Film festivals and spring parades, food and wine events and the best of Broadway – there’s no shortage of things to do in Sonoma County in March and April. Click through the gallery above for some of our favorite picks.
Just when you’ve found the perfect Sonoma County spot for tasting champagne and Italian wines (yes, Euro pours in Sonoma), they announce they’re closing. One of Healdsburg’s most popular wine bars, Bergamot Alley is taking its zany-vintage charm (school chairs-turned-bar stools and fabric pattern-piece art on the bathroom wall), packing up its impressive vinyl record collection, and moving its cool vibes and Old World wines online on March 31.
Bergamot Alley has been a favorite among winemakers and oenophiles eager to explore wines that aren’t made from the eight grapes that make up 93 percent of the wine produced in Northern California. If you haven’t been already, we suggest you check it out between its brick and mortar walls before the business moves to a laptop near you. Following the transition online, Bergamot Alley will continue to offer wine education and bottles celebrating lesser known (at least to Sonomans) grapes.
More information to follow.
Bergamot Alley, 328 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, 707-433-8720, bergamotalley.com
As we hit the six-month mark after the fires, Sonoma is awash in green. Renewal is everywhere, and like hibernating bears, we’re ready to get down to some serious eating after a long winter. Here are some spots Heather Irwin encourages you try right now. Click through the gallery above for more info and dishes to order at each restaurant.
Since opening in December in the former Kenwood Restaurant, Salt & Stone has been packing them in at the iconic Highway 12 roadhouse. The bar is once again a gathering spot for the Valley and the restaurant is doing such a brisk business that owners David and Diane LaMonica are hustling in the kitchen and dining room as hard as any of their staff.
“I’ve been here every day since we opened,” chirped Diane, as she fluttered about seating guests, filling water glasses, expediting bar food and creating a generous warmth as inviting as the restaurant’s crackling fireplace.
For more than a decade, LaMonica and her husband owned Mendocino’s Cafe Beaujolais, also known for its combination of charm and destination- worthy food. As residents of Santa Rosa, they’d long dreamed of opening a restaurant here, so when the former Kenwood spot shuttered and then floundered between potential new owners, they decided to jump in with both feet.
Why have they succeeded so spectacularly right out of the gate? One theory is their welcoming attitude to nearby Oakmonters. With more than 4,500 residents, the over-55 Oakmont Village crowd is something local restaurateurs ignore at their own peril. Failing to court the disposable incomes, passion for food and weekday patronage of these seniors has been the death knell for several restaurants.
The LaMonicas have wisely created an atmosphere, price point and menu the community is embracing. Not that Oakmonters are the only patrons, but on one visit, a single young couple sat by a window as the dining room filled with mostly mature diners. A second Thursday night visit found both the bar and dining room full by 5:30 p.m., with jovial retirees gathered around the bar fireplace, filling tables in couples and foursomes, opening expensive wines and relishing the food.
It’s also a homecoming for many. For decades, chef and owner Max Schacher had served simple French-California cuisine in the space, with approachable dishes like Caesar salad and Dungeness crab cakes and salmon. Schacher sold the restaurant in 2013 to internet entrepreneurturned- restaurateur Bill Foss, who brought a high-concept vibe and frequently changing seasonal menu to the space — something that didn’t always fly with Schacher’s longtime regulars.
The LaMonicas, who hired Meadowood and French Garden alum Arturo Guzman to head the kitchen, have taken a more moderate approach, with an extensive menu of classics, including Caesar salad, onion soup, steak and roasted chicken. With a full oyster selection, specialty cocktails and classics, charcuterie and cheese boards, 11 appetizers, 11 entrées, three-course bistro night selections (beef bourguignon, coq au vin, braised lamb shank), nine desserts and a happy hour menu, it’s more a matter of narrowing choices after perusing both the daily menu, dinner menu and wine list. Eager staff are more than happy to guide your choices, should things get overwhelming.
Best bets are the Marinated Grilled Octopus ($18), incredibly flavorful and so tender you can cut it with a single stroke of a butter knife, and the Ahi Tuna Poke ($18), which so many chefs phone in but which Guzman jazzes up with seaweed salad, wasabi cream and shiso oil, along with plenty of sesame oil. We also loved the Steak Tartare ($19), with 25-year-old Sherry vinegar, a raw quail egg and crispy crostini. The perfectly prepared Crispy Skin Salmon ($25) — just cooked in the center, flakey throughout, served on a bed of lemon couscous — is a solid choice for lighter eaters.
“Everyone will come once,” said Diane of the restaurant’s initial frenzied pace of patrons, “but our job is to keep them coming back.” If the packed parking lot is any indication, they’re coming back in droves to Kenwood’s gathering spot.
Salt & Stone is open daily from 5 to 9 p.m., with a happy hour from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. 9900 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood, 707-833-6326, saltstonekenwood.com
So, Bibi’s “secret” menu isn’t all that secret — they offer it Wednesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner, tucked into their regular menus. What’s on the down-low is that it’s the only place we know of that serves dosa — the big-as-your-forearm savory Indian crepes — along with crunchy bhel puri, pani puri and an Indian rose syrup dessert called falooda kulfi.
This is real-deal Indian street food, things that can be found in the hawker stalls of Mumbai or Delhi. Our favorite dish is the bhel puri ($6.50), a tasty mix of sweet, spicy, sour flavors and crunch. Think rice crispies covered with tamarind and mint sauce with chickpea noodles, cilantro and onions. The vegetable samosas ($5.50) — fried pastry dough filled with curried green peas and potatoes, served with tamarind sauce and mint chutney — are so tasty, you’ll want to gobble them up. But the inside is roughly the temperature of molten lava, so don’t pull a Hot Pocket moment.
For the chicken tikka dosa ($10.50), savory Indian crepes made with rice and lentils the size of a small bicycle wheel are stuffed and folded with seasoned potatoes and other goodies including fresh Indian cheese (paneer) or tandoori chicken tikka masala. There’s also a vegan option, as well as Cheddar cheese-filled dosa for people who like ruining perfectly good dosa with Cheddar cheese.
Finding a version of the creamy frozen dessert falooda kulfi ($7.50) in the North Bay was a triumph. Kulfi (an eggless ice cream) is mixed with cold noodles, rose water and basil seeds. It’s not for everyone, but it’s definitely for us. Meanwhile, warm gulab jamun ($4.50) is a pretty standard Indian dessert of sweet donuts soaked in a cardamom-infused sugar syrup so sweet just thinking about it will give you a cavity.
Sunday – Thursday, 11:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. and Friday Saturday, 11:30 a.m. – 10 p.m., 630 Third St., Santa Rosa, 707-523-1400, bibisburgerbar.com
With more than 6,000 square feet of space, 2 Tread Brewing Company is now one of the largest restaurants in downtown Santa Rosa. The food is approachable and intriguing: sweet potato tots served alongside locally grown citrus- and herb-marinated beets with whipped chèvre; hot wings and burgers beside Caprese salad with house-made mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes; or wild mushroom flatbread.
We suggest trying the fried shishito peppers ($6) — although if you aren’t willing to play roulette with the chance you’ll get a hot pepper in the mix (about 1 in 10 are usually super-spicy), steer clear. But creamy tarragon aioli helps temper any rogues.
The 2 Tread Burger ($14) is a beauty, though our medium-rare turned out well-done. With lots of fresh produce and tasty Niman Ranch grass-fed beef, it’s a burger we’ll go back for. The spice-rubbed prime hangar steak ($30) was perfectly cooked and seasoned, with a light chimichurri sauce, green beans and roasted garlic. Delightfully simple.
Over all, 2 Tread is a crowd-pleaser across the board — for families, first dates, comfort food, cocktails, small plates, under $10 dishes, burgers and large groups.
Open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., 1018 Santa Rosa Plaza, Santa Rosa, 707-327-2822, 2treadbrewing.com
It’s hard to resist making puns about our high expectations for the new Rohnert Park restaurant Smokin’ Bowls. Kidding aside though, the bowls at this student- and family-friendly restaurant have nothing to do with THC, though one might get a serious craving for their ice cream and French fry bowl after an afternoon smoke sesh.
Here, “bowl” is shorthand for piling a whole bunch of tasty comfort food into a portable container wherein you can easily stuff it all into your mouth with nothing more than a spork. We should call out something unique: the fries, hand-cut and fried in beef fat, tossed with their own seasoning. There’s a reason this used to be the standard. So. Beefy. Good. Not for vegetarians or vegans, however.
No bowl is over $8.25, with a selection of items under $5, plus everything on the menu is gluten-free, and no dishes include peanuts or soy proteins. Smokin’.
Try the Bowl Named Sue ($7.25), a downhome combination of homemade mashed potatoes, corn, bacon, chicken (it would have been better fried) and gravy. The portions are ridiculously huge, but this little bit of Southern comfort didn’t last 10 minutes before disappearing. The Rohnert Pork ($6.75) includes fries, BBQ pulled pork, cheese sauce and bacon, and we’d say this was the most ridiculously indulgent bowl, but that would be far from the truth, because … S’mores Fries ($5.50)! This dish was so crazy, even we were gobsmacked: French fries smothered in cinnamon, topped with ice cream, chocolate sauce, marshmallows and chocolate chips.
295 Southwest Blvd., Rohnert Park, 707-665-5265, smokinbowls.net
With a mission to deliver fresh, homemade bread to Wine Country, Ian Conover and his fiancée, Tara Williams, make just 60 loaves of artisan bread per week, mostly using pedal power for their deliveries. The Sonoma-based couple started out by making loaves for schoolteacher Tara’s classroom families, but word got out to the small Sonoma community, and now they have standing orders from Sonoma, Santa Rosa and even Petaluma for their crisp, hearty sourdough. Loaves are $6 each, and you’ll have to get on their list to get a loaf each week. relaxandeatbread.com
A recent roundup of celebrity hot spots in Sonoma and Napa is letting people know how to follow in the footsteps of the famous. The celebrity directory, created by travel and lifestyle website Galuxsee, lists wineries, restaurants, hotels, and other local places where celebs have been spotted (or posted photos on Instagram). Click through the gallery above to find out where the stars hang out in Sonoma and Napa. (And don’t miss our roundup of celebrity wineries in Sonoma and Napa).
Some 70 local businesses are indexed in Galuxsee’s directory, which is intended to make trip planning easy for those looking for a celeb-worthy visit to Wine Country. Included in the list is the winery where Oscar winner John Legend and wife Chrissy Teigen had a dinner date, the cooking school Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon attended with Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore, and the vineyards where past Oscar nominees Jessica Chastain and Salma Hayek spent time.
Have you spotted a celebrity in Sonoma or Napa? Let us know in the comments.
Given that chef Rob Larman’s charming little Cochon Volant BBQ eatery in Sonoma is an order-at-the-counter spot with just a handful of tables, it’s surprising to find a wine list here. But then, this is Wine Country, where we do expect the opportunity to sip a nice Estate Grown Sonoma Valley Dunbar Zinfandel with our $23.95 combo plate of smoky ribs, tender pork shoulder, brisket and spicy sausage.
More surprising, perhaps, is that we’re welcome to bring in our own wine, and enjoy it for free. But then, this is Sonoma County, the land of grapes, where many of us maintain home wine cellars and consider the drink as necessary to life as water. In our region, many restaurants graciously waive the corkage fee for opening a bottle of wine, in what can often be a very happy discovery for visitors.
Some guests like it because they have a special wine they want to enjoy, while others simply want to save money.
“We’re all friends out here,” says Larman, who after the October wildfi res shut down his restaurant for four days so he could divert his food and cooking talent to feeding the community. “I’ve got a casual place, so if people feel good bringing their own wine, why not?”
It’s a perk that many local restaurateurs have noticed diners asking about more and more. And while nationwide the practice of bringing your own bottle and waived corkage fees is mainly popular with smaller establishments lacking liquor permits, in our parts, it’s becoming commonplace at upscale destinations, too. Think celebrity chef Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg, which, since opening in 2001, has offered complimentary corkage on the first two 750 ml bottles of Sonoma County wine per table. This, while Thomas Keller’s famed Per Se of New York charges $150 a bottle.
“Here in Sonoma County, we really value our resources,” says Dry Creek Kitchen wine director Jeff Creamer. “That’s not to say that other wine country regions don’t, but I find that the dedication here is incredible, and we want to share that with everyone that comes into the restaurant.
Charlie believes a restaurant should not only be physically located in a place, but also demonstrate that sense of place with its offerings, so he chose to build a wine list composed exclusively of Sonoma County-sourced wines. The decision to waive corkage on wines from Sonoma County is an extension of that commitment.”
At the fig café & winebar in Glen Ellen, 70 to 80 percent of guests take advantage of the free corkage, says owner Sondra Bernstein, who as another amenity doesn’t limit the number of free bottles enjoyed per table, as long as guests keep their consumption reasonable.
That’s despite the fact that she is well-known for her talent in crafting superb California produced Rhône-style wine lists at her several culinary businesses and now owns her own wine shop in Sonoma.
“Years ago, we started free corkage on Mondays, because the Night Football,” she says of the Cal-French bistro that she opened nearly two decades ago. “Soon, Mondays were busier than weekends, and we decided we would rather have people in our seats all the time, so we went full board.”
While not charging for the simple task of opening a wine bottle and providing glasses seems minor, for restaurants, it can severely affect the bottom line. Many restaurants mark up their wine costs as much as 300 to 400 percent, making wine sales a critical support to running expensive businesses. Why would a restaurateur give up such high-margin profits?
“This is a controversial topic on the East Coast, especially in New York, where many restaurants still don’t allow corkage, or at least not without higher price tags,” says Creamer. “The decision to waive corkage unquestionably involves a sacrifice in profits, but it brings a reward in terms of developing deeper longterm relationships with local diners and local wineries. Ultimately, the success of a restaurant is built on guest satisfaction and repeat business, and I think our corkage policy is an important part of that equation.”
It’s important to note that the fig café “is really a locals’ place, more so than (her Sonoma restaurant) the girl & the fig,” Bernstein explains. She does charge corkage at girl & the fig since that restaurant caters more to tourists, but “there are so many people in the wine business here — owners and employees that get perks of wine — so it is hard for locals to shell out retail dollars on wine when they have so much at home. I don’t want that to be a reason not to come to the cafe.”
She also hosts local winemakers at the cafe on Wednesday nights, who pour tastes of their wines from table to table. “It’s very fun and educational, and we even sell some of their wine because of it,” she says.
For Sonoma resident Henry Miller, the no-corkage amenity is just another incentive for his family to frequent what he calls “our favorite restaurant anywhere.” He always brings in his own wine, for his visits at least twice a month.
“Even without the complimentary corkage, the fig café would be an outstanding value, especially given the restaurant’s excellent and well-priced wine list,” Miller says. “But the complimentary corkage takes it to a different level.”
At Railroad Station Bar and Grill in Cloverdale, owner Jangbu Sherpa offers complimentary corkage on Sonoma County wines, and has found his generosity actually boosts his profits.
“It’s just the right thing to do, supporting our local people and wineries,” he says. “Maybe I lose some wine sales, but the area wineries often sell a bottle to a customer, then refer us for a meal, so it makes up for it.”
Such a partnership is a win-win idea that wineries can get behind, too, as evidenced by the Culinary Cooperative program initiated by Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley four years ago. Customers purchasing a bottle at one of the organization’s 60plus wineries receive a voucher for complimentary corkage at participating Healdsburg and Geyserville restaurants, including big names like Healdsburg’s Barndiva and Michelin-starred Madrona Manor.
“Referrals are very much part of the direct-to-consumer equation,” says Jim Caudill, director of marketing communications for the Treasury Wine Estates group that owns such wineries as Chateau St. Jean in Kenwood and Etude in Carneros. “At one of my wineries, we keep a browser book of menus for local restaurants with either no corkage or some incentive, or where our wines are offered on the list. We regularly train staff to answer the no-corkage question, which comes up a lot.”
Caudill does often like to bring his own wine when dining out, he notes. “But it’s never about cost savings. I’m an explorer, so finding (a list wine) I enjoy with my meal is never a problem. But my wife has very definite likes and dislikes. If we visit a restaurant with a distinct point of view about their wine list, we may choose to bring something in so she can enjoy what she likes.”
He also tries to honor the restaurant’s business model, by not relying strictly on BYOB.
“I usually pair my wine with something off the restaurant list, either a glass to begin, or a cocktail and an after-dinner drink,” he says. “When I’m with friends, we may bring a bottle, but then we’ll scour the list and also appreciate a bottle chosen by the restaurant to complement the chef’s vision.”
Other Sonoma County restaurants offer free corkage on specific nights of the week, partly to boost business on typically slower evenings, but also as a way to thank what’s mostly a neighborhood crowd for that time slot.
“Mondays are a very localdriven day, and we wanted to show our support to the wineries and guests that support us year-round,” says chef-owner Daniel Kedan, who has featured the free corkage evening since opening his Backyard restaurant in Forestville in 2012. About a quarter of his Monday customers BYOB, he noted, with many guests being area winemakers bringing wines from around the world, and often sharing them with other diners. It makes for a convivial atmosphere, Kedan says, and ultimately, the payback is priceless.
“Our restaurant is so integrated with the Sonoma County agriculture community,” he says. “Wine is a huge part of this. For us, it just makes sense. The biggest part of hospitality is the guest experience, so if guests are enjoying, it’s a win for everyone.”
It’s time for a little lunchtime dignity at the office. So long to sad brown paper sacks, desiccated Lean Cuisines warmed up in a dirty microwave, and worst of all, whatever stinky thing you had for dinner last night that’s making us all wretch at our desks. I make it a practice to publicly humiliate anyone with the chutzpah to bring a steaming plate of fish stew, garlic curry or god forbid, tuna salad near my workstation.
That’s why I’m convinced that Redwood Credit Union’s new Grove Cafe is the future of the office lunch.
Simple daily menus are placed near the entrance to the bright, modern space and include dishes like blacked chicken flatbread with sweet corn and red onion ($6), roast cauliflower and pear soup ($3.50), or Korean bbq chicken in lettuce cups ($8) or a grilled veggie sandwich with sun-dried tomato pesto and goat cheese ($6) fresh beet salad with arugula ($6.75), made-to-order sandwiches and burritos (all under $9). There are no servers or waitstaff, instead, diners simply pick a dish or two on the touch screen monitor, pay with a credit card and sit down. Minutes later, your number is called and your order ready for pickup at the counter. No muss, no fuss, no lost time when your lunch hour is ticking by quickly.
Recently built inside the RCU headquarters, (3033 Cleveland Ave, Santa Rosa), anyone is invited to dine at the cafe, though mostly populated by hungry bankers, nearby Empire College students and Superior Court staff. In fact, I was tipped off by my son, who has made it his mission to receive most of his daily sustenance at the cafe while on break from his college classes. It’s that affordable.
While the concept cafe isn’t locally-owned or Michelin-starred (it is part of international foodservice conglomerate Compass Group, which operates cafes and food services for businesses, schools and hospitals including Bon Appetit Management and Wolfgang Puck Catering), the simple idea is efficient, inexpensive and what office drones (myself included) could really use on days when simply putting food in our faces is something of a luxury.
The Grove Cafe: Open Monday – Friday. Breakfast – 8:30 -10:00 a.m, lunch – 11:30 a.m-1:30 p.m., snacks -1:30 – 3:00 p.m..
March is Women’s History Month and there is no time like the present to celebrate and explore the achievements of women – famous and unknown, international and local. Click through the gallery above to discover seven events in Sonoma County that bring the community together in celebration of women. Did you know that Women’s History Month originated in Sonoma County?
Good wine and food is so plentiful in Sonoma that stocking your kitchen with quality goods is easy, if not automatic. Options are everywhere: tasty wine selections, slow food and farm-to-fork treats from local producers. Here are a few independently-owned shops to help fill the wine cellar, the pantry and, hopefully on a daily basis, the table. Click through the gallery above for details.
To most of the world, Sonoma and Napa are synonymous with wine. But in recent years, the region known as Wine Country has also become known as a mecca for craft beer lovers. Now, a new addition to the local beverage scene is merging wine and beer.
St. Clair Brown, a Napa winery, recently revealed that they have added a “nanobrewery” to their operations. The winery, which opened four years ago in the city of Napa, bills itself as an “urban winery,” and is nestled among culinary gardens with a greenhouse tasting room. The winery hosts music performances and locals nights, and offers wine tastings of their small production wines, which include sauvignon blanc, muscat, rosé, zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon. And now, there’s craft beer, too.
Since opening the winery in 2014, St. Clair Brown co-founder and winemaker Elaine St. Clair had dreamt of adding a brewery to the operations. A former winemaker at Domaine Chandon and former brewmaster and co-owner of Napa Ale Works, she founded St. Clair Brown with co-owner Laina Brown with the intention of creating small batch wine (they make about 1,000 cases a year) and small production craft beer.
“I’ve always wanted to get back to beer,” shares St. Clair, “If we were going to be here for the rest of our lives, I really wanted to be able to do both again.” (St. Clair holds a degree in Fermentation Science from the University of California at Davis, with a focus in both winemaking and brewing).
St. Clair Brown’s nanobrewery (“a scaled-down microbrewery”) is the first of its kind in the city of Napa, which has seen an uptick in breweries over the past few years as more locals and visitors have become thirsty for something more than wine. The brewery produces ten beers, about 60 gallons of each batch, which are bottled by hand in re-sealable Champagne bottles. The beers are unfiltered, naturally carbonated, and malt-driven, with a preference for a less bitter or heavily hopped profile.
“I’m a traditionalist in my palate choices. I want to make beers that are just wonderfully balanced,” says St. Clair.
St. Clair Brown winery serves three beers on tap, with weekly rotations through the beer lineup. Their current beer offerings include a little something for everyone: pilsner, honey wheat ale, farmhouse saison, pale ale, red ale, Scottish ale, brown ale, black IPA, porter and oatmeal stout. Tastings, glasses and growlers are offered.
St. Clair Brown Winery & Brewery is located at 816 Vallejo St., Napa, CA 94559. 707-255-5591. stclairbrownwinery.com.
Sonoma County Restaurant Week is here! Now in its 9th year, the event features more than 120 restaurants from every corner of the county serving up multi-course lunches for $10 or $15 and dinners for $19, $29 and $39 per person.
We just like to call it an opportunity to stuff your face at great local restaurants for a bargain. And this year, you have more than a week to enjoy the bounty; from Friday, March 2 all the way through Sunday, March 11. Other than a few stretches, pulling out your most forgiving pants and sharpening those fork tines, the most important thing you need to do is a little planning.
We’ve pulled together a few tips to make your experience a little easier to navigate, as well as some Restaurant Week menus that got us salivating (in the gallery above).
Top Tips
1. $15 lunches are the best way to see if you want to go back for a $29 or $39 dinner at the restaurant. Most have completely different lunch and dinner menus, but you’ll get a good sense of the restaurant’s style. Others offer similar lunch and dinner menus— adding a salad, soup or dessert to the dinner menu for evening diners. In that case, we’ll take the $15 version and skip the dessert.
2. Look at restaurants by price range on the website. We like to compare what folks are doing in the same price range. We’d probably skip over spots that aren’t offering anything different from their regular menu, or that haven’t put much effort into their menus. Seek out the restaurateurs that are putting extra oomph into their offerings.
3. Expect something impressive for $39. Don’t expect that same level of wow for $19. We tend to make a rule that we expect higher-end restaurants to really impress us with their $39 menus. We’re very impressed with menus from John Ash ad Co., Dry Creek Kitchen, and Seared at the higher price point. Also, look out for restaurants that aren’t staying in their usual lanes. For a value-priced fast-casual spot, a $39 dinner might be a bit overambitious.
4. If you hate to wait, go early or go late. But really, go early. Restaurant Week is very popular, so restaurants can get crowded. Also, make a reservation if possible. Weekdays tend to be quieter than weekends, natch.
5. Tip your servers well. Let me repeat that, tip well. Whether its a $10 lunch or a $39 dinner for two, restaurant staff are put to the test during this busy week. All restaurant participants want to impress their guests, but service can be a bit harried during crush hours. You may be getting a great deal, but everyone from dishwashers and bussers to servers still depend on that extra percentage of your bill to stretch their paychecks.
