Preparing for Restaurant Week at Red’s Apple Roadhouse Photo: Press Democrat
Preparing for Restaurant Week at Red’s Apple Roadhouse Photo: Press Democrat
I always feel like I need to announce Sonoma County Restaurant Week (March 10-16) with the same voice Oprah used to announce that her audience was flying to Australia. “And you get a three course dinner for $19! And you get a three course dinner for $29!,” BiteClub shouts over the screaming audience.
Talkshow dreams aside, it’s hard to believe this is the fifth year that Sonoma County celebrates its hardworking restaurateurs with a five-day celebration of all things delicious. With well over 100 restaurants spanning Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Healdsburg, Petaluma, the Coast and everything in-between, this is your chance to hit up some of those restaurants you’ve been dying to try, but just haven’t been to yet.
New this year: Two course lunch menus for $10, $15 or $20. Three course dinner menus remain at $19, $29 and $39.
I’ll have a full list online, as well as some of my favorite menus, but some of the newcomers you may want to check out include:
– Palooza Gastropub (8910 Sonoma Hwy, Kenwood) featuring their wedge salad, beef cheeks or Chef Chris Hanson’s luxe vegetarian risotto made with Speakeasy lager, mushrooms and season veggies, and s’mores on a stick, $39.
– 38 Degrees North: Sonoma Mission Inn’s hot new restaurant serves up roasted beet salad, beef sliders and creme brûlée, $39.
– Belly Left Coast Kitchen (523 Fourth St., Santa Rosa): Love this downtown SR restaurant that’s got a killer pork belly with hoisin and Campfire Stout chocolate mousse, $29.
– Red’s Apple Roadhouse (4550 Gravenstein Hwy, Sebastopol): One of BiteClub’s favorite off-the-beaten-path newcomers is doing both lunch ($15, pulled pork sammie or portobello mushroom burger with handout fries and pie) and dinner ($19) featuring their famous fried chicken supper or beer-braised pork belly.
– Best Value, Partake by KJ (241 Healdsburg Ave, Healdsburg): Biteclub is pretty floored by the $29 and $39 dinner menus that include 4-plus courses of Chef Justin Wangler’s life-altering food with multiple wine pairings. Think oysters with white verjus, smoked loin of lamb, white chocolate panna cotta, beet tartare and Meyer lemon pudding. Now, keep in mind, each course is more of a few luxurious bites rather than a craggy mound of food. But we’d far rather eat well than prodigiously.
Now please excuse me while sop the drool off my keyboard.
Five-year-old Dasha Kovina and her mother Anna Kovina smile as they stretch a portion of freshly made mozzarella cheese during “The Secrets of Making Stretched Curd Cheese” class at the Artisan Cheese Festival in Petaluma on March 23, 2013. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)
MARCH 15-16 Savor Sonoma Valley: More than 20 participating wineries in Sonoma Valley will showcase 2013 vintage wines straight from the barrel, offer visitors tastes of new releases and pair specific wines with dishes prepared by local chefs and restaurants. Meet the winemakers, view works by local artists and listen to live music. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. $10-$65.
Various Sonoma Valley wineries, 866-794-9463, heartofsonomavalley.com
Bacon poached swordfish, with a back ‘chip’, bacon bernaise and black trumpets made by chef Dustin Valette. (Crista Jeremiason / The Press Democrat, file 2013)
MARCH 21-22 Pigs & Pinot: Dry Creek Kitchen’s Charlie Palmer teams with more than a dozen other top chefs and winemakers at this two-day celebration of all things pork and Pinot Noir. Wine and food tastings, cooking and wine competitions, and a gala dinner are among the features. $125-$175.
Hotel Healdsburg, 25 Matheson St., Healdsburg, 707-922-5249, pigsandpinot.com
MARCH 21-23 California’s Artisan Cheese Festival: Find out just how good cheese can be when cheesemakers, chefs, experts and authors gather at the Sheraton Sonoma County in Petaluma for an opening-night reception, tastings, demonstrations, classes, cheese field trips, panel discussions and seminars. Whether you like mild or sharp, white or yellow or blue, you’ll find cheeses to love here. $20-$135.
Sheraton Sonoma County, 745 Baywood Drive, Petaluma, 707-523-3728, artisancheesefestival.com
MARCH 27-30 Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival: Sebastopol’s 17th annual celebration of nonfiction cinema touches on topics ranging from local to global, with screenings at the Rialto Cinemas and other venues. $250 all-access pass.
Headquarters: Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S. High St., Sebastopol, 707-829-4797, sebastopolfilmfestival.org
One bottle at a time at Battle of the Brews at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Saturday April 6, 2013 in Santa Rosa. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)
MARCH 29 Battle of the Brews: With the rise of Northern California professional brewers making their own custom beers on a smaller scale, there’s no longer any doubt that Wine Country is also Beer Country. This 18th annual event, sponsored by the Active 20-30 Club of Santa Rosa, showcases more than 30 breweries and 20 food vendors, live music and a gourmet sandwich competition. $40-$95.
Sonoma County Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa, 707-545-4200, battleofthebrews.com
MARCH Children’s Museum of Sonoma County: After nearly a decade on the go, taking exhibits to various venues, the museum plans to open the Mary’s Garden and Ella’s Studio portions of its new permanent home next to the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. By late March, kids will be able to explore hands-on activities there. Look for the museum’s grand opening in the fall.
1835 W. Steele Lane, 707-546-4069, cmosc.com
APRIL 12-13 Sebastopol Apple Blossom Festival: Two days of food, drink, crafts and live entertainment celebrate Sebastopol’s agricultural heritage, honoring the bygone days when apple orchards dominated the landscape. The first day’s Main Street parade is a charming slice of Americana. $10 general admission, $5 seniors and students, under 10 free.
Ives Park, 7400 Willow St., Sebastopol, 707-823-3032, sebastopol.org
APRIL 26-27 April in Carneros: Enjoy the beautiful grapevine-covered hills of southern Sonoma County during the annual two-day celebration of the wine region that bridges Sonoma and Napa counties. Nearly 20 participating wineries on both sides of the line will offer food and wine pairings, as well as barrel, reserve, vertical and library wine tastings, plus live entertainment. $39-$45. carneroswineries.org
Trumpet player Nicholas Stephens plays ‘Taps’ after Father Robert White placed a memorial wreath on the water Sunday to remember lost fishermen during the blessing of the fleet in Bodega Bay. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat, file 2012)
APRIL 26-27 Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival: The 41st annual event promises local seafood, tastings of more than 25 Sonoma County wines, boat races, live entertainment, a pet parade and the beloved annual Blessing of the Fleet ceremony. $10-$12; under 12 free.
Westside Regional Park, 2400 Westshore Road, Bodega Bay, 707-875-3866, bbfishfest.org
APRIL 26-27 Passport to Dry Creek Valley: For the event’s 25th anniversary year, more than 50 wineries in the Dry Creek Valley will offer the best of Sonoma County wine and food, plus live music and vineyard tours at many of the sites. $120 for a two-day pass; $70 for Sunday only.
707-433-3031, wdcv.com
Spectators watch during the Petaluma Butter and Egg Days Parade in Petaluma. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat, file 2013)
APRIL 26 Petaluma Butter and Egg Days Parade: Celebrate Sonoma County’s agricultural roots and Petaluma’s rich history at this all-day community festival. The parade, which winds through downtown Petaluma, draws thousands every year. Free.
707-762-9348, petalumadowntown.com
APRIL 27 Hilary Hahn: At 33, the violin virtuoso already has two Grammy Awards and was named “America’s Best Young Classical Musician” by Time magazine in 2011. She’ll make her Weill Hall debut at Sonoma State’s Green Music Center. $40-$85.
Green Music Center, 801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park, 866-955-6040, gmc.sonoma.edu
Amid record water shortfalls and unreliable rains, fear grows that Mother Nature is stealing the California dream. Are there lessons to be drawn from Sonoma’s past? (photos by Kent Porter)
It rained and it rained and it rained. And then, after three of the wettest seasons in memory, the heavens went dry.
That eerie, rainless December of 1975 began the widespread sense of unease. The grass browned and ranchers resorted to trucking in water for their livestock, an expedient usually reserved only for the driest depths of summer.
And now it has happened again. With less than 9 inches of rain, 2013 went down as the driest year ever recorded in Sonoma County. It was the same in the rest of California.
Neither the fool’s euphoria of balmy January days nor the gleeful relief at seeing rain arrive at last, late and inadequate, could soothe the growing fear that a historic water shortage could again bring catastrophe.
Dirt from a field, nearly fallow, easily separates in a coastal breeze at the Sonoma, Marin county line.
Your father’s drought
Fear is what J. Dietrich Stroeh remembers from the drought of 1976-77; he was the general manager of the Marin Municipal Water District through that bleak time. It is one thing to be unsettled by winter hills that are parched to tan when they should be brilliant green. It is another entirely to fear that thousands of people will have no water to drink.
“There were many nights I drove from the office to home, and it would be quite late, and I felt fear,” recalled Stroeh. “For the first time in my life I felt fear. I was looking for water and I didn’t know where I was going to get it.”
The 24-month drought cost the state more than $2.6 billion in losses, even by the most conservative estimates. It devastated California’s livestock industry, which suffered nearly $900 million in losses. Tourism declined as lakes dwindled, campground wells went dry, and fires scorched the landscape. Up to 8 million trees died in those two years, some from lack of water, some from fire, and the rest from pests that flourished in the unseasonably warm, dry winters.
By March of 1976, officials were publicly warning residents to prepare for water rationing by summer. By June, Petaluma was limiting landscape watering to every other day — on even days east of Highway 101, odd days to the west. During the next year, municipalities banned outside watering entirely and moved to ration indoor water use.
Eventually, National Guard troops were assigned to run a seven-day-a-week water trucking operation to rural farms and homes in Sonoma County. Local officials commandeered Caltrans tankers to help.
In December 1976, a newspaper writer observed that folks were “beginning to wonder if it would ever rain again.” And that was only halfway through what would become the most desperate drought the area had known in its modern history.
Rainfall in 2012 and 2013 was well less than those two withering years in the mid-1970s, and 2014 started even worse, promising a third critically dry year. Water managers spent this past winter dusting off the playbooks written decades ago by Stroeh and his colleagues, and casting nervous eyes at the dwindling supplies in area reservoirs.
As with the 1970s, there was something haunting and increasingly apocalyptic through the fall and winter of 2013: Every day became as sunny, mild and dry as anything we could wish of summer. As this January closed with barely a sprinkle all month — drier even than the arid January of 2013 — a kind of fatalism began to creep into the discussion.
“This is worse. … This is going to hurt us for sure,” said third-generation Sonoma rancher Ray Mulas, who remembers his father struggling to feed the cattle during the 1976-77 dry spell. Without rain to grow alfalfa and grass, he’s begun to wonder “if we’re going to be here in June.”
For the first time, he said, he’s considering what would happen to his 500-acre dairy ranch, in the family for eight decades, if he had to sell off the herd.
“You have to be prepared for everything,” he said as January came to a parched conclusion. “You’d be a fool if you didn’t think about these things. You have to have that exit strategy in place.”
By some measures, the North Coast is much better off today than were its frightened and thirsty residents of the 1970s. The booming population centers — Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Marin — can now access water from Lake Sonoma, which opened in 1982 and was designed to hold a three-year supply. As well, homes are far more efficient than they used to be, with water-saving appliances and fixtures that have cut home consumption dramatically.
But those measures can’t protect from truly epic droughts, today’s water managers warn.
“You can never eliminate risk,” said Jay Jasperse, chief engineer for the Sonoma County Water Agency, who was in high school when the 1970s drought swept the state. “The public, I don’t think, likes that message. It’s not a fun message. It’s an important message and an honest one, too.”
It’s difficult to overstate just how close the region came to catastrophe before the rains began again at the end of December 1977, leading to a string of wetter years starting in 1978.
By the end of that drought, the flow in the Russian River dropped to just 6 percent of its average. The six reservoirs that supplied the North Coast then had fallen to 15 percent of their average capacity to supply every city between San Pablo Bay and the Oregon border.
The drought “has again shown the finite nature of our resources and our limited ability to control nature,” wrote Ronald B. Robie, former director of the state Department of Water Resources, in the grim final report on the drought, issued in 1978.
The bones of a fish lie exposed on the dry lakebed at Lake Mendocino. By early February, the lake had shrunk to a depth of just 68.9 feet, barely more than half its maximum level.
“There is no assurance that the next drought is not just beyond the horizon,” he wrote prophetically. “We can be assured, however, that drought will return and, considering the greater needs of that future time, its impact, if not prepared for, will be much greater.”
The memories are still vivid of the every-day effects of that long-ago drought. Cars collected thick coats of dirt. Dust clouds rose from the ground in February. Sparse grass on area fields and hills went from the golden of dry summer to a dead brown.
“It became a badge of who cared, who had brown lawns,” recalled Leon Sharyon, who was a teenager in Modesto at the time and now watches warily from his perch as chief financial officer of Lagunitas Brewing Co. in Petaluma, as cities contemplate mandatory water cuts on water-intensive businesses such as his.
“It’s a nerve-wracking time,” he admitted of this new drought. Any serious rationing plan would force the beer company, and any other water-heavy food or beverage manufacturer, to make difficult decisions about where to cut, and ultimately could force costly production shortfalls.
Back in the 1970s, the media was full of slogans and helpful advice, including the infamous motto explaining when to flush the toilet: “When it’s brown, flush it down; when it’s yellow, let it mellow.”
Newspapers were full of charts detailing how simple changes in behavior could save tremendous amounts of water: brushing your teeth with the tap running could use 3 gallons; “wet brush, rinse briefly” would use just one-quarter of a gallon.
One piece of advice sticks in the mind of longtime Press Democrat columnist and local historian Gaye LeBaron: Turn the shower on only long enough to wet your body. Turn it off, lather up, then turn it back on only as long as it takes to rinse off. Water managers touted that as a way to save 24 gallons in even a brief shower.
LeBaron’s verdict on the short-form showers? “A most unpleasant experience.”
The drought forced communities throughout the area to the edge of disaster. With reservoirs near empty, communities including Santa Rosa and Calistoga banned outdoor use of water.
The Marin Municipal Water District concocted a fantastic scheme to run a pipe from the East Bay across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, a plan that is credited with saving 170,000 customers from going completely dry in the summer of 1977.
Once rains did come back, the public moved on. But farmers and water managers remembered.
Cities all over the area kept their mandatory conservation plans on the books, developed programs to help homeowners install water-efficient fixtures and appliances, and offered incentives to rip out water-guzzling grass lawns. Vineyard owners kept the new water-conserving drip irrigation systems, installed on the fly as a last-ditch effort to save the premium crops in Napa and Sonoma counties through the drought.
The system of rationing improvised by Stroeh in Marin County in the 1970s has become an industry standard. Rather than threatening to cut off water or arrest scofflaws, his agency created a system of ever-increasing emergency rates. The more you exceed your allocation, the more you pay the next month, until the economic pain becomes unbearable.
“It all worked out, and worked out well,” he said. “People liked that.”
“I drove my ranch today, and it is a disaster.” – Two Rock dairyman Don De Bernardi, whose shrinking irrigation pond should be filing with winter rain.
How we live today
So here we are again. Even with the February rains, the drought remains a painful reality.
“This whole thing we’re going through right now is pretty serious stuff,” Stroeh said.
It’s so serious that state officials warned in January that at least 17 communities were in imminent danger of running out of water completely. Of those, three were North Coast cities: Willits, Cloverdale and Healdsburg. The governor declared a drought emergency and cities scrambled to implement conservation, at first voluntary but with the strong threat of mandatory rationing by spring.
By the end of 2013, farmers were begging county officials for help with trucking in water; the supervisors were considering reviving the emergency trucking operations that took to the road daily in 1977. Ranchers began culling their herds to save on the soaring cost of feed, starting first with calves and moving to older cows.
“I drove my ranch today and it is a disaster,” said Two Rock dairyman Don De Bernardi after a predicted rainstorm in late January fizzled, delivering just one one-hundredth of an inch of moisture. “The crops are dying,” which will force him onto the crowded and expensive market for hay and feed grown elsewhere.
Other sorts of farmers are no better off. Norm Yenni, a multigeneration grain farmer in Sonoma, said he fears a total loss on his unirrigated 2,300 acres if the rains don’t return for good.
Yenni called the February rains a fine start but said the future remains uncertain.
“We’re into territory I’ve never been in before — I don’t think anyone else has,” he said.
Grapegrowers, meanwhile, worried that the dry conditions could make their vines more vulnerable to frost damage. The warm, dry weather was fooling the vines into pushing out their delicate buds as early as January, leaving them vulnerable to devastating frost damage for the rest of the winter. Even more than for irrigation, vineyards rely on water for frost protection, so the early budding with limited water supply spelled sleepless nights for vineyard managers.
The drought could also depress vineyard yields. In the 1976-77 drought, grape crop weights dropped noticeably, particularly in the premium wine-growing areas along the coast, according to the state’s final report on the drought.
As January 2014 closed drier than ever, grapegrowers began making worst-case plans, right up to abandoning the entire 2014 crop.
With no water for irrigation, vineyard managers said, the best strategy would be to trim the vines entirely and let them rest through the drought.
“We’re going to have to save the vines for next year,” said J. Alex Vyborny, owner of Vyborny Vineyard Management, which manages 1,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties. “That means cutting fruit, cutting canes.”
If 2014 is dry, he said, “we’re going to be in trouble.”
When David Martin of San Francisco went kayaking on Lake Sonoma in January, the water level has fallen so low he couldn’t launch from the boat ramp. Instead, he had to portage through several yards of gooey mud to get his craft to and from the lake.
Not your father’s drought
The only thing that’s clear about the future is that Ronald Robie’s 1978 words are true: Some day, ferocious drought will return.
Even were it not for the threat of climate change, serious dry spells are inevitable every few decades. With California’s population at 38 million and climbing by about 1 percent a year, the pressure on the state’s water resources will get progressively worse.
With climate change, all bets are off. And the best computer models disagree: Northern California will get drier; Northern California will get wetter. One thing they do agree on is that the extremes will become more so — drier dry periods and wetter wets. And that means more dangerously dry periods are ahead for Sonoma County no matter what else the future holds.
Six decades ago, former Press Democrat reporter Frank Herbert dreamed of the desert world of Arrakis, where the mere possession of water was a mark of wealth and power, and common people struggled to conserve and reuse every last drop they could collect just to survive. The story, possibly inspired in part by the dunes of Bodega Bay and the North Coast, went on to become the best-selling science-fiction classic “Dune.”
But that vision is not as much fantasy as we might like. Water managers today joke nervously about the day when customers wear “stillsuits,” the full-body suits imagined by Herbert that Arrakis residents wore to capture and recycle moisture, including sweat and waste.
Stillsuits may not be in our future, but the kind of intensive recycling it suggests is not far off the mark. There may come a day when California residents will become accustomed to the idea that the water they send down the drain, or flush down the toilet, comes back to them in the form of treated drinking water.
Already, desert cities such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas are working on plans to pump the wastewater from sewage treatment plants back into their reservoirs.
“Water is water. All the water we have has been recycled millions of times,” said David Guhin, director of utilities for the City of Santa Rosa. “There is only so much water in the world.”
Stroeh, now a consultant who works for water agencies all over the region, including Sonoma County, sees a somewhat different future: a string of desalinization plants up and down the West Coast, undertaking the fantastically expensive process of converting sea water to tap water.
And even with these plants, he said, California residents in the second half of the century can expect to be on a permanent rationing system modeled on his plan from the 1970s: daily limits enforced by a progressively steeper cost for excessive use.
The engineers at the Sonoma County Water Agency are somewhat more optimistic, at least about the local picture. Sonoma County, they said, is unusual in that it has a robust river system that, at least in most years, gets fed plenty of water if it’s added up throughout the year. The problem is that it typically is available at the wrong times: We need it in the summer but get it in the winter.
“We don’t have a shortage of water. We have a timing issue,” Jasperse said, as much of the annual winter rainfall becomes runoff into the Pacific Ocean. “And the game there is to try to play with that and make it more to our advantage. We need all the water when it is not happening.”
The chances that anyone will pay for yet another reservoir to hold all that wintertime water is near zero, so water agencies and cities are left to look at smaller-scale solutions.
One of the best is simply to reuse wastewater. Sonoma County Water Agency general manager Grant Davis said there are plenty of ways to reuse treated wastewater, short of pumping it straight back into the tap. Waste treatment plants are looking for ways to get farms, parks and golf courses to use wastewater for irrigation, thus taking pressure off precious and dwindling groundwater supplies.
Other options include capturing the extra water from the winter and storing it for the summer. The Water Agency is experimenting with using detention ponds, which would allow flood waters to soak into the ground slowly rather than just rushing off to the ocean. It is also beginning a pilot study of drilling wells that would allow winter water to be pumped into the ground and saved for use during peak summer periods.
Even if the agency can capture just a fraction of the water that normally runs off to the ocean in wet winters, engineers said, it would make a big difference during peak summer usage periods.
But the agency is also thinking bigger. It’s taking part in a series of national studies of weather forecasting and hydrology that could revolutionize how water is managed in the arid West.
In the most high-profile project, Sonoma County is home to the first in a series of West Coast weather stations that will help meteorologists understand a phenomenon known as “atmospheric rivers,” the huge weather systems that are responsible for most of the wet weather the area gets in the winter. Much of the early research on these systems was conducted in Sonoma County in the 1990s. The area will remain a key center of research in the future, in part because the Russian River is among the most flood-prone watersheds in the country, making it a great laboratory for weather researchers.
Understanding how the atmospheric rivers form off the coast of Asia and Africa, how they build across the Pacific and where they hit along the West Coast could give water managers vital advance warnings of flood and droughts alike, telling them when to hoard water behind dams and when to let it flow out to the ocean, the Water Agency said.
“This region is taking an innovative approach,” Davis said. “You entertain these sorts of short-term, midterm and long-term solutions. … I think we are going to contribute to water management throughout the state.”
Drought and memory
Until the rains return, it is impossible to know how the drought of the 2010s might be remembered. But looking back on contemporary accounts of the drought in the 1970s, an intriguing pattern emerges. When the rains stopped in 1975, there was a sense of foreboding. Later, as a series of small rains teased the North Coast, pundits confidently predicted an end to the drought even as the sprinkles failed to fill the reservoirs. As the drought dragged through its second year, a sense of fatalism crept in, with every rainstorm greeted with the grim resignation that it would amount to nothing.
Finally, when the heavy rains began to lash the coast after two bitter years, it was as if the writers of the day simply couldn’t believe that the long ordeal was over. It took a series of destructive floods before they were willing to admit that the worst was behind them.
And then, in the spring of 1978, everything returned to normal: Lawns were green, cars were washed, and everyone went back to enjoying the sublime California weather.
Or almost everyone.
Stroeh said the public, and sometimes even water engineers, tend to be optimists. They assume the best, and once the rains come, they figure it will continue. The searing drought of the 1970s cured Stroeh of his optimistic streak.
“This drought made a believer out of me,” he said. “This will happen again.”
Pisco sours, an addictive Peruvian cocktail, will be on the menu at Olé in Santa Rosa
Pisco sours, an addictive Peruvian cocktail, will be on the menu at Olé in Santa Rosa
The corner of Mendocino and Seventh St. in Santa Rosa is about to become home to two Latin-inspired restaurants featuring the cuisines of Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Brazil.
Opening in the former Franco’s (previously Acapulco) is Brasa Churrascaria and Brewpub. Details on the restaurant are still a bit sketchy, but BiteClub caught the new restaurateurs this week outside the space who described the menu as including “churrasco”, traditional Brazilian grilled meats served on skewers. Think barbecued beef, pork, chicken or fish cooked and served on long swords–dinner and a show.
Taking over the former Seven/Vine bar and nightclub is Olé. Opening chefs include Jose Luis Nunez (Auberge, Solage) and AJ Lockwood (Safari West, Frank & Ernie’s) who’ve created a mix of Latin dishes that include Puerto Rican Mofongo (green plantains with chicharonnes), Cubano sandwiches, Pechuga Rellan (stuffed chicken breast with shrimp), Pollo al Horno (chicken with oregano and garlic) as well as Mexican staples of red snapper ceviche, carnitas, Cochinita pibil (a BiteClub fave that includes pork, achiote and pickled red onions).
Owners Yanet Ramirez, Patricia Rodriguez and Levi Rodriguez hope to add additional dishes that include influences from the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean cuisines.
What we’re especially excited about: Cocktail King John Burton (owner of the Santa Rosa Bartender School and bar consultant) has crafted a spirits menu that i includes Caipirinhas, Pisco Sours, Pina Coladas, Michelada and upscale margaritas.
Both restaurants are expected to open this spring.
Polenta bowl with arugula, greens, feta cheese and a poached egg at Fork Cafe. (Photo Heather Irwin)
MOVED 9890 Bodega Hwy, Sebastopol,
Polenta bowl with arugula, greens, feta cheese and a poached egg at Fork Cafe. (Photo Heather Irwin)
I’m in love with Avgolemono. I mean really in love. The Greek version of Jewish chicken soup, its a hearty, soul-nourishing stew of rice, lemon juice and shredded chicken fortified with beaten eggs. On a cold, rainy day at Sarah Piccolo’s tiny Fork Cafe, you’ll be convinced its truly Heaven-sent.
As owner of Fork Catering, one of Sonoma County’s most-loved food trucks, Piccolo has honed the art of simple, nourishing dishes that never fail to hit the spot. And now, you can find them Monday through Friday from 8a.m. to 3p.m. in her Sebastopol catering kitchen/cafe.
We’re loving the healthy/decadent menu that changes up frequently, but includes savory bowls of polenta, goat cheese and greens; quinoa with braised greens, tamari pumpkin seeds and a poached egg ($6.75), a Greek yogurt bowl with orange and ginger stewed prunes and housemade granola.
Lunch gets even better with Blue Plate specials (griddled Naan bread with coconut curry lentils, raita and Liberty duck confit, $10) and grilled panini with Clover cheese, roasted sweet pepper puree and caramelized onions ($7). Then there’s the soup ($5), which also changes up but includes vegetarian options like ginger carrot as well as swoon-worthy tortilla and the Avgolemono I’m considering starting a serious relationship with.
So much of what sets Sonoma apart is obvious to the wider world. But the favorite things we compiled here are out of the ordinary. They’re quirky. Iconic. Hidden. Endearing. Together, they’re what give Sonoma its colorful personality, its spice. Our “favorites” provide an insider’s view of our backyard and reflect the odd corners and offbeat details you’d miss if you drove by too fast. For these, you’ll want to slow down.
Favorite Chow
Iconic foods for foodies, and things that make you go mmmmmm…
Far-Flung BBQ Joint – Bones Roadhouse: Head up the Sonoma Coast, just past the Mendocino border, and you’ll find the seaside hamlet of Gualala. What you might not expect is the smell of pit barbecue smoke mingling with the briny air. Bones Roadhouse smokes its own brisket, ribs, chicken, pork and salmon on-site, Texas-style. Large windows offer one of the best views of the ocean around. And yes, Bones also serves clam chowder. (But really, get the barbecue). 39080 S. Highway 1, Gualala, 707-884-1188, bonesroadhouse.com
Hangover Breakfast – Carlos’ Country Kitchen: Folks either rave about the funky hash house known as Carlos’ Country Kitchen, or run screaming. Sit yourself down in a cozy booth (never mind there isn’t any padding left in the seat), get your order ready for the friendly (albeit harried) staff and prepare for giant platters of homey scrambled eggs, bacon and toast; omelets bigger than grandma’s purse; and a daunting portion of biscuits and gravy that could feed a football team, with leftovers. Sure, there are plenty of tonier local spots for breakfast, but when you’re craving a big old pancake stack with an endless cup of coffee, this old-school diner is a favorite Sunday morning adventure. 90 West College Ave., Santa Rosa, 707-569-9734
Fungi Farm Gourmet Mushrooms: Wine Country’s mushroom hunters haven’t had much luck this year foraging for earthy fungi such as chanterelles and porcini, which rely on rain and plunging temperatures to stimulate growth. Fortunately, the folks at Sebastopol’s Gourmet Mushrooms grow eight kinds of exotic culinary mushrooms year-round, using blasts of cold, damp air to mimic Mother Nature’s wintry bluster. Instead of the forest floor, the certified organic mushrooms grow indoors in sawdust-packed bottles. Each week, more than 60,000 bottles’ worth of mushrooms is hand-harvested, packed under the Mycopia label and shipped to chefs across the country. You can find meaty Trumpet Royales and Nebrodini Biancos, and earthy Forest Nameko and Maitake Frondosa fungi, in stores ranging from Costco to Whole Foods. Need recipes? Check out company co-founder Malcolm Clark’s new cookbook, “The Marriage of Mushrooms and Garlic.” Gourmet Mushrooms isn’t open to the public, but there is a shopping cart and farm video tour on its website, gourmetmushroomsinc.com.
Bespoke Burger Stark’s Steak & Seafood: Burgers are serious business in Wine Country, and everyone’s got an opinion. But when it comes to a build-your-own burger, Stark’s Steak & Seafood starts with a half-pound, house-ground burger cooked to order perfectly. On top and bottom is a Franco American bun, and in between you can pile it up with blue cheese, Gruyere cheese, caramelized onions, truffle aioli, sautéed mushrooms, truffled sunny-side-up egg and salsa verde. This bad boy comes with house pickles and fries.
521 Adams St., Santa Rosa, 707-546-5100, starkrestaurants.com
Pig’s Foot with That? Tortilleria Jalisco: When you order the pozole at Tortilleria Jalisco in Sonoma, the server will ask, “Would you like a pig’s foot with that?” The answer: “You bet.” “It tastes salty and soft and very tender,” says co-owner Albert Cerna. “It’s definitely not something you see a lot around here.” The cook takes pig’s feet and cuts them into quarters. They’re boiled with garlic for four hours and added to the pozole, a traditional Mexican stew with hominy. But there’s a catch: pozole is available only on Saturdays and it often sells out by 2 p.m. As an option, try the tostada de pata, served with some choice pig’s feet chunks, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, peppers and sour cream.
897 West Napa St., Sonoma, 707-935-7356
Illustrated Chef Jamil Peden: Chefs aren’t shy about inking themselves liberally (to hide all the cooking scars?), but Woodfour Brewing’s Jamil Peden goes a few steps beyond with his food-centric body art. Among his favorite pieces: an antique meat grinder, forks, spoons, knives, beets, fiddlehead ferns, a sardine skeleton, three stars (for a review from the San Francisco Chronicle when Peden worked at Petite Syrah in Santa Rosa), artichokes, mussels, kelp and an octopus. Each has a special meaning, but the octopus is our favorite. “Octopuses are smart and delicious and have no leg muscles, so I put mussels on (them) instead,” Peden says of this particular tattoo.
In The Barlow center, 6780 Depot St., Sebastopol, 707-823-3144, woodfourbrewing.com
$99 Brunch Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn: Money may not buy happiness, but it gets you a brunch of such sheer magnitude and sumptuousness that you’ll remain contented long after the meal has gone down. The Michelin-starred Santé at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn gilds every lily with an all-you-can-eat spread every Easter and Mother’s Day (as well as on other major holidays) that includes nearly 100 luxe food selections, including smoked Loch Duart salmon, caviar, prime rib, made-to-order omelets, artisan cheeses and freshly baked goods. The brunch sells out every time, so make a reservation.
100 Boyes Blvd., Sonoma, 707-939-2415, fairmont.com/sonoma/dining/sante-restaurant
These are the drinking places – and the drinks – that stand out from the crowd.
No-Kick Cocktails El Dorado Kitchen: Cocktails have gone farm to table, with exotic mixers, herbs and infusions. But what if you’re a teetotaler? The alcohol-free “mocktails” at Sonoma’s El Dorado Kitchen are utterly delicious, including the Basil Julep (muddled basil, ginger, lemon and sparkling water), the Sunflower (white cranberry juice, orange flower and ginger ale) and the El Diablo (jalapeño, chile syrup, cranberry, lime, peach bitters and Sprite). Who says you have to have booze to have a great drink?
405 First St. W., Sonoma, 707-996-3030, eldoradosonoma.com/restaurant
Hotel Bar Solbar: Solbar at Solage Calistoga is the ultimate hotel bar, with a sleek, modern interior, Zen-like patio, spa-inspired cocktails and a Michelin-star chef to boot. You’ll find a great local and regional wine list here, as well as some of Napa Valley’s best winemakers hanging out in the bar or near the adjacent pool. If you’re lucky, you may stumble on one of their impromptu parties at the bar, where everyone sips a bit of the current vintage. Best bet: The outdoor dining area offers breathtaking views of the Palisades on the east side of the valley.
755 Silverado Trail, Calistoga, 707-226-0850, solagecalistoga.com/solbar
Winery with a Full Bar Medlock Ames: Imagine visiting a winery tasting room and ordering a bourbon neat or maybe a shot of Fernet Branca. Welcome to Medlock Ames, where the grape is the hook, but mixology is an additional lure. Tucked away behind the tasting room, like a time-capsule speakeasy, is the Alexander Valley Bar. After pretending you came for the award-winning, organically grown Cabernet Sauvignon, you can duck into the adjacent broom closet of a saloon and saddle up to artisan cocktails, margaritas, shots or microbrews. Hole up in the dark of a country tavern or kick back on the wide porch. Many years ago, long before Medlock Ames, there was a general store and full bar at the corner of Alexander Valley Road and Highway 128. When the winery owners took over, they inherited the liquor license, and the rest is history.
3487 Alexander Valley Road, Healdsburg, 707-431-8845, medlockames.com
Beer Tasting Carneros Brewing: For years, Jesus Ceja toiled away as a brewer and executive for Budweiser, while the rest of the Ceja family made waves as one of a handful of pioneering Latino winemaking families in the region. Well, now it’s Jesus’ time. Carving out a small section of family winery property on Highway 12, he ditched the King of Beers and opened Carneros Brewing Company in Sonoma. From a Bavarian-style “Jefeweizen” to a Cerveza Pilsner, the beer is tasty and generally low in alcohol. A major draw for visitors is the spectacular scenery. The tasting room boasts an outdoor beer garden with a pond, outside taps, band stage and vistas of the rolling Carneros countryside. Don’t miss the hops garden loaded with flowers used in the brews.
22985 Burndale Road, Sonoma, 707-938-1880, carnerosbrews.com
Tour guide Lewis Norvell talks about hops during a tour of the brewery at Lagunitas brewery, the first stop on a beer tour for the day with North Bay Brewery Tours. (photo by Scott Manchester)
Brewery Tour North Bay Brewery Tours: For eons, fancy vans and buses have shuttled wine sippers around Sonoma, from winery to winery. So it’s about time a few beer lovers banded together and streamlined the same concept for hop heads. Founded in 2010 by three suds buds (James Holt, Robert Watkins and Ron Holt) using Kickstarter, North Bay Brewery Tours leads expeditions to many of the region’s best breweries, with scheduled tours and custom-designed journeys for private groups. The cool thing about these guys is they’ve polished off a few growlers in their day and are deeply knowledgeable about the local beer scene. They can score clutch insider tours and access, and will bring guests to small, new or hard-to-find producers in addition to big players. Scheduled tours run pretty much every day and cost $75 for five hours and $99 for six-hour VIP tours.
1300 Valley House Drive, #100, Rohnert Park, 707-602-7397, northbaybrewerytours.com
Mead Cellar Heidrun Meadery: Named after the goat in Norse mythology that produced mead instead of milk, Heidrun Meadery in Point Reyes Station ferments prized regional honey to make a mead like no one else in North America. Instead of the syrupy, sweet version that knocked medieval knights for a loop, this one is infused with the magic of bubbles, fermented in the traditional French méthode champenoise to create dry, naturally sparkling varietal meads. Owner Gordon Hull doesn’t know of any other producers on the continent that ferment mead in the bottle; some versions are injected with carbon dioxide to make them artificially fizzy. Heidrun varietals include Humboldt County Wildflower, California Avocado Blossom and Hawaiian Lehua Blossom. The best way to soak it all up is on a tasting tour, offered from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday ($15). Reservations are required.
11925 Highway 1, Point Reyes Station, 415-663-9122, heidrunmeadery.com
Agave Mexican Restaurant and Tequila Bar in Healdsburg. (photo by Conner Jay)
Mezcal Collection Agave Mexican Restaurant & Tequila Bar: Owner and chef Octavio Diaz keeps a coveted collection of small-batch and hard-to-find mezcals behind the bar at Agave Mexican Restaurant & Tequila Bar in Healdsburg. He sources many of them from his native Oaxaca, Mexico, including single-village, unblended mezcals from the distillery of Del Maguey. The spirit pairs perfectly with Diaz’s mom’s homemade moles and other fine Mexican fare. Open daily, 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
1063 Vine St., Healdsburg, 707-433-2411, agave-mex.com
Hip Tasting Room The Sippy Lounge: Husband-and-wife team Dylan and Tobe Sheldon make some expressively great wines in a fun setting, inviting tasters to relax in their Santa Rosa tasting room that’s affectionately known as The Sippy Lounge. With comfy couches and Wes Anderson-soundtrack-like music in the background, you’ll feel as though you’re being entertained at a favorite friend’s house — a friend who just happens to be pouring delicious wines. Visit the website to find out about planned events such as the Winter Masquerade and bocce in summer. Open Thursday through Sunday, noon to 6 p.m., and by appointment.
1301 Cleveland Ave., Santa Rosa, 707-865-6755, sheldonwines.com
Some dynamic people who are stirring it up in their worlds.
Place to People-Watch at Midnight Graton Resort & Casino: Let’s face it, Wine Country can get a little quiet after 10 p.m. A new favorite sit-and-sip spot is the Graton Resort & Casino. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, if offers epic people watching. The best locations for planting yourself are the Marketplace (most restaurants are open past 11 p.m. on weekends), the Sky Bar (if you can get in) and the bars at M.Y. China and 630 Park Steakhouse. Sip a martini or fun-sized Sutter Home Chardonnay and watch the sea of humanity flow by; feed a few slots, should the mood strike.
Exit 484 off Highway 101 in Rohnert Park, 707-588-7100, gratonresortcasino.com
Volunteer Ken Wells moves a giant boulder into place on the Bald Mountain Trail in Sugarloaf State Park. (photo by John Burgess)
Volunteer Buddy Ken Wells: John Muir never toiled so hard. If Sonoma County’s trails look to be in pretty good shape, there’s one man who deserves much of the credit: Ken Wells, who organizes monthly work days in local state parks. They’re held the third Saturday of every month, when Wells gathers people at Annadel, Sugarloaf or Jack London parks to repair trails, clear brush and otherwise keep the intersection between man and nature organized, especially in the face of dwindling government resources. Bring a daypack with lunch, water, gloves, sunscreen, hat and work clothes. Experience isn’t necessary and Wells, whose day job is as executive director of the Sonoma County Trails Council, will supply the tools and after-work beverages. Reach him at kenwells@sonic.net or visit sonomatrails.org for information on upcoming work days.
Connector Spring Maxfield: With a wide circle of friends and acquaintances in the local arts, food and technology scenes, Spring Maxfield is one of those people you call up when you want an introduction to someone fascinating. As a co-creator of the popular Handcar Regatta, cheerleader for emerging local artists (including her partner, Todd Barricklow, a designer of human-powered contraptions including the Taco Bike), instigator for local food startups, farm markets and farmers, and longtime Maker Faire organizer, Spring is uncanny at matching up interesting folks with similar ideas. The pairing often benefits the local creative scene. Although she keeps a relatively low profile, she’s a connector worth seeking out.
Tony Magee, founder of Lagunitas Brewing Co. (photo by Christopher Chung)
Hop-Head Tweeter Tony Magee: In person, Lagunitas Brewing Company founder Tony Magee seems like a mild guy: thoughtful, self-effacing and given to long philosophical musings on the mystical joy of beer. But tune in to what he calls his “private little radio station” for a direct line into @lagunitasT’s lively, and sometimes darker, inner ramblings on Twitter. He offers up a stream-of-consciousness view of “The World According to Tony” and nearly 18,000 souls follow his feed — yet he follows no one. When Magee talks, the beer world listens, and many of his tweets have wound up widely reported in the beer press and dissected on discussion sites. Magee also brazenly starts beefs with other brewers, a rarity in the normally chummy world of craft brew. Find the link at lagunitas.com.
Must-Follow Wine Blogger Ron Washam: If you prefer to receive your wine information with a barrel-sized dose of satire, look no farther than the HoseMaster of Wine, a brilliant sendup and regularly written skewering of the wine industry and the people in it. It’s written by Ron Washam, a former Southern California sommelier and wine judge and current Healdsburg resident who claims, “I can spit like a rabid llama.” Nobody in the world of wine can hold a candle to his wicked wit and sometimes vulgar hilarity. Washam rips the curtain off the wine world’s cannards just like Comedy Central does with Washington and Wall Street. Jon Stewart, are you listening? hosemasterofwine.blogspot.com.
John Jordan of Jordan Winery in Healdsburg. (photo by Kent Porter)
Party-Thrower John Jordan: John Jordan, likely the only winery bigwig in the world willing to be filmed dancing Gangnam-style, doesn’t just host a party, he throws one the way former San Francisco Giants pitcher Brian Wilson throws a four-seam fastball, with serious attitude and crazy joy. Case in point: The Jordan Vineyard & Winery CEO holds an invite-only, costume-required Halloween bash every year where even the invitations respect the theme. The invite to his 2013 James Bond-esque “Licensed to Thrill” party included custom poker chips. His 2012 autumn “Festivus Maximus” was a Roman bacchanal. The spring release of new vintages is an occasion for a carnival and even Christmas gets turned inside out. Skip the snow; Jordan, whose family for decades has spent the holidays in Hawaii, treated winery Estate Club Members in December to a little Aloha in Alexander Valley, complete with hula dancers and kalua pork sliders.
Jordan Vineyard & Winery, 1474 Alexander Valley Road, 707-431-5250, jordanwinery.com.
Stuff you probably won’t find anywhere else but on our back roads.
Place to Commune with Sea Lions Penny Island: Pick a serene morning and drop by the boat ramp by the old post office in Jenner. Some of the best days are when the mouth of the Russian River is dammed up and it’s like a giant lake. Paddle a kayak out past Penny Island and keep your eyes open, as sea lions will often swim all around you, curious to take in the new arrival (that’s if they’re not napping on the beach). When the sea lions are active and feeding, it’s like a whack-a-mole game on the water as they pop up, wide-eyed, to check you out. Lean back for a photo selfie and marvel at how many seals pop up in the background. Rent kayaks at Watertreks, across the street from the boat ramp.
10438 Highway 1, Jenner, 707-865-2249, watertreks.com
Adam Davidoff works Belgian draft horses Quinna and Misty as they till fertile soil west of Sebastopol at New Family Farm. (photo by Kent Porter)
Old-School Farm New Family Farm: It may seem like a peculiar throwback, but New Family Farm in Sebastopol is on the far leading edge of the organic growing movement. The under-30 partners, Ryan Power and Adam Davidoff, are natives of Sebastopol and UC Santa Cruz grads. They not only have renounced chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, they also refuse to run a plough behind anything that doesn’t have a name and a face. They believe a light touch is better for the soil and the environment. Their team of rescued draft horses helps till, plow, weed and even harvest a bounty of crops, from carrots to kale, which they sell at the Occidental, Sebastopol and Santa Rosa Original farmers markets. Visit them on facebook.com.
Farm Porn Photo Op Quivira Vineyards: As farms go, Quivira Vineyards and Winery in Healdsburg is wickedly close to ag porn. Visitors are welcome explore the lovely little acre that constitutes the main garden, with 120 raised beds filled with heirloom varieties of vegetables and herbs. A cascading fountain and pond provide water for bees and other beneficial critters. There are cute pigs in a pen, olive, pear and peach trees, and a condo-sized chicken coop that’s home to pampered White Laced Red Cornish and Golden Polish breeds. It’s showy, but it’s not just for show: Quivira’s Biodynamically grown produce is served at farm-to-table dinners and donated to the Healdsburg Food Pantry.
4900 West Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg, 707-431-8333, quivira.com
Pot Home Delivery Sonoma County Collective: Leave it to the new, clean-cut breed of marijuana businessmen like Asa Schaeffer to come up with a slick, entrepreneurial take on medical marijuana. Schaeffer, unable to get city permission for a retail dispensary in Santa Rosa, dreamed up the idea of a home-delivery business, Sonoma County Collective, to bring high-quality buds and edibles to customers’ front doors.
If you’re wondering about quality, the Collective recently won the “Breeder’s Cup,” honoring the best new strain of marijuana, at the 2013 Emerald Cup cannabis competition in Santa Rosa. In addition to sticky strains such as Purple Kush ($280 an ounce) and Green House Girl Scout Cookies ($230 an ounce), the Collective also delivers pot brownies and caramel corn, vaporizers and Jimi Hendrix T-shirts. If only the drivers came back an hour later with pizza. New members will need to flash a driver’s license or ID and medical marijuana recommendation.
4170 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa, 707-542-7420, sonomacountycollective.com
Rural Entertainment Gravity Hill: When boredom sets in, head to Gravity Hill, a legendary twilight zone in the hills behind Sonoma State University. It’s where the laws of gravity seem to no longer apply. From Roberts Road heading east, turn right onto Lichau Road. At the top of the hill (after a sign that says, “Gracias Santiago,”), drive over a cattle guard and look down the sloping grade on the backside of the hill. The road appears to run downhill, but if you drive 15 more yards, stop and shift into neutral, the car will roll uphill toward the cattle guard you just passed. How can this be? The question has baffled late-night partying teens for decades.
Jayson Collard, with his dog, Maliki, guides hunters into land above Lake Sonoma for hunting wild pigs. (photo by John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
Place to Hunt Wild Pigs Lake Sonoma: Welcome to a different kind of bringing home the bacon: hunting pigs in the wild and lugging them out on foot or in the back of a truck. Here’s one way to rationalize it: Wild pigs are pests. They’re a destructive, invasive species that tears down fences, digs up fields and lawns, and even gobbles wine grapes. Your job as badass hunter-gatherer is to take them out and cook them up. The challenge is that many local pig-infested properties do not allow hunting and others charge ridiculous fees for very limited access.
One of the most unusual, and accessible, hunting areas is Lake Sonoma, run by the Army Corps of Engineers. The volunteer group Friends of Lake Sonoma (lakesonoma.org) offers guided bow hunts during the season (which ends March 27) on the sprawling 5,000-acre wildlife preserve. A trained hunter will provide escort and maybe a few tips, but the rest is up to you. No firearms are allowed in the preserve, so hunters must rely on arrows alone. Contact Friends of Lake Sonoma for information on fees and hunting license requirements.
But be forewarned: Wild pigs are mean and aggressive, and they will charge at you. Their teeth are sharp and their tusks can gouge like a bull’s horns. So either aim with precision, or be ready to climb a tree.
3288 Skaggs Springs Road, Geyserville, 707-431-4533, lakesonoma.org
Grange Sonoma Valley Grange: The Sonoma Valley Grange is probably the most visible grange in Sonoma County, thanks to a vibrant, roadside mural designed by its president, multimedia artist Mike Acker. Located on Sonoma Highway across from Mary’s Pizza Shack, the grange is also one of the most vital in the region, boasting a growing membership of 110, including young farmers and chefs such as John McReynolds of Stone Edge Farm. Late last year, Stone Edge owner John “Mac” McQuown donated $100,000 toward the grange’s renovation. Fundraising breakfasts are served every other month on the first Sunday (the next one is April 6). For 10 bucks, you get an espresso drink, pancakes, sausages and a slice of frittata, often made by McReynolds himself.
18627 Sonoma Highway, Boyes Hot Springs, 707-935-1322, sonomavalleygrange.com
Places to find yourself, chill out, and get your mojo working.
Pantheistic Gifts Stepping Stones Books & Gifts: A church with a gift shop? Why not? Stepping Stones Books & Gifts at Santa Rosa’s Center for Spiritual Living lets members (and the public) pay homage to a smorgasbord of spiritual icons and philosophers, from the Buddha and Kwan Yin, to Eckart Tolle and Pema Chodron, with the swipe of a credit card. A well-curated selection of jewelry, inspiration cards, books, journals, Tibetan singing bowls and music by which to chant and meditate makes it a one-stop-shop for spiritual seekers.
2075 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa, 707-527-8372, cslsr.org
Joanne Page helps paint the Santa Rosa Labyrinth, designed by Lea Goode-Harris, in the courtyard of Christ Church United Methodist, in Santa Rosa.
Labyrinth Builder Lea Goode-Harris: Your first exposure to labyrinths may have been at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, where there are several well-publicized ones. The labyrinth, a series of winding paths leading to a single center spot, is often walked for meditative purposes. Few know, however, that Santa Rosa artist Lea Goode-Harris is one of the world’s top labyrinth designers, having created more than 100 public and private pathways, including the Snoopy Labyrinth at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and two labyrinths at the Center for Spiritual Living. One of her designs, which she calls her “Santa Rosa labyrinth,” is a unique seven-circle layout with a “heart space” or quiet empty spot halfway to the center.
201 D St., Santa Rosa, 707-545-1656, srlabyrinthfoundation.com
Stacked Stones Shell Beach: Some grown-ups build cairns for the same reason kids build sandcastles: to leave a stamp on the great outdoors using materials at hand. Cairns are those little rock towers perfectly balanced like blocks. They have a spiritual component, and humans have been compelled to make them since prehistoric times, leaving them as markers, monuments, spiritual expressions or messages to fellow travelers. For cairn lovers, the north end of Shell Beach in Sonoma Coast State Park is the spot. The sheltered inlet is littered with the stones they seek, souvenirs of tectonic collisions 100 million years ago. With cairns, it’s all about the balance and the randomness of colors and shapes: sharp with smooth, dark with light, towering with tiny. Stacks that withstand the weather can be scattered in a second by a frisky dog or hiker, yet it’s that fragility that makes them all the more dear.
Highway 1, 2.5 miles south of Goat Rock, 707-875-3483, sonoma-coast-state-park.com
Owner operators DeAnna Batdorff, left, and Scott Jenkins in the Apothecary Bar in the new Dhyana Center in Sebastopol. (photo by John Burgess)
Align Your Chakras Dhyana Center: We all need a little psychic tune-up once in a while. The Dhyana Center embraces the ancient Indian healing method of Ayurveda to balance body and mind with yoga and movement classes, a soaking and steaming bathhouse, holistic body-care products, massages and an apothecary bar and lounge with herbal drinks. Sliding-scale-payment classes are offered, and massages from students are a great way to relax on a budget.
186 N. Main St., Suite 220, Sebastopol, 707-823-8818, dhyanacenter.com
Potions, Spells and Magic Lucky Mojo Curio Co.: Aspiring to join the local coven? Or maybe it’s your ex you need to hex. Whatever your magical needs, Lucky Mojo Curio Co. — an “old-timey, small-town occult shop,” according to owner Catherine Yronwode — has all the mojo you need. You’ll need a bit of good fortune just to find the place, as it’s tucked away in far-flung Forestville. The reward: an incredible hodgepodge of mysterious apothecary jars, witchy potions, fortune-telling supplies, spiritual soaps, spell candles and the occasional penis amulet.
6632 Covey Road, Forestville, 707-887-1521, luckymojo.com
If you only live once, these experiences will take your breath away
Cleo Cat of Occidental looks through the tide pools for small gem stones at Portuguese Beach. (photo by Conner Jay)
Tide Pool Bodega Bay: John Steinbeck once said, “It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again.” Maybe, but if life started in the ocean, it’s a great place to go sightseeing, and there’s no better spot than Portuguese Beach, north of Bodega Bay. It may seem obvious, but check the tide charts before you go. If you catch Portuguese Beach at low tide, or better yet at minus tide, it’s a spectacular sight to behold, teeming with sea life including starfish, sea anemones and secretive octopuses. If you really bring your “A” game to the tide pools, you’ll spot the peanut worm and its massive proboscis, and the orange sea spider, the size of a fingernail. This wide, protected beach is great for families, but always keep an eye out for sleeper waves. The warning signs do not lie.
Highway 1 north of Bodega Bay, 707-875-3483, sonoma-coast-state-park.com
Run That Reminds You It’s Good to Be Alive Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery: Shady oaks and historic grave markers line the spider web of trails through Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery. Maybe this 160-year-old home to the dearly departed is a bit macabre, but the hilly trails, moss-covered tombstones and historic family plots stretching back to the mid-1800s make for a lovely setting and a fascinating run (or walk), as well as a gentle reminder to appreciate the now.
Franklin Avenue at Monroe Street, Santa Rosa, 543-3292, bit.ly/1fP7s9R
Sonoma Winery Tour Raymond Rolander: Browse through a few photos posted by Wine Cube Tours fans and you often see this bearded guy in a newsboy cap, grinning, arm-in-arm with visitors. Scan a few more and he keeps popping up like a “Where’s Waldo?” of Wine Country.
Meet Raymond Rolander, a Sonoma County native who likes to drive wine lovers around in his own car. Picture a one-man Uber for the North Bay.
On the surface, Wine Cube Tours doesn’t look like much of a business. In an age of Pure Luxury limo buses on steroids, all Rolander has is a Nissan Cube auto that fits four cozily. But he’s got the knowledge. As a former tasting room manager with a decade of bar work under his belt, he knows where to go and what to drink.
Along the way, passengers sample olive oils and cheeses, Rolander lines up box lunches from local eateries, and his guests sniff and sip all day long without fear of ever getting behind the wheel. Rates are reasonable at $120 a person for six hours of touring.
707-894-6232, winecubetours.com
Mind-Blowing Moonrise Valley of the Moon: When the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie over the Valley of the Moon, that’s amore. It happens only when a certain alchemy of astronomical conditions comes together, creating a moonrise of imagination-stretching magnitude. Behold it and you will know why Sonoma Valley is better known as the Valley of the Moon. As Santa Rosa Junior College Planetarium director Ed Megill tells it, first you need a “supermoon,” when the full moon is closest to Earth. Add in a lower point of reference on the horizon and you have a jaw-dropping optical illusion. But when a supermoon falls at or near the time of the harvest moon, it gets even better. Near the autumnal equinox in September, the moon will be at its lowest angle on the horizon, making it appear even larger. As for the orange glow, that’s simply dust and particulates in the atmosphere refracting the light. Of the four supermoons this year, the most super will be Aug. 10, when dry summer air amps up the color. But it won’t be too shabby at the final supermoon on Sept. 9, either. You can catch this amazing moon anywhere with low hills or trees on the horizon. But over the Valley of the Moon, it will blow your mind.
Winery Vista Fort Ross Vineyard & Winery: Imagine turning inland off Highway 1 on the coast north of Jenner and climbing a ridge to find yourself above the fog, overlooking the expanse of the Pacific. Many wineries offer scenic views of vineyards, but the high-flying Fort Ross Vineyard & Winery tasting room ups the visual ante, with forests and meadows thrown in to the oceanic panorama. You’ll find the wine — exceptional estate-grown bottlings of Pinot Noir, Pinotage and Chardonnay — as affected by those cool coastal conditions as you will be once you arrive at this ridgetop perch. The tasting room is open daily.
15725 Meyers Grade Road, Jenner, 707-847-3460, fortrossvineyard.com
Top Gun Plane Rides Vintage Aircraft Co.: Remember Snoopy’s Red Baron dream sequences, where he wore goggles and a scarf as he did loop-the-loops in a World War I biplane? That could be you (sans the turret gunfire) if you go for an open-cockpit ride with Vintage Aircraft Co. Taking off from the Sonoma Valley Airport, pilots Chris Prevost and Tom Morris take daredevils sky-high in 1942 aircraft with names such a Big Red, Texan and Warhawk, for views like you’ve never seen.
In case you’re wary of being inside a 70-year-old bucket of bolts flying through the air, Vintage has maintained a perfect flying safety record during the past 30 years. Those who feel the need for speed and want to add aerobatic stunts to the mix, that’s no problem, but you’ll have to strap on a parachute. Yes, you can bring your camera, as long as it has a strap. Rates range from $175 for 20 minutes to $295 for 40 minutes. Add $50 for aerobatics.
23982 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, 707-938-2444, vintageaircraft.com
Aluxa Lalicker of Clavey Paddlesports participates in a yoga paddleboard demonstration during the annual Day on the River event at Foundry Wharf in downtown Petaluma. (photo by Ramin Rahimian)
Paddleboard Yoga SUP Odyssey: It’s not enough to just rock the downward dog in a yoga studio anymore. Or to crank up the heat and call it bikram. Now, in a mashup of miraculous invention, the time has arrived for stand-up paddleboard yoga.
It’s a sport, an excuse to wield a paddle, and a state of mind.
The fusion specialists at SUP Odyssey in Petaluma like to talk about how balancing in positions on the water “engages hundreds of proprioceptors, aka small balance muscles, aligning your spine and other major joints including hips, knees and ankles.” Then they take you out on the Russian River on a giant surfboard, tie you up like a pretzel and ask you to hold the position (and breathe deeply).
The ultimate payoff? When you lose your balance and fall into the drink. Now that’s a downward dog. Prices start at $49 a person in groups and $79 for private lessons.
707-812-6076, supodyssey.com
Off-beat culture from the far corners of the local entertainment world.
An art installation inside the men’s restroom of Oliver’s Market on Montecito Blvd. in Santa Rosa. (photo by Alvin Jornada)
Men’s-Room Art Oliver’s Market Santa Rosa: You’d think the most surprising restroom art would jump out at you in a bar or maybe a restaurant lavatory, but a grocery store? Walk into the men’s room at Oliver’s Market in east Santa Rosa and try not to get run over by the front grille of a 1969 Camaro coming out of the wall. It’s renegade cruising art, 3-D style. Many of the loyal employees at Oliver’s lead double lives as musicians, artists and filmmakers, so it’s no surprise that when Neal Barbosa isn’t busy keeping the bulk section stocked with oats, pine nuts and granola, he’s often painting live onstage while bands play music. It’s a gig that has taken him all over the world, painting with Fishbone, Les Claypool, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and more. His commode creation (the bright red Camaro coming out of the wall, barreling toward the toilet) gets him through the work day. “The bulk section is near the bathroom, so I often get to see people’s reactions as they come out,” Barbosa says. “That’s the big payoff for me.”
Oliver’s Market, 560 Montecito Center, Santa Rosa, 707-537-7123, oliversmarket.com
Place for Punk and Capoeira Arlene Francis Center: Over the last few years, Santa Rosa’s Arlene Francis Center for Spirit, Art and Politics has become an all-ages refuge for sweaty punk bands with meaty mosh pits and the occasional stage dive. One night it’s Ceremony, a super-tight punk outfit from Rohnert Park. Next it’s Los Headaches from Mexico City, and then an album-release throwdown with a local band such as The Connies. The night after the room is thrashed by three chords and a blown-out microphone, the center might host capoeira (Brazilian martial arts) classes or bring in Julia Butterfly Hill for an insightful discussion on old-growth redwoods. It’s a triumphant mashup for a place named after a popular 1950s TV talk-show host equally adept at mixing it up on the “Home” news magazine show while also appearing on “What’s My Line?” In other words, everyone is welcome.
99 Sixth St., Santa Rosa, 707-528-3009, arlenefranciscenter.org
Backstage at the Phoenix Theater. (photo by Mark Aranoff)
Backstage Graffiti Phoenix Theater: You could dig through the layers of graffiti and street art on the walls of the Phoenix Theater and carbon-date the different generations of slang that have passed through the most storied rock-’n’-roll institution in Sonoma County. “We still have musicians coming through that played here when they were youngsters 20 years ago, that are thrilled to find the band graffiti they scrawled on our backstage wall is still there,” says manager Tom Gaffey. Most of the scrawling, from the heyday of the theater in the 1980s when the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Metallica and Primus rolled through Petaluma, remains untouched on the backstage ceiling. The pièce de résistance: “Chicken Plucken, Muthafucka!” scrawled on a wall backstage. It refers to an incident in the 1990s when the singer of a band called Popsicle Love Sponge performed a lewd act with a chicken. The cops shut the show down but the Phoenix lived on, the “chicken incident” a seemingly symbolic end to an era when chicken farming was king.
201 Washington St., Petaluma, 707-762-3565, thephoenixtheater.com
Vintage Movie Palace Sebastiani Theatre: Determined that their beloved Sebastiani Theatre not suffer the indignity of being filleted into a multiplex or chichi shops, Sonomans for 25 years have rallied to keep its projector humming and the marquee lit. The theater is a spectacular piece of Italianesque, 1930s movie-fantasy architecture, designed by James Reid, whose credentials included the fabled Hotel del Coronado near San Diego. In the depths of the Depression, his orders from wine magnate Samuele Sebastiani were to spare no expense. Eighty years after the first movie premiered, moviegoers still line up along the 60-foot-long, covered colonnade to buy tickets, often from theater manager and magician “Jolly Roger” Rhoten. The quirky theater is beloved, hard seats, projector bloops and all, and the original ticket booth continues to be staffed by the tartish mannequin Trixie, in her signature cats-eye glasses.
476 First St. E., Sonoma, 707-996-2020, sebastianitheatre.com
Joe Robledo searches for several of his favorite comic series he buys each week at Outer Planes Comics. (photo by Conner Jay)
Place To Find a Superhero Outer Planes Comics & Games: If Dr. Doom is threatening to devastate your world, who are you gonna call? Whether you’re in search of Spiderman, Thor, Cyborg or Wonder Woman, the most likely place to hook up with your favorite superhero outside of Metropolis is at Outer Planes Comics & Games. It’s one of the best places in the area to buy comic books, and not just the latest from DC and Marvel, but small-press and underground comics. At Outer Planes, being a nerd is Aqua Man-cool. Dungeons and Dragons rule. Come prepared to be unplugged: Owner Dan Radovic keeps it old-school, selling no computer or video games. It’s just comic books and cards, from Magic the Gathering to Pokemon. Wednesday is Board Game Night, where you can drop by and play with actual three-dimensional people. Join a table or bring your own games. The shop periodically holds costume contests; it’s your chance to actually be a superhero.
519 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa, 707-546-2000, planes.users.sonic.net
Now that you know, don’t tell anyone about these little gems.
Roadside shrine on Highway 12 in El Verano. (photo by Kent Porter)
Roadside Altar Highway 12: When Aldolfo Hernandez first laid eyes on the Virgin Mary statue at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing some five years ago, he felt compelled to take her home. He didn’t have the right currency, so he kept on going. But he didn’t get far. Hernandez, a landscaper who emigrated from Michoacan a quarter century ago, made a U-turn and went back to fetch the statue, persuading a vendor to take U.S. dollars. Ever since, people have been drawn to the Virgin Mary’s serene presence.
From the small, open shelter Hernandez built for her in his front yard, she welcomes pilgrims to stop and light a candle or ask for an intercession. The Hernandez family lovingly tends the community altar, a brightly lit beacon of peace between Glen Ellen and Sonoma. Make a point to stop by late in the day every Dec. 12, when Hernandez invites all comers to help the family celebrate the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe with live music, pots of pozole and hot chocolate. The lights around the altar are lit 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
17123 Highway 12, Fetters Hot Springs
Remote Delectables Raymond’s Bakery: There’s little to compel anyone to drive 8 miles west of Guerneville, then north another 6 miles to the middle of nowhere. Little, except for the heavenly food at Raymond’s Bakery at Elim Grove, a bakery-lover’s dream. You might at first rub your eyes: Is that building with the blue sign and lights beckoning among the redwoods just a mirage?
The seeded sourdough, raspberry tarts, double-chocolate brownies, hand-thrown pizzas and sandwiches are very real, and earn solid five-star Yelp reviews. Everything is infused with the passion of former high-techie Mark Weiss. Come for Community Beer, Wine and Pizza nights on weekends and bed down in one of the snug cottages, if only for the ethereal experience of awakening to the aroma of fresh-baked bread.
5400 Cazadero Highway, Cazadero, 707-632-5335, raymonds-bakery.com
Blackberry Patch Joe Rodota Trail: Pick up the 8.5-mile Joe Rodota biking and walking trail that connects Santa Rosa to Sebastopol near the Prince Memorial Greenway (at West Third Street and Railroad Street in Santa Rosa). Along the way, as you get closer to Sebastopol, you can’t miss the loaded, 8- to 10-foot-high mountain of blackberry bushes, typically popping with ripe berries in late June, July and August. You can always tell those who snack as they pick, because their stained purple fingers give way to purple lips and tongue.
Kids on shoulders are an excellent way to score those hard-to-reach berries. If you left home without a bag or bucket, veer off the trail and hit the Roseland Dollar Store (777 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa) to pick up Tupperware or Ziploc bags for berry storage. parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/Get_Outdoors/Parks/Joe_Rodota_Trail.aspx
Swimming Hole Lake Ilsanjo: Remote Lake Ilsanjo in Annadel State Park isn’t easy to reach, which makes it all the more rewarding to find on a hot day. There are plenty of trails leading there (see the website for a map), but basically you’ll want to veer off the Warren Richardson Trail at the “Y” leading to the lake. Follow the trail to the end, where you’ll find a bench, a rope swing, and probably a few folks swimming and fishing.
Annadel State Park, 6201 Channel Drive, Santa Rosa, 707-539-3911, parks.ca.gov
Villa for a Would-be Wine Baron Casa Sebastiani: No invitation is needed to spend the night in the family home of one of Wine Country’s most famous clans, although it will cost you up to $1,800 a night. As far as vacation rentals go, Casa Sebastiani, with its stone face and terra cotta tiles set within a landscape of Italian cypress, stone walls and terraces, is the complete package.
It’s got historic provenance. August and Sylvia Sebastiani built the estate on a knoll above their family winery in 1947. Family photos can still be found inside. Pop open a crisp Chardonnay by the pool and take in the view of the winery and vineyards below. Cook up an Italian feast in the kitchen where Mama Sylvia stirred up her storied sauces and set out a spread on a carved stone table that seats 16. If the price seems steep, consider that it sleeps 14, big enough for a family reunion.
Beautiful Places Luxury Villa Rentals, 800-495-9961, beautiful-places.com
Longtime regular Lloyd Silacci enjoys a cup of coffee at Pete’s Henny Penny’s diner in Petaluma. Silacci come every Thursday to the diner to talk about cars, engines and the racing world with friends. (photo by Conner Jay)
Place to Chat up Farmers at Daybreak and Concertgoers After Midnight Pete’s Henny Penny: During early mornings at Pete’s Henny Penny in Petaluma, the cattle ranchers own the bar stools to the right of the door. When they’re not talking shop (weather, machinery, bovine creatures, more weather), they’re teasing the waitresses who know them all by name and nickname.
Open 24 hours a day since 1971, the Henny Penny is a truck stop with the heart of a diner. And locals are thankful it’s the polar opposite of the chain restaurant Denny’s across the street.
Owner Pete Magoulas is no longer with us (he died in 2003). But his tribute to the Chicken Little folk tale and Petaluma’s egg basket heyday lives on, even late into the night on weekends, when rowdy crowds leaving music shows at the Phoenix and Mystic theaters often take over a handful of booths at a time, occasionally diving from one booth to the other. It helps that beer is served until 2 a.m.
Chicken-fried steak is a crowd favorite, as are apple dumplings. The biscuits and gravy are comfort food to put you to bed or to kick-start the day. The servers are as sweet as the sticky syrup dispensers on the tables, even if they’re a tad wound up late at night. Maybe it’s too much coffee.
4995 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma, 707-763-0459, find them on facebook.com.
Beginner’s Surf Spot Doran Beach: Surfing the rugged, unpredictable North Coast waters can often get a little too gnarly, and not in a good way. If the potentially deadly rip currents and sleeper waves don’t get you, the choppy, meaty waves can ruin your day.
Salmon Creek is the most popular local break, but it’s often less than ideal for the average beginner just learning how to walk in a wetsuit. So short of a cruise ship’s wave pool, where does a newbie learn to paddle out and stand up on a board? When 10-foot swells roll in at Salmon Creek Beach, the much more sheltered Doran Beach can turn them into modest, well-formed 4-foot breaks, perfect for getting the hang of it. Doran is where Bob Miller, owner of Bob’s Surf Shack in Bodega Bay, often takes beginners for the first time.
201 Doran Beach Road, Bodega Bay, 707-875-3540, parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov
Place to Go After You Get Out of Jail The Wagon Wheel Saloon: Many years ago, the Wagon Wheel Saloon offered one of the best deals in town that you never wanted to accept. It was a “Get Out of Jail” coupon. If you were booked at the main Sonoma County Jail in Santa Rosa, upon your release you could walk three blocks to the Wagon Wheel and flash your papers for a free drink.
That’s what a good dive bar is for, right? These days, it’s the stuff of legend, since the new owners have stopped the practice. “Even then, we still get people coming in here every once in a while with their papers, asking for a free drink,” says bartender Mark Mandoli. “I guess the deputies still tell them this is the place to go when you get out.” Even without the free booze, it’s still the best bar to hit when you’re sprung from the joint. It helps that the Wagon Wheel is open from 10:30 a.m. to 2 a.m., and that the place has no windows. If your misery loves company, Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” is on the jukebox.
3320 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa, 707-546-1958, find them on facebook.com
Meyers Grade Road winds its way to its intersection with the Pacific Coast Highway north of Jenner. (Charlie Gesell/The Press Democrat)
Clocking the moments on our watches, knocking out a few Tweets as we ignore the scenery around us, stuffing down dinner without really enjoying a single bite … it’s no wonder we often come up blank when we try to remember a special night out.
Make the journey the destination.
Here are five restaurants where the drive is as much a part of the experience as the dining. From winding coastal roads to relaxing forays into the heart of dairy country and past world-famous vineyards, these are opportunities to relax, unplug and be part of a moment. Your inbox can wait. At least until you get home.
Frutti di mare at the Farmhouse Inn in Forestville. (Photo by Jeff Cox)
Farmhouse Inn: 7871 River Road, Forestville, 707-887-3300, farmhouseinn.com
This cozy inn run by the brother and sister team of Joe and Catherine Bartolomei is tucked among the vineyards of the Russian River Valley. The space was converted from a rundown motel into a luxurious collection of cottages, suites, spacious barn-house rooms and a Michelin-starred restaurant (the jewel of the location). Chef Steve Litke has reigned over the kitchen since before anyone can remember, creating signature dishes such as Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit (local rabbit served three ways), Dungeness crab and seared duck breast, paired with one of the best wine lists in Northern California (chosen by wine director and Master Sommelier Geoff Kruth).
The drive:The 7.5-mile drive west along River Road from Highway 101 winds past some of the most scenic vineyards in Sonoma. Watch for Martinelli Winery & Vineyards about three miles in, a pioneering family business. Farther along, you’ll pass Pinot Noir and Zinfandel producer Woodenhead Vintners. Soak up the miles of vineyards, wildlife and groves of eucalyptus and redwoods along the way.
Perched on a rocky knoll just above the Russian River estuary, this casual beach shack is an insider’s secret. Not only does the café micro-roast its own coffee (with excellent pour-overs), but also makes its own soups, breads and other baked goods using organic and non-GMO ingredients each morning. The food is ridiculously good, especially when you’re sitting outside watching paddleboarders float by.
A couple dine at the River’s End Restaurant and Inn. (photo by Charlie Gesell)
Looking for something a bit more upscale? Just up the road is River’s End Restaurant, with haute coastal dining and a seasonal Dungeness crab tasting menu. 10048 Highway 1, Jenner, 707-865-2484, ilovesunsets.com
The drive: Head north on Highway 1 from Marin for a scenic ocean drive, or along Highway 116 through Guerneville and Monte Rio, following the Russian River. The latter takes you past historic F. Korbel & Bros. winery, groves of redwoods and the tiny hamlet of Duncans Mills, where you can visit galleries, Mr. Trombly’s Teas and Sophie’s Cellars, a wine purveyor favored by some of the businessmen and celebrities who stop by during the annual Bohemian Grove gathering.
As the restaurant’s name implies, local Tomales Bay oysters are a specialty at this quaint Valley Ford spot, served on the half shell, baked with bacon and cream cheese, or with a little garlic butter. But this isn’t just an oyster shack. Owners Shona Campbell and Brandon Guenther serve up some serious grit-kicking Southern flavors, including buttermilk-fried chicken, oyster po’ boys, cheese grits and collard greens, along with plenty of seasonal specialties. There is a full bar and weekend brunch.
The drive: From Petaluma, take Bodega Avenue west to Valley Ford Road. The next 10 miles wind through the center of North Bay dairy country, with rolling hills and family-run ranches as far as the eye can see. The vineyards are fewer, and sheep, cow and chicken sightings are plentiful. Along the way to the restaurant in “downtown” Valley Ford, you’ll pass Bellwether Farms (known for its sheep’s-milk cheeses and yogurt) and Bloomfield Farms, which has you-pick produce and casual brunches in the fields during spring and summer months.
The Fremont Diner, hidden away among Sonoma’s grapevines and pastures, is the sort of place every traveler dreams of stumbling upon, but rarely ever does. Oozing “nouveau decrepitude,” a heavy dose of John Deere chic and the irresistible lure of a butter- and pork-soaked menu that would bring a tear of recognition to grandpappy’s eye, the diner is everything good about, well, roadside diners. Here, “Praise the Lard” isn’t just a quirky tagline but a mission, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
The drive: It’s a roughly 35-minute drive from Petaluma to the diner. There are faster ways to get there, but take the winding drive from Lakeville Highway to Frates Road, which ends where it hits Adobe Road. There you’ll find Green String Farm, a Biodynamic farming project that has incredible local produce year-round and a quaint market open most days. Continue southeast on Adobe Road, which becomes Stage Gulch Road. When you come to Arnold Drive (Highway 116), turn right, and then take a left on Fremont Drive (aka Highway 12/121). On the way, you’ll meander through pastures, vineyards, wetlands and some of Sonoma’s lesser-traveled back country. If you continue past the diner (corner of Fremont Drive and South Central Avenue) a few more miles, you come to Highway 29, which takes you up the Napa Valley.
Sausage flatbread at Forestville’s Backyard restaurant. (Jeff Kan Lee/ The Press Democrat)
Unlike a thousand other restaurants with twee Mason jars and artisan farminess slathered all over their menus, Forestville’s Backyard restaurant gets its dirt cred authentically. Chef-owner Daniel Kedan sources from his own backyard culinary gardens and those of his ranch and farming neighbors. The alum of Ad Hoc in Yountville has created a friendly, community-focused restaurant that relies on seasonal produce, foragers and whole-animal butchery as its foundation.
The drive: From Sebastopol, drive north on Highway 116. Before you leave town, be sure to check out The Barlow, recently converted from an old apple-processing plant to a shiny new artisan food mecca. There are distilleries, breweries, wineries, restaurants and coffee roasters, as well as a large community grocer. As you drive along the highway, you’ll see apple orchards, some of which are now being used for the region’s burgeoning cider production. Merry Edwards Winery and Paul Hobbs Winery are among the noted producers you’ll pass along the way. At the intersection of Guerneville Road and Gravenstein Highway, stop in at Mom’s Apple Pie for a flaky, fruit-packed treat or grab a quick takeout order of fried chicken at Red’s Apple Roadhouse next door. Turn onto Ross Station Road for a side trip to Iron Horse Vineyards or stop at nearby Kozlowski Farms for its great gift store featuring the family’s jams, pies and sauces.
Shopping: Great finds for the coast, garden and trail.
AT THE BEACH
The beach is a weekend retreat for many in Sonoma, and the journey through redwoods and shady eucalyptus knolls, along winding rivers and rolling coastal hills, is part of the fun. Here’s how to enhance your adventure.
Clos du Bois Cruiser
What’s better than a hot-pink bike? A hot-pink bike outfitted with a picnic basket. This limited-edition, C-Wonder beach- and city-ready cruiser is a natch for lazy-day rides. It comes with a bottle of Clos du Bois wine, shatterproof wine glasses and a corkscrew; just add local cheeses, a stick or two of salumi and start pedaling. $350, Clos du Bois Winery, 19410 Geyserville Ave., Geyserville, 707-857-3100, closdubois.com
Vintage Sari Scarf from One World Fair Trade in Healdsburg. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)
Vintage Sari Scarf
Brilliantly colored pieces of women’s saris are sewn together into a patchwork scarf that’s both soft and warm. To boot, you’re helping save the world with this fair-trade garment. $34, One World Fair Trade, 104 Matheson St., Healdsburg, 707-473-0880, oneworldfairtrade.net
Wood Slingshot
Give a little boost to skipping rocks with your handmade slingshot. Yes, it’s silly, but the suede projectile pouch, latex band and strong Y-branch are so much more satisfying than trying to actually make your own rock launcher. $27.95, Healdsburg Shed, 25 North St., Healdsburg, 707-431-7433, healdsburgshed.com
Eddyline Fathom LV Kayak with Skeg
This sleek paddler is ocean-worthy and streamlined enough to cut through the waves like butter. Hatches hold all your gear safe and dry.
$2,699, REI, 2715 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa, 707-540-9025, rei.com/stores/santa-rosa
GARDEN PARTY
Spring is in the air, even if there are a few sprinkles dampening the outdoor festivities. Get a head start on your little patch of heaven with a few of these items.
Cork Birdhouse from Urban Garden in Santa Rosa. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)
Cork Birdhouse
It’s a house party for your feathered friends with this wine-cork casa. Big enough for a small nest, it’s a Wine Country refuge your winged friends will appreciate. $50, Urban Garden, 2313 Magowan Drive, Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa, 707-543-7037, myurbangarden.com
Heirloom Seeds
Want to taste a ripe tomato, strawberry or bean like your great-grandmother remembers? Baker Creek Seed has collected thousands of heirloom, non-GMO seeds that grow into fruits and veggies that taste good, rather than just ship well. Start your own heirloom garden with the Home Gardener’s Collection. $40, Petaluma Seed Bank, 199 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma, 707-773-1336, rareseeds.com
Modern Farmer Magazine
From how to chop wood and brew compost tea to making your own natural dyes, this fresh new take on the farm life is a fascinating DIY read (whether you have a farm or not). $19.95 subscription (four issues), modernfarmer.com
The Big Paper Potter, left, and The Paper Potter from SHED in Healdsburg. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)
Paper Potter
Sure, you can use an old can, but these stylish English hardwood dowels let you fashion perfect recyclable pots for your seed starts. Simply wrap newspaper around the post, creating a small seed pot, fill with dirt and start gardening. $24.50, Healdsburg Shed, 25 North St., Healdsburg, 707-431-7433, healdsburgshed.com
Herbal Tea Garden Bonbons
Though they look good enough to eat, you may be disappointed at the dirt taste. Your garden, however, will benefit from these eight garden truffles that contain seeds, clay and compost to grow chamomile, lemon balm and anise for your teapot. $16.50, Urban Garden, 2313 Magowan Drive, Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa, 707-543-7037, myurbangarden.com
HIT THE TRAILS
Time to get those boots on the ground and a hiking pole in your hand as Sonoma’s trails warm up for the season. Here’s what to bring.
Merrell Moab Hiking Boots
A good pair of hiking boots is worth every penny when you’re scampering along wet, mossy, rocky trails. Proven winners are the Merrell Moab waterproof hikers. No breaking in required, they have anti-stink technology and great ankle support for uneven terrain. $120, Sonoma Outfitters, 145 Third St., Santa Rosa, 707-528-1920, sonomaoutfitters.com
Specialized Stumpjumper Comp HT Bike
In this mountain biking paradise, the right equipment is critical. Get on this lightweight yet sturdy, carbon-frame bike and claim the trails as your own. $2,000, NorCal Bike Sport, 425 College Ave., Santa Rosa,707-573-0112, norcalcycling.com
Not Yer Momma’s Granola
Made in Santa Rosa, this granola has the perfect ratio of oats, nuts, fruits and seeds. There’s no sugar, dairy, salt or other gunk, and flavors include cardamom apricot, blueberry ginger and apple cinnamon. $8.95 for 11 ounces, sold at local farmers markets and at notyermommas.com
Tote-Able Sonoma Beverage Bag
We’re not telling you what to put in this smart beverage bag, but it can hold more than water. Whether it’s wine, iced tea or a fruit smoothie, fill this portable, lined container with your favorite beverage and leave the glass and cans behind. $32, Oakville Grocery, 124 Matheson St., Healdsburg, 707-433-3200, oakvillegrocery.com
The painting actually started in January, as nature’s brushstrokes flickered across Sonoma’s meadows in little flurries. The first harbinger: a magenta-pink dash of shooting-star wildflowers, then a crimson swath of Indian warriors, followed by a white flash of milkmaids.
“Every year, it’s like the return of an old friend,” said Pepperwood Preserve ecologist Michelle Halbur.
As each new color in the native wildflower palette arrives, it recasts the countryside.
“One of the things I’ve learned is to expect certain splashes of color on the landscape at certain times,” said Jeanne Wirka, who has watched spring gradually blossom on the local canvas for the past 10 years, as the resident biologist at the Bouverie Preserve in Glen Ellen. “One day a field will be all grass and the next day it will be solid purple with lupine.”
Even with the record drought of 2013, by now the hills and winding trails are alive with electric-gold California poppies and vivid blue irises. The typical peak wildflower bloom of mid-March, which often coincides with the arrival of spring weather, may fluctuate by a few weeks this year, depending on the overlap of early- and late-blooming species.
Before you lace up your hiking boots and break out the field guide, here’s a stroll through the best wildflower sojourns in Sonoma:
Pepperwood Preserve
Visitors enjoy the sun at Pepperwood Preserve.
Every year, snowy milkmaids and purple hound’s-tongue are the first to light up this 3,120-acre refuge northeast of Santa Rosa.
“It’s like stumbling across your favorite treasure or a prized possession,” Halbur said.
Now, in the peak bloom of March and April, “amid the sea of grasslands there are islands of wildflowers where you find a mosaic of goldfields, creamcups, California buttercups, blue-eyed grass, popcorn flowers, bird’s eye gilia and miniature lupine,” she explained.
Also at Pepperwood, be on the lookout for the scarce Jepson’s leptosiphon, a delicate pink, star-shaped flower that grows along trails near the entrance to the preserve where the guided hikes usually start.
On April 13, the preserve hosts the Pepperwood Wildflower Festival (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) with free hikes led by local botanists and an hour-long loop of self-guided hikes and interpretative stations.
Jim Moir, volunteer docent at the Bouverie Preserve near Glen Ellen, leads hikers in small groups through the 500-acre preserve.
Bouverie Preserve
“If you know how to read the landscape, then you can start knowing what to expect,” said Bouverie biologist Wirka.
This 535-acre spread of oaks, grasslands and evergreen forests in Glen Ellen comes to life every spring with California buttercups, purplish chocolate-brown mission bells, monkey flowers and Douglas iris.
One of the treats is the endangered Sonoma sunshine wildflower, which blooms only near vernal pools.
“There’s this ‘ah-ha’ moment that people have when they realize, ‘I’ve been looking at these flowers my whole life and never really knew much about them.’ Now they’re learning so much more about their surroundings,” Wirka said.
Half-day Saturday guided hikes are offered March 1 and 15, April 12 and 26, and May 3. Wirka also teaches an in-depth wildflower class on March 29, focusing on specific flower identification in the classroom and the field.
13935 Highway 12, Glen Ellen, 415-868-9244, egret.org
Sonoma County Regional Parks
Wildflowers blossom in abundance in most of the regional parks, but veteran docent Phil Dean has come up with two very different wildflower hikes: the most strenuous (and possibly most rewarding) and the most accessible.
“If you want to work for your wildflowers, go to Hood Mountain,” he said.
The Santa Rosa site is a challenging 5.3-mile hike to the summit, and along the way you’ll see a stunning variation of fragrant fritillary, in this case an unlikely yellow subspecies that has more curled petals and is “only found in a handful of regions,” Dean said.
Once you reach the top, the reward is the Sonoma penstemon, which is only found in Sonoma County.
Dean’s pick for the most user-friendly hike is Sonoma Valley Regional Park in Glen Ellen, on a flat, paved trail and with easy handicapped access. You’ll see entire fields blanketed with California poppies, lupine, woodland star, hound’s-tongue, periwinkle and Douglas iris.
Starting around mid-March, weather permitting, many Sonoma County Regional Parks will offer Saturday morning guided wildflower tours. Also check out Dean’s local wildflower blog at sonomawild.us.
Hood Mountain Regional Park, 1450 Pythian Road, Santa Rosa; Sonoma Valley Regional Park, 13630 Highway 12, Glen Ellen. 707-539-8092, parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov
Reny Parker’s Sonoma Highlights
“Every spring we know where to look for certain flowers and they never disappoint us,” said local wildflower photographer Reny Parker. “Maybe they’ll be a day early or a day late, but they’re always there.”
The trailblazing author of “Wildflowers of Northern California’s Wine Country & North Coast Ranges,” a guide that’s intuitively organized by color instead of family, likes to share snapshots taken at her favorite wildflower spots. One of her go-to hikes is in Annadel State Park on the eastern edge of Santa Rosa, where she’s returned many times to see the rare and threatened fritillary, along with the wavyleaf soap plant (which flowers only briefly, usually at night), butter-and-eggs and sun cups.
At Fort Ross, she often finds white variations of baby blue eyes, woodland stars, canon delphiniums and Hooker’s fairy bells.
And if “you’d rather drive and not get out of your car,” she recommends Cavedale Road, off Highway 12, up in the hills between Sonoma and Napa, where she often sees blue dicks, buttercups, wild heliotropes, Sonoma sage and Indian paintbrush.
“I’m hoping that in all the work I do, I’m helping people open their eyes to the beauty that’s all around them,” Parker said.
The Seghesios simply wanted to preserve family traditions, offering VIP visitors to their Healdsburg winery tastes of a cured salami they produced from recipes brought from the old country when the family emigrated from Italy in 1886.
Then in the summer of 2011, Seghesio Family Vineyards ran into modern health regulations.
It turns out that the state requires a mind-bogglingly detailed plan for producing meat, spelling out exactly where and how every scrap will be handled. It’s either that or find a U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved facility to do it for you, and there isn’t one of those anywhere near the winery.
So former CEO Pete Seghesio, the third generation of the family in Sonoma, decided to shift his focus from grapes to building a state-of-the-art facility to produce the family recipes and help other artisan meat producers make their products without running afoul of health inspectors.
“It’s really about trying to preserve family traditions but make (them) marketable and saleable in a modern marketplace, and to do that, you’ve got to be USDA-certified; you’ve got to be willing to invest to be able to do it,” said Seghesio as he stood on the unfinished second floor of the building in Healdsburg that he hopes to open later this year.
The family sold the winery in 2011, and Seghesio decided to invest a considerable sum (he declined to say how much) to build a gleaming new facility to be called the Healdsburg Meat Co. The building is located north of Healdsburg’s plaza, at the site of the post office that burned down in 2010. The investment will allow him to produce and sell to the public cured meats, a process that by law must be done under the watchful and pervasive eye of USDA inspectors.
His story isn’t unusual. Artisan food and beverage producers often run up against regulations that are out of date or designed for huge industrial operations rather than cottage industries. From meat producers to salsa makers, from small farmers to makers of spirits and ciders, the details of local, state and federal regulations can shape the way they do business, or put an end to it entirely.
Evan Wiig, founder of agriculture networking site The Farmers Guild, learned this a year ago when he and some business partners tried to produce hams in the style of prosciutto, speck and Iberico, from livestock raised on their small farm near Valley Ford. After a few delicious experiments shared with friends and family, they began to look into the regulations for selling their products to the public.
That stopped the project cold. Before Wiig and his partners even broke ground, the costs of making their own cured ham at the farm near the Sonoma-Marin county line began to spiral insanely out of control.
“Frankly, we stopped counting at $150,000,” Wiig said. “It would have kept going up from there. How high, I don’t know.”
Seghesio’s planned business will feature a café and butcher counter that sells locally sourced meat products. But the heart of the operation will be completely outside public view: the tightly regulated workshop where carcasses will be broken down and processed into chops, sausages and salumi. Temperature will be precisely controlled, access sharply limited, sanitation rigorously enforced. A regional USDA inspector will have full access to the facility during operating hours, and the business must maintain an office onsite for the inspector’s exclusive use.
“It costs a lot, it’s a lot; the USDA portion, it’s pretty prohibitive,” Seghesio said. “That’s why you see all the USDA facilities are large, large, large facilities.”
Meat isn’t the only artisan product that runs into regulatory obstacles.
Sonoma County cider makers Ellen Cavalli and Scott Heath ran into roadblocks with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), a division of the Treasury Department.
They want to reintroduce Americans to apple-based cider, once a common drink in Colonial homes, but since Prohibition a nearly extinct art form. Their Tilted Shed Ciderworks near Forestville is part of a small but rapidly expanding renaissance in the artisan cider world.
Heath wants to explore a small specialty form of cider known as New England style. Colonial cider makers in the icy Northeastern states would try to preserve barrels of fall cider through the long winter by adding molasses to boost the alcohol level and sprinkling in raisins to promote a slow, steady fermentation that covers the surface cider in a protective blanket of carbon dioxide.
“There are New England ciders that are really beautiful, these little touches of molasses, vanilla things, other flavor profiles that come out with it that are really special,” Cavalli explained. Yet the TTB, which is primarily responsible for collecting taxes on alcoholic beverages, also exerts tight control over the naming and labeling of wine, beer, cider and spirits. As far as the feds are concerned, what Tilted Shed wants to produce and sell isn’t cider at all. By adding raisins, Cavalli said, the beverage would have to be called something like “apple wine with spices and other natural flavoring.”
“That just sounds like you’re making crap,” she said. “There’s no credibility to that kind of thing, so we’re not going to do it.”
For small-batch liquor distilleries, meanwhile, the problem isn’t tax officials, but rather state laws that block their ability to get their products to the consumer. California distillers do not have the right to sell their goods directly to consumers, as breweries, wineries and cideries do. That means they have to rely exclusively on the wholesaler middlemen to get their spirits into stores, bars and restaurants.
Ashby and Timo Marshall, founders of Spirit Works Distillery, inside their newly built facility in Sebastopol on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat)
A wholesaler is under no obligation to carry small-batch products, so distillers can’t afford to take the risk of producing something odd or innovative, for fear they would be stuck with hundreds of gallons of liquor they can’t sell, according to Timo Marshall, co-founder of artisan distillery Spirit Works in Sebastopol.
“Say we wanted to do one barrel in a very particular way,” he explained. “We may finish it in a different cask or in a particular way; we may blend two of our whiskies together to get a particular flavor. That’s the kind of thing that happens all the time in the wine and beer world, where producers can test the market by selling experiments and mistakes directly to the public.”
Distillers, however, “literally cannot sell that product, because they can’t find a distributor willing to take on that product,” he said.
Spirits producers won a small victory in the California legislature in 2013, gaining the right to offer tastings at their facilities, but their campaign to allow direct sales to the public died when it ran into stiff resistance from distributors.
Other artisan industries have been more successful. The Bale Grist Mill in Napa Valley, for example, is likely to be partially exempted from state and local health regulations by the state Legislature this year, freeing it to sell its flour and corn products ground on the huge grindstones powered by a towering waterwheel.
The mill ran afoul of local health regulations in 2008 when inspectors found that the newly restored mill did not meet modern health codes for factories producing flour and similar products. The mill, built in 1846, could not be completely sealed against wildlife such as bats and mice, and the wooden structure would have to be modified with floors, counters and other surfaces that are deemed impervious and washable.
Since then, the mill has operated under an awkward compromise in which it gives its flours away in 1-pound bags, with a $5 donation requested. Bags must be stamped, “not for human consumption,” although humans do consume the products with no reported illnesses or injuries, according to the Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District, which operates the mill.
State Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, is pushing a bill that would create an exemption for such historic mills (the Bale Grist Mill is the only one in the state, as it turns out). Her bill had been headed for easy passage in the 2013 session, but was stalled at the last minute when the state Department of Health asked for some changes. Wolk said she does not anticipate any difficulty reviving the bill and allowing the mill to sell its ground grains legally.
Home cooks scored a partial victory in 2012 when the legislature passed the California Homemade Food Act, permitting home producers to sell a wide variety of products directly to the public without having to rent space in a commercial kitchen, an expensive proposition. That opened up farmers markets and other venues to sell home-baked breads and tortillas, candies, jams and jellies, pasta and home-roasted coffee. But the act left untouched the ban on items considered hazardous if mishandled in production, including cured meat, cheese, pies or pastries that require refrigeration, pickles and anything based on tomatoes. The tomato ban alone cut out the potentially large market for homemade pasta sauces and salsas.
“It’s still pretty narrow,” said Christina Oatfield, policy director of the Oakland-based Sustainable Economies Law Center, which tries to help small producers deal with regulatory hurdles.
In some cases, regulation seems to be getting more stringent. Small farmers nationwide are nervously eyeing a new set of regulations proposed by the federal government after a 2006 E. coli outbreak in bagged spinach, and set to go into effect in 2015. Those rules dramatically tighten limits on the use of manure and compost, compel stricter water treatment for irrigation and washing, and require farmers to block wildlife of several kinds from the fields.
In a recent round of comments on the proposal, small and organic farmers warned that the regulations would be prohibitively expensive and undermine organic and eco-friendly traditional practices. They hope the Food and Drug Administration will relax the rules or carve out exemptions for very small growers.
Modern regulations tend to be tailored for large-scale production facilities, which have deeper pockets and can offset extra cost with greater efficiency. That leaves the little guys struggling to find a way to live with rules drafted without them in mind.
“We have a very good food safety system in this county, but it is large and industrial, and the cost to play in that game, it forces people to be very large,” Seghesio said. “And when you’re very large, you lose your creativity.”
