Author Archives{careysweet}

With almost two decades of writing about food, restaurants and the chefs that make them happen, Carey Sweet has won numerous national restaurant criticism and food writing awards, including First Place in the nation from the Society of Professional Food Journalists.

A near-native of Arizona, Sweet now lives in Sonoma County, splitting her time between Scottsdale and the North Bay, where she is active in professional food and wine memberships and activities.

She is a regular contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle (covering restaurants, food and wine), 944 San Francisco magazine (restaurants, chefs and food), and North Bay publications such as the Bohemian.

In covering Arizona's food industry, she contributes to numerous publications, including a weekly Dining News column for the Arizona Republic, plus regular restaurant reviews and food feature stories for the newspaper and its several affiliate magazines. She has a monthly food feature column in Phoenix Magazine, as well as regularly scheduled restaurant reviews and travel features emphasizing culinary adventures. Additionally, she is the Arizona editor for Gayot Guide's restaurant coverage, and contributes to the North Bay coverage.

A wine lover, she also consults for a boutique winery with vineyards in Chile and Argentina.

Sweet has been a longtime volunteer for C-CAP (Careers through Culinary Arts Program), a national organization which provides education, professional chef mentoring, national scholarships and job placement within the restaurant industry for at-risk high school students.

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New and Improved Santé Coming This Spring

3 months ago in Food.1 Comment

Santé in Sonoma has just closed, but worry not, those signature $215 wine-paired chef’s tasting dinners will return in April, served in a new setting that the restaurant’s spokeswoman promises will “better reflect the sophistication of his inspired Sonoma Valley cuisine.” The AAA Four Diamond destination inside the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa is undergoing extensive renovation, updating the {…}

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Think Outside the Neighborhood for Wedding Shower

3 months ago in Weddings.0 Comments

One of the nicest traditions of weddings is when a relative or close friend of the bride throws a shower. Even if gifts aren’t part of the event (many modern showers are simply about a joyful gathering) it’s a magical time for everyone to celebrate a milestone in an important life. Which often leads to the question of “where?” Restaurants, {…}

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Twice as Nice with Couples’ Massage

4 months ago in Wellness.0 Comments

It’s amazing how something involving hot stones, mud, salt, oil, and poking deeply into muscles can be so marvelous. We’re talking massages, of course, and how absurdly joyful and relaxing the treatments are, even when we’re being pounded by Vichy jets, sort of like being in a car wash. Doing this with our significant other or a close friend can {…}

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Sonoma County’s Winter Mushrooms Bloom Like, Well, Mushrooms After a Rain

4 months ago in Food.0 Comments

It seems like common sense – never follow a strange man into the woods because he promises you candy. Yet there I was in the heart of winter, tramping happily through the dense trees and underbrush at the top of a remote mountain in Fort Ross, a new companion to a man I’d just met at Timber Cove Inn on {…}

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Restaurant Month, Restaurant Week – It’s Good All the Time with Sonoma County Prix Fixe Favorites

4 months ago in Food.0 Comments

It’s not like we ever need an excuse to dine out, but sure, we’ll take one. January is California Restaurant Month. Which means 33 destinations across the state have created special restaurant week or month-long promotions showcasing gourmet prix fixe menus, wine pairings and special culinary themes. Sonoma County has enjoyed its very own restaurant celebration for several years now, {…}

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Beaudry’s Roadhouse Brings Taste of Home to Sebastopol

4 months ago in Food.0 Comments

While we were all busy stuffing ourselves with holiday home cooking over the last month, a new restaurant in Sebastopol on the edge of Forestville was putting together some delightful home cooking of its own. Beaudry’s Roadhouse has quietly opened in the former Henweigh Café space on Gravenstein Highway North. Owner Frank Stephenson may be new the area, coming from {…}

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Women on Wine – Unfiltered Pops the Cork on Iron Horse CEO

4 months ago in Insiders Guide.0 Comments

It wasn’t too many years ago that a woman running a winery was considered avant-garde. Now, Sonoma County is home to some of the top female names in the country, and Big Bottom Market in Guerneville is putting a select few of them in the spotlight. With its new “Women on Wine – Unfiltered” series, guests can get up close {…}

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Updated Casa del Mar is a Santa Rosa-Sonoran Star

4 months ago in Food.0 Comments

When Casa del Mar opened in Santa Rosa in 2009, it had a big space to fill. The former La Strada Italian Restaurant on the corner of Stony Point and Todd roads was a longstanding institution, but it also had seen better days. In becoming the Casa, construction took more than a year to revamp room after room in the {…}

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Educate and Indulge with Forage for Fungi Weekend at Timber Cove Inn Jan. 4-6

4 months ago in Insiders Guide.0 Comments

It’s rainy season in the North Bay, which means many of us have mushrooms on our minds. If you see people stomping happily around the woods in the damp, you can bet they’re out there foraging, in search of tasty ’shrooms to stuff in ravioli, plop on pizza, stock in stews, and roast with lovely meats. The harvest urge is {…}

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Enhance the Romance by Leaving the Details to a Wedding Planner

4 months ago in Weddings.0 Comments

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” – Lao Tzu This is one of Marisa Manna’s favorite quotes, and entirely appropriate for her work as owner of for So Eventful in Healdsburg. She adds it to her email signature, and has seen it come to life as she has planned hundreds of successful {…}