Mouthful: Dicken’s Dinners at Madrona Manor
Dickens Dinners: As of press time, there were still seats available for Madrona Manor’s popular Dickens Dinner series, which started on Dec. 7 and continues through Christmas Day. Only Dec. 23 and 25 are currently sold out, with the 13th and 20th filling up fast. Open dates include Dec. 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 24.
Dinner features a five-course prix fixe menu, with entertainment by the Twelfth Night Singers throughout the evening, which gets started at 6:30 p.m.
Although menus vary from night to night, chef Jesse Mallgren’s menu highlights include Dungeness crab salad with estate oranges and Green Goddess dressing; truffle risotto; beef Wellington and, of course, Christmas pudding. Prices vary depending on the night, but start at $100; certain menu items include a supplement and tax, beverages and gratuity will be added.
For reservations: 433-4231. Madrona Manor is at 1001 Westside Road, Healdsburg.
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Festival of Lights Celebration: On Saturday, Dec. 20, at the West End Farmers Market Warehouse (817 Donahue St., Santa Rosa), Goodman’s Delicatessen hosts a Hanukkah Pop-Up dinner.
The menu includes a wide array of foods from throughout North Africa, the Middle East and Greece. Things get started with canapes at 5 p.m., followed by a sit-down, family-style meal. Menu highlights include bastilla (Moroccan chicken almond pie), latkes with creme fraiche and applesauce; crispy cauliflower and roasted lamb should with pomegranates.
Heather Klein, a widely praised soprano and classical Yiddish artist, will entertain.
Cost is $20 for children 10 and over and $70 for adults. Kids aged 10 and under eat for free. A portion of the proceeds benefits the market’s EBT (food stamps) matching funds program.
Reservations: at brownpapertickets.com.
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Breakfast with Santa: On Saturday, December 13, and again on Saturday, December 20, Costeaux French Bakery (417 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg) hosts breakfast with the fat man in the red suit from 9 to 11 a.m.
Tenaya Fleckenstein Photography will provide complimentary photographs with your kid or pup on Santa’s lap. There will be cookies for the kids and there might be t-r-e-a-t-s for your well-behaved doggy, too.
It’s getting to be time to place your order for holiday cannoli, as well. They are available only on Christmas Eve and must be ordered in advance. Cost is $25 for six cannoli. The bakery also has a selection of other holiday desserts and their fabulous cinnamon walnut bread, which makes yummy French toast on Christmas morning.
To place an order by phone, call 433-1913.
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Ramen Gaijin Opens Friday: Chef Mathew Williams hosted extremely popular pop-up ramen dinners during his tenure at Sebastopol’s Woodfour Brewery. Now he’ll have a regular spot for his Asian noodles. Ramen Gaijin opens on Friday in the Forchetta portion of Forchetta Bastoni at 6948 Sebastopol Ave. in Sebastopol.
Forchetta was the Italian part of the Asian-Italian dual restaurant. Bastoni, which includes the popular bar and outside patio, has always done well with its Asian-street-food-inspired eatery, but Forchetta never found its footing. A ramen cafe might be the perfect pairing.
Initially, Ramen Gaijin will serve lunch from noon to 2:30 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
Current menu highlights include shoyu ramen, with rye noodles, pork belly woodear mushrooms, wakame and egg ($14); tantan ramen, with Sapporo noodles, pork belly, ground pork, charred cabbage, mustards, scallions and egg ($14) and albacore tataki, with hedgehog mushrooms, edamame, sea grass, sake and Meyer lemon ($11). For desserts, there’s grapefruit sorbet with persimmon crisp and yuzu curd ($7) and black sesame ice cream with meringue and coconut granola ($7).
After its trial run through December 20, the restaurant will close for the holidays and reopen on January 2.
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Seven Fishes, Seven Nights: Starting on December 18, Spoonbar (219 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg) hosts seven nights of the Feast of Seven Fishes.
Chef Louis Maldonado and his crew will prepare a different menu each night, with five courses featuring seven fish each night.
Highlights include ocean trout sashimi; potato and clam gratin with sea urchin and scallions; kanpachi tartare; spaghetti with abalone; lobster bisque with crab and fennel fritter; Gulf snapper tartare with caviar and green papaya and grilled John Dory.
Each menu is $78 plus tax and gratuity. For reservations, call 433-7222. To view all seven menus, visit spoonbar.com.
The Feast of Seven Fishes is a traditional Christmas Eve celebration among Italian-Americans and is thought to have originated in southern Italy.
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