Griselda Mata is quite familiar with what it takes to put food on the table these days. The Sonoma entrepreneur, who founded the Farms to Table Corp. watermelon import business, began by distributing the melons through her produce company that launched in 2019. Since then, the operation supplying these summer staples year round to markets… Keep Reading
Even though a national poll found 84% of small and medium retailers expect increased sales this holiday season compared to last year, North Bay businesses are not universally optimistic. “I don’t know if retail business can ever go back to what it was,” said Hengameh Rafii, who for 35 years has owned The Holiday Shoppe… Keep Reading
The builders and visionaries in the North Bay who are remaking the landmarks of the past or establishing the landmarks of the future are being celebrated with this year’s North Bay Business Journal Excellence in Construction Awards. Formerly known as Top Projects, our awards go to businesses, organizations and individuals who shape our communities through… Keep Reading
Post-pandemic work styles and changes to the tax code are among the biggest adjustments these five accounting executives in the North Bay told the Business Journal they have had to navigate. Michelle Muth Ausburn, BPM Jeff Belingheri, Bregante + Company Jon Dal Poggetto, Dal Poggetto & Company Brent Garrison, Allen Wine Group Craig Underhill, Brotemarkle,… Keep Reading
Sonoma County, once again, has a locally owned Lego store thanks to Santa Rosa couple Teresa and Christy Murphy, who opened the doors of their shop, California Brick Chicks, in Penngrove on Sunday. The last brick-and-mortar store dedicated to exclusively selling Lego products was The Brick Hutt but it became an online retail business. Prior… Keep Reading
Sonoma County’s only exclusively plant-based bakery, Magdelena’s Savories and Sweets, is closing after 18 months in business. Greta Canton said a trifecta of issues forced her to shutter the north Petaluma shop, including the effect of ongoing roadwork in front of her site, a lack of foot traffic and financial pressures she couldn’t overcome. Continue… Keep Reading
Cyrus Wind Dancer’s first exposure to clock restoration is now a distant — yet exceptionally clear — childhood memory. He was just 11 and was visiting his grandfather, who owned an old grandfather clock that stopped ticking in 1937. “I opened the door, and I just started working with it,” Wind Dancer said. “I got… Keep Reading
The local retail shopping landscape was vastly different in 1997 when Ru Scott, then a 25-year-old undergraduate of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, opened her first clothing boutique across the street from the Rite Aid in Sebastopol. The infamous “dot-com bubble” was still in its relative infancy and major retailers hadn’t yet completely… Keep Reading
The pandemic is over but the frenzied workload continues for Kaiser Permanente staff in Sonoma County and elsewhere, according to health care workers planning to picket Wednesday in front of Kaiser medical offices in Santa Rosa. Though not actually a strike or work stoppage, the one-day protest aims to draw attention to staffing shortages and… Keep Reading
The newest retail addition to the Montgomery Village shopping center in Santa Rosa will be focused on sustainability in the fashion industry. Amour Vert, a San Francisco-based woman’s fashion brand, will open its fifth location — the first in Sonoma County — this summer in the vacant retail space next to Sur La Table. The… Keep Reading
