Kathleen Hill: Bakery on the move, Martina McBride gets cooking and more

Honey & Moon moving to Mint & Liberty

Got that?

James and Mila Chaname-Hahn expect to open Mint & Liberty on Nov. 7 and will shut their Honey & Moon bakery to move it to Mint & Liberty next week in the space formerly occupied by the Breakaway Cafe in Maxwell Village shopping center.

While everyone adjusts to these new names, Honey & Moon is the name the Hahns have used since they bought Crisp Bakeshop, retaining some of the pastry chefs, but not founder Andrea Koweek who moved on to became chef ambassador at the Girl & the Fig Caters.

According to Mila, they will 'Move HATM operations to the Mint & Liberty Diner, initially focusing on production for both restaurants,' meaning Sunflower Caffé and Mint & Liberty Diner.

Honey & Moon will close Monday, Oct. 29 to move everything to Mint & Liberty, and will be taking orders soon at the new diner.

On Thursday, Nov. 1, Sweet Pea Bakery from Napa will take over the bakeshop location. (Not to be confused with Sweetie Pies from Napa.)

To many Sonomans, the former Breakaway Cafe was a community café with character and personality (former owner Bob Rice's), good food, and reasonable and fair prices. Hopefully the new 'modern diner' will engender the same spirit.

Passagio Wines release party

Cindy Cosco, fun former cop turned owner of Passagio Wines, will release nine new 2016 red wines including her first bottling of cabernet franc and teroldego. Also grab a taste of her grenache, mourvèdre, syrah, GSM, merlot from Thomson Vineyards, her Bordeaux blend, and a petite verdot.

Cosco says she will also have 10 of her white wines on her tasting menu as well at the celebration this Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 27 and 28. Run, don't walk, because Cindy only makes a total of 1,700 cases.

Adam Traum will play his melodies while guests enjoy Sonoma private chef Bruce Yelner's hors d'oeuvres. $30 public, free to wine club members. Tasting fee waived with $50 wine purchase. 25 E. Napa St., Sonoma, Suite C. Noon to 6 p.m.

Beltane zin release party with 'calf' roping

As a California cowgirl, at least in my own mind, one of my favorite parts of the Beltane Ranch annual Zin Release Dinner & Barn Party is the chance to re-learn and try my nonexistent skills at calf roping. That means a wooden 'calf' and a very stiff and heavy rope. Doesn't matter, you have to go and give it a try. On Saturday, Nov. 3.

Thrown in are lots of Beltane winemaker Kevin Holt's excellent estate-grown wines, dancing (or not) to Twang Ditty's hot music, hors d'oeuvres, and a three-course dinner of estate grown everything prepared by chef Greg Markey. Then you get to make s'mores by the fire.

Last year's event raised more than $50,000 for Glen Ellen and Kenwood fire relief. $185 public, $130 wine club. 5 to 10 p.m. 11775 Sonoma Highway, Glen Ellen. Tickets at Beltaneranch.com.

Mentoring Alliance goes Cuban

Stand by Me Mentoring Alliance takes everyone to Cuba for one night, Saturday, Nov. 10 via Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery. Bill Foley now owns Sebastiani and several other wineries and has hired chef Larry Forgione as culinary director and executive chef for his Foley Food & Wine Society.

The Mentoring Alliance has already connected 450 children with adults who are ready and willing to help them enjoy broadening life experiences. The alliance is seeking adults to work with 100 more children.

Hopefully Forgione will help with the Mentoring Alliance's Cuban menu of Cubano sliders of snapper and banana peppers, turkey and cheese, and chorizo and beef; Ropa Vieja with shredded beef, seared snapper and chicken; Cuban style empanadas with beef picadillo, shredded chicken, caramelized onion and Jack cheese; Havana salads, Cuban sweets and Sebastiani wines. Enjoy the rhythms of the Carlitos Medesno Quartet.

Forgione's Upper East Side restaurant, An American Place, and his River Café both garnered three stars from the New York Times. He was named Chef of the Year by the Culinary Institute of America and America's Best Chef by the James Beard Foundation. $150. 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets at 938-1990 or celebratingmentoring.eventbrite.com.

Tips Roadside updates

Tips Tri-Tips Trolley and Tips Roadside helped provide food for the first screening of chef Tyler Florence's documentary, 'Uncrushable,' about the wildfires of last October. Zazu and Park 121 Catering also prepared specials to nourish the crowd at Sonoma Country Day School in Santa Rosa.

Tips Roadside will open for breakfast and brunch starting at 9 a.m. this Saturday and Sunday, and every weekend, which is good news for breakfast and brunch fans. No one will leave hungry. They will still open for brunch and lunch on weekdays at 11 a.m.

8445 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood. 509-0078. Tipsroadside.com.

Pancakes at Springs Community Hall

The Springs Community Hall will bring back what used to be known as the Grange Organic Pancake Breakfast on Sunday, Nov. 11 in Boyes Hot Springs.

As part of their drive to re-introduce the renovated building and kitchen and attract new members, those who join or renew memberships, as well as veterans, will receive a free breakfast on Nov. 11.

Members will get one free breakfast per year, and discounts on rentals and group farm tours, according to president Seth Dolinsky.

And that breakfast prepared in the new kitchen will include organic pancakes, frittata, sausage, good coffee and juice. The price has gone up a little, but so has everything else. $12 adults, $6 children under 12. 8 to 11 a.m. 18627 Sonoma Highway. Springshall.com.

Bart Park's next historic move

Kevin Holt, who makes wine for Beltane Ranch, will soon take over winemaking at the newly named Bartholomew Estate Winery, brought about by Gundlach Bundschu not renewing its lease.

Bartholomew Park Winery was part of Agostón Haraszthy's property at one time, and he allegedly lost it when a plague of the grape pest, phylloxera, struck in 1868. The winery's website history says that he built 'a Pompeian Villa for his family overlooking the property which opened with a grand and elegant masked ball.'

In 1880 Kate and Robert Johnson built the 'castle' and sold it in 1920 to the State of California, which turned it into an Industrial Workfarm for Women, specifically 'wayward' and 'wild women,' as an alternative to prison. Locals opposed the use, but it was supported by the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

The current winery building was built in 1922 as the receiving hospital for the Workfarm. In 1923 the Workfarm burned to the ground. The women were moved to the hospital where they rioted due to inadequate conditions.

By 1945, a group of locals had raised enough money to lease and remodel the two-story hospital.

Frank and Antonia Bartholomew eventually bought the 435 acres at a state silent auction for $17,050 or $39 per acre. Frank was a foreign war correspondent for United Press International and eventually became president of UPI, leaving Antonia in Sonoma to run the property and re-plant what was then the historic Buena Vista Vineyards. The Barthlomews opened Hacienda Winery in 1973 and sold it to Crawford Cooley in 1978. Cooley later sold Hacienda to Bronco Wine Company.

After Frank's death at 86 in 1985, Antonia built a reproduction of Agostón Haraszthy's villa. Sonoma architect Vic Conforti designed the villa from illustrations and photographs, as no original plans existed.

Conforti recalls: 'We didn't have much to go on. All we had was a piece of Haraszthy's stationery with a large sort of letterhead pen and ink image of the villa. And there was an old close-up of a couple of columns with women by them that gave (Antonia) and me some proportion. She was quite a character and, at age 90, she said, 'What do you mean, permits?''

Antonia died at age 97 on the evening of the villa's dedication in 1990.

For the last 20 years, the Gundlach Bundschu family has managed the winery and tasting room. The family relinquished its lease when it expired earlier this year.

Gibsons leave Sonoma

Former Sonoma City Manager Pam Gibson announced online that she and her family have moved to Las Vegas, where they had stayed for a year or so.

Here is what Gibson posted on Monday:

'Today escrow closes on our house and Mark and I officially say goodbye to Sonoma. I arrived 23 years ago to be the town's first female city manager. It was a challenging time, but I had a great Council and staff and we all worked together to make our community financially and socially healthy and strong. It's hard to say goodbye, but life sometimes gets in the way of the best-laid plans. I will miss the Plaza, the beautiful fall color, and most of all the spirit of volunteerism that is the valley's hallmark. Looking forward to visits in the future...as a tourist, so maybe this isn't goodbye, but au revoir.'

And Gibson wrote to this the Index-Tribune: 'We'll stay here in the desert (Las Vegas). Climate agrees with Mark and our daughter and son-in-law moved here to be with us. They were living in our house (in Sonoma) and were priced out of Sonoma when we listed it, so they came out here and immediately found housing and jobs. It's a comfort to me to have them nearby.'