But hold onto your pint glasses because there’s more. On tap will be a revival of the original New Albion Ale, recognized by beer experts as the “original American craft beer”. McAuliffe and Koch resurrected the brew with New Albion yeast preserved at the University of California since 1977 using the original recipe. Russian River Brew Pub will be serving the brew “that evening and hopefully for a few days after,” according to their Facebook page.
The Boston Beer Company will release the ale commercially this month, the first time its been available in more than 30 years.
McAuliffe, locals may remember, founded New Albion Brewing Company in Sonoma in 1976. Although it closed in 1983, McAuliffe is considered by many to be the inspiration for the American microbrewery movement.
All profits from the beer will go directly to Jack McAuliffe. The beer will be served at special events during the 2012 Great American Beer Festival (October 13), in Denver, CO and available nationwide beginning in January of 2013. New Albion Ale will be available in six-packs with a suggested retail price of $7.99.
Have you always wanted to learn how to make naturally fermented sauerkraut?Since antiquity fermented foods have been a part of the human diet in cultures all around the world, yet the techniques of home fermentation have been lost to most of us. Fermentation is an extremely useful tool both to preserve food and activate its nutritional potential. Raw, live, fermented foods such as sauerkraut have increased vitamin levels, the power to aid digestion, and even antibiotic and anti carcinogenic properties. Join Trish Carty, professional Chef, Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, and Certified Healing Foods specialist in this introductory two-hour class that will include a tasting of a variety of fermented foods, a demonstration in preparing fermented foods, and hands-on experience. Walk away with your first jar of sauerkraut and the skills to prepare your own fermented foods! Led by: Trish Carty, Professional Chef, Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Certified Healing Foods Specialist, Certified GAPS Practitioner. $49 per person
An educational and interactive culinary experience Everyone likes options. But a stroll down the dairy aisle of your local grocery store can these days leave you feeling dizzy. Whole milk or 2%? Pasteurized or unpasteurized? And what about ultra-pasteurized? Is that different from homogenized? Can I still get raw milk? From a Jersey cow or a Holstein? Does it matter? Or maybe from a goat? And then there’s the matter of organic versus… While we should celebrate the growing diversity of our food, it requires us to use our brains in addition to our stomachs. But no matter how many books you read or experts you consult, let’s not forget to trust our own tongues. Join us at the GrowKitchen for an afternoon of mindful tasting, interactive education and a conversation about how and why all these gastronomic choices came to be. Stop by the Grow Kitchen during our afternoon of mindful tasting, interactive education and conversations with chefs and farmers from the area about how and why all these gastronomic choices came to be.
Some of the tastes we’ll explore:
Grass-fed beef / Grain-finished beef
Biscuits made with butter / Biscuits made with lard
Tuesday, Jan 8, 2013, 7:00p to 8:45p
at Rialto Cinemas, Sebastopol, CA
Soul Food Junkies film | see trailer
Soul food is a quintessential American cuisine, with a rich history and an abiding significance to black cultural identity. But with its core celebration of all things fried and smothered, it has also had lasting effects on African Americans – health, both for better and for worse. Filmmaker Byron Hurt looks at the past and future of soul food – from its roots in Western Africa, to its incarnation in the American South, to its contribution to modern health crises in communities of color. Soul Food Junkies also looks at the socioeconomics of the modern American diet, and how the food industry profits from making calories cheap, but healthy options expensive and hard to find.
The film will be shown at Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol ( 6868 Mckinley Ave.) and a discussion will follow the showing. More details. The event is FREE.
Missed the movie? PBS will air the movie January 14 at 10 PM.
After three months of training thirty baristas from Oliver’s Market, Taylor Maid Farms will crown a barista champion on January 17, 2013 during the Battle of the Baristas Final Showdown from 6-8pm.
The winning barista will choose between two coveted prizes: a trip to a Guatemalan coffee farm with Taylor Maid Farms or a high-end espresso machine.
A panel of technical and sensory judges will evaluate contestants on a range of areas including knowledge of coffee harvesting and processing techniques; taste, volume and texture of espresso; and presentation of drinks including latte art.
Each Oliver’s Market will host a semi-final competition featuring their best baristas, sending one winner onto the Final Throwdown. All events are open to the public with the following schedule:
Oliver’s Market, Stonypoint Semi-Final: January 7th, 2-3pm Oliver’s Market, Montecito Semi-Final: January 8th, 1-2pm Oliver’s Market, Cotati Semi-Final January 9th, 2-3pm. Final Throwdown: Taylor Maid Farms Organic Coffee, January 17th, 6-8pm
The competition reflects a growing global awareness of the professionalism and technical skill-set required to make specialty coffee, a movement chronicled in the New York Times’ December 31, 2012 article: “Learning to Create the Perfect Cup of Coffee.”
The professional barista movement will also be on display at Barista Nation in San Francisco on January 19th, a forum for professional baristas to gather, share best practices, and take their artisanal coffee skills to the next level.
The trip to Guatemala will take place in early February with the goal of building closer relationships with coffee farmers and learning more about farm-level coffee processing.
California Cottage Food industry law goes into effect
UPDATE: The Petaluma Seed Bank is offering a class on starting your own cottage food biz on Jan. 10, 2013. This special free talk will be presented by Frederick Smith, COO/CFO of Forage Kitchen, SBDC Consultant, and active member of Slow Money Northern California. Frederick’s talk will specifically address the implications of the Homemade Food Act for Sonoma County citizens. The event will be held Thursday, January 10, at 7 p.m. (199 Petaluma Blvd. North in downtown Petaluma) and will be focused on the California Homemade Food Act (“cottage food law”), which makes it easier for people to make food products in their homes and sell them to the public.
Sonoma County has rolled out the welcome mat for a new breed of small business: The cottage food industry.
Though home-based bakers, candy-makers, picklers and condiment producers have long-operated the margins of legality, the recently enacted California Cottage Food Law now allows for legal public food production in residential kitchens.
But that doesn’t mean just anyone can set up a bake sale in their front yard. The list of foods given the thumbs-up by the California Department of Public Health for sale is restricted to those deemed “non-potentially hazardous”. That includes baked goods without cream, custard or meat fillings (cookies, tortillas, churros, pastries, bread); candy, dried fruit and pasta; dry baking mixes, granolas and cereals; fruit pies, empanadas and tamales; honey, jams, jellies and fruit butters; nut mixes and popcorn; vinegar and mustards; roasted coffee or dried tea; waffle cones or pizelles. According to the California Cottage Food Law, any food outside of that list currently requires the use of a commercial kitchen or additional county approval.
The recent Cottage Food Law does require permitting from the county, with an annual fee of up to $347 in addition to local zoning approval, and passing a state-sanctioned food handling course. Also, the food must be labeled according to federal requirements and cottage food operations cannot exceed $35,000 in sales in 2013.
Despite the hurdles, for many start-up food businesses the law is a much-needed economic incentive that allows them to ramp up production to farm markets, small retailers and online sales without having to rent a commercial kitchen — which can cost upwards of $25 per hour to use. A number of counties including Sonoma and Los Angeles have embraced the law, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2013. However, San Francisco and Alameda counties, which have a thriving cottage food industry are still not up and running. Throughout the country, more than 30 states have already enacted cottage food business laws.
For more details on Sonoma County’s Department of Health Services Cottage Food permitting process, to to sonoma-county.org.
Spinster Sisters in Santa Rosa opened late summer 2012.
There’s no doubt that Healdsburg was the center of Sonoma County’s 2012 restaurant action, with six major openings along with the major news of Cyrus’ closure. There are still several projects in development as well, with anticipated 2013 openings. Here’s a look back at some of BiteClub’s favorite restaurant openings of 2012.
HEALDSBURG
Campo Fina:First out of the gate in 2012 was the opening of Campo Fina, from Scopa-owner Ari Rosen. This casual wood-fired oven spot includes a large outdoor space with bocce and critically-acclaimed small plates. For most of Healdsburg, it was love at first bite. Open for dinner daily, beginning at 5:30pm. 330 Healdsburg Ave. at North St., Healdsburg, 707-395-4640. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Spoonbar gets a new chef, Pizzando: Owners of h2hotel and the Healdsburg Hotel had a busy year, welcoming new executive chef Louis Maldonado, revamping the Spoonbar menu and later in the year opening Pizzando inside the Healdsburg Hotel. 301 Healdsburg Ave, Healdsburg, 922-5233. Open daily for lunch and dinner starting at 11:30 a.m.
Bovolo becomes Taverna Sofia: After several years on the square, Zazu-owners John Stewart and Duskie Estes closed Bovolo Cafe and re-opened a seasonal pork shack called Zazu on the River at Davis Family Vineyards nearby. The Bovolo spot became Taverna Sofia, a Greek eatery owned by Chef Sofia Petridis-Lim. 244 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, closed Wednesday.
Bravas Bar de Tapas: Perhaps one of the biggest openings of the year was Mark and Terri Stark’s fifth restaurant, a Spanish tapas bar, in the former Ravenous. It’s a menu filled with brassy, bold flavors that do the cha-cha through your mouth and leave no question that you’ll need a breath mint or two before getting familiar with friends or co-workers. Dishes include small plates of sardines, Iberico ham, calamari, quail with lavender and heartier dishes grilled on a plancha. 420 Center St., Healdsburg, 707-433-7700. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Ravenous: Call it a reverse evolution or maybe just a return to its roots, but Ravenous Restaurant reopened in May at its original eight table space at next to the Raven Theater after shuttering the 420 Center Street bungalow it inhabited for nearly a decade (see Bravas above). On the menu are the rustic-luxe, farm-to-table eats including roasted tomatoes with fresh balls of mozzarella, basil pesto and pine nuts; crab cakes with cilantro aioli and roasted eggplant; fresh fish tacos; mascarpone cheesecake with swirls of lemon curd. 117 North Street, Healdsburg, 431-1302. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Parish Cafe:With all of the easy of The Big Easy, Rob Lippincott’s New Orleans cafe draws you in with homey charm, Southern comfort and a menu that’s pure French Quarter. Open for breakfast and lunch Wednesday through Sunday, you’ll be hard-pressed to find more authentic Louisiana cooking this side of the mighty Miss. 60A Mill St., Healdsburg, 431-8474. RECOMMENDED.
Cafe Lucia: A new restaurant in Healdsburg that doesn’t have a wood-fired oven? Yes, it’s true. Channeling Mediterranean flavors of another sort, Cafe Lucia, has opened in the former Affronti location on Healdsburg Avenue. Tucked well back from the street, brother and sister team Manuel and Lucia Azevedo have brought the “Nova Cozinha Portuguesa” or new Portuguese cuisine of Manuel’s highly acclaimed La Salette restaurant in Sonoma to their northern neighbors. Many of the dishes will be familiar to La Salette regulars, including richly-flavored and Portuguese nose-to-tail “tasca” or tasting plates of tripe stew, blood sausage, pig’s feet terrine and sardine pate. 235 Healdsburg Ave., 707-431-1113. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
SEBASTOPOL/WEST COUNTY
It’s also been a boom-year for West County, with the opening of four (soon to be five) restaurants between Sebastopol and Guerneville.
Backyard:One of my favorite new restaurants of the year is this unassuming little spot in Forestville. Sourcing, literally, from chef-owner Daniel Kedan’s own backyard culinary gardens and those of his ranch and farming neighbors, the Ad Hoc and Peter Lowell’s alum opened his small community-focused restaurant in October with a relatively simple menu that relies on seasonal produce, foragers and whole-animal butchery as its foundation. 6566 Front St., Forestville (the former Sarah’s Forestville Kitchen), 707-820-8445. Open daily for breakfast, lunch, dinner until 9p.m., brunch on Sunday. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Also nearby, the former Aioli Deli has been transformed into a charming counter-service cafe called Twist, (6536 Front St., Forestville) and the Henweigh Cafe is slated to re-open as Beaudry’s Roadhouse (4550 Gravenstein Hwy, Sebastopol) offering burgers, barbecue and hearty comfort food.) In Sebastopol, Eight Cuisine and Wine, a concept fusion-Asian restaurant opened in October from the owners of Sushi Tozai (7501 Healdsburg Ave., Sebastopol, 823-8189). In Guerneville, Hi Five has popped-up in at Pat’s Diner as an after-hours Korean noshery, featuring some creative takes on Asian comfort food. 16236 Main St., Guerneville.
SANTA ROSA
Spinster Sisters: Other than the near-deafening noise level, its hard to find much to complain about at this out-of-the-gate blockbuster in the South of A St. Arts District. Former Santi Chef Liza Hinman head up the kitchen with wine guru Giovanni Cerrone and Eric Anderson (a local who’s involved with Prune NYC) working behind the scenes. The menu is broken into a series of sections: Bites ($2-$4) are exactly that; Charcuterie and Cheese Plates ($6-$16); Veggies ($5-$7); Small Plates ($7-$14) and Large Plates ($14-16). Each works beautifully as a single sonnet, or together as an epic poem. 401 South A St., Santa Rosa, 528-7100. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Three Squares: Josh Silvers transformed the former Syrah Bistro once again into Three Squares this fall, re-envisioning it as a casual breakfast, lunch and dinner spot with a mix of homey comfort classics and a few “healthier” options after the chef-owner lost more than 30 pounds in 2012. 205 Fifth St., Santa Rosa, 545-4300. RECOMMENDED.
Ike’s Place: The lines have been out the door at Bay Area sandwich sensation, Ike’s Place since it opened in June. Housed in the former Merv’s Little Super (1780 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa), it’s a location rich with history. And now, rich with Dirty Sauce. The garlicy-mayo spread is just part of the secret mojo that goes into a list of 200-plus sandwich combinations that have made the Bay Area sub shop legendary. RECOMMENDED.
Flipside: Rendez Vous owner Nino Rabbaa opened a burgery and bar in April featuring a combination of gourmet burgers, bar bites and strong drinks. The indoor-outdoor patio has been a favorite of late-nighters since opening. Rabbaa announced in December he’ll be opening two additional Flipside concepts — a brewpub and steakhouse — in 2013. 630 W. Third St., Santa Rosa.
BJ’s Brewhouse and Restaurant: Santa Rosa’s first mega restaurant, with more than 250 seats, and frankly, a pretty imposing exterior that’s brings to mind a Borg spaceship decorated by Bolsheviks. Appetizers range from poké (Hawaiian style raw tuna) to all things fried. Gourmet salads, burgers, deep dish pizzas (their speciality) and heartier pastas and steak entrees make up the rest of the menu. Most of what we tried (fried jalapeno burger, poke, mango Thai salad, mushroom pizza) are good, hearty dishes that won’t leave you breathlessly impressed, but will certainly satisfy a crowd. 334 Coddingtown Center, Santa Rosa.
More openings…
Hopmonk Novato: The massive space briefly occupied by Southern Pacific Smokehouse in Novato re-opened as the third Hopmonk Tavern in the North Bay. The location, at 224 Vintage Way inside the Vintage Oaks Shopping Center is extra-large, seating 145 inside and an additional 80 in the outdoor beer garden. (224 Vintage Way, Novato).
Petaluma: Social Club opened in late summer, this Petaluma gathering spot soon lived up to its name. Taking over the long-empty Pazzo space at 132 Keller Street, Exec Chef Steven Levine created a rustic American menu around a wood-fired oven and grill with smoked short ribs, grilled Angus hangar steak, Prather Ranch burgers and Sonoma fried chicken. Santa Rosa’s Rosso Pizzeria and Wine Bar expanded to Petaluma in early summer, featuring a mozzarella bar and the same great wood-fired pizzas we’ve come to love further north. 151 Petaluma Blvd S., Petaluma.
Sonoma: With just eight dining tables and a handful of seats around the open galley kitchen, every inch of Glen Ellen Star is prime real estate. At the glowing heart of the restaurant: Chef Ari Weiswasser’s 650-degree custom-built wood oven that perfumes the entire block with its smoke. Combining classic French techniques, razor-focused attention to detail, and exotic Mediterranean and Middle Eastern spices in every dish, Glen Ellen Star hasn’t wasted any time getting up to speed. 13648 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen. Reservations strongly recommended, 343-1384. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Three new Mendocino restaurants have opened in Northern Wine Country: Saucy in Ukiah, Aquarelle Cafe and Wine Bar in Boonville and Hopland Ale House in Hopland.
At Saucy (108 W. Standley St., Ukiah, 707-462-7007) Chef Mitchel Mount, an alum of Tra Vigne and la Brea Bakery has teamed with restaurateur Cynthia Ariosta and former Iron Horse winemaker/owner Forrest Tancer to create an urban oasis in this emerging restaurant town. The menu features wood-fired pizzas, small plates of meatballs or burrata, crispy kale Caesar and pizza “sandwiches” for lunch.
Aquarelle in Boonville
In Boonville, private chef Christina Jones brings together a fusion of flavors to Cafe Aquarelle(14025 Hwy. 128, Boonville, 707-895-2767). Recent menus include Berkshire pork chops with apple-caramelized onion chutney and buttermilk mashed potatoes ($18) to truffle fries with house made aioli ($8) and skillet prawns with garlic butter and white wine ($13).
Hopland Ale House
Just-opened Hopland Ale House serves up pub classics like Ale House Chili, pastrami sandwiches and chicken taco salad along with live entertainment and a variety of micro-brewed beers (13351 S. Highway 101, Hopland, 707-744-1255).
Claudia Levin greets Benjamin Bertini, 15 months, and his mother Kathryn in Santa Rosa
Claudia Levin greets Benjamin Bertini, 15 months, and his mother Kathryn in Santa Rosa
It’s hard not to notice a fairy godmother wandering around Santa Rosa’s Montgomery Village. As Claudia Levin, aka “The Winter Queen of the Faeries”, drifts around the shopping center on a drizzly Saturday morning before Christmas in a cloud of glitter, sequins and yards of lace and taffeta heads swivel once, then twice for a double-take.
“Is that…” asks a woman walking by. Yes, Virginia, there is a Fairy Godmother.
Levin grants a wish
Levin, 61, is a local performer who spends much of her fall and winter as either the Pumpkin Fairy Godmother at the Adobe Pumpkin Farm near Petaluma or the Winter Faerie Queen at various holiday events. Over the last ten years, you may have seen her atop her pumpkin throne or floating around Santa Rosa in one of her various guises (she also does palm readings, singing telegrams and a few other characters throughout the year, including Mrs. Claus). But regardless of what she’s wearing, Levin’s real trade is in granting wishes and dreams to anyone who believes.
If you follow her around for even a few minutes, you’ll soon realize that just about everyone believes.
“I grant wishes for people from 1 to 140,” she says, as a group of teens come over to her for a closer look at the shopping plaza. One boy bows and calls her “Your Majesty”, a girl quietly whispers to Levin and stands stone still as Levin waves her wand over her head and sprinkles “fairy dust” in her hand.
“I hear your wishes like a beautiful song and keep them in my heart all year long,” she lilts. The girl walks away smiling. “Well that was fun,” she giggles.
At a time when reality is all to real, Levin’s soft-spoken, earnest presence and desire to bring smiles to the faces of strangers might seem a bit corny. But as she walks around, reactions are anything but cynical. In fact, most folks seem downright charmed.
A sprinkling of fairy dust
“How do you do you tell a fairy princess you don’t want a wish?” asks Katherine Oliver of Santa Rosa, who was holding a spot in line for her grand-daughter to see Santa Claus as Levin closed in and asked she and her daughter, Emily Twitchell, also of Santa Rosa, what they wished for this year. “Her softness just invites people to join in,” said Twitchell, smiling.
“People come out of curiosity. They’re magnetized to the little spark of energy and the costume,” Levin says. Her elaborate costumes even have stories of their own. “I tell the children that the jewels on my hat were a shooting star in the dark sky that landed right on my head. People want to have that hope and belief,” she adds.
“We started three years ago having the Winter Queen at our holiday open house,” said Melissa Williams, Director of Marketing and operations at Montgomery Village Shopping Center. “It was, at first, all about the children. She’d hand out treats and grant wishes. What was even sweeter was the fact that adults of all ages actually seek her out to be granted a wish. It’s quite touching to see the amazement of children when they see her approaching them. Adults, too.”
Levin as the Winter Faerie Queen
Of course, one doesn’t just become a godmother overnight. Levin, who runs Levin Entertainment and Events has been performing in the Bay Area since the late 1970s — including as a member of a Middle Eastern dance troupe where she danced with a snake. “I tell people I traded in my snake for a wand,” says Levin. She later moved on to playing Mrs. Claus at the holidays after a friend gave her a costume. “She was my gateway,” she says. Finally, she was inspired by a therapist in Sonoma County years ago who sometimes played Glinda the Good Witch (from the Wizard of Oz) at events. “She bequeathed (being a fairy godmother) to me. I got my wish from her,” says Levin.
Levin makes it clear she isn’t a therapist, though her work with strangers can sometimes be surprisingly intimate. “People will tell me stories in their life. People unload heavy stuff and they leave lighter,” says Levin. “Its good work. It’s a joy for me, and its needed work in the world. People just don’t expect it, and that’s a gift to them and to me,” says Levin.
Sashaying away in a whoosh of fairy dust and goodwill, she says,”Wish a wish that’s right for you, and I’ll be with you the whole year long.”
As Sebastopol’s Barlow marketplace nears completion, three new food-related tenants have been announced: Sub Zero Ice Cream and antiquarian bookseller Ben Kinmont. Sub Zero is a Utah-based ice cream chain that uses liquid nitrogen to make “instant” ice cream flavors for customers. Ben Kinmont is the nation’s foremost antiquarian bookseller specializing in 15th to early 19th works on gastronomy and related topics. Other food and wine tenants include Kosta Browne Winery, Guayaki Yerba Mate, Wine Gap Wines, Community Market, Taylor Maid Farms, Spirit Works Distillery, Village Bakery, Warped Brewing, MacPhail Family Wines, FEED Sonoma, La Follette Wines, Marimar Estates, Whole Spice and Gypsy Bay Laurel. It’s also rumored that Zazu’s John Stewart and Duskie Estes may be joining the Barlow lineup in the near future. Stay tuned for more details.
Leave the bib and hammer behind and celebrate Dungeness crab season in style with Corks’ Crab Feast, happening now through January 2013. Born into an Alaskan crabbing family, Chef Todd Davies has a natural affinity for these tasty crustaceans, featuring Crab Cake with cucumber salad, Moroccan preserved lemon and yogurt sauce ($15), crab bisque with garlic croutons and white truffle oil ($11), crab and avocado salad with orange, Meyer lemon and endive ($15) and steamed crab with fennel drawn butter and pommes frites (othewise known as French fries, $34). The restaurant is open for brunch and lunch Monday through Friday,11a.m. to 2:30 pm, and from10a.mm on Saturday and Sunday. Dinner 5 to 8p.m. daily. 5700 Highway 116 North, Forestville, 707-887-3344.
