Pleasing Portions

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Pleasing Portions

On Thursday, Dec.5, Food for Thought holds its 13th annual fundraising effort, Dining Out for Life. The fundraiser is a way for Sonoma County citizens to support the Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank, which provides for people affected by HIV/AIDS—and it’s as easy as dining out at a local restaurant.

Food for Thought currently provides food and nutritional supplements for more than 675 men, women and dependent children of parents with HIV/AIDS. More than one-third of these clients receive delivery service because they are homebound. Thanks to thousands of diners at last year’s Dining Out for Life, Food for Thought raised more than $125,000 to help these very people in need.

A total of 85 restaurants will participate in this year’s fundraiser. Most of the restaurants will donate 25 percent of profits, but some are pledging to donate 50 percent of profits, including Agriculture Bar and Kitchen at Dawn Ranch Lodge, Corks at Russian River Vineyards, Forchetta Bastoni, Formosa, JoJo Restaurant and Sushi Bar, K&L Bistro, Tiny Town Cafe and Pastry, Sunshine Coffee Roasters and Trio Restaurant. For a full
list of participating eateries, see
www.diningoutforlife.com.

Alt & in the Way

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Alt & in the Way

What are the roots of a roots music band? In the case of Poor Man’s Whiskey, admits cofounder and guitar-mandolin player Jason Beard, the core members started off as “a winery/wedding band, so we ended up having to do a lot of covers, old traditional rock and roll tunes, but we would make them bluegrass. We always called that ‘whiskefying’ things.”

Fast-forward a few years, and the hard-working “high-octane hootenanny” band applied their old approach to even older material, crafting their string-jam makeover of Pink Floyd’s most iconic record. Dark Side of the Moonshine earned Poor Man’s Whiskey considerable acclaim, but this year, the Santa Rosa–based band was ready to tackle something new.

“So for a kick,” Beard relates, instead of taking a rock album “and making it bluegrass, we thought we’d take a fairly influential album on us, Old & in the Way, and whiskefy that.”

Old & in the Way (both the group and their lone, eponymous album) was not rock and roll, but as close to true, traditional bluegrass as a band of Bay Area hippies—one that included David Grisman, Jerry Garcia and Peter Rowan—could get.

Rather than a full-album
re-creation this time, Poor Man’s Whiskey has concentrated on “a good handful” of their favorite tracks, “but we definitely infused our own energy, doing what we do,” Beard asserts.

“‘Cactus John’ got a pretty big makeover that becomes a big rock jam. ‘Hobo Song’ also becomes a much more electric rock tune,” he continues. “‘Pig in Pen’ we still do acoustic and bluegrass, but we’re much more of an old-timey slant on bluegrass, in that we drive a lot of rhythms.”

Whiskey debuted their customized tribute in a sold-out date at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, one that came with a twist—they were joined at the show by Peter Rowan himself. But when the originator arrived to rehearse a few days before the show, “we already had all the songs arranged how we do them,” recalls Jason, “and Peter would start playing, and we’d have to say, ‘No, we’re gonna play ’em like this.’ But it worked well and we had a really great time.”

Poor Man’s Whiskey plans to retire the Old & in the Way material after a final pair of NorCal shows this weekend, but they’re already planning further whiskefications. A February date at the Sebastopol Community Center will find the band stretching out in a full night of Allman Brothers material, and Beard hints, without being specific, that 2015 will see them cover and adapt another iconic album from a very different artist.

Poor Man’s Whiskey play Friday, Dec. 6, at the Mystic Theatre. 21 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma. 8:30pm. $18. 707.762.3565.

Gall-Mart

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Gall-Mart

The skunk held her sign proudly, trotting back and forth across the entrance of Rohnert Park’s Walmart last week: “The way Walmart treats its employees stinks!” it read. Joined by about 20 other protesters on Black Friday, the woman in costume hoped to lure employees out of their natural environment and into the fray of a national demonstration against the corporate giant. An hour into the planned four-hour protest, organized locally by Occupy Petaluma, not one employee had joined the group. But, confided the skunk, there were nods of respect and winks, subversive acknowledgement shrouded in fear of repercussions from their employer.

Walmart has a history of speaking and acting out against workers organizing together to demand fair wages, health insurance and saner work schedules. Walmart knows the danger of organization—it’s made a living by having a unified front among its stores, using its powerful unity to make demands that allow it to survive, grow and thrive. Internally, stores even acknowledge the company’s apathy toward its workforce. At least one store this year, in Ohio, held an employee-driven food drive for fellow employees who could not afford Thanksgiving dinner. That takes either a lot of gall or plain old mind-numbing ignorance.

But shoppers in Rohnert Park seemed unaffected by the turmoil greeting them outside the store, choosing instead to focus on the smiling, blue-vested employees greeting them inside. Special attention was paid to the electronics section of the store (and not to the hordes of screaming children who would rather be anywhere than Walmart). Managers referred all questions about the protest, planned expansion of the store into a supercenter or even the day’s best deals to an 800-number for Walmart’s media relations. I called, but their telephone tree was equally unresponsive.

Foodie Time

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Foodie Time

Living in a culinary wonderland does have its drawbacks: there are sometimes too many food gifts to choose from. Narrowing it to locally made is one way to thin the herd, but a mind-numbing selection still remains. Here is a path from morning to evening to keep the food lover in your life happy.

Start with a doh sant from Santa Rosa’s Our Lady Grace Confections. Actually, get a half dozen. Usually available at farmers markets in the North Bay (get there early, they sell out fast), this is a take on the popular “cronut,” which is a fried croissant coated like a doughnut. It’s a lot of work to make them correctly, but Our Lady Grace does it right, dipping them in homemade caramel, delicious dark chocolate ganache or adding a generous sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. Double the guilt, yes, but the sweet, fried tastiness makes up for it.

Of course, an hour or so later it’s time for midmorning snack: toast and jam. When made with the right ingredients, this is one of the most satisfying of simple pleasures. The Chutneyman, aka Leon Day, has been making sauces, jellies, jams and chutneys for decades. He’s a staple at Marin and Santa Rosa farmers markets, taking curious customers on “flavor journeys” through his remarkable selection. Be careful when he asks, “Do you like spicy?” and be adventurous when the guava coconut lime or chocolate coffee coconut vanilla habanero jelly catches your eye—he’ll give a sample or two of anything on the table. Toast a slice of seeded bread from Penngrove’s Full Circle Baking Company
(10151 Main St., Penngrove; 707.794.9445) and spread the love.

At this point, it’s time for protein. Meat protein is the best protein, and meat in tube form is often the best way to get it. Diavola (www.diavolapizzeria.com) specializes in European sausages, with especially wonderful Calabrese, Spanish chorizo and French Toscana offerings. There’s always something new, with chef Franco Dunn pulling out old-school (like, hundreds of years old) recipes for traditional New Year’s dinners, and sometimes, when we’re lucky, rillettes. The latter will be foreign and possibly off-putting to inexperienced diners, but those in the know spread it like meat jelly over toast. It lights up the taste buds with rich, meaty flavor that’s unmatched by anything else (because it’s meat that’s been rendered in delicious fat!).

There surely must be vegetables in this day of gluttony, but opening a box to find dirty, weird-looking heirloom produce (no matter how delicious it may become when cooked) is like opening that big box under the tree to find a six-pack of wool socks. Yeah, it’s nice, but not exactly a “sexy” gift. Sex up those veggies with a salt box from Napa Style (www.napastyle.com). This beautiful, five-compartment-long box is made from acacia wood and comes with five different salt varieties, each of which imparts a different flavor to a healthy veggie dish. Gray sea and Hawaiian red salts are the basic starters, and sundried tomato, citrus rosemary and roasted garlic salts are good enough to be the sole seasoning for asparagus, squash, leeks or a variety of “balanced diet” favorites.

Finish the day with a chocolate bar or 10 from Oliver’s Market (www.oliversmarket.com). These new additions bear the Oliver’s name but are made by Le Belge Chocolatier in Napa (761 Skyway Court; 707.258.9200). The bars taste, for the most part, like they should cost twice as much as their modest price tag. A quick check shows Le Belge sells its identical chocolate bars for about that—$4.50. The chocolate is smooth and rich, far superior to Ghirardelli (which costs more) and other comparable products. There are almost a dozen varieties, with highlights being the dark chocolate, espresso dark chocolate and Champagne strawberry—little bits of what seems to be freeze-dried berries somehow infused with the lightness and essence of Champagne explode with flavor, all coated in a velvet chocolate bath. Get one of every flavor (except sea salt—too salty), then taste them all to find a favorite.—Nicolas Grizzle

My Son’s Ashes

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My Son’s Ashes

To Deputy Sheriff Gelhaus, District Attorney Jill Ravitch and members of the law enforcement agencies responsible for the death of my son, on this Thanksgiving:

May the happiness you feel on this special day remain in the memory of every one of you for the rest of your lives.

May this day of Thanksgiving be an unforgettable one for all of you, never forgetting my misery and the suffering of my family.

Instead of doing their job, the police abuse their power, cruelly killing people as they did with my son Andy Lopez Cruz, an innocent boy who loved this country and was willing to fight for it. The patriotism my son had for this country did him no good.

You killed him, you servants of the law, in the worst way. Not even an animal kills in this way; they usually take time to smell their prey before eating it, but you didn’t even give my son time to face you. You murdered him like it was nothing, killed like a bird or raccoon on the side of the road.

Do you not wonder how the family is, how we suffer?

Do we sleep? Do we eat? Do we cry?

Go on and enjoy your dinner while I cry, and my children and their father suffer the grief and pain of not having their brother and son. Remember that you have left much more than an empty chair in this room, and that we no longer can eat, while you meet with all your family members, taking for granted that they are all there with you.

Go on, laugh, drink, while I comfort myself by hugging my son’s ashes, which is what you murderers have left me, on this day of happy thanks given.

Sujey Lopez is the mother of Andy Lopez, who was shot and killed by deputy Erick Gelhaus on Oct. 22. This letter originally appeared on the Facebook page ‘Justice for Andy Lopez.’

Open Mic is a weekly op/ed feature in the Bohemian. We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication, write op*****@******an.com.

Letters to the Editor: December 4, 2013

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Letters to the Editor: December 4, 2013

Dream Center

SAY has not been forthcoming with the problems it has at Tamayo Village or those that will be created by its Warrack Hospital solution. Only when their back is to the wall does SAY admit some of their operational problems. Bottom line: they aren’t being honest.

If one looks at the concerns, it is not that many Bennett Valley residents don’t want to help those in need; it is that this particular self-serving “solution” creates risk to more people than it serves. For example: police are called when there is a tear in the social contract. SAY’s director of development, Cat Cvengros, told me she doesn’t see anything unreasonable about Tamayo’s 20 police calls a year for 25 beds. My frame of reference is zero calls on my block—many addresses, more people—in over 15 years (two blocks away from Warrack). So if 20 calls is OK for Tamayo Village, by extension SAY’s tolerance is an additional 50 calls at the former Warrack Hospital campus. That means antisocial behaviors rise to the level of police involvement every week. Clearly, SAY’s management doesn’t have the same behavioral standards I do. They are choosing to run their business allowing that much antisocial activity.

If you look at SAY’s financials (CharityNavigator.com) you will see their income was $3.2 million in 2002, $3.18 million in 2011, with average year-to-year growth over that period not keeping up with inflation. In order to cover their salaries and benefits of $2.3 million plus other professional fees of $1.5 million (according to 2010 form 990), SAY’s plans for the Warrack “Dream Center” are about increasing their income by being a landlord and providing an outdated product that creates risk to the neighborhood. It costs money to reduce that risk. When I asked SAY’s Ms. Cvengros why don’t they have group homes which give residents solid abilities to succeed in society, instead of an apartment complex with little structure, she said, “Oh, we don’t do that.”

Why not? It is because they are unwilling to pay for the state-required higher percentage of licensed staff and it is more important to them to have rental income than to drug-test, by providing insufficient services to ADA-protected alcohol- and drug-addicted tenants (very difficult to evict). And it is my choice to not accept a lowering of the social contract.

If the city of Santa Rosa would require a socio-economic impact assessment (SEIA) to quantify the risks by using facts, I might be persuaded to think differently.

—Howard Dollenlan

Santa Rosa

Cat Cvengros, SAY’s director of development, responds: The unprecedented gift of an unused building will allow our community to provide affordable housing to youth who most need it, youth who are committed to being responsible tenants. We know the SAY Dream Center model will work, based on eight years of success at Tamayo Village, where 80 percent of our youth move into permanent housing.

Crime and safety are concerns for every member of a community, SAY included. It’s not accurate to paint our eight years of success at Tamayo Village as “problematic.” For perspective on the volume of police calls in the last three years: a nearby apartment complex had 88 calls, a nearby elementary school had 97, Tamayo Village had 62.

A phone call originating from Tamayo Village, or any SAY program site, will be assigned a SAY address, regardless of the location of the actual event. The act of placing a call for emergency help does not mean that a crime occurred. For example, two hit and run accidents took place near Tamayo Village, and ours is the address listed because it was nearest to the accident.

We are committed to transparency and have answered dozens of questions on our website. Find them at saysc.org.

Releasing Grief

Thank you so much for this timely article (“A Dream Interrupted,” Nov. 20). Reflecting back on that day when I was a senior in high school and watched the tragedy on TV, I’ve come to understand the deep-seated fear that I’ve lived with as a result and the events that unfolded within the next five years. In April 1968, Martin Luther King was killed; in May 1968, my husband was killed in Vietnam when I was seven months pregnant, and one month later, in June 1968, Robert Kennedy was gunned down. A year later my father died suddenly. I could go on with many other losses. Suffice to say, I’ve found a way to release the fear that dominated my life for years. Writing helped. A book took many years to write, but it saved my life and has helped countless other survivors of war.

—Pauline Laurent

Santa Rosa

Write to us at le*****@******an.com.

Conan the Orator

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Conan the Orator

As a fixture at NPR for over 30 years, Neal Conan hosted the syndicated call-in news talk show Talk of the Nation for the last 11 of the show’s 21 years—and then, much to longtime listeners’ disappointment, NPR canceled it early this year. Conan comes to town this week, using his on-air talents to deliver spoken-word pieces with Ensemble Galilei, a Celtic and early music group from the East Coast. The group will play on early instruments while Conan’s spoken word paints details over the rich Irish, Scottish and original music on Friday,
Dec. 6, at the Glaser Center.
547 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 7:30pm. $20. 707.568.5381.

Power Walk

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Power Walk

I’d thought my feeling about pilgrimages were like that old joke about golf: a good walk, spoiled. But the captivating documentary Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago won me over with its generous balance between the experience of the body and the adventure of the soul. It records one 500-mile trek through the north of Spain to Santiago de Compostela; walkers trace the hills, valleys, monasteries and ancient passes, Roland’s own Roncevaux Pass among them.

Couples either draw together or fall apart under the strain of the month-long march. They’re as troubled as Tatiana and Alexis, a devout Catholic and her irreligious brother, or as serene as Wayne and Jack, a pair of elderly Canadian friends. The spiky Sam, a British/Brazilian lady, seeks to calm her own turmoil through the discipline of this long hike; another woman, Annie, goes through wrenching physical pain to get to the end. The documentary stresses the practicalities of the trip—the nights in snoring dens of travelers, the feet and joints outworn by the trail. One uncredited doctor notes that “the road tells you to slow down.”

The film is a clear labor of love for director and producer Lydia B. Smith, who will be in attendance at the film’s opening weekend in Sebastopol. She had gone on the walk by herself after a breakup. When she told her fellow pilgrims that she was a documentarian by trade, they suggested photographing the route. “My response was ‘Not under any circumstances,'” Smith says by phone from her office in Santa Monica. “I felt it was going to be too challenging to accurately reflect what this journey is about.” Of course, she changed her mind.

There is Chaucer’s own humanism to be enjoyed here, watching the various lives along their mutual journey. And after seeing the lambently photographed spring rain and wildflowers, you won’t be surprised to hear the film has been a hit in Oregon.

‘Walking the Camino’ opens Friday, Dec. 6, at Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol. Filmmakers present opening weekend.

Rincon Valley Wine & Craft Beer

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Rincon Valley Wine & Craft Beer

Amazing that Rincon Valley Cyclery managed to make it in this almost secret spot, tucked away behind a Chevron off Highway 12, for some 20 years. Almost every day since Michael Scalet and Renee Reynolds opened Rincon Valley Wine & Craft Beer in July 2013, someone wanders by, asking hey, where did the bike shop go? And then they say, hey, beer!

What would move this soft-spoken pair, who don’t strike one as prototypes of the booze biz, to quit 20-year careers in healthcare and open a small wine and beer shop in wine and beer country, where markets overflow with an abundance of both? “We hit the point where we weren’t happy doing what we’re doing,” says Reynolds. So they asked, “What now?” Scalet, who had lived in the area previously, thought that there was an underserved market in Santa Rosa, despite even places like Whole Foods having a beer tasting tap room. He was right. “Even the beer buyer from Whole Foods comes here,” says Reynolds.

On cue, a young couple peek in the door and politely ask if they’re really open. Turns out people can’t get enough craft beer. And brewers can’t make enough. It takes a lot of work, Scalet explains, to track down craft brewers and get highly allocated releases on their shelves. Sometimes it’s just one or two cases, and that’s it. Reynolds and Scalet are assisted by one employee, a beer fan who sought them out—although at first, they were skeptical: “No one can know that much about beer.”

The Clown Shoes Mexican chocolate stout that I purchased the other week is certainly gone now. But flights of four beers may be sampled at the tasting bar, generous four-ounce pours each. What’s going on in beer today, it might be asked, that I can’t necessarily find at my local supermarket? Maybe this Belgian-style Gueuze, made by a four-year-process of refermentation. Here’s a Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad ($15.99) and Far West Vlaming ($21.49), a West Flanders–style red ale from Oregon’s Logsdon Farmhouse. Categories may soon be antiquated, says Scalet, as there are Danish brewers now making California-style imperial ales in Belgium. And what to make of To Øl’s “Fuck Art Let’s Dance” ($21.99)?

There’s also a fun selection of wine. Hopland’s Rack & Riddle Brut (21.99), for instance, and 2012 Pessó Garnacha ($10.99) from Spain. Often a couple will stop in, one wanting wine, the other beer: they both find happiness. “A huge part of our customers are people who work for wineries,” says Scalet, “especially during harvest. We sold a lot of beer during harvest.”

Rincon Valley Wine & Craft Beer, 4927 Sonoma Hwy., Santa Rosa. 707.595.5516.

25 Days of Shopping Local

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25 Days of Shopping Local

This week’s issue kicks off a whole month of holiday shopping. We here at the Bohemian aim to inspire your shopping to happen locally, for a variety of reasons. One, it helps the local economy. Two, it sends a message to big-box CEOs who think they can get away with paying employees terribly. Three, chain stores are totally boring, and shopping online is lonely.

All through the month leading up to Dec. 25, we’ll be posting testimonials online at bohemian.com to North Bay businesses we love in Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties. Just as we did last year with our 25 Days of Shopping Local project, we’ll feature a different business on our homepage every day. These are absolutely not paid advertisements; they’re simply the types of places that come immediately to our writers’ minds when someone says “Name a local business you can’t live without.”

Shopping locally is paramount, and once one realizes just how enjoyable and satisfying it can be, it’s hard to go back to faceless corporate warehouses and online checkout. To help spread the fever, and to give readers an idea of what we’ll be posting online this December, what follows below are capsule versions of a selection of our picks from the inaugural 25 Days of Shopping Local. With your support, we’ll continue this tradition year after year.—Gabe Meline

As used clothing stores go, Pine Grove General Store is delightfully nontrendy. They don’t employ 19-year-olds who wear belt buckles wider than their collective waistline, and they would never sell some God-awful creation made of pleather and fuzz. At Pine Grove, I bought my first pair of nondenim slacks, and my favorite boots. I’ve worn them to interviews and first days of new work and the weddings of longtime friends, who are slipping out of their 20s, just like me. 149 N. Main St., Sebastopol, 707.829.1138.—Rachel Dovey

Once, I stood in the aisles of some huge impersonal store full of baby stuff, unable to find anything I needed, unable to find any help, and walked out and drove straight to Wee Three Children’s Store. Finally, a simple, manageable shop with plenty of kids’ clothes and shoes and toys, with a hand-selected inventory. There’s even a used section, which, if I were president, every children’s store would be required to have. In short, a good little place that I wound up telling all my fellow parents about—and they, with bleary eyes and slurred speech, thanked me. 1007 West College Ave., Santa Rosa, 707.525.9333.—Gabe Meline

Pearl Wonderful Clothing in the Napa Valley is an award-winning boutique that’s been discovered by the likes of Kevin Bacon, Sandra Bullock and Reese Witherspoon. Owned by fellow interior decorator Linda Allen, Pearl delivers a fusion of vintage and new style with custom handcrafted furniture, home accessories, gifts and, of course, wonderful clothing. 1219 Main St. #C, St. Helena. 707.963.3236.—Elise Guillot

My go-to hardware store is the family-owned Mission Ace on Highway 12 in Santa Rosa. I don’t know how many curveballs I’ve thrown them over the years, but they always find what I need—after all, the family has been in the hardware business since 1960. Tools, paint, electrical, plumbing, lumber—you name it, they know it, and they’ve even got an expansive garden loft for perusing on weekends, when there are free coffee and doughnuts at the front door. Before you ask, yes, the beautiful old green 1947 Ford truck is still used for deliveries, but no, you can’t drive it. I’ve been asking for 12 years! 4310 Hwy. 12, Santa Rosa, 707.539.7070.—Gabe Meline

The one constant in Novato’s Pacheco Plaza has been the service of Clothes Fit Alterations & Amani Men’s Clothing. On a given visit, you might see a bride getting fitted for the big day next to a teenager trying on his first tux behind a dude like me who tore his sweater again. Amani has risen to every random occasion of mine, like shortening jeans or having a tie loop sewn back. My favorite time is when Amani needs to make room for new inventory. The last time, I picked up two pairs of gorgeous dress shoes for under $50. Come to think of it, how does he make any money? 416 Ignacio Blvd., Novato, 415.883.1850.—David Sason

Downtown Santa Rosa has a lot of restaurants, boutiques and luxury stores, but sadly no grocery stores, hardware stores or other necessities that once made up the town core. This new landscape makes the old-school Asef’s Appliance important enough, but the breadth of know-how and experience in the long, cluttered space is irreplaceable. If it has moving parts, Asef’s can probably fix it. I can’t remember how many things I’ve had repaired, how many keys I’ve had made or how many vacuum bags or belts I’ve found there, but I do know that when the back of my watch fell off, I knew just where to go.
709 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, 707.575.3737.—Gabe Meline

[page]

It was 1999, and I was single again, driving to my new one-bedroom apartment. Might as well learn to cook, I thought, as I pulled into G&G Supermarket. Starting with something easy, I asked an employee for tips about kimchi. Quickly, I learned that everyone working at the store had ideas on cooking, and was happy to help craft my clueless ambition into edible dinners for one on a nightly basis. Those dinners for one are now dinners for three, but they’re still bought at G&G. They’ve got a huge selection, great prices and scads of lesser common items that continue to pique my imagination after 14 years. 1211 W. College Ave., Santa Rosa, 707.546.6877;
701 Sonoma Mountain Pkwy., Petaluma, 707.765.1198.
—Gabe Meline

For the longest time, I wondered where to get my lawnmower blade sharpened. Everyone I asked said Gardener’s Aid in Roseland. They were friendly. They were funny. They had a showroom full of mowers and weed whackers and trimmers, along with some newspaper clippings about their family in the window and some old stuff tacked to the wall behind the counter. I asked about the blade sharpening. “Seven bucks if you bring it in off the mower,” they said, “$12.50 if you need us to pull it off.” Not only am I headed there as soon as spring is back with a haggard, blunt blade, I’ll be checking out the rest of their inventory, too. 1050 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa, 707.545.7620.
—Gabe Meline

Since it was founded back in 1988, Bedrock Music has been an oasis for central Marin music lovers caught in the bustle of the Miracle Mile. The greatest contrast with corporate culture was undoubtedly its shift to Bedrock Music and Video a few years ago. Unlike the big, red-slot-machine-looking thingy at every supermarket in the world, Bedrock has hard-to-find movies. They’ll even give you an extra day or two if you need it, free of charge. Who can watch a whole season of Boardwalk Empire in a weekend, anyway? 2226 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.258.9745.—David Sason

For over 25 years, the friendly staff at California Luggage Co. have been sending people to the airport, boarding pass in one hand and quality luggage in the other. Walk in just about any hour of the day and there’s a “personal shopper” experience going on, with a customer’s personal packing and travel habits considered for the ideal luggage option. Local politicos, downtown merchants and journalists know owner Bernie Schwartz as the “silent mayor” of Santa Rosa—he knows everybody and everything—but two generations of customers know him as the best thing that ever happened to their vacation since even before the vacation began. 609 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, 707.528.5799. —Gabe Meline

I’d already picked up a small chocolate cake and candles, but I knew that I needed something more. Something special. It was, after all, my daughter’s first birthday. As a new dad, I was clueless as to what to get, but knew just where to go: the Toyworks. “Does she have a doll?” the woman asked, plain as day, after I presented my dilemma. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Under $20 later, the Toyworks had me on my way home with an attractive, free wrapping job and a big red ribbon to boot. 531 College Ave., Santa Rosa, 707.526.2099; 6940 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol, 707.829.2003. —Gabe Meline

When you get down to it, Fatty’s Threads is probably the best store in all of Sonoma County. Fatty’s carries clothes, books, stereo equipment, tools, appliances, DVDs, bicycles, sporting equipment, art supplies, records, patio furniture, toys and more, but calling it a “junk shop” doesn’t to it justice. Truly a neighborhood hub, it’s also a meet-up place, a treasure hunt and a museum of oddities. Dave Puccetti, the truly friendly ringleader of Fatty’s, acts more like a really great bartender than a store owner—doling out advice, giving opinions when asked and quoting you prices way below what you expected to pay. A full Atari 2600 system, from 1983, with joysticks, adapters and 30 game cartridges for just $25? Yes, it’s that kind of shop. 1290 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa, 707.578.6916.—Gabe Meline

When my husband wanted to buy my two-year old, board-obsessed nephew his first skateboard, he headed over to Brotherhood Board Shop in Santa Rosa, where he bought a sweet deck for under $100. Owned by Jon Lohne, a longtime Santa Rosa, Brotherhood is everything that a skateboard shop should be. Stop in to pick up pretty much anything the skateboarder or snowboarder in your life wants and needs. In the summer, the shop brims with kids, young and old, busting out tricks in the parking lot at regularly hosted skate contests. And what’s better than awesome service from people who leave, breathe and eat skateboarding? 1240 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.546.0660.
—Leilani Clark

Dear Lord, please do not ever let Corrick’s close. My house is packed with its inventory: Pilot G2 pens, envelopes, Sharpies, legal forms, a stuffed Snuffleupagus puppet . . . I still remember the first thing I ever bought there—a ribbon for my Olympia typewriter—and I will never forget the saleslady’s sympathetic look one Christmas when she told me they were sold out of sweater lint shavers. I love that no one ever quits, that owner Keven Brown is always helpful, and that their back room has one those great old bank safe doors, and that they’re coming up on their 100th anniversary. And like a lot of other Santa Rosans, I always walk in and think to myself, “Maybe someday I’ll buy something from the front half of the store.” 637 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, 707.546.2424.
—Gabe Meline

In an age of Netflix and Redbox and Hulu, how does an old-fashioned video rental store like Video Droid survive? Easy: knowing their shit. Often I’ll be looking for something from some forgotten director made in some forgotten year with some forgotten actress, and lo, it shall be waiting for me on the shelf. Or on several occasions, it’ll be ordered for me. “But I’m only going to rent it once,” I protest. “That’s OK. We’ll put it in stock. Someone else will want to watch it, too.” You can’t beat service like that. Video Droid gets two thumbs up. 1462 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.526.3313.
—Gabe Meline

Pleasing Portions

On Thursday, Dec.5, Food for Thought holds its 13th annual fundraising effort, Dining Out for Life. The fundraiser is a way for Sonoma County citizens to support the Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank, which provides for people affected by HIV/AIDS—and it's as easy as dining out at a local restaurant. Food for Thought currently provides food and nutritional supplements for...
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Alt & in the Way

What are the roots of a roots music band? In the case of Poor Man's Whiskey, admits cofounder and guitar-mandolin player Jason Beard, the core members started off as "a winery/wedding band, so we ended up having to do a lot of covers, old traditional rock and roll tunes, but we would make them bluegrass. We always called that...
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Gall-Mart

The skunk held her sign proudly, trotting back and forth across the entrance of Rohnert Park's Walmart last week: "The way Walmart treats its employees stinks!" it read. Joined by about 20 other protesters on Black Friday, the woman in costume hoped to lure employees out of their natural environment and into the fray of a national demonstration against...
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Foodie Time

Living in a culinary wonderland does have its drawbacks: there are sometimes too many food gifts to choose from. Narrowing it to locally made is one way to thin the herd, but a mind-numbing selection still remains. Here is a path from morning to evening to keep the food lover in your life happy. Start with a doh sant from...
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My Son’s Ashes

To Deputy Sheriff Gelhaus, District Attorney Jill Ravitch and members of the law enforcement agencies responsible for the death of my son, on this Thanksgiving: May the happiness you feel on this special day remain in the memory of every one of you for the rest of your lives. May this day of Thanksgiving be an unforgettable one for all of...
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Letters to the Editor: December 4, 2013

Dream Center SAY has not been forthcoming with the problems it has at Tamayo Village or those that will be created by its Warrack Hospital solution. Only when their back is to the wall does SAY admit some of their operational problems. Bottom line: they aren't being honest. If one looks at the concerns, it is not that many Bennett Valley...
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Conan the Orator

As a fixture at NPR for over 30 years, Neal Conan hosted the syndicated call-in news talk show Talk of the Nation for the last 11 of the show's 21 years—and then, much to longtime listeners' disappointment, NPR canceled it early this year. Conan comes to town this week, using his on-air talents to deliver spoken-word pieces with Ensemble...
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Power Walk

I'd thought my feeling about pilgrimages were like that old joke about golf: a good walk, spoiled. But the captivating documentary Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago won me over with its generous balance between the experience of the body and the adventure of the soul. It records one 500-mile trek through the north of Spain to Santiago...
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Rincon Valley Wine & Craft Beer

Amazing that Rincon Valley Cyclery managed to make it in this almost secret spot, tucked away behind a Chevron off Highway 12, for some 20 years. Almost every day since Michael Scalet and Renee Reynolds opened Rincon Valley Wine & Craft Beer in July 2013, someone wanders by, asking hey, where did the bike shop go? And then they...
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25 Days of Shopping Local

This week's issue kicks off a whole month of holiday shopping. We here at the Bohemian aim to inspire your shopping to happen locally, for a variety of reasons. One, it helps the local economy. Two, it sends a message to big-box CEOs who think they can get away with paying employees terribly. Three, chain stores are totally boring,...
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