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PLAZA FARMS TO OPEN IN HEALDSBURGFood and Wine Artisans and Restaurateurs Band Together to Create Vibrant Destination (May 16, 2005 HEALDSBURG, CA) - On June 17th, Plaza Farms will open on the Healdsburg town square, providing a direct connection between artisan producers and artisan consumers. Located in an historic building, Plaza Farms incorporates eight food and wine producers and a 24-seat restaurant in a market-hall environment. They are:
A 24-seat restaurant from John Stewart and Duskie Estes, owners of perennial Bay Area favorite Zazu, will be a focal point. Bovolo (Italian for "snail") will feature what the husband-and-wife team call "slow food… fast." The menu includes pizzas, house-cured meats and gelatos, a wide range of affordably-priced wines by the glass, and a bellini bar. John and Duskie have even developed unique ice cream sandwiches, such as the "Better Butter": peanut butter shortbread filled with peanut butter gelato, all dipped in Scharffen Berger chocolate. Plaza Farms was conceived by Ridgely Evers and Colleen McGlynn of DaVero. "We've wanted to do something like this for years - to create a way for the small producers to connect directly with their customers," said Evers. "The building's owners, the City of Healdsburg, and the food community have been tremendously supportive from the beginning." They've recruited Oakville Grocery veteran Gordonelle Weisgerber as manager. John Scharffenberger, founder of Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, was one of the first to sign on. "Our experience with our stall in the Ferry Building made Plaza Farms a natural step for us. Plaza Farms will be to Healdsburg what the Ferry Building is to San Francisco: the place where people who really care about food - be they producers or consumers - can come together." Plaza Farms will allow patrons get a real sense of the people behind the products. Each of the producers has committed to spending as much time in their stall as possible, and the stalls themselves have been designed to educate visitors. According to Liam Callahan of Bellwether Farms, "this setting gives us a real opportunity to explain what makes each one of our cheeses unique." Plaza Farms is possible only because of the hard work of the farming community. Therefore, the participants have the proceeds from the Plaza Farms Tasting Card and Bovolo's "Better Butter" ice cream sandwiches to support scholarship awards through Healdsburg High School for children of farmworkers and farm families.
Plaza Farms set for openingDaVero Olive Oil pair behind project to give small producers place to sell their waresJune 8, 2005 By DIANE PETERSON
After eight months of planning, Plaza Farms on the Healdsburg town square is aiming for a June 17 opening, with market stalls featuring eight food and wine producers and a casual, 24-seat restaurant serving Italian pizzas, house-cured meats and gelatos. The historic building at 106 Matheson St., the former home of Felix & Louie's restaurant, will serve as a market hall and cooperative tasting room for small artisan producers of cheese and olive oil, chocolate and tea, local fruits, vegetables and wines. Ridgely Evers and Colleen McGlynn of Healdsburg's DaVero Olive Oil developed the Plaza Farms project to give small producers like themselves a place to sell to locals while connecting with tourists from across the country. "The only way artisan producers can make it is if they can connect directly with their customers," Evers said. "Through this, we can connect to people who are in Healdsburg and in Harrisburg, Pa." In addition to DaVero Olive Oil, Plaza Farms will include Bellwether Farms, a pioneer in America's cheese renaissance; Scharffen Berger Chocolate, one of America's premier chocolate makers; Teaspots, offering specialty teas from around the world; Philip Staley, a producer of Rhone-varietal wines in the Dry Creek Valley; Tandem Winery of Sebastopol, producers of pinot noir and chardonnay; and David Coffaro, a cult winery in Dry Creek Valley. The artisan producers have joined together to make the remaining stall available for free to members of the Healdsburg Farmers Market during the market season. "We wanted a mixture of food and wine, and a balance of both," Mc-Glynn said, adding she hopes the farmers market booth in the summer will give people a daily shot at fresh farmers-market produce. Evers described Plaza Farms as a small-scale version of the popular Ferry Plaza Building in San Francisco -- "thrown into the dryer on hot" and shrunk, but with the same basic philosophy underpinning it. "Plaza Farms will be to Healdsburg what the Ferry Building is to San Francisco: the place where people who really care about food -- be they producers or consumers -- can come together," said John Scharffenberger, founder of Scharffen Berger Chocolate, who was one of the first producers to sign on. Clark Wolf, a restaurant consultant based in New York and Guerneville, said the project sounds like a natural fit for Sonoma County, which has always had an amazing array of produce, cheese and farmers markets. "Sonoma County is the new frontier for food in America," Wolf said. "But the restaurants have kind of followed, rather than led." The fact that Plaza Farms has been developed by locals indicates that the county is waking up and realizing its own potential, Wolf said. "Oakville (Grocery) came from Napa, and (chef) Charlie Palmer settled here with his upstate New York and Manhattan sensibility," he said. "This is truly homegrown in concept." Wolf views the project as a way for Sonoma County to attract visitors during the week and the off-season -- not just in the summer or on Saturdays. "That's one of my personal goals," he said. "We want more people to appreciate it without building six-lane highways." Healdsburg designer Carol Disrud, who has designed several Healdsburg spaces including Clutch in the Hotel Healdsburg, worked with Evers and McGlynn to renovate the building from the fir floors up. The drywall was removed to expose the concrete and a new, pressed-tin ceiling lends a historic touch. "You'll walk in, and there will be producers on either side of the aisle," McGlynn said. "The cabinetry runs through the back of each booth -- maple fronts with copper caps and shelving." The front two-thirds of the building is devoted to stalls, with the restaurant located in back. John Stewart and Duskie Estes, owners of Zazu in Santa Rosa, will run Bovolo restaurant (Italian for snail), which the husband-and-wife team describes as "slow food ... fast." In other words, food made from scratch, using local ingredients, that can be ordered quickly. "We're not going to have servers," Estes said. "People will wait in line (to order) and someone will run the food out to them, or they can take it to go." In addition to hot and cold sandwiches, the restaurant will serve unique desserts like the "Better Butter" -- a peanut butter shortbread filled with peanut butter gelato, dipped in Scharffen Berger chocolate. The ambiance, with a bellini bar and wines sold by the carafe, will be upscale but comfortable. "We are trying to be a place for locals in Healdsburg that's casual and kid-friendly," Estes said. "It'll be like Taylor's Refresher in Napa." Oakville Grocery veteran Gordonelle Weisgerber is the project's manager. To help draw in locals, Plaza Farms will offer 10 percent off on Tuesdays for folks with a Healdsburg driver's license. Proceeds from a Plaza Farms tasting card will go toward scholarships at Healdsburg High School for ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders who are children of farmers and farmworkers. Plaza Farms will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. every day except Wednesday. Bovolo will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day except Wednesday, with breakfast on weekends starting at 9 a.m. You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or dpeterson@pressdemocrat.com
© The Press Democrat. Marketplace opening in Healdsburg
Downtown Plaza Farms a smaller, more intimate version of SF Ferry PlazaJune 16, 2005 By MICHELE ANNA JORDAN Just in time for tourist season, Plaza Farms opens: On Friday, one of the most exciting businesses to come along since, oh, say, the taco truck, is set to open on the square in downtown Healdsburg. Plaza Farms, located in the space most recently occupied by Felix & Louie's, is a marketplace, not entirely unlike the San Francisco Ferry Plaza but much smaller and way more intimate. Plaza Farms features eight food and wine producers and a 24-seat restaurant. Vendors include DaVero Olive Oil; Bellwether Farms of Petaluma, one of the top cheese producers in the country; Scharffen Berger Chocolate; Teaspots, which features teas and health products from around the world; and three wineries, David Coffaro, Tandem and Philip Staley. These vendors have joined together to fund the remaining stall, making it available to several local producers (Dry Creek Peach & Produce, Yael Bernier, Tierra Vegetables and Hector's Honey), a subset of the Healdsburg Farmers Market known as the Healdsburg Farmers Cooperative. Ridgely Evers and Colleen McGlynn of DaVero organized the project, which they say met with immediate and sustained support from everyone involved, from the building's owners and the city to the food community. The goal is to provide a direct connection between artisan producers and consumers. This connection is more than in name only; producers have agreed to spend as much time in their stalls as possible. The restaurant, named Bovolo ("snail" in Italian) will likely open a few days after Plaza Farms itself opens, so tune in next week for details. Plaza Farms market hall will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily. It is closed on Wednesdays. Gordonelle "Gordie" Weisgerber, formerly of Oakville Grocery, is general manager.
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