I had never heard of a town called Sebastapol until yesterday. Definitely a find.
This little (and slightly quirky) town is in Western Sonoma County and is surrounded by apple orchards and vineyards. There were Black Lives Matter signs everywhere I looked, a Whole Foods, a Safeway, a cute Nepalese-Tibetan restaurant that locals love and of course, there was The Barlow - a chic-industrial outdoor market with a ton of cool shops.
Sabastopol is known for its apples, especially the Gravenstein - planted first by Russian explorers in the 1800s.
Over the years, the apple business has reduced - It seems this is a fragile apple variety that does that travel well. I am told Luther Burbank grafted this apple and created a variety called the Red Gravenstein that was less fragile. (Burbank was an American botanist, horticulturist and pioneer in agricultural science. He developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career.)
Anyway, to continue to celebrate this apple, Sabastopol has an annual apple fair in August, which unfortunately has been canceled this year.
There are many wineries in this area - Iron Horse, Dutton, Merry Edwards, and Paul Hobbs. We wanted to focus on micro-breweries yesterday so we spent all of our time at The Barlow.
Despite COVID, several places were open and were following fairly strict rules around cleaning and social distancing.
We first hit the Two Dog Night Creamery, and I am happy to report Anya loved the nitrogen-infused ice-cream. There were sushi and pizza stores which seemed to be popular.
We chose to visit Crooked Goat and Woodford breweries.
At Crooked Goat, we ordered their Summer Ale which was a lightly- hoppy blonde ale. The staff was lovely and they were particular on cleaning. Very attentive too.
At Woodford, we ordered their Red Ale which was a light, crisp lager. The outdoor seating was nice, and a staff member was kind enough to fix the umbrella for us for shade.
I highly recommend The Barlow if you visit Sabastapol.
