Julia R.'s Profile

Let me just hop on the bandwagon with everyone else who has ever visited the Goat and say that this is a great place to get coffee! The staff is both cool and friendly (which is a neat trick --at most places it's one or the other, if any), and the coffee is super tasty.

I particularly recommend getting a latte and a pastry of your choice to eat there if you can find a table. at the Goat, they understand that good lattes should taste like coffee-flavored clouds (not the wispy kind, but the heavy ones that are fluffy, but near to bursting with summer rain), and furthermore, they ought to look pretty. One of life's great joys is being able to sit at a windowside table with a perfect latte and talk to a friend or just watch the passersby.

Of course, the main problem with staying there to eat or drink is that usually all the seats are taken. This is one reason I often find myself there of a morning picking up some coffee and a gingerbread muffin to enjoy as I stroll through the plaza  before the shops open and the tourists descend like locusts... Very wealthy locusts.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that for there or to go, the Goat serves good stuff, and anyone in the area should definitely stop by and partake of the goodness.

P.S. The scones are really good. You should try one!

Best Thai food in Healdsburg! (Of course the only competition is the place by Safeway where I got food poisoning, but nevermind that.)

I give Lotus Thai only 4 stars because the atmosphere is not always the most conducive to comfort and fun. The restaurant is long and sknny, so you're usually both next to the wall and on top of other diners, and on top of that something about the place breeds awkward silences. I don't think this is necessarily the fault of the proprietor, but it does make dinner a little less enjoyable when you feel like anything you say will be audible to everyone else.

That said, the food at Lotus Thai is incredible. They always have fresh, crisp vegetables, and they will spice your dishes up or down according to your taste. Everything I have ever eaten there has been delicious. We also often take vegetarian and vegan friends there because they have an extensive array of tasty, non-animal-product-containing food.

Tip: Lunch is a bit cheaper than dinner there, and they do have some lunch specials that let you try a few different things for a fairly low price.

Second Tip: They do have a take out option, so if you don't want to eat there, you don't have to! You can take your Pad Thai and Ginger Tofu home instead!

While I agree that the seating area is too small for comfortable dining in the restaurant itself, I'm afraid I have to disagree with Megan about the quality of the pizza. La Pizza makes the best pizza in Healdsburg. Sure, Divine has a nicer dining room, but do they have the perfect combination of sauce, cheese and soft crust? Sadly, no. I usually find their pizza to be too hard and dry. La Pizza, on the other hand, delivers topping-laden discs  of pure yumminess. And honestly, when it comes to pizza consumption, what's more fun than chowing down by the warm glow of a DVD in your own living room? Not much, I say. Viva La Pizza!

Most Healdsburg locals will be quick to point out that we can't actually afford to shop on the plaza. It's pretty much a tourist only zone, economically speaking. But Mr. Moon's is my exception. Sure it has some ridiculously overpriced tchotchkes ($40.00 for a baby outfit destined to be covered in smushed peas and carrots? Come on!), but I keep coming back and here's why:

Every time a birthday comes and I need a last minute gift, Mr. Moon's comes through.

They change stock frequently enough that there's always something new to imagine your hipster friends opening with glee. I mean sure, they  have staples like pirate bandaids, but there's also lots of random stuff that crops up. Past favorites include handmade animal finger puppets (Gertrude Stein The Rhinoceros graces our paper towel holder), gnome soap (allegedly made by gnomes, imported from Norway or Sweden or some other gnome-friendly bit of Scandinavia), a garden in a bag (just add water and place in window!), and a metal wind-up panda bear, who plays a drum (the box called him "Amusing and Gay ").

Clearly the elusive (but perhaps omniscient?) Mr. Moon has good taste, and what's more, he's smart enough to know that people in need of silly gifts will pay inflated prices for them if they are relatively inexpensive. All of the examples above were under $10.00.

Additionally there's a lot of nice, locally made jewelry for fairly  reasonable prices, and scads of charming greeting cards, which really aren't much more than I suppose one would pay at Hallmark or similar.

When you consider on top of everything else that none of the Mr. Moon's staff has ever sneered at me for spendng just a couple of dollars in the store (even when I realized I had no cash and had to charge a $2.00 purchase to my debit card), it's a pretty winning place to shop.

Big John's is our second favorite grocery store in Healdsburg. They did recently remodel the inside, but I find it alleviated some of the crowding rather than adding to it.

They've got a decent produce section (though not as good as Anstead's) and a great cheese selection, but I really like shopping there because it's a good common ground grocery. You get the gourmet yuppie fare alongside the frozen pizzas and ready to bake Tollhouse cookies (and, by the way, they are the only store in town that carries the delicious ready to bake Tollhouse chocolate chip/peanutbutter cup cookies. If you haven't tried those yet, you are missing out!).

Aside from that, they have an impressive array of fancy bottled water, which for some reason attracts me like crazy. For a while Safeway was also carrying Essentia and Penta and Metro Mint waters, but not anymore. Now Smart Water is everywhere (except yesterday the Oakville didn't even have that!) and Big John's is the only place to find the lesser known brands.

So yeah, I know this is a weird thing to harp on, ridiculously overpriced bottled water availability, but I think it's reflective of my main point: Big John's usually has a good selection of stuff. And I think if they don't have whatever it is you're looking for, they might order it if you asked them to.

Now I think I will end this review and walk a mile and a half in the rain to get some spearmint flavored water because yes, I am that much of a mint water addict (and Moss took the car to work today).

We love Anstead's for their great (and inexpensive!) produce and random hard to find natural foods. The checkers are generally friendly and although the layout is a bit tightly packed, it's not usually crowded and doesn't seem to attract the tourists. They seem to be a natural foods store that understands food should taste good. I can get behind that!

Best Mexican restaurant in Healdsburg, hands down! El Farolito is in a great location by the plaza, but since it's tucked away on a side street, most of the tourists seem to miss it.

There's plenty of room inside for larger parties, and they make consistently tasty food. My favorite is the Taco Salad, which is loaded with everything a glutton could want, but their other offerings are also quite good. I'll also second Megan's observations about good and prompt service. You can definitely get in and out of here on your lunch hour if you work nearby --the only danger is that you'll spend the afternoon in a burrito coma instead of getting any work done.

The decor is certainly not pretentious, but you can tell they made an effort. It feels like a comfortable, gaudy hole in the wall.  A great place to relax without worrying about being well-dressed or using your best table manners.

Every time visitors come through town they want to go wine tasting, and we always take them to Toad Hollow for a variety of reasons.

Nobody there is snooty, so if you're a newbie to the wine tasting scene, it's a great place to start. You'll get to taste a variety of wines while chatting about general winemaking trivia and fun specifics (like what all the unique Toad Hollow wine names mean).

If you know your stuff, you'll probably find a couple of wines to suit your palate. The Rod's Pride Reserve Pinot Noir is really lovely and smooth, and I've found their Erik's The Red goes very well with Spaghetti. If you prefer white wines, don't worry --they have those, too!

The best part, in my opinion, is getting to taste their Risque, the sweet and slightly tart sparkling wine that they serve last. It's a real crowd pleaser; I've never known anyone to not like it! It's also one of a kind, so you'll be getting a very specific taste of California winemaking creativity, and it won't break the bank if you want to take it home to awe your friends.

Overall, Toad hollow deserves an A+ for friendly service, reasonable prices, quality wines, and most of all for their sense of fun.