Just when you think Sonoma County can’t possibly get any more delicious, a spate of new restaurants are on the horizon for 2020. Some are just days or weeks away, others we have to wait for until summer or next fall. Click through the gallery for 14 new Sonoma County restaurants to put on your radar this year.
Nature is so pretty, how can we refrain from hauling it inside? And in cool, ho-hum and newly “un-decked” January, you might find your mood and space in need of a perk-up. Plants are the answer. They’re the ultimate decorating accessory: gorgeous, waste-free and they clean the indoor air. Sonoma County stores are full of plants that can thrive in your space right now—click through the above gallery for details.
Ah, ramen. Beloved, delicious, and obsessed about. Whether you make the pre-packaged version or have your own recipe, “you can always make a better bowl,” says “Let’s Make Ramen!” author Hugh Amano. Here are a few tools for those on a quest to create perfect, flavor-loaded ramen — click through the above gallery for details.
Going dry can be fun! Here’s a holiday-hangover cure: “Dry January.”
Though it sounds Draconian to daily drinkers, the month-long collective abstinence movement is trending as drinkers put down the whiskey, wine and cocktails and “reset” their alcohol intake after a boozy holiday season. But hanging out with friends after work doesn’t have to be a bummer.
(Find more local bars serving up mocktails and non-alcoholic drinks here.)
In fact, a surge of herbal elixirs, shrubs and alcohol-free botanical spirits are giving sobriety a good name by impressing temporary teetotalers with their complex flavors.
Throughout the month, Fern Bar in Sebastopol (6780 Depot St.), which has made a name for creative low- or no-ABV (alcohol by volume) drinks, is celebrating with an extended list of sober cocktails and libations.
On Jan. 30, they’ll host a hands-on free-spirited cocktail class with instructions for infusing non-alcoholic spirits, shrub and spirit-making and mixing a perfect cocktail.
Sipsong Spirits, a locally-made herbal Indira Gin, has released a tea made with juniper, coriander, cumin, bay leaf, sweet orange, star anise and pink peppercorn (among other botanicals) that mimics the perfumed flavor of gin but has no alcohol.
Mix with tonic for a flavorful alternative. Order at sipsongspirits.com or try it at Duke’s Spirited Cocktails in Healdsburg (111 Plaza St.). Duke’s is also offering up some great boozeless drinks, like Jamaican spiced hibiscus tea with ginger beer or grapefruit soda with lemon and yuzu. Pair with their poutine fries, Korean chicken sliders or daily special “Family Meal.”
Lemon-Ups, a lemon-flavored cookie sporting motivational messages like “I’m a go-getter” or “I am a leader,” are the newest entrant into the Girl Scout cookie program.
The good news for us: Sonoma County will likely be getting them, while the East Coast and other states won’t. The bad news: We haven’t been getting the good “S’mores” cookies covered with chocolate, while Maine has.
The not-so-secret-secret of those adorable Brownies and green-clad girls: There are two different bakeries that make Girl Scout cookies, and not all cookies are alike!
Most of the West is served by Little Brownie Bakers (though California, Nevada New Mexico and parts of Texas are split), so you’ll know that those little peanut butter chocolate cookies are Tagalongs, not Peanut Butter Patties. You’ll know the caramel coconut Samoas vs. their lookalike Caramel deLites made by ABC Bakers, which serves much of the Midwest and East Coast. Don’t get us started on calling Do-si-dos a Peanut Butter Sandwich, as most Georgians and West Virginians know them.
Our suggestion: Maybe it’s time to bring together this great nation rather than dividing us along dessert lines. Let’s start with the chocolate-covered S’mores for everyone and Lemon-Ups for everyone.
Cookie sales start Jan. 25, so watch for booths to start popping up or your neighbor’s daughter to come knocking. Online at gsnorcal.org.
Compared to laidback Sonoma County, Napa Valley is sometimes perceived as a little pretentious or snooty (as parodied in Amy Poehler’s Wine Country movie). But while you may come across snobby restaurant- or tasting room staff here and there, many local businesses are now trying to change the Napa narrative by creating fun and unique experiences. For a taste of this more casual and easygoing version of the famous winegrowing region, we’ve lined up 12 wineries that offer something a little different to visitors. Click through the above gallery for details.
One of the world’s most notable graffiti artists has returned to her native Napa to add her work—legally, this time—to the growing number of public art pieces that comprise the town’s Rail Arts District.
The artist, known only as ELLE, unveiled a new untitled piece last fall, which depicts several women against a backdrop of colorful patterns drawn from Mexican folklore and textiles.
The artwork covers all sides of a railroad car that is parked along the route of the Napa Valley Wine Train and, according to ELLE, it perfectly captures the mission of her art: To use bold colors and eye-catching images to promote strong women.
“It’s important for me to represent powerful females who are kicking ass and breaking glass ceilings,” said ELLE, who uses a pseudonym because so much of her early work was technically illegal. “When I started, very few women were doing graffiti and the world of street art was predominantly male. My whole career has been about changing that.”
ELLE’s ties to Wine Country and the North Bay run deep. She attended a local catholic elementary school. She graduated from Napa High School. She attended the University of California, Davis. She has nearly a dozen family members who live and work in the Napa Valley. She still has friends in the area.
ELLE has also drawn inspiration from people and places in the Napa Valley. During her younger years, she admired the work by local artists such as Gordon Huether, and she loved visiting the modern art collection at Hess Collection, a winery on Mount Veeder. She said she also was influenced by her Napa High school art teacher, Chuck Svendsen.
All these connections make coming home even sweeter.
“It’s pretty neat to finally have a piece in my hometown,” she said, noting that the women on one side of the train are pinky-swearing, a reference to her youth. “To be honest it’s really great to see the city of Napa embracing street art in general.”
ELLE certainly is no stranger to the spotlight; the graduate of Napa High School has been creating public art for more than a decade.
In that time, her work has been exhibited in the prestigious Saatchi Gallery in London, Urban Nation Museum in Berlin, and as a 200-foot-tall projection onto the facade of the New Museum in New York. ELLE painted a 120-foot wrap around the Nike Headquarters building in Melbourne, and Vogue Australia featured ELLE’s art in a story about 32 pieces of Melbourne street art to see before you die. Her graffiti is even featured in the Tom Clancy video game, The Division.
The young artist has also engineered multiple collaborations with the sportswear brand Reebok, including the ELLExReebok graffiti legging and the ELLExReebok yoga capsule collection.
In 2019 alone, ELLE visited Melbourne for a solo show inside the prestigious Rialto Towers; Amsterdam for a joint solo exhibition with Vroom and Varossieau Gallery; and Neuf-Brisach, France, to paint inside the MAUSA Museum.
Few of those accomplishments meant as much to ELLE as returning to Napa.
The city’s Rail Arts District–RAD for short—has become a hotspot for cutting-edge public art. Established in 2016, the group is a nonprofit organization led by the Napa Valley Vine Trail Coalition, the Napa Valley Wine Train and the local arts and business communities, and it spans a 1.7-mile section of an industrial neighborhood that parallels the Wine Train tracks through downtown Napa.
Along this stretch, artists have turned the backs of warehouses and signal boxes into canvases for murals of varying size. ELLE’s piece is the first to appear on a train car itself; though the car can move, it will be parked in its current location indefinitely.
Some of the other artists with work in the RAD include Mikey Kelley, Fintan Magee, Felipe Pantone, and bumblebeelovesyou.
For the latest pictures of ELLE’s work, follow her on Instagram.
Trying to be kind to the planet and make eco-friendly choices can be challenging when you’re at home but it seems next to impossible when you pack up for vacation.
Thankfully, many wineries, restaurants and hotels in Sonoma and Napa Wine Country are going above and beyond to make it easier to travel with good conscience. Among the hospitality businesses that stand out in this regard is Bardessono Hotel & Spa in Yountville, recognized as one of the greenest properties in the United States.
Bardessono is one of only eight LEED Platinum hotels in the country, the highest certification for green buildings. From office buildings to schools, any type of building can seek LEED certification. Hotels are unique: since they’re occupied around the clock, they consume resources at a higher rate.
Built on land farmed by the Bardessono family after they arrived from Italy in 1926, the Yountville hotel has always made sustainability a priority — from construction through the 2009 opening to today.
“Sustainability was at the core of Bardessono’s inception, before many of the environmental initiatives we’re familiar with today gained the momentum they have now,” says Stephanie Leavitt, Director of Sales and Marketing at Bardessono.
The hotel was built using 100,000 square feet of salvaged wood — Monterey Cypress, California Bay Laurel, Redwood, Eucalyptus and orchard Walnut trees –- obtained from a nearby stretch of the original Bardessono homestead that was cleared to make way for residential development. The wood is used in everything from custom-designed bedside tables and guest room desks to flooring, dining room tables, and exterior siding.
Proof of the Bardessono’s commitment to sustainability can be seen throughout the property: The atypical flat rooftops house photovoltaic solar collectors, which provide about 20 percent of the hotel’s energy supply. Low emissivity glass in guest rooms let in a generous amount of natural light, cutting the dependency on daytime lighting. Low water flow fixtures and dual flush toilets are the norm and all of the hotel’s bed linens, towels and robes are made with organic cotton.
“As a pioneer of this effort in the hospitality industry, maintaining a sustainable environment within our operations has not only been necessary but a constant source of inspiration to our team, and even our guests,” says Levitt. “[We want to] give back in every way we can.”
Click through the gallery above to see other ways Bardessono makes sustainability a top priority.
Do you know a local hospitality business that is leading the eco-friendly charge in Wine Country? Let us know.
Cabernet Sauvignon is king in Napa Valley. 51 percent of the area’s 46,000 acres of wine grapes are devoted to the varietal. Chardonnay grapes, which come in on number two, occupy just over 6000 acres, and while more than 30 other wine grape varieties are grown here, none of them come with the kind of bragging rights that the coveted “cab” does.
But as secure as the reign of Cabernet Sauvignon may seem, some think we shouldn’t take it for granted.
“I think you’d be foolish to believe Napa Valley is going to look exactly like this 30 years from now. I don’t think Sonoma is going to look like Sonoma 30 years from now,” says Dan Petroski, winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards in Calistoga.
Petroski, along with other Napa Valley winemakers, thinks climate change — rising temperatures, droughts, extreme weather — might dramatically alter the local winegrowing landscape. To prepare for such a scenario, he is now looking at grapes from warmer regions around the world and thinking about how they might be implemented in Napa Valley 20 to 30 years from now.
To get a better idea, he’s about to start experimenting with some of these warmer-climate grapes in Larkmead’s vineyards. The Calistoga winery is currently dedicating three acres out of their 110-acre estate to a “viticultural research block.” The experimental vineyard will initially be planted with seven red grape varieties and one white.
“My number one objective for these seven red grape varieties is that they have the ability to blend well with Cabernet, as a supporting actor until Cabernet can’t be used anymore,” says Petroski. “We’re trying to get a head start on this whole process. I don’t want 2040 to roll around and we’re sitting on our heels going ‘alright, what are we going to plant now, when it’s too hot for Cabernet?’”
The three-acre plot will be planted in the late spring or early summer of 2020 with Chenin Blanc, Petite Sirah and Zinfandel, alongside varieties such as Aglianico, Tempranillo, Touriga Nacional, Charbono and Syrah.
But planting, growing, harvesting, aging, bottling, and finally seeing what customers think of the wines will take time.
Expected to last 21 years, the project will be divided into three phases — the upcoming planting is part of the first phase. Every seven years, Petroski hopes to find one or two grape varieties that will do well at the winery.
Founded in 1895, Larkmead will celebrate its 125th anniversary in 2020. This isn’t the first time the winery has been involved in viticultural research. In the 1940s, a Cabernet Sauvignon clone commonly known as the “Oakville selection” was developed here by UC Davis viticulturist Dr. Harold Olmo.
A newly installed walkway leads the way to the winery’s research block. It’s a path Petroski hopes will encourage conversations with visitors about the future.
“It’s hard to tell people Cabernet is going to die. It’s hard to say it’s over because it’s still our lifeblood. It’s the beating heart of what we do and we do it really well,” says Petroski. “Some of the best wines in the world are made here in the Napa Valley, so it’s hard to have that conversation. But I think the other side of that conversation is that we’re forward-thinking. We are evaluating, we’re looking to the future.”
From outstanding wineries and restaurants to inns surrounded by vineyards, Napa Valley is a dream destination for those in search of good food, good wine and a good time. The city of Napa, located in the southern end of the valley, has undergone a transformation in recent years, attracting celebrity chefs like Charlie Palmer, a slew of colorful tasting rooms that stay open late as well as interesting art projects. Click through the gallery to discover how to spend 24 perfect hours in Napa.
