I am on week 1 of drinking a Vibranz Kombucha each day.  This is the new Kombucha company based in Healdsburg that just happens to be one of my clients.   They also just happen to make a kombucha that TASTES GOOD (most taste like vinegar, but it was something that would make me feel better after a night of drinking)!  Kombucha lovers claim an assortment of health benefits with this drink; everything from the claim that it detoxifies the body, improving digestion to lowering cholesterol, increased energy, creating sharper eyesight, better skin condition, and fighting cancer (of course, everything either causes or fights cancer).  So I decided that I wanted to test this out by drinking one each day and documenting how I feel.  I haven’t blogged about this yet but I have been writing my thoughts down (in an actual notebook).

I am on day 1 of riding my beach cruiser for my new exercise routine which will include getting away from my laptop and bike riding, hiking, joining a gym and taking Zumba classes with friends.  After my ride around the neighborhood I felt great, but it is the motivation beforehand that I seem to lack. I am constantly going to meetings with clients and networking that I have somehow convinced myself that the time it takes to work out isn’t worth it.  I am forcing myself to think differently on this.

I am also on month 1 of my new idea to treat myself to an afternoon of relaxation.  As you may know, I work constantly.  I am definitely not complaining because I love what I do.. I mean, who else can say they get to eat, drink and tweet for a living… Not many!   The problem is that I don’t take time to work on myself.  I have decided I need to make an effort to fix this.  Today I was treated to a facial at the office’s of Cynthia Bailey (aka @Cbaileymd).  Only the Best Skin Care is her dermatology office in Sebastopol, Ca.  My esthetician Sara treated me to a paraffin hand wrap and a head massage.   Oh, and to top it off, take a look at the view from my room.

Next month I plan on treating myself to a massage or some acupuncture to relax me.

I know I am not alone with the problem of not taking time to work on myself, but I am determined to change this and get back into shape.  I will keep you posted on my progress.

Friday, April 16 has been named the official Foursquare Day.

To those who don’t use Foursquare, we are a bunch of crazed stalkers who tell people where we are at all times.  But for those in the ‘know’ it is a great marketing tool for people and businesses!

After tomorrow, anyone who comes in contact with myself or any of my other Foursquare/Twitter Sonoma County friends will see Foursquare in action.    Hopefully we can even show those who disbelieve that it actually is a great marketing tool, one that businesses should be at least paying attention to.

We will be swarming the Brasserie Lounge at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek for snack and drink specials for first time Foursquare friends, drinking wine flights at Cellars of Sonoma and hanging out at Third Street Aleworks for some beer and appetizers.

I wrote about the Hyatt Vineyard Creek in my Sonoma County Online feature on my Two Five Media blog a few weeks back because they were the ONLY business in Santa Rosa to have a special deal on Foursquare  (Now, Third Street Aleworks and Cellars of Sonoma both have specials).

The official Twitter name for tomorrow is @4sqday and the official hashtag for the Sonoma County Wine Swarm will be ….. #4sqSR or  #4sqdaySR. I am thinking the shorter the better though.

So make sure to tag your Foursquare check-in’s and tweets with the hashtag!  If you are a newbie or want to learn more, just ask me.. I will be sure to be at one of these three places tomorrow!

More details:

• The Hyatt is trying to get a swarm badge, which means if 50 or more people check in, everyone gets a badge.  First time check-ins also get a free drink.  There will be other specials too!
  • You can earn up to three badges just by checking in – First-time users get the Newbie Badge, if we get 50 people to check-in, a Swarm Badge and all check-ins to the Brasserie will get the FourSquare Day Badge (remember, Foursquare changed the rules, so you actually have to be there to get points of a badge!) More info, click here.

• Third Street Aleworks is doing happy hour pricing ALL DAY for check-ins… Oh, and if anyone takes away my mayorship they get a free t-shirt! (Not that I am gonna allow that!) More info, click here.
• Cellars of Sonoma is giving away a free flight of their wines to anyone who checks in!  More info, click here.
  

See you in Santa Rosa!

+Shana.

And it was amazing….

I have gone into detail on all my other blogs, so here I will just add some of my favorite pictures from the past month.   Yes, they all have to do with food…..   I am thinking my next client needs to be a gym.

Valentine’s Day.. yuck.   Rain.. yuck.  Superbowl.. Meh.

This year I now get to look forward to an entire week of eating and drinking at some of my favorite Sonoma County restaurants…  Okay, if you read my tweets you may be asking yourself, “Why is this week any different, Shana eats out all of the time?”   Well, this week, local restaurants will be offering special pre-fixe menus, showcasing the best they have to offer with a focus on local and sustainable ingredients.

The idea is that some of the best restaurants in the county (Zin, Bistro 29, girl & the fig, zazu, dry creek kitchen, Pazzo, Barn Diva, Relish Culinary, Syrah, Pizza 707, Starks Steakhouse, etc. etc. etc.) will be serving three-course dinner menus at $19, $29, or $39, depending on the restaurant.   A full list of the delicious menu’s can be found here.

I was asked to be in charge of the week’s online presence, so please make sure to say hello and let me know about your Sonoma County dining experiences on Twitter at @SoCoRestWeek or on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SonomaCountyRestaurantWeek.

Also, take a look at what the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau has up their sleeves… A contest for diners to win gift certificates to participating restaurants just by doing what you already do:  Eat Out in Sonoma County!

I would also like to add that I worked as a supervisor at Starbucks for over three years while living in San Diego, so I know what it takes to provide great customer service while managing employees.

Many times while working, I tend to twitpic images of what I am eating or drinking or talk about my surroundings.  Mostly I experience great customer service and while my drinks/food may not be outstanding, my overall experience is usually pleasant.

Then there is my experience at one specific place where I have tweeted on three separate occasions about my displeasure with an owner of a coffee shop in Santa Rosa.  I hesitate to call them out because even though I really hate what I have to listen to (I will explain soon), it is such a great location and it is quiet so it is a coffee shop I will be going back to again.  Anyone who lives in Santa Rosa reading this probably already knows which place I am talking about and most likely has had a similar experience.  And, if you ask me, I will gladly tell you their name.

Okay, imagine this:  You are sitting at your table, drinking your tea, eating a bagel at about 8:30 in the morning.  The cafe has two or three other customers on their laptops or socializing with each other.  The owner of the cafe is working from her own laptop at a table near by.  She gets up to talk to the barista and instead of taking her in the back room to discuss work matters, she proceeds to yell (yes, yell) at the young girl, telling her that if she didn’t do the order right she would write her up.  You look at the other customers who also can hear this woman yell and then look at the barista apologizing for her mistake, clearly noting that everyone is listening to the conversation.

Or, another scenario: One of the barista’s is 10 minutes late and the owner yells at her saying she was writing her up… Oh, in front of a short line of customers waiting to order their coffee.

Or, the owner yelling at one of the barista’s for leaving something in the food shelf out.

All of these obviously happened and all of these events could have really been simple matters that wouldn’t be a big deal if handled properly.  In this economy and this new media age, I am astounded that any small business owner thinks that yelling at their employees is a good idea.  In any era it is not good business practice, but with inventions like wifi, Twitter, blogs and Yelp, I am even more in shock.

Employees are usually the first contact that a customer has with a brand.  The servers and tasting room staff and sales people are the people that create an experience for the customer and they are also your best Word of Mouth advocates because they talk about their job to their friends and family, thus bringing in customers that already have a connection with the brand, which means that they will possibly tell their friends and so on and so on.   Why would anyone want to mistreat the people who can make our break your business?

Second, the internet has allowed me to voice my own opinion of this restaurant though Twitter, turning away several people I have talked to about which cafe it is… Even if their Yelp page has 8 comments, all with fairly good reviews (all commenting on the new decor) it is the repeat customers that  make a coffee shop or restaurant stay open.

Anyways, now that I am done with my rant on mistreating your employees, I will end it on a high note.  For restaurants or anyone in the customer service industry, the Food Channel has a few words on building your brand by connecting with your customers.  Also, I just came across an awesome blog called ALL THINGS WOM and their latest blog post on a hamburger joint called Mighty Fine Hamburgers in Austin, TX gave me hope that some small business people still do have the common sense to treat their employees and customers with respect.

Just like I saw during the Barrel Tasting and Passport events in Dry Creek Valley this past year, the crowd  was younger.  I wasn’t the only one who noticed, according to the Press Democrat, “The demographic this year seemed to shift to a younger, hipper crowd of folks in their 20s and 30s.“   This just proves that my idea for Project Y-ine is a great idea and that wineries (and restaurants) need to put more effort into reaching out to this demographic.  The Taste of Sonoma isn’t a cheap event, and at $95 to $160 a ticket, yesterday showed that my generation is willing to pay for the finer things in life.

They had a Taste 2.0 section where anyone could go onto Twitter or Facebook, which was awesome considering MacMurry ranch had no service for us AT&T users (for people like James Marshall Barry who has Verizon, it was humorous).  My one issue with this was that they did not use this service ONCE themselves, though they did post a status update and video on their Facebook Page. But then again, I tweeted enough about the event for everyone.

In addition to running back to the Taste 2.0 booth, I took pictures of everything I ate during the day.  Thankfully, it is tomato season, so the theme of many bites to eat revolved around this fruit.  Keep in mind as you read this post that I am a vegetarian, so I was only able to eat some of the food at the event…  Thankfully, my Sonoma chefs kept me in mind when creating their veggie dishes (or so I like to think).

The apple-ation cocktail from Cyrus in Healdsburg was an amazing apple brandy cocktail that only the mixoligst’s at Cryus could create.  They provided recipes, but considering I cannot pronounce one of the words in the recipe, I am not sure how easy the drink would be to recreate….

The mini ice cream cone was a yummy combination of goat’s milk and cow milk ice cream made with Delice de La Vallee cheese (made by Sheana Davis, my favorite cheese lady and organizer of all chefs at the event).

The Bellwether Farms cheese was amazing too, but sadly only located in the Visa Signature section, so most of the guests were not able to try it.

Bacon was also another theme with bacon pizza, pea shooters with bacon topping from John Ash & Co, BLT’s from Bovolo/Zazu and bacon wrapped figs from the girl & the fig and I did get some pictures of these items for you carnivores to enjoy:

If I could give out a prize for my own personal favorite booth of the day, it would have to go to Sondra Bernstein of the girl & the fig and ESTATE in the city of Sonoma.  She truly embodied the Taste of Sonoma by providing three separate ‘tastes’ all made with her restaurants namesake – figs.  The figs wrapped in bacon I couldn’t eat, but I went back for thirds of the fig desert and her fig coolers.  By popular demand, I think quite possibly mostly by me, she posted the recipe for this refreshing and delicious cocktail on her website.  Oh, and I already asked: Yes, they are on the menu at the girl & the fig.

Overall, I ate much more than I drank, but I did visit many of the amazing wineries that Sonoma has to offer.  It was my first time being at an event that solely showcased my favorite county.  Even though each appellation had their own tent, I overheard a lot of comradery and respect for the other wineries and tents.  All together an amazing day in an amazing county.   For more of the pictures I took of the day, please go here, here or here.

Yes, I have been back from my first trip for Project Y-ine for a week now, but this past week has been filled with meetings, Congresswoman Woolsey fun and showing Ashley Routson (aka @TheBeerWench aka my@ProjectYine partner in crime) around wine country.   We visited Russian River Brewing Company, Michel-Schlumberger, Bella Winery, St. Supery, Kaz Vineyards and of course, the Dry Creek General Store & Bar… And this is only a few of them.

Tomorrow I will be throwing myself into the food and wine culture at the  TASTE of Sonoma event.  This large Sonoma-centric event will be at the MacMurray Ranch property on Westside Road in Healdsburg.  Over 150 Sonoma wineries will be there, along with over 60 local chefs, so I am not sure which I am more excited about — The wine or the food!  It will be my first time at this 30th annual event and I am sure I will have lots to write about next week!

Labor Day weekend is always an eventful time in Wine Country, for some it is the last weekend of Summer and for others it is the last weekend of freedom before the long hours of Crush take over lives.  A Labor Day BBQ at Mounts Family Vineyards, Bird Day at Michel-Schlumberger is on Saturday and Steve Pile will be singing on both Saturday and Sunday at Bella Vineyards & Wine Caves…  All in my favorite appellation- Dry Creek Valley.

Speaking of Dry Creek Valley, the Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley are hosting an event dedicated to the appellation’s flagship varietal, zinfandel, on the following weekend called ZinTopia.

On September 19th, the SoulShine Blues Band will be playing and guests can enjoy wines from Dry Creek Valley wineries and eat local food from local chefs.   And, if you purchase a ticket and enter the word ZIN then you will receive 30% off the purchase price of $75.   Did I mention there will be a grape stomp?

September and October are my two favorite months here in Sonoma County, each year I celebrate my birthday, stomp on the fallen leaves, eat so much candy I cannot walk on Halloween and laugh at the Australian interns that take over the Healdsburg bars during Crush.  It is truly an amazing place to live or visit….

People expect me to entertain them once a week, you know, other than on Twitter, Facebook and in person. I need to live up to my statement of being funny by accident and sarcastic on purpose by letting you know what is going on in my world.

So, as some of you may know, I have a huge “gig” in the works that I have been very secretive about over the past few months, well, the website is taking longer to go live then originally thought (note to all brands out there – websites usually take at least a month longer than the original launch date) so I will not be talking about it yet.

What has been going on in my world though has been a lot of writing to prepare for my new project, a lot of consulting jobs and a few speaking gigs, including being on an upcoming panel at the The Wine Industry Technology Symposium (WITS) in Napa on July 17th.  Of course I will be talking about wine and social media.

I also have gotten a tattoo for the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau’s upcoming Sonoma Wine and Food Tattoo contest. The video is pretty hilarious, but thankfully I think they were gentle on me and didn’t post some of the really bad faces I made.  Though, I made the mistake of posting them myself (and posting them here again).

Sonoma County Ink

If you’ve ever wanted to know just how much better your life would be if you were pulchritudinous, rich, and a creative genius – it’s your lucky day. Sunshine Megatron, the creator of T-Shirt Hell, has started a twitter account and you can now partake in his latest 140 character rants, follow his daily activities and maybe even join him on his daily stroll down Hollywood Boulevard where he organizes high stakes chicken fights among the homeless.

Plus, there will be plenty of T-Shirt Hell giveaways for twitterers only. And we’re not just giving away free shirts or coupons, Sunshine is going to give away cash, bottles of Cristal, sex and who knows what else. Follow the only real T-Shirt Hell/Sunshine Megatron twitter account at:

http://twitter.com/smegatron

And as motivation, Sunshine will give 20 random twitterers who sign up to follow us 5 free shirts and $100 cash each. We’ll list the winners in a twitter post a week from now. Start following immediately and we guarantee you that zit on your ass will disappear within minutes. Shazam!

That is it, no fancy artwork, no url to website (but here it is now), no 20% off if you order right now. I immediately had to start following this guy. I mean, I care enough about their t-shirt site to subscribe to their email blast, so following this guy on Twitter seemed like the next logical step.

The first tweet of his read: Tell me your favorite luncheon meat for your chance to win 5 lbs of bacon. RT this for a chance to win 10 lbs

…. of course I re-tweeted, asking if tofu was considered a meat. This morning I awoke to find out that I won the contest and 10lbs of bacon!

Seriously…

As a vegetarian who knows the power that bacon has over people, I will be using my winnings to mock all my wine blogging friends who may be reading this.

Just wait…

The funny thing is this is not the first item I have won via Twitter. A few months prior, I won a twitter contest from @NapaMarriott, the Twitter account from Todd at the Napa Valley Marriott Hotel & Spa. I won a Gift Certificate to their spa, the Amadeus Spa & Salon which I haven’t used yet.

Update: I was actually sent an email with a Gift Certificate to Amazon.com saying I could actually purchase anything I wanted from the site… So in true “Shana” fashion, I bought shoes. Though I do have around $20 left on my gift card code, so if anyone has any suggestions on what I should get, maybe something “bacon” related, let me know!

I mean, they have a salsa bar… Come on now?!!?!

For more information please email her at sheana@vom.com!

See you there!