Williams-Sonoma boards up, boards down
Williams-Sonoma's Broadway storefront was boarded up last Friday, part of an international movement by luxury brands to protect stores closed during the current shelter-at-home.
And even after painting the wall on Monday, the wall came tumbling down Wednesday morning, taken down by Williams-Sonoma workers.
The Sonoma site, the chain's original and flagship store, was boarded up because it was thought to be a target of looting or vandalism, such as the chain's big city stores. Workers spent Friday afternoon meticulously wrapping the entire location in plywood.
Williams-Sonoma wasn't alone. Luxury chain stores around the world have boarded up their windows and entrances in big cities, but Sonoma is not a big city and it has an almost invisibly low rate of violent crime.
On Monday the San Francisco Chronicle said violent crime was down 32 percent in big San Francisco since the shelter-in-place orders. And the New York Times reported that crime in New York City has decreased 17 percent during the first weeks of the shelter-at-home order due to coronavirus.
Despite the health crisis, Williams-Sonoma's online business has spiked, according to store officials, selling counter- and stove-top appliances, meal kits, sauces and baking products.
Chuck Williams' original store on Broadway remains one of the chain's top-producing stores in the United States, say store officials.
Kendall Coleman, of Williams-Sonoma, emailed, 'The Sonoma store was boarded up as a precautionary measure to protect it during closure.'
Funny, in the last three years Sonoma has been through earthquakes, horrendous fires, floods, and PG&E power outages. For some of these, many of us left town and there was no vandalism. This time, during the pandemic, we are all here. None of us thinks of Sonoma as a high crime center.
Let's keep our record perfect and thank Williams-Sonoma for respecting Sonoma's reputation.
Saving Sonoma's restaurants
Several Sonoma restaurants are hanging on and staying 'open' for takeout or delivery meals, some have just started, while others have given up on that experiment. Let's hope we can keep them, the owners, and their staffs working, thriving and looking forward to complete recovery.
Tips Roadside was first off the blocks to offer delivery to customers from Glen Ellen to Santa Rosa, but finally had to look at the numbers and give it up. And Sondra Bernstein and John Touzle, partners in the Girl & the Fig, created a new entity and website, fig-to-go.com, to serve curbside pick-up meals at Suite D on Schellville Road off of Eighth Street East. Both of these restaurants and caterers were among the most generous and quick to feed people during and after the terrible 2017 fires. And they both ended their roadside takeout meals last week and are doing crowdfunding to benefit their employees in this emergency.
We are all sad. Sad for our neighbors, which these staffs are, sad for those who are ill or have been lost, and always a little afraid of the future.
Dining out (or even at home with others) is a social activity, and we all do it from Taco Bell to El Dorado Kitchen. But we can't now. So the only restaurant food being consumed is takeout. And wine tasting is both social and tourism alluring.
Among the problems in a valley where wine sales and restaurant business are major elements, rent, closed tasting and dining rooms, increased wages, and higher food costs can be devastating.
Whether restaurants that have closed temporarily can reopen in some cases depends on landlords, who have been collecting something in the range of $6,000 to $12,000 a month from restaurants around the Plaza. Few plaza business owners own their buildings, and some landlords have mortgages to pay as well.
Much of a restaurant's inventory is perishable, which usually is not true of other retail operations. And few of them have substantial 'nest eggs' to dip into for 'rainy days.'
Sondra Bernstein gave away most of her food from her Girl & the Fig restaurants and catering to 60 members of her staff, while caterer Elaine Bell's company donates food daily to the Salvation Army. Some private chefs and caterers are just out of business because people can't gather.
More restaurant takeout updates
More restaurants have thrown themselves into the takeout-curbside lineup, while Tips Roadside, Reel & Brand and Fig-to-go dropped out.
New to this list are Edge, Sonoma Grille & Bar, Taub Family Outpost and Cochon Volant.
Cochon Volant Smokehouse and BBQ
Rob Larman offers his menu of smoked meats, beans, salads and fried chicken in Boyes Hot Springs with the addition of a fried chicken sandwich with house-cured maple bacon on a puffy glazed donut from Danish & Donuts on Highway 12.
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