Congrats to Wine Country’s Good Food Award Winners. During last night’s award ceremony in San Francisco more than 130 of the country’s best food and drink producers were recognized for their artisan products — from beer and coffee to chocolate, jams and cheese.
It’s a huge honor in the food world, and this year’s winners were selected from 1,450 entries from all 50 states in a Blind Tasting held in September. The 225 judges, experts in their various industries, flew to San Francisco for a full day of blind tasting. Those that rose to the top were subject to a rigorous vetting process to verify they met the sustainability and social responsibility criteria to win a Good Food Award.
Rockstar barman Daniel “Cappy” Sorentino has left Healdsburg’s Spoonbar for LA. The popular mixmaster followed in the footsteps of the groundbreaking Cyrus mixologist, Scott Beattie, serving up hand-crafted cocktails with a true artisan flair. Replacing Cappy is Tara Heffernon, who’s been part of the Spoonbar cocktail program since the start. She plans to continue the farm-to-bar concept using an assortment of herbs, fruits, vegetables and flowers from her home garden. Good news. 219 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg.
On my recent hiking trip to Sedona, Arizona, I found a novel new protein bar featuring grassfed bison, bacon and cranberry. The Epic Baris a modern take on the native American pemmican, a mix of meat protein (usually bison, but also moose, elk or deer) and fruit.
One bar packs in 12grams of fat and 11 grams of protein, so this ain’t for an afternoon snack. Instead, they’re mean for athletes and hikers needing a healthy energy boost.
Other flavors include beef-habanero-cherry and turkey-almond-cranberry. Look for lamb, currant and mint in the spring. Want to get your hands on some? They’re available at Oliver’s Markets beginning this week.
Catering company owner Jeff Tyler (Hot Dogs from Chicago, Bunslinger, Palooza Catering) has taken over the former Doce Lunas restaurant in Kenwood.
In the works is a gastropub with Chef Chris Hanson (a freelance chef who’s popped up at a number of local events and alum of the Santa Rosa Golf & Country Club) heading the kitchen.
BiteClub’s seen the preliminary menu, and it’s both approachable and nervy, with some of Hanson’s signature carnivorous creations: Savory cannoli , lemon pepper calamari, a beef marrow app, monkfish fish and chips and an ice cream sandwich with both hops and beer in the mix. Opening is slated for spring, but we’ll keep watch for the final date.
If you’re wondering about all the recent closures, its definitely the season for restaurants going dark. After Wine Country’s busy fall and holiday rush, restaurants that have been struggling tend to throw in the towel in the deadly-quiet months of January and February, unable to hold out for busier spring and summer.
BiteClub has gotten word that other recent casualties have included Claudio’s in Sebastopol, Locals in Larkfield and Nonni’s in Santa Rosa.
On most days, landscape painter Wade Hoefer, 65, retreats with his Bernese mountain dog, Pluto, to a restored 1880 studio behind Soda Rock Winery in the Alexander Valley. Widely collected, his work has been shown in galleries around the world. Lately, he’s been working on incorporating spices such as turmeric, curry and cayenne into his work.
THEN: Born on a naval base in Long Beach
NOW: Lives in Calistoga with his partner, Henriette Steinrueck, who is the tasting room manager at Castello di Amorosa winery.
WHEN VISITORS HAPPEN ON HIS STUDIO: “That kind of comes with the territory, even if sometimes it’s a minor annoyance. Some people come over and they’ve had too much to drink and they’re frolicking around and I’m trying to get work done.”
PAST LIFE: Vineyard manager and landscape architect at Clos du Bois winery in Geyserville (1981-1991).
WHEN HE’S NOT PAINTING: Likely found in his Calistoga garden, which he describes as “green, gray and white” with olives, privet hedges, star jasmine and potato vines.
INSPIRATION TO PAINT WITH SPICES: In 2010, “in the village in Spain where I was working, every Monday morning they had a market and this Moroccan guy would set up a big table of spices in perfect pyramids. And every day I would go by and say, ‘What can I do with these spices?’ They’re very textural, very physical. They look like slabs or objects. … they really hark back to the earth.”
THE LIGHT IN SONOMA COUNTY: “I like it when it’s transitional, when you don’t know if it’s coming up or going down. It’s timeless.”
A variety of sheep at Pozzi Ranch located on the hills overlooking the town of Bodega. (Erik Castro / For The Press Democrat)
As spring approaches, the rolling green hills of Sonoma County are alive with sheep grazing on early grasses. They wear their lush winter coats, thick pelts of beautiful warm wool that have protected them from the season’s chill.
Soon they will be shorn, just as sheep have been for countless North Bay springs. For decades, the wool didn’t see much of a life after it left the sheep. Most of it ended up in landfill, at a cost to the rancher, or back on the ranch, to be used as mulch and for erosion control. A bit was sold on the open wool market, but fetched such paltry sums that it was barely worth the effort it took to sell it.
That began to change in 1993, when Joe Pozzi of Pozzi Ranch in Bodega founded PureGrow Wool.
“When a friend asked what I did with my wool,” Pozzi recalled, “I was taken by surprise. My sheep are raised for meat and their wool has medium-length fibers, which are not used for clothing.”
Dryer balls and a dish drying mat by Sonoma Wool Company at Pozzi Ranch located on the hills overlooking the town of Bodega. (Erik Castro / For The Press Democrat)
But the inquiring friend was interested in making bedding, pillows, comforters and mattresses. Pozzi’s wool was ideal and PureGrow Wool, based on the same humane, environmentally thoughtful practices that guide Pozzi’s ranching, was born. Today Pozzi produces about 84,000 pounds of PureGrow Wool a year from about 14,000 sheep, both his own flock and from local ranches and those throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Pozzi sends the wool to Texas for processing, first to a scouring mill where it is washed, and then to a carding mill, where it is combed, straightened and rolled into what are called bats: freshly cleaned sheaves of wool ready to be used. The process is simple and mechanical; it uses none of the chemicals of industrial processing that strips natural lanolin from the wool and accounts for its reputation as being itchy.
Some of the wool returns home to Sonoma Wool Company in Valley Ford, where it is used in a line of products that include dog toys, dish-drying mats and dryer balls (balls of wool that fluff your clothes and reduce drying time).
Pozzi uses a Texas facility because cleaning wool takes a lot of water, too scarce a commodity in California for large-scale wool processing. Yet there is a renaissance of small-scale wool processing in the Golden State and its heart, its nexus, resides in the hamlet of Valley Ford, where the Valley Ford Mercantile & Wool Mill opened last August to instant success.
“We barely had time to get our feet wet,” said Casey Mazzucchi, who grew up on a nearby sheep ranch and founded the mill with his business partner, Ariana Strozzi. Within weeks, the mill was filled with wool from two dozen clients.
Interest in local wool rose as the sheep’s-milk cheese industry here found a lucrative niche and the diversity of sheep breeds broadened. Also, as the mantra of sustainable farming has deepened, farmers have sought ways to make use of and benefit from their wool.
Casey Mazzucchi at his Valley Ford Mercantile and Wool Mill in Valley Ford, California with Rose, his 3-month-old pet Horned Dorset sheep. (Erik Castro / For The Press Democrat)
Mazzucchi oversees the processing, from the moment the wool comes in the door until it is ready to be transformed into goods. Strozzi develops products from wool from their flock of sheep, making mattress pads, comforters, pillows and mattresses, with more items soon to come.
Deborah Walton of Canvas Ranch in Two Rock, west of Petaluma, was the mill’s first customer. After establishing her ranch in 2001 and at first using wool from her Olde English Babydoll Southdown sheep as mulch, Walton slowly entered the wool business, initially making pillows and small comforters.
At first she sent her wool to the Yolo Wool Mill in Woodland, one of the few in California, but eventually switched to a mill in Michigan that offered a better price, even with shipping costs factored in. Now that there is a local option, Walton is expanding her products, with beautiful table runners, full-size comforters, vests, felted items and more.
Mimi Luebbermann of Windrush Farm in southern Petaluma has produced wool from her animals since 1995. Currently, she has Corriedale cross and Shetland sheep and alpacas. Luebbermann still uses the Yolo mill, as it produces roving, the long, narrow bundles of fiber preferred by spinners (Luebbermann’s primary customers). Her animals produce wool that ranges from white, gray and light brown to chocolate and true black, from the Shetlands. She also uses natural materials to dye her wool, which she sells at the Marin County Farmers Market in San Rafael on Sundays. She’s waiting, she said, to see if the new mill will produce roving.
If the Valley Ford mill’s first season is any indication, demand will continue to grow as more sheep ranchers take advantage of having a mill close to home, and with customers eager for another local product. Looking at the enormous barn, where wool covers nearly every surface and bags of it are stacked almost to the ceiling, it is easy to imagine that the need for more space will come sooner rather than later.
Rumors swirled Tuesday night after word that Chef Douglas Keane’s DK Wings eatery in the Graton Resort and Casino had been boarded up.
Keane has confirmed the closure, and the restaurant’s logo on the casino’s website has been removed from the Marketplace page.
The fried chicken wing and pickle bar was a creative concept from the former Cyrus chef, opening in early November. Early reviews from Keane fans were positive, but Yelpers didn’t seem quite as enthusiastic. Both Keane and partner Nick Peyton (who still have the successful HBG Bar in Healdsburg) were working the lines and hawking wings almost daily, leading BiteClub to wonder if the strain of churn-and-burn at such a high-traffic spot was ultimately too much.
Keane did not return phone calls or messages. BiteClub wishes Keane and his staff the best.
A surprise closure in downtown Santa Rosa. Five-year-old Rendez Vous Bistro, owned by restaurateur Nino Rabbaa, has closed. Apparently the space will undergo a concept change and renovation, but a reopen date for the high-profile space is unclear.
In a Facebook post, Rabbaa explained the changes…
Dear Friends of Rendez Vous Bistro,
As you can see, the era of Rendez Vous Bistro has come to an end. This bistro was founded five years ago to bring a little Paris flair to Sonoma County and offer a new concept to the community; to create a space where families and friends rendezvous and linger into the night.
Over these past five years, Rendez Vous Bistro has evolved to be part of a greater company, Soco Hospitality Group, with a bigger mission dedicated to making Santa Rosa an attractive destination to food and wine lovers. Now that these a doors are closed for a new vision we hope you will share in the excitement and anticipation during our total renovation. When we re-open, this will be something greater, something new, and of course, delicious!
This is an exciting year so please follow us on Facebook for details and latest developments! And sneak peeks of new locations and new concepts will be revealed soon, don’t you worry!
Meanwhile, a third restaurant, Flipside Steakhouse & Sports Bar(in the former Rita’s space on Calistoga Road) is slated for a Jan. 20 opening. Insiders say they’ve seen staff at restaurant supply stores recently, and several pictures of the new interior are on their website. Expect pool tables and big screens on the bar side.
Rabbaa also announced that Flipside Brewery in Rohnert Park (previously Latitude) will open this spring.
Flipside, the burger bar on Third St. in Santa Rosa remains open.
Charlie Palmer and the Dry Creek Kitchen chefs at the Pigs & Pinot preview at Mark Pasternak’s Devil’s Gulch Ranch.
Charlie Palmer’s annual Pigs & Pinot (March 21-22, 2014) event is one of the hottest tickets in Wine Country each year. And tickets, we hear, often sell out in a matter of minutes. So get your clicking finger ready.
Featured winemakers: CIRQ, Domain Pierre Gelin, Roth, Rochioli and Pyramid Valley Vineyards.
Among the P&P offerings are luxe stays at the Hotel Healdsburg and tickets to some or all of the events. Prices start at $1,633.55 (for two) and go up to a mega-grande $25,000 (with eight tickets for each event and some primo access to Chef Palmer and bottles of all the featured wines.)
If you’re on a tighter budget, most of the events are offered a la carte, including…
– Taste of Pigs & Pinot (Friday from 6:30 to 9pm), $175
– Tournament of the Pig (Saturday, 10:30am to 12:30pm), $125
– Ultimate Pinot Smackdown (Saturday, 1-3pm), $125
The gala dinner and Swine and Wine Dinner are open to package guests only.
Of course, this isn’t just all a ridiculous eat and drink fest. The event is a fundraiser for Share our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Campaign, full scholarships to the CIA and Sonoma State’s Wine Program, The Healdsburg Education Foundation, Children of Sonoma Vineyard Workers Scholarships and a whole lot more (including sending a local cheerleading team to the national championships…awwww).
Want to see some pix of the Pigs & Pinot preview at Mark Pasternak’s Devil’s Gulch Ranch? Yes, you do. Cause it includes some tasty pix of pork.
