Miranda Ives is on a roll

The food is delightful, the smile is better. Welcome to The Sausage Emporium, on the historic Sonoma Plaza, where proprietor Miranda Ives presides over a culinary empire that’s grown to include a thriving restaurant serving breakfast, brunch, and lunch, an e-commerce business, where you can buy gourmet sausages and luxury charcuterie boxes, plus a unique Charcuterie Wine Tasting Program designed for local wineries.

The restaurant space offers a casual yet chic environment, with simple lines and a clean design. In addition to several tables on the front promenade and inside, there’s an elegant bar to sit and enjoy the buzz of this vibrant space, to the back is a sunny, dog-friendly patio, with lounge seating, and many tables with umbrellas and cabanas for shade.

Ives, like many business owners, faced insurmountable challenges throughout the pandemic, however, Miranda successfully weathered the storm and came out on top. Destiny, as expressed by the simple perfection of artisan sausage, finally won out. “I grew up as a Sonoma Plaza restaurant kid,” she says. “It’s in the blood” and I was determined to see it through.

After college Miranda spent many years living in Europe; she met her future husband, while living in London and returned home to Sonoma in 2014 and hit the ground running with Hare and Hatter, an upscale coffee and gourmet sausage concession inside Friedman’s.

Within 2 years Ives was on the move and re-located to a small, but charming space within the El Paseo Courtyard off the Sonoma Plaza, where Hare & Hatter Sausage Emporium was established. Within 18 months, business boomed and it was time to expand to a bigger space to keep up with demand. In 2019 Ives secured her current space on East Napa Street and a fully-fledged Sausage Emporium was posed to open then there was the Covid closedown!

During Covid, Ives put her thinking cap on and created The Sausage Society, an online e-commerce extension to the Emporium brand – The sausage of the month club, deluxe charcuterie boxes, and retail sausages by the pound – took form. Online sales became a lifesaver. She couldn’t open for nearly two years, but the brand had a Plan B – its online component. Fortunately, Miranda also owns a digital marketing agency so managed to build an e-commerce website almost overnight.

Meanwhile, Covid was digging in, construction stalled on the commercial kitchen in what had been a clothing store, planning, coding, and design slowed. Problems at last solved, Ives, still smiling, opened The Sausage Emporium in July 2021.

It was an arduous journey, she admits, but “everyone was so supportive. Now we’re seeing old friends and meeting new people in person again. That energy keeps me going.”

One benefit, if any, of Covid, Ives says, is that those in her industry jumped into survival mode and became very creative and collaborative and in that vein, Ives has joined forces with Ed Metcalfe and Keo Xayavong of Sushimotos to bring you “Sushi on the Plaza” for the first-ever. The first Sushi pop-up event is on Thursday, June 16, from 6:30 pm with a special sushi menu and cocktails, and music. Tickets are on sale now at sausage-emporium.com and eventbrite.com

“It’s an exciting time of growth for The Sausage Emporium,” she says. “How can we create unique, memorable experiences? It’s a challenge, but a good one ”

“If you would like to showcase your food business with an evening pop up on the Plaza, then get in touch and let’s collaborate.”