Crab tacos at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa. Heather Irwin/PD
Just four months after opening in its new location, Willi’s Wine Bar feels like it’s always been part of the neighborhood. According to owners Mark and Terri Stark, Willi’s Wine Bar has settled into its new spot at Santa Rosa’s Town & Country center just fine, thank you.
It wasn’t exactly a cakewalk, but after two years of upheaval, emotion and devastation following the loss of their original Larkfield location in the 2017 wildfires, there’s no lingering sense of turmoil hanging over the restaurant.
Instead, couples lounge on the convivial patio with dogs at their feet, Tunisian carrots and Moroccan lamb are as delicious as ever and wine glasses clink in every corner of the restaurant.
Soft shelled crab BLT at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa. Heather Irwin/PD
“We picked up where we left off, so it’s like moving into a new house,” said Terri Stark. “But we know who we are and what we’re trying to do.”
That means many of the same staff, the same kitchen crew and the same management who were so familiar. Regulars have returned, as well as a whole new batch of “regulars” says Stark.
Dishes like mac and cheese, curried crab tacos, mu shu bacon and flatbread are just as you remembered. The desserts are just as decadent and the truffle aioli with fries just as dangerous.
“The favorite dishes are still the favorite dishes,” she said.
The wine list is just as extensive and the inevitability that you’ll find someone you know sitting at the bar is just as likely.
Willi’s Wine Bar is a symbol for what we’ve all been through–rising from destruction, finding renewed community and trying to slowly regain our footing. Even though nothing is the same, we’re finding comfort in a new normal.
Servers at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa on opening day of the new location after the Tubbs Fire. Heather Irwin/PD
Best Bets: Willi’s isn’t about experimentation, because they’ve had more than 20 years to figure out the menu. The Starks know what works and what doesn’t, and though seasonal changes and surprises are always in the lineup, they follow the tried-and-true methods that have made the Starks’ restaurants go-to eateries.
Curried Crab Tacos, $14: Real crab smothered in creamy curry mayo with bright notes of cucumber and mint. Blistered wonton shells are the key to the crunchy, irresistibility of these babies.
Maine Lobster Creamed Corn, $14: Cream, lobster, sweet corn. What could go wrong? I could make a daily meal of this.
Skillet Bread with Green Olive Tapenade, $7: Yeasty soft rolls with a crispy, buttery bottom.
Goat cheese balls at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa. Heather Irwin/PD
Goat Cheese Fritters with Smoked Paprika and Lavender Honey, $9: Pungent goat cheese melts into a soft, gooey puddle inside a crisp, salty exterior.
Cambozola Mac & Cheese with Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, & Focaccia Bread CrumbsMac & Cheese, $11: Required. My favorite mac and cheese. (This was originally misidentified as “lobster mac and cheese”, which is not on the menu. Apologies.)
Tunisian Roasted Carrots with Pine Nuts and Mint, $10: One of the most beautiful dishes you’ll ever see. Just as tasty with hints of cinnamon and clove.
Pulled Duck BBQ with Polenta, $12: Ridiculously creamy polenta loaded so full of cream, butter and cheese it’s criminal (and so good). My only small gripe is that on one occasion the duck was a bit dry and gristly.
Mushu bacon at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa. Heather Irwin/PD
Morrocan Lamb Chops with Preserved Lemon Couscous, $17: Even if you think you don’t like lamb, you’ll like this. Seared, but rare lamb with citrusy couscous. You’ll be transported to another land.
Mu Shu Bacon with hoisin BBQ Sauce, $12: Pork belly with sweet hoisin sauce gives this bacon an Asian twist.
Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake, $9: The perfect lemon dessert.
Willi’s Wine Bar is at 1415 Town and Country Drive, Santa Rosa, 707-526-3096.
Clam chowder at Tony’s Seafood in Marshall. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)
Fall is the best time to eat out in Wine Country. Local farms and gardens overflow with of-the-moment produce that makes its way onto restaurant tables throughout the county. It’s also a great season to explore the cuisines of other lands — German, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Mexican — that bring unexpected flavors and dishes to the table. Here are a few spots to savor this seasonal embarrassment of riches.
Click through the gallery for the yummy pictures.
Bavarian pretzel with butter, mustard at Brot in Guerneville. (Heather Irwin)
Brot — German comfort food and drink come to Guerneville
Harkening back to her midwestern roots, Guerneville restaurateur Crista Luedtke’s homey German-style bratskellar just put the cherry on top of the town’s burgeoning food scene.
A mix of on-trend design, quirky charm, and classic Bavarian dishes, Luedtke and Chef de Cuisine Joey Blank have distilled the classic beer hall menu into a “best of” playlist that includes potato pancakes, spätzle, sauerbraten, schnitzel, creamed herring, and sausages. Mit kraut und bier. Lots of Deutsches bier.
The interior has been overhauled with added seating and thoughtful touches like a wall of cuckoo clocks and creative paneling to evoke the outline of the Alps. Old German movies play silently in the background, while an array of mason jars near the beer taps hold white asparagus pickle. It’s cute without feeling overly precious.
Brot — which joins Luedtke’s other ventures, boon eat + drink, El Barrio, and boon hotel + spa — translates as “bread” in German. For the stalwart entrepreneur, “brot” means more than a loaf of rye. It also means livelihood, and Luedtke has made it her mission to bring vitality to residents of the destination river town. That means a 20% service charge that allows her to pay the staff a living wage. In these days that offer a limited pool of local staff, surging food costs, and skyhigh rents for commercial space, many restaurateurs find themselves providing more of a public service than enjoying the largesse of a lucrative for-profit venture.
Though the menu itself can be daunting, with a heaping helping of umlauts and hard-to-pronounce words, the food itself is familiar and comforting with crunchy potato pancakes, an Alsatian pizza, spätzle (think tiny dumplings), and broasted chicken. With the addition of vegan sausages, the ever-popular schnitzel, and seasonal salads, there’s something for most everyone to enjoy.
Like any German restaurant worth its Märzenbier, Brot has an Oktoberfest-tastic lineup of Bavarian beers on tap. Luedtke has also gone to great lengths to have not only the proper glassware, but traditional wheat beers, lagers, and pilsners, many of which come from Bavarian brewmasters Schneider Weisse. They also serve incredible Rhône wines and desserts worth saving some room for. Brot is already a popular addition to the local melting pot of cuisines, and a testament to the fortitude that Luedtke continues to show in her adopted hometown. Plus, her mom — who helps in the kitchen — makes some truly legit potato pancakes.
Open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday at 5 p.m. 6218 Main St., Guerneville, 707-604-6102 brotguerneville.com.
West Handmade Burgers on Highway 12 in Boyes Hot Springs has finally opened. (Robbi Pengelly)
West — Handmade Burgers, Sonoma
Making cheap hamburgers comes at a high cost, according to Garrett Sathre, the owner of West — Handmade Burgers in Sonoma (technically Boyes Hot Springs).
A born and bred Sonoman, he’s a passionate advocate for grass-fed, sustainably sourced organic beef. He also understands that $20 for a burger, fries, and a milkshake is out of touch for everyday eaters.
That’s why he spent two years working with nearby Stemple Creek Ranch to source a great burger and try to keep surging costs at bay. It wasn’t an easy process, but he’s done it.
Instead of just buying ground beef, Sathre and his wife, Nicole Benjamin, purchase a whole cow each week from Stemple Creek. They flip patties for lunch and dinner daily and sell high-quality cuts of beef from a small refrigerator at the front of the restaurant. It’s your one-stop beef shop.
The restaurant offers five plays on their grass-fed burger, from simple to black-tie. There’s plain (homemade sauce, onions, tomatoes, butter lettuce, and homemade pickles and ketchup), cheeseburger, a Point Reyes Blue cheese burger, a smoked Cheddar and fried onions West Burger, and the luxurious truffle burger with truffle cheese. Fries and onion rings are far better than your usual burger bar along with homemade milkshakes.
Never far from their roots as tamale cart operators, the Morales family’s Windsor restaurant is all simple homestyle Mexican cooking. Unsurprisingly, their famous tamales are a key feature on the menu, served up a la carte or in bowls with red or green salsa. Hefty tacos guisados plates with shredded chicken, beans, and rice are under $10, and their chilaquiles are a perfect hangover remedy.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., you can get champurrado, a warm Mexican chocolate drink made with cinnamon and masa harina.
7238 Old Redwood Highway, Suite 128, Windsor, 707-657-7701, cocinamana.com.
Tambayan, Santa Rosa
Where to find adobo chicken, lumpia, halo-halo, or banana sauce? Larkfield’s Tambayan.
You’ll find both familiar and “what exactly is this?” Filipino dishes that blend traditional island flavors (taro, coconut milk, banana leaves, banana sauce, fish) with influences from China (egg rolls, rice, soy sauce, steamed buns), Spain (adobo), and America (Spam — you’re welcome).
The family-run restaurant isn’t fancy, but offers up cozy homestyle cuisine like rib-sticking breakfast (silog) noodle bowls, beef satay, and off-beat specialties like pan-grilled milkfish, pork sisig (minced pork with rice, onions, and mayonnaise), and laing with dried taro leaves, coconut milk, and pork.
Go in with an open mind and hungry belly, because some of the best dishes require a bit of trust if you’re not used to having your meal on a banana leaf. Condiments are definitely part of the experience, and contrary to its name, banana sauce is a lot like sweet ketchup.
Save room for halo-halo. This traditional dessert combines crushed ice, evaporated milk, coconut strips, sweet beans, gelatin, and a scoop of purple yam ice cream.
600 Larkfield Center, Santa Rosa, 707-843-3824.
Lemongrass chicken noodle bowl at Corner Cafe in Santa Rosa. (Heather Irwin)
Corner Cafe, Santa Rosa
Tasty Vietnamese food at a donut shop? It’s a thing. Though it seems like an odd pairing, there’s a long history of immigrants from Southeast Asia opening donut shops that happen to also serve the foods of their homeland. You can thank Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian refugee who is widely credited for not only building his own donut empire in the 1980s, but providing seed money for hundreds of other immigrants to purchase the high-profit-margin sweet shops throughout the state.
This spot had a slightly different trajectory, owned by longtime donut-maker Frank Whigham and his Cambodian wife, Champa, for more than a decade. The couple typically worked 18-hour days, sticking to fresh donuts of every stripe. At 89, Frank was ready to retire, recently transferring ownership to Kanha Kien, another Cambodian who owns Santa Rosa’s Yo Panda. That Corporate Center Drive cafe offers — you guessed it — donuts and Vietnamese food.
Go for the pho, barbecue pork banh mi, fresh rolls, and noodle bowls, but save some room for mango shaved ice, a specialty. Mango ice cream is shaved into impossibly thin stacked ribbons of flavor, topped with a pile of fresh mango and sugar syrup. They’ve also got a taro root version with strawberries that’s a more exotic take. Of course, you can’t leave without a couple donuts too.
4275 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa, 707-539-2416.
Fresh produce at Miracle Plum in Santa Rosa. (Chris Hardy)
Miracle Plum, Santa Rosa
Neighborhood market meets specialty food shop meets bottle shop. And then there are the popup dinners and cooking classes.
Defying simple categorization, Miracle Plum embraces the idea of delicious things made well. The selection changes frequently, so one day you may find local honey and handmade pottery at a dumpling pop-up and the next time gelato and microbrews.
Owned by Santa Rosa natives Sallie Miller and Gwen Gunheim, the open space is constantly changing with the seasons and recent inspirations.
Clam chowder at Tony’s Seafood in Marshall. (Heather Irwin)
Worth the Drive…Tony’s Seafood, Marshall
This blink-and-you’ll-miss-it restaurant in the tiny hamlet of Marshall was a charming seafood destination until it wasn’t. A popular fish house for nearly 70 years, families came from miles around for the bay-to-plate menu. By the time the restaurant changed hands in 2017, however, it was a fading relic from another era.
After a two-year remodel by the owners of Hog Island Oyster Co., Tony’s has been reborn as a vibrant, modern seafood house with some of the best food and best views of Tomales Bay.
Old oyster shells litter the ground on the strip of land south of the cozy restaurant, giving a satisfying crunch underfoot. The smell of brine is a companion for the mildly harrowing journey along Highway 1, but the reward is a cozy, modern room filled with sunlight and bowls of shells on every table.
Seafood is the main attraction, naturally, with mostly local clams, mussels, crab, and oysters. There’s also fresh Alaska cod, halibut, salmon, and anchovies along with a handful of seafood-free items like the Tony’s burger, or battered-veggies and local greens if you’re fish-averse.
Whatever you do, don’t miss the clam chowder. There’s no flour to thicken it and only fresh, shell-on clams from nearby Hog Island Oysters making it an interactive experience as well as a tasty one. This version is heavy on the good stuff with aromatic herbs, fresh cream, and bacon, and light on the fillers (potatoes and carrots). This is what chowder should always be and rarely ever achieves.
Additional Sonoma County luxury establishments that were recommended by Forbes include Farmhouse Inn (pictured) and Farmhouse Inn Restaurant in Forestville and Hotel Les Mars in Healdsburg. (Farmhouse Inn)
Fighting climate change has become a top concern for many Sonoma County residents and visitors. But making a difference can sometimes feel like a difficult task — especially when you’re traveling or spending time away from home. If you’re looking to plan an eco-friendly vacation, many locally owned wineries, restaurants and hotels are embracing their responsibility to take care of our beautiful backyard. Click through the gallery for a peek inside Farmhouse Inn in Forestville, a lauded hotel and restaurant that is making sustainability a top priority.
Do you know a local hospitality business that is leading the eco-friendly charge in Wine Country? Let us know.
Lemon tree at Farmhouse Inn in Forestville. (Courtesy photo)
Scones from Village Bakery in Santa Rosa. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
The ovens will once again breathe life and the fresh smell of sourdough perfume as the Village Bakery opens not one, but two new locations in the coming weeks.
Owners Patrick Lum and Teresa Gentile are on the rise, announcing the opening of a Montgomery Village cafe bakery and a second bakery at the former East Wind Bakery (3851 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa) in early fall.
The couple spent the last seven months quietly rebuilding both their business and their lives after losing their 3,500 square-foot production bakery and cafe in the February floods that displaced many tenants of Sebastopol’s Barlow market district.
“We had an opportunity to reinvent ourselves with a blank slate,” said Teresa, sitting in the forthcoming Montgomery Village cafe (most recently Michelle Marie’s Patisserie) that glows with warm light and nearly 60 seats waiting to be filled.
Though most impacted businesses returned to the Barlow within a few months of the disaster, the extent of their loss and Teresa’s subsequent heart condition (called Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy or “broken heart syndrome”) forced them to close their doors and lay off 60 employees. Without working ovens, they also put on hold 200 commercial accounts from restaurants like K&L Bistro and Stark’s Steak and Seafood.
It’s something that still makes Teresa feel emotional as she recovers from the cardiac syndrome thought to be caused by extreme stress and sadness. But the thought of so many of their longtime customers and friends returning, however, is the light at the end of the pastry case.
“We have so many faithful people we can’t wait to see,” she said.
The Montgomery Village location will be both a retail bakery, cafe and gluten-free baking facility; the Sebastopol Road space will feature their breads, pastries, and coffee (and a traditional bread-baking kitchen).
“We’ll have a limited number of breads at first, but for sure seeded sourdough, rye, whole wheat,” said Patrick Lum. He hopes to bring back English muffins soon as well.
The Montgomery Village Cafe, which has been in development since early 2019, will have a more extensive cafe menu that includes pastries, skillet dishes, sandwiches and other seasonal specials from Chef Zack McClintock (formerly of Beltane Ranch and Spinster Sisters).
The couple said that the shopping center’s owners, David and Melissa Codding, have been instrumental in the build-out and helping them get back on their feet. Inspired by a French country palette, the cafe features local artist Alex Cole’s artwork, which will be on exhibit (and for sale) through December 2019.
Between the two locations, the couple plan to employ nearly 30 people. They will have a kiosk with pastries and their signature heart breads at Pacific Market at the Town & Country shopping center.
“The goal now as humans is to align ourselves with good people,” said Teresa. That, and making the breads and pastries we’ve all missed so much.
Pad Thai at Tiny Thai restaurant in Cotati. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)
Pad Thai made with ketchup is an abomination, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. It’s like using margarine in chocolate cookies, or Miracle Whip in tuna salad — you can do it, but it fundamentally changes everything and makes it gross.
I’d all but given up on this sweet, smoky, savory Thai noodle dish because — ketchup. I know exactly who adds it to their noodles, which is why I also know who doesn’t. Tiny Thai in Cotati doesn’t*, and for that, we should all be grateful.
Nestled between a hair salon and Redwood Cafe, it’s barely a blip between the bars, restaurants and…more bars on Cotati’s main street. Fortunately, Tiny Thai is also a great spot to cure your hangover so, you’re welcome.
Besides the Pad Thai, here’s why I’m a fan…
Fish cakes at Tiny Thai restaurant in Cotati. Photo: Toru Mori/google
– Fish cakes: This isn’t a dish for everyone, but if you’re a fan of these chewy, light cakes made with white fish and curry paste, they’re delightful.
– Papaya Salad (Som-Tum), $7.95: Julienned strips of green papaya are tossed with tomatoes, string beans, tomatoes and crushed peanuts. Chili and lime juice gives it a punch, but it won’t land you on the floor with too much heat.
– Tom Kha, $5.95/$7.95: A sour-but-creamy coconut milk soup studded with galangal (similar, but totally different than ginger), peas, mushrooms, lemongrass, kafir lime,and carrots. It’s even delicious cold.
– Pumpkin Curry, $11.95: Rough cut chunks of soft pumpkin swim in a lightly spiced red curry sauce. Lip-smacking with plenty of vegetables mixed in for good measure. Fried tofu is our favorite add-in, though prawns would also be a good pairing.
Tiny Thai restaurant in Cotati. Photo: Mr. Orange/google
– Pad Thai, $9.95: Wok hay (the breath of the wok) is strong with this one, giving it a slightly smoky flavor. It’s a little on the sticky side, but it’s really a top-notch version.
Tiny Thai is located at 8238 Old Redwood Hwy., Cotati, 707-794-9404. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 3p.m. for lunch and Wednesday through Monday for dinner from 5p.m. Lunch specials are available.
Now, a Napa winery is taking things in a different direction, inviting guests to sample same-vintage cabernet sauvignons from 12 of the Napa Valley’s 16 American Viticultural Areas (AVAs).
Presented by 1881 Napa—the latest venture from wine magnate Jean-Charles Boisset—these horizontal tastings are intended to give guests a sense of how terroir can change the taste, minerality, body, aroma, and texture of the same wine.
“We felt it was essential to give a comprehensive look at the Napa Valley and present it to the world in a way everyone could understand,” says Boisset, who, along with his team, has named the new tasting “Embark on a Journey Throughout the Valley.” The price tag: $175 for twelve 2-ounce pours. (For the math nerds out there, that’s just about a bottle’s worth of wine at roughly $14.50 per glass.)
The team at 1881 Napa takes a novel approach to winemaking.
Instead of vinifying grapes by vineyard block or vineyard, winemaker Thane Knutson separates grapes by appellation (or AVA) and makes distinct wines from each batch. (Thanks to the size of Boisset’s wine empire, Knutson can source grapes from 13 of the Napa Valley’s 16 AVAs). He then applies the same winemaking technique across the board: every batch spends the same amount of time in tanks, with skin on, and the wines are aged in the same percentage of French Oak barrels (about 50 to 60 percent).
Other tastings at 1881 Napa group the 12 AVA-specific cabernet sauvignons into three geographically distinct regions: Mountaintop, hillside, and valley floor. Each tasting comprises four wines from each region of the Napa Valley and lasts between 30 and 45 minutes. For the big tasting, guests receive samples of 12 wines and usually sip for 2 hours.
Each experience also includes visuals: Jars of soil from each AVA provide proof of the different terroir.
“The range of soils and flavors opens a door for fantastic conversations about what makes cabernet taste how it does,” says Knutson. “It’s always eye-opening how different neighboring appellations can be. St. Helena gives you a sexy and feminine texture on the palate. Rutherford, right next door, creates this powerful and dark cocoa texture. And that’s just those two.”
Boisset echoes this sentiment: “We’re really trying to change the perception that Napa is a one-trick pony when it comes to wine. We’re not just cab. We’re not just Bordeaux blends. And different location can create vastly different wine.”
At press time, 1881 Napa had sold 28 twelve-wine tastings—approximately seven per month since opening in June of this year. But, in true Boisset fashion, this is more than just a tasting room: the white Victorian just north of Oakville Grocery doubles as a museum of winemaking. It boasts 30-foot ceilings and two stories with distinctly different experiences.
Walls on the ground level are lined with one-of-a-kind decanters from Boisset’s personal collection, which tops 2,700 vessels. The second floor features a wraparound balcony with farm tools from the early days of winemaking in the Valley. There’s also a small room with photographs that tell stories of some of the most famous farmers from this era.
Perhaps the most iconic feature is on the ceiling: A map of the AVAs that comprise the Napa Valley.
Even if you don’t spring to taste wine, a visit to 1881 is a deep dive into the history of winemaking in Napa. Thankfully, there’s more than one way to drink it all up.
Open 7 days a week, 10 am to 6 pm, 7856 St. Helena Highway, Oakville, 707-948-6099, 1881napa.com.
Maitake Frondosa mushrooms at Gourmet Mushroom Inc. in Sebastopol. Heather Irwin/PD
Though Northern California’s damp mushroom hunting season is currently months away, thousands of edible fungi are blooming in Sebastopol. They grow all year long, in fact, inside a 43,000 square foot warehouse hidden among the vineyards and apple orchards of West County.
Gourmet Mushrooms Inc. has been around since 1977, pioneering the cultivation of wild mushrooms in the US. The company grows more than 1 million pounds of exotic edible fungi including meaty Trumpet Royales, tiny Forest Nameko and Clamshell mushrooms, fan-like Maitake Frondosa and adorable Velvet Poppini. They also grow nutraceutical mushrooms used in health supplements and are currently developing cultivated morels.
Though cultivated exotic mushrooms are a tiny fraction of the mushroom market (button mushrooms are the big sellers), they’re gaining traction among foodies and of course chefs. You’ve likely seen the hard-to-resist Chef Samplers at stores like Oliver’s, Whole Foods or high-end menus.
Though the Sebastopol growing facility isn’t open to the public, the mushroom farm offers special group tours by appointment. Recently, I got an opportunity to peek inside at the forests of fungi and see the process start to finish — from baby spores to towering six-inch trumpet mushrooms.
Here’s the science-type-stuff: Gourmet Mushroom cultivation happens in a fairly closed system where small reusable containers are filled with a substrate (in this case, a fine wood-based mulch that is reused). The jars are inoculated (seeded, so to speak), and then given time to grow in dim, moist rooms that are carefully climate controlled. After they’re hand-harvested, the substrate is chopped up, sterilized and the process starts again.
I’d always imagined a much dirtier, soil-and-manure filled experience…which isn’t the case. The rooms smell of clove, more than anything, used as an organic deterrent to mites.
You can find Gourmet Mushroom packs year-round, but from time to time, the Sebastopol warehouse has mushroom sales, announced on their Facebook page and newsletters. More details online at mycopia.com.
From the luxury furs of the ’60s through the ’80s leopard-everything to several faux fur incarnations thereafter, animal prints are back in style. The animal prints of today are the new “neutral,” and Sonoma stores have some fun options for fall. Our favorite (re)take on the trend? Animal prints on shoes. Click through the gallery for all the stylish details.
Hold on to your avocado pits and onion skins! Besides being discardable trophies of your cooking-from-scratch skills—that might have resulted in a perfect guacamole, stew or soup—they can be put to good use before they hit the compost. Throw them in vats of water to extract their essence and you’ve got yourself a natural dye bath for clothing, fabric or yarn. Avocado pits yield pink, onion skins make yellow.
According to to Fiber Circle Studio founder Alisha Reyes, who recently led a workshop at the Gravenstein Apple Fair, there are special techniques to this particular form of dyeing, including pre-washing fabrics and using mordants to set the color — but the outcome is always different. And it’s that surprise element that makes natural dyeing especially appealing to Reyes.
“Natural dyeing is something our community is beginning to come back around to. I believe it is important to understand where our color comes from, and how it affects our environment now and in the future,” says Reyes.
Down-to-earth, artisan rich Sonoma County has many sources for natural dye know-how and tools. Click through the above gallery for more information.
In honor of its 30th birthday, the Napa Valley Wine Train is throwing a party, and you’re invited.
It seems like everyone in Wine Country has an opinion about the wine train and its tenure in the valley — some good, some not so good — but there’s no denying the giant tourism magnet it has become since its inaugural passenger trip on Sept. 16, 1989.
Each year, the train ferries some 100,000 passengers through Napa Valley in its restored Pullman rail cars, with special events like the Hop Train, the Tequila Train and the annual holiday Santa Train.
If nothing else, surely that’s a feat worth applauding. All the more reason to celebrate: proceeds from the 30th anniversary event will go toward the Children’s Museum of Napa Valley.
To kick the party off, the Wine Train is hosting a reception on Sept. 16 at the Downtown Napa station. For $25, attendees can take in music, a tour of the train and hors d’oeuvres.
For those interested in celebrating in a more extravagant way, $250 tickets to the Wine Train’s 1980s-themed murder mystery party on Sept. 26 are now on sale.
The evening trip aboard the train will feature a four-course meal and a mystery for the guests onboard to solve: Who murdered singer Poison Ratenstein before he could perform for his fans?
