I was first introduced to Old Growth Cellars when I was pouring wine at the next table during the Arcata Bay Oyster Festival in 2015. I was relatively new to the local wine industry and the friendly, “Hi, I’m Matt,” was welcome. Matt Garrett poured me wines from Old Growth Cellars and shared with me […]
Visitor’s Guide
Posted inFood & Drink
Bandit Savory & Sweet Café
Built in 1872, the Vance Hotel building is the namesake of a lumber and railroad baron, and it has seen Eureka through its days as a bustling port and lumber town stacked with brothels and bootleggers. Now the Italianate-style landmark is home to shops and businesses, its wild days to be imagined as you sit […]
Posted inStories
Tattoo Humboldt
Your nurse practitioner’s ankle, your personal trainer’s knuckles, the entirety of your contractor’s back; Humboldt is tattooed. To meet the county’s dermal demands, Humboldt has homegrown and imported a copious assortment of artists who can give you a safe, beautiful and skillfully done permanent picture on your body. Area artists have opened shop doors, creating […]
Posted inStories
Sonny Wong
Making aesthetic judgements is notoriously tough and rankings can be poorly received. Take mythology: When Marsyas and Arachne claimed to be numero uno at playing the flute and weaving, respectively, the Greek gods punished their hubris with flaying-to-death/transformation into a spider. When Paris went on the record regarding which goddess he found most beautiful, the […]
Posted inStories
Bullseye
Arcata’s newest attraction is competitive, cheaper than therapy and right down the street. All you need to enjoy an unconventional twist on family fun is a pair of closed-toed shoes and to embrace your inner lumberjack at the Hatchet House Throwing Club off of Sixth Street in Arcata. Lauren Fischer and her husband, Michael, were […]
Posted inPerfect Trips
Perfect Fall Trips
Don’t run from the winter. Embrace it. Own it. Light it up by candlelight in the forest. Traipse through it on a hike to a waterfall, estuary or the mother of all sand dunes. Eat it all up over a slice of goat pizza and oysters. Wash it all down with pomegranate mimosas. Want more? […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Tomo Forever
When Joe Doherty first looked at the cavernous restaurant space in the historic Hotel Arcata — a pair of joined rooms that dwarfed Tomo’s previous Eureka location — he told founder Fukiko Marshall it was too big. “I’ll fill it,” she replied. Then-manager Doherty was skeptical. “I said, ‘You’ll never fill this place.’ It’s funny, […]
Posted inFood & Drink
The Cat’s Meow
There is a certain vibe found in hotel bars: a feeling of emptiness, of customers never there long enough to gain a rapport and menus that seek to make their customers comfortable and nothing more. So Phatsy Kline’s Parlor Lounge, an extension of the Inn at 2nd and C in Eureka’s Historic Eagle House, is […]
Posted inPerfect Trips
Perfect Summer Trips
The endless summer in Humboldt lasts well into autumn, when seasonal winds and currents bring the driest air and warmest ocean temperatures. Take advantage of this cyclical quirk, whether swimming on the Eel River, tide pooling at Patrick’s Point or paddling with the otters in Stone Lagoon. For a more civilized outside experience, take a […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Fresh Paint and Vintage Style
The city of Eureka always has a foot in the past. It’s not a long history, but it’s full, at turns rich and sour, ever present if you look closely enough. You won’t have to look hard in one of its newest bars, North of Fourth. That’s because, like Eureka’s rows of Victorian homes juxtaposed […]
Posted inStories
Rafting the Trinity
Recreational whitewater rafting likely began in the 1940s on Wyoming’s Snake River, when some intrepid argonauts saw a wooden boat, a gnarled mash of rocks and roiling, swift water, and thought, “That looks fun!” Thirty years later in 1972, it became an Olympic sport at the fateful Munich Games. Now, though the technology has improved […]