Data & Errata

“Martini Madness,” one of the cornerstones of the three-month juggernaut known as the Olive Festival, was a comparatively staid event this year (meaning: leaner, meaner, tighter and, frankly, classier) and hosted with aplomb by Saddles, the in-house restaurant of bed and breakfast MacArthur Place, a stone’s throw from the Plaza. Upon entering, I was greeted by my pals Liz and Jen Alice, who pointed me in the direction of my sundry colleagues already happily imbibing the bar-borne confections of about a dozen of Sonoma’s finest joints. Among those showing especially well this year was Saddles’ admixture of gin, vodka and Lillet, a light and sunny French aperitif, finished with a lanced kalamata and green olive combo. Ditto the girl and the fig’s fine martini redux with piquant notes of St. Germaine, the popular Elderflower liqueur, prominently featured. Though more cocktail than martini, the effort was well spent by the fig, which dominated the corner opposite Saddles’ own popular enclave.
Rounding out the evening, I caught the second set of KSVY 91.3 Sonoma personality John Burdick and his new musical arsenal at a roadside venue in Glen Ellen, that featured none other than our own in-house tech-guru J.M. Berry on bass guitar. About three-quarters of the way through some blues standard, fisticuffs broke out between a pair of vintage Baby Boomers, resulting in the sheriff’s department making polite inquiries regarding the incident to the inhabitants of several tables sometime later. The upshot: it was “ancient history” between a man and a woman, though more than a few were taken aback by the brief entanglement, which many contended involved the man throttling the woman and throwing her to the floor before storming out. This disgusting, Cro-Magnon behavior threatened to topple the evening but the band managed to recover most of its otherwise delightful vibe by sallying forth with another tried and true standard: “Stormy Monday,” even though it was clearly “Stormy Friday” in the valley.