Kin Restaurant is a Family-Friendly Spot in Windsor

Shrimp and bacon pizza at Kin in Windsor. Heather Irwin/PD

Since opening in 2011, Windsor’s Kin Restaurant has become a well-loved, family-friendly dining destination on the Windsor Green. With an extensive comfort menu that ranges from burgers and frickles (fried pickles) to braised short ribs, mac and cheese, wedge salad and warm cobbler.

If you’re looking for a place where mom and dad can get a nice dinner with a glass of wine and the kids will be well-taken care of with a chicken fingers and hot dogs menu of your own, Kin is the spot.

Fieri alums Brad Barmore and JC Adams, both restaurant biz dads wanted to create a place to take their kids that didn’t feel like, well, a place to take the kids. Armed with family recipes like Grandma’s beer-braised pot roast and Brad’s father-in law’s secret barbecue sauce (“It was harder to get that recipe than it was getting his daughter’s hand,” laughs Brad). They also own Kin Smoke Barbecue restaurant in Healdsburg and the Town Green watering hole, Publican.

The menu changes up seasonally, though their signature Kin Burger (a half-pound patty with smoked white cheddar, applewood smoked bacon and BBQ sauce on a brioche bun; Kin Mac & Cheese; and pizzas are evergreen.

Pull up a table, take a nibble off everyone’s plate, toast to your kin and pass dad the bill at the end. When you’re at Kin, you’re family.

Kin Restaurant, 740 McClelland Drive (former DePaoli’s), Windsor, 837-7546. Open daily for lunch and dinner.

Where To Eat During the PG&E Outage: Restaurants & Stores Open

Don’t panic, people. Even though your fridge may have gone kaplooey, there is plenty of great food available at restaurants throughout the county. Go support them!

Biteclub is keeping an evolving listing of restaurants and grocers that are open during the outages. Info may change as power goes off or on, but we will keep it as up to date as possible. Specific restaurants that email or contact me (heather.irwin@pressdemocrat.com) will be listed individually.  NOTE: Bring cash, as some restaurants do not have internet for their card machines.

RESTAURANTS OPEN FOR EATING DURING POWER OUTAGES 10/10
OPEN IN Santa Rosa (Currently, the majority of restaurants *are* open)
– Bistro 29
– Franchetti’s
– Perch + Plow
-Steele and Hops
– Victory House
Riviera Ristorante
Lita’s Cafe Open
– La Gare open for dinner 5-9p.m.
– Omelet Express (Both locations)
– Taco trucks in Roseland operating normally
Whole Pie
– Hank’s Creekside
Fountaingrove Deli open until 3p.m, but phone and WiFi is down
Spinster Sisters
Ricky’s Eastbound: Food truck outside tonight from 5 pm (with bar open!) BYO-Light.
Brew: Open with WiFi and coffee.
– Rosso is open
Noble Folk (both locations): The ice cream is SAFE! 😉
– Joey’s Pizza
– Jackson’s Bar & Oven
– Dierk’s Midtown
All Montgomery Village Restaurants/Cafes: (Acre Coffee, Boudin, Copperfield’s Café, Cascabel, Cattlemens Steak House, Crepevine, Emily’s Kitchen, Fresh Press, Gus’ Café & Grill, Monti’s, Raku Ramen & Rolls, Round Table Pizza, SEA Thai Bistro & Bar, Sonoma Bagel & Deli, Tomatina, Village Bakery)
– Fogbelt Brewing
– John Ash & Co, River Vine Cafe
– Beer Baron
– Bollywood
– Mountain Mike’s Pizza (2280 Santa Rosa Ave)
– Barrel Bros. Brewing:
– Third St. Aleworks
– Belly Left Coast Kitchen
– Ca’Bianca

OPEN IN Healdsburg: Most restaurants open
– Willi’s Seafood, Bravas open
– Valette open
– Barrels, Brews and Bites is open! 11:30-8pm Happy Hour All Day.
– Costeaux Bakery
– Taste of Tea (with a nice massage to get you back to your happy place)

OPEN IN Petaluma: West Petaluma restaurants reportedly not affected and open for businesses.
– Della Fattoria open!
– Pub Republic

OPEN IN Sebastopol: Most Restaurants open and operating normally.

Reported open to Biteclub
– Papas and Pollo
Sushi Tozai open tonight!
Sushi Kosho open tonight
Barrio Open
Gravenstein Grill
Fernbar, Handline

Sonoma Valley (reported from our friends at the Sonoma Index-Tribune) and the Sonoma Valley Visitor’s Bureau
Many businesses and homes are affected and a limited number of businesses are open…
OPEN IN SONOMA
– Hopmonk Sonoma serving limited menu in the beer garden
– Basque Boulangerie serving food
– Town Square is selling beer
– Sonoma Market and Lucky are selling what is on the shelves
– Cafe at MacArthur Place
– Layla at MacArthur Place
– Murphy’s Irish Pub
– Reel and Brand
– TIPS Roadside Tri-Tip Trolley (outside)
– Starling Bar

OPEN IN Cotati
– Grav South Brew Co.

OPEN IN Windsor
– Russian River Brewing

Geyserville
Diavola: If you love eating pizza in the candle light, we got you covered tonight!! We are open for both lunch and dinner. Limited menu. Pizza, beer & wine!! Mick Unti from Unti Vineyards & Winery will be pouring some beautiful wines tonight. Come join us

OPEN IN Forestville, Guerneville: Most restaurants operating normally
– Twist Eatery

CURRENTLY CLOSED
Willi’s Wine Bar
Girl and the Fig Cafe
Geyserville Grille (reopens Friday)
Frenchie (Sonoma)

Restaurants Fear Rotten Ramifications of PG&E Outages

Sonoma County restaurateurs are racing to prepare themselves for a proposed power outage that could have a devastating impact on their bottom line. At risk: Hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of refrigerated and frozen food that could quickly spoil if their electricity goes out for an extended amount of time.

That’s in addition to the potential revenue loss of having to close their doors for multiple days.

“We’re in the throes of this right now,” said Domenica Catelli, of Catelli’s in Geyserville. With just hours to go before what’s expected to be a significant outage throughout the county, she was scrambling to find some extra refrigerated space and canceling food orders.

“We’re reaching out to everyone we know,” said Catelli. “We’re looking at refrigerated trucks and downsizing what we have,” she said. Throughout the county, the race is on to prepare for what could be several days without power.

The timing, for many, couldn’t be worse. A lack of trained workers, still-slumping tourist revenue and the loss of entire neighborhoods that are still not-yet-rebuilt has taken a serious toll on the restaurant industry.

“This is really what everyone needs right now?” said restaurateur Terri Stark of Stark Reality Restaurants of the continued stress the industry has seen in the last 24 months.

“The timing of it is so eerie and I’m on edge,” she said.

PD File Photo
PD File: A chef preps food by candlelight in 2002.

All but one of the six restaurants Stark owns with her husband, Chef Mark Stark, are in proposed outage areas from Healdsburg to Santa Rosa. Her own home is also in one of the zones and Willi’s Wine Bar was among a handful of restaurants that burned in the 2017 wildfires two years ago.

Stark said they’re currently packing their walk-ins with dry ice. Walk-ins are large refrigerated rooms, that range from closet-sized to hundreds of square feet and are imperative for keeping perishable food at safe temperatures.

Stark’s Steakhouse near Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square will be their base of operations if the power goes out.  “The Steakhouse will be open and we think we may be pretty busy because people need a place to eat if there’s no power. But we’re just gonna take this one step at a time. We have a huge walk-in there and we can move whatever food to use at that location,” she said.

Stark, along with other restaurateurs say the large refrigeration units typical in restaurants will hold the temperature for up to a day or longer if they remain unopened. But once the refrigeration temperature hits 40 degrees most perishable food like meat or produce, have to be discarded.

“It could be a total loss. If the power is down, we’ll cancel all our orders for the morning, but it’s gonna be touch and go,” she said.

“I’m making sure I’ve got gas in my generator,” said John Franchetti, of Franchetti’s Gasthaus. Though his Dutton Ave. location isn’t currently on a map of planned outage areas, he’s planning for the worst. In 2017, his restaurant was closed for 15 days while wildfires raged.

“If we have power, I’m going to be open,” said Franchetti.

In Glen Ellen, Ari Weisswasser said his restaurant, Glen Ellen Star, has a busy weekend planned, and he’s not planning to close if he can help it. “Look, I’ve done this before,” said Weisswasser, whose restaurant was perilously close to fires that devastated the surrounding area in 2017. “It would take an earthquake to shut us down. I’m staying open. I’ve done this before and I can do it again,” he said.

In Healdsburg, Dustin Valette said he supports the preventative measures being taken by PGE, though it could seriously affect his businesses. Valette’s father, Bob, is an active duty Cal Fire tanker pilot so the potential for wildfires hits close to home.

“We fully support preventative measures to help save the lives and homes throughout Sonoma County,” he said. “We feel that taking a preventative approach far outweighs the negative effects. If there is a power outage, we will have to close for regular service, although we will be taking this on a case by case basis and plan on having regular service throughout the week,” he said.

Catelli said that despite the worries, the Sonoma County restaurant community is tight-knit and will stick together.

“What I know from what we’ve all been through the last two years is that we’ve gone through a lot and our community is strong,” she said.

Shop One-Of-A-Kind Clothing and Home Decor at Head West Marketplace in Sebastopol

Achieving a unique style for home and wardrobe is all about curation. But, with Instagram and big box stores generating viral kind of styles, it can be hard to pull off a look that feels personal and fresh.

Enter the small-batch makers of the Bay Area. Inspired by the beauty of the local landscape and with a commitment to craftsmanship and design, they are creating unique wares that can enliven a space and help define personal style. On October 12, a Bay Area pop-up marketplace for small, emerging brands—Head West—is coming to the Barlow in Sebastopol. The impressive roster of artisans with offerings from plant hangers to bespoke watches, will join the Barlow’s exquisite retail offerings for a truly unique shopping experience—click through the above gallery for information on sellers.

Head West Marketplace, Saturday, October 12, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., The Barlow, 6770 McKinley St., Sebastopol, headwestmarketplace.com

Lowell’s in Sebastopol to Close After 12 Years

One of Sonoma County’s most iconic farm-to-table restaurants will close this month after 12 years of service. Lowell’s, once known as Peter Lowell’s, will serve its last meal on Oct. 14, according to owner Lowell Sheldon.

“It’s going to be a good evolution for my life,” said Sheldon. He said that he and his former partner Natalie Goble, looked at the businesses over the last year to see what kind of relevance it still held in the community and their lives.

“As the owner of the business, it has to reflect what’s going on in my life. With having two kids…the way this business worked it wasn’t possible given my current priorities. Sebastopol is changing and has different offerings,” said Sheldon.

With the opening of Handline in 2016 and Fernbar in late 2018, Sheldon’s plate has been full.

Lowell Sheldon with partner Natalie Goble.
Lowell Sheldon with former partner Natalie Goble.

“Since Handline opened, we knew it would impact the business. We didn’t know how much or for how long, we didn’t know what it would look,” said Sheldon. With a family-friendly fast-casual concept, lower price point, modern design and sustainable focus, Handline has been wildly successful, while Lowell’s has seen a decline in diners over the last year.

It’s a bittersweet moment for Sheldon, who announced that he’s planning to turn over the space to Ramen Gaijin’s Matthew Williams and Moishe Hahn-Schuman. Williams confirmed that he’s looking into a new project but is not ready to speak publicly about it yet.

When it opened in 2007 Sebastopol’s Peter Lowell’s was radical even for Sonoma County. With a focus on produce grown on their own farm and a mostly vegetarian menu, it reflected a place and a time in West County. Over the years, that point of view evolved, launching Chef Daniel Kedan (now of Backyard) onto the local scene and including a variety of carefully-sourced meats and regional Italian cuisine.

Lowell and Chef Daniel Kedan. Heather Irwin/PD
Lowell and Chef Daniel Kedan. Heather Irwin/PD

Owner Lowell Sheldon bravely took on the idea of including a 20 percent service charge to offer employees a living wage, which was met with pushback despite it now becoming more common.

“After service on Monday, October 14th, we are ending what has been the fantastic journey of Lowell’s Restaurant. The fire in my heart burns bright with gratitude for the moments I have shared with each of you. It was at this restaurant that I learned what it means to combine of love for something with the work it takes to sustain it. It was at this restaurant that I met one of the great partners of my life, Natalie Goble, with whom I share two beautiful boys. It was at this restaurant that I learned what it means to fail, to wake up renewed, and to start once again with the belief that I may succeed,” said Lowell in an email to fans of the restaurant on Oct. 2.

Sheldon said that the current challenging in hiring restaurant workers hasn’t been an issue for the restaurant, though with increased minimum wages, it has been difficult.

With his young children chattering in the background as he talked by phone, Sheldon seems ready to move forward.

“There’s sadness in me, but I’ve worked through it and I’m excited,” he said.

A Refuge Saved: How the Sonoma Mountain Zen Center’s Priests and Followers Battled the Nuns Fire

Kashin strikes the Han (wooden block), which marks both the beginning and the end of Samu (work practice).

Inside the gate of Santa Rosa’s Sonoma Mountain Zen Center, a hillside tumbles down to a dirt road that cuts through drifting seas of dry leaves. There, under the canopy of live oaks speckled with lichens, sits a blue Ford F-250, a relic from the Nuns fire of 2017. As ribbons of flame moved south from Bennett Valley toward the mountain that October, the truck was essential to the rescue of this Buddhist sanctuary by its gutsy priests and practitioners. The fire that over three weeks consumed more than 50,000 acres, took three lives, and burned more than 1,300 structures came close but ultimately did not torch the Zen Center’s 81 acres.

“We made an off-the-grid brigade and fought the fire for 10 days,” says Nyoze Kwong, the charismatic youngest son and hands-on heir to the teaching legacy of Jakusho Kwong-roshi, who with his wife, Shinko, founded the idyllic haven for spiritual practice in 1973 after relocating from Mill Valley with their four boys. (Today, at 83, Jakusho serves as the Center’s abbot, chief storyteller, and convivial ambassador to the community at large.)

Main meditation hall.
The main meditation hall at the Sonoma Mountain Zen Center in rural Santa Rosa. (Rebecca Chotkowski)
Buddha in the garden.
The sublime tranquility of this Buddha, seated in the underbrush of the sanctuary’s vegetable garden, captures one of the aims of the Sonoma Mountain Zen Center: to teach the practice of letting go of one’s worldly worries. (Rebecca Chotkowski)

Outfitted in flip-flops and loose-fitting work garments, 50-year-old Nyoze trudges toward the fire line through a fluffy groundcover of straw that shuffles under his feet. Periodically he points at tufts of poison oak for the benefit of his companions, among them his wife, Kashin, a nun and the center’s arts and aesthetics director, who is highly allergic to the ubiquitous plant.

“I wanted to save the Zen Center, save Sonoma Mountain,” he says, explaining that he and an intrepid band of Zen Center residents returned to the mountain just two days after evacuating and took up an ad hoc arsenal of axes, chainsaws, shovels, walkie-talkies, and hand-operated water pumps. Together they piled into the truck and zigzagged across the hillside in masks, checked on neighbors, chopped down trees, and slept in three-hour shifts.

“The whole mountain was on fire,” he says. “We saw sheets of ash and heard propane tanks blowing up. At that moment, I was not attached to anything. I was focused on putting out the fire.”

From left to right - Kashin, Nyoze, and Jakusho.
Kashin Kwong, left, who runs the center’s arts program; Nyoze Kwong, the vice abbot; and Jakusho Kwong, founder and abbot who established the sanctuary in 1973 when he moved to Sonoma with his wife, Shinko. and his four sons, including Nyoze, his youngest. (Rebecca Chotkowski)
Nyoze in meditation hall.
Nyoze Kwong, Zen Center vice abbot and head of operations, practices seated meditation. (Rebecca Chotkowski)

Ultimately, it was Kashin’s relentless pleas for help from Cal Fire — dialed in from her command post at a relative’s house in Palo Alto, where she’d sought refuge with her in-laws and 9-year-old son Ejo — that resulted in the arrival of a bulldozer from Santa Barbara. It plowed a trench around the perimeter and stanched the progress of the fire, saving two-thirds of the property, including the memorial garden, known as a stupa, to Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, a mentor to Nyoze’s father who is credited with bringing Zen Buddhism to the West. Also spared was the shrine to Tibetan teacher Karmapa, where at the height of the infernal battle Nyoze pried a priceless painting of a Tibetan deity, known as a thangka, off a wall.

But Nyoze’s 30-plus years of za-zen — seated meditation focused on letting go of earthly thoughts — served him well in the fight of his life.

It also spawned a rejuvenation of sorts for the nonprofit. New lodging for visiting guests, spare but cheery and calming, has been built in a motif that blends California barn style with that of a Japanese temple, bringing guest capacity to 50.

A new bath and toilet facility features a vaulted ceiling and sun-splashed interiors, and plans for a new meditation hall have received a permit, with a target completion date of 2023. The modernization of campus infrastructure includes new wells and water tanks, roads, parking lots, fire suppression, septic and electrical systems, plus ADA compliance. Floors are heated and all structures are built with fire-retardant materials.

The Suzuki stupa near the fire line
The Suzuki stupa near the fire line. (Rebecca Chotkowski)

The Suzuki stupa near the fire line.

The improvements have required an investment of more than $2 million, much of it raised from gifts by undisclosed patrons and visitor donations, and overseen by a new board of directors. And, under the supervision of a resident green thumb named Susan Frey, the organic garden is abundant with asparagus, tomatoes, and red cabbage.

Three weeks after the fire, the Zen Center hosted a meeting for neighbors in its meditation hall, or zendo. Sharing both loss and gratitude, some cried, some laughed, some told stories.

“The fire pushed us all to come into contact with a common suffering and the impermanence of life. From this pressure, people came together,” says Nyoze.

Though his personal experience was “grueling,” the Zen master-in-the making says that the calm and focus the job required brought moments of freedom and joy.

“It’s like life: good and bad. But altogether there is richness.”

One of the most important areas on the property - a shrine the houses a priceless Tangka. Nyoze pried it off the wall to save it from the fires which came yards away.
One of the most important areas on the property – a shrine the houses a priceless Tangka. Nyoze Kwong pried it off the wall to save it from the fires which came yards away. (Rebecca Chotkowski)
Visiting the Center

Whether devout or just curious, visitors can partake in a variety of programs. Saturday morning “drop-ins” feature meditation, informal conversation, and a vegetarian lunch prepared on the premises. The recommended donation is $10 and up. Temple stays, which cost $85, include meditation, a nature walk, a tea ceremony, two meals, and one night’s lodging. In addition, more formal practitioners can be granted guest residencies that enable them to study and meditate on the property — partaking in meals, interviews with Abbot Kwong-roshi, nature walks, and chanting for up to three months at a time for $65 a day. smzc.org

Photo Essay: Harvest – A Year in the Making

A vineyard off Eastside Road near Windsor shows the changing of the season, but also new grass growth from the recent rains, Friday Oct 21, 2016. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat) 2016

Fall in all its majesty, with its brilliant colors, its sublime flavors, its harvest rituals and rewards, gets all the glory. But this most exalted of seasons — especially here in Wine Country, where the grape is our signature crop — does not, in fact, deserve all the credit.

Consider winter, when the first frost and the end of leaf fall herald dormancy in the vineyard. Out come the shears and saws, used to train the vines and spur new growth. Then spring brings budbreak, shoot growth, and flowering, all of which mark the beginning of the annual lifecycle of the vine.

Veraison, the stage when the grapes start to ripen, arrives in summer, as the fruit begins to take the hue — red-black or yellow-green — of the wine it will become. In Sonoma, this is when the frenzy begins, with early-harvest grapes like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay often demanding to be picked in August.

The common thread through every season? Mother Nature is the boss, and she alone dictates the timing, at every stage, in this continuous round of hello and goodbye.

The Best Cheap Eats in Petaluma

Fried chicken and waffles at Sax’s Joint in Petaluma. (Chris Hardy/for Sonoma Magazine)

There are cheap eats, and then there are great cheap eats. The former merely fills the hole, while the latter feeds the soul. Sure, you can get a hamburger for a buck at the nearest fast food drive-thru or a sweaty hot dog from that 7-Eleven roller-grill thingy, but all you’re likely to feel after you’ve eaten it is regret. For a little more cash, you can upgrade to real food, made with love (and often, local ingredients) at Petaluma’s neighborhood eateries. Here’s where to find some of the best cheap eats in town.

Where to Celebrate Day of the Dead in Sonoma County

Tre’von Brown, 16, center, Lupe Lopez, 16, left, and Jess Herrera, 16, right, of the Santa Rosa HIgh School Latinos Unidos club show off their calaveras make-up during a Dia de los Muertos celebration at Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa, California on Sunday, November 2, 2014. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat)

There is a little window of time, Mexican tradition has it, during the last days of October and the first days of November when the partition between the living and the dead vanishes and loved ones return to feast, dance, and celebrate. To welcome them back during El Día de los Muertos, the living may construct elaborate altars, or ofrendas. You never know what you might find on a Day of the Dead altar: a favorite red comb missing a few teeth, a bowling trophy, a can of sardines, things that had significance and meaning to the deceased. It’s a ceremony that manages to be simultaneously playful and moving, and no place in the North Bay honors the ritual more wholeheartedly than Petaluma.

Starting in early October and continuing for almost an entire month, Petaluma is alive with Day of the Dead-themed altars, music, dance, poetry readings, food vendors, community gatherings, even sugar-skull-making workshops. Thanks to three enthusiastic coordinators — Abraham Solar, Gloria McCallister, and Margo Gallagher — as well as the efforts of some dedicated volunteers, the celebration is still going strong 19 years after it began. All events are free, though donations are welcome, and all are offered in Spanish and English. Says Gallagher: “Attendance and interest continue to grow stronger each year. We typically have up to 4,000 to 5,000 attendees at the traditional candlelight procession.”

This year’s theme is Love Transcends/El Amor Trasciende. Longtime volunteer and supporter Georgina Warmoth will be working with Gallagher to create an especially timely altar, displayed at the Petaluma Mail Depot, honoring those who have lost their lives while housed in detention centers, or who died trying to enter the U.S. Theirs will be one of several community altars, where the public is encouraged to leave a message, a picture, or a flower. Altars will also be on display in shop windows all over town.

11/1/2009:D9: A skeletal figurine with guitar at the Petaluma Arts Center. PC: Catrina figures, a parody of the Mexican upper class female with bouquet often are a prominent part of modern Day of the Dead observances.
Catrina figures, a parody of the Mexican upper class female with bouquet, are a prominent part of modern Day of the Dead observances. (John Burgess)
Zinnias and Mexican artwork create a colorful display in the window at Frontburner Open Studio for the D’a de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead celebration in Windsor, California on Sunday, October 9, 2011. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat)
Zinnias and Mexican artwork create a colorful display in the window at Frontburner Open Studio for the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Windsor, California on Sunday, October 9, 2011. (Beth Schlanker)

Witnessing these tributes, the viewer often leaves with a sense of having actually met the departed, if only briefly. And even with a full month of Day of the Dead commemorations, it’s hard to fit everything in. Says Gallagher, “We love what we do and are passionate about it. We want to celebrate the life and death of our loved ones and ancestors, through the arts and traditions of Latino culture.” And while the real party here is for the dead, these events do offer living participants explosions of color, skeletal spectacles, marigolds, and magic.

October 6, Opening Day, St. Vincent’s Church plaza, 35 Liberty St., 12-4 p.m. Featuring Aztec dancers, Ballet Folklorico Paquiyollotzin, food vendors, a health fair, and more.

October 12, Artist Reception, Petaluma Mail Depot, 40 Fourth St., 6-9 p.m. Featuring local artists, food vendors, and live music.

October 18, Poesia del Recuerdo/Poetry of Remembrance, Connie Mahoney Reading Room, SRJC Petaluma campus, 680 Sonoma Mountain Parkway, 6-8 p.m. Featuring bilingual poets Jabez Churchill and Forrest Gander, recipient of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

October 19, LumaFest, SRJC Petaluma’s El Dia de Los Muertos Community Celebration
SRJC Petaluma campus, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Another performance by Ballet Folklorico Paquiyollotzin, lectures, art, and information booths. lumafest.santarosa.edu

November 2, Candlelight Procession and Closing Event, 4-10 p.m. Procession takes place at the Petaluma Fairgrounds, where festivities will include Ballet Folklorico Paquiyollotzin, Aztec dancers, live music by Group Gitano, Danza Los Diablos Unidos, food and art vendors, and more.

Visit El Día de los Muertos Petaluma on Facebook for a full schedule of events.

Check websites for information about Day of the Dead celebrations elsewhere in Sonoma County: 

Santa Rosa: santarosadiadelosmuertos.org
Sonoma: sonomacommunitycenter.org, laluzcenter.org
Sebastopol: sonomalibrary.org
Healdsburg: ci.healdsburg.ca.us/911/Dia-De-Los-Muertos
Windsor: latinbayarea.com

Hot Wine Country Experience: Thursday Night Dinners at Edge in Sonoma

John McReynolds, culinary director of Stone Edge Farm in Sonoma, is in his new larder, a temperature-controlled room where he stashes the precious preserved bounty of the organic farm.

The storage room is lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves and Mason jars full of intriguing ingredients, labeled Tomato Conserva and Fermented Red Pepper Paste, Quince Mostarda and Fig and Fennel Pollen Jam.

“Right now, we have a shelf full of vinegars— huckleberry, red wine, apple cider vinegar, and of course, my favorite is the quince vinegar,” McReynolds says. “I love to do salads with that, especially in the fall, with some grilled radicchio. There’s so much flavor in it.”

Like the biodynamically farmed Cabernet, Sauvignon Blanc, and Bordeaux blend wines made by the Stone Edge Farm Estate Vineyards & Winery, the preserved foods require a special environment to prolong their lifespan.

“The important thing is to keep it at a certain temperature, like 65 degrees,” McReynolds says. “It’s dark — I don’t think anything improves by the light.”

McReynolds and his staff weave the high-end wines and the labor-intensive larder into a delicious food program that encompasses lunches, dinners, and food-and-wine pairings at Edge,
the winery’s private club located in downtown Sonoma. The restaurant is open to the public on special occasions, including every Thursday night for dinner.

“That’s where I spend all my time now,” McReynolds says of his office at Edge. “It’s become the culinary heart and soul of Stone Edge Farm.”

John McReynolds, culinary director of Stone Edge Farm in Sonoma Trimming padron peppers for Charred Padron Peppers with Goat Cheese and Sage
John McReynolds, culinary director of Stone Edge Farm in Sonoma, is trimming padron peppers for Charred Padron Peppers with Goat Cheese and Sage at Edge restaurant. (Chris Hardy)

With the help of Edge’s Executive Chef Fiorella Butron and Estate Chef Mike Emanuel, McReynolds recently shared recipes for the culinary team’s favorite preserved foods in his second cookbook, “Stone Edge Farm Kitchen Larder Cookbook” (Rizzoli, 2019), which hit bookshelves earlier this year.

In addition to providing recipes for interesting products like black garlic and wild fennel pollen dukkah, the three chefs also demonstrate how to transform the larder essentials into a tasty array of seasonal cocktails, appetizers, entrées, sides, and desserts.

“It just evolved and kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” McReynolds says of his kitchen larder. “And it became more and more important to our daily cooking.”

“People want to relegate 15 minutes to dinner, so obviously, I take a different approach. Open a bottle of wine, talk to your wife while you’re cooking. It’s not an activity to get through. It’s the main event.”

The book is an addendum to McReynolds’ award-winning “Stone Edge Farm Cookbook,” a 2013 tome whose mission was to showcase the winery founded in 2004 by Mac McQuown, an entrepreneur who grew up on a farm in the Midwest and launched several businesses in financial services before returning to his agricultural roots.

Since McQuown opened Edge five years ago in downtown Sonoma, McReynolds has seen both his staff and his larder grow, and he wanted to give them their own place in the sun with the new cookbook.

“Fiorella is from Peru, so she’s bringing a Peruvian slant – it’s the hottest culinary destination in the world,” he says. “Mike brought the lineage of chefs from Chez Panisse — he’s one of them —so he brings that body of knowledge.”

“It just evolved and kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and it became more and more important to our daily cooking.”

John McReynolds, culinary director of Stone Edge Farm in Sonoma Charred Padron Peppers with Goat Cheese and Sage
Charred Padron Peppers with Goat Cheese and Sage at Edge in Sonoma. (Chris Hardy)

The old-school techniques of food preservation — pickling vegetables, toasting spices, and lacto-fermenting olives — are among the hottest trends for a new generation of chefs.

Both Butron and Emanuel share the fundamentals of fermentation in the book, while Estate Gardener Colby Eierman sprinkles in essays about the key crops that he grows.

“The larder, fermentation, and food preservation is pretty timely in food now,” McReynolds says. “We’re three cooks and a gardener … it’s fun to have a collaboration.”

One of McReynolds’ favorite fall larder item is Emanuel’s recipe for tomato conserva, a reduced sauce similar to tomato paste that bears little resemblance to the commercial version, even the imported stuff from Italy.

“It is the very essence of tomato in a super-concentrated form,” Emanuel writes in the book. “Just one spoonful of conserva will make a minestrone soup taste like an Italian grandmother stepped into your kitchen.”

To make the conserva, the chefs use a variety of tomatoes harvested from the farm and cook them Sonoma down on the stovetop, then puree and bake them in the oven for six more hours. The result is worth its weight in gold.

“We still have 12 jars from last year,” McReynolds says. “If you have it, you are going to use it because it tastes so good.”

Peppers are also a mainstay in the fall kitchen at Edge, whether pureed into a fermented red pepper paste or simply toasted into a chile spice mix.

As a fall appetizer, McReynolds likes to char up some Padrón peppers and fresh sage in a castiron pan on the wood-fired grill, then top the blistered chiles with goat cheese from the freezer that he grates over the top.

“I love goat cheese with chiles and peppers,” he says. “We utilize a lot of cheese in our food, because those full-flavored, harder cheeses go really well with our wine.”

As late summer gives way to the abundant shoulder season of fall, the apples and pears start ripening in the orchard, followed by the quinces and figs.

“If we’re going to make fruit leather, we do it then,” he says. “We like to dehydrate all the pears, apples and persimmons.”

One of McReynolds’ favorite appetizers in the book is a Provence-inspired recipe from Emanuel that he calls Fig Anchoiade.

“A staple in Provence, anchoiade is nothing more than anchovies, garlic, and olive oil worked together with a mortar and pestle into a puree,” Emanuel writes. “At Edge, we’ve added walnuts and ripe, earthy figs to create a bold, sweet, and savory spread for toasted slices of rustic country bread.”

McReynolds’ Quince Mostarda recipe is the perfect foil for fall cheese plates but is equally at home on toasted slices of country bread or nestled alongside a plate of his oak ember-grilled pork chops.

The grilled pork with mostarda is the kind of simple, autumnal dinner that McReynolds has grown to love as he’s gotten older. When you already have a larder stocked with the fruits of your labor, it’s not hard to make simple food delicious. Just relax and enjoy the journey.

“People want to relegate 15 minutes to dinner, so obviously, I take a different approach,” McReynolds says. “Open a bottle of wine, talk to your wife while you’re cooking. It’s not an activity to get through. It’s the main event.”