news during the pandemic: as of 2020, it is legal again. California still bans the sale of foie gras within the state, but it can be purchased and shipped from elsewhere. Before my first bite of foie gras this week, it had been years since I last experienced the silky taste. If you see it on a restaurant menu (it’s cropping up frequently again), you can rest assured that you won’t end up in jail.
A sleek and modern 5-bedroom, 5.5-bath home in Santa Rosa’s Fountaingrove neighborhood is currently listed for 2.795 million. The property on 3726 Crown Hill Drive is one of many rebuilds following the 2017 Tubbs Fire, but the design is a departure from the more traditional homes that have dominated this area before and after the fire.
The home was built by Sukhdev Singh, of Eia Mia Inc., who has completed six other projects in Fountaingrove, according to the home’s listing agent, Sudha Schlesinger. Singh brought on architect Fumio Suda to design the home to include the preferences of Singh’s earlier clients. The result is what Schlessigner calls an “edgy contemporary in the sky,” referencing the home’s clean lines and its position high up on the hill overlooking the canyon.
The sleek exterior has strong horizontal lines, a flat roof and little ornamentation; all typical of modern design. The home is surrounded by concrete and the vegetation is minimal: Plants are located away from the walls and in so-called islands, a minimalist aesthetic that is also a more fire-resilient choice. The interior is warmed up by lots of light and textured finishes like quartzite walls in the bathroom, concrete-looking kitchen cabinets and wood paneling to accent a wine shelving.
Design details by Santa Rosa-based stagers, Staged Right, add additional warmth. Stark modernity is countered with touches of rich color (mustard and oranges), nubby-textured fabrics, and furniture (like ottomans and chairs) in playful rounded forms.
The top-of-the-canyon view gives the home that “in the sky” airiness. The burnt trees in the canyon have been cut down, which gives a sense of vastness to the area. Schlesinger says the home is positioned high enough on the hill that you can see red-tailed hawks flying from the windows.
The flat roof can accommodate a rooftop patio, accessible from the inside of the home — a perfect spot for lounging and entertaining. Click through the above gallery for a peek inside.
The home at 3726 Crown Hill Drive is listed with Sudha Schlesinger and Sam Marvi of Engel & Völkers Real Estate. For more information, call 707-889-7778; email sudha@sschlesinger.com or visit findyourwinecountryhome.com/crownhill
