Gone Missing

-
0
Gone Missing

David Fincher’s bitter, would-be decadent mystery Gone Girl is taken from a too-schematic script by author Gillian Flynn. It contains a bounty of gnarly warring between the sexes—Fincher makes sex a cold, mean thing people do to each other. But it’s more interesting when it touches on something more sensitive than sex: money. Set in the Midwest, the film peers over the cliff-steep divide between indebted haves and the wraith-like homeless have-nots. The poor folk are photographed as if they were zombs. Gone Girl’s sourest turn may be the way a formerly trust-funded wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) collides with a working class lady hanging out at an Ozarks cabin resort.

Amy, a super-achiever from New York, has been reduced to backwater idleness in a Missouri mini-mansion. She’s supposed to be a genius, but mostly what she does is write verses for little birthday scavenger hunts. She vanishes, and her husband Nick—the ever-bored Ben Affleck—may have killed her. Police detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens, the movie’s highlight) thinks so. So does the deceased’s wealthy, creepy ex-boyfriend (Neil Patrick Harris, who detects the odor of cheese in this script and goes full-on ratty). So, also, do a pack of vengeful afternoon TV hosts: Missi Pyle is amusing as the loudest of them all, a countrified Valkyrie.

As they say of a football player after a losing game, Pike gave 100 percent, in bloodbath and cold-blooded social scenes alike. There are moments where the horror goes appropriately outsized, as when Amy is stuck, penniless, at a truck stop. The diesel behemoths seem to be roaring back-up vocals to Trent Reznor’s buzz, howl, ticky and scratchy soundtrack. But as the least Missouri-like Missourian ever, Affleck’s deadfaced cool is pure concrete. His limits have never been more obvious. Fincher can’t find a way to wield this A-list, movie-star shaped object.

‘Gone Girl’ is playing in wide release.

The Messenger Lives

-
0
The Messenger Lives

This one has all the ingredients of a dreamed up Hollywood blockbuster: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist uncovers a big story involving drugs, the CIA and a guerrilla army. Despite threats and intimidation, he writes an explosive exposé and catches national attention. But the fates shift. Our reporter’s story is torn apart by the country’s leading media, and he is betrayed by his own newspaper. Though the big story turns out to be true, the writer commits suicide and becomes a cautionary tale.

Hold on, though. The above is not fiction.

Kill the Messenger, an actual film coming soon to a theater near you, is the true story of Sacramento-based investigative reporter Gary Webb, who earned both acclaim and notoriety for his 1996 San Jose Mercury News series that revealed the CIA had turned a blind eye to the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan Contras trafficking crack cocaine in South Central Los Angeles and elsewhere in urban America in the 1980s. One of the first-ever newspaper investigations to be published on the Internet, Webb’s story gained a massive readership and stirred up a firestorm of controversy and repudiation.

After being deemed a pariah by media giants like The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, and being disowned by his own paper, Webb eventually came to work in August 2004 at Sacramento News & Review. Four months later, he committed suicide at age 49. He left behind a grieving family—and some trenchant questions:

Why did the media giants attack him so aggressively, thereby protecting the government secrets he revealed? Why did he decide to end his own life? What, ultimately, is the legacy of Gary Webb?

Like others working at our newsweekly in the brief time he was here, I knew Webb as a colleague and was terribly saddened by his death. Those of us who attended his unhappy memorial service at the Doubletree Hotel in Sacramento a week after he died thought that day surely marked a conclusion to the tragic tale of Gary Webb.

But, no.

Because here comes Kill the Messenger, a Hollywood film starring Jeremy Renner as Webb; Rosemarie DeWitt as Webb’s then wife, Sue Bell (now Stokes); Oliver Platt as Webb’s top editor, Jerry Ceppos; and a litany of other distinguished actors, including Michael K. Williams, Ray Liotta, Andy Garcia and Robert Patrick. Directed by Michael Cuesta (executive producer of the TV series Homeland), the film opens in a “soft launch” Oct. 10.

Members of Webb’s immediate family—including his son Eric, who plans a career in journalism—expect to feel a measure of solace upon the release of Kill the Messenger.

“The movie is going to vindicate my dad,” he said.

For Renner—who grew up in Modesto and is best known for his roles in The Bourne Legacy, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Avengers and The Hurt Locker—the film was a chance to explore a part unlike any he’d played before. During a break in filming Mission Impossible 5, he spoke to SN&R about his choice to star in and co-produce Kill the Messenger.

“The story is important,” said Renner. “It resonated with me. It has a David and Goliath aspect.”

“He was brave, he was flawed. . . . I fell in love with Gary Webb.”

‘The first big Internet-age journalism exposé’

There’s a scene in Kill the Messenger that will make every investigative journalist in America break into an insider’s grin. It’s the one where—after a year of tough investigative slogging that had taken him from the halls of power in Washington, D.C., to a moldering jail in Central America to the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles—Renner as Webb begins to actually write the big story. In an absorbing film montage, Renner is at the keyboard as it all comes together—the facts, the settings, the sources. The truth. The Clash provides the soundtrack, with Joe Strummer howling: “Know your rights / these are your rights … You have the right to free speech / as long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it.“

It took the real Gary Webb a long time to get to this point in his career.

His father, a U.S. Marine, moved Webb around a lot in his youth, from California to Indiana to Kentucky to Ohio. He wound up marrying his high school sweetheart, Sue Bell, with whom he had three children. Inspired by the reporting that uncovered Watergate and in need of income, he left college three units shy of a degree and went to work at The Kentucky Post, then The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, where he rose quickly through the ranks of grunt reporters. Dogged in his pursuit of stories, Webb landed a job at the Mercury News in 1988 and became part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for reporting on the Loma Prieta earthquake.

It was the summer of 1996 when the lone wolf journalist handed his editors a draft of what would become the three-part, 20,000-word exposé, “Dark Alliance.” The series was exhaustive and complex. But its nugget put human faces on how CIA operatives had been aware that the Contras (who had been recruited and trained by the CIA to topple the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua) had smuggled cocaine into the United States and, through drug dealers, fueled an inner-city crack-cocaine epidemic.

When “Dark Alliance” was published on Aug. 18 of that year, it was as if a bomb had exploded at the Mercury News. That’s because it was one of the first stories to go globally viral online on the paper’s then state-of-the-art website. It was 1996; the series attracted an unprecedented 1.3 million hits per day. Webb and his editors were flooded with letters and emails. Requests for appearances piled in from national TV news shows.

“Gary’s story was the first Internet-age big journalism exposé,” said Nick Schou, who wrote the book Kill the Messenger, on which the movie is partially based, along with Webb’s own book version of the series, Dark Alliance. “If the series had happened a year earlier it, Dark Alliance just would have come and gone,” said Schou.

As word of the story spread, black communities across America—especially in South Central—grew outraged and demanded answers. At the time, crack cocaine was swallowing up neighborhoods whole, fueling an epidemic of addiction and crime. Rocked by the revelations, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, Congresswoman for Los Angeles’ urban core to this day, used her bully pulpit to call for official investigations.

But after a six-week honeymoon period for Webb and his editors, the winds shifted. The attacks began.

On Oct. 4, The Washington Post stunned the Mercury News by publishing five articles assaulting the veracity of Webb’s story, leading the package from page one. A few weeks later, The New York Times joined with similar intent.

The ultimate injury came when the L.A. Times unleashed a veritable army of 17 journalists (known internally as the “Get Gary Webb Team”) on the case, writing a three-part series demolishing “Dark Alliance.” The L.A. paper—which appeared to onlookers to have missed a giant story in its own backyard—was exhaustive in its deconstruction, claiming the series “was vague” and overreached. “Oliver Stone, check your voice mail,” summed Post media columnist Howard Kurtz.

Now, even some of Webb’s supporters admitted that his series could have benefited from more judicious editing. But why were the “big three” so intent on tearing down Webb’s work rather than attempting to further the story, as competing papers had done back in the day when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal?

Some say it was the long arm of then President Ronald Reagan and his team’s ability to manipulate the gatekeepers of old media to its purposes. (Reagan had, after all, publicly compared the Contras to “our Founding Fathers” and supported the CIA-led attempt to topple the Sandinista government.)

Others say that editors at the “big three” were simply affronted to have a midsize paper like the Mercury News beat them on such a big story. An article in the Columbia Journalism Review claimed some L.A. Times reporters bragged in the office about denying Webb a Pulitzer.

One of their big criticisms was that the story didn’t include a comment from the CIA. When reporters at the big three asked the agency if Webb’s story was true, they were told no. The denial was printed in the mainstream media as if it were golden truth.

Other issues fueled controversy around Webb’s story. For example: It was falsely reported in some media outlets—and proclaimed by many activists in the black community—that Webb had proven the CIA was directly involved in drug trafficking that targeted blacks. He simply did not make this claim.

In some ways, Webb became the first reporter ever to benefit from, and then become the victim of, a story that went viral online.

After triumphing in the early success of the series, Webb’s editors at the Mercury News became unnerved and eventually backed down under the pressure. Jerry Ceppos, the paper’s executive editor, published an unprecedented column on May 11, 1997, that was widely considered an apology for the series, saying it “fell short” in editing and execution.

When contacted by Sacramento News & Review, Ceppos, now dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University, said he was only barely aware of the film coming out and wasn’t familiar with the acting career of Oliver Platt, who plays him in the movie. “I’m the wrong person to ask about popular culture,” he said.

Asked if he would do anything differently today regarding Gary Webb’s series, Ceppos, whose apologia did partially defend the series, responded with an unambiguous “no.”

“It seems to me, 18 years later, that everything still holds up. . . . Everything is not black and white. If you portrayed it that way, then you need to set the record straight.”

“I’m very proud that we were willing to do that.”

Some find irony in the fact that Ceppos, in the wake of the controversy, was given the 1997 Ethics in Journalism Award by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Webb, once heralded as a groundbreaking investigative reporter, was soon banished to the paper’s Cupertino bureau, a spot he considered “the newspaper’s version of Siberia.” In 1997, after additional run-ins with his editors, including their refusal to run his follow-up reporting on the “Dark Alliance” series, he quit the paper altogether.

But a year later, he was redeemed when the CIA’s inspector general, Frederick Hitz, released his 1998 report admitting that the CIA had known all along that the Contras had been trafficking cocaine. Reporter Robert Parry, who covered the Iran-Contra scandal for the Associated Press, called the report “an extraordinary admission of institutional guilt by the CIA.” But the revelation fell on deaf ears. It went basically unnoticed by the newspapers that had attacked Webb’s series. A later internal investigation by the Justice Department echoed the CIA report.

But no apology was forthcoming to Webb, despite the fact that the central finding of his series had been proven correct after all.

‘I never really gave
up hope’

Earlier this month, Webb’s son Eric, 26, opened the door to his Sacramento rental home with a swift grab for the collar of his affable pit bull mix, Thomas. Eric—lanky at 6 feet 4 inches, with his father’s shaggy brown hair and easy expression—attended college at American River College and hopes to become a journalist someday. He was happy to sit down and discuss the upcoming film.

To Eric, the idea that a movie was being made about his dad was nothing new. He’d heard it all at least a dozen times before. Paramount Pictures had owned the rights to Dark Alliance for a while before Universal Studios took it on.

“I stopped expecting it,” said Eric.

Webb’s ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too.

“I’d get discouraged,” she said, “but I never really gave up hope.”

Things finally took off about eight years ago, when screenwriter Peter Landesman called author Schou, now managing editor at the OC Weekly, about his not-yet-published book about Webb. Landesman was hot to write a screenplay about Webb’s story, said Schou.

It was years later when Landesman showed the screenplay to Renner, whose own production company, The Combine, decided to co-produce it. Focus Features, which is owned by Universal, now has worldwide rights to the movie.

“When Jeremy Renner got involved,” said Schou, “everything started rolling.”

It was the summer of 2013 when Stokes and Webb’s children—Eric, his older brother Ian and younger sister Christine—flew to Atlanta for three days on the film company’s dime to see a scene being shot.

“The first thing [Renner] did when he saw us was come up and give us hugs and introduce himself,” said Eric. “He called us ‘bud’ and ‘kiddo’ like my dad used to. . . . He even had the tucked in shirt with no belt, like my dad used to wear. And I was like,

‘Man, you nailed that.'”

The scene the family watched being filmed, according to Stokes, was the one where Webb’s Mercury News editors tell him “they were gonna back down from the story.”

“I was sitting there watching and thinking back to the morning before that meeting,” said Stokes. “Gary was getting nervous [that day]. He said, ‘I guess I should wear a tie and jacket’ to this one. He was nervous but hopeful that they would let him move forward with the story.”

Of course, they did not.

After a pause, Stokes said: “It was hard watching that scene and remembering the emotions of that day.”

Just a few months ago, in June, Webb’s family flew to Santa Monica to see the film’s final cut at the Focus Features studio. All were thoroughly impressed with the film and the acting. “Jeremy Renner watched our home videos,” said Eric. “He studied all these little words and gestures that my dad used to do—he did them. I felt like I was watching my dad.”

When asked how playing the role of Gary Webb compared to his usual action-adventure parts (such as in The Bourne Legacy), Renner said it was like “apples and oranges” to compare the two, but then admitted, “I can say this one was more emotionally challenging.”

Renner laughed when asked about the impressive cast he’d managed to round up for a comparatively low-budget movie and how he was “going to be washing a whole lot of people’s cars and doing their laundry.”

Stokes has no regrets about the film.

“Seeing a chapter of your life, with its highs and lows, depicted on the big screen is something you never think is going to happen to you,” she said. “It was all very emotional.”

“But I loved the movie. And the kids were very happy with how it vindicated their father.”

Said Renner, “If [the family gets] closure or anything like that … that’s amazing.”

‘I’ve shot that gun
so I know’

It was an otherwise routine Friday morning in December 2004 when Eric Webb was called out of class at Rio Americano High School. The then 16-year-old was put on the phone with his mother, who told him he needed to leave campus immediately and go straight to his grandmother’s house.

“I told her, ‘I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what happened,'” said Eric. So she told him about his dad.

“He killed himself,” she said.

Eric had the family BMW that day, so he floored it over to his father’s Carmichael home—the one his dad had been scheduled to clear out of that very day. Webb had just sold it with the alleged plan of saving money by moving into his mother’s home nearby.

“I needed a visual confirmation for myself,” said Eric. He pulled up to the house and saw a note in his dad’s handwriting on the door. It read, “Do not enter, please call the police.” Eric went inside and saw the blood, “but his body had already been taken,” he said.

For his children and Stokes, nothing was ever the same. And almost 10 years later, questions still reverberate around Gary Webb’s death.

It’s clear from all who knew him well that he suffered from severe depression. Some—like Stokes—believe in retrospect that Webb was also likely ill with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. Still, why did he do it? What makes a man feel despair enough to take his own life?

After leaving the Mercury News in ’97, Webb couldn’t get hired at a daily. After writing his book, he eventually found a position working for the California Legislature’s task force on government oversight. When he lost that job in February 2004, a depression he’d fought off for a long while settled in, said Stokes.

Though divorced in 2000, the couple remained friendly. On the day that would have been their 25th anniversary, he turned to her, utterly distraught, after hearing he’d lost the job.

“He was crying, ‘I lost my job, what am I gonna do?'” she said. He knew the development would make it tough to stay in Sacramento near his children. She urged him to regroup and apply again at daily newspapers. Surely, she thought, the controversy over his series would have waned by now.

But when Webb applied, not even interviews were offered.

“Nobody would hire him,” she said. “He got more and more depressed. He was on antidepressants, but he stopped taking them in the spring,” said Stokes. “They weren’t making him feel any better.”

It was August when Webb finally got work as a reporter at SN&R. Though he hadn’t set out to work in the world of weekly journalism, with its lesser pay and more hit-and-miss prestige, he was a productive member of the staff until near the end. During his short time with SN&R, he wrote a few searing cover stories, including “The Killing Game,” about the U.S. Army using first-person shooter video games as a recruitment tool.

In fact, Eric edited a book in 2011 for Seven Stories Press, The Killing Game, that included 11 stories his father had written for various publications, including SN&R. “I was always happy to see his covers,” said Eric, attending high school at the time. “We got SN&R on our campus, and I would be like, “Hey, my dad’s on the front page. That’s awesome.'”

It was the morning of Dec. 10 when SN&R‘s editorial assistant Kel Munger entered Editor Tom Walsh’s office with word that Gary’s son had just called saying, “Somebody needs to tell the boss that my dad killed himself.”

Within a few hours, SN&R was fielding press calls from all around the country, said Munger. A week later, it was she who had the thankless job of cleaning out Webb’s work cubicle so as to pass his belongings on to his ex-wife and kids. “There was bundled-up research material, a bunch of Detroit hockey paraphernalia, photos of his kids. . . . I remember he had a 2004 Investigative Reporter’s Handbook with Post-it notes throughout.”

“I was having a hard time keeping it together,” said Munger. “Like everyone else, I’d been looking forward to getting to know him.”

In the days following his death, the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office came out with a preliminary finding that was meant to cease the flood of calls to his office. The report “found no sign of forced entry or struggle” and stated the cause of death as “self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head.”

But it was too late to stop the conspiracy theorists. The CIA wanted Webb dead, they hypothesized, so the agency must have put a “hit” out on him. To this day, the Internet is full of claims that Webb was murdered. The fact that Webb had fired two shots into his own head didn’t dampen the conjectures.

Said Eric, “The funny part is, never once has anybody from the conspiracy side every contacted us and said, ‘Do you think your dad was murdered?'”

The family knew what Webb had been through; they knew he had been fighting acute depression. They learned he’d purchased cremation services and put his bank account in his ex-wife’s name. They knew that the day before his suicide he had mailed letters, sent to his brother Kurt in San Jose, that contained personal messages to each family member.

Receiving the letters “was actually a big relief for us,” said Eric. “We knew it was him. They were typed by him and in his voice. It was so apparent. The things he knew, nobody else would know. . . . He even recommended books for me to read.”

According to Eric, the “two gunshots” issue is “very explainable,” because the revolver Webb had fired into his head, a .38 Special police edition his Marine father had owned, has double action that doesn’t require a shooter to re-cock to take a second shot. “I’ve shot that gun so I know,” said Eric, who said his father taught him to shoot on a camping trip. “Once you cock the trigger, it goes ‘bang’ real easily. “

In Kill the Messenger, Webb’s death goes unmentioned until after the final scene, when closing words roll onto the screen. Renner said he felt it would have been a disservice to the viewer to “weigh in too heavy” with details of the death. Including Webb’s demise would have “raised a lot of questions and taken away from his legacy,” he said.

‘Stand up and risk
it all’

It was eight days after Webb’s death when a few hundred of us gathered in Sacramento Doubletree Hotel’s downstairs conference room for an afternoon memorial service. Photo collages of Webb were posted on tables as mourners filed into the room. There he was on his prized red, white and blue motorcycle. There he was camping with his children. There he was featured in an Esquire magazine article recounting his saga. Family members and friends, longtime colleagues and SN&R staffers packed into the room.

My own distress at Webb’s passing wasn’t fully realized until my eyes lit on his Pulitzer Prize propped on a table just inside the entryway. It was the first one I’d ever seen. I wondered how many more exceptional stories he could have produced if things had gone differently.

“He wanted to write for one of the big three,” said Webb’s brother Kurt. “Unfortunately, the big three turned [on him].”

Praise for the absent journalist—his smarts, guts and tenacity—flowed from friends, colleagues and VIPs at the event. A statement from now U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, then a senator, had been emailed to SN&R: “Because of [Webb]’s work, the CIA launched an Inspector General’s investigation that found dozens of troubling connections to drug runners. That wouldn’t have happened if Gary Webb hadn’t been willing to stand up and risk it all.”

And Rep. Waters, who spent two years following up on Webb’s findings, wrote a statement calling him “one of the finest investigative journalists our country has ever seen.”

When Hollywood weighs in on the Webb saga, the storm that surrounded him in life will probably be recycled in the media and rebooted on the internet, with old and new media journalists, scholars and conspiracy theorists weighing in from all sides.

But the film itself is an utter vindication of Webb’s work.

Renner was hesitant to say if those who watch Kill the Messenger will leave with any particular take-home lesson. “I want the audience to walk away and debate and argue about it all,” he said of his David and Goliath tale. And then, “I do believe [the film] might help create some awareness and accountability in government and newspapers.”

And what would the real-life protagonist of Kill the Messenger have thought of it all? It’s at least certain he’d have been unrepentant. In the goodbye letter his ex-wife received on the day of his suicide, Gary Webb told her:

“Tell them I never regretted anything I wrote.”

Melinda Welsh is a writer for the Sacramento News & Review where this story was originally published.

Not Run of the Mill

-
0
Not Run of the Mill

The Mill Valley Film Festival is in full swing this week, attracting large crowds to the town’s picturesque streets. The festival-goers come expecting Mount Tam views and high-end boutiques, but a vinyl-spinning, buzzing restaurant with a line at the door might come as a surprise. That would be Molina—opening merely half a year ago and already a bona fide hit.

With its indie playlist, offbeat design touches and a wood burning stove for a centerpiece, Molina, in many ways is the brick-and-mortar manifestation of its chef and operating owner Todd Shoberg. The white wood and the furry throws convey his Scandinavian heritage, while the quirky paintings add whimsy to the minimalism. The much talked-about daily playlist, courtesy of the record stacks in the kitchen, is printed and brought with the menu, and goes well with his tattooed persona and the waiting staff’s denim aprons and striped shirts. There’s also the combination of rebellion and no-frills seriousness, in everything from the vibe to the food.

“There’s a very rich and funky culture here people tend to forget about”, says Shoberg. When asked about this untypical atmosphere. “The beat poets, Jack Kerouac, The Grateful Dead played their first gig here. A lot of people that didn’t have the cookie-cutter life and came here for the same reasons I did—the woods, the mountain, the magical weather.”

He worked in a number of San Francisco restaurants before joining Piatti in Mill Valley and then transferring to consult and manage the whole Moana restaurant group, to which Piatti and Molina belong. This is his big return to the kitchen, “a dream come true,” and the menu projects his excitement, as well as years of experience and a love for fresh tastes and ingredients.

Shoberg comes up with the dishes the day before, sometimes adding and improvising with his chef de cuisine right before the service, basing his creative punches on local ingredients and the mood. Flipping records and incorporating local ingredients to create “coastal Northern California cuisine,” he’s trying to bring Mill Valley “back to its roots,” to unbutton the neat and structured restaurant scene and bring in a curated experience of “a dinner party in our kitchen.”

The name of the restaurant has everything to do with it—Jason Molina, the late Chicago musician, is Shoberg’s favorite, and while researching ithe surname he discovered it means “miller” or “mill operator.”

“We’re all Molina here, from the diner to the dishwasher, one big family,” he says.

This loose and familiar attitude attracts the crowds, be it sophisticated city diners or local foodies looking for an adventure. It’s not for everyone, but it’s definitely working. Ordering from the short, 11-dish menu is as entertaining as playing a guessing game with the background music or overhearing the waitress calling a gray haired diner “girl.” Unconventional combinations are key, but the dishes are no-frills delicious and, even more surprisingly for such a hyped-up place, reward the diner with quite filling portions.

Take the olives for example—this seemingly cliché ingredient makes two appearances in the refreshing appetizers section, and lets each dish shine. Green olives add surprising smokiness to the watermelon and feta salad and make for an addictive taste. Black olives infuse salty undertones into the zesty squid dish, complimenting the cherry tomatoes and the crunchy greens. Other vegetables get a chance to sparkle as the dinner progresses to entrees—fennel lends its distinct aroma to the very precise, indulgent seafood stew, with juicy prawns, mussels and manila clams swimming in rich broth. This dish is a classic, proving Shoberg is both grounded and improvisational.

The off-beat experimentalism is back, however, with the trout. Adorned with brown butter apples, bacon and chanterelles, it posed endless questions about the perfect bite. The desserts, on the other hand, are comforting and straightforward—apple ‘pop tarts’, delicate poached quince with crème fraiche and caramelized hazelnuts provide an honest balance of tart, sweet and crunchy. Molina maybe be wild at heart, but Shoberg has something for everyone, from the retired lady on a lunch date, to an ex-beatnik to the modern day hip girl and her friends.

Best Of Times

-
0
Best Of Times

Fall has descended on the North Bay. The mornings are crisp, the sky is a deep blue and the ocean is groomed by offshore breezes. Grape vines are turning yellow and the crop is in. Kids are back in school and crowded weekend attractions are now the domain of appreciative locals. Fall is my favorite time of year in the North Bay hands down. But then again, the rest of year is pretty great here, too.

All throughout the year, the North Bay has a lot to offer—good food, good weather, natural beauty, fine wine, and a vibrant and varied economy. It’s hard to single out what makes the North Bay the destination it is, but each week we try. Part of my job at the Bohemian is to tell stories about the experiences, people and places that contribute to the quality of life here. We do that in a big way with our annual Best Of issue by relying on our best source for what’s new and great in the North Bay—you.

We’ve been celebrating the North Bay for nearly 20 years and we’re gearing up for our 2015 Best Of issue now. The Best Of handbook you hold in your hands serves as a reminder of last year’s winners—great independent bookstores, choice eateries, neighborhood boutiques and praiseworthy people that make the North Bay what it is. Read it for inspiration as you select and share your best of picks for this year. —Stett Holbrook

Culture

Best Art Gallery

Marin

Gallery Route One

11101 Hwy. 1, Ste. 101, Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.1347.

Napa

Slack Art Collective

964 Pearl St., Ste. B., Napa. 707.344.7133

Sonoma

Sebastopol Gallery

150 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.829.7200.

Honorable Mention

Sebastopol Center
for the Arts

282 S. High St., Sebastopol.
707.829.4797.

Best Museum

Marin

Bolinas Museum

48 Wharf Road, Bolinas.
415.868.0330.

Napa

Napa Valley Museum

55 President’s Circle, Yountville.
707.944.0500.

Sonoma

Charles M. Schulz Museum

2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa.
707.579.4452.

Honorable Mention

Sonoma County Museum

425 Seventh St., Santa Rosa.
707.579.1500.

Best Outdoor Art Event

Marin

Sausalito Art Festival

www.sausalitoartfestival.org

Napa

Riverfront
Chalk Festival

588 Main St., Napa.

Sonoma

ARTRAILS Open Studios

www.artrails.org

Honorable Mention

Bodega Seafood Art
& Wine Festival

www.winecountryfestivals.com

Best Movie Theater

Marin

Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center

1118 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.454.1222.

Napa

Cameo Cinema

1340 Main St., St. Helena.
707.963.9779.

Sonoma

Rialto Cinemas

6868 McKinley St., Sebastopol.
707.525.4840.

Honorable Mention

Summerfield Cinemas

551 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa.
707.522.0719.

Best Film Festival

Marin

Mill Valley
Film Festival

www.mvff.com

Napa

Napa Valley
Film Festival

www.napavalleyfilmfest.org

Sonoma

Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival

www.sebastopolfilmfestival.org

Honorable Mention

Sonoma International Film Festival

www.sonomafilmfest.org

Best Ballet Company

Marin

Marin Ballet Co.

100 Elm St., San Rafael.
415.453.6705.

Napa

Napa Valley
Dance Center

950 Pearl St., Napa.
707.255.2701.

Sonoma

Sebastopol Ballet

390 Morris St., Sebastopol.
707.824.8006.

Honorable Mention

Petaluma City Ballet

110 Howard St., Petaluma.
707.765.2660.

Best Performing Dance Company

Marin

Stapleton School
of the Performing Arts

118 Greenfield Ave., San Anselmo.
415.454.5759.

Napa

Napa Valley
Dance Center

950 Pearl St., Napa.
707.255.2701.

Sonoma

Sebastopol
Ballet School

390 Morris St., Sebastopol.
707.824.8006.

Honorable Mention

Risk Dance Company

riskdance.wix.com/risk-dance-company

Best Dance Studio

Marin

Roco Dance
& Fitness

237 Shoreline Hwy., Mill Valley.
415.388.6786.

Napa

Napa Valley
Dance Center

950 Pearl St., Napa.
707.255.2701.

Sonoma

Move2Change

6780 Depot St., Sebastopol.
707.823.1074.

Honorable Mention

The Dance Center

56 W. Sixth St., Santa Rosa.
707.575.8277.

Best Place
to Dance

Marin

George’s Nightclub

842 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.226.0262.

Napa

Empire Napa

1400 First St., Napa.
707.254.8888.

Sonoma

Hopmonk Tavern

230 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol.
707.829.7300.

691 Broadway Ave., Sonoma.
707.935.9100.

Honorable Mention

Ellington Hall

3535 Industrial Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.545.6150.

Best Media Personality

Marin

Lyons Filmer,
KWMR 90.5-FM & 89.9-FM

State Route 1, Ste. 1, Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.8068.

Napa

Bob St. Laurent,
KVYN 99.3-FM

1124 Foster Road, Napa.
707.257.8463.

Sonoma

Brent Farris,
KZST 100.1-FM

3392 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.528.4434.

Honorable Mention

Bill Bowker,
KRSH 95.9-FM

3565 Standish Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.588.0707.

Best Festival

Marin

Fairfax Festival

www.fairfaxfestival.com

Napa

Napa Valley
Film Festival

www.napavalleyfilmfest.org

Sonoma

Sebastopol Apple Blossom Festival

www.sebastopol.org

Honorable Mention

Rivertown Revival

www.rivertownrevival.com

Best Music Festival

Marin

KWMR Far West Fest

State Route 1, Ste. 1, Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.8068.

Napa

BottleRock

www.bottlerocknapavalley.com

Sonoma

Russian River Jazz
& Blues Festival

www.omegaevents.com

Honorable Mention

Petaluma Music Festival

www.petalumamusicfestival.org

Best Charity Event

Marin

Gallery Route One’s Latino Photography Project

11101 Hwy. 1, Ste. 101, Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.1347.

Napa

Auction Napa Valley

www.auctionnapavalley.org

Sonoma

Calabash! (Food
for Thought)

PO Box 1608, Forestville.
707.887.1647.

Honorable Mention

Human Race

www.volunteernow.org

Best Performing Arts Center

Marin

Marin Center

10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael.
415.473.6800.

Napa

Napa Valley
Opera House

1030 Main St., Napa.
707.226.7372.

Sonoma

Wells Fargo Center
for the Arts

50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa.
707.546.3600.

Honorable Mention

Green Music Center

1801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park.
866.955.6040.

Best Theater Troupe

Marin

Marin Shakespeare Co.

890 Belle Ave., San Rafael. 415.499.4488.

Napa

Lucky Penny Productions

www.luckypennynapa.com

Sonoma

6th Street Playhouse

52 W. Sixth St., Santa Rosa.
707.523.4185.

Honorable Mention

The Imaginists

461 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.528.7554.

Best Band

Marin

Soul Pie Band

www.soulpie.com

Napa

Voltones

www.voltones.com

Sonoma

Wonderbread 5

www.wonderbread5.com

Honorable Mention

Pat Jordan Band

www.patjordanband.com

Best Music Venue

Marin

Sweetwater Music Hall

19 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley.
415.388.1100.

Napa

Uptown Theatre

1350 Third St., Napa. 707.259.0123.

Sonoma

Hopmonk Tavern

230 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol.
707.829.7300.

691 Broadway Ave., Sonoma.
707.935.9100.

Honorable Mention

Mystic Theatre

23 N. Petaluma Blvd., Petaluma.
707.765.9211.

Everyday

Best Antique Shop

Marin

Dove Place Antiques

306 Sir Francis Drake Blvd.,
San Anselmo. 415.453.1490.

Napa

Antiques on Second

1370 Second St., Napa. 707.252.6353.

Sonoma

Whistlestop Antiques

130 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.542.9474.

Honorable Mention

Food for Thought Antiques

2701 Gravenstein Hwy. S., Sebastopol.
707.823.3101.

Best Resale Store

Marin

Yeah Baby!

1830 Sir Francis Drake Blvd.,
Fairfax. 415.459.4493.

Napa

LoLo’s

1120 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.7972.

Sonoma

Launch

971 Gravenstein Hwy. S., Sebastopol.
707.829.3312.

Honorable Mention

Pine Grove
General Store

149 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.829.1138.

Best Pawn Shop

Sonoma

Santa Rosa Pawn Shop

1831 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa.
707.872.7296.

Honorable Mention

Liberal Loan Pawn

611 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 707.528.1380.

Best Art Supply Store

Marin

RileyStreet Art Supply

1138 Fourth St., San Rafael.415.457.2787.

Napa

Napa Valley Art Supplies

3250 California Blvd., Napa.
707.224.2775.

Sonoma

Rileystreet
Art Suppy

103 Maxwell Court, Santa Rosa.
707.526.2416.

Honorable Mention

Art & Soul
of Sebastopol

156 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.824.4837.

Best Framing Shop

Marin

Ringseis Designs

1824 Sir Frances Drake Blvd., Fairfax.
415.456.8121.

Napa

Fastframe Napa

1346 Trancas St., Napa.
707.226.3422.

Sonoma

My Daughter
the Framer

637 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.542.3599.

Honorable Mention

Frame of Mind

6671 Front St., Forestville.
707.887.8530.

Best Gift Shop

Marin

Herban Garden

15 Bolinas Road, Fairfax.
415.453.7109.

Napa

Napa Valley
Traditions

1202 Main St., Napa.
707.226.2044.

Sonoma

Milk & Honey

123 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.824.1155.

Honorable Mention

Kindred Fair Trade Handcrafts

605 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.579.1459.

Best Bookstore-New

Marin

Book Passage

51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera.
415.927.0960.

Napa

Copperfield’s Books

3740 Bel Aire Plaza, Napa.
707.252.8002.

1330 Lincoln St., Calistoga.
707.942.1616.

Sonoma

Copperfield’s Books

140 Kentucky St., Petaluma.
707.762.0563.

775 Village Court, Santa Rosa.
707.578.8938.

138 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.823.2618.

Honorable Mention

Levin & Company

306 Center St., Healdsburg. 707.433.1118.

Best Bookstore-Used

Marin

Rebound Bookstore

1611 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.482.0550.

Napa

Napa Bookmine

964 Pearl St., Napa. 707.733.3199.

Sonoma

Copperfield’s Books

140 Kentucky St., Petaluma.
707.762.0563.

Honorable Mention

Treehorn Books

625 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.525.1782.

Best Musical Instruments Store

Marin

Bananas at Large

1504 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.457.7600.

Napa

Napa Music Supply

2026 Redwood Road, Napa.
707.265.8275.

Sonoma

People’s Music

122 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.823.7664.

Honorable Mention

Tall Toad Music

43 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma.
707.765.6807.

Best Record/
CD Store

Marin

Red Devil Records

894 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.457.8999.

Sonoma

Last Record Store

1899 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.525.1963.

Best Jewelry Store

Marin

Point Reyes Jeweler

11101 Hwy. 1, Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.1936.

Napa

Napa Valley Jewelers

1317 Napa Town Center, Napa.
707.224.0997.

Sonoma

Artisana

146 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.829.3036.

Honorable Mention

E.R. Sawyer Jewelers

638 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.657.4004.

Best Knitting/Craft Shop

Marin

Dharma Trading Company

1604 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.456.1211.

Napa

Yarns on First

1305 First St., Napa. 707.257.1363.

Sonoma

Cast Away & Folk

100 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.546.9276.

Honorable Mention

Yarnitudes

3598 Gravenstein Hwy., Sebastopol. .707.827.3618.

Best Clothing Store-Men’s

Marin

Louis Thomas
Fine Men’s Apparel

211 Corte Madera Town Center, Corte Madera.
415.924.1715.

Napa

Mario’s

1223 Main St., St Helena.
707.963.1603.

Sonoma

Kaliber

315 D St., Santa Rosa.
707.528.0182.

Honorable Mention

Louis Thomas
Fine Men’s Apparel

150 Kentucky St., Petaluma.
707.765.1715.

Best Clothing Store-Women’s

Marin

Susan Hayes Handwovens

80 Fourth St., Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.8057.

Napa

Miyamo

1128 First St., Napa.
707.251.9058.

Sonoma

Punch

711 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.526.4766.

Honorable Mention

Dressers

145 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.829.8757.

Best Vintage Clothing Store

Marin

Stella’s Fine Consignments

224 Greenfield Ave. #3,
San Anselmo. 415.453.6191.

Napa

Wildcat Vintage Clothing

1210 First St., Napa.
707.224.3162.

Sonoma

Aubergine

755 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol.
707.827.3460.

Honorable Mention

Haute Couture

101 Third St., Santa Rosa.
707.528.7247.

Best Shoe Store

Marin

Sole Desire

184 Bon Air Center, Greenbrae.
415.419.8130.

5800 Northgate Mall, San Rafael.
415.472.1202.

Napa

Shoes on First

1209 First St., Napa. 707.252.7280.

Sonoma

Sole Desire

710 Farmers Lane, Santa Rosa.
707.571.8643.

2411 Magowan Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.542.1690.

176 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.634.7401.

11 E. Napa St., Sonoma. 707.931.0357.

500 W. Napa St., Sonoma. 707.933.1702.

Honorable Mention

Santa Rosa Shoes

2255 Cleveland Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.546.1083.

Best Appliance/Kitchen Design

Marin

Martin & Harris Appliances

2158 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.454.2021.

Napa

Spice Islands Marketplace

2555 Main St., St. Helena. 707.967.1100.

Sonoma

TeeVax

422 Wilson St., Santa Rosa.
707.545.1195.

Honorable Mention

Asien’s Appliance

1801 Piner Road, Santa Rosa.
707.546.3749.

Best Furniture/Home Furnishings

Marin

Sunrise Home

831 B St., San Rafael. 415.456.3939.

Napa

Definitely Different

2977 Solano Ave., Napa. 707.252.8015.

Sonoma

Cokas Diko

529 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.568.4044.

Honorable Mention

Pedersen’s Furniture

707 Fifth St., Santa Rosa.
707.542.1855.

Best Home Improvement

Marin

Pini Hardware

1535 S. Novato Ave., Novato.
415.892.1577.

Napa

Silverado Ace Hardware

1450 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga.
707.942.4396.

Sonoma

Friedman’s Home Improvement

4055 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.584.7811.

1360 Broadway Ave., Sonoma.
707.939.8811.

Honorable Mention

Sebastopol Ace Hardware

660 Gravenstein Hwy. N., Sebastopol.
707.823.7688.

Best Solar Retail

Marin

Sun First!

3060 Kerner Blvd., San Rafael.
415.458.5870.

Sonoma

Solar Works

400 Morris St., Sebastopol. 707.829.8282.

Honorable Mention

Gaia Energy Systems

716 College Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.272.8136.

Best Wi-fi
Hot Spot

Marin

Equator Coffee

115 Jordan St., San Rafael. 415.485.2213.

244 & 254 Shoreline Hwy.,
Mill Valley. 415.380.8900.

Napa

Molinaris

815 Main St., Napa. 707.927.3623.

Sonoma

Taylor Maid Farms

6790 McKinley St., Ste 130, Sebastopol.
707.634.7129.

Honorable Mention

Infusions Tea House

6988 McKinley St., Sebastopol.
707.829.1181.

Best Auto Dealer-New

Marin

Toyota of Marin

445 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael.
415.456.7071.

Napa

Jimmy Vasser Toyota
& Chevrolet of Napa

466 & 583 Soscol Ave., Napa. 707.927.4466.

Sonoma

Hansel Auto Group

www.hanselauto.com

Honorable Mention

Freeman Toyota

2875 Corby Ave., Santa Rosa.
800.225.3055.

Best Auto Dealer-
Pre-Owned

Marin

Toyota of Marin

445 Francisco Blvd. East., San Rafael.
415.456.7071.

Napa

Greenberg’s

784 Soscol Ave., Napa. 707.257.1565.

Sonoma

Hansel Auto Group

www.hanselauto.com

Honorable Mention

Manly Automotive Group

www.manlyauto.com

Best Motorcycle Shop

Marin

Hattar Motorsports

137 Front St., San Rafael.
415.456.3345.

Napa

Cross Town Cycles

1739 Action Ave., Napa.
707.251.9622.

Sonoma

Michael’s Harley-Davidson

7601 Redwood Drive, Cotati.
707.793.9180.

Honorable Mention

The Motorcycle Shop

3383 Airway Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.578.6686.

Best Scooter Shop

Sonoma

Revolution Moto

518 College Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.523.2371.

Honorable Mention

G & B Motorsports

326 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma.
707.763.4658.

Best Auto Detailing

Marin

Royal Coach Carwash

990 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael.
415.454.5660.

Napa

Rico’s Auto Detailing

1538 Third St., Napa. 707.252.8366.

Sonoma

Advanced Auto
Glass & Detail

2460 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.876.7434.

Honorable Mention

Autosport Detailing

1945 Cleveland Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.579.3710.

Best Auto Repair

Marin

Codoni’s
Auto Service

46 Hamilton Drive, Novato.
415.883.4448.

Napa

Zeller’s Auto Repair

17320 Yajome St., Napa.
707.252.6567.

Sonoma

Out West Garage

321 Second St., Petaluma.
707.769.0162.

Honorable Mention

Green Tech Automotive

501 Barham Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.545.7076.

Best Nursery

Marin

Sunnyside Nursery

130 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo.
415.453.2701.

Napa

Van Winden’s

1805 Pueblo Ave., Napa.
707.255.8400.

Sonoma

Harmony
Farm Supply

3244 Gravenstein Hwy. N., Sebastopol.
707.823.9125.

Honorable Mention

King’s Nursery

1212 13th St., Santa Rosa.
707.542.4782.

Best Hydroponic Supply Store

Marin

Marin Hydroponics

55 Frosty Lane, Novato.
415.233.4104.

721 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael.
415.482.8802.

Napa

Endless Green

55 Enterprise Court, Ste. 2, Napa.
707.254.0200.

Sonoma

Santa Rosa Hydroponics

4880 Sonoma Hwy., Santa Rosa.
707.595.1340.

4130 S. Moorland Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.584.9370.

Honorable Mention

Hydro Depot

13 W. Third St., Santa Rosa.
707.542.3866.

5665 Redwood Drive, Rohnert Park.
707.584.2384.

6731 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol.
707.829.1510.

Best Grocery Store

Marin

Good Earth Natural Foods

720 Center Blvd., Fairfax.
415.454.0123.

Napa

Vallerga’s Market

3385 Solono Ave., Napa.
707.253.2621.

Sonoma

Oliver’s Market

546 E. Cotati Ave., Cotati.
707.950.9501.

560 Montecito Center, Santa Rosa.
707.537.7123.

461 Stony Point Road, Santa Rosa.
707.284.3530.

Honorable Mention

Community Market

1899 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.546.1806.

6762 Sebastopol Ave. #100, Sebastopol.
707.407.4020.

Best Ethnic Market

Marin

Mi Pueblo Food Center

330 Bellam Blvd., San Rafael.
415.578.3971.

Napa

Morenita

2434 Jefferson St., Napa.
707.255.9068.

Sonoma

Lola’s Market

www.lolasmarkets.com

Honorable Mention

Asia Mart

2481 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa.
707.542.3513.

Best Natural Foods Store

Marin

Good Earth Natural Foods

720 Center Blvd., Fairfax.
415.454.0123.

Napa

Golden Carrot
Natural Foods

1621 W. Imola Ave., Napa.
707.224.3117.

Sonoma

Community Market

1899 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.546.1806.

6762 Sebastopol Ave. #100, Sebastopol.
707.407.4020.

Honorable Mention

Oliver’s Market

546 E. Cotati Ave., Cotati.
707.950.9501.

560 Montecito Center, Santa Rosa.
707.537.7123.

461 Stony Point Road, Santa Rosa.
707.284.3530.

Best
Culinary Store

Marin

Tyler Florence

59 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley.
415.380.9200.

Napa

Shackford’s
Kitchen Store

1350 Main St., Napa.
707.226.2132.

Sonoma

Cultivate

186 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.824.1400.

Honorable Mention

i Leoni

120 Kentucky Ave., Petaluma.
707.762.9611.

Best Pipe Shop

Marin

The Mighty Quinn

1099 Fourth St. #G, San Rafael.
415.457.2420.

Napa

The Mighty Quinn

110 Soscol Ave., Napa.
707.226.7420.

Sonoma

Peacepipe

622 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.541.7016.

8492 Gravenstein Hwy., Ste. C, Cotati.
707.795.6420.

Honorable Mention

The Mighty Quinn

3372 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.545.4975.

16 Western Ave., Petaluma.
707.762.9420.

Best Hair Salon

Marin

Elements Salon

447 Miller Ave., Mill Valley.
415.381.4247.

Napa

Vanity for Guys & Dolls

920 Franklin St., Napa.
707.258.8537.

Sonoma

Daredevils & Queens

122 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.575.5123.

Honorable Mention

Brush the Salon

322 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg.
707.431.1400.

Best Nail Salon

Marin

Three Sisters

963 Grand Ave., San Rafael.
415.454.9662.

Napa

Napa Nails

1415 Second St., Napa.
707.224.4599.

Sonoma

Zen Nails & Day Spa

2330 Midway Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.545.5341.

Honorable Mention

Bella Mia Nail Studio

410 Petaluma Blvd. S., Petaluma.
707.778.8959.

Best Skin
Care Services

Marin

EVO Spa

800 Redwood Hwy., Ste. 216,
Mill Valley. 415.383.3223.

Napa

Pure Skin Spa

1401 Lincoln Ave., Napa.
707.738.9511.

Sonoma

Bliss Organic Day Spa

186 N. Main St. #230, Sebastopol.
707.861.3434.

Honorable Mention

Kokeshi—
A Zen Facial Spa

1311 W. Steele Lane, Ste. B, Santa Rosa.
707.591.6732.

Best Body-
Art Place

Marin

Spider Murphy’s

1006 Lincoln Ave., San Rafael. 415.460.6979.

Napa

The Golden Owl Tattoo

926 Franklin St., Napa. 707.266.2454.

Sonoma

Buddha’s Palm
Tattoo Gallery

313 Main St., Sebastopol. 707.829.7256.

Honorable Mention

Faith Tattoo

600 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.566.9955.

Best Day Spa

Marin

EVO Spa

800 Redwood Hwy., Ste. 216, Mill Valley.
415.383.3223.

Napa

Spa Solage

755 Silverado Trail, Calistoga. 707.226.0800.

Sonoma

Osmosis Day Spa Sanctuary

209 Bohemian Hwy., Freestone. 707.823.8231.

Honorable Mention

Bliss Organic Day Spa

186 N. Main St. #230, Sebastopol.
707.861.3434.

Best Resort
& Spa

Napa

Bardessono

6526 Yount St., Yountville. 707.204.6000.

Sonoma

Flamingo Conference Resort & Spa

2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.545.8530.

Honorable Mention

Hotel Healdsburg

25 Matheson St., Healdsburg. 707.431.2800.

Best Acupuncturist

Marin

Community Acupuncture of Marin

7075 Redwood Blvd., Ste. H, Novato. 415.250.4009.

Napa

Concordia
Natural Medicine

1834 First St., Napa.
707.260.4794.

Sonoma

The Saxena Clinic

633 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.575.4826.

Honorable Mention

Sebastopol Community Acupuncture

876 Gravenstein Hwy. S., Sebastopol.
707.823.2217.

Best Herbal Clinic

Marin

Community Acupuncture of Marin

7075 Redwood Blvd., Ste. H, Novato.
415.250.4009.

Napa

Chinese Acupuncture
& Herbal Clinic

3091 Solano Ave., Napa.
707.255.5152.

Sonoma

Farmacopia

95 Montgomery Drive, Ste. 90,
Santa Rosa. 707.528.4372.

Honorable Mention

dhyana Center

186 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.823.8818.

Best Medical Dispensary

Marin

Delta Delivery

www.freemedicalcannabisdelivery.org

Napa

Sunshine Vitality

su******************@***il.com

Sonoma

Peace in Medicine

6771 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol.
707.823.4206.

1061 N. Dutton Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.843.3227.

Honorable Mention

Green Light Alternatives

www.greenlightalternatives.com

Best Chiropractor

Marin

Schillinger Chiropractic

1050 Northgate Drive, Ste. 1, San Rafael.
415.491.0959.

Napa

Ryan Lazarus,
Lazarus Chiropractic Inc.

1734 Jefferson St., Napa. 707.224.2283.

Sonoma

Jake Quihuis,
the Chiropractic Center

1819 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.523.9850.

Honorable Mention

Ben Spencer,
Wellness Chiropractic

635 Fifth St., Santa Rosa.
707.575.8988.

Best Orthodontist

Marin

Don Wilson,
Wilson Orthodontics

7250 Redwood Blvd. #107, Novato.
415.878.0240.

Napa

Napa Valley Orthodontics

3303 Villa Lane, Napa. 707.254.0404.

Sonoma

Bernstein Orthodontics

2245 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.575.0600.

3835 Cypress Drive, Ste. 210, Petaluma.
707.559.2166.

8741 Brooks Road S., Windsor.
707.836.8360.

Honorable Mention

John Woo & Marc DeBerardinis, Petaluma Orthodontics

301 Washington St., Petaluma.
707.762.0211.

Best Esthetic Dentist

Marin

Holly Downes

7 N. Knoll Road, Mill Valley.
415.388.5151.

Napa

Vineyard Dental Napa

1103 Trancas St., Napa. 707.255.1172.

Sonoma

Sean Wilson

98 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.579.1555.

Honorable Mention

Lorraine Gock

3910 Princeton Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.546.9882.

Best Hospital/Health Care Clinic

Marin

Marin General Hospital

250 Bon Air Road, Greenbrae.
415.925.7000.

Napa

St. Helena Hospital

10 Woodland Road, St. Helena.
707.963.3611.

Sonoma

Kaiser Permanente

401 Bicentennial Way, Santa Rosa.
707.393.4000.

Honorable Mention

Sutter Medical Center

3325 Chanate Road, Santa Rosa.
707.576.4000.

Best Optical Store

Marin

20/20 Optical

1127 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.453.2020.

Napa

The Eyeworks

1328 Pearl St., Napa. 707.254.2020.

Sonoma

Sonoma Eyeworks

534 Larkfield Center, Santa Rosa.
707.578.2020.

Honorable Mention

Les Shipley & Associates

1430 Guerneville Road, Ste. 3, Santa Rosa.
707.525.9920.

Best Laser Surgery Center

Marin

Mt. Tam Laser & Skin Care

350 Bon Air Road #120, Greenbrae.
415.482.3888.

Sonoma

Walter Tom, Aesthetic Laser & Vein

70 Stony Point Road, Santa Rosa.
707.542.8346.

Honorable Mention

Victor Lacombe, Artemisia

1002 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.577.8292.

Best Plastic Surgeon

Marin

Kimberly Henry

350 Bon Air Road, Ste. 1, Greenbrae.
415.924.1313.

Napa

William J. McClure, Napa Valley Plastic Surgery

1175 Trancas St., Napa.
707.258.6053.

Sonoma

David E. Marcus

1128 Sonoma Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.575.1626.

Honorable Mention

Victor Lacombe, Artemedica

1002 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.577.8292.

Best Bank

Marin

Bank of Marin

1101 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.485.2265.

Napa

Bank of Napa

2007 Redwood Road, Ste. 101, Napa.
707.257.7777.

Sonoma

Exchange Bank

www.exchangebank.com

Honorable Mention

Summit State Bank

500 Bicentennial Way, Santa Rosa.
707.568.6100.

Best Credit Union

Marin

Redwood Credit Union

209 Third St., San Rafael.
800.479.7928.

1010 Grant Ave., Novato.
800.479.7928.

Napa

Redwood
Credit Union

1705 First St., Napa. 707.545.4000.

Sonoma

Redwood
Credit Union

1205 N. Dutton Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.545.4000.

2763 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.545.4000.

2360 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.545.4000.

Honorable Mention

Community First Credit Union

www.comfirstcu.org

Best Real Estate Agent/Company

Marin

W Real Estate

www.wrealestate.net

Napa

Gary K. Rose, Southeby’s

780 Trancas St., Napa.
707.256.2147.

Sonoma

Debbie Hegardt, Century 21 Alliance

1057 College Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.577.7777.

Honorable Mention

Meaghan Creedon, Bradley Real Estate

1401 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.280.4772.

Best Attorney

Marin

Howard Martha Attorney at Law

12783 Sir Frances Drake Blvd., Inverness.
415.669.1685.

Napa

Mary & Jason Luros, Hudson & Luros

1436 Second St., Napa.
707.418.5118.

Sonoma

Hansen & Miller
Law Firm

415 Russell Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.575.1040.

Honorable Mention

Law Offices of
Omar Figueroa

7770 Healdsburg Ave., Sebastopol.
707.829.0215.

Best Locally Made Retail Product

Marin

Cowgirl Creamery

80 Fourth St., Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.9335.

Napa

Napa Soap Company

651 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.5010.

Sonoma

Kozlowski Farms

5566 Gravenstein Hwy. N., Forestville.
800.473.2767.

Honorable Mention

Traditional
Medicinals Teas

4515 Ross Road, Sebastopol.
800.543.4372.

Best Nonprofit

Marin

CLAM of West Marin

www.clam-ptreyes.org

Napa

Feast It Forward

www.feastitforward.com

Sonoma

Ceres Community Project

7351 Bodega Ave., Sebastopol.
707.829.5833.

Honorable Mention

Food for Thought
Food Bank

PO Box 1608, Forestville. 707.887.1647.

Best Digital Creative Services

Sonoma

Zack Darling
Creative Associates

1049 Fourth St., Ste. B, Santa Rosa.
800.985.9322.

Sonoma

Honorable Mention

Net Visibility Solutions

5150 Commerce Blvd., Rohnert Park.
707.595.0450.

family

Best Baby
Gift Store

Marin

A Child’s Delight

190 Northgate One Shopping Center,
San Rafael. 415.499.0736.

105 Corte Madera Town Center,
Corte Madera. 415.945.9221.

Napa

Freckles Children’s Boutique

1309 Main St., St. Helena.
707.963.1201.

Sonoma

Cupcake Children
& Maternity

641 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.579.2165.

107 Plaza St., Healdsburg.
707.433.3800.

Honorable Mention

Reverie Baby

2417 Magowan Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.544.4630.

Best Toy Store

Marin

Five Little Monkeys

852 Grant Ave., Novato.
415.898.4411.

Napa

Toy B Ville

1343 Main St., Napa.
707.253.1024.

Sonoma

The Toyworks

531 College Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.526.2099.

6940 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol.
707.829.2003.

Honorable Mention

Kaleidoscope Toys

2421 Magowan Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.545.8697.

Best Kids’ Clothing Store

Napa

Freckles Children’s Boutique

1309 Main St., St. Helena.
707.963.1201.

Sonoma

Cupcake Children
& Maternity

641 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.579.2165.

107 Plaza St., Healdsburg.
707.433.3800.

Honorable Mention

Wee Three
Children’s Store

1007 W. College Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.525.9333.

Best Kids’ Consignment Store

Marin

Outgrown

1417 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.457.2219.

Napa

Anew Beginning

2475 Solano Ave., Napa.
707.226.3979.

Sonoma

Pixie Stix Kids Consignment

200 S. Main St., Ste. 120, Sebastopol.
707.824.1048.

Honorable Mention

Sweet Pea Children’s Boutique

70 W. Cotati Ave., Cotati.
707.794.1215.

Best Birthday Party Place

Marin

Revolution 9

14 Bolinas Road, Fairfax.
415.459.7999.

Napa

Rockzilla

849 Jackson St., Napa.
707.255.1500.

Sonoma

Pump It Up

3360 Coffey Lane, Santa Rosa.
707.545.3140.

Honorable Mention

Scandia Family
Fun Center

5301 Redwood Drive, Rohnert Park.
707.584.7298.

Best Imagination Center

Marin

Bay Area Discovery Museum

557 McReynolds Road, Sausalito.
415.339.3900.

Napa

Nimbus Arts

649 Main St., St Helena.
707.963.5278.

Sonoma

Children’s Museum
of Sonoma County

1835 W. Steele Lane, Santa Rosa.
707.546.4069.

Honorable Mention

Charles M. Schulz Museum

2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa.
707.579.4452.

Best Summer Day Camp

Marin

Dance Palace

503 B St., Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.1075.

Napa

Way Off Broadway,
Nimbus Arts

649 Main St., St. Helena.
707.963.5278.

Sonoma

Camp Wa-Tam

630 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa.
707.888.5267.

Honorable Mention

Cloverleaf Ranch

3892 Old Redwood Hwy., Santa Rosa.
707.545.5906.

Best Dog Obedience School

Marin

Marin Humane Society

171 Bel Marin Keys Blvd., Novato.
415.883.4621.

Sonoma

Olivet Kennel & Dog Training Resort

2404 Olivet Road, Santa Rosa.
707.542.2066.

Honorable Mention

Paradise Pet Resort

2120 Bluebell Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.595.3834.

5800 Commerce Blvd., Rohnert Park.
707.206.9000.

Best Doggie Day Care

Marin

Bed & Biscuits

4240 Redwood Hwy., San Rafael.
415.499.0199.

Napa

Ruff Dog Daycare
& Hotel

49 Enterprise Court, Napa.
707.258.2020.

Sonoma

Fit ‘N’ Furry
Pet Resort

860 Lindberg Lane, Petaluma.
707.769.7387.

Honorable Mention

Four Paws Pet Ranch

3410 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa.
707.542.3766.

Best Groomer

Marin

Shampooch

223 Caledonia St., Sausalito.
415.331.3647.

Napa

Tails of the City

2205 Main St. #A, Napa.
707.254.7877.

Sonoma

Fit ‘N’ Furry
Pet Resort

860 Lindberg Lane, Petaluma.
707.769.7387.

Honorable Mention

Four Paws Pet Ranch

3410 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa.
707.542.3766.

Best Pet Boutique

Marin

For Paws

69 Bolinas Road, Fairfax.
415.456.4685.

Napa

Fideaux

1312 Main St., St. Helena.
707.433.9935.

Sonoma

Debbie’s Pet Boutique

10333 Old Redwood Hwy., Windsor.
707.838.1896.

Honorable Mention

Bennett Valley
Pet Center

2700 Yulupa Ave. #19, Santa Rosa.
707.577.0663.

Best Animal Shelter

Marin

Marin Humane Society

171 Bel Marin Keys Blvd., Novato.
415.883.4621.

Napa

Napa County
Animal Shelter

942 Hartle Court, Napa.
707.253.4382.

Sonoma

Sonoma Humane Society

5345 Hwy. 12 W., Santa Rosa.
707.542.0882.

Honorable Mention

Petaluma Animal Services Foundation

800 Hopper St., Petaluma.
707.778.4396.

Best Kennel

Marin

Park-A-Pup

58 Gary Place, San Rafael.
415.453.5234.

Napa

Ruff Dog Daycare
& Hotel

49 Enterprise Court, Napa.
707.258.2020.

Sonoma

Four Paws Pet Ranch

3410 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa.
707.542.3766.

Honorable Mention

Fit ‘N’ Furry Pet Resort

860 Lindberg Lane, Petaluma.
707.769.7387.

Best Veterinarian

Marin

Jerry Moore,
East San Rafael Veterinary Clinic

820 D St., San Rafael.
415.456.4463.

Napa

Mara Bleviss, Silverado Veterinary Hospital

2035 Silverado Trail, Napa.
707.224.7953.

Sonoma

Animal Hospital
of Sebastopol

1010 Gravenstein Hwy., Sebastopol.
707.823.3250.

Honorable Mention

PetCare

2425 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.579.3900.

1370 Fulton Road, Santa Rosa.
707.579.5900.

Best Dog Park

Marin

Dogbone Meadow

www.ci.novato.ca.us

Napa

Alston Dog Park

www.cityofnapa.org

Sonoma

Ragle Ranch
Dog Park

500 Ragle Road, Sebastopol.
707.823.7262.

Honorable Mention

Rincon Valley Community Park

5108 Badger Road, Santa Rosa.
707.543.3292.

Best Feed Store

Marin

Toby’s Feed Barn

11250 Hwy. 1, Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.1223.

Napa

Wilson’s Feed & Supply

1700 Yajome St., Napa.
707.252.0316.

Sonoma

Western Farm Center

21 W. Seventh St., Santa Rosa.
707.545.0721.

Honorable Mention

Frizelle Enos Feeds

10035 Main St., Penngrove.
707.992.0144.

Recreation

Best Bike Shop

Marin

Mike’s Bikes

836 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.454.3747.

Napa

The Hub

2500 Jefferson St., Napa.
707.253.2453.

Sonoma

The Trek Bicycle Store of Santa Rosa

512 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.546.8735.

Honorable Mention

The Bike Peddler

605 College Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.571.2428.

Best Independent Bike Frame Builder

Marin

Cameron Falconer

fa************@***il.com

Napa

Curtis Inglis, Retrotec

www.ingliscycles.com

Sonoma

Sycip Bicycles

111 Fifth St., Santa Rosa.
707.542.6359.

Honorable Mention

Soulcraft

www.soulcraftbikes.com

Best Gym

Marin

Marin YMCA

1500 Los Gamos Drive, San Rafael.
415.492.YMCA.

Napa

Healthquest

3175 California Blvd., Napa.
707.254.7200.

Sonoma

Coaches Corner

420 Morris St., Sebastopol.
707.829.5180.

Honorable Mention

Powerhouse Gym

515 Fifth St., Santa Rosa.
707.284.4664.

Best Health Club

Marin

Bay Club Marin

220 Corte Madera Town Center,
Corte Madera 415.945.3000.

Napa

Synergy

3421 Villa Lane, Napa.
707.251.1395.

Sonoma

Airport Club

432 Aviation Blvd., Santa Rosa.
707.528.2582.

Honorable Mention

Parkpoint Health Club

1200 N. Dutton Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.578.1640.

Best Pilates Studio

Marin

Novato Pilates

1769 Grant Ave., Novato.
415.898.3499.

Napa

Downtown Pilates

1338 Pearl St., Napa.
707.257.7382.

Sonoma

Tone

545 Ross St., Santa Rosa.
707.526.3100.

Honorable Mention

Pilates
Collective

132 Weeks Way, Sebastopol.
707.829.8746.

Best Yoga Studio

Marin

Red Dragon Yoga

438 Miller Ave., Mill Valley.
415.381.3724.

1701 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.306.7904.

Napa

Bikram Yoga
Napa Valley

1950 Jefferson St., Napa.
707.254.9545.

Sonoma

Bikram Yoga
of Santa Rosa

522 Wilson St., Santa Rosa.
707.545.9642.

Honorable Mention

dhyana Center

186 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.823.8818.

Best Martial Arts School

Marin

Goju Karate

622 Lindaro St., San Rafael.
415.413.0930.

Napa

Red Dragon
Karate

2000 W. Pueblo Ave., Napa.
707.255.5470.

Sonoma

New School Aikido

880 Piner Road, Santa Rosa.
707.571.2013.

Honorable Mention

PHAS3 Training Center

575 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa.
707.538.2950.

Best Park

Marin

Pt. Reyes
National Park

www.nps.gov/pore/index.htm

Napa

Skyline Park

www.skylinepark.org

Sonoma

Howarth Park

630 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa.
707.543.3425.

Honorable Mention

Spring Lake Park

5585 Newanga Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.539.8092.

Best Public Golf Course

Marin

McInnis Park
Golf Center

310 Smith Ranch Road, San Rafael.
415.492.1800.

Napa

Napa Golf Course
at Kennedy Park

2295 Streblow Drive, Napa.
707.255.4333.

Sonoma

Bennett Valley
Golf Course

3330 Yulupa Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.528.3673.

Honorable Mention

Windsor Golf Club

1340 19th Hole Drive, Windsor.
707.838.7888.

Best Snow/Skate/Board Shop

Marin

Triumph

907 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.457.1625.

Napa

Boardgarden

2740 Jefferson St., Napa.
707.253.7949.

Sonoma

Brotherhood

1240 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.546.0660.

Honorable Mention

Santa Rosa
Ski & Sports

1125 W. Steele Lane, Santa Rosa.
707.578.4754.

Best Surf Shop

Marin

Point Reyes Surf Shop

11101 Hwy. 1, Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.1072.

Napa

Boardgarden

2740 Jefferson St., Napa.
707.253.7949.

Sonoma

Northern Light
Surf Shop

17191 Bodega Hwy., Bodega.
707.876.3032.

Honorable Mention

Brotherhood

1240 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.546.0660.

Romance

Best Bike Shop

Marin

Mike’s Bikes

836 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.454.3747.

Napa

The Hub

2500 Jefferson St., Napa.
707.253.2453.

Sonoma

The Trek Bicycle Store of Santa Rosa

512 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.546.8735.

Honorable Mention

The Bike Peddler

605 College Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.571.2428.

Best Independent Bike Frame Builder

Marin

Cameron Falconer

fa************@***il.com

Napa

Curtis Inglis, Retrotec

www.ingliscycles.com

Sonoma

Sycip Bicycles

111 Fifth St., Santa Rosa.
707.542.6359.

Honorable Mention

Soulcraft

www.soulcraftbikes.com

Best Gym

Marin

Marin YMCA

1500 Los Gamos Drive, San Rafael.
415.492.YMCA.

Napa

Healthquest

3175 California Blvd., Napa.
707.254.7200.

Sonoma

Coaches Corner

420 Morris St., Sebastopol.
707.829.5180.

Honorable Mention

Powerhouse Gym

515 Fifth St., Santa Rosa.
707.284.4664.

Best Health Club

Marin

Bay Club Marin

220 Corte Madera Town Center,
Corte Madera 415.945.3000.

Napa

Synergy

3421 Villa Lane, Napa.
707.251.1395.

Sonoma

Airport Club

432 Aviation Blvd., Santa Rosa.
707.528.2582.

Honorable Mention

Parkpoint
Health Club

1200 N. Dutton Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.578.1640.

Best Pilates Studio

Marin

Novato Pilates

1769 Grant Ave., Novato.
415.898.3499.

Napa

Downtown Pilates

1338 Pearl St., Napa.
707.257.7382.

Sonoma

Tone

545 Ross St., Santa Rosa.
707.526.3100.

Honorable Mention

Pilates
Collective

132 Weeks Way, Sebastopol.
707.829.8746.

Best Yoga Studio

Marin

Red Dragon Yoga

438 Miller Ave., Mill Valley.
415.381.3724.

1701 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.306.7904.

Napa

Bikram Yoga
Napa Valley

1950 Jefferson St., Napa.
707.254.9545.

Sonoma

Bikram Yoga
of Santa Rosa

522 Wilson St., Santa Rosa.
707.545.9642.

Honorable Mention

dhyana Center

186 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.823.8818.

Best Martial Arts School

Marin

Goju Karate

622 Lindaro St., San Rafael.
415.413.0930.

Napa

Red Dragon
Karate

2000 W. Pueblo Ave., Napa.
707.255.5470.

Sonoma

New School Aikido

880 Piner Road, Santa Rosa.
707.571.2013.

Honorable Mention

PHAS3 Training Center

575 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa.
707.538.2950.

Best Park

Marin

Pt. Reyes National Park

www.nps.gov/pore/index.htm

Napa

Skyline Park

www.skylinepark.org

Sonoma

Howarth Park

630 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa.
707.543.3425.

Honorable Mention

Spring Lake Park

5585 Newanga Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.539.8092.

Best Public Golf Course

Marin

McInnis Park
Golf Center

310 Smith Ranch Road, San Rafael.
415.492.1800.

Napa

Napa Golf Course
at Kennedy Park

2295 Streblow Drive, Napa.
707.255.4333.

Sonoma

Bennett Valley
Golf Course

3330 Yulupa Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.528.3673.

Honorable Mention

Windsor Golf Club

1340 19th Hole Drive, Windsor.
707.838.7888.

Best Snow/Skate/Board Shop

Marin

Triumph

907 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.457.1625.

Napa

Boardgarden

2740 Jefferson St., Napa.
707.253.7949.

Sonoma

Brotherhood

1240 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.546.0660.

Honorable Mention

Santa Rosa
Ski & Sports

1125 W. Steele Lane, Santa Rosa.
707.578.4754.

Best Surf Shop

Marin

Point Reyes Surf Shop

11101 Hwy. 1, Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.1072.

Napa

Boardgarden

2740 Jefferson St., Napa.
707.253.7949.

Sonoma

Northern Light
Surf Shop

17191 Bodega Hwy., Bodega.
707.876.3032.

Honorable Mention

Brotherhood

1240 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.546.0660.

Food &
Drink

Best Farmers Market

Marin

Farmers Market at Marin Civic Center

Civic Center Drive, San Rafael.
415.472.6100.

Napa

Napa Farmers Market at Oxbow Public Market

500 First St., Napa.
707.501.3087.

Sonoma

Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market

50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa.
707.522.8629.

Honorable Mention

Sebastopol Farmers Market

Downtown Plaza, Sebastopol.
707.522.9305.

Best Organic Farm

Marin

Green Gulch Farm

www.sfzc.org/ggf

Napa

Boca Farm

www.bocafarm.org

Sonoma

Laguna Farms

1764 Cooper Road, Sebastopol.
707.823.0823.

Honorable Mention

Green String Farm

3571 Old Adobe Road, Petaluma.
707.778.7500.

Best Bakery

Marin

Bovine Bakery

11312 Hwy. 1, Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.9420.

Napa

Model Bakery

1357 Main St., St. Helena.
707.819.8192.

Sonoma

Village Bakery

1445 Town & Country Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.527.7654.

7225 Healdsburg Ave., Sebastopol.
707.829.8101.

Honorable Mention

Wild Flour Bread Bakery

1409 Bohemian Hwy., Freestone.
707.874.2938.

Best Barbecue

Marin

Roadside BBQ

5000 Northgate Mall, San Rafael.
415.479.7200.

Napa

Smoakville

1755 Industrial Way, Napa.
707.363.3447.

Sonoma

BBQ Smokehouse

6811 Laguna Park Way, Sebastopol.
707.575.3277.

Honorable Mention

The BBQ Spot

3448 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.585.2616.

Best Burger

Marin

Phyllis’ Giant Burgers

2202 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.456.0866.

Napa

Gott’s Roadside

933 Main St., Napa.
707.963.3486.

644 First St., Napa.
707.224.6900.

Sonoma

SuperBurger

1501 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.546.4016.

10070 Main St., Penngrove.
707.665.9790.

Honorable Mention

Phyllis’ Giant Burgers

4910 Sonoma Hwy., Santa Rosa.
707.538.4000.

1774 Piner Road., Santa Rosa.
707.521.0890.

Best Pizza

Marin

Ghiringhelli’s Pizzeria

45 Broadway Blvd., Fairfax.
415.453.7472.

Napa

Ca’ Momi

610 First St., Napa.
707.257.4992.

Sonoma

Mombo’s Pizza

1880 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.528.3278.

560 Gravenstein Hwy. N., Sebastopol.
707.823.7492.

Honorable Mention

Rosso Pizzeria
& Wine Bar

53 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.544.3221.

151 Petaluma Blvd., Petaluma.
707.772.5177.

Best Frozen Dessert Shop

Marin

Swirl

417 Miller Ave., Mill Valley.
415.388.2636.

Napa

Frati Gelato

670 Main St., Napa.
707.265.0265.

Sonoma

Screamin’ Mimi’s

6902 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol.
707.823.5902.

Honorable Mention

Yogurt Farms

1224 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.576.0737.

Best Cupcakes

Marin

Susie Cakes

310 Bon Air Center, Greenbrae.
415.461.2253.

Napa

Sift

3816 Bel Aire Plaza, Napa.
707.240.4004.

Sonoma

Moustache Baked Goods

381 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg.
707.395.4111.

Honorable Mention

Sift

404-A Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.703.4228.

7582 Commerce Blvd., Cotati.
707.792.1681.

401 Kenilworth Drive #920, Petaluma.
707.200.2202.

Best Candy/Chocolate Shop

Marin

Powell’s Sweet Shoppe

879 Grant Ave., Novato.
415.898.6160.

Napa

Anette’s Chocolate Factory

1321 First St., Napa.
707.252.4228.

Sonoma

Powell’s Sweet Shoppe

151 Petaluma Blvd., Petaluma.
707.765.9866.

Honorable Mention

Viva Cocolat

110 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma.
707.778.9888.

Best Chocolatier

Napa

Anette’s Chocolate Factory

1321 First St., Napa.
707.252.4228.

Sonoma

Sonoma Chocolatiers

6988 McKinley St., Sebastopol.
707.829.1181.

Honorable Mention

Recherche du Plaisir

3401 Cleveland Ave. Ste. 9, Santa Rosa.
707.843.3551.

Best Cafe/Coffeehouse

Marin

Dr. Insomniac’s

800 Grant Ave., Novato.
415.897.9500.

Napa

Ritual Coffee

610 First St., Napa.
707.253.1190.

Sonoma

Flying Goat Coffee

324 Center St., Healdsburg.
707.433.9081.

419 Center St., Healdsburg.
707.433.8003.

10 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.575.1202.

Honorable Mention

Taylor Maid Farms

6790 McKinely St., Ste. 170, Sebastopol.
707.634.7129.

Best Breakfast

Marin

Half Day Cafe

848 College Ave., Kentfield.
415.459.0291.

Napa

ABC Bakery

1517 Third St., Napa. 707.258.1827.

Sonoma

Howard Station Cafe

3611 Bohemian Hwy., Occidental.
707.874.2838.

Honorable Mention

Dierk’s Parkside Cafe

404 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.573.5955.

1422 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.545.2233.

Best Brunch

Marin

Crepevine

908 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.257.8822.

Napa

Napa General Store

540 Main St. #100, Napa.
707.259.0762.

Sonoma

Willow Wood
Market Cafe

9020 Graton Road, Graton.
707.823.0233.

Honorable Mention

Flamingo Conference Resort & Spa

2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.545.8530.

Best Diner

Marin

Pine Cone Diner

60 Fourth St., Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.1536.

Napa

Buttercream Bakery

2297 Jefferson St., Napa. 707.255.6700.

Sonoma

D’s Diner

7260 Healdsburg Ave., Sebastopol.
707.829.8080.

Honorable Mention

Hallie’s Diner

125 Keller St., Petaluma.
707.773.1143.

Best
Sandwich Shop

Marin

Perry’s Deli

1916 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Fairfax.
415.456.3580.

Napa

Genova Delicatessen

1550 Trancas St., Napa.
707.253.8686.

Sonoma

Ike’s Place

1780 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.293.9814.

Honorable Mention

Mac’s Deli

630 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.6545.3785.

Best
Outdoor Dining

Marin

Station House Cafe

11180 Hwy. 1, Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.1515.

Napa

Angèle

540 Main St., Napa. 707.252.8115.

Sonoma

Rustic

300 Via Archimedes, Geyserville.
707.857.1485.

Honorable Mention

Campo Fina

330 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg.
707.395.4640.

Best Dining After 10pm

Marin

Sol food

901 & 903 Lincoln Ave., San Rafael.
415.451.4765.

811 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.451.4765.

401 Miller Ave., Mill Valley.
415.380.1986.

Napa

Morimoto Napa

610 Main St., Napa.
707.252.1600.

Sonoma

Underwood Bar & Bistro

9113 Graton Road, Graton.
707.823.7023.

Honorable Mention

Mary’s Pizza Shack

www.maryspizzashack.com

Best Spot
to Dine Solo

Marin

Sol Food

901 & 903 Lincoln Ave., San Rafael.
415.451.4765.

811 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.451.4765.

401 Miller Ave., Mill Valley.
415.380.1986.

Napa

Carpe Diem Wine Bar

1001 Second St., Napa.
707.224.0800.

Sonoma

Peter Lowell’s

7385 Healdsburg Ave., Sebastopol.
707.829.1077.

Honorable Mention

Willow Wood
Market Cafe

9020 Graton Road, Graton.
707.823.0233.

Best Caterer

Marin

Deer Park Villa

367 Bolinas Road, Fairfax.
415.456.8084.

Napa

Smoke

2766 Old Sonoma Road, Napa.
707.927.5070.

Sonoma

Preferred Sonoma Caterers

416 East D St., Petaluma.
707.769.7208.

Honorable Mention

Park Avenue
Catering Co

591 Mercantile Drive, Cotati.
707.793.9645.

Best Server

Marin

Steve Schaefer,
Nickel Rose

848 B. St. , San Rafael.
415.454.5551.

Napa

Allison McDow,
Carpe Diem Wine Bar

1001 Second St., Napa.
707.224.0800.

Sonoma

Alan Luzmoor,
John Ash & Co.

4330 Barnes Road, Santa Rosa.
707.527.7687.

Honorable Mention

Jessica McMillan, Underwood Bar & Bistro

9113 Graton Road, Graton.
707.823.7023.

Best Chef

Marin

David Haydon,
Il Davide

901 A St., San Rafael.
415.454.8080.

Napa

Ken Frank,
La Toque Restaurant

1314 McKinstry St., Napa.
707.257.5157.

Sonoma

Duskie Estes & Doug Richey, Zazu Kitchen
& Farm

6770 McKinley St., Sebastopol.
707.523.4814.

Honorable Mention

Mark Stark, Stark’s Steak & Seafood

521 Adams St., Santa Rosa.
707.546.5100.

Best Sommelier

Marin

Eric Grasser,
123 Bolinas

123 Bolinas St., Fairfax.
415.488.5123.

Napa

Jordan Nova,
1313 Main

1313 Main St., Napa. 707.258.1313.

Sonoma

Christopher Sawyer, Carneros Bistro

1325 Broadway, Sonoma.
707.931.2042.

Honorable Mention

Stuart Morris, Hana Japanese Restaurant

101 Golf Course Drive, Rohnert Park.
707.586.0270.

Best Restaurant

Marin

Buckeye Roadhouse

15 Shoreline Hwy., Mill Valley.
415.331.2600.

Napa

Celadon

500 Main St., Napa.
707.254.9690.

Sonoma

Stark’s Steak & Seafood

521 Adams St., Santa Rosa.
707.546.5100.

Honorable Mention

Underwood Bar & Bistro

9113 Graton Road, Graton.
707.823.7023.

Best New Restaurant

Marin

Saltwater Oyster Depot

12781 Sir Francis Drake, Inverness.
415.669.1244.

Napa

LuLu’s Kitchen
at 1313 Main

1313 Main St., Napa.
707.258.1313.

Sonoma

Woodfour Brewing Company

6780 Depot St., Sebastopol.
707.823.3144.

Honorable Mention

Belly Left Coast Kitchen & Tap Room

523 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.526.5787.

Best Chinese

Marin

Jennie Low’s Chinese Cuisine

120 Vintage Way, Novato.
415.892.8838.

Napa

China House

2940 Jefferson St., Napa.
707.226.8881.

Sonoma

Gary Chu’s Chinese Cuisine

611 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 707.526.5840.

Honorable Mention

Kirin Restaurant

2700 Yulupa Ave., Ste. 3, Santa Rosa.
707.525.1957.

Best French

Marin

Left Bank

507 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur.
415.927.3331.

Napa

Bistro Jeanty

6510 Washington St., Yountville.
707.944.0103.

Sonoma

Bistro 29

620 Fifth St., Santa Rosa.
707.546.2929.

Honorable Mention

Chloe’s French Cafe

3883 Airway Drive #145, Santa Rosa.
707.528.3095.

Best Indian

Marin

Lotus Cuisine of India

704 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.456.5808.

Napa

Taste of the Himalayas

376 Soscol Ave., Napa. 707.251.3840.

Sonoma

House of Curry & Grill

(formerly sizzling tandoor of santa rosa)

409 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.579.5999.

Honorable Mention

Pamposh Restaurant

52 Mission Circle, Santa Rosa.
707.538.3367.

Best Italian

Marin

Fradelizio’s Ristorante

35 Broadway Blvd., Fairfax.
415.459.1618.

Napa

Oenotri

1425 First St., Napa. 707.252.1022.

Sonoma

Lo Coco’s Cucina rustica

117 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.523.2227.

Honorable Mention

Riviera Ristorante

75 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa.
707.579.2682.

Best Japanese/Sushi

Marin

Sushi Ran

107 Caledonia St., Sausalito.
415.332.3620.

Napa

Morimoto

610 Main St., Napa. 707.252.1600.

Sonoma

Hana Japanese
Restaurant

101 Golf Course Drive, Rohnert Park.
707.586.0270.

Honorable Mention

Osake

2446 Patio Court, Santa Rosa.
707.542.8282.

Best Mediterranean

Marin

Insalata’s

120 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo.
415.457.7700.

Napa

Tarla Mediterranean
Grill

1480 First St., Napa. 707.255.5599.

Sonoma

East West Restaurant

557 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa.
707.546.6142.

Honorable Mention

East West Cafe

128 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.829.2822.

Best Mexican

Marin

Celia’s

1 Vivian St., San Rafael. 415.456.8190.

Napa

Tanya’s Taqueria

1601 Jefferson St., Napa.
707.224.9000.

Sonoma

Mi Pueblo Taqueria

800 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma.
707.762.8192.

108 Kentucky St., Petaluma.
707.769.9066.

Honorable Mention

Martha’s Old Mexico

305 N. Main St., Sebastopol.
707.823.4458.

Best Seafood

Marin

Fish

350 Harbor Drive, Sausalito.
415.331.3474.

Napa

Morimoto Napa

610 Main St., Napa.
707.252.1600.

Willi’s Seafood & Raw Bar

403 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg.
707.433.9191.

Honorable Mention

The Tides Wharf

800 Hwy. 1, Bodega Bay.
707.875.3652.

Best Thai

Marin

My Thai Restaurant

1230 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.456.4455.

Napa

Mini Mango Thai Bistro

1408 Clay St., Napa. 707.226.8884.

Sonoma

Sea Thai Bistro

2323 Sonoma Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.528.8333.

Honorable Mention

Thai House

525 Fourth St. #2, Santa Rosa.
707.526.3939.

Best Vietnamese

Marin

Saigon Village

720 B St., San Rafael.
415.453.3505.

Napa

Bui Bistro

976 Pearl St., Napa.
707.255.5417.

Sonoma

Simply Vietnam

966 N. Dutton Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.566.8910.

Honorable Mention

Goji Kitchen

1965 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.523.3888.

Best Vegetarian

Marin

Radiance

923 C St., San Rafael. 415.686.3442.

Napa

Small World Cafe

928 Coombs St., Napa. 707.224.7743.

Sonoma

Gaia’s Garden

1899 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.544.2491.

Honorable Mention

The Sunflower Center

1435 N. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma.
707.792.5300.

Best Bartender

Marin

Steve Schaefer,
Nickel Rose

848 B St., San Rafael. 415.454.5551.

Napa

Nick Hammond,
Carpe Diem Wine Bar

1001 Second St., Napa.
707.224.0800.

Sonoma

Frank Dice,
Underwood Bar & Bistro

9113 Graton Road, Graton.
707.823.7023.

Honorable Mention

Chrysti Kehr,
John Ash & Co.

4330 Barnes Road, Santa Rosa.
707.527.7687.

Best Bar

Marin

Mayflower Pub

1533 Fourth St., San Rafael.
415.456.1011.

Napa

Norman Rose Tavern

1401 First St., Napa. 707.258.1516.

Sonoma

Underwood Bar & Bistro

9113 Graton Road, Graton.
707.823.7023.

Honorable Mention

Stark’s Steak & Seafood

521 Adams St., Santa Rosa.
707.546.5100.

Best Dive Bar

Marin

Nickel Rose

848 B St., San Rafael.
415.454.5551.

Napa

Henry’s

823 Main St., Napa.
707.257.3008.

Sonoma

Wagon Wheel

3320 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.546.1958.

Honorable Mention

440 Club

434 College Ave., Santa Rosa.
707.542.2550.

Best Happy Hour

Marin

Flatiron

724 B St., San Rafael.
415.453.4318.

Napa

Barolo

1374 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga.
707.942.2233.

Sonoma

Stark’s Steak & Seafood

521 Adams St., Santa Rosa.
707.546.5100.

Honorable Mention

Jackson’s Bar & Oven

135 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.545.6900.

Best Cocktails

Marin

Hilltop 1892

850 Lamont Ave., Novato.
415.893.1892.

Napa

Goose & Gander

1245 Spring St., St. Helena.
707.967.8779.

Sonoma

Underwood
Bar & Bistro

9113 Graton Road, Graton.
707.823.7023.

Honorable Mention

Spoonbar

219 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg.
707.433.7222.

Best Brewpub

Marin

Moylan’s Brewery
& Restaurant

15 Rowland Way, Novato.
415.898.4677.

Napa

Downtown Joe’s
Brewery & Restaurant

902 Main St., Napa.
707.258.2337.

Sonoma

Russian River
Brewing Co.

725 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.545.2337.

Honorable Mention

LaGunitas Brewing Company

1280 N. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma.
707.769.4495.

Best Microbrew

Marin

Moylan’s Brewery
& Restaurant

15 Rowland Way, Novato.
415.898.4677.

Napa

Napa Smith Brewery

1 Executive Way, Napa. 707.254.7167.

Sonoma

Pliny the Elder, Russian River Brewing Co.

725 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.
707.545.2337.

Sonoma

Honorable Mention

Little Sumpin’, LaGunitas Brewing Company

1280 N. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma.
707.769.4495.

Best Micro Distillery

Napa

Charbay Distillery
& Winery

4001 Spring Mountain Road, St. Helena.
707.963.9327.

Sonoma

Spirit Works Distillery

679 McKinley St. #100, Sebastopol.
707.634.4793.

Honorable Mention

HelloCello

21877 Eighth St., Sonoma.
707.721.6390.

Best Wine List

Marin

123 Bolinas

123 Bolinas St., Fairfax.
415.488.5123.

Napa

1313 Main

1313 Main St., Napa.
707.258.1313.

Sonoma

Willi’s Wine Bar

4404 Old Redwood Hwy., Santa Rosa.
707.526.3096.

Honorable Mention

John Ash & Co.

4330 Barnes Road, Santa Rosa.
707.527.7687.

Best Winetasting Room

Marin

Trek Winery

1026 Machin Ave., Novato.
415.899.9883.

Napa

Palmaz Vineyards

4029 Hagan Road, Napa.
707.226.5587.

Sonoma

Kendall-Jackson Wine Estate & Gardens

5007 Fulton Road, Fulton.
866.287.9818.

Honorable Mention

Francis Ford
Coppola Winery

300 Via Archimedes, Geyserville.
707.857.1471.

Best Sauvignon Blanc

Napa

Cakebread Cellars

8300 St. Helena Hwy., Rutherford.
707.963.5221.

Sonoma

Merry Edwards Wines

2959 Gravenstein Hwy. N., Sebastopol.
707.823.7466.

Honorable Mention

Matanzas Creek Winery

6097 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa.
707.528.6464.

Best Chardonnay

Napa

Grgich Hills Estate

1829 St. Helena Hwy., Rutherford.
707.963.2784.

Sonoma

La Crema

235 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg.
800.314.1762.

Honorable Mention

Kendall-Jackson Wine Estate & Gardens

5007 Fulton Road, Fulton.
866.287.9818.

Best Sparkling Wine

Marin

Heidrun Meadery

11925 Hwy. 1, Pt. Reyes Station.
415.663.9122.

Napa

Schramsberg Vineyards

1400 Schramsberg Road, Calistoga.
707.942.4558.

Sonoma

J Vineyards & Winery

11447 Old Redwood Hwy., Healdsburg.
707.431.5479.

Honorable Mention

Korbel Champagne Cellars

13250 River Road, Guerneville. 707.824.7000.

Best Rosé

Napa

Azur

www.azurwines.com

Sonoma

Kokomo Winery

4791 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg.
707.433.0200.

Honorable Mention

Unti Vineyards

www.untivineyards.com

Best Cabernet

Marin

Trek Winery

1026 Machin Ave., Novato.
415.899.9883.

Napa

Ca’ Momi

610 First St., Napa. 707.257.4992.

Sonoma

Silver Oak

24625 Chianti Road, Geyserville.
707.942.7082.

Honorable Mention

Jordan

1474 Alexander Valley Road, Healdsburg.
800.654.1213.

Best Syrah

Marin

Trek Winery

1026 Machin Ave., Novato.
415.899.9883.

Napa

Four Cairn Wines

www.fourcairn.com

Sonoma

Longboard Vineyards

5 Fitch St., Healdsburg. 707.433.3473.

Honorable Mention

Radio Coteau

www.radiocoteau.com

Best Pinot Noir

Marin

Easkoot Cellars

1115 San Anselmo Ave., San Anselmo.

Napa

Hill Wine Company

1001 Silverado Trail, St. Helena.
707.963.7000.

Sonoma

La Crema

235 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg.
707.525.6244.

Honorable Mention

Kosta Browne Winery

www.kostabrowne.com

Best Zinfandel

Napa

Turley Wine Cellars

www.turleywinecellars.com

Sonoma

Seghesio Family Vineyards

700 Grove St., Healdsburg.
707.433.3579.

Honorable Mention

Carol Shelton Wines

3354 Coffey Lane, Santa Rosa.
707.575.3441.

A Nation ‘Adrift’

-
0

In mid-September, first-term U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, was one of more than 80 lawmakers to vote against a bill that authorized $500 million for the arming and training of the Syrian Free Army. The bombs started dropping in Syria days later. I spoke to Rep. Huffman last week about his vote, and his thoughts on the widening war against ISIS.

Do you think the president is acting legally in his actions so far, which are based on previous anti-terror authorizations that he is now invoking to justify the war against ISIS?

Well, I don’t like it. But I think the truth is those authorizations were very broad and the president is probably within his technical legal rights in this instance, but that doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do.

Where do you see yourself on the spectrum—dove, isolationist?

I am neither an isolationist or a pacifist. But I’m also not an interventionist. I don’t believe that we need to project military power all over the world all the time. My big takeaway from what we are going through right now is that this country has failed to replace the Cold War paradigm with any kind of new coherent paradigm that reflects our national security and national interest. So we are in a drift.

How do we end the “drift”?

We have to acknowledge that we lack a paradigm. What I hear from generals and others in classified and non-classified settings is that we are in this long war against radical Islam. People accept that as an article of faith, that that’s the new security paradigm. I don’t necessarily agree. There will be conflicts with radical Islam and other terrorist groups that may threaten our country from time to time. But the idea that we have to play a role in a 1,400-year-old conflict between Sunnis and Shias makes no sense to me whatsoever.

You voted against the McKeon bill that authorized arming and training the Free Syrian Army. Any second thoughts?

I appreciate that question. I’m not saying we should do nothing about ISIS. I think we should be part of an international response. I don’t think we should launch an air war and then piece together a regional conflict after the fact, which is what we are doing. That was not my first vote on this subject. There was a previous vote to an amendment on the defense authorization . . . to prohibit the arming of Syrian rebels and I supported that, and I have in several instances co-sponsored legislation that would repeal the [Authorization for the Use of Force Against Terrorists], which I think is central to the problem.

Speaker Boehner says the situation with ISIS might require American ground troops, but at the same time he won’t write a war authorization bill. Has this war been politicized?

There’s definite politicization. That’s coming from the fact that the marching orders from GOP leadership on every issue, all the time, are to start with criticizing President Obama. You just have to find a way to criticize first, and then find nuances. When they criticize him for not leaving more troops behind in Iraq, they are rewriting history. Or, everything would be fine in that region if we had armed the Syrian Free Army. It’s the Cheney-Rumsfeld view of the world, and “Obama weakness” is the thread running through all of it. I think that is ridiculous and insults the intelligence and the rather recent memory of the American people.

What would you tell President Obama if you could bend his ear?

I would tell him that I’m afraid that he is missing an opportunity to rethink our interests and the broader security paradigm for our country in the modern world. I think he has allowed himself to be pressured into this long war against Islam, the default position being we must continue to project military power in that long war.

Is there a threshold for you where you might support expanded military action against ISIS?

Let me be real clear. I hope I am wrong. I’m rootin’ for the United States. I hope this goes very smoothly and that all the assumptions that I think are suspect and wishful thinking, I hope they are correct, I hope there’s a bunch of Jeffersonian Democrats in the Free Syrian Army, and they can step in and govern effectively—I hope that’s all correct. I just don’t know that it is. I hope we can stitch together an inclusive and tolerant country in Iraq, despite the hundreds of years of sectarian divisions and conflict, and the history of conflict in that region.

But I have to tell you that I’m skeptical. I think it would be great news if this plays out in the best possible way for the U.S. and our strategy but I’m just afraid that it won’t, and part of how it could unravel is the escalation of this conflict, drawing us deeper into the Syrian civil war, the inevitable civilian casualties and collateral damage. . . . I’m afraid we are starting down a path where there is no clear victory and no clear exit strategy. The choice is then to continue bombing at the cost of all sorts of humanitarian problems.

I think a good, responsible U.S. policy would say to Turkey and Saudi Arabia and the UAE: ‘It’s time for you guys to step up an police a problem that’s in your backyard. We’re not going to keep fighting your wars for you. Obviously they have been unwilling to do that in part because some of those regimes are pretty tenuous and suspect themselves. Taking a hardline against the jihadists may lead to an Arab Spring in one or more of those countries.

What are you hearing from constituents about your views and your vote against sending arms to the Syrian resistance?


It’s been surprisingly quiet, though I have gotten support [for the vote]. It’s complex stuff. It s not as simple as, ‘You are either for war or against it.’ I think you need to explain your position, and the overwhelming response has been positive. I think I’ve gotten one letter critical of that position, which sort of suggests that we ought to be military involved. But even the support I’ve gotten on this has been more muted than with past war events. This one has been a little trickier for people. I think the beheadings shocked and horrified people. I think there’s a feeling among folks that are normally anti-war that something has to happen here—but I don’t think there is a clear sense of the path forward.

Creepy Fun

-
0
Creepy Fun

In the long, storied history of Broadway musicals inspired by books, movies, and other pop-cultural stimuli, few projects seem less obvious than a splashy song-and-dance extravaganza built from The Addams Family. For one thing, as introduced in a series of 1930s New Yorker cartoons, then popularized in the 1960s television show, and two hit movies in the 90s, this gleefully death-obsessed, merrily grotesque sideshow of a family seem about the least likely group of characters to burst into song.

“I don’t think I agree with that,” laughs actor Michael RJ Campbell, who will be playing Gomez Addams in 6th Street Playhouse’s upcoming presentation of The Addams Family: The Musical, created in 2010 by Broadway hit-makers Andrew Lippa (Big Fish), and Marshall Brickman and Rick Elise (Jersey Boys). “Gomez is full of passion and craziness,” argues Campbell, hanging out with cast members Shannon Rider (she’s playing Morticia) and Shawna Eiermann (Wednesday). “I don’t think it’s too out-of-the-box for these people to sing,” he says.

Well. All right. Point taken.

Dry-witted and morose or not, the Addams are an expressive bunch, and the musical art form is nothing if not packed with grand, outsized expressions.

“The Addams Family is really not unlike other families,” suggest Rider. “Morticia is very much the traditional image of a mother. She loves her children, she likes to cook, she loves to take care of her garden—it’s just a carnivorous garden. Other than that, she’s really pretty traditional.”

“And Wednesday is a fairly typical 18-year-old teenager,” adds Eiermann. “She’s rebellious. She argues with her parents. But she’s also a ‘daddy’s girl’, and when she tortures her brother, she uses a medieval torture rack.”

Directed for 6th Street by Matthew McCoy, the show follows the Addams Family through one particularly torturish night, as Wednesday, who’s fallen in love with a “normal” boy, convinces the family to play it straight for dinner.

“Matthew keeps bringing us back to the original New Yorker cartoons,” says Campbell. “We’ve learned a lot from those weird old drawings, the way the characters stand, their facial expressions. So, back to your original question, of course the Addams Family sings. It’s just that, instead of singing happy songs about sunshine and flowers, they sing happy songs about death, decay, and rotting corpses.”

‘The Addams Family’ runs Thurs–Sun Oct. 10 – Nov. 2 at 6th Street Playhouse. 52 W 6th St, Santa Rosa. Thu-Sat at 8pm. 2pm matinees on Sat and Sun. $15-$37. 707.523.4185.

Bioneering the Future

-
0
Bioneering the Future

“Back in 1990, when we held the first Bioneers conference, it was a very different world,” says Kenny Ausubel, co-founder, with Nina Simons, of the annual get-together that brings many of the worlds greatest thinkers, scientist, authors, and social activists to Marin County for a thought-jammed, envelope-pushing weekend of intellectual and sociological idea-swapping, networking and collective dreaming of the future.

An award-winning journalist, author and filmmaker, Ausubel is the co-founder of Seeds of Change—the online organic seed retailer—and has written four books, including the recent Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature. A quarter of a century ago, while organizing the first Bioneers conference, Ausubel and Simons sought out the key players in a variety of then still-developing fields—ecological design, biomimicry, green building, localized farming systems, and more.

“You could literally count the key players in a given field on one or two hands,” says Ausubel. “Now, fast-forwarding 25 years, I can’t even keep up with one field. It’s extraordinary, the growth that’s occurred, the huge depth of experience that has been built up, by a lot of people, over this time.”

That depth of experience will be on abundant display this weekend, as the 25th Annual Bioneers Conference returns to the San Rafael Civic Center for three days of lectures, workshops, performances, forums, and conversations, bringing in speakers and thinkers from around the world. In recognition of the worldwide significance and vast influence of the Bioneers effort, the Marin County Board of Supervisors recently passed a resolution commending Ausubel and Simon for, in the words of the proclamation, “25 years of transformative work in collaboration with the community and people of Marin.”

Immediately after the presentation of resolution, Ausubel and Simons took a break at the Civic Center, talking about the changes that have affected Bioneers, and the world, over the last two-and-a-half decades.

“It used to be hard to find enough great people and amazing thinkers to program the conference with,” says Simons, former president of Seeds of Change and the co-editor of Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading From the Heart, “and now, in preparation for this year, it’s painful how many people—how many thinkers, and innovators and lectures and programs—we just can’t fit in. For every Eve Ensler we include—and she will be here this year—there are many otherwise can’t find a way to include.”

In addition to Ensler (author of The Vagina Monologues and founder of V-Day and the One Billion Rising for Justice events), this year’s conference features over 50 open-to-the-public events and presentations, including appearances by author Terry Tempest Williams (author of Refuge and Finding Beauty in a Broken World), scientist Wallace J. Nichols (founder of OceanRevolution.org), Naomi Klein (author of The Shock Doctrine), Caroline Casey (host of The Visionary Activist Show on Pacifica), and Rev. Sally Bingham (founder of the first faith-based organization to recognize climate change as a moral issue).

The scope of the conference, as always, is mind-bogglingly wide, encompassing everything from climate change, overpopulation and species extinction to feminist economics, DIY technology, and philanthropic activism.

“Some people have assumed that Bioneers is all about alarmism and danger,” says Ausubel, “but over the years we’ve shown that there is as much cause for hope as for horror. I’ve been thinking back. Climate change was our primary concern, and it largely still is. Our framing then was, we have the decade of the 90s to dodge the bullet, to avert climate catastrophe and environmental collapse—so it was actually a moment of great hope, but here we are, 25 years later, climate disruption is up close and personal, and potentially going to become cataclysmic if something isn’t done pretty soon here.”

Simon agrees, pointing out that one of the major changes that’s taken place, using the example of climate change, is that what was esoteric and highly technical science-speak 25 years ago has gone mainstream. Today, though there are those who still challenge the science for political reasons, most people are aware of what it is.

“I think it’s true that a much smaller percentage of the general public were really hip to environmental concerns back then,” she says. “I think there’s much greater public awareness, and I think there’s tremendous hopefulness, particularly in people under 40, who are not only knowledgeable, but are getting very actively involved. That was not as true 25 years ago, or even 15 years ago. I think that’s a tremendously positive evolution in the course of this time.”

One of the chief by-products of the Bioneers conferences, says Ausubel, is the connections made between leaders from different modes of thinking and working.

“And from those connections,” he says, “come solutions.”

“Yes! We are interested in much more than just presenting ideas,” says Simon. “We are looking for ways to move those ideas into action.”

Gay Marriage and Drake’s Bay Oyster Battle

-
0
Gay Marriage and Drake’s Bay Oyster Battle

Gay Marriage Victory

There comes a time when you have to accept defeat and move on. Opponents of gay marriage—you lost.

This past Monday, Oct. 6, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would not take up lawsuits from five states that sought to give constitutional cover for their state bans on gay marriage. The ruling now means that 30 states, California among them, have same-sex marriage protections that Justice Antonin Scalia won’t crush under the weight of his ever-expanding chin wattle.

Of course, California was on the forefront of the gay marriage issue in 2004 when then-mayor Gavin Newsom signed a gay marriage ordinance in San Francisco.

But there’s still a long fight ahead—and lots of less visible forms of discrimination against gays and lesbians to reckon with, say activists in the LGBT community.

Not to mention 20 states still to go: “The Supreme Court’s refusal to take these cases means that marriage equality will exist in 30 states,” says Paula Pilecki, executive director of the Spectrum LGBT Center in San Rafael.

“But it also means that the remaining states can practice discrimination against same sex couples, and this is what ultimately needs to be addressed. We aren’t finished until full equality is achieved,” she says.

Not Dead Yet

This week it was official: Kevin Lunny’s Drake’s Bay Oyster Co. signed off on an agreement with the National Park Service to leave the beloved family oyster business at Drake’s Estero, after a years-long court battle with the feds.

But wait! Marin County stepped in at the last of all possible seconds. It’s now arguing that the forced federal removal of the business, which was done with the blessing of the state California Coastal Commission, violated the California Coastal Act.

At issue is what’s known as “consistency certifications,” which, as applied to Lunny, says that if the federal government is going to remove a business, it needs to provide the state, and the business owner, with a good reason that’s more than just the simple discretion of the Department of Interior.

“The [federal] government needed to explain to the Coastal Commission why it would be impossible for the oyster farm to continue” says Lunny, “and do that before they shut it down. They didn’t do it. There was no impediment from renewing the permit, other than their own discretion.”

But why now, after all is said and done, has Marin County joined the Drake’s fray? Lunny says the issue had been raised throughout the legal battle, “and it was just ignored.”

But now, he says, the county knows that the Drake’s case opened the door to further federal bullying.

“This is a dangerous, dangerous precedent,” Lunny says.

“If the California Coastal Commission continues to apply pressure to agriculture, tells them what they can and can’t do in terms of regulating or protecting the coastline—but they’re willing to let a federal agency just come in and violate the Coastal Act and remove agriculture or aquaculture—the county’s concern is: Who’s next? “

But Lunny and his family business are moving on. He has already started working on a restaurant in Inverness and would love to stay in the commercial oyster business. For now, he’ll only say that he’s hopeful he’ll be able to do so from the family’s new Tomales Bay digs. —Tom Gogola

Beard and Loathing in Santa Rosa

-
0

Actor-humorist Nick Offerman is coming to the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts tomorrow, Saturday, for his one-man show, Full Bush. Should be a hoot. I interviewed Offerman for the paper a couple of weeks ago, and the star of NBC’s hit sitcom Parks and Recreation was the very picture of bearded affability and generosity with the fun quotage.

One of the cool things about Offerman was his unbridled enthusiasm for all things North Bay. He and his wife, actor Megan Mullally, spend lots of time up here, much of it in the nude.

Offerman recalled coming to Santa Rosa when he was younger, and described it with a sort of boyish wonder, as a kind of Oz-like place where he could “be as weird as I wanted to be in the Santa Rosa neighborhood.”

Nobody cared, nobody batted an eyelash, he said, and noted that gigging at the Wells Fargo Center has been a dream gig of his all along. He’s arrived.

Santa Rosa has some weird people on its streets, to this day. Any morning visitor to Peet’s Coffee on 4th Street knows this: It’s a rolling parade of pipe-poking travelers and bug-eyed sub-mystics shaking the morning dew from their backpacks and eyebrows. I had this vision of Offerman, pre-fame, wandering among the misfits of Santa Rosa, wholly in his element, and a wooly one at that.

Anyway, it was a cool chat with Offerman. Go check out the interview if you didn’t see it. Saturday’s show promises lots of laughs, but with a message. He told me that “as a humorist, I’m fed up and frustrated, and all I can do is continue to promote individualism, free thought and human decency.”

But the message he’s pushing out in Full Bush goes beyond a simple cry for civility and shared libertarian values—his are of the left-of-center libertarian ethos, with big-ups to Teddy Roosevelt along the way. Offerman says he aims to point out to his audience that consumer choices we make have ripple effects that are easy to blow off. Whether it’s a certain brand of clothing or gasoline, he says, “people are doing damage to other people.”

I spent a few minutes talking with the hirsute humorist about a beard competition I covered down in New Orleans last year for the local daily. Lotta fun. There were a lot of very high-concept and super-groomed guys making the scene at the legendary club Tipitina’s for the event, but the coolest thing about it was the guy who won the overall award for Best Beard.

That guy had a wild, disheveled beard that was kind of scary, and mesmerizingly cool at the same time. Sort of like New Orleans itself. The dude looked like he’d just come off a six-month stint on Survivorman. He looked like someone you might see hangin’ out in front of Peet’s on any given morning.

Offerman took the bait, oh, but he did: “It’s quite comforting to hear that at least the National Beard competition had the sagacity to award the Full Bush participant.”

Mill Valley Film Festival: Oct. 2-12

-
0
Mill Valley Film Festival: Oct. 2-12

Hollywood comes to the North Bay this week when the prestigious Mill Valley Film Festival kicks off its 10-day schedule of showings and special events on Oct. 2, when two highly anticipated films screen with loads of fanfare. Academy award-winning actress Hilary Swank appears at CineArts Sequoia in Mill Valley to show her latest film, The Horseman, co-starring and directed by Tommy Lee Jones. Also, celebrated director Jason Reitman presents his new ensemble drama Men, Women and Children, at Century Cinema in Corte Madera. World cinema, documentaries and even a special screening of Star Wars: the Empire Strikes Back are all highlighted in this expansive celebration of films. The Mill Valley Film Fest happens from Thursday, Oct. 2 to Sunday, Oct. 12, throughout Marin County. www.mvff.com.

Gone Missing

David Fincher's bitter, would-be decadent mystery Gone Girl is taken from a too-schematic script by author Gillian Flynn. It contains a bounty of gnarly warring between the sexes—Fincher makes sex a cold, mean thing people do to each other. But it's more interesting when it touches on something more sensitive than sex: money. Set in the Midwest, the film...
Read more

The Messenger Lives

This one has all the ingredients of a dreamed up Hollywood blockbuster: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist uncovers a big story involving drugs, the CIA and a guerrilla army. Despite threats and intimidation, he writes an explosive exposé and catches national attention. But the fates shift. Our reporter's story is torn apart by the country's leading media, and he is betrayed...
Read more

Not Run of the Mill

The Mill Valley Film Festival is in full swing this week, attracting large crowds to the town's picturesque streets. The festival-goers come expecting Mount Tam views and high-end boutiques, but a vinyl-spinning, buzzing restaurant with a line at the door might come as a surprise. That would be Molina—opening merely half a year ago and already a bona fide...
Read more

Best Of Times

Fall has descended on the North Bay. The mornings are crisp, the sky is a deep blue and the ocean is groomed by offshore breezes. Grape vines are turning yellow and the crop is in. Kids are back in school and crowded weekend attractions are now the domain of appreciative locals. Fall is my favorite time of year in...
Read more

A Nation ‘Adrift’

In mid-September, first-term U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, was one of more than 80 lawmakers to vote against a bill that authorized $500 million for the arming and training of the Syrian Free Army. The bombs started dropping in Syria days later. I spoke to Rep. Huffman last week about his vote, and his thoughts on the widening...
Read more

Creepy Fun

In the long, storied history of Broadway musicals inspired by books, movies, and other pop-cultural stimuli, few projects seem less obvious than a splashy song-and-dance extravaganza built from The Addams Family. For one thing, as introduced in a series of 1930s New Yorker cartoons, then popularized in the 1960s television show, and two hit movies in the 90s, this...
Read more

Bioneering the Future

“Back in 1990, when we held the first Bioneers conference, it was a very different world,” says Kenny Ausubel, co-founder, with Nina Simons, of the annual get-together that brings many of the worlds greatest thinkers, scientist, authors, and social activists to Marin County for a thought-jammed, envelope-pushing weekend of intellectual and sociological idea-swapping, networking and collective dreaming of the...
Read more

Gay Marriage and Drake’s Bay Oyster Battle

Gay Marriage Victory There comes a time when you have to accept defeat and move on. Opponents of gay marriage—you lost. This past Monday, Oct. 6, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would not take up lawsuits from five states that sought to give constitutional cover for their state bans on gay marriage. The ruling now means that 30 states, California...
Read more

Beard and Loathing in Santa Rosa

More fun stuff from a recent chat with Nick Offerman
Read more

Mill Valley Film Festival: Oct. 2-12

Hollywood comes to the North Bay this week when the prestigious Mill Valley Film Festival kicks off its 10-day schedule of showings and special events on Oct. 2, when two highly anticipated films screen with loads of fanfare. Academy award-winning actress Hilary Swank appears at CineArts Sequoia in Mill Valley to show her latest film, The Horseman, co-starring and...
Read more
1...787788789...1,000Page 788 of 1,000
11,084FansLike
4,446FollowersFollow
6,928FollowersFollow
north bay bohemian newspaper sonoma napa county logo
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
East Bay Express cover
East Bay Express cover
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
Newsletters Subscribe Advertise About Us Contact Us Letter to the Editor Press Release Obituaries Writing an Obituary Archives Find a Paper Distribute Bohemian Vote for Best Of Plaques & Banners
win free stuff
Features Local News News
Arts Books & Literature Crush Culture Movies Music Spotlight Theater
Astrology Look Media Opinion Letters To The Editor Open Mic Press Pass Rolling Papers
Dining Restaurants Small Bites
Readers' Picks 2025 Arts & Culture Beer, Wine & Spirits Beauty, Health & Wellness Cannabis Everyday Services Family & Pets Home Improvement Recreation Restaurants Romance Shopping
All Upcoming Events Today's Events Submit an Event Promote Your Event
weeklys california local media group logo

FOLLOW US

Copyright © Weeklys All rights reserved.

Our Publications

ADVERTISING Advertise Legal Submit an Obituary Legal NoticesFictitious Business Name (FBN) StatementsDoing Business As (DBA) NoticesTrustee Sale Notices

COMPANY INFO Job Opportunities Journalism Awards Privacy Policy Terms of Service

Support Local Journalism