Kathleen Hill: Halloween fun

Food news from around the Valley|

Three Fat Guys offer tons of Halloween fun, and they’re not the only one. The upcoming holiday has something for everyone, for sure.

Pumpkin & Pinot: It all starts with Pumpkin & Pinot on Wednesday, Oct. 28, where you and the kids can carve pumpkins, enjoy pizza from the Red Grape, and have a glass of pinot noir while classic Halloween movies play in the background. After all this you can take photos with your pumpkin at their hay bale “selfie stations.” Reservations are required and you have to buy at least one pumpkin per child ($8 each) and one glass of pinot per adult ($12 each). Optional pizzas are $20 each. Chief “Fat Guy” Tony Moll, one of our newest volunteer firefighters and former Green Bay Packer, happens to be married to Megan Morphy Moll, daughter of Red Grape owners Sam and Carole Morphy.

Trick-or-Treat: Three Fat Guys’ wine drive-through turns into a sanitized Trick-or-Treat drive-through from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on our full moon Halloween, Saturday, Oct. 31. Everyone is welcome to dress up in costumes or not. As Tony says, “Just pull up and have the kids give a good old fashioned trick-or-treat scream and we will come running out with candy.” Fat Pilgrim and Harvest Home next door will also give away candy.

The HalloWine Release Party will also be on Halloween itself for wine club members (it’s never too late to join) with wine tasting, a costume contest with a prize, and food prepared on site for purchase from Belfare Catering, Halloween music and lots of selfie opportunities.

No reservations are required for the Trick or Treat drive-through, but reservations are required for the other two events. Call 938-7211 or go to threefatguyswines.com/visits for more info and reservations. 20816 Broadway, Sonoma.

Forks up for Wit & Wisdom

For those of us who have wondered about the re-do and opening of Michael Mina’s Wit & Wisdom at the Lodge at Sonoma, I have heard nothing but raves about it, from the first night on.

I have not been there for a variety of reasons, but have heard from lots of friends from chefs to wine fans to travelers and local folks that it is very good.

Many people’s favorite seems to be the Dungeness crab and endive Caesar, which means leaves of Belgian endive leaves are filled with Dungeness crab with caper aioli ($18), and the duck-fat fried potatoes ($9). MFK Fisher and Paula Wolfert always extolled the benefits of duck fat over other fats. Thank heavens!

Having written about most of the rest of the dinner menu before, the new brunch menu is also interesting. It includes a green goddess salad, oatmeal, chia seed pudding, toasts with avocado, mushrooms or banana and blueberry; short rib pop tarts, duck wings, pizzas, burgers and lots of sides.

Then we get to egg dishes: crème brûlée French toast; Benedicts, leek and mushroom quiche, buttermilk pancakes with huckleberry jam, corn flake streusel and spiced maple syrup, two eggs with thick-cut bacon and duck fat potatoes, a scrambled egg sando, and King salmon with toasted farro and wild mushrooms ($14 to $29). Lots of cocktails and Michael Mina’s wife Diane Mina’s famous Bloody Marys ($12). Apparently she grows lots of organic vegetables on their West Marin farm and combines them carefully and creatively to form her special mixes. Brunch: Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., dinner daily 5 to 10 p.m. Outdoor seating only now. 1325 Broadway, Sonoma. 931-3405.

Jack London Lodge brunch

Now the Jack London Lodge is calling its weekend brunch service “Alton,” where you might delight in a new brunch menu. Lots of locals and tourists have their favorites at the saloon from the salads to burgers and pizzas.

But on the weekends you can enjoy Alton’s housemade “everything bagel” with lox, country toast with housemade ricotta, preserved apricots and honey; a cheddar biscuit and egg with sausage; mushroom pâté with grilled toast; smoked pork belly hash; French toast with pear butter, pecans and whipped cream; or a big ol’ country breakfast with eggs, hash browns, toast and choice of bacon, sausage or sautéed mushrooms ($12 to $15).

Alton is also bringing bar food to the saloon daily from noon to 8 p.m. Brunch Saturdays and Sundays 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Great Creekside patio. 13740 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen. 938-8510.

Has Palms Grill closed?

In the last couple of months Palms Grill, which has had a steady business with good basic food for a few years, set up tables outside their front door in the walkway to try to serve a few devotees and keep some staff working.

Now they appear to have shut down completely, even though there is a sign facing Verano Avenue saying the dining room is open.

Then a notice appeared on the door saying “We will be closed for remodeling from Oct. 13 to Nov. 1 for remodeling. Sorry for any inconvenience. Thank you.” But as of this Tuesday there doesn’t seem to be anything going on inside or out.

Six phone calls to Palms Grill over three days produced no human response and no answering device answer. All blinds are shut tight and there are no signs of work trucks. Let’s hope they reopen in some fashion.

This location opened first as a Denny’s, while what was the Breakaway and now Picazo opened originally as a Lyon’s across the highway at Maxwell Village.

Sonoma Market Deli closure

Shoppers noticed the deli at Sonoma Market was closed last week with a blackboard sign saying it was closed out of “an abundance of caution.”

Translation: Two deli workers tested positive for COVID-19. Those employees self-quarantined and, according to stated Nugget company policy, were apparently paid while they stayed home.

An employee in the deli told me last Thursday that they had reopened to sell deli meats and sandwiches and the kitchen was cooking to replenish “the wall,” as they call it, of grab-and-go meals across from the deli. Next step was to restore hot foods.

Epicurean Connection options

While most Sonoma Valley restaurants now feature vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options, Sheana Davis offers some as well on her deliverable menu.

This week she has a butternut squash with local apple and maple syrup soup, wild rice soup, smoked Willie Bird turkey soup, salad with Little Paradise heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad, quinoa and fall vegetables, all among her other menu items that can be delivered “from Carneros to Kenwood.”

Davis also sells a wide variety of tapenades, cheeses including her own, cheesemaking supplies, and pantry items such as Serres Ranch blueberry jam from Judy Serres and Tallgrass Ranch olive oil from Nancy Lilly. Deliveries during the week and open for retail Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 19670 Eighth St. E., Sonoma. 235-9530.

Losing Dolores Cakebread

When I first heard the name Dolores Cakebread and that of her winery, Cakebread Cellars in Rutherford, I thought it was all some sort of semantic joke.

When I met her as sisters in Les Dames d’Escoffier, I immediately saw in her eyes that the name was no joke. We bonded over our not exactly wine country hometowns, Oakland for her and Berkeley for me.

In the few years when I served as events chair of the San Francisco chapter of Les Dames, we hosted a luncheon in the dining room of her winery, with her darting in and out of the kitchen to check on each course, what went into it, its presentation, and the Cakebread wines to be poured.

When she was named Les Dames’ international Grand Dame in 2015 I was surprised and honored that she asked me to interview her for the video they showed at the group’s national convention.

Through many conversations leading up to that day at her and husband Jack’s home in the Napa Valley, we scheduled and unscheduled a few times because she needed to do important things with just the right timing between her medical treatments for a serious brain condition.

Everything at that point in her life was scheduled around those treatments, which she saw as brief interludes that allowed her to continue to be productive and share her beauty with others. And they kept her going another five years until she passed away on Oct. 2 at age 90.

So on the perfect day we did it taped the video, with husband Jack there toward the end for moral support. She said he just wanted to get in on it. Each of them had their own caregivers who danced the delicate pirouettes to help keep each of them on cue.

As a Master Gardener, she did so much for the wine industry, introducing vegetable, fruit and flower gardens to wineries, cooking and menu development, and helping and mentoring others, always with her bright eyes glimmering.

She never forgot Oakland where she and Jack came from, Cakebread’s Garage auto repair shop they ran, and the family foundation that always kept Jack and her close to the ground. How else might their 70-year marriage and nearly 50-year wine business survive?

Nibs & Sips

Harvey’s donuts: Harvey’s Donuts has added more food trucks and will open at 4 p.m. instead of 5:30 once Standard Time gets rolling. Soon you will be able to get grilled cheese sandwiches, soup, and other “comfort foods.” 5:30 to 9 p.m. 19030 Railroad Ave. Outside seating in the lighted courtyard. Call ahead to pick up donuts. 935-5908.

Kivelstadt Cellars: Jordan Kivelstadt has decided to skip his home delivery dinners starting this weekend through Halloween weekend.

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