The Hook and Ladder Pepper Sauce Incident

We left Santa Rosa yesterday morning and planned to spend the gorgeous (82 and sunny) day driving around the Russian River Valley in Sonoma county.  We mapped out a route that would take us north on the 101 to river road which we would take to Forestville to hook up with Gravenstein road which would in turn leads to the Bodega Hwy and eventually back to the 1.

Our plan went (happily) off track almost immediately.  The cars on River  were moving fast and we were in the mood for sightseeing.  We pulled off on an unnamed road which ran parallel to River Rd and before long came upon the Joseph Shaw winery.  We tasted a few varieties at the very small family run vineyard. I settled on a bottle of Pinot.  We stopped at another, larger winery on the same road before heading to Olivet Rd at the advice of the  2nd winery's owner (I can't remember the name of the vineyard, i'll add it in later).

Our first stop on Olivet rd was the Hook and Ladder winery which was staffed by Devon, a young guy maybe a year or two older than Joey who talked to us about his family's wine business and the Black Keys.  He also forced me to cleanse my palate with a white wine when I sampled their pepper sauce and ruined my taste buds which got a chuckle from a family (two parents and their daughter) who had just arrived . (It was worth it - the sauce was good.  I bought some).

Our next stop was the Sunce winery, just a couple doors down from the Hook and Ladder. We hung out there for quite a bit.  Played bocce ball with a couple, John and Sheila,  who claimed to have never played but beat joey and I 5 to 1.  After our defeat we sat in the shade, got some advice on local San Fran eateries from Sheila, and chatted it up with the Pinto family (At right- daughter Angela,  Esther, and Leo) who we first encountered during the Hook and Ladder Pepper Sauce incident.  Angela had flown in from Atlanta to see her parents who were throwing her a big BBQ in wine country for her birthday.  Angela is a Benefits/HR director at a small company in Atlanta so we were able to talk shop a bit.

We left Sunce after 90 minutes or so and headed up the road to DeLoach winery.  A much more professional operation than the previous 2 but still good.  We hung with the Pinto's at DeLoach for about 30 min before making our way back to the 101 for the 45 min drive to San Francisco.

Our Haul: 6 Bottles of red, 1 bottle of white, pepper sauce, and .75 liters of Hook and Ladder grown and made olive oil.

We arrived in San Francisco around 5, checked into our hostel downtown (the globetrotter inn), and called Sarah whom we had met on a ferry in Croatia 4 years ago.  She gave us a recommendation for dinner and we planned to meet up at Thermidor, a new bar near 5th and Mission that had soft opened on Friday after her dinner plans were over.

Joey and I ate at a small Sushi place called Ryoko which blended a warm hole in the wall feel, great sushi, and 1990's gangster rap to surprisingly pleasing effect (more pics below). After dinner we made our way to Thermidor where we would meet Sarah in an hour or so. The bar was very cool it had kind of a mod feel to it.  The bartenders were great - Brooke made my first Old Fashion and after her shift ended (about 10 min after we arrived) she sat down at the bar next to us for dinner and intermittent conversation.  I learned that she has acted as a bar consultant on several new openings.  She designs the cocktail menu, hires the bar manager and moves on.  She would be leaving Thermidor soon to help open another bar where she will stay on permanently.  We learned later from Sarah that her skills are well known and highly regarded on the cocktail scene in town.

Before she left, Brooke told us that she was heading to a whiskey bar called Rick House and that we should check it out later.  Around that time Sarah arrived from her dinner.  We chatted about old times and caught each other up on our lives over the past few years.  She had spent the morning and afternoon bike riding and after a few drinks and some great conversation she dropped us off at Rick House and headed home.  Joey and I were getting tired ourselves, but the place was very cool so we stayed for one drink.  The entire interior of the bar was paneled with old whiskey barrels and the bar boasted more varieties of whiskey than i could count.  I'm hoping we can  return there tonight when we're not ready for bed.

Croatia Crew Reunited

This morning we ate breakfast at the Taylor Street Coffee Shop which boasts an incredible California Avocado omelet (if you're ever in town try it out) and headed back to the hostel to do our laundry.  Tonight: most likely Indian food (not sure which one - there are about 50 within walking distance)

More Pictures from Ryoko:

Sonoma Pictures (To view, click just below the image and use the navigation bar that appears)