It’s all happening in Healdsburg

It’s a Tuesday night on the plaza in downtown Healdsburg, and the park is teeming with people.

A band is playing funk music in the gazebo, and about two dozen people are dancing raggedly on a makeshift dance floor in front.

The crowd is buzzing. On the north side, near the base of a royal palm tree, a group of septuagenarians sits comfortably on lawn chairs, snacking on canapes and sipping rose out of plastic stemless glasses. On the south side, closer to Healdsburg Avenue, a smaller group of older millennials stands in a circle, frat-party style, nonchalantly passing a burning joint while their kids wrestle on the blanket in front of them.

If you didn’t know better, or you didn’t live in town, you might think this was some sort of festival, a once-a-summer type of event that brings all the proverbial kids to the yard for a few hours of mayhem and connection.

Really, though, it’s just another summer Tuesday — a tradition that has become incredibly popular over the last few years.

Everything is hot in Healdsburg these days. The city, with a population of 11,275, has become a chart-topping presence on “Best Cities to Live” lists published all over the world. It is the only Sonoma County destination with a restaurant that has received three Michelin stars (that would be Single Thread Farms). It is a rising star on the bachelorette party and destination wedding circuit.

Heck, singer/songwriter Phoebe Bridgers spent an extended sabbatical here last spring.

“I don’t think there’s another city in the Bay Area that is hotter than Healdsburg right now,” said Tallia Hart, CEO of the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce. “For those of us who get to call this city home, it’s a pretty exciting place to be.”

Hottest of hot spots are here

Indeed, there’s a lot in Healdsburg these days to be excited about — especially in the hospitality industry.

Perhaps the biggest news came on Earth Day, with the opening of Little Saint, a plant-based restaurant from Kyle and Katina Connaughton, the same duo behind Single Thread Farms. The destination serves lunch and dinner. It also has a coffee bar and entertainment on Thursday nights.

“Live music paired with delicious and invigorating food and beverages, in a warm and welcoming environment shared amongst each other — I think we all vibe with and appreciate this in Healdsburg,” said Katina Connaughton, who runs farm operations for both Little Saint and Single Thread. “After the last couple of years, I think there is a newfound appreciation for time spent with others doing the things we love to do. Little Saint is a space created first and foremost for the community to come together, make up for lost time, make new memories, and open our minds to the wonders of plants and the possibilities of being fueled by them.”

Also worth mentioning: Barndiva, which has existed for more than two decades but just won its first-ever Michelin star and recently hired mixology guru Scott Beattie to revamp the cocktail program.

Several new tasting rooms have sprouted in recent months: Aeris Wines, which makes wine from hard-to-find Italian varietals; Marine Layer, a hipster hangout that sells mostly Sonoma Coast wines; and BloodRoot Wines, which pours approachable wines from winemaker Noah Dorrance. The Harris Gallery, run by a father-son tandem of artists, also recently started pouring wine made by Wells Guthrie and Leo Hansen; its open-air outdoor living room tasting area is a perfect spot to spend an afternoon.

There’s a contingent in town that power-lunches at Roof 106, the rooftop hotspot atop Chef Dustin Valette’s restaurant, The Matheson. And, yes, there are local residents who buy $200 bowls from Forager, a spendy housewares store. Rooms at Montage Healdsburg regularly go for over $900 per night.

Of course, no mention of hotspots in Healdsburg would be complete without Lo & Behold, a new craft-cocktail bar and restaurant with an expansive open-air patio out back. Co-owners Laura Sanfilippo and Tara Heffernon use fresh local produce in their drinks, and they cultivate a laid-back-yet-sophisticated atmosphere.

What does life in Healdsburg look like?

Alex Harris, who now uses the name A3L3XZAND3R, grew up in Healdsburg, and said he “can’t believe” the way the town has changed in recent years.

“It was a great place to grow up,” he said. “Now it’s a great place to raise my son.”

Sanfilippo said, “this town, this community just feels like home — everyone supports each other and people genuinely care. We’re very lucky to be a part of it all.”

For locals, everyday life in Healdsburg isn’t as glitzy or glamorous as it may seem to tourists.

Most Healdsburg residents live far more modestly, spending lazy weekend days lolling in the Russian River at Del Rio Woods Sonoma County Regional Park, slurping Horchata slush or maple-flavored soft-serve at Amy’s Wicked Slush, playing twilight games of pick-up basketball on the lone court at Giorgi Park, and chowing down on an $8 burrito from Taqueria el Sombrero.

There’s also a vibrant Latino community — one that supports each other through the nonprofit Corazón Healdsburg, and shows up for at the weekly Spanish-language mass at St. John’s Church.

As Mayor Ozzy Jimenez likes to put it, Healdsburg is a working town with people of all types.

According to the U.S. Census, Healdburg’s medium household income between 2016-2020 was $89,239. White residents account for 81.9% of the population with Hispanic or Latino at 26% and Asian at 1.1%. Heladbsurg residents who identify as American Indian and Alaska Native are 0.2% of the population while Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander are at 0.1%

“We have great wealth in our community, and we also have a vibrant working-class population,” said Jimenez, who co-owns Noble Folk Ice Cream & Pie Bar on the plaza. “That diversity makes us strong.”

‘We feel divorced from our own downtown’

Sometimes, however, it also causes conflict. Some of the biggest issues to face Healdsburg in recent years pertain to a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots: housing, income adjustment, homelessness and more.

Development is another hotly contested issue. Oftentimes when someone wants to build a new business in and around town, residents weigh in to ask about the impact of that development on water usage, on infrastructure, and, ultimately, on the cost of living at a time when gas costs upward of $6 per gallon.

This explains why Piazza Hospitality, the company behind Hotel Healdsburg, h2Hotel and the Harmon Guest House, has run into opposition as it readies to build a fourth hotel with 16 two- and three-bedroom units across the street from Willi’s Seafood.

Chris Herrod is one of those critics.

Herrod, who was born and raised in town, said he’s not opposed to growth and development but favors doing it wisely.

“Residents from both sides of the political spectrum feel the impacts of runaway growth in their bones; we feel divorced from our own downtown and feel the small-town culture we cherish is being invaded by people whose values are out of synch with ours,” Herrod, 57, said. “Growth has brought success to many in town, and the town has gained much, but seeing growth as an open-ended thing, without a ceiling, is a perspective that is contrary to the idea of sustainability and disregards the geographic limits of our small town.”

Everyone’s growing here

Despite these misgivings, Healdsburg’s development beat goes on.

The North Village project, which will encompass a hotel and a senior living center, is rising on the north end of town and work on the Mill District residential neighborhood on the south end of town should begin this month. Construction on Piazza’s new hotel will begin at some point in the next few years.

More affordable housing is in the works, too — a 57-unit project on Dry Creek Road, up to 150 units behind the Parkland Farms neighborhood, and 41 units as part of Mill District.

The city even recently received $7 million in funding from the state to purchase the L&M Hotel on the far south end of town and work with local nonprofit Reach for Home to turn the motel into supportive accommodations for the unhoused.

“Finally, Healdsburg is making progress on taking care of the people who have been challenged to stay here,” said Serena Lourie, who owns Cartograph Wines with her husband Alan Baker and has been a Healdsburg resident since 2009. “We want families, younger workers and seniors to be a part of this community.”

Locals say the city still needs more affordable dining options — it’s tough to find a good meal in Healdsburg for less than $10-$15 per person. Then there’s the issue of commercial vacancies — the former Raven Film Center has been vacant for the better part of two years, and the city has yet to find a new tenant for sprawling space formerly occupied by Bear Republic Brewing Company.

Still, despite these big-picture problems, locals love where they live.

Council member David Hagele is famous for sharing pictures of life around town with the caption, “Life is good.” Based on the crowds at those Tuesday night “Music in the Plaza” events, it’s like every week is another Woodstock.

Will Seppi, owner of Costeaux French Bakery, said there’s no place he’d rather be.

“In college (in Philadelphia), my mom would send me the weekly (newspaper), and upon reading a headline, ‘Pigs Run Amok,’ one of my buddies asked, ‘Where the hell are you from?’” Seppi said. “Today, those same friends now read about Healdsburg in worldly publications and love visiting and experiencing it. You’re either growing or dying and I’ll take the growing.”