‘Make Way for Ducklings’ in Healdsburg
This is the kind of magical moment one might think only happens in children's books. In particular, the 1941 classic "Make Way for Ducklings." But, no — we got our very own baby-animal hero's journey here in Healdsburg yesterday, when a mother duck and her...
Construction to Begin on Healdsburg’s Foley Pavilion
A big local construction project is finally getting underway after nearly a decade of debating, designing and planning: the Foley Family Community Pavilion at 3 North St., right next to the Little Saint food and event space. City officials handed the $7.5 million construction...
The Parish Cafe is under new ownership, but the eatery’s recipes and concept won’t change
Correction: The Parish will serve lunch and breakfast, not lunch and dinner.
Mini late-spring heat wave hits Healdsburg
Let me just step in here and preach to the choir about how insanely hot it was over the weekend. Almost record-settingly so, according to Press Democrat reporter Alana Minkler, who reports that “by midafternoon Friday, temperatures in Cloverdale and Healdsburg hovered around 100 degrees” and “at the...
‘Edge Esmeralda’ Event Kicks Off in Healdsburg
Remember when I told you about the Edge Esmeralda "popup village," a monthlong festival for futuristic ideas coming to Healdsburg for all of June? Well, the start date is upon us: Programming officially starts tomorrow. The two young women at the head of the...
‘Sideways’ Author to Speak, Sip Pinot
Not too many works of art have changed the course of wine appreciation, but Sideways is on the short list.
The 2004 movie, with its scenes extolling the virtues of pinot noir and the dismissive line, “I am not drinking f—g merlot!” changed not only...
In Memoriam: Arline Smith
Longtime Healdsburg resident Arline Hotle Smith passed away last month at age 89. She and her husband of 62 years, Bill, "moved to Healdsburg with their three children in 1976," according to her obituary. They were known to "travel extensively on their boat, circling...
Cobbler resists retirement as renovation approved
Ramos Shoe Repair is an outlier on Healdsburg Avenue, even in the recently christened “North Makers Arts District” or NoMAD area between North and Piper streets. Neither a clothing store, an art gallery, a bakery nor a tasting room, it’s a shoe repair store, a working-man’s shop.
Another Healdsburg Tasting Room Opens Riverside
Some wineries launch tasting rooms with an avalanche of press releases and a big, flashy ribbon-cutting moment. Others — like Palmer Emmitt and Michael Scorsone — take a more casual *build it, they will come* approach.
This local winemaker duo quietly opened their new outpost at 52...
Shuttered businesses facing unmet challenges
The coronavirus pandemic is taking a devastating economic toll on Sonoma County’s economy: tourism, once a mainstay, is non-existent; 16,000 local workers have filed for unemployment; more than a thousand small businesses have applied for the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) Payroll Protection Plan (PPP). Meanwhile local governments continue to provide essential public health and welfare services, while their normal revenue sources trickle to near-zero.










