June 26: Valley Wine Shack, Planet Organics and PK Sonoma to close...

This is a good weekend to be a tourist in our own hometown, a whole annual program in Victoria, B.C. when local attractions are either free or discounted for locals.

All the better, since Steve Page, Sonoma resident and president of Sonoma Raceway, cautions locals who are not attending the NASCAR races Sunday to stay away from the intersections of Highways 121 and 37 at Sears Point where the raceway is located. Around 100,000 racecar fans will be either crossing or traveling on those roads.

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Transcendence Theatre’s opening night last Friday was nothing short of spectacular on a warm almost-summer evening. The crested moon and Jupiter hung over the mountain vineyards, almost distracting theatergoers from the show with their beauty. One could just imagine Jack London sitting there with us and even hosting the audience.

The show was “Oh, What A Night!” and is not to be missed if you can make it. Check their website for specific nights from now through July 3. While everyone and no one is a star in Transcendence, some stood out, including Glen Ellen’s Lexy Fridell.

Full disclosure: I was invited as a guest of Lexy’s parents, Suzy and Squire Fridell, along with about 150 members of their Two Amigos and GlenLyon wine clubs. We all dined on elegant food in a biodegradable box prepared by the divine Catherine Venturini of Olive & Vine, including grilled-across-the-trail boneless chicken breasts, farro salad, a salad of tomatoes of many colors, green salad, bowls of fruits, cookies, brownies and much more.

Tips Tri-Tips Trolley was selling its regular food (see below), as well as Glen Ellen Star’s little cups of housemade ice cream ($5) right at the entrance to Jack London’s winery ruins.

Transcendence Theatre’s not quite transcendent picnic food is good again this year. Tips Tri Tips Trolley has its food truck with tender tri-tip sandwiches and occasional salads at each Broadway Under the Stars performance. Some nights will also feature The Farmer’s Wife (great grilled cheese sandwiches), Dabba, Ultra Crepes, Mary’s Pizza Shack, and Cookie…Take A Bite. As well, Transcendence sponsor Sonoma Market and Glen Ellen Village Market will make picnic dinners that you can order ahead and pick up on your way to performances in Jack London Park. Co-Executive Director and performer Stephan Stubbins says that you can find the menu or vendors for each specific performance at ttcsonoma.org.

At her garage sale last Saturday, Bella Vita “vintage-style clothing” shop owner and designer Janis Jennings Snyder told me she provided many of the outfits worn on stage in the current shows. 457 First St. W., Sonoma. 935-8206. Bellavitasonoma.com.

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Shiso Modern Asian Kitchen in Maxwell Village Shopping Center will show a locally made film, “The Organic Life,” by Casey Beck for its next movie night tomorrow, Saturday, June 27. Shiso will again feature a buffet dinner on the patio, using veggies from Paul’s Produce, and show the film there as well. $35 for movie and dinner. 7:30 p.m. Reserve via kim@shisorestaurant.com. 933-9331.

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Windee Smith is selling off her fabulous wine stock and will close her Valley Wine Shack in a formal sense on July 3, but will be running specials via email through the month of July when her lease is up.

The building on West Napa Street, just west of Fifth Street West, where she has held court and many pop-up dinners by Rob Larman of Cochon Volant, is for sale.

Windee will be staying in Sonoma, which she calls home. Apparently she is finished with retail for a while and will take some time off to figure out the rest of her life, something lots of us contemplate. Congratulations on liberating yourself, Windee Smith. 535 W. Napa St., Sonoma. 938-7218.

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Sam Coturri and his father, the esteemed vineyardist Phil Coturri, will soon open a “private tasting house” for their combined effort, Winery Sixteen 600 in the “farmhouse” on First Street East that Sonoma Psychotherapy Group previously occupied. Judy Lopes and Arden Kremer, the latter Sam’s mother and wife of Phil Coturri, helped design the interior with furniture and other accoutrements from Sonoma Country Antiques, Vignette and Plain Jane’s.

Since the Coturris are only making 700 to 1,000 cases a year, tastings will only be available to people on their lists or by referral. Get on the list at winerysixteen600.com.

The opening was delayed slightly by Sam’s happy wedding last weekend to local artist and holistic creativity coach Alice Pennes on the beach in Santa Cruz.

Watch for a very special dinner and tasting of the Coturris’ wines at Sondra Bernstein’s Suite D on Aug. 14, for which the Coturris will provide Executive Chef John Toulze with a locally raised pig to roast and serve. scoturri@gmail.com.

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Lorene Reed says she “finally threw in the towel and closed Planet Organics” after 19 years of sourcing and delivering organic vegetables throughout the Bay Area.

Way ahead of her time nearly two decades ago, Reed did well with CSAs and regular deliveries in several vans to shops and restaurants around the Bay. She wrote to me, “With rising costs and declining sales, and the summer months being our slowest time of the year, I was just unable to sustain the business to a healthy degree.”

As that door closes, another opens for Reed, and she says, “Now that Planet Organics is closed I can put my full-time energies into my new venture, the Divewalk Café and Crêperie.”

Planet Organics and she will have a going out of business sale this Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with Reed saying, “I sure would appreciate the support of the community to come on out and help me unload this 5,000-square-foot warehouse full of organic food!”

Run, don’t walk. Sale 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the old Nicholas Turkey Office Building, 19449 Riverside Drive at Petaluma Avenue, Sonoma.

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PK Sonoma on West Napa Street across from the Index-Tribune will close its home-and-bath personal comfort store on July 30 because a rent increase planned by the landlord (Detert brothers). Are wineries the only businesses that can afford this rent, leading to more tasting rooms?

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Sonoma Cheese Factory’s new design plan goes before the Sonoma Planning Commission on July 9. Dave Viviani said that his sisters would like to create a sort of mini Oxbow-style market in what had been the family cheese production facility and retail shop. Already they sell their cheese made elsewhere, make and sell sandwiches and snacks, barbecue decent burgers on the patio, and have a few food concessions in the back.

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Suite D, whose pop-ups occasionally seem to be Sonoma’s new French restaurant, will host a doozie on Sunday, June 28. Guests will get to meet famed winemaker Anne-Charlotte Melia-Bachas, a good friend of proprietor Sondra Bernstein, as she pours her Château de La Font du Loup wines from her family vineyard in Châteauneuf-du-Pape in France’s Rhône region with a fabulous menu created by executive chef John Toulze.

Enjoy a salmon Niçoise salad with Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2014 Blanc; housemade charcuterie such as a rabbit terrine, chicken liver mousse, and duck rillettes with La Rosée; pancetta-wrapped pork tenderloin with grilled chicories and farro paired with Côtes du Rhône 2014; a Sonoma cheese course with Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2013 Rouge and Châteauneuf du Pape 2013 Le Puy Rolland; and cherry ciafoutis with Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2006 Rouge. $85. 6 p.m. No outside wines. Reserve via figsuited.com.

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Sorry to learn that gentleman and former White House Chef, Walter Scheib, was found dead near a hiking trail in New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains outside of Taos. While reports did not describe the scene, rescuers spent many hours lifting his body from its location.

Scheib served as executive chef to both President Bill and Hillary Clinton and President George W. and Laura Bush, all of whom preferred “American food” as opposed to French cuisine enjoyed by the Kennedys.

I had the honor of interviewing Walter Scheib on my radio show on KSVY 91.3 FM. (10 to 11 a.m. on Fridays).

My humble suggestion: Do not hike, bike or swim alone.

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Bon appétit!