Rick and I have this thing we like to do. Basically just hit the road and drive about two hours and then have lunch and explore. Since our anniversary (35 years!!) landed on a Monday we decided that the following Saturday would be a great day to take just such a drive.
We generally head south (Carmel) or north (Petaluma/Napa area). This Saturday we headed north towards Sebastapol because I wanted to check out The Barlow.
My review is mixed.
It definitely has potential. Their aesthetic, to quote them, is "The Barlow is a 12-acre Bay Area outdoor market district in Sebastopol, California featuring local food, wine, beer, spirits and crafts made onsite by Sonoma County artisans. Stroll our industrial-chic, dog-friendly campus and savor the organic edible landscaping."
It has a very relaxed, wealthy, boho kind of vibe and most of the shops have the same spare, industrial yet organic kind of feel. While I was totally expecting to find a vast array of food options out of their varied restaurants what I actually found was a lot of Mexican inspired cuisine (four million versions of tacos) and a lot of sweet/dessert type options (juice places, ice cream, bakeries).
(image via California Sister)
There were a couple of stand out shops – my favorite being California Sister. What a lovely shop it is. It is a floral/house plant/lots of lovely plant related things type of shop.
I bought a pair of garden clippers since I accidentally threw out my beloved Japanese pair (I was trimming a bouquet of supermarket flowers and wrapped it up with the florist wrapping and cut off leaves and just tossed it). The young woman at the counter said it was a favorite of everyone there and cautioned me to only use it on tender stems, up to roses. No heavy duty pruning allowed. Since I just want it for cut flowers I think I am good.
The other shop I enjoyed was Elsie Green. I follow them on Instagram and was thrilled to find out they are practically local. The shop vibe is mostly vintage, French offerings with touches of carefully curated new things. I am semi kicking myself for not picking up a set of four vintage etched wine glasses. Maybe if they had six or eight of them.
Look at that green velvet chair.
(image via Elsie Green Instagram)
Since we couldn't find lunch at the Barlow that suited both our dietary requirements we headed a few blocks away and had lunch at The Gypsy Cafe. Always a good choice even if the acoustics are a bit on the loud side. They have a great selection of entree salads and sandwiches on their menu and the atmosphere is relaxed.
We stopped at a few antique places on the way home and had absolutely fabulous antiquing mojo. We have been on the lookout for some vintage porch posts to mount birdhouses on (remember these?) and we have been looking for narrow windows to complete our green house project. And we found both!! For super reasonable. We have found plenty of porch posts over the past couple of years but lordy were the price tags eye-watering high. And today we found two fabulous ones for $80. For both of them!! And four windows for $125. We have all the components for our plant infirmary (i.e. greenhouse).
I can't wait to share both projects with you!
Of course I had to stop in at my very favorite antique store, Summer Cottage Antiques. I picked up a milk glass bud vase in an interesting size (shorter than what you usually find) and a sweet little creamer which will also be used for flowers. All in all just a really lovely day.
