Note: I was born and raised in Sonoma County. Two factors contribute to the fact that, to date, I haven’t had many meaningful recommendations: 1) I was 18 when I left for college so I didn’t have a long list of preferred high-end restaurants, 2) my parents preferred to host people at the house rather than go to wineries for tastings so they are not a fantastic source of recs. Most of the below I’ve compiled from friends or from explorations North during my time in San Francisco. The ones in bold are particular favorites:

Restaurants:

• Della Fattoria (Petaluma) 
• El Molino Central (Sonoma / Agua Caliente)
• Star (Glen Ellen)
• La Calenda (Yountville)
• Chalk Board (Healdsburg)  

Wineries / Bars:

• Brewster’s Beer Garden (Petaluma)
• Lagunitas Brewery (Petaluma) (do the tasting flight)
• Scribe (Sonoma)
• Bedrock (Sonoma)
• Abbot’s Passage Winery (Glen Ellen)
• Hall Winery (St. Helena)
• Russian River Brewery (Santa Rosa & Windsor)
• Preston Winery (Healdsburg)   

Other:

• Safari West (Between Santa Rosa and Calistoga)
• Hog Island Oysters or Marshall Store (Marin County)
• Oxbow Market (Napa)
• Barlow Market (Sebastapol)