Lifestyle

This year’s Merry Healdsburg party is, surprisingly, only the fourth for this still-fresh city celebration, though the tradition of a tree-lighting the first week of December is much older. But it used to be a quieter affair—maybe the Community Band would play a program of holiday music from the gazebo stage or something, but the glamor and the glitz of Merry Healdsburg didn’t start until 2021...

After pizza was more or less invented in Naples as a sauced-up flatbread, it took the globe by storm when American G.I.’s returned from World War II, bringing a fondness for pizza that led to a Cambrian explosion of different forms we know now. These include traditional Neapolitan styles, thin crust in New York, Detroit squares, sheet pans and deep-dish variants in Chicago, to name a few. You can find them all in California... and then some.

Now when most winemakers talk about “clones,” they’re talking about varietals selected for specific qualities, such as flavor, color or intensity. The Dijon clones of pinot noir or chardonnay are well known; but the canine clone of a winery dog is a new thing entirely.

Enter the rail trail. The concept developed in the 1980s as railroads across the country were decommissioned and a growing population sought new trails to travel. Thus the Rails to Trails Conservancy was formed out of timely necessity. Nearly 2,500 rail trails nationally now span 25,000 miles, as practical a reuse of a transportation corridor as one could conceive...

The 29 pooches that entered in the 2024 Howl-O-Ween pet parade, sponsored by the Humane Society of Sonoma County, showed why they’re beloved by their people as they showed off costumes, wigs, novelty rigs and, in at least one case, their stripes.

One of the world’s largest collections of nutcracker dolls gazes down on breakfast diners at Healdsburg’s Costeaux French Bakery this time of year, promoting the holiday spirit at the 100-year-old bakery. From mid-November into mid-January, hundreds of the small wood effigies of spirits, tin...

With the closures and limitations of the pandemic fading into memory, restaurant dining has regained its position as one of Sonoma County’s most popular, close-to-home recreations.

Agave Restaurant in Healdsburg has reopened with a new 250-year-old redwood bar, a new mole menu, and a renewed focus on Oaxacan flavors and personal service.

Adel’s Restaurant, opened 34 years ago and as such perhaps the oldest continuously operated restaurant in Healdsburg, closed its doors for the last time on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 29. The diner on Dry Creek Road just off the Highway 101 off-ramp has been a popular...

"White walls reaching for an impossibly high ceiling, a haven that appeared like some Xanadu on the west side of the city square just when we needed to hide. Why we needed to hide is another matter," writes Daedalus Howell about finding a place to slake his dark thirst when he discovered Marine Layer Wines. ..