Every year, SoCoNews compiles a list of the year’s most noteworthy events, happenings and newsmakers and writes a comprehensive timeline that looks back at the year.
This is the 2021 year in review. We broke down our narrative timelines into eight various themes: Events, schools, people, COVID-19, business, drought, local government and crime/police.
Here’s 2021 in business.
In January, the Parish owners Rob and Karla Lippincott said they hope to sell the brand and the business to someone locally who wants to continue the eatery’s mission of offering scrumptious southern comfort food.
While many restaurants were forced to sell or close their business due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Karla told SoCoNews that they are freely choosing to sell and move to Tennessee where they can provide more opportunities for their children, and where the cost of living and wildfire threat is much lower than in California.
After 20 years of business serving up hearty breakfasts and lunches, Singletree Cafe owners announced plans to close its doors on Feb. 22. The owner Nancy Van Praag told SoCoNews that her time with Singletree had been a lot of fun. Before Singletree opened, the building at 165 Healdsburg Ave. was home to Lonnie’s back in 1962.
In February after the lifting of the Bay Area stay-at-home order, Montage Healdsburg opened to the public. The resort — which is owned by Sonoma Luxury Resort LLC. — sits on 258 acres amid heritage oak tree forests and vine-covered hills.
Tom Nelson of the Healdsburg Tourism Improvement District (HTID) provided the annual HTID report to the Healdsburg City Council on March 15. The highlight of the report was that due to several stay-at-home orders throughout 2020, available room nights went down from nearly 250,000 in 2019 to 150,000 in 2020. Nelson had said that the city would not regain its 2019 hotel stay levels until about 2022. He also reported that self-assessment revenue sharply declined.
In 2019-20 over $500,000 was collected, yet in 2020-21 revenue only amounted to a little over $400,000, according to a HTID report.
Healdsburg’s Costeaux French Bakery filed a class action lawsuit against the County of Sonoma and the state in mid-April in an effort to obtain reimbursement of business fees, public health permit fees and state liquor licensing fees paid while public health orders forced the business and others to close and or open with constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit was one of seven other similar lawsuits recently filed in Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Monterey, San Bernardino, Riverside and Placer counties.
Little Saint, a plant-based restaurant and cafe, wine shop and arts gathering space, was set to open summer 2021 in the former 10,000 square foot SHED property on West North Street. The project, which was announced in September 2020, aims to carry on the SHED legacy of fresh farm to table food with a community atmosphere where visitors can share innovative ideas and appreciation of the arts and music.
As of this month, the new gathering space and cafe has yet to open to the public.
In July, Lynette and Gareth Owens — who moved their family from Los Gatos to Healdsburg last year — became the new owners of The Parish Cafe. With restaurant and wine country roots, Gareth will serve as the owner and operator and will work in the front of house and Lynette, whose main job is in sales, will primarily work in business promotion.
The summer months continued to be active with new businesses and business transactions.
Marine Layer Wines, a small production wine label that focuses on making Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with grapes from the Sonoma Coast, moved into a Center Street location in August. The tasting room took the space at 308 B Center Street — formerly the home of the Flight Deck tasting room — next door to Downtown Bakery.
Speaking of Downtown Bakery, the popular bakery went up for sale on Aug. 1. Kathleen Stewart and her family have been running Downtown Bakery since 1987 and after 35 years of hard work, the family has decided to sell. In December the bakery announced that they found new owners, couple Ross and Karna Murphy.
In part, the bakery statement read, “We are grateful that the new proprietors, Ross and Karna Murphy, will continue in our footsteps providing our customers with the excellence they deserve. We are so honored to have been a part of your families for the past 25 years.”
As the fall season set in, the Healdsburg Center for the Arts celebrated their new location at 334 Center Street with a grand opening celebration on Oct. 23. The art gallery made the move from its original location on Plaza Street after receiving word earlier this year that its lease would not be renewed.
In celebration of the new opening, the gallery held family-friendly art activities throughout the day. Kids could partake in rocket and sculpture building or try their hand at mini mosaics.
In November, the Yoga on Center yoga studio had to start looking for a new home after proprietors Jenn Russo and Katina Knapp were told that their lease would not be renewed and that they’d have to move out of their location by Dec. 31.
“We were shocked because we’ve always paid our rent on time. We were physically closed for a year during COVID, but we still paid our rent on time every month,” Russo told SoCoNews.
