Everyone’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. This may be Wine Country, but the green beer will be flowing on March 17. From the north to the south, click through the gallery above to find out where to party like like the Irish this St. Patrick’s Day.
Rachel Ray, Seth Meyers, and just about everyone else in NYC is freaking out about the Sprinkle Explosion Cake from Flour Shop bakery in New York City. It’s everything the little kid inside each of us love — rainbows, candy, sprinkles, cake, frosting and a big fat mess.
The idea, says owner Amirah Kassem, harkens back to her childhood in Mexico when a birthday just wasn’t complete without a pinata. This cake is her ode to a pinata full of candy exploding out of, well, a rainbow colored cake instead of a paper mache donkey.
We couldn’t help but love it too. Let it sparkle up your day a little.
Have a favorite cake from Sonoma County? Let me know in the comments below.
For the past two weeks, Santa Rosa streets have been lined with Pliny pilgrims eagerly awaiting a sip on Russian River’s most coveted brew. While this February frenzy has become a cherished annual event for many, standing in line for five plus hours is not for everyone. If you lack the patience necessary to taste Pliny the Younger or didn’t get a chance to try the famous beer this year, we have picked out five Sonoma County brews you may not have heard (as much) about but that are just as good and definitely worth seeking out. Click through the gallery above for all the details.
Taking your sweetie out for a romantic Valentine dinner is the sweetest thing ever. So make sure you don’t screw it up.
Valentine’s Day (Wed, Feb. 14) is the second most popular holiday for dining out, according to the National Restaurant Association (Mother’s Day is first). But not all Valentine dinners are created equal. With most of you heading out for a romantic evening to get those passionate engines revving over a glass of wine and a tasty meal, we’ve collected a handful of restaurants to check out.
Pop-the-Question Worthy
Sante Restaurant at the Sonoma Mission Inn: Four courses with Maine Lobster bisque, scallops with pork belly, beef filet with glazed vegetables and Valrhona chocolate souffle. $115 per person, 100 Boyes Blvd., Sonoma, 707-938-9000, fairmont.com/sonoma.
Valette: Five-course tasting menu includes Marin oysters and caviar, truffles and Kobe beef carpaccio, seaweed roasted Maine lobster, butter roasted filet mignon and dark chocolate and peanut nougatine. $85 per person, wine pairings available for $55. 344 Center St., Healdsburg, 707-473-0946, valettehealdsburg.com.
Madrona Manor: Four-course luxury menu with hamachi crudo and Dungeness crab, truffle risotto, salmon with chanterelles or prime beef loin with rice and mustard greens. $110 per person, $55 wine pairing. 1001 Westside Road, Healdsburg, 707-433-4231, madronamanor.com.
Dry Creek Kitchen: Six-course dinner with asparagus and farro salad, lamb tartare with Thai basil, veal pierogi with butter-braised mushrooms, sea bass with pickled cabbage, pistachio crusted filet mignon or stuffed Maine lobster for two, strawberry mousse. $105 per person, $75 for additional wine pairings.
Couples’ Night Out
Zazu: Three-course dinner featuring fried green tomatoes, tombo tuna crudo, tamarind baby back ribs, Bellwether ricotta raviolo with white truffle, bourbon ice cream sandwiches and creme brulee. Three courses for $79, 4 courses for $89, 6770 McKinley St #150, Sebastopol, 523-4814, zazukitchen.com.
Franchetti’s Woodfire Kitchen: Three-course German-inspired menu includes roasted asparagus gratin with ham and gruyere, venison with pea shoot spaetzle, chocolate ganache with raspberry glaze, German berry pudding. $39 per person, served through Saturday, Feb. 17.1229 N. Dutton, Santa Rosa, 707-526-1229, franchettis.com.
Lowell’s Restaurant: Four courses include Romanesco salad with green goddess dressing, beef tartare, sacchetti (pasta) with sheeps milk ricotta, black butter, lemon, duck with baby carrots, black cod with fennel salad, blood orange upside down cake. Vegan options available. 7385 Healdsburg Ave., Sebastopol, 707-829-1077.
Spoonbar: Four-course menu includes warm asparagus with Parmesan and truffle “caviar”, bay scallops with uni emulsion, chicken with smoked wild mushrooms, NY strip steak with pickled kumquat and black truffle Bordelaise and double chocolate tart. $75 per person, 219 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, spoonbar.com. The restaurant is also featuring two special cocktails through February. Aphrodite’s Decoction: Cognac, red wine + honey + fig shrub, blood orange juice, Peychaud bitters. Force carbonated, served long in a Collins glass, a small bunch of grapes as garnish; and Chocolate and Flowers: Aged tequila, Crispin Rose liqueur, Tempus Fugit Crem de Cacao, Rosehip syrup, lemon juice. Served in a rocks glass with a sliver of edible gold leaf stuck to the side of the glass to imitate chocolate candy wrapping and a single red rose petal floating on top. Sounds delightful.
Breakaway Cafe: Endive salad, sauteed lemon sold with cauliflower puree or grilled New York strip steak with potato strudel. 19101 Sonoma Hwy, Sonoma, 707-996-5949.
Something a Little Different
Kendall-Jackson Wine Estate: Chocolate and wine pairings include Grand Reserve Rose with strawberries ’n cream white chocolate ganache, Grand Reserve port with dark chocolate ganache. A screaming deal at $25, since their pastry chef is one of the world’s best. 5007 Fulton Rd, Fulton, kj.com.
Dunkin Donuts
Did you know that yes, we do in fact have a Dunkin Donuts in Sonoma County now? It’s in Petaluma, and they’ll be doing up Valentine’s Day right with a Vanilla Truffle Donut, brownie batter crumble donut, “Cupid’s Choice”, filled with Bavarian creme and frosted with strawberry icing along with Munchkin mini donut holes covered with pink and white sprinkles. 435 N. McDowell, Petaluma.
Did we miss a favorite? Let us know.
Camping always sounds like a good idea, until you get to the site and try to set up your tent on ground that’s harder than concrete, you realize you forgot your sleeping bag and, after a ten-mile hike, you really want a shower. If you’d like to add a little luxury to your next outdoor adventure, here are three “glamping” (glamorous camping) destinations in Sonoma County that will do the trick. Click through the gallery above for all the details.
Since its debut in 2004, Pliny the Younger’s popularity has only grown. Its annual release has become a cultural event and every year in February the line circles the block around Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa. The good news (for those who do not like to wait in line) is that Pliny production has increased since it was first released and Russian River Brewing Company is no longer the only place where you can get a taste of the triple IPA.
Taprooms, bars and restaurants around the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, and parts of Pennsylvania, Colorado and Oregon, now receive kegs of Pliny the Younger during the annual release. But, as usual with Pliny, it’s all very hush-hush and no one knows for sure who will receive a keg this year. There is a list of bars and taprooms that traditionally get a keg of Pliny – but that may be subject to change, and some bars and taprooms do not announce that they have Pliny, in hope that their allocation might last longer. Beer geeks are now closely monitoring Russian River Brewing Company’s Facebook and Instagram for Pliny news, and so should you if you want a taste of this rare brew. Click through the gallery above for a list of Sonoma County bars where you might find Pliny the Younger (based on previous years’ allocation, and what we’ve heard through the “beervine”). Other Bay Area bars listed below. Happy Pliny hunting! Know of any more Sonoma County spots that will get Pliny? Send us an email.
Bay Area and Sacramento bars that might get Pliny:
Pi Bar (San Francisco)
Rosamunde Sausage Grill (San Francisco):
Public House SF (San Francisco)
Zeitgeist Taproom (San Francisco)
City Beer Store (San Francisco)
Monk’s Kettle (San Francisco)
The Trappist (Oakland)
Beer Revolution (Oakland)
The Good Hop (Oakland)
The Bistro (Hayward)
Wine Affairs (San Jose)
University of Beer (Sacramento)
This isn’t your fancy wood-fired pizza, or pizza with four kinds of Brie. This is Friday night pizza. The ooey-gooey stuff you pull out of a box and eat with a paper towel, with a smile on your face and a little grease running down your fingers. Click through the gallery above for a handful of our favorite mom-and-pop Friday night pizza spots in Sonoma County. Note: Call for delivery areas and hours, as they may vary.
Les Pascales, owned by Pascal and Pascale Merle (a married couple from Lyon, France) is slated to say Bienvenue to Glen Ellen residents later this spring. The familiar old building at 13758 Arnold Drive will become the town’s first authentic patisserie, according to insiders.
Speaking of French food…
The much-loved Frenchie food cart owned by Sarah Pinkin and Elizabeth Payne, is about to get a permanent spot in Sonoma. Their French picnic food and provisions have proved so popular that they’ve started a Barnraiser crowd-funding site to help get the restaurant off the ground. So far they’ve raised about half of the $30k goal they’ve set. “Our hope for Frenchie is to bring the local food scene to the forefront of the plaza. Tourism is on the rise in Sonoma. We would like to show visitors what the Sonoma food scene is about,” says the website. More details about their cart and their fundraising at facebook.com/frenchiesonoma.
Also…
After years of being first-come, first-served (to the consternation of many diners), owner Josh Silvers has expanded the restaurant and is now taking a limited number of reservations. Hallelujah. They’ll also have plenty of non-reserved tables. 135 4th St., Santa Rosa, 707-545-6900, jacksonsbarandoven.com.
Don’t get your schnitzel in a knot
Chef John Franchetti says his phone hasn’t stopped ringing about their Germanuary menu addition of German schnitzel. Schnitzel will stay on the menu for the foreseeable future, so you can stop worrying. 1229 N. Dutton Ave., Santa Rosa, franchettis.com.
New businesses are popping up around Sonoma County like flowers in spring. As we speak, 27 new businesses are either open or getting ready to open their doors. From wineries and breweries to French bakeries and luxury hotels – and more Mexican food than you can shake a stick at – we can’t wait to check out these new additions to the Sonoma County scene. Check out the slideshow above for all the details.
Four months ago, Dennis Tussey was sifting through the ashes of his Fountaingrove restaurant, Sweet T’s in search of whatever he and his wife Anne could salvage—a few dishes, some patio furniture, and a $25,000 barbecue smoker they recently purchased. Today, he stands in front of an empty Windsor restaurant space planning the popular barbecue restaurant’s return this summer.
“We have such a faithful following,” says Tussey, misting up a bit, “We didn’t realize until after the fire, but we can go anywhere and people want to talk to us about the restaurant,” he said. “It never entered our minds that we were done. Our only thought was that we needed to come back. We want to put our employees back to work.”
And that’s why the couple set to work almost immediately on finding a new location for Sweet T’s, despite the trauma of losing so much on the night of October 8. The new restaurant will be at the former Denny’s at 9098 Brooks Road South in Windsor.
The Tussey’s fire story started in the early hours of the morning as Ann was closing up the restaurant. She smelled smoke but passed it off as fireplaces possibly being lighted on the windy night–until a fire truck went by the restaurant, heading up Fountaingrove Parkway. Curious, she followed, seeing some smoke but thinking maybe it was a house fire. Like most folks, she didn’t know that fire was already ravaging the hillsides to the east. Tussey went home, and at 2 a.m. the landlord of the building called to inform them that sprinkler alarms had gone off in the restaurant. “We knew something was very wrong,” Dennis said. Their beloved pitmaster, George Ah Chin, who lived nearby, tried to reach the restaurant and saw the entire area ablaze. “We knew it was gone,” Tussey said.
“Of course I feel much more sympathy for the folks who lost homes,” Tussey said. “I had a bed to go home to. But six years of intense effort just went up in smoke.”
In the days after the fire, Tussey invited his staff to home to regroup, giving them 60 days severance pay and helping them find new jobs. They’ve worked with the kitchen staff to rewrite the many recipes for Sweet T’s signature Southern dishes — from grits to ribs — and have a staff of 12 working on the reopening of the restaurant.
Quitting just wasn’t an option. “If you don’t like the restaurant businesses, it’s a tough business to be in. We had grown that place by word of mouth, and we were on solid footing, with between 400 and 600 guests per day,” he said. He equates it to a long-running Broadway show, where there’s always a new audience, always more expectation. “You have to be as good or better than you were yesterday.”
The menu will be mostly the same, though the couple is adding a wood-fired grill to their barbecue lineup. And there will be plenty more parking in the shopping center — something that was always a challenge at their former location. Otherwise, expect the Southern hospitality and solid ‘que Sweet T’s was known for.
“It will be good to see all of our old friends again,” said Tussey.
