Sonoma County is full of heart-shaped finds — jewelry, fine art pieces, chocolates, decorations and more that make for great gifts for someone special, or a special treat just for you. Get them for Valentine’s Day or just any day of the week. We could all use a little extra love right now. Click through the above gallery for details.
Grace and Oliver Estrada opened their “dream store” in The Barlow in the summer of 2018. Scout West County, a modern take on the general store, offered a sleek selection of home decor, clothing and accessories to the North Bay. The couple — both artists — soon expanded their business, opening another storefront in Healdsburg.
Two years later, in the wake of wildfires, flood, and now, pandemic, the Estradas were forced to close their brick and mortars. They launched their own line of high-quality loungewear, Yarrow Goods, and pivoted to online sales.
“We have moments of total panic and moments of total faith,” said Grace Estrada about starting a new business during the pandemic.
The Yarrow Goods brand channels clean-lined minimalism and a muted color palette, while injecting playful elements with silk-screened designs, printed in-house. A crew neck sweatshirt, designed by Oliver, jumps with a rabbit print. A “Buenos Dias y Buenas Noches” design captures the warped sense of time presaged by the pandemic. A “winking cat” design-of-the-times ironically but positively exclaims, “Everything will be ok.”
Yarrow Goods loungewear has enjoyed early success as stay-at-home orders continue to boost the casual, comfy clothing market. The Estradas have now opened a retail space — currently, shopping is by appointment-only — and Grace’s cat print blankets, made exclusively from eco-yarn produced by a U.S.-based family business, sold out quickly. Yarrow Goods will soon release four new blanket designs featuring mushroom, floral and dog prints.
The Estradas are thankful to have found a silver lining in troublesome times. Undaunted, they go about creating and marketing products which explore the power of “multicultural imagery and messaging.”
Oliver, born in Oaxaca, Mexico, says that, after years of keeping quiet about his heritage, he’s grown proud of his roots. “I feel free to express that side of me in my personal life and now in my creative and business endeavors.”
Oliver draws inspiration from his upbringing; from stories and imagery from his childhood years. His rabbit design, for example, is a visual interpretation of the Aztec rabbit-in-the-moon myth his mom told him as a small child.
“I feel like we now have the platform to really go with this, expand on Oliver’s roots and bring a dialogue to life through our art,” said Grace about the couple’s new business endeavor.
Mary Delanay and her daughter Lily Luong opened Areteway, a new fashion resale boutique on Santa Rosa’s Fourth Street, in February 2020. The fashion-wise mother and daughter had previously enjoyed considerable vintage-selling success on eBay and Luong had been a fashion ambassador for Seventeen magazine. Their shop quickly garnered a following with its collection of gently-used garments and its Instagrammable decor.
With the arrival of the pandemic and shelter-in-place orders only a month later, Delanay and Luong opted to keep their business online, offering shipping and curbside pickup. They’ve also pivoted to personal styling services: customers fill out a questionnaire and pay a $20 fee, which goes toward their purchase. Delaney and Luong then handpick and photograph selections of clothes, accessories and shoes for customers to choose from remotely. The final selection is delivered; unwanted items are returned to the store. Delaney and Luong are likewise busy designing a line of up-cycled clothing, scheduled soon for launch.
When Made Local Marketplace in Santa Rosa announced its closure on June 19, 2020 — a few months shy of its 10th anniversary — the news was met with a flood of devastated responses from customers and local artisans, who had sold their wares through the downtown shop. “Some were in tears,” said store co-owner and tireless shop-local champion Kelley Rajala.
A few days later, at the eleventh hour, local realtor Willow Peterson made the decision to take over the business on Fourth Street, thus allowing it to remain open. In mid-December, Made Local Marketplace announced an upcoming move to a new retail space in Santa Rosa’s Montgomery Village shopping center; the doors at the Fourth Street address closed one final time on Christmas Eve.
While the end of an era can feel sad, the new Montgomery Village location has its perks.
“We’re loving the beautiful natural light and the free parking,” said Willow Peterson.
Meanwhile, talented, resilient and resourceful handbag maker Adelle Stoll moved her Montgomery Village studio and store to a “production-only space” and an online store. Stoll, who had previously moved her store to Santa Rosa from The Barlow following the flood in 2019, recently made a Facebook post, intoning, “I flex my change muscles once again.”
With pandemic restrictions and shutdowns, there have been both retail comings and goings.
We’ll all miss two Sonoma County retail stalwarts: Santa Rosa Fourth Street’s Skeeter’s Gallery has closed — the owners having announced their retirement in August after 24 years in business.
And farewell to The Barlow’s Elsie Green, a seller of fine vintage French home goods; the shop shuttered in June.
Trace and James clothing boutique opened in Windsor during the holidays while Montgomery Village welcomed independently-owned housewares and clothing store, Wild Honey Mercantile.
Sonoma County retailers continue to look for ways to navigate the daunting trifecta of flood, fire and pandemic.
Before the recent shutdown, Sonoma County restaurants had prepared for outdoor dining through the winter with space heaters, tents and a whole host of other toasty ideas for keeping diners warm. Now that outdoor dining is open again, it’s time to revisit our top picks. Click through the above gallery for details. We’ll continue to update this list with more restaurants throughout the season. Your fave spot not included? Email us with a picture!
Note: Make sure to dress appropriately, because there’s only so much restaurateurs can do with COVID restrictions. We suggest investing in a stadium seat, warm jacket (or a heated vest), some hand-warmers and wool socks. Adventure time!
Who would have thought that a pandemic would give rise to so much stress-baking? After the first shelter-in-place orders were issued in early 2020, many managed the stress and isolation by making loaf upon loaf of sourdough bread. Now, as we continue to stay at home, it’s time to take our culinary coping to the next level.
We asked Petaluma Pie Company co-owner Lina Hoshino for baking tips, and she suggested we try “mindful baking,” which, in Hoshino’s words, means baking with locally sourced seasonal ingredients to support the local economy while ensuring a gentler impact on the environment. In Sonoma County, baking mindfully is easy: you can get locavore right down to the crust.
Here are a few tips from Lina Hoshino and her life and business partner, Angelo Sacerdote, on how to mindfully bake mouthwatering pies. As Hoshino puts it, “Why not bake with the intention to change the world, one slice at a time?”
For the best flavor and a reduced carbon footprint, Hoshino and Sacerdote believe in baking with in-season ingredients grown close to home. They advise that you choose “produce that didn’t travel thousands of miles to get to you.” Your local farmers market is always a good place to start your baking projects. Right now, citrus fruits are in season.
Hoshino and Sacerdote like to source their ingredients locally right down to the crust. Being “very Petaluma” about things, they purchase organic whole wheat flour for their pies from Central Milling, just a few miles from their pie shop. They get their butter, cheese and eggs down the road, too: organic European butter from Strauss Family Creamery; Estero Gold cheese from Valley Ford Creamery; organic cheddar from Springhill Creamery; and eggs from free-range chickens at Coastal Hill Ranch.
They also source ingredients from just outside Sonoma County: beef from Stemple Hill Ranch and pork from Devil’s Gulch Ranch, both located in Marin County; mushrooms—for their mushroom and goat gouda pie—come from Solano Mushroom, run by Sunny and Sam in Vacaville.
Hoshino and Sacerdote maintain that “best” doesn’t have to mean “expensive.” You can find excellent ingredients in your own backyard (figurative or literal). And don’t forget neighbors and friends, who might happily unload a haul from their fruit trees.
Hoshino and Sacerdote grow their own Satsuma mandarin, Oroblanco grapefruit, Algerian mandarins, Kumquat, Meyer lemon, Japanese Yuzu, Filipino Calamansi, and Bearss lime trees. Fruit trees can be grown in smaller yards, too — some dwarfs, like Meyer lemon, can even thrive in a large container. Choose varieties that do well in your region. Fortunately, Sonoma County’s grow-friendly climate gives us plenty of options.
Your favorite lemon meringue pie recipe can be made with different citruses. “If you use oranges or mandarins, you can wind up with a creamsicle flavored pie, especially if you top it with whipped cream,” says Hoshino.
“In the winter, nothing is cozier than a hearty savory pie. If you can make it into a stew, you can make it into a pie,” advises Hoshino. At Petaluma Pie Company, she makes savory pies out of dishes you may not expect, like cheeseburger, Chicken Tinga and Jamaican beef.
Making your own pie crust is easy, and it’s quicker than a visit to the grocery store. A food processor makes the process magically fast. With just a few ingredients and minutes of mixing and pulsing, you’ll have pie dough ready for your rolling pin (after chilling for a while in the fridge).
Rather than fitting the top crust on your pie, you can make decorative cookies and use these as topping. Cut out pieces of extra dough and bake them for 10 minutes. Set them aside and then place them on top of your finished pie for beauty and taste.
Inspired by the classic Shaker Lemon Pie, Petaluma Pie’s Company’s citrus pie uses two whole lemons, macerated in sugar and baked in custard. You can swap out lemon for another thin-skinned citrus like mandarins.
A bundled up Bernie Sanders has turned into a meme following the U.S. senator’s appearance at Wednesday’s presidential inauguration. Huddled in a chair and dressed in a thick gray coat from Vermont-based brand Burton and homemade patterned mittens, Sanders looked comfortably snug in the D.C. cold — and the internet loved the look. (The Burton jacket is now sold out – but the company posted on Twitter how to “steal the look”)
“I was just sitting there, trying to keep warm, trying to pay attention to what was going on,” explained the Vermont senator when asked about his reaction to the meme on Late Night.
The much-meme’d mittens, given to Sanders by Jen Ellis, a second-grade teacher in Vermont, have an interesting story. Ellis made the mittens from an old wool sweater and sent them to Sanders after he lost the bid for the Democratic nomination in 2016. She told The Washington Post that she felt honored the senator wore them at the inauguration. “There were people at the inauguration wearing clothing from world-famous designers. Then there was Bernie, wearing my mittens,” she said.
Sonoma County businesses are now joining in on the fun by photoshopping the practically-dressed Sanders into all kinds of scenes and posting these on social media. Click through the above gallery for a few favorites.
If you’d like to make your own version of the Bernie meme, this website edits the senator into any address. You can now also order a sweatshirt with the meme from Sanders’ website. 100% of the proceeds will go toward Meals on Wheels Vermont.
Editor’s note: Sarmentine Bakery has now opened at 52 Mission Circle, Suite 112, Santa Rosa. More information and opening hours here.
Eating croissants in America can be about as horrifying as ordering a hamburger in France — something is usually lost in the translation, especially if you’re used to the real thing.
Cottage baker and French expat Alexandra Zandvliet wants to change that, using American ingredients to replicate the very specific, buttery, shattered-crust laminated pastries of her homeland for delivery right to your door. Expanding to French baguettes, fig bread, Viennoise baguettes (a softer loaf), rye, orange-peel brioche, canneles and other complex pastries, her small-but-growing baking business Sarmentine is gaining traction one loaf at a time.
And sometimes they’re even still warm.
A former midwife, Zandvliet started baking as a hobby when she moved to California and struggled to find the kinds of bread she loved back home. American flour is often far more glutenous than European, giving breads a fluffier texture, like cake. American butter is often lower in fat and in general, there are fewer bakers willing to spend the time and buy more expensive ingredients to get a more European crumb.
Zandvliet continued her hobby, mostly by trial and error. She had no formal training until she went to a small town near Bordeaux and trained in the art of bread and making pastry.
“I wanted to make sure my technique and knowledge was good,” she said, in a thick French accent. “Because when you bake for yourself, it’s not like a business. Where I trained was a very typical Bordeaux bakery, in spirit.”
With her newfound knowledge, Zandvliet returned to Santa Rosa with her husband and three daughters and continue to hone her skills. She got a “cottage” license to legally bake bread in her home kitchen to sell.
Testing her recipes on friends and neighbors and using Central Milling flour, natural fermentation processes and Straus European-style butter, she’s creating some of the best, most French-tasting breads and pastries we’ve had locally. Though we’re still huge fans of French bakers Pascaline, Gougette and Les Pascals, Zandvliet’s croissants are truly exceptional. Mon dieu, I said it.
Now with a solid following of word-of-mouth clients, Zandvliet is hoping to open her own bakery in Santa Rosa at the former Muffin Street Baking Co. at the Mission Plaza shopping center.
“We’ve been working on this for years, and with the pandemic it’s been challenging,” she said. Zandvliet is hoping to raise $20,000 to get her bakery open.
The name Sarmentine? It’s a sesame baguette that’s one of her favorites.
Want to help with their crowdfunding? Go to kickstarter.com and search for Sarmentine. Details on ordering at sarmentine-usa.com.
The natural world has work to do in January and February. But it can go unheralded by those of us who take the black bear’s view of winter: a time to hunker down in stasis. In any case these months represent — and hopefully deliver — the depths of winter, when creeks and aquifers fill, and plants and animals recharge for spring’s explosion. Click through the above gallery for details.
We do it in the wine world, why not spirits, too? Nearly all of Sonoma County’s distilleries offer club memberships that come with a variety of perks, such as discounts and first access to limited production bottles. And, with the pandemic making in-store shopping a little more difficult, home delivery seems like a compelling way to keep you in good spirits while supporting local, family-owned businesses. From mystery boxes and cocktail kits to seasonal spirits and drinks that make you feel like you’re on the beach, local distilleries are delivering their very best right to your doorstep. Click through the gallery above for some of the best distillery clubs in Wine Country.
Art exhibits are one of the many things that have been put on hold during the pandemic. But Napa Valley artist William Callnan III is determined to cheer up the public by exhibiting his quirky and colorful mixed media pieces. This Saturday, a “Covid-safe” solo show of his works opens at CAMi Art + Wine in downtown Calistoga. (To keep visitors safe and maintain proper social distancing, reservations are required via the CAMi website.)
Callnan’s upcoming exhibit will introduce art lovers to an inimitable style, which utilizes everyday objects, like toys, in the artist’s creations of fantastical three dimensional oil paintings. The Napa Valley artist wants art viewers to not only “feel like a kid again” but also get a “sense of wow”. He envisions that patrons of the exhibit will become “moving viewers” as they discover his three dimensional pieces from constantly changing, multiple perspectives.
The show at CAMi Art + Wine will comprise 12 pieces, including two of Callnan’s most recent works. “Social Distance,” depicts a forest scene with Pee-Wee’s Playhouse-style furniture; “Keep Swimming,” depicts a phantasmagoric sundial: giant rubber duck in center; soft baby toys forming its circumference.
Callnan likes the idea of viewers interacting with his art.
“One of the things that always struck me with painting is that you create this portal, but I think (the viewers) are always going to be able to make better portals,” he said. “How amazing would it be if you could go up to the Mona Lisa and change her smile?”
CAMi owner Laurie Shelton, also an artist, likewise enjoys the interactive element of Callnan’s art.
“Will’s work is colorful and different and explosive and exciting — the show will be the perfect way to kick off the new year and let go of 2020,” she said. “People need art right now, they need food for their souls.”
Callnan, a native of Vermont, does all his 3-D painting in his garage—what could be a more fitting place to paint for an artist who utilizes discarded objects for artistic repurpose. In addition to creating mixed-media paintings, he operates NBC pottery with his wife Nikki Ballere Callnan.
Working out of an expansive studio on their back lot, the Callnans create custom ceramics for luxury restaurants and resorts in Wine Country and beyond. These projects have included plates and bowls for chefs Christopher Kostow and Thomas Keller and ceramic products for the new Montage luxury resort in Healdsburg. Before the pandemic, the couple also taught ceramic classes at Nimbus Arts in St. Helena.
Incessantly hard at his artistic work, Callnan was particularly prolific during last year’s LNU Complex Fire. With his family safely evacuated, he opted to stay behind with local artist friends to paint in their barn studio. When Callnan returned to his garage from his friend’s barn over a week later, he carried with him half a dozen haunting paintings depicting the lightning and the flames. (None of Callnan’s fire paintings will be featured in the CAMi show — Shelton had requested that the pieces exhibited this time be “happy” and steer away from the traumas of 2020.)
Shelton notes that she has taken every precaution to make the CAMi art show as Covid-safe as possible. Guests must register in advance via Tock, a ticketing system platform, for a 30-minute window. No more than seven guests are allowed inside the tasting room at any given time. Face masks are required and, to allow proper air circulation, the windows to the tasting room will be open and an air purifier installed.
Under the conditions of the current public health order in Napa County, CAMi is not allowed to pour wine to guests. But visitors to the art show will be able to purchase wine in the tasting room, as well as snacks, to bring home with them.
As of now, the exhibit is scheduled to end Tuesday, February 9, but Shelton said she may keep Callnan’s work on the walls through Valentine’s Day. Callnan and Shelton will be available most days to engage with visitors and answer questions, and Callnan says he is open to extending the exhibition.
“I’m just happy people get to see my art,” he said. “It’s certainly something you remember.”
“Even once we get past this, how long will it take for those of us who like to hug people hello or goodbye to feel comfortable hugging?” asks Trebuchet guitarist Eliott Whitehurst.
It’s a fair question. Last year was a challenging one on many fronts, including big life changes for the members of the Petaluma band. Drummer Paul Haile and keyboardist Lauren Haile, the married couple in the group, became parents. Lauren Haile experienced unexplained hearing loss, which has caused her to adapt to different ways of performing. And live music came to a halt across Sonoma County as the coronavirus closed venues. All of this meant a longer- than-expected break before the recent release of the band’s third album, “It’s fine, I’m fine.”
Distance is a tough adjustment for a group so driven by their community. Over the years, Trebuchet has performed at countless local gigs and recorded with well-known North Bay musicians, including the Santa Rosa Young People’s Chamber Orchestra. They’ve played at notable festivals like BottleRock in Napa and Noise Pop Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco, and in 2019 they won Creative Sonoma’s “Next Level Grant,’ partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and intended to help local musicians advance in their careers.
“It’s fine, I’m fine,” is a perfect example of the community spirit that powers the band. A look at the album credits shows at least a dozen names of other Sonoma creatives who contributed to the project. “We had friends that recorded strings, friends that recorded brass—even with the artwork, it was all friends who contributed,” Whitehurst says.
“It was really cool, almost a community effort to get it done,” guitarist Navid Manoochehri adds.
The four bandmates met while studying music at Sonoma State University in the early 2000s. Playing together as students was a way to create a type of music their instructors could not teach. Thoughtful lyrics laced with graceful piano notes, power-packed drums, and intricate guitar riffs are hallmarks. At times a little melancholy, the music is always heartfelt and cathartic. “Sometimes I look back and think, this is so much emotion-wise, how dense the music is,” says Paul Haile. “It has a lot of weight.”
True to form, the record has a contemplative feel. This includes the title track, in which Whitehurst reflects on his dismay over the direction of the world and his decision not to have a child. “Anyone who’s at childbearing age or over a certain age has thought of all of the things in that song,” Lauren Haile says.
“SFCA” tackles the rising cost of living and the difficulty of making ends meet in the Bay Area. And “23” addresses the 2017 wildfires. Whitehurst explains he needed to take time to mentally process the devastation of the fires before he sat down to write. “It wasn’t super on-thenose about how horrific the fires were, but this was a huge thing that affected everyone around us,” he says.
Lauren Haile explains that while the music was recorded before the coronavirus pandemic, it resonates with this moment: “I know very few people who are navigating the world right now without an additional personal tragedy, whether it’s someone in your family or you yourself. Everyone’s feeling extraordinary stress on top of the global stress. We just need each other.”
Trebuchet recorded the album at a studio in Petaluma founded by two members of the band. They waited a while to release it but eventually realized there might never be an ideal time. “It was just like, ‘let’s just get this record out there,’ ” says Lauren Haile. “The album is called ‘It’s fine, I’m fine,’ and it feels more appropriate now than ever.”
