Chef David Bush, who propelled St. Francis Winery to be named “Best Restaurant in America” has left to open his own restaurant, Oso, on the Sonoma Square.
Bush says the restaurant will have two parts: The front lounge with small plates (around $6-$18) and wine by the glass–a casual drop-in spot that feels like an extension of the plaza. The rear part of the restaurant will be reserved for a prix fixe five-course tasting menu (around $65 per person) with a $35 wine pairing addition.
“The goal is to execute a tasting menu in the main dining room with a strong emphasis on pairing my food with local wines,” Bush said, making the fit a natural for the winery chef. With local sommelier Brian Kulich on board, the list is certain to have some stellar off-the-radar boutique gems on the list. The menu is still in development, but Bush calls it “New California: local, seasonal and eclectic, but not esoteric.” Because really, who needs esoteric on their plate?
“Opening a restaurant has been my goal since I started cooking at age fourteen,” said Bush. “Stuffy doesn’t work in Sonoma, (but) what does is excellent food and hospitality. We want to…give people an experience that has been absent for too long on Sonoma’s Plaza.”
Opening is slated for late May at 9 East Napa St.on the Sonoma Plaza. Oso will begin with dinner service, with lunch and brunch down the line.
Work has started on the new Chalkboard patio at the Les Mars Hotel.
The wildly popular Chalkboard, which took over the Cyrus space at the Les Mars Hotel last year, is upping its game.
Starting in late April 2014, they’ll be offering an 8-plus course prix fixe tasting menu in the hotel’s revamped “library room” on Friday and Saturday night. The intimate space seats just 16, and according to Chef Shane McAnelly, and is “the next step up” for the Bill Foley-owned restaurant.
It’s hard not to start making comparisons to Cyrus, with its haute tasting menus and Michelin-star status, but McAnelly says the vibe will be all Chalkboard. “For us its just a chance to have some fun. I am really excited and passionate about this next evolution of our restaurant,” he said.
The menu is still in development, but an exclusive sneak preview includes dishes like kampachi crude, bacon consommé with pork belly and 63-degree quail egg, pancetta wrapped duck breast with duck liver mousse, grilled ribeye steak with bone marrow, and a dessert called the “Drunk Elvis” with banana, peanut butter, rum, bacon and chocolate ganache. The prix fixe dinner will run about $100 per person, and additional wine pairings will be offered.
But wait, there’s more. The hotel’s pool has been filled in (who even knew there was a pool?) to make way for an expanded patio area, expected to open later this spring.
Chalkboard, 29 North St., Healdsburg, 707-473-8030.
Dishes from Aventine Hollywood. The restaurant will soon open an outpost in Glen Ellen.
Chef Adolfo Veronese of Aventine, which will open in Glen Ellen later this spring.
The funky Jack London Village in Glen Ellen has long been rife with dining possibilities, if not always success stories. Although the charming Olive and Vine and Himalayan eatery, Yeti, are flourishing in the village, the large Grist Mill building has seen restaurant after restaurant struggle and fail, despite its spectacular outdoor seating and quiet location.
That may soon change with the arrival of Aventine. The sceney bar and restaurant concept headed up by Alioto kin Adolfo and Gian-Paolo Veronese has locations in San Francisco and Hollywood, with a third slated to open in late spring in Glen Ellen.
Chef Adolfo (Wolfgang Puck, Drago, Evvia) plans an Italian osteria menu with arancini, Sicilian lemon marinated octopus, burrata, wood-fired pizzas (we’re especially excited about the Tartufo with black truffle honey, bechamel and arugula), roasted red beet pasta with short rib ragu (gluten free pizza and pastas are available), branzino, grilled lamb chops and desserts like coffee panna cotta,fried dough with Nutella and jam and caramel budino.
Full bar (one of only three in Glen Ellen), inside and outside dining and (hopefully) some staying power. With the several restaurants already under their belt–and in the family–chances are good.
The soaring price of Mexican limes is sour news for restaurateurs as prices for the citrus have doubled, tripled or event more in recent weeks. And that’s not good news for your margarita.
“At $110 a case, it’s more expensive that a barrel of oil and is almost 5 times the average price we normally pay,” said Darren Chapple of Santa Rosa’s La Rosa Tequileria, whose restaurant uses several cases of limes each week. By comparison: In spring 2013 the average price for a single lime was 21 cents. Now, that same fruit will cost you a whopping now 53 cents, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Why the price hike? A plague of unfortunate events have hit the lime-growing regions of Mexico–the main exporter of limes to the U.S.–including bad weather that caused many trees to lose blooms and rot; a citrus disease wiping out entire orchards; and political unrest that has affected many lime-growing regions. Suffice to say drug cartels and thieves don’t make for great agricultural allies.
With lime-rimmed holidays like Cinco de Mayo on the horizon, restaurateurs are worried.
“Unfortunately we can’t (and won’t ever), stop using them to make our margaritas but we’ve stopped presenting them on most drinks and seafood dishes to save as much as possible, but we’re still going through an awful lot, as always,” said Chapple.
The good news: Prices are expected to go down in May, with the next harvest. In the meantime, don’t expect to see lime wedges adorning we’re desperately hoping it ends much sooner and definitely before the madness of Cinco de Mayo.”
This ain’t no pansy cook-off. The third annual ‘Wich Hunt at Battle of the Brewsis an iron-fisted sandwich brawl in which local chefs compete to construct the ultimate carbohydrate-protein-carbohydrate creation.
From Dagwoods to sliders, artisan BLT’s, heroes, hoagies, banh mi, and beyond, the only constraint is being able to fit into the eager maws of our judges and fans. Oh, and taste incredible, because there will be no awards just for showing up. We’re looking for off-the-charts, taste-bud exploding, meat-tastic (or alternative proteins), brain-bending creations that really showcase local talent.
Tickets to the ‘Wich Hunt event are included in the Craft Cup tasting, and guests will be able to meet the competing chefs and taste their creations for them selves.
The oft-changing SOFA coffee-shop/cafe space at 435 Santa Rosa Ave. (at the former Greyhound station) will soon become Naked Pig Farm to Table Food.
Owners Dalia Martinez and Jason Sokach of Guerrilla Foods at the Wells Fargo Farm Market are just a few weeks away from opening a breakfast and lunch cafe featuring scratch-made Belgian waffles with toppings like whisky caramel, chocolate ganache and seasonal fruit compotes, along with “odes to the pig”–porchetta sandwiches, pulled pork and chicharrones.
“We’re overachievers,” said Martinez of the tooth-achingly adorable space BiteClub’s eager to spend a sunny morning in. “We started transforming the space the day we got the keys,” said Martinez of the reclaimed wood tables and waffle-illustrated chalkboard.
The couple plan light dinner service in the future. “This area just comes alive at night with families,” Martinez said.
One word: Meshugah Fries. Okay that’s two. But when a potato is cooked in schmaltz, fried, covered in Russian dressing, sauerkraut, cheese curds and bits of pastrami, BiteClub tends to get a little, well, mashugana (meaning crazy in Yiddish).
We mentioned a couple weeks ago that local chefs Les and Tara Goodman of Adafina Culinary were planning an authentic Jewish deli at the West End Farm Market (Sundays from 10a.m. to 2p.m. at 817 Donahue, Santa Rosa), but that’s not the half of it.
Goodman’s Jewish Deli is a little bit of NYC in Wine Country with chocolate egg creams, celery soda (a new one for me, but interesting), homemade pastrami, chocolate babka, matzoh ball soup and the aforementioned Meshugah fries. The menu will change up weekly, so go with the flow. But we hear there might be some Sephardic hash and salmon schmear. And (sigh) Montreal-style bagels in the future!
Shelves of vegetable seeds at the West County Community Seed Exchange seed library in Sebastopol. (photos by Christopher Chung)
“Seeds are about abundance,” says Sara McCamant, co-founder of the Sebastopol Seed Library, “and abundance leads to sharing.”
That’s just what the seed library does, sharing seeds that are donated by local gardeners and those that are grown at the library’s quarter-acre seed garden. The library is open to all, seeds are free, and seed donations are welcome and encouraged, yet not required. There are no late fees.
A seed library is not a seed bank, which preserves seed in a controlled environment so that it remains viable indefinitely, thus ensuring the survival of its genetic heritage. A library makes seeds available to individuals in order to encourage small-scale gardening and farming. This seed must be used and replenished for a seed library to thrive.
Sara McCamant, co-founder of the West County Community Seed Exchange, at the seed garden in Sebastopol.
Operated under the umbrella of the West County Community Seed Exchange, the Sebastopol Seed Library and its garden are located at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, not far from downtown. Bookshelves in a meeting room hold more than 140 varieties of seeds, some in glass jars, others in envelopes.
On the last Saturday of each month from January through October, the library is open to the public. In November and December, volunteers conduct a major inventory, not just cataloging what the library contains, but also confirming that all seed is viable. A group of 10 core volunteers maintain the collection, oversee the garden and teach classes in seed saving.
The seed library was started six years ago by McCamant and other members of Transition Sebastopol, which is part of the international Transition Towns movement. Simply put, the movement seeks, at a local level, to establish long-term community resilience in anticipation of what is believed to be a future of fewer resources.
When members of the Sebastopol group asked themselves what it takes to build a strong, enduring local food system, seeds quickly emerged as the answer. Today, most commercial seed is controlled by international corporations; such seed comes from around the world and is not necessarily viable here. More importantly, seed from these sources puts corporations in control of local farming in a fundamental way.
“Why don’t we build a local seed source?” Transition Towns folk said to each other, and the idea of a library of seeds soon blossomed, as it has all over the United States and beyond. When the Sebastopol Seed Library was launched in 2008, there were fewer than 10 similar libraries in the country. Today there are more than 150, with new ones in the works, including locally.
Sometime this year, a new seed library will open at the Healdsburg Regional Library, with seeds stored in a vintage card catalog that library director Bo Simons found. The project was spearheaded by Carolyn Harrison of Sonoma Antique Apple Nursery fame and members of Transition Healdsburg, which Harrison helped form.
In November 2013, Transition Healdsburg hosted a community seed swap at Healdsburg Shed; seeds that remained after the exchange formed the beginning of the new collection, which will be accessible to the public whenever the public library itself is open.
A variety of beans, corn and seeds stored at the West County Community Seed Exchange seed library in Sebastopol.
Growing for seed is not simply gardening. There is a learning curve: All seeds need careful handling, and some plants require special techniques if they are to produce viable seed.
To help guarantee a continuing source of new seeds, seed libraries distribute detailed instructions and sometimes offer classes, some that focus on the basics of saving seed and others that drill down to specific varieties of plants, especially those that require special skills.
Experts recommend beginning seed-savers start with self-pollinating varieties such as lettuces, tomatoes and other nightshades, peas and beans. Before moving on to broccoli, kale, cabbage and other brassicas and squashes (both summer and winter), it is necessary to learn hand-pollination so that you get true seed, not seed that has pollinated with unwanted varieties. Corn is particularly problematic, because it can easily cross with varieties that are as far as a mile away.
Classes at the West County Community Seed Exchange cover a single variety, such as heirloom beans, or a specific process, such as saving wet seeds (the method used with tomatoes). These classes typically are held when the seed library is open and include tastings and an opportunity to exchange seeds.
The Healdsburg Regional Library works with Master Gardeners, a program of the University of California Cooperative Extension, to offer a range of classes on certain Saturdays. Consult the library’s schedule for classes on saving seed.
Just north of Railroad Square in Santa Rosa, at Eighth and Davis streets, there’s an elementary school on one corner and a chiropractor’s office on another. Across the street, adjacent to the humming freeway, is a nondescript sand-colored building, a converted warehouse whose outer appearance offers no hint of what’s hidden inside.
Jack Leissring, 78, an artist and a former owner of the McDonald Mansion in Santa Rosa, has converted the warehouse into a luminous gallery for his wide-ranging, museum-quality art collection. It’s a high-ceilinged, two-story space with a startling variety of paintings, drawings and photographs covering every wall. Yet somehow it doesn’t feel cluttered.
Jack Leissring
“Almost every extra penny I have I spend on art; the other pennies I spent on women,” Leissring said, then paused and added, “I still have the art.”
Throughout the space are tables with sculptures and busts, many made by artists who have become his friends. Most pieces are by artists who work under the radar, not those celebrated by museums and top galleries.
“Every piece I’ve ever purchased is because of an emotional response,” Leissring explained, tapping a fist to his heart. “There’s a lot of love here; I’m emotionally involved with probably every piece.
“I have some big names, but that’s immaterial to me. This tendency we have to adulate some and ignore others is a tragic flaw.”
Leissring calls the warehouse the “emergency landing field” for his art, “in case I lose my house.” He lives next door to the grand mansion on McDonald Avenue, in its former carriage house, surrounded by his own sculptures and other artwork he’s created.
He purchased the McDonald Mansion in the mid-1970s and sold it in 2005, which he said was a relief. “It was too expensive: I was doing it for the city,” he said. The 19th-century home burned in the late 1970s. Leissring, who’s also a designer, restored it, saying it was “the best toy a boy could ever have.”
As a 12-year-old living in Milwaukee, Leissring acquired his first painting, in 1947, when the only collections his peers were interested in were baseball cards. A year later he commissioned a painting for the first time.
Leissring’s fascination with art deepened when he began to study the works of Michael Ayrton, a 20th-century English sculptor, painter and author. Leissring calls Ayrton “the most intelligent, loquacious, talented polymath I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve been drawn along a pathway largely due to his influence.”
Winding through the warehouse are rows and rows of shelves containing thousands of art books. They’re organized alphabetically by subject; a random glance takes in large-format tomes about artists including Frida Kahlo, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, René Magritte and Joan Miró.
Walking through the building, which Leissring completely remodeled about eight years ago, is like traversing a maze. The room dividers and shelves are made of bamboo flooring slats; square skylights large and small evoke a painting by Piet Mondrian.
Etchings are displayed so they can be seen up close. But Leissring says only 2 to 3 percent of the 6,000 to 7,000 items in his collection is visible. Thousands of drawings are housed in wide drawers in the warehouse.
Though his art is lovingly displayed, Leissring’s warehouse is not a museum (it’s not open to the public) and it’s not a gallery. But every few months he welcomes visitors for an afternoon viewing because, he said, “Eyes need to see this stuff.”
Some visitors ask him to put up written descriptions next to the artworks, “but I say no,” Leissring said. “That would miss the point of it; either you’re moved by the image or you aren’t.”
Among his most treasured works are paintings and etchings by French cubist Jacques Villon, but Leissring is considering selling his entire collection of Villon’s work, 358 pieces, to help pay the bills. “I’d love to sell it all because I think it belongs together,” he said, adding that the Villon collection is likely worth $1.2 million.
The retired physician, who worked for three decades at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital as laboratory director, reiterated that he doesn’t buy art to deal it.
“I’ve never bought anything for resale. … It puts art in the position of being commoditized. But I have two pieces of real estate, both with mortgages,” he said, which can’t be covered by his Social Security benefits.
As the impromptu warehouse tour continued and midcentury jazz poured through small speakers in every room, Leissring described a table of heads by the sculptor Jerrold Ballaine. His second-floor desk overlooks his collection like the captain’s wheelhouse on a ship.
A mezzotint engraving by Leissring’s grandfather, John Cother Webb, is so precise and realistic that its quality is almost photographic. Near that classic work is a more modern piece, a luridly colored painting called “Wild Dog,” by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo.
“They don’t have to be of a type to hang together,” Leissring said. “They just have to be good.”
Today, Leissring spends most of his days ensconced in his collection. A true Renaissance man, he arrives at the warehouse early in the morning, draws for an hour or more, then plays piano.
He has published dozens of books about artists he admires through his J.C. Leissring Fine Arts Press. When asked where the books are sold, Leissring exclaimed: “Nobody buys them!” and then conceded some can be purchased online as print-on-demand books.
The warehouse is equipped with a kitchen, washer and dryer, making it move-in ready if Leissring needs to — or chooses to — give up the McDonald carriage house.
Asked if he’s been approached by museums or galleries about his collection, Leissring laughed. “Nobody knows about me. I’m not waving my flag. This is just something I had to do, and I did it.”
Learn more about the Jack Leissring Fine Arts Collection by visiting jclfa.com or jclfineart.com.
