The Sonoma Spiel

Tim from the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau sits down with chef/restaurateur Ari Weiswasser (Stella Kenwood, Glen Ellen Star, Park Avenue Catering) for a lively tour of Sonoma’s newest roundabout and the region’s food scene. What you’ll hear Why Stella Kenwood is Cal-Italian: wood-fire grill, lamb ribs, tomahawks, Denver cut House pasta program (fresh/extruded semolina, gluten-free) + what a burrat...

It’s a perfect fall day in Sonoma—made even better with a milkshake with espresso (yes, really). This week, Tim sits down with Salvador Chavez, owner of Picazo Café and founder of La Luna Mezcal, for an energetic, wide-ranging conversation about food, family, and finding your own flavor in business. Salvador shares how his family’s corner café in the Springs neighborhood evolved from a humble deli...

Fall in Sonoma means harvest, friends—and great drinks. Tim sits down with Liz Takeuchi-Krist, co-owner of The Starling, a beloved neighborhood cocktail bar in Sonoma, to talk about building a welcoming, safe space (yes, even for solo guests) and the magic behind a truly great drink. Liz shares her path from Chicago music venues and wine auctions to bartending at the girl & the fig and finally...

Welcome back to The Sonoma Spiel from the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau! We kick things off fresh from a festive homecoming pep rally (electric-guitar National Anthem, tractors, the works—Go Dragons!) and welcomes returning guest Paul Giusto of Highway 12 Vineyards & Winery.  We talk all things Sonoma Valley harvest—why 2025 is running a little late, what “crush” actually means, how rosé saign...

You might groan when you see it, but deep down you know you love it: Pumpkin Spice Season. Born from Starbucks’ skunkworks, this cinnamon-nutmeg-allspice sensation has become a fixture in America’s culinary calendar—and Sonoma Valley is not immune. This week, Michelle Lacy and Mark Bodenhamer return to talk all things harvest, fall, and autumn—while taste-testing pumpkin spice treats ranging from...

Jacob Yarrow joins Tim to unpack Sonoma State’s Green Music Center: World-class halls, wildly diverse ’25–’26 season (jazz, mariachi, contemporary circus, holiday shows & more), and how the venue keeps Sonoma County listening.   Fresh from moving the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau into its new HQ at the Toscano Hotel (come visit!), Tim sits down with Jacob Yarrow, Executive Director of Sonoma S...

This week, Tim sits down with Linda Keaton, Executive Director of the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (SVMA), to preview Last West: Dorothea Lange’s California, Revisited. The exhibition pairs Lange’s iconic documentation of Dust Bowl migration with contemporary artists exploring today’s migrant labor, agriculture, climate, and community—revealing what has (and hasn’t) changed. Linda also shares how S...

Matt Leffert from Jack London Park Partners wasn't running on a trail at Jack London State Park long enough to come to the Sonoma Spiel podcast. He told us who this Jack London guy was (evidently he owned the ranch that became the park, but turns out he was also a world-famous writer and adventurer) and why the park that bears his name is really multiple parks in one. During the conversation we co...

Don't call it dirt - grapes need soil. Sam Coturri comes from a long line of farmers, and the don't just grow grapes, they grow soil. His pathway to farming started when he left the family business to go to college, work in the cannabis and marketing fields, and then coming home to his calling to help run the family businesses. Their wine label, Winery Sixteen 600, specializes small batch, single...

Let's take a walk around Sonoma - and do some wine tasting and food pairing along the way. This week our Very Special Guest is Renee ReBell from the award-winning Gourmet Food & Wine Tours, a local company that offers relaxed walks around the Plaza to Sonoma wineries and restaurants. Like her tours, our interview is a gentle amble that covers the beginning of the winegrape harvest in Sonoma Va...

"Unite the Bay Area Through Sport" is the motto of the Bay Area Host Committee, the region’s first long-term sports entity that partners with local teams, civic leaders, and businesses to bring world-class sporting events to iconic Bay Area venues—driving lasting economic, cultural, and social impact.   This week on the Sonoma Spiel podcast, Adam Lewis of the BAHC talks about how the totality of t...

Nick Ciccollela of Muscardini Cellars popped open a bottle of fabulous, limited edition wine (Contessa - get in line, people) and we were off... talking "Italifornian" wines, live music during the summer at their Kenwood tasting room for "Simmer Down Saturday," whatever happened to MTV and "Pimp My Ride," and what the wine industry can do to appeal to new customers.   Nick also talks mountain biki...

Lisa Pidge, founder of the Laugh Cellar (since 2014) and actual certified pickleball pro, is back on the Spiel with updates on new comedy shows around Sonoma County during the Wine Country Comedy Fest. She talks about how she finds her comedians (this year's lineup includes Chase O'Donnell, Aiko Tanaka, Lisa Gilbert, JJ Barrows, Helen Chu, ​Vien Phommachanh, Amanda Cohen and Solange Castro) and wh...

We don't know if they're dangerous, but we do know they sound good. This year, "Liaisons" is the theme for the Valley of the Moon Music Festival. In this week's podcast we have an engaging and informative liaison with Tanya Tomkins and Eric Zivyan, cellist and pianist and wife and husband, and co-directors of the popular chamber music festival that takes place around Sonoma Valley.  This year they...

Summer in Sonoma! Jump in the pool, get the BBQ going, have a Sonoma Spritz and don't forget to scream for ice cream. Luckily, Ramie Hencmann from Sweet Scoops is here to talk about her delightfully wonderful shop right on the Sonoma Plaza, making homemade ice cream with local fruits and flavors.    Ramie's husband Joe has been making ice cream since he was 19, and in Ramie's words he is always th...

Mark Bodenhamer of the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce has good news for all you late-night wine tasters: the new "Friday Night Flights" wine tasting program will make sure you can find a wine tasting room open past 5 pm! And there are even restaurants pairing with them to offer corkage deals. But before we get to that, we have to talk about how proud we are of our kids for graduating high schoo...

Fred Parker has been painting Sonoma Valley for years - vineyards, mountains, oaks and more. But he started his professional career as a photographic curator at a Southern California museum (now the Norton Simon Museum of Art.) In addition to talking about his methods and inspirations, Fred brings along his friend and patron of the arts, who is also the local small-town Sonoma lawyer, Mary Piasta....

There's a new tour in The Springs at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa, the Agua Rica comedic history tour , and we had such a good time at it that we forgot to write an intro for our podcast with returning guest Gretchen Schoenstein from the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon and Rose 5K. Gretchen takes a pause from running (she's now doing 5Ks, having retired from running more than 130 half-ma...

Robyn Sebastiani is back on the Sonoma Spiel to talk about the Sonoma 200 anniversary celebration AND to help us make a Sonoma Spritz- the hot drink of the summer - live on the podcast. Robyn talks about the summer of celebrations of the 200 years of Sonoma winemaking, from the Sonoma Spritz month, to the scavenger hunt around Sonoma Valley and culminating in the community-wide celebration at the...

The l-o-n-g-e-s-t running wine podcaster in the country just so happened to be near Sonoma Valley, so we tricked him into coming onto our podcast. Ray Fister with Life Between The Vines has done more than a thousand interviews with winemakers from around the world with a simple premise: he sets up the microphone and the camera and hits record. Everything else just comes out of conversation as it f...

Rod Marymor from Music In Place brings professional musicians to the Sonoma Plaza for free concerts for the community to enjoy. What started as a way to keep musicians working during the pandemic has grown to a movement bringing concerts to the people in the Grinstead Amphitheatre at the Sonoma Plaza. Rod goes over the schedule for the summer and highlights the diversity of the concerts, with perf...

Cows make chocolate, right? Otherwise why would one of the favorite chocolate stores in Sonoma be called "The Chocolate Cow?" Known for shaved ice, ice cream, gelato, hot chocolate, truffles and an incredible candy selection, the Chocolate Cow is a must-stop for visitors to the Sonoma Plaza. In this episode we learn about the types of chocolate, how to hand-dip treats, what it takes to run a candy...

Daedalus Howell is the editor of the North Bay Bohemian, "an award-winning alternative newsweekly serving Sonoma & Napa counties." And he's a poet. And a self-taught filmmaker. And an author. And a musician, because that's a thing in Sonoma. Some quick notes we pick along the way: Philip Marlowe, the fictional, hard-boiled noir detective, was born in Santa Rosa. Daedalus left high school early...

It's always fun when Malia Anderson of Style my Malia riffs on fashion, image and style.  Malia roundly rejects the "Costco Dad" look as as a "personal look," while extolling her youthful desire to be Dominique Devereaux from Dynasty. (And really, who wouldn't?) In a free-wheeling conversation we talk about when to wear cut-off jeans ("jorts"), how to define your personal style and what, exactly,...

Splish splash in Sonoma- we're talking about the new Sonoma Splash Aquatic Center in Sonoma Valley with Jane Hansen and Allyson Etherington.   Tidbits include that Allyson's mom is a long-distance open water swimmer who took photos of other swimmers while swimming away from Alcatraz (and recently swam the Maui channel,) that Jane has been swimming for most of her life and still coaches, and that t...