Sebastopol Featured in the New York Times!
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A New Destination for Food and Art in Sonoma
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Lianne Milton for The New York Times
In Sebastopol, Hopmonk Tavern, above, and the cafe portion of Aubergine Vintage Emporium & Café, below.
By EMILY BRADY
Published: October 21, 2011
CLOSE to midnight one Saturday in Sebastopol, in Sonoma County, California, fog rolled in from the nearby Pacific Ocean, encompassing the town in thick, cool mist. Inside an old apple cannery, though, revelers were in a different sort of haze — one produced by the cacophonous sounds of a funk band.
Under a disco ball that dangled from barnlike rafters, Spencer Burrows, the energetic lead singer of the band Frobeck, bounced up and down behind his keyboards. Colored lights flashed across his seven band mates, on drums, saxophone and tambourine. As the guitarist broke into a solo, the packed crowd, which included both the silver-haired ponytail types and those still using their college IDs, bobbed and swayed.
It was another typical night at Aubergine, a giant vintage clothing store, cafe and concert space, and part of the cultural scene that has taken over this modest-size town, about an hour north of San Francisco.
Sonoma County may be best known for its wineries and the tony towns of Healdsburg and Sonoma, but West County, as locals call the area around Sebastopol, is where the vineyards begin to give way to rolling hills, bohemian enclaves and the wild Pacific Coast beyond. Sure, there’s wine produced here — excellent pinots in particular — but there’s plenty to explore beyond it, especially around Sebastopol, where in recent years new restaurants, shops and live music venues have opened, securing the town’s position as West County’s arts and culture hub.
“We’re not like a little Podunk town,” said Leslie Hanson, the manager of Aubergine, as she stood behind the store counter, surrounded by a dizzying 8,000 square feet of vintage clothing that included rows of traditional Austrian dirndl dresses, faux fur coats, ’50s-era slips imported from Western Europe and motorcycle boots and Western shirts from Texas.
Randy Graves, the owner of Aubergine, moved his business to Sebastopol from nearby Occidental three years ago after falling in love with the historic old cannery. He hoped the town would support his vision of a combination vintage wonderland and event space. It has. “It’s a very artistic and holistic culture,” Mr. Graves said of the town’s appeal.
It wasn’t always this way. Sebastopol is a town that apples built, specifically the sweet and tart Gravenstein. But the apple business began to decline in the 1970s, and though the town still hosts the annual Apple Blossom Festival and Gravenstein Apple Fair, most orchards have been replaced with vineyards.
Change also came with an influx of counterculture in the 1960s and ’70s, which carried with it political and cultural values still evident in businesses on small, pedestrian-friendly Main Street, like Rosemary’s Garden, an herb shop that has been around for decades, and a spirituality-themed bookstore, Many Rivers Books and Tea. In 2000, Sebastopol made news for having a city council with a Green Party majority.
Not surprisingly, this progressive attitude has attracted a certain demographic. Patrick Amiot, an artist from Montreal, stumbled across Sebastopol 14 years ago while on a road trip with his wife and two daughters. They pulled into town in a motor home to cool off in the community pool — and ended up staying for good.
“Sebastopol is not your typical small town,” Mr. Amiot said. “For me, it’s like an extension of Berkeley.”
A decade ago, Mr. Amiot placed his first sculpture, a 14-foot-tall fisherman made of recycled metal and painted vivid colors by his wife, Brigitte Laurent, in front of his house on Florence Avenue. He awaited an outraged response from his neighbors. It never came; instead, he got compliments. Today, around 200 of Mr. Amiot and Ms. Laurent’s whimsical, cartoonish collaborations are scattered around town; Florence Avenue has become a virtual outdoor gallery of their work — some 20 sculptures that incorporate repurposed commercial material are on view in neighboring yards, including a Batman figure whose torso is made out of an old oil drum, and a mermaid with scales that were once applesauce can lids.
“I didn’t expect to make a living in such a small town,” Mr. Amiot said. “I feel it’s not so much about me and my work, it’s more about this town that has been able to embrace me.” He sat in paint-splattered jeans in his living room, itself a makeshift gallery, with furniture fashioned out of an old bathtub and refrigerator and a giant metal cowboy looming in one corner.
A block away, on Healdsburg Avenue, Lowell Sheldon, a Sebastopol native, runs an organic, Italian-influenced restaurant called Peter Lowell’s. In the summer, most of the produce used in the small, airy restaurant comes from local farms. Even here, art is an essential element. Mr. Sheldon regularly commissions photographers to document those farms, along with local wineries and breweries, and the photos are exhibited in the dining room. A recent show featured black and white images of nearby Radio-Coteau vineyards. “It became an interesting way to communicate with our customers about the producers we work with,” said Mr. Sheldon, as he sat on his restaurant’s back patio, wearing a beet-colored T-shirt that read “Local Food Matters.”
When he opened the restaurant in 2007, Mr. Sheldon said his goal was to operate it with the ideals of a nonprofit. One night this summer, some of the proceeds from a special menu were donated to a local organization that teaches teenagers how to cook healthy food for people with life-threatening illnesses. The meal featured local pasture-raised pork with apple and fennel slaw and polenta, and Bodega Bay salmon, braised beet greens and quinoa. There were thick slices of Gravenstein apple pie for dessert.
In May, a few doors down from Peter Lowell’s, Charlie Pendergast opened RiskPress Gallery in a former vacuum cleaner shop. Mr. Pendergast doesn’t take commissions or charge rent. Instead, he donates the space and allows artists to use it as they see fit. The 750-square-foot gallery is intended to be a place for emerging artists, as well as for more established ones, like the landscape painter Hanya Popova Parker, to experiment.
Close to the center of town, in a 100-year-old stone building, the Hopmonk Tavern is now a popular restaurant and concert spot. Opened three years ago, the Hopmonk offers live music most nights. On a recent summer evening, against a red velvet backdrop, the New York-based singer Christina Courtin clutched the microphone and sang a version of an old Pete Townshend song that was so mesmerizing even the pixie-faced bartender stopped squeezing limes for a moment to listen.
Nearby, more change is coming. Barney Aldridge, a local developer, is working to transform a 12.5-acre former apple-processing plant and farmers’ cooperative called the Barlow. Some of the site’s converted warehouses are already home to an eclectic array of businesses including the headquarters of the yerba mate company Guayaki; a glass blowing studio; a bronze foundry; and the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, which hosts art exhibitions, classes, concerts and an annual documentary film festival.
In the coming year, Mr. Aldridge plans to bring 30 additional businesses to the Barlow, including two wineries, a brewery, two bakeries, a coffee roaster and a pizzeria. “Basically, this will be a fully sustainable village of people making things,” he said. “People were always making and producing food and art here.”
IF YOU GO
Aubergine Vintage Emporium & Café (755 Petaluma Avenue; 707-827-3460; aubergineafterdark.com).
Hopmonk Tavern (230 Petaluma Avenue; 707-829-7300; hopmonk.com).
Many Rivers Books and Tea (130 South Main Street, Suite 101; 707-829-8871; manyriversbooks.com).
Patrick Amiot (Florence Avenue; 707-824-9388; patrickamiot.com).
Peter Lowell’s (7385 Healdsburg Avenue, Suite 101; 707-829-1077; peterlowells.com).
RiskPress Gallery (7345 Healdsburg Avenue; no phone; riskpress.com)
Rosemary’s Garden (132 North Main Street; 707-829-2539; rosemarysgarden.com).
Sebastopol Center for the Arts (6780 Depot Street; 707-829-4797; sebarts.org).
Re: Sebastopol Featured in the New York Times!
Emily Brady who wrote this piece grew up in Sebastopol; home-town girl makes good!
Re: Sebastopol Featured in the New York Times!
But the article leaves so many great places out! :~P
I lived in or near Laguna Beach from 1974-1984 and would go back for a couple of weeks twice a year while my folks lived there until 1989. (When they then moved to Sebastopol.)
I actually spent more time in "town", hanging out with the Lagunatics, after I moved away, than when I lived in the area. Its charms became more apparent to me and I wished I'd availed myself of them more when I lived there.
But it was also rapidly gentrifying in the eighties and on. I came to refer to Main Street as "The Rodeo Drive of Orange County".
Publicity is good, especially if you have a local business. I understand the drive for notoriety. But I also understand the dangers.
When I lived in Laguna, I would avoid driving through town on weekends. I'd head north to Corona Del Mar and places where my friends lived and recreated (Irvine, Costa Mesa, Balboa Peninsula, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Long Beach, Hollywood, Westwood, Melrose Downtown L.A., etc.) The traffic was ridiculous in Laguna, and the quaint shops and restaurants mobbed by tourists. Very welcome, I'm sure, by proprietors and service staff, not so much by residents who were not dependent on the "Tourist Dollah".
Anyone who has watched the odious TV show "Laguna Beach" from the late '90's has seen a Hollywood portrayal (always inaccurate, always shallow and pretentious, Hollywood never gets a scene right, and I know this because of the versions of scenes I participated in, as seen on screen and TV) you have an inkling of how glitzy and plastic things became.
Beware! I enjoy the fruits of cultural ferment in Sebastopol and this area in general as much as the next person. I'm not saying we should be like the Tomalans and tear down the direction signs and roll up the welcome mat and bar the doors to outsiders. I am saying that success is a two-edged sword, and has costs as well as benefits.
