Sonoma Magazine

As late summer eases into early fall and many a flower garden is nodding off, Lisa Rogers’ little landscape is still rocking. The front yard of her home in a single-lane subdivision in Sebastopol looks like the final curtain call of the gardening season with the cast of crowd pleasers, from marigolds and sunflowers to goldenrod and black-eyed Susans, packed leaf-to-petal for a resounding final bow. For Rogers, this spectacle offers more than curb appeal.

Hong Kong-style dim sum, okonomiyaki, Punjabi street food, nam khao, mooncakes, Spam musubi, kimchi and roti are among the foods on the menu at the second annual Many Moons Festival, set for Saturday, Oct. 3, in Sebastopol. The festival celebrates Asian American, South and Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander cultures through live performances, art, workshops and, for food lovers, a lineup of food and drink vendors. Consider this your call to take up chopsticks, tiffins and soup spoons.

A two-bedroom, one-bathroom Monte Rio home is currently listed for sale. Fully renovated with an opened-up layout, the 720-square-foot home has been converted into an airy one-bedroom cottage. Set among towering redwoods, the home is listed at $482,000. Built in 1956, the dwelling was recently reimagined with a down-to-the-studs renovation. Vaulted ceilings, sliders and picture windows enable light to fill the interior. If desired, the expanded floor plan can be converted back to two bedrooms.

Two chefs will take over the kitchens at Appellation Healdsburg this fall for a series of limited-run dinners in collaboration with the Charlie Palmer-owned resort and its restaurants. The Greek by Dino Moniodis Dino Moniodis, the Sonoma County native behind Dino’s Greek Food Truck, will serve a five-course menu. Moniodis spent summers in Greece, including time working at his cousin’s beachfront restaurant. His menu draws on the food he grew up eating there.

From a new spice shop to tapas and Mediterranean, Sonoma County’s dining scene is adding new reasons to eat out this fall. Wild Poppy, the west Sebastopol cafe known for breakfast, brunch and lunch, is expanding with a second location in the former Woodfour Brewing space at The Barlow in late September. The new location will offer grab-and-go meals as well as daytime and evening menus, which are still being developed.

An 1890s farmhouse on 4.2 acres in Petaluma is currently listed for sale. The two-bedroom, one-bathroom home with multiple outbuildings is priced at $1,299,000. Vaulted ceilings give an airiness beyond the home’s 900 square feet. Historic charm remains in wood-plank floors, lemon-yellow lap siding and double-hung windows. With refurbishment, the property’s weathered outbuildings offer opportunities to create a working hobby farm or studio and entertainment spaces.

You can stomp, step, grapevine and yeehaw all you like at Windsor’s Spur Saloon. A little 10-gallon tomfoolery is welcome, too. But bronco-busting on the custom-made leather saddle seats will earn you some side-eye. Owner Eric Foster has already bolted those things to the floor twice, and they’re getting loose again. Spur is Sonoma County’s newest — and pretty much only — Western saloon, cowboy bar and chuckwagon.

The reimagined home of early-computing tech entrepreneur and WillaKenzie Estate winery founder Bernard Lacroute and his wife Ronni is currently listed for sale. The 7,926-square-foot estate on 10.77 acres in Napa is seeking $16,950,000. The 6,725-square-foot, four-bedroom main home and a 1,200-square-foot, two-bedroom guesthouse — remodeled with a striking modernity by Mill Valley-based Sutton Suzuki Architects — are surrounded by trees and meandering paths.

Chef Jennifer Murphy-Ellamar was, understandably, feeling a little thirsty after taste-testing nearly 90 varieties of instant ramen for the shelves of Neon Kitty, the new market and noodlery at Graton Resort & Casino. Standing before a wall of crinkly plastic packages and cardboard bowls she had handpicked from across Asia, she was searching for a particular favorite: Menraku Tonkotsu, with its creamy pork broth and chewy noodles.

In the last couple of years, Napa Valley has seen a wave of dramatic winery makeovers, from Robert Mondavi Winery’s multimillion-dollar renovation to Beaulieu Vineyard’s recently unveiled refresh. As impressive as those transformations can be, there is something appealing about stepping back in time to the region’s early days. At Chateau Montelena in Calistoga, classic Napa Valley wines are poured inside a Gothic-style stone castle built in the late 19th century.