Best Place to View Art: Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
Picasso. Rodin. Sandow Burk’s wicked social satire and Chester Arnold’s lyric extrapolations. If it’s happening on canvas or in copper or in clay, you can bank on it happening at SVMA.
Best Place to Read a Book: The Plaza
Forget the couch. Nothing beats our verdant little patch of green for shoring up a novel’s ambient settings.
Best Place to Take Visitors: The Plaza
Mother-in-law’s in town and the walls are closing in? Get thee to the Plaza, stat.
Best Church Choir: St. Andrew
Can I get an amen? And another? One more time? Three years running: best pipes.
Best Unique Shop: Baksheesh
Potholders made of recycled newsprint, jewelry from military detritus? You’re not in Pottery Barn anymore, Dorothy.
Best Place to Buy a Gift: Baksheesh
You know nobody else is going to show up at the party with the ironic little dove-shaped necklace made of Cambodian bomb casings.
Best Customer Service: Sonoma Market
Everything you need, and then some. Served with genuine courtesy and a smile.
Best Grocery Store: Sonoma Market
Fish that tastes like it was just reeled in, the peppiest butchers in the business and a cheese aisle that could make John Cleese weep.
Best Selection of Wine to Buy: Sonoma Market
Whether you’re a connoisseur or a newbie, they’re guaranteed to stock a juice you’ll love.
Best Cup of Coffee: Barking Dog Café
Can I get a double-caf, fat-free, low-foam cap with a little hometown spice?
Best Place to Propose Marriage: Bartholomew Park Winery
What evokes permanence better than three hundred year-old oaks? Go ahead and pop it, Daddio.
Best Place to Work Out: Juan’s Fitness
Have you seen the guns on this Juan fella? I’ll have what he’s having.
Best Mechanic/Auto Shop: Anton’s
Trusted friend. Smart doctor. Honest mechanic. Happy life.
Best Wine Country Experience: Benziger Winery
We may not all live on a vineyard estate, but for one golden and perfect afternoon, we can pretend to.
Best Winery for Tasting: Benziger Winery
Dappled sunshine, friendly peacocks, sacred gardens, and a generous pour.
Best Steak in Town: Saddles
Local. Grassfed. Hormone-free. Yum.
Best Place for a Manicure: Catalina Skin and Body
When you need to stage an intervention on your hillbilly feet and work-a-day hands, Catalina’s there.
Best Place for a Haircut: Cheveux
If you can’t pronounce it easily, it’s sure to be classy, no?
Best Bank: Sonoma Valley Bank
You can be a tiny, faceless cog at some other banking behemoth, or you can be a valued customer at Sonoma Valley Bank. SVB: where everybody knows your name.
Best Local Ad Slogan: Clover Stornetta
Clo White and the Seven Quarts? The yuks just keep coming.
Best Business Mascot: Clo the Cow
She’s accessible, approachable – an every-cow for the rest of us.
Best Place to Buy Plants: Sonoma Mission Gardens
Country, Asian, drought-tolerant, or English: They’ll help you build the garden of your dreams.
Best Place to Stargaze: Sugarloaf Ridge State Park
Cassiopeia, perseus, corona borealis, ursas major and minor, a blanket, and thou.
Best Place for Furniture: Harvest Home
Comfort, style and price: the furniture shopper’s trifecta.
Best Local Event: 4th of July
Film Fest, Jazz+, Vintage Fest, Red and White? What’s the secret ingredient to the 4th of July’s perennial success? Water balloons, baby.
Best Place to Entertain Children: Traintown
Thrill rides, a choo-choo and the cutest miniature church this side of Vegas. All aboard!
Best Local Hike: Sonoma Overlook Trail
Unplug, log off and put on your walking shoes; the real world awaits.
Best Outdoor Dining: Swiss Hotel
It’s a culinary mullet: business up front, party in the back. Or visa versa.
Best Italian Food: Della Santina
Just like Nona used to make, ragazzi!
Best Mexican Food: La Hacienda
Their hacienda is your hacienda, okay? Eat.
Best Thai Food: Rins
How do they do that spicy-sweet-hot-cool thing, anyway?
Best Seafood: Meritage
From the tank to the pot to your plate. Now that’s fresh.
Best Restaurant Host: Saul Gropman at Café la Haye
He told me they were booked up. I told him my family needed someplace warm and welcoming to be, that my dad was fighting for life in the ICU. He made room.
Best Chinese Food: Golden Springs
If their romantic prawns don’t save the marriage, nothing will.
Best Restaurant with Consistently Good Food: Breakaway Café
Fresh and tasty and waaay too much of it, every time.
Best Florist: Anne Appleman
Approaching, it looks like a beautifully crumbly piccolo Tuscan villa; inside, it’s spare and fragrant and perfect. And you’ll never walk out with one of those stiff mixed-flower bouquets, either.
Best Organic Produce/Products: Whole Foods
Do they cue angels singing every time I scan that amazing produce, or is that just in my head?
Best Gelato: Gramma’s Pizza
Without the air fluffing it up like ice cream, it’s less fattening, right?
Best Place to Satisfy a Sweet Tooth: Chocolate Cow
Bordeaux truffles or caramel turtles? Double-dipped chocolate malt balls? Let’s keep things simple, shall we? Give us a bit of each.
Best Spa Experience: Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn
Even if it took all month to save up, you’ll feel rich and famous once you’re there.
Best Breakfast Spot: Big 3 at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn
Elegant, affordable food and a super accommodating staff.
Best Pizza: Red Grape
Thin, crispy crusts in the New Haven tradition; these fresh red and white zaa’s won’t leave you feeling stuffed.
Best Bartender: Mark O’Donnell at The Girl and the Fig
Dude can keep a secret, alright? ‘Nuff said.
Best Burger: Happy Dog
Sure, it’s counter-intuitive, but still true: The hot dog place makes a kickin’ burger.
Best Family Restaurant: Mary’s Pizza Shack
They don’t even roll their eyes when you wheel in the twins!
Best Bed and Breakfast: Gaige House
Asian asceticism meets Mr. Clean. Lovely.
Best Caterer: Elaine Bell Catering Co.
You’re over the potluck, and sick of morning-after dishes. Call Elaine. You’ve earned it.
Best Night Spot: Murphy’s Irish Pub
If you’re not feeling social, don’t go. Everyone you know is already there.
Best Live Entertainment: Murphy’s Irish Pub
Throwin’ down in the snug room, week after week after week.
Best Kept Secret: Flower’s Golf Range
A bucket of balls for five bones, and suddenly, nobody’s bored.
Best Local Entertainer: Whiskey Thieves
Hold on to your cocktail, folks. They don’t call themselves “whiskey thieves” for naught.
Best Local Radio Host: Kathleen Hill
The smoky voice. The throaty laugh. The inside scoop. The joie de vivre. Kathleen Hill.
Best Real Estate Agent: Dan Casabonne
Down market? What down market?
Best Mixed Drink on the Plaza: EDK
Whether a minty mojito by the pool or a frothy Irish coffee by the fire, this place oozes style. Consider running a tab; you may be a while.
Best Local Radio Show: Mañanas en Espanol
Viva la radio en Español, mijo!
Best Ice Cream: Baskin Robbins
The other guys have gimmicks; Mr. Robbins has thirty-one take-it-to-the bank flavors every day of the week.
