Artisan Petaluma cheeses delivered to your door

After a bit of holiday brainstorming, the three Straus siblings who run the Straus Home Ranch (straushomeranch.com) struck upon a great idea to help bridge the gap between cheesemakers and their hungry non-traveling fans.

Vivien Straus started the Cheese Trail map (cheesetrail.org) several years ago, which helps steer cheese fans to both beloved standbys and new-found favorite cheesemakers along California’s backroads. With years of experience with both Straus Family Creamery and Cowgirl Creamery, Vivien was in the perfect position to help local cheesemakers, who are often too busy making cheese to actually have the time to get it to market. Since the launch of Cheese Trail, many cheesemakers report huge increases in sales due to the added tourism Vivien’s map provides.

However, with tourism at an historic low, many of these artisan makers are again struggling. With a bit of extra time on their hands, what with the Straus Home Ranch’s wedding and overnight stay calendar nearly empty, the Straus’s have come up with a new way to introduce cheese lovers to some of the great bounty our area has to offer.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Straus Home Ranch announced its Artisan Cheese collection, delivered straight to your front door. This is a curation of Vivien’s favorite cheeses, along with small-batch chocolates, jams and other local goodies. The first collection is a limited affair and must be pre-ordered by this Sunday, Jan. 31, for delivery in time for Valentine’s Day. Along with two great cheeses (Foundry Fresh from Bivalve Dairy and Heart’s Desire from Cowgirl Creamery), this collection will also include a West Coast seasonal truffle collection from Mutari Chocolate. However, it is the final piece of this package that piqued our interests.

The item that will last long after the cheese and chocolates are gone and is a unique memento of our coastal farmlands – a flour sack tea towel adorned with the Straus family matriarch’s “kooky cows.” “Straus Home Ranch Flour Sack Towel with Mom’s Kooky Cows: Our mom’s amazing talents were legendary — from co-founding the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, and serving on countless environmental organizations, to making incredible lemon cheesecake and, in her free time, creating lyrical artwork which we’ve always loved. Her cow figurines always graced the wall of our ranch house kitchen, and we think you’ll love them as much as we do! 18” x 28” with lots of cows (and lots of love) [sic].” The Straus Home Ranch’s website has a ton of other great non-edible offerings revolving around our coastal dairy scene.

As an added bonus, guests can attend a real-time virtual tasting with Vivien via Zoom. An organic dairy expert, Vivien Straus is not only a writer and actress, but as a former educator at Cowgirl Creamery knows how to put on an entertaining and informative cheese presentation and tasting. If tasting these great new treats doesn’t brighten your day, Vivien’s friendly smile and positive and caring personality certainly will.

Currently, shipping is only available in California but that may change in the future. Each month Straus Home Ranch will introduce a new collection, with a virtual tasting by Vivien to go along with it.

Reopenings

The announcement from Table Culture Provision (tcprovision.com) this past Monday afternoon was that their last COVID test came back negative and that they anticipated reopening this Thursday, Jan. 28, just in time for a quick break in the weather before the next storm is scheduled to arrive. For those who missed it, TCP has taken over the space at the southwest corner of Magnolia and Petaluma Boulevard South, formally occupied by Wishbone. Offering “elevated comfort food seasonally and with intention,” TCP promises to add another great culinary option to local diners looking for something unique and inspiring.

Just one week after announcing they were going to close until things opened back up again, we are happy to announce Wild Goat Bistro (wildgoatbistro.com) will be reopening this Friday, Jan. 29.

While on the topic of reopening’s, in case you missed it, Sonoma County has bumped a COVID tier and as of this past Monday is back open for outdoor dining. (Please visit the state (covid19.ca.gov) and county (socoemergency.org) sites before relying on friends and family on social media for the details of whatever order is currently in place.)

One might think, “What a shame – right in the middle of all this rain.” However, the city had already purchased a good number of large tents prior to the recent shutdown and over the past week has been erecting those in anticipation of the reopening. So, although it may be wet out there, you should be able to dine out at your favorite restaurant, so long as you bring a warm coat.

That said, Tina Caputo reminds us, “Be extra nice to restaurant and winery staff members, follow the safety rules, and let's have fun out there!”

Restaurants are having a heck of a time with logistics, from staffing to food ordering, what with these last minute closure and re-openings. So, please be extra patient with restaurants. They are trying to get back up to speed quickly, not knowing exactly how long it will last. There are going to be long waits, there are going to be sold out menu items and there are going to be plenty of missteps as restaurants get back up to speed. We all need to just do our best to be tolerant and supportive if we want these restaurants to survive so we can someday go back to enjoying indoor dining.

Free delivery

After being hit with the double whammy of a costly break-in and then an even more costly COVID scare shutdown, the Bagel Mill (thebagelmill.com) is back up and running, turning out bagel sandwiches, lunch salads, coffee drinks and plenty of other great baked goodies daily. If you have been craving some of Bagel Mill’s great offerings but can’t make it downtown this weekend, Petaluma Food Taxi (petalumafoodtaxi.com) is offering free delivery from Jan. 29-31.

Free dessert

There are benefits for following your favorite food purveyors on social media, as fans of Scone Rollin’ (sconerollin.com) found out last week. Sure, hearing about their daily specials is great, but sometimes they throw in some extras. On one particular morning, fans saw the message “**FREE GIVEAWAY**,” offering the first three online orders at that moment the choice of a six-inch Boston cream pie, six-inch fruit cheesecake tart or a six-inch fruit tart, for delivery the very next day. That right there seems like as good a reason as any to follow Scone Rollin’ on social media. Although maxed over the holidays on orders for cakes, cookies and all sort of other great baked treats, Scone Rollin’ has announced that they are now back to accepting orders, big and small, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day

Speaking of Valentine’s Day, for those who want to get their orders in early so as to avoid running into sold-out specials, I suggest you contact your favorite restaurants now. With limited dine-out options, reservations are going to be a must. But I would also imagine that there will be a mad rush for take-out orders on Valentine’s Day too so brace yourself for long waits. Some restaurants and caterers are offering pre-order specials, which is likely the safest way to go if you want to guarantee a special dinner on the table that night. A growing list of Valentine’s Day specials can be found in the Announcements section of the Petaluma Foodies page on Facebook, which I will be using to help compile a list in next week’s Argus-Courier. Unfortunately, this week is just a bit too early for that article because some restaurants are still fine-tuning their menus.

Craft Beer Week

California Craft Beer Week officially takes place Feb. 12–21, but obviously, will have few, if any, in-person events. However, the new reality of virtual tours and tastings may actually give local beer fans better access to the celebrations than ever before. Visit cacraftbeerweek.com for all the details, including how to pre-order beer tasting kits so you can follow along during upcoming virtual tastings. The Bay Area Tasting Tour kit is already sold out but that makes for the perfect opportunity to try beers from other spots around California that you may not have tasted from before.