Tastes of Healdsburg
Savouring the cuisine of Sonoma wine country
on a gourmet food tour with Savor Healdsburg
Perhaps most well-known for its wineries, California’s Sonoma County also offers great dining. That is particularly true in the town of Healdsburg, which has developed a reputation as a foodie destination. I had a chance to taste some of the reasons for that reputation when I took a tour with Savor Healdsburg.
About Healdsburg and Savor Healdsburg
The area around Healdsburg was home to the Pomo Indians for thousands of years. Other settlers arrived in the mid 1800s, drawn to the fertile farmland. Harmon Heald was one of the winners of an 1857 squatters’ war. He built a store and post office, and laid out a grid for the town, selling plots for $15. Healdsburg was officially incorporated in 1867. It remained a quiet, farming community until the early 2000s when a transformation began, bringing restaurants, galleries and boutiques.
Healdsburg remains home to families who have lived here for generations. Agriculture remains an important focus and chefs feature local products. Surrounded by three wine growing areas (Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley and Russian River), there are plenty of wine options to accompany the food.
Tammy Gass, owner of Savor Healdsburg, says the town continues to change and evolve. She created Savor Healdsburg because she wanted to share what Healdsburg had to offer “one bite, one sip, one site at a time.” Savor Healdsburg offers a couple of different public tasting tours. It also offers their tours for private events.
A Sampling
As Tammy began the tour she told us we would not get just a little sample. “We are going to dine,” she said. With those words we were off to a great start. We went to six different tasting (dining) locations. As Tammy said, the town continues to evolve and the locations visited on her tours change over time. To give a flavour for what you might experience on one of her tours, I will highlight three of the locations from my 2016 tour that you can still find on today’s tours.
Bravas Bar de Tapas
Bravas Bar de Tapas is one of six restaurants in Sonoma County owned by James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur semi-finalists Mark and Terri Stark. It is the fifth restaurant they opened and was inspired by a trip to Spain. It offers traditional and modern tapas-style dining and a menu which changes seasonally. On Friday and Saturday evenings, paella is cooked on grills on the patio.
When we arrived, we were offered a choice of red, white or sparkling sangria. Then the tapas just seemed to keep coming, We had cider braised Chirozo and Shishito peppers, roasted red beets with cinnamon, walnuts and Idiazábal, goat cheese toast with golden onions and white truffle honey, and Patatas Bravas (fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce and Allioli). All of it was a delight for the mouth and tasted like “more”, although I was becoming pretty full.
The Taste of Tea
The Taste of Tea offer tea sampling, traditional tea service and a Japanese-inspired lunch menu. Their relaxation room offers traditional Japanese tea skin treatments.
A tea docent led us through the tasting of three different teas – a Japanese green tea, a Taiwanese oolong tea and a Chinese black tea called golden monkey. She talked about the differences between green, black tea and oolong. Green tea has the least amount of caffeine, black tea the most. The difference is the amount of oxidation. Japanese green teas have a delicate grassy taste. The black teas we are most used to in North America come from the British tradition and are from India. They have a sharp taste. Chinese black teas are more delicate and softer. She said the most variation in taste occurs with oolong teas, which fall between green and black teas.
I was not fond of the oolong tea we sampled. It had quite a creamy taste. But it was the favourite of some others in the group. I liked both the green and the black. The docent provided a lot of information about tea’s health benefits, tea processing and brewing. It was all interesting but one item stood out for me. She said you can remove much of the caffeine in tea by rinsing or doing a first steep.
Moustache Baked Goods (Noble Folk Ice Cream and Pie Bar)
Moustache Baked Goods is now Noble Folk Ice Cream and Pie Bar, still owned by two twenty-somethings who grew up in Sonoma County and started Moustache Baked Goods. They bake from scratch using local ingredients and no preservatives. This is where the tour ended. We were offered a choice of cupcakes (some with buttercream icing, others with cream cheese icing) or cookie to eat in or have boxed to go. Full from the rest of the tour, all of us opted to box the treats up for later consumption.
Final Thoughts
I had a lot of fun on the three and a half hour food tour. Savor Healdsburg tours run year round, with the busiest times being May through October. I took the tour on my last day in the area, but I recommend taking this tour early in your visit. You may discover places you wish to visit or return to. There was lots more to sample and savour in Healdsburg had I been staying longer.
Disclosure: I was a guest of Savor Healdsburg on this tour. Observations and opinions are my own.
PIN IT
All of it sounds quite delicious. I am a huge fan of beets and love when chefs incorporate them in interesting ways. Bet I would have loved the beet shooter.
Deb, I enjoyed the beet shooter. It tasted very fresh, but it was also quite filling.
I felt delightfully “full” by just reading your delicious descriptions and feasting on the beautiful pictures. A lovely experience, Donna! Thank you for sharing.
Linda, it was a fun and delightfully filling experience.
I guess it’s been so long since I was last in Sonoma that I can’t even remember if I have been to Healdsburg and now I’ll certainly have to make a stop. The food you showed is much different (in a good way) than a typical food tour (ie roasted beets in cinnamon). The carrot and coriander shrub is something I had never heard of and it does look refreshing.
Jan, it was a great tour. The food was unusual in a tasty way. Lots of ideas of places to go back to if I’d been staying longer in the area.
What a great tour! I’ve been visiting Healdsburg and vicinity since before it was such a famous place to go. However, i don’t get there often enough in the past several years despite living in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve never been to the places on the tour and they all look great. Time to get back to Healdsburg and check out Savor Healdsburg.
Cathy, I think you’d have a lot of fun on the tour.
I just love that place! There are so many fun spots to go in Healdsburg aren’t there? You’ve definitely hit on a lot of my favorites. it was nice meeting up with you and your husband later on in Winters too! 🙂
Susan, there certainly are a lot of great spots in Healdsburg. And in Winters. I realized this trip how one could easily spend weeks or months sampling everything the area has to offer. It was fun meeting up. Hope we can do it again,.
This looks like quite an adventure. The carrot and coriander shrub looks relish! I love market cafes. Actually, I didn’t see any stops on the tour that didn’t look fun and interesting.
Sidney, all the stops were fantastic. If you had told me I was having a carrot and coriander drink before I saw and tasted it, I would have expected something quite different and perhaps not as tasty. This shrub was incredibly tasty and refreshing.
Sounds like a great food tour with so many unexpected foods and unusual combinations of flavors. I’m a dedicated tea drinker so I enjoyed your description of the tea docent’s talk and learning about the differences between black, green and oolong tea. And green tea ice cream has got to be my favorite dessert! Anita
Anita, the tea docent provided so much information. I’d like to go back and learn more.
I’ve not been to Healdsburg, but your delightful tour sure is a pull. Everything sounds and looks absolutely fabulous and unique. What a lovely trip!
Jacquie, there is a lot to satisfy the palate in Healdsburg.
Wow, your skill at describing what you see, taste, hear, smell, and feel was displayed in full force here! Congrats on your sponsored post! I have never done one or dared ask! How did it come about, if I may ask? Congratulations!
Thanks Carol. I was a guest of Savor Healdsburg, but this tour is well worth paying full price for. We will talk more,
I’ve been to Healdsburg many times and did enjoy returning there with you. The Taste of Tea and Moustache Baked Goods are two spots I am adding to my list for my next visit. The town is surrounded by very good wineries, and I always try to visit a few of them when I am in town.
Carole, I found the number of wineries in the area overwhelming. It was hard to pick which one to visit. The Taste of Tea and Moustache Baked Goods are well worth stopping at on your next visit.
Wow, I must be really out of the loop. I’ve never heard of a shrub either. But that carrot and coriander shrub looks delicious and healthy too! Healdsburg looks like a real hot spot for foodies
Healdsburg is definitely a foodie place. P.S. I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who’d not heard of a shrub.
Sonoma looks like a wonderful destination for foodies!
Irene, Sonoma area is definitely a good destination for foodies.