Whether you’re a Wine Country visitor on a Thanksgiving getaway or a local looking to get away from relatives, there are plenty of winery tasting rooms that are open this Thursday. A Thanksgiving visit to Sonoma and Napa wineries is also a good excuse to start your Black Friday shopping early and bring home bottled gifts (to yourself, or someone equally deserving of a special treat). Click through the gallery for details.
In 1972, David Stare founded the first new winery in Dry Creek Valley since Prohibition and had local grapegrowers scratching their heads over his first choice of grape to plant: Sauvignon Blanc.
Stare admired the white wines produced from this variety in France’s Loire Valley and Bordeaux regions. While there was no precedent for cultivation of Sauvignon Blanc in Dry Creek Valley, Stare trusted his gut (and tastes), ignored consultants’ recommendations to plant Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, and went all-in on Sauvignon Blanc.
It was a prescient move. Not only did the variety become the most successful wine for the Stare family’s Dry Creek Vineyard winery northwest of Healdsburg – it now produces five versions under winemaker Tim Bell – it also set the tone for other valley wineries and growers to make Sauvignon Blanc the white-wine standard, a counterpart to more traditional Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon.
“Consumers like our (Sauvignon Blancs) because they are elegant and nuanced,” explained company president Kim Stare Wallace, David’s daughter. “We develop a lot of fans for our (Sauvignon Blancs) because we have a variety of different flavor – they reflect the different vineyards and terroir of our region; each has its own personality and expression.”
At nearby Quivira Vineyards, Hugh Chappelle produces four Sauvignon Blancs, each distinct in flavor and aroma profile. From the widely available Dry Creek Valley bottling to the top-flight Queue Collection Sauvignon Blanc, Quivira’s offerings are a big draw for visitors.
“We are certainly a destination winery for the varietal,” said General Manager Jim Connell. “Hugh has built our reputation as a Sauvignon Blanc leader in Dry Creek Valley. He’s shown what the potential is for the grape, and it’s not just us.”
Generally, Dry Creek Valley has sandy loam and river-strewn, well-drained gravelly soils, which suit Sauvignon Blanc. Herbal notes are a sensory signature of the varietal, although the finest Dry Creek Valley examples contrast the grape’s pungent personality (fresh and dried herbs, just-cut grass, even jalapeño) with tangy grapefruit, lime and Meyer lemon fruitiness, and brisk, mouthwatering acidity.
Complexity, and tasteable differences in the wines, comes from different winemaking practices. Stainless steel fermentation and aging are common. A growing number of winemakers are using oak barrel fermentation and again, too.
Chappelle like to use acacia wood barrels to age small portions of wine. Another tool is to blend with Semillon (as is done in Bordeaux) or stir in the spent yeast cells with the wine after fermentation, which can add mouth feel and weight.
Most Dry Creek Valley producers offer Sauvignon Blanc, although some go an extra mile with the grape. Click through the gallery for five wineries to visit for scintillating Sauv Blancs.
I don’t get the chance to do repeat dining at a lot of restaurants while in search of new experiences, but I happened to hit up Santa Rosa Seafood’s cafe the other day while searching for the ultimate oyster.
It was bittersweet, having last been there tasting oysters with former owner Mike Svedise who died unexpectedly in 2017. His presence still looms large.
I was really impressed, however, to see that the small cafe that shares the building with the retail seafood store is every bit as awesome as when it opened several years ago.
It’s really not much to look at, and parking is dicey, but fresh ahi poke is so good that they put the sauce — a smoky sesame oil or spicy mayo — on the side.
Truthfully, it’s almost a shame to cover it up. The fish and chips are outstanding, as is the cioppino and the fresh oysters. The only thing missing was Mike, a bottle of vodka and a little hot sauce to wash it all down.
946 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa, 707-579-2085, sanfranciscocrabshipping.com.
There are few things I love more than a pop-up restaurant.
There is something so pure about wide-eyed food entrepreneurs who want to test a restaurant concept before diving into a brick and mortar where they will inevitably have their souls crushed by nasty Yelp reviews, permitting hassles, jacked-up rents and ever-increasing food prices. It’s a brutal business not for the faint of heart.
But pop-ups like the recent Lunch Box hamburger cafe inside Sebastopol’s Ramen Gaijin (who were once themselves a pop-up at the Barlow) give in-the-know diners a chance to be in on the fun. Owners Derek and Meghan Harn, who are Sonoma County transplants, have been popping up their oh-so-tasty temporary burgeria every couple months for just a few hours — until the 100 burgers and 100 pounds of fries are gone.
Lunch Box burgers are the kind of messy, smushy, everything-good-about-beef burgers that make you remember why Beyond burgers are a pale comparison.
Is it the brisket and chuck blend? The fancy sauce? The onion butter? All of the above?
Paired with “dirty fries”, that are another mess of crispy fries, chevre ranch dressing, bacon, green onion, roasted garlic and pepperoncini that require a handful of napkins and a stout appetite. You can get the fries plain with ketchup and garlic chili aioli, but really, why? We love that our vegetarian friends can have the same experience with the aforementioned Beyond burger. Lunch Box will even do a vegan version to make the whole thing extra inclusionary.
They’re planning for one more pop-up this year (we hope), so make sure you’re good and hungry. Follow their progress at lunchboxsonomacounty.com.
Whenever you’re down and out, sick and tired, too pooped to party or simply missing home, comfort food is what picks up the pieces of our lives. Some of us crave mashed potatoes and gravy, others yearn for a bowl of posole or nonna’s ravioli. Whatever makes you feel all warm and cozy inside, we’ve probably found it at a Sonoma County restaurant.
Did we miss your fave? Let us know in the comments below.
Bodega Bay
A fisherman’s hands reveal something of the life at sea — the chafed, scarred skin and swollen joints a testament to the wear and tear that comes with manipulating taut lines, steel hooks, wire crab traps, and a thrashing harvest in harsh conditions. In the creases are smears of paint and grease, signs of the constant upkeep needed to keep their vessels afloat and moving.
Their bank records would divulge a good deal more, reflecting the boom and bust cycles of their livelihood, the heavy investments in gear and permits, the losses resulting from curtailments and closures like the one that cut the past crab season short by more than two months.
Their traditions are time-honored, passed from one generation to the next. Techniques and strategies are shared within families and adapted to new rules and ocean conditions.
They rise early, spend days rolling in the swells amid all types of weather, and confront daunting risk to fill their holds when the fish are biting.
They are competitors, yet part of the same tribe, a fiercely protective one that is increasingly under threat.
The men and women of the local fleet have been sustained for most of the past century by king salmon and, ever more, by high-value Dungeness crab caught in abundance off the North Coast. Black cod, albacore, rockfish, and other species supplement their harvest.
Newcomers learn quickly to ride the waves of good and ill fortune.
But between the rising pressures of a global market, shifting environmental conditions, and new regulatory restrictions, their world has become more challenging to navigate.
Forced by the nature of their work to be radically self-reliant, they now find their fate increasingly beyond their control — their ranks shrinking as old-timers call it quits, leaving those struggling to hang on often wondering why.
This past king salmon season has been a bright spot, the best run in more than a decade — a result of drought-ending rainfall three years ago that boosted stream flows for spawning adult fish. But myriad concerns about this crab season, both environmental and economic, have furrowed brows in commercial ports up and down the North Coast.
Most alarming for the fleet is fallout from a lawsuit over crab gear that can ensnare whales. It means the seven-month season that typically begins in November could be shut down at any point. This fall, it resulted in an extraordinary move by crabbers. Led by Bodega Bay’s fleet, they persuaded the state to postpone the season opener until at least mid-December to steer clear of the high number of migrating whales that have yet to leave Bay Area fishing grounds.
Creatures of the ocean are elusive by nature, and the sea’s bounty unpredictable, so the fishing life has always been fraught with uncertainty.
But now?
“It’s a pretty hard pill to swallow when you’ve got someone telling you you can’t be on the water,” said Joe Mantua, 46, a crabber for the past 28 years. “We’re fishermen. We want to go out and fish.”
There was never a time Mark Anello planned to do anything but earn his living from the ocean. He was more or less born to it.
Since his great-great-grandfather first landed fish on the coast of Sicily, five generations of men in the family have found their way to commercial fishing — even if, like Anello’s dad, Tony, they spent a couple of decades doing something like firefighting along the way.
Mark was just a tyke when his dad would pull him out of grade school to fish for herring. He had his first fishing vessel before he could drive, acquiring at age 14 a boat his father had sold to someone who later changed his mind.
Anello, 41, said he’s known he was destined for the commercial fishery “since I could work,” and spent years apprenticing as a deckhand before leading his own crews.
“I love the fishing,” he said, his clothes disheveled from a day of working dockside to repair the anchor guard on Cape Ommaney, one of two fishing vessels he now operates. “I’m good at it.”
Anello is one of those family names that everyone in Bodega Bay knows, and one of a handful of fishing families with multiple participants in the local fleet.
Besides his dad, his uncle and cousin also fish. The family’s boats are tied up side-by-side at Spud Point Marina. Across the road, his mom Carol’s prize-winning chowder draws coastal visitors to the family-run Spud Point Crab Company.
It’s no coincidence that the youngest of Mark Anello’s two fishing boats, a hulking, nearly 50-foot fiberglass craft launched three years ago, is called The Legacy.
Anello has made a name for himself as one of several hard-charging North Coast fishing captains who invested heavily in big boats and permits to match their ambitions amid a general upward trend in Dungeness crab.
They are entrepreneurs who came of age as the value of the seasonal California crab crop climbed to new heights, peaking at $95.5 million statewide in 2011-12. It has held steady at $60 million or more, except during the disastrous 2015-16 season cut short by an outbreak of algae-related domoic acid.
The Legacy can carry 33,000 pounds of crab in its massive hold and runs faster than Cape Ommaney, a wooden boat first built in 1948 with romantic, curving lines reminiscent of an earlier time. (Unmarried, Anello jokes that they’re his first and second wives.)
The Legacy’s spacious cabin has berths for the three deckhands he needs on crabbing trips to hoist the heavy iron-framed pots and manhandle the dangerously equipped crustaceans skittering about inside.
But like his fellow fishermen, he’s dependent on the alignment of nature’s cycles to succeed, and the cost of boat payments, insurance, slip fees, and the like never lets up. Standard monthly expenses for the boats run about $8,000, whether he’s landing fish or not.
Last year, the salmon season was tough and the crab season was cut short. Then he had to haul Cape Ommaney to dry dock for what he thought would be five days. It turned out to be two months. He missed much of the recent salmon season as a result, and now faces what may be the most tenuous Dungeness crab season ever — and it hasn’t even begun.
“It’s hitting people really hard,” Anello said. “We’re old. We’re in our 40s. You can’t start another career, mostly because you’re wrecked from doing this anyway.”
Though they’ve been little used in recent decades, Dick Ogg treasures the handmade bass plugs carved and painted by his grandfather, the man who taught Ogg to fish as a young boy during visits to Osage Nation lands in Oklahoma. His granddad, a Ponca tribal member, took special care to craft the lures, using bits of window screen and spray paint to create the appearance of tiny scales before attaching the hooks that would catch his prey.
He’d have his grandson practice casting into tin cans from set distances to develop accuracy and skill before he was allowed to try his hand in one of the many lakes in Osage territory.
Those boyhood visits for Ogg, 66, marked the beginning of a lifelong passion for fishing the California coastline, diving for abalone, and spearfishing. He dropped a line wherever he could once his dad, an Army sergeant, settled the family in the Bay Area more than half a century ago.
But Ogg, a soft-spoken, conscientious man, would spend years teaching martial arts and decades longer working his way to lead electrician at Sonoma State University before he transitioned into commercial fishing 20 years ago. Having financial stability enabled him to invest several hundred thousand dollars in expensive permits for black cod, allowing him to diversify beyond king salmon and Dungeness crab, mainstays for the North Coast. He also fishes albacore far offshore. He still had to take on debt, but “if one business slumps, I can slide over to the other.”
Ironically, Ogg doesn’t consume fish or any animal products himself, though he takes tremendous pride in the fish and crabs he and his colleagues harvest, using hooks and lines to catch finfish sustainably and crab traps that catch only crustaceans that meet size limits.
“To take a thing that’s alive and just waste the product is unacceptable to me,” Ogg said.
His consideration for the ocean has spurred him to leadership in the effort to test gear designed to prevent harm to whales that may swim into an area with crab pots and lines in the water.
He’s been instrumental, as well, in attempts to clear the ocean of abandoned gear, and represents the commercial fleet on a variety of boards.
Ogg says it’s because he wants to keep fishing and catching crab, but he also wants the fishery to continue for future generations.
“We as commercial fishermen really need to be the conservationists, and we are,” Ogg said. “We don’t want to deplete the resource, so you start thinking about just taking care of things a little bit better and making sure that it’s there for the younger generation.”
Ogg was adopted from an orphanage in Japan while his father, a pilot, was stationed there. But he came to absorb Chinese philosophy through his extensive study of martial arts as a young man. His Chinese zodiac sign is a water serpent; his western astrology sign, Pisces, the fish.
“I feel like I’m part of the ocean, I’m part of the water. I really feel very, very close to that,” Ogg said. “And so I’m most comfortable when I’m on the water or around it, and it’s very, very difficult for me to be away from it for any length of time.”
Heather Sears still experiences a thrill at the memory of a singular night off the coast of southern Alaska when the ocean began to glow green with the bioluminescence of tiny marine organisms. At the same time, the northern lights brightened the sky with brilliant, streaming colors Sears could only liken to the kinds of visions that might be induced by psychedelic drugs. “It was the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Sears, 39, says now. “The whole sky just lit up like some kind of acid trip. We couldn’t talk. We were just screaming.”
It was one spectacular moment that punctuated the eight times between 2006 and 2016 when Sears was forced by poor local conditions to head toward the Arctic for salmon. Those treks only reinforced her desire to stay close to home, catching fresh, sustainable seafood for North Coast customers.
The Alaska trips were necessary to keep her business afloat during years when the local salmon fishery was closed or stocks were insufficient. But they became brutal endurance tests for Sears and the shifting, all-female crew aboard her 42-foot vessel, Princess.
It takes at least 15 days to run up there along the western edge of the continent. Then the clock starts on the annual king salmon season opener, which in Alaska lasts fi veto-10 frenzied days with a single limit for the assembled fleet and hundreds of miles to search in hopes of finding enough fish to make the trip worthwhile, Sears said. Her catch in those years accounted for about 70 percent of her annual income.
The pressure and anxiety were immense, knowing she already had spent several thousand dollars on fuel and other expenses. And being in Alaska meant missing whatever minimal salmon season might be underway back home.
The exhaustion is profound when the fish are biting. The work is demanding: unhooking the fish one-by-one, stacking them for fl ash-freezing, and dropping the lines again and again.
But, at least, “You don’t feel any pain,” Sears said.
“You’re so excited that you’re getting them — that this is the time to make your money — because lots of the time you’re not making money, like most of the time.”
Sears at least knew what she was getting into. Growing up in a fishing family in Morro Bay, she was often aboard her father’s boat, fishing salmon as young as age 8.
Commercial fishing was not something she imagined for herself, but she understood it as a family pursuit. She and her parents shared an awareness of the hold that the weather and market had over their lives.
“It’s not just a job. Your life revolves around the boat maintenance, the seasons,” she said. “You learn to get into a different mentality where you think with the seasons and the ocean conditions.”
Sears remembers challenging periods for the Central Coast fishery and seeing the fleet thin out as people around them struggled.
Her own family one year came close to losing everything, including their home, but for “one amazing herring trip” that saved the day. “A lot of guys didn’t have that trip,” she recalled.
But eventually, her father found himself with a huge catch of tuna he could not sell in a saturated market. He sold his boat and got out, a devastating loss of identity for the entire family. Sears was 17.
About a year later, she dropped out of high school and headed up the coast in search of work, falling “absolutely head over heels in love” with the Mendocino Coast as she approached Fort Bragg.
She took some community college classes, but after crewing on other boats for a few years acquired her first fishing vessel at age 21 and never looked back, trading up until she acquired Princess. It’s equipped with a blast freezer that allows her long stays at sea while still supplying sashimi-grade products.
Sears’ strategy has been to sell her fish directly to the public through farmers markets and even, for a year, off the boat at the harbor. Though rocky at first, she found her niche online at Princess Seafood and last year expanded into brick and mortar with her business partner Wendy Holloway, opening Princess Seafood Market & Deli in Fort Bragg.
Sears recently invested about $130,000 in a commercial Dungeness crab permit and traps. She had one good year, confronted the shortened season earlier this year, and finished with exactly half the landings of the previous season.
She now faces the uncertainty brought on by the legal triggers affecting the crab season. It has yet to begin, and when it does, should something go wrong, authorities could close it down in an instant.
“I thought this was going to allow me to fish at home,” Sears said. “It’s scary and sad and discouraging.”
The night before her first fishing trip, Nya Genovese didn’t sleep. Despite what had been 20 years of marriage to a veteran of the California commercial fleet, she wasn’t sure what to expect out on the open water, and the not knowing kept her awake.
A pro now after five years in the compact wheelhouse of La Dolce Vita, the 38-foot Italian boat her husband, Jeff, first crewed as a young man and later bought, Nya, 64, laughs at the memory of her fear.
“You just get right with the rhythm of the ocean,” she says, her lilting voice revealing traces of her French-Canadian roots. “You kind of become part of it.”
The quality of the light, the beauty of the wildlife, and the allure of wide-open ocean offset the hard work and long hours, she said. And they offer a different life, a different sense of time.
“You’re out there on the water, it’s like poetry,” she says. “It’s like you’re part of a song.”
But it remains a daily struggle for the pair to carve out a living on the water, at the whim of the weather and Mother Nature, as well as fishery managers. The spring crab season closure cost the couple a third of their annual income, and high winds during the last month of salmon season made for tense days.
Until the day she found herself aboard Jeff’s fishing vessel, Nya’s professional pursuits had been largely artistic. Educated to teach music in her native Quebec, she had run a music school for a time after college, until her desire to see more of the continent got the best of her and she found herself on the California coast for an extended stay by way of Mexico and Central America.
She was painting Inuit-style gourd rattles in Santa Cruz when she met Jeff, already a longtime fisherman. It was a trade he learned to embrace after knee problems during college laid to rest all hope of a Major League Baseball career.
Jeff, 63, is the grandson and great-grandson of Sicilian fishermen. His father, a Santa Clara Valley rancher who regretted missing out on life at sea, arranged work for his son on the Central Coast among other Italians who netted schooling fish the way their native countrymen had. But after several decades with the Santa Cruz fleet, the Genoveses brought La Dolce Vita to Bodega Bay for what was supposed to be a year. “We fell in love with the whole region,” Jeff said. “It was like a sanctuary. And the fishing grounds were better.”
He learned to harvest king salmon with hook and line and trap Dungeness crab with the rest of the local fleet, alternating fisheries as the seasons and the weather allowed.
Nya mostly stayed home in Grass Valley, tending to the youngest of their three boys — one they had together and two that Jeff had from a previous relationship. For several years, until it became too much, Jeff would drive home on Fridays so the couple could prepare and smoke fish for weekend farmers market sales.
But when their youngest, now 23, finished school, Nya decided the time had finally come to join her husband on the ocean, needlessly passing that first sleepless night on board only to find how well-suited she was to fishing life. She took to navigation “better than any guy,” her husband said.
With their Chihuahua mix Eddie, they’ve spent recent years fishing salmon over the summer and early fall months. They’ve recently started selling some of their catch directly from the boat to improve their margins.
“It’s been great,” Jeff said. “I’ve enjoyed salmon fishing more than ever.”
Until the early spring closure, the couple also hunted Dungeness crab in the latter part of season, which typically starts in mid-November and runs through June. For the opening months, Jeff takes a couple of sturdy deckhands for whom the long days of heaving 100pound crab traps pose less of a chore.
Though their fishing vessel has bunks below deck, the Genoveses stay during fishing weeks aboard a 38foot sailboat moored just down the dock from La Dolce Vita, making for a short commute in the mornings.
“It’s a great life,” Nya said, “but nobody knows it until you start doing it.”
There was a time when Josh Churchman possessively guarded the coordinates for his most fruitful fishing grounds — places offshore of Point Reyes, around Cordell Bank, where he could be assured of loading his tiny boat with rockfish. That was in the days before large swaths of the region were declared off-limits.
His 40-year history of plying now-protected waters allow him more access to those waters than most fishermen enjoy. But there would be no more secrets.
A key condition of his federal permit is that he keep a satellite tracking device on his boat so fishery regulators can watch his every move. And they do.
A decade ago, Churchman, 67, ran afoul of the rules when he trespassed about a quarter-mile inside restricted waters on repeat occasions, a mistake he attributes to onboard instruments he said showed him in an allowable area. He even had a federal observer with him at the time. It’s required under his permit for two months out of each year.
Though he fought the nearly $36,000 citation for several years, he ended up $21,000 in the hole anyway.
Yet there’s little bitterness in Churchman’s voice as he recounts this tale. And although deprived of his favorite places to fish by the rockfish conservation efforts, what he mostly wants to convey is that the fish, many of their stocks depleted decades ago, are coming back.
“It’s good for people to know that the rebuilding is happening, the restrictions are working,” he said.
It’s one of many “conundrums” Churchman, a kind of crusty, hippie philosopher, is fond of citing.
“You want restrictions, but you don’t want restrictions,” he said. “It’s hard to make a living if there are too many restrictions. There are more scientists and more regulators in the industry than there are fishermen. Those are growth industries.”
Churchman came to the ocean through surfing and the good luck granted him as a rebellious 16-year-old when his parents allowed him to leave their Mill Valley home and live at the family cabin in Bolinas, provided he keep up his grades. There he surfed and fished with his buddies, and dutifully continued his education at community college and, when the time came, UC Berkeley. He commuted with his father, a professor of business ethics and management science.
The younger Churchman earned a double major in art, specializing in ceramics, and marine biology.
By then he had already taken over building the Palo, a low-profile, 24-foot fiberglass boat he still uses to hunt colorful rockfish and black cod miles off Bodega Bay. His odd little vessel and reliance on groundfish gives him a bit of an outsider status in Bodega Bay, a tight-knit salmon and crab port.
He keeps a similar vessel near home in Bolinas that he uses to fish for salmon, and, until two years ago, for Dungeness crab.
That’s when he sold his Dungeness crab permit as part of his evolving effort to “quit in time,” as he advances toward 70 and faces the growing physical toll of moving a thousand pounds of fish around after a successful day on the water.
He’s not sure what he would do if he stopped fishing, although he has already written one memoir. “The Whale that Lit the World” details his fishing exploits and encounters with whales and other “sea monsters” along with ruminations on mankind’s management of the seas.
He also has a ceramic studio in his home and has been selling yard art, mostly frog and cat figurines, at local markets and nurseries.
But he concedes fishing is in his blood, even with the risks, the dangers, the setbacks.
He loves the ocean, and “all of her moods … the power.”
“Aging gracefully, man,” Churchman said. “There’s a challenge.”
There’s so much to give thanks for as we consider the challenges Sonoma County has faced this year. Why not let someone else do the cooking and keep the focus on family? Here are some favorites to check out on Thanksgiving Day. Remember that most require reservations/pre-order, so act now.
Flamingo Resort, Santa Rosa: Buffet feast with prime rib, roast turkey, wild salmon, honey glazed ham, pork tenderloin, butternut squash ravioli, sage stuffing, herb-roasted potatoes, green beans, sweet corn, toasted farro, baked yams and a choice of eight different desserts, including a yule log. $59, $27 for kids. 707-545-8530 x 608, 2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, flamingoresort.com.
Franchetti’s Thanksgiving Buffet, Santa Rosa: German and Italian mash-up includes Fondue station, Black forest ham, German potato latke, herb-roasted turkey, beef goulash, rosemary polenta and more. $59 for adults, $20 for kids 6-12. Seatings at 3, 3:30, 4:40, 5 and 6p.m. Make reservations by calling 707-526-1229, franchettis.com.
John Ash & Co., Santa Rosa: Executive Chef Tom Schmidt’s three-course menu includes the best of autumn. Butternut squash soup, red beet carpaccio, steak tartar, crab fritters are among the six first courses. Extensive mains include pumpkin and lobster risotto, veggie tagine, roasted turkey and fixings, apple cider brine pork chop, lemongrass petrale sole, liberty duck and a filet of beef. If you still have room, there’s pumpkin spice cake, a chocolate mousse dome and bourbon pecan tart. $75 for adults, $38 for children. 800-421-2584, 4350 Barnes Rd., Santa Rosa, vintnersinn.com.
Stark’s Steak & Seafood: Fixed-price Thanksgiving menu includes oven-roasted turkey and gravy, Andouille sausage with blue cheese stuffing, pomegranate cranberry sauce, $32pp, seatings from 2 to 8 p.m. Full regular menu (except burger bar) also available. 707-546-5600, 521 Adams St., Santa Rosa, starkssteakhouse.com.
Salt and Stone, Kenwood: Three-course a la carte menu includes roasted butternut squash soup, field greens and persimmon salad, prime rib with mashed potatoes ($58), turkey dinner ($47), porcini crusted pork tenderloin ($48), day boat scallops ($56 or wild mushroom risotto ($43). Dessert includes pumpkin cheesecake, apple galette or gelato. Special kids menu. 707-833-6326, 9900 Sonoma Hwy., Kenwood, saltstonekenwood.com.
The Fig Café, Glen Ellen: Offering a three-course prix fixe menu from 1 to 6 p.m. Starters include their signature fig & arugula salad, fried Brussels sprouts, and butternut squash soup. Main course options are roasted turkey breast, pot roast, pan-seared flounder, and cauliflower risotto. Dessert options are profiteroles or butterscotch panna cotta. $45pp ($20 for kids). 707-933-3000 x 13, 13690 Arnold Dr., Glen Ellen, thefigcafe.com.
El Dorado Kitchen, Sonoma: Chef Armando Navarro’s three-course Thanksgiving dinner includes starts of burrata and huckleberry sauce, roasted chestnut soup, crab cakes. Mains are roasted free-range turkey breast, Petrale sole, pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sauce, and braised beef short rib. Desserts are lemon pudding cake, season pie, molten chocolate cake. $65 for adults, $35 for children. 1pm-7pm, 707-996-3030, 405 1st St. W., Sonoma, eldoradosonoma.com.
Layla Restaurant, MacArthur Place Hotel & Spa, Sonoma: Executive Chef Cole Dickinson’s Thanksgiving feast includes traditional classics such as roasted turkey with gravy, sage and croissant stuffing, candied yams, whipped potatoes, cranberry gelée, haricots verts, honeyed ham, and pumpkin pie. 12-8pm. $95 per adult; $35 for children ages 3-12 (beverages, traces and gratuity not included). 800-722-1866, 29 E. MacArthur Street, Sonoma, macarthurplace.com.
Palms Grill, Sonoma: A thrifty three-course dinner of salad or soup, prime rib or turkey and pumpkin or lemon pie. $35pp, 100 S. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma or 18999 Sonoma Hwy, Sonoma, palmsgrill.com.
The Girl & the Fig, Sonoma: Serving a four-course Thanksgiving meal featuring roasted apple and celery root bisque, pear salad, roast turkey breast, sautéed flounder, smoked short ribs and wild mushroom risotto. There are three dessert options: Pumpkin cake, port-poached pears and chocolate caramel cream tart. $60 for adults with an $18 wine pairing option and $20 for children. 707-938-3634, 110 W Spain St., Sonoma, thegirlandthefig.com.
Santé, Sonoma: Santé at Fairmont Sonoma has made its annual Thanksgiving buffet a little less haute and a lot more wallet and family-friendly. A sampling of the buffet: Cheese and charcuterie, macaroni salad, caesar salad, roasted sunchoke soup with black truffle and Camembert, prime rib, heritage turkey with traditional gravy, roasted squash, caramelized Brussels sprouts, cornbread stuffing and all of the desserts, including pine nut gingerbread, maple walnut mini pies, Valencia orange curd tarts, s’more cheesecake, chocolate panna cotta, pumpkin custard tart, cinnamon rice pudding and a sweet potato trifle. $95 for adults (was $135 last year), $25 for children. 707-939-2407, Inside the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn, 100 Boyes Blvd., Sonoma, santediningroom.com.
Bay View Restaurant & Lounge, Bodega Bay: Serving an a la carte menu including traditional roasted turkey. Desserts, including pumpkin pie, are offered, too. 1pm-8pm, 707-875-2751, 800 Highway 1, Bodega Bay, innatthetides.com.
Coast Kitchen, Jenner: A three-course menu with ocean views guaranteed. Scallop and prawn ceviche, turkey with focaccia and mushroom stuffing, brown butter sweet potatoes and pumpkin cake. $75 per person. Optional wine pairing for $40. 707-847-3231, inside Timber Cove Inn, 21780 Highway 1, Jenner, coastkitchensonoma.com.
Dry Creek Kitchen, Healdsburg: Chef Scott Romano will once again serve a seasonal three-course menu including spice-rubbed pheasant and cabbage salad, salmon tataki, potato veloute, classic turkey, seared diver scallops, pistachio-crusted pork short rib and pumpkin layer cake or apple crisp cheesecake. $79 for adults, $35 for children. 707-431-0330, 317 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, drycreekkitchen.com.
Madrona Manor, Healdsburg: Step it way up with Madrona Manor’s six-course meal of Osetra caviar and egg, Dungeness crab soup, truffle risotto, roasted white turkey meat with cippolini onions, black truffles, celery root, chervil and pain perdu, a confit dark meat of turkey with juniper, potato puree, sage and turkey bordelaise, and a “Flavors of Thanksgiving” dessert. $150 for adults with an optional $80 wine pairing. 707-433-4231, 1001 Westside Rd., Healdsburg, madronamanor.com.
Spoonbar, Healdsburg: Offers a three-course meal with creamy pumpkin soup, chicory and endive salad, yellowtail tuna tartare along with roasted turkey, butternut squash ravioli, prime rib and pan-roasted halibut. Pecan pie and pumpkin panna cotta for dessert. $65 for adults, $35 for children. 707-433-7222, 219 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, spoonbar.com.
Thanksgiving Oysters from Hog Island: Order ahead for delivery on Wednesday. They’re just regular oysters, but they’re perfect for your holiday feast. shopoysters.hogislandoysters.com.
Sweet Treats from Les Pascals Patisserie in Glen Ellen: Chef Pascal Merle has created a new Thanksgiving and holiday menu that includes pumpkin pies, apple tarts, chocolate-orange cookies, warm hazelnuts and raisin breads. 707-934-8378, lespascalspatisserie.com.
Oliver’s Market: A la carte protein and a full meal option for 6-8 ($129.99), which includes a California-raised Diestel turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, cranberry sauce and rolls. oliversmarket.com
Lucky’s: A la carte options including every turkey option available (Mary’s, Diestel, Butterball, Jennie O etc.), rib roast and hams and turkey and ham meals, with dessert, to serve 6-8 people starting at an astoundingly low price of $49.99. luckysupermarkets.com
Raley’s: Offers a complete Diestel turkey dinner for 6-8 for $109.99 including stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato gratin, baby broccoli, cranberry sauce, raleys.com
Whole Foods: Offers à la carte (pick up a pre-cooked or raw turkey or freshly made lump-free mashed potatoes) or order a full meal to feed 4-12, including Diestel turkeys (raised in Sonora near Yosemite), ham and prime rib options. Also great choices for a vegetarian or vegan Thanksgiving meal. wholefoodsmarket.com
Della Fattoria: Pre-order dinner rolls, stuffing, apple galette, pumpkin tart, bourbon pecan tart. Online at dellafattoria.com.
Instructor Pablo Puluke Giet has his students mesmerized, as he explains kitche techniques — the zipper principle, and the knocking test — and shapes, from the long batard to a round boule. To the uninitiated, it sounds bizarre, but the German-born Giet is a graduate of the Master School of Baking in Munich, and his rapt audience is at the new Artisan Baking Center in Petaluma.
“Yeast needs some oxygen, but just a tiny, tiny bit, like a little near-death experience, because what doesn’t kill them makes them stronger,” he says in his lyrical German accent. “They multiply since they don’t want to be extinguished. But do it right – it’s easy – and your yeast water is ready to rumble.”
There is so much information to absorb, as class runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. — and that’s just a taste of what it takes to be a top-level baker. Students who want to continue their studies can take an intermediate-level sourdough baking class, then the two-day Ultimate Home Baker’s Experience class, followed by the Artisan multi-day series of classes that cater to professionals.
Baking enthusiast Maja Toft has trekked from the East Bay twice for classes recently, and said she plans to attend more. As director of product research and development for Clif Bar & Company in Emeryville, she is around various flours and grains all the time, and loves to bake in her home kitchen, too. She attended a Basic Whole Grain Sourdough Baking class with six of her colleagues, and a pizza-making class with another three colleagues – and not for work.
“Some of us are food scientists, some are not,” she said. “It was just a spontaneous thing for us, to learn more skills and have fun.”
The Artisan Baking Center (or ABC, as its fans call it) is tucked inside the 35,000-square-foot Keith Giusto Bakery Supply/Central Milling Company in an industrial park near McDowell and Corona roads. Open for two years now, its first class was scheduled for the day after the Tubbs fire hit, and it took many months before anyone was thinking about baking breads in ovens heating up to 570 degrees.
When baker Craig Ponsford was hired in May of 2018, there wasn’t much happening with the $1.8 million academy, he said, and he immediately set out to change that.
His official title is bakery coordinator, but his contributions greatly exceed that, as he teaches most of ABC’s highest level classes. Prior to this role, he ran his own bakery, Artisan Bakers in Sonoma, for 17 years and still owns a bakery and innovation center, Ponsford’s Place, in his hometown of San Rafael.
“There are only a handful of real baking schools in the whole country,” he said, including the San Francisco Baking Institute, and the Associate in Baking and Pastry Arts degree programs off ered at the Culinary Institute of America branches in St. Helena, Hyde Park, New York, and San Antonio, Texas. “It’s not so unusual in Europe and Asia and all over the world, but not too many American bakers are actually formally trained.”
Many local bakers are self-trained, with some supplementary classes, such as Ian Conover and his wife, Tara Williams, who two years ago started their small-batch Relax and Eat Bread bakery and homedelivery service in Sonoma. In 2016, Ian left his career in the cycling industry to go to culinary school at Santa Rosa Junior College.
Then, there’s Rustic Bakery, which Josh Harris and Carol LeValley founded in 2005, after reading cookbooks and baking for family and friends out of their home kitchen. Today, their artisanal fl atbread crackers are sold at shops all around the Bay Area and across more than 550 locations in 43 states.
So it’s perhaps not surprising that these days, ABC is busy hosting about 15 classes a month, with most sold out, and more students traveling from outlying states like Utah.
Seminars can be pricey, at $195 for the basic sourdough class, and $435 for an Artisan III class. But that’s partly because, initially, many students have been bakers running their own businesses, drawn in by ABC’s parent company, Keith Giusto Bakery Supply, which distributes massive amounts of Central Milling artisanal flour and other dry goods like sugar and oats out of its sprawling warehouse next to the baking center. Every seven days, the company turns over a quarter-million pounds of product, with the bestseller being the hard, red whole wheat flour sourced from partner farms across 10 states and milled at its own Utah facilities.
“In many other parts of the world, flour companies have their own bakeries so they can teach their customers how to use their flour,” said Ponsford. “Keith Giusto Bakery Supply delivers to 500 bakeries within 100 miles of here, so a big base for us is continuing education, helping with product development, and team building for customers that are already buying flour.”
Still, ABC is unique in that it caters to customers buying truckloads of flour, but also to home enthusiasts who stop in at the retail shop in front of the school to purchase a 5-pound bag of organic spelt berries, organic pumpernickel rye meal, or organic heirloom einkorn flour made from what’s largely considered the world’s oldest cultivated wheat.
Encouraging more amateur enthusiasts, three-hour classes are available from $90 on single topics like making French baguettes with perfect crumb and crust, just waiting for slathering in artisanal butter and jam. “We’re very busy here, but if you’re a client and want to experiment with recipes, we love to see you,” said Ponsford.
Boasting eight industrial ovens including rack ovens with rotating trays and convection ovens, plus two classrooms, the baking school can accommodate small to large groups wanting to delve into making fresh, whole milled ancient grain sourdough pasta, or classic pretzels, or chocolate cakes and tarts.
“If someone needs us, our team is here with a couple hundred baking years among us,” said Ponsford. “We try our best to help everybody.”
Indeed, as chef Giet moves his class into another phase, making inoculated water for creating custom yeasts, students start peppering him with questions. He demonstrates how to combine two ripe dates, 50 grams of sugar, and 500 grams of water in a kombucha bottle to create a homemade yeast starter that he promises is superior to, and more consistent than, the traditional sourdough starter of flour and water.
Immediately, students want to know if only dates will work, and he explains, no, as long as the fruit – or even vegetable – has a good surface area and high sugar content, they’re pretty much all good starter material.
“Dried fruit looks small, but put [dried] peaches, for example, in water, and they’re the most amazing things,” he says, as students scribble furiously in their workbooks and examine the ingredients they’re about to prepare. “The next day, there’s a huge peach floating in there. And if you’re making a pizza crust, tomatoes are awesome. They make the pizza even more appealing, since you can say they came from your own garden, and there’s a little extra story.”
Kiwi and pineapple won’t work for starters because they’re too acidic, he tells one student. Papaya, no, because too many enzymes, he answers another. Grapes, yes, as he knows many local bakers who have begun making starters from vineyard grapes (Della Fattoria in Petaluma has long showcased breads made with a natural starter from the owner’s Petaluma ranch-grown grapes).
Then he stops and shares his email address, inviting everyone to reach out if they have questions at home. “I won’t reply,” he says with a laugh, “but you’ll feel better for now.”
Toft said she feels more confident now with her baking, and has made sourdough with the date-yeast water, experimenting with different variables. Her colleagues are exploring new skills, too. “We are all at different levels in baking, and it turned out classes were technical,” she said. “But simple enough that we could all understand what was going on.”
The word about ABC is spreading as bakers of all levels share their finished products in the community, and as the center attracts more and more notable names as guest instructors.
Ponsford is certainly a big deal – among many other honors, he won the first-place gold medal in the 1996 Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie in Paris for his baguettes, the competition’s first win by an American team.
Other recent visiting luminaries include celebrity chef, cookbook author, and James Beard Award winner Jim Dodge, who worked with Julia Child; pastry chef Peter Yuen, who placed first in the 2008 Coupe du Monde Viennoiserie category; and Michael Kalanty, Gourmand International award for Best Bread Book in the World in 2011 (“How To Bake Bread: The Five Families of Bread”).
As ABC’s classes have expanded over the past year and a half, Ponsford said he has found a dedicated base of people who respect exquisite, crunchy-edged, moist crumb breads and are willing to do the hard work to make them. Yes, there’s fun, as well as delicious farm-to-table lunches to be enjoyed during the lengthy classes. But in the end, it’s all about what emerges from the oven.
“Baking is about discipline,” he said. “I have a reputation as being a drill sergeant about time and temperature. I’m having a wonderful time, really, but I’m very, very focused. We can be really relaxed, or super-intense, and it’s worth it.”
As holiday parties pop up on the calendar, it’s time to stock up on host and hostess gift ideas. A bottle of fine Sonoma wine is always a hit, but why not try something a little different this year? We’ve lined up a few unique gift ideas from Sonoma stores in the gallery.
Windsor boutique owner Marie Esposti-Winter ventured into retail after she lost her Santa Rosa business of 10 years — The Loft Salon at Fountaingrove Village — in the 2017 Tubbs fire. As she watched the news coverage of last month’s Kincade fire, threatening the town of Windsor and her stores at the Town Green and Lakewood Village Shopping Center, she thought to herself: “Maybe I’m not supposed to have a business in wine country.”
Thankfully, the town of Windsor was saved from the flames due to the heroic efforts of firefighters and, on October 30, grateful residents and business owners were able to return after evacuation orders had been lifted.
Esposti-Winter operates her Windsor stores, Hush and Hush Up, in partnership with her daughter, Caitlyn Carpenter, who has a background selling fashion to stylists and celebrities in Beverly Hills. The mother-and-daughter team work with “sustainable and socially conscious vendors” to bring LA fashion to wine country. Both of their stores sustained smoke damage during the Kincade fire — Hush Up is now open for business while Hush will remain closed for for another couple of weeks for damage assessment and cleanup.
Down the road from Hush Up, Cravin’s Candy Emporium on the Windsor Town Green has been a sweet tooth’s dream destination for over 15 years. Vintage board games decorate the walls and the store is densely stocked with new, classic and housemade candy — the air is richly fragrant from the sweet mix.
Store manager Mary Archer, who’s been with Cravin’s for 13 years, exudes a passion for her job and says that everyone — no matter their age — reflects back on their childhood when they visit.
“Even kids will say, ‘When I was little, I used to eat this candy,'” says Archer, who always finds herself amused by parents who come to the store and tell their kids to “choose just one thing,” and then end up leaving with a bucketful of candy just for themselves.
Archer remains grateful and in good spirits at the time of the store’s reopening. While she had to relocate four times during the fire and the store lost products due to power outages, she puts it all in perspective by recalling a sentiment shared by many locals in late October — also expressed by fire personnel after the fire: “We thought there wasn’t going to be a Windsor.”
Like other local store owners, Archer expresses a love of Windsor — “the people and the community” — and looks forward to upcoming events like the annual lighting of 200 Christmas trees in the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree Grove on the Town Green. She feels confident shoppers will return following the fire.
Heed the call to shop local for fire recovery, by visiting stores on the Windsor Town Green and other parts of Sonoma County.
