Sonoma, California City Guide
For over 20 years, Pamela Lanier's Sonoma, California Travel Guide has been your connection to Sonoma's tourism community with invaluable details on local attractions, restaurants, shopping, museums, history, outdoor recreation and more.
Sonoma Dining
 Sonoma County's diverse geography offers a wide range of local products. Oysters and other seafood from the coast, apples, grapes, organic greens, fresh vegetables, cheeses, cattle, and fowl are grown and harvested across the county. Influences range from classical French to Mediterranean and Asian, and fusion cuisine maximizes the diversity of Sonoma’s resources. The first Williams-Sonoma stores opened here in 1956, and the influence of Sonoma on the culinary world cannot be understated.
With dry, sunny conditions and fantastic vistas, picnics are an ideal way to dine in the Sonoma Valley. Enjoy wine or local cider with local cheeses, a big crusty loaf of bread and some artisan salami or olives. Create a sampler buffet at local shops to explore the palette of Sonoma’s offerings at a fraction of enjoying such pleasures in a fancy restaurant.
While not everyone has the drive and talent to compete on the national chef circuit, anyone can attend a class at Ramekins, a “food education facility” dedicated to the education of the home cook, from amateur to the aficionado. Renowned chefs, authors and culinary experts teach their styles and techniques, with class participants. Located just off the Sonoma Plaza, Ramekins features all types of cooking and wine year round.
The Sonoma Cheese Factory is a popular tourist stop operated by the Viviani family who carry on the time-honored cheese-making methods of Celso Viviani, an Italian immigrant who founded the company back in 1931. The deli and cheese store, with generous opportunities for tasting house-made cheeses, doubles as a souvenir shop. After the traditional Sonoma Jack, try the very spicy Habanero Jack, sun-dried tomato and olive-flavored Mediterranean Jack, Portabella Jack with portabella mushrooms, a variety of cheese spreads, and teleme cheese, Jack’s softer, tangier cousin.
Past the Mission down a tree-lined road stands the Vella Cheese Factory. The stone building was originally built in 1904 to house a brewery but was later converted into a factory that has been creating award-winning artisan cheeses for 75 years. In 2003, Vella Cheese became one of the first solar-powered businesses in Sonoma. Vella's Traditional Dry Jack is a favorite for its nutty, parmesan-like flavor.
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