He was inspired to start cooking because his great aunt's awful Thanksgiving dinner spurned him to action, his first restaurant job was with three Lebanese brothers in Pennsylvania, and he left Manhattan for the excitement of Sonoma Valley: Ari Weiswasser of Glen Ellen Star talks his journey to having two restaurants and a catering company in California's wine country.

“Hello! We are planning a trip and I have a lodging question. Is there a local alternative to booking vacation home lodging that avoids using national websites like Vrbo and Airbnb? Trying to spend our dollars locally. (Via text to 707-996-1090 from Kathy)

What do you know about the Hood house? (Via phone) 

  Best places to go that offer free corkage for Sonoma county wines? Don’t mind paying corkage just interested to know what’s out there. (SoCo Wine Imbibers Facebook)

 Four of us (adults) will be in Sonoma 3/27-4/1. Are most wineries open on Easter Sunday? Are there other events (special brunches or lunches?) happening that day? (Via website form)

Got questions about Sonoma Valley? You can email us at [email protected], text us or contact us through Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or just walk into one of our two visitor centers.

It's Sonoma Valley's top podcast and you find it wherever you find fine podcasts, including

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sonoma-spiel/id1634467429

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UuskGhmJ3EkWQk8DObR9b

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiSa7rAVobsI8O_3xp7hIDPKRO9nBuvNF

Glen Ellen Star: https://glenellenstar.com