Happy sunny Monday to all you beautiful humans of Healdsburg. There’s a rumor going around that it’s SUMMER now! I hope y’all had as poignant a Father’s Day-Solstice mashup yesterday as I did out here at my family home in Healdsburg’s western foothills, and that you paid due tribute to both the paternal and solar archetypes. (It was also the singer Lana Del Rey’s birthday, FYI, for those of us who celebrate!) And now we can relax, cause it’s just another summer Monday. So sit back, pour yourself an afternoon iced tea — or light your business-guy cigar, or whatever you’re into — and feast upon this newsletter to get yourself up to date on what’s happening in Healdsburg, much like you might have flipped through your local paper in days of yore. Today you’ll learn about…
A plot by Healdsburg’s loudest bar to get even louder
The casual Chinese food place coming to town (!)
And a new wine tasting room going in across the street
Major progress on our very own LUV-brand car wash
The next big rockstar booked to play Little Saint
A blues celebrity sighting at Healdsburg’s indie bookstore
And more essential info for good living in the Burg 🤘
Local historians from the Healdsburg Museum just shared this throwback Father’s Day pic, taken in the ’60s at the old Plaza Meat Market on Center Street, in the same storefront where the Downtown Bakery is now. (Dads and meats — a timeless combo!) “Thanks to the many wonderful fathers of Healdsburg, past, present and future,” museum officials wrote. “We love and appreciate you!” (Image: Healdsburg Museum via Facebook)
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Beloved community members who happen to be great lawyers
No one ever wants to need a lawyer — but for the rare moments in life that you do, it means everything to find someone local who you can trust. Healdsburg brothers Rich and Joe Passalacqua are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their practice this year, which was founded by their father Emil Passalacqua in 1976 and is now run out of a beautiful old Victorian at the corner of Piper and East streets in downtown Healdsburg. I know Rich and Joe personally, and they’re exactly the kind of guys I would want on my side in a pinch. They’re great listeners, communicators and advocates who know how to stand up for their own.
“Today, we carry on our father’s commitment to providing legal guidance that is effective and affordable,” they say. “We serve individuals from all walks of life in a broad array of practice areas, with special emphasis in estate planning, wills and trusts, criminal defense and personal injury matters. We give our clients personal attention and avoid formulaic approaches, preferring instead to develop legal strategies that suit each client’s individual needs.” Reach out to the Passalacqua brothers for more info on how they can assist in your time of need. 🙏
NEXT UP: HOW’S THE WEATHER?
Ah, summer! A time of dust, a time of daisies, a time of rattlesnakes and rustly rattlesnake grass… a time of sun-hot tomatoes and kids camps and river dips. Here in Healdsburg and our three surrounding grape-growing valleys, this can also be a time of scorching heat that surges well in the triple digits. But the Summer of 2026 is sliding in much more gently than some we’ve seen. Here’s the official local government weather forecast for the first week of summer:
Today ☀️ Sunny. High 85° Low 51°
Tomorrow 🌤️ Fog turning to sun. High 85° Low 52°
Wednesday 🌤️ Foggy, then mostly sunny. High 86° Low 53°
Thursday 🌤️ Mostly sunny. High 89° Low 56°
Friday ☀️ Full sun. High 84° Low 55°
Saturday ☀️ Sunny again. High 81° Low 53°
Sunday ☀️ And again! High 86° Low 54°
Healdsburg resident Donna McClure took this photo last week of the summertime flowers blooming out at Quivira Vineyards in the Dry Creek Valley. This 45-year-old local winery — which was almost sold off by owners Pete and Terri Knight in 2024, until they had a change of heart — is known far and wide for its above-and-beyond regenerative farming practices. Quivira also has some very sweet farm animals to visit on site right now, including Winston the pig, and they just opened a farm stand filled with “a beautiful selection of fresh, seasonal produce from our estate garden.” Stop by the winery at 4900 West Dry Creek Rd. any day from 11am-4pm to bask in the summer abundance. (Photo: Donna McClure via Nextdoor)
And out at my parents’ house, located at the end of a long dirt road off West Dry Creek, we just marked our first rattlesnake kill of the season. He was just a baby guy, with only one or two rattles. (Very similar to one that Geyserville rancher Adriane Vanoni Garayalde posted about earlier this month!) There’s actually a long thread running on Healdsburg’s local Nextdoor page about the moral and ecological question of whether to kill any rattlesnakes you encounter on your property… but in my family’s case, the rattler was stuck in a standoff with our dog, so we decided to do the deed. Still, it sends a chill down my spine to take a life. Rest easy, little dude, and maybe it’ll be you on the other end of the shovel next lifetime… (Photo: Simone Wilson)
While we’re on the rattlesnake ticker — check out this crazy snake video that Sonoma County Parks officials shared the other day, taken at Spring Lake Regional Park in Santa Rosa. They wrote: “It may look like a dance, but these northern Pacific rattlesnakes are actually wrestling. This non-lethal contest of strength happens when two males compete for territory or access to dens. They rise up, intertwine and push against each other, no biting, no venom. Usually, the match ends when one snake decides it's had enough and slithers away. Park visitor Benjamin Pender captured this rarely seen behavior on a trail… at Spring Lake Regional Park. It’s a good reminder that summertime is snake season in Sonoma County watch where you step when out on the trails, wear closed-toe shoes, keep dogs leashed and be cautious in grassy areas and near rock outcroppings, a favorite habitat for rattlesnakes. Rattlesnakes play an important role in Sonoma County's ecosystems and generally prefer to avoid people. If you encounter one on a trail, give it plenty of space and let it move on at its own pace.” (Video: Sonoma County Regional Parks via Facebook)
And before we move on to the news, I’ll share a few more updates on the atmospheric front, because — as some of you have pointed out — I seem to have developed an obsession with all things weatherly.
That said, Cal Fire is no longer issuing burn permits to private property owners, as of June 15. A move which some see as the official start of wildfire season each year!
A few Healdsburg residents spotted a mysterious glow in the night sky last week, leading to a big “aurora or wildfire?” debate in our Facebook community group, here and here. I’m still not quite sure what they were seeing. But I’m reminded of the Noah Kahan lyric: “We drank, and I convinced you that the wildfire smog was the northern lights…”
Lastly, I’ve got some very cool rainbow cloud pics to show you from a few Saturdays ago, on June 6. The perfect celestial kickoff to Pride month!
“Any one ever seen anything like this?” Healdsburg resident Nathan Stauer asked on Nextdoor that day. “I was wowed.” (Photo: Nathan Stauer via Nextdoor)
“I saw it too!” another local named Heather Potter replied in the thread. “So cool.” And Windsor resident Franky Camacho got a great shot of the phenomenon, too. (Photo: Heather Potter via Nextdoor)
AIR OVER HEALDSBURG
And here’s a look at the spotless blue sky over your heads this afternoon! Well, spotless except for the daytime half-moon up there on the right. Plus the tiniest hint of haze, perhaps coming from that prescribed burn I mentioned in Calistoga… 🧐 (Photo: Holly Wilson)
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