It is my belief that the best way to bring balance back in to the world is to support local, independently owned businesses. What better time to do it than Black Friday?! There are SO many reasons as to why it is better to shop local than big box / chain stores but I will spare you my ramble.  ShopLocalSF lists some of the reasons here: www.shoplocalsf.org/org

Below is a list of local, independently owned Bay Area businesses, organized by area.

Last night I asked my Twitter, Facebook and Google+ friends to tell me their favorite places to shop in the Bay Area. The response from Twitter was overwhelming! Facebook friends offered a few tips and one Twitter friend responded on G+. Hmm what does that say about G+?

If your favorite independent locally owned shop is not on the list please leave a comment below and I will do my best to add it to the list.

I came across the 3/50 project which I think is a fabulous idea! They’re asking that we spend at least $50 a month at 3 different locally owned independent businesses.  Read more about it here: www.the350project.net  Their Twitter hashtag is #350proj You can follow @cindabaxter, the founder of The 3/50 Project on Twitter. If Twitter is not your thing you can also “like” them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/The350Project

Thank you for checking out my Shop Local list! I’m currently offering special (a.k.a. affordable) prices to local, independently owned businesses for sponsorships on my blog. If you’d like to place an ad like the ones you see to the right of this post please contact me for pricing.  —–>

Another suggestion I got was to shop at your local Farmer’s Market – great crafts and food gifts often available.

For that special holiday outfit you might only wear once try local consignment and thrift shops. You might just find the perfect outfit!

I’ve also included a few coffee shops and restaurants on this list because we need to eat, right?!

Please join me in taking the pledge to shop local as much as possible. #shoplocal

North Bay / Marin

Corte Madera
A Childs Delight (Toys)
Meadowlark Gallery
Mimi The Sardine  (eco-coated products for kids)
Rick’s Wine Cellar (stop in and have a glass or pick up a bottle for a gift)
The Book Passage
Tiller Diggs (home & garden,  jewelry & clothing)

Fairfax
Good Earth Natural Foods (healthy holiday meals & gifts)
Iron Springs (brewery & restaurant)
Revolution 9
Sherman’s General Store
The Hummingbird Restaurant
Various & Sundries

Larkspur
Coquelicot (antiques, home & garden, jewelry)
Lark Shoes
Marin Brew Co. (brewery & restaurant)
Modern Cookie Co. (opening Dec. 5)
Rustic Bakery
What Poppy Wants (boutique & vintage consignment shop)

Mill Valley
At The Top Salon (gift certificate or jewelry)
Dan’s Liquor (for your holiday wine or bubbly)
F. Joseph Smiths (massage, ask for Jessica B)
Mill Valley Market (for you holiday groceries)
Moss & Moss
Mountain Biking Marin (bike tours and clinics)
Pharmaca (not totally local but great alternative to the big box drug stores & wonderful products)
Red Dragon Yoga (clothing, gift cards, yoga classes to destress)
Tea Fountain
Title 9
The Book Depot
Two Neat (gifts)
Vintage Wines
Woodland’s Pet

Muir Beach
The Pelican Inn (restaurant)

Napa
Peju Winery (this is where you take your out of town guest – fun!)
Rancho Gordo (heirloom beans) <– now that is original!

Novato
Dr. Insomnias (coffee shop)
Class Cycle (bike shop)
Grazie Cafe Italiano (restaurant)
Moylan’s (brewery & restaurant)
Studio 4 Art (make stuff)
Marin Humane Society (adopt a pet, pet store)
Rustic Bakery

Petaluma
Copperfield Books
Della Fattoria (restaurant)
iLeoni (kitchen & gifts)
Knitterly  
Mrs. Grossman’s Stickers (great field trip for young children)
Nan Winters (clothing)
Shop Paper White
Tara Firma Farms (for your healthy holiday meal or a fun activity for the family)
McEvoy Ranch (body care products, olive oil, more)
Robindira Unsworth (jewelry, clothing, accessories)
Sorella (hair studio, fashion boutique)
Tuscan Gardens (home & garden)

Pt.Reyes
Zuma (arts and crafts)
Pt. Reyes Open Studio

San Anselmo
3  Ring Cycles (bike store)
Gathering Thyme (herbs & health care products)
Gioia’s Boutique (Clothing)
Great Acorn Co. (gifts)
Holiday Pop Up Shop (Dec. 3 Only)
Marin Coffee Roasters
Pure Joy Body work
Sidekicks (clothing)
Susan’s Store Room
Fig Garden (gifts)

San Rafael
A Childs Delight (Toys)
Andy’s Market (great wine & chocolate selection)
Art Works Downtown
Bananas At Large (musical instruments & pro audio equipment)
Beads of Marin
Bedrock Music & Video
California Bike N Bean (bike store)
Celebracion Bridal (pretty dresses, tux rentals & tiaras!)
Clogs Unlimited
Dharma Trading Co. (fiber art supplies & clothing blanks)
Friends Books (used books, 100% proceeds support San Rafael Public Library)
Elegant Images Fine Art Photography
Gamescape (non-electronic games)
Jan Orcutt, Accupunture (remember to take care of yourself)
Marin Jewelers Guild
Merritt Chiropractic Center (might need this after all the shopping)
Pin Up Hair Emporium & Unique Boutique
Ponsford’s Place (Bakery)
Red Dragon Yoga
T & B Sports
The Magic Flute
Toni Tierney Baby Clothes (she often has great sales right out of her headquarters)
Via Diva (furniture)
Viva Diva (clothing)
Youth in Arts – Retail shop

Sausalito
Mollie Stones (groceries, gifts)
Sweet Ginger (Sushi restaurant, gift card!)
Downtown Sausalito is full of lots of wonderful little shops.

Sonoma
Bram Cookware
The Girl & The Fig (restaurant)

Santa Rosa
T & B Sports

Tomales
Fallon Hills Ranch (to buy your ranch raised grass fed holiday meal)

Online
Cowboy’s Fuzzy Duds
Bean Up The Nose Art
The Marin Store (Marin Magazine)

East Bay

Albany
Five Little Monkeys (Toy shop)

Berkeley
Berkeley Bowl (groceries)
Gather Berkeley (restaurant, gift certificate)
Kermit Lynch (wine importer on the larger side)
Tail of the Yak (gifts)
Fourth Street in Berkeley has lots of great shops

Hayward
Hayward Book Shop

Oakland
Calm, A Salon
Cole Coffee (local roasted coffee)
Glamour Paws
Laurel Book Store
Oakland Dish
Oakollectiv (local hand painted t-shirts, local designs)
Paws and Claws (pet shop)
Relish Catering (for your holiday parties)
Someone’s In The Kitchen
The Crucible (gift & art sale 12/10 – 12/11)
The Oakland Chocolate Factory (you can get my gift here)
The Wine Mine
Tootsies (shoe boutique, pedicures)
Walden Pond Books

Walnut Creek
Five Little Monkeys (Toy shop)
Walnut Creek Yacht Club (restaurant)

South Bay

Palo Alto
Books, Inc

San Francisco
A Childs Delight (Toys)
Cheekbob (pet store)
Christopher’s Books (Potrero Hill)
Cowgirl Creamer
Create More (Apple supplies, support & more!)
Farmers Market
Ferry Building San Francisco (lots of independent shops here)
Flax Art & Design
Green Apple Books – Inner Richmond. Clement at 6th.
Her Majesty’s Secret Beekeeper (honey!)
MSR museum (best #sf place for small children. Small place, lots to do & see, parents just relax @ entrance & watch them run. @thecara)
Pacific Catch (restaurant, gift certificate)
Palio Paninoteca
Prints, Etc (vintage art, framing, concert posters, antique stock certificates, maps, curiosities, collectibles, etc)
Rancho Gordo Beans (SF Ferry Plaza Farmers Market)
Recchuti (Did someone say chocolate?)
Streetcar Museum
The Book Passage (ferry building)

San Jose
Hicklebees Books (mostly kids)
Streetlight Records

Thank you to everyone who sent suggestions!

Happy Holidays!

#ShopLocal

Please leave a comment and let us know what you got at your local independently owned store!

If you live in another area please make your own list and share it with your readers!

If your appliances break during the holiday season… don’t fret! Call Appliance Techs of Marin!

According to this video you might even get a date if you shop local.

*disclaimer I have not been to many of these businesses they are suggestion I crowd-sourced from my social networks. If there are any corrections that need to be made please leave a comment below.

**This is an evolving/growing list. I plan to add links to all the businesses and to keep adding more local, independently owned businesses. However, if I continue working on this tonight I may find myself disowned by my family. Thanks for shopping local.

PS. Please feel free to copy/use this list and pass it on to others. I’d appreciate a link back to the original list. Here is the link: http://sallyaroundthebay.com/2011/11/shop-local-bay-area/ Thank you!

Thank you for shopping local!

One of my pet peeves is throwing away rotten fruit and vegetables. I’m really hard on myself when this happens. Think about it, if you spend $2 on an avocado, forget to eat it, and end up throwing it out that is the same as throwing $2 in the garbage. Would you throw a $2 bill in the garbage? I don’t think so!

I’m not usually one to write reviews but this product caught my eye because of what I wrote in the paragraph above (and I’m a sucker for free stuff). Actually I don’t like just any old SWAG (Stuff We All Get), I only like the stuff I would actually use. Since I love to cook and I love fresh vegetables (and detest rotten ones) I decided to give Clearly Fresh Bags a try. Also the company is located right here in California and I like to support local businesses.

Disclaimer: I did not do any formal testing but I did throw all my veggies is the bags.

As usual, my life got busy, I went out to eat more than I should and forgot about my fresh veggies from the Farmers Market. However, what I did notice when life slowed down for a minute and I had time to cook my veggies that were 2 weeks old, was they were still crisp and fresh! So, in my unscientific conclusion the bags work to keep veggies fresh longer than the regular bags you get at the grocery store. They are also easy to re-use. The only improvement of these bags that I suggest is the zip seal – I struggled with it a bit. I was not able to fully close the bags without a lot of concentration and effort but that could just be me…

Here are my now 3 week old carrots, still crisp.

If you’d like to learn more about Clearly Fresh Bags check out their site here: www.clearlyfreshbags.com

If you have driven through the Canal area of San Rafael on Bellam lately I’m sure you’ve noticed quite a few changes. The old sleepy Circuit City is now a booming Latino grocery store called Mi Pueblo.

After a quick review of Yelp! it seems Marin County is loving the new addition of Mi Pueblo. There were some concerns of the new big store having an impact on the smaller mom and pop stores but overall it seems it’s brought employment to the local neighborhood which is a good thing.

Mi Pueblo has lived up to their mission listed on their Website:

We strive to create an ambiance reminiscent of the fresh-food markets of Mexico and Latin America, while also carrying all the grocery items generally available in mainstream supermarkets, always welcoming everyone with a warm smile.

I was in the neighborhood so decided to stop by Mi Pueblo out of curiosity. I had already eaten and did not need any groceries so I just walked around the place.

My first impression upon walking in was that Mi Pueblo was a happy place to shop! Festive Latin music in the background, a colorful, fun Taqueria located right in the store, Pinatas hanging above the produce. The place made me smile and the music made me want to start dancing.The employees were super friendly and welcoming, every one we walked by said hello and smiled.

Shopping at Mi Pueblo is a cultural experience. It has everything you would find in a traditional grocery store including organic produce PLUS all sorts of Mexican and Latin American food. It’s a great opportunity to try new food and drinks. I bought a Mango Agua Fresca – it was delicious and refreshing.

I took a stroll through the produce. I was happy to see the produce looked very fresh, there were organic options and special produce from Mexico and other Latin American countries; things like Mexican Squash – stuff you might not find in a traditional “American” grocery store.

They were making handmade hot tamales ready to eat for $1.49. I was kind of wishing I was hungry so I could try one.

Mi Pueblo is located in the Canal are of San Rafael
330 Bellam Blvd
San Rafael, CA 415-578-3971

Dear Trader Joe’s,

I wanted to thank you for the Frozen Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough I just discovered at your store. They are amazing! I love these cookies! What a great idea to have individually frozen balls of dough so I can make as few or as many cookies as a like at one time. I love that I can just bake one or two cookies at a time because we all know if I were to bake a dozen or more cookies at one time I would also eat a dozen or more cookies at one time.

These cookies are delicious!

Thank you!

Love,
Sally

PS. Many of the people living in Southern Marin would be really happy if you opened up a store in Marin City or Mill Valley and by the looks of how busy your central Marin stores are I think Trader Joe’s would do quite well in Southern Marin.

Fresh baked cookies in less than 15 minutes!
Preheat oven to 350
Open package

Remove the amount of cookies you want to eat NOW!
Place frozen balls of dough on baking sheet

Bake for about 12 minutes
Eat yummy, warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies!

*Bonus: Your home will smell like fresh baked cookies.

PPS. Trader Joe’s did not pay me to write this. They don’t even know I wrote it but I’m happy to accept payments, gift cards or free frozen cookies as a thank you.

I haven’t gotten out much in the last week. I think after the holidays and traveling I kind of wanted to hunker down and stay home. Today I’m wishing I was a bear so I could hibernate.

Just because I haven’t been going out doesn’t mean I haven’t been having fun and eating delicious meals.

On Friday morning, I went for a tour at the new Larkspur Hotel in Mill Valley. I’m interviewing hotels looks for the best one to host the Mountain Biking Marin Cross Country Mountain Bike Adventure coming up in May of this year. I was very impressed with this new hotel. It’s located on Highway 1 in Mill Valley right off of Highway 101, next to Frantoio. The Larkspur Hotel has done an amazing job remodeling the hotel (formally the Holiday Inn Express) and I was very impressed with Greg, the General Manager and Cassie, the Sales Manager. The hotel is beautiful, has a view of the bay and Mt. Tam and is located right next to the bike/walk path that will take you in to Sausalito or Mill Valley. I was wowed by the people and the place. I plan to recommend this hotel to Celia for the Mountain Biking Marin adventure.

I almost forgot to mention. Cassie from the Larkspur Hotel gave me a goodie bag when I was leaving. Among other things, it had a solar powered plastic flower that moves when the sun shines on it. Really, I think this is what sealed the deal. It goes nicely with the wind-up toys and purple pens in my office. (All reminders to me that life is about having fun.)

After my meeting at the hotel I met with Marilyn LoRusso, aka @Fun_Master at Cafe del Sol in Tam Junction and spent the afternoon chatting about social media and making life fun (Marilyn has some great tips on how to stay in the fun mode). I enjoyed sipping on a delicious ginger limeade during our meeting.

Then on Friday night we had a small dinner party. Since one of my fabulous neighbors gave me a gift certificate to Whole Foods I splurged on a yummy meal. We started with brie cheese and olive bread for appetizers while I prepared blackened salmon, roasted veggies, broiled asparagus, and salad. We finished the meal off with some Porto from our visit to the Napa Valley Wineries and yummy dessert.

I used the blackened salmon recipe I found on RealSimple.com. It was delicious!

One of my favorite Twitter friends (who is now a real friend), Peggy Butler has taught me so much about the importance of local, healthy food. Peggy is the one who introduced me to Tara Firma Farms and is now introducing me to Andy’s Local Market. Peggy is also a social networking expert who teaches Twitter and Facebook to entrepreneurs. She has written a great review about Andy’s Local Market. Thanks Peggy!

When Sally asked me if I’d like to write a guest blog post about one of my favorite local businesses, Andy’s Local Market, my neighborhood grocery store immediately came to mind because Andy’s is a hidden gem. Andy’s Local Market is located in the Loch Lomond neighborhood in San Rafael, along Pt San Pedro Rd, on the way to Peacock Gap and China Camp.

First, before I tell you all about the store, let me tell you the most important thing:  Andy’s Market hosts a Wine Tasting the 1^st Friday of every month from 5-7 PM. The next one is tomorrow…November 6^th. Will I see you there?  The store has a nice café area where you can sip your wine (only $3 per glass) and even have dinner, as their deli has great food and pizza!

Andy Bachich, owner, is a Marin native who believes in building community and giving back to that community. He goes out of his way to carry local products, organic products, and specialty food items. In fact, whenever I need a hostess gift for a dinner party, I go to Andy’s to pick up a unique gourmet product. So, Andy’s Market isn’t just a store to run to when you’re out of milk…it’s a full service grocery store with a great deli, large produce section (including organic), meat & fish market, great wine selection, and everything in between.  Their prices are competitive, too. In fact, they currently have the best price around on Wild Alaskan Salmon @ $14.99/lb. It’s worth a trip just for that!

Andy’s also has nightly dinner specials, Friday night Eat-In specials, pizza for take-out or to eat in, weekly organic produce specials, and as I mentioned, Wine Tasting on the 1^st Friday of the month. They are also taking orders for Thanksgiving dinners.

Andy’s Local Market is located at 688 Point San Pedro Rd. in San Rafael, just 1 mile past Montecito Shopping Center. Turn when you see the Loch Lomond Marina. Plenty of parking. Please make a special trip to check out Andy’s, even if you don’t live in the neighborhood. Hope to see you at the wine tasting!

Today I went to Trader Joe’s in Larkspur Greenbrae at lunch time.  (So my last post about Trader Joe’s said it was in Larkspur but I just looked at the official Trader Joe’s site and the address is actually in Greenbrae.) I think I will forever be confused to the city/town borders of Larkspur, Greenbrae, Corte Madera and Kentfield but I’ll leave that for another post. I’m still thrilled about the fact there is now a Trader Joe’s closer to Southern Marin.

Although, I’m wondering how the other stores in the Cost Plus Center feel about the new traffic in their parking lot and the carts left all over the parking lot and on the side walks.

Warning Sally rant about to start:

I thought Marin people were civilized people! What is up with the carts left every which way all over the parking lot, on the sidewalk, in the parking places? Come on people! Can we show a little appreciation and at least put our carts away or put them in the designated cart drop off places?

Today I had to pass up two parking places because there were carts left in them and while I was driving around the parking lot I saw employees from one of the other stores moving carts from in front of their entrances and off of the sidewalks in front of their stores.

This is not a complaint about the Trader Joe’s employees, I’ve seen them working hard rounding up the carts. This is a request to the shopper’s of the Greenbrae Trader Joe’s to show a little common courtesy and put your carts away!

Thank you. I’m done now.

Stay tuned for your regular happy, positive Sally posts.

I’m happy to announce the new Trader Joe’s in Larkspur is now open! This is good news for everyone in Southern Marin. We no longer have to cram in to the busy San Rafael Trader Joe’s, we can now go to the one in Larkspur located next to CostPlus right off the 101 on Lucky Drive. I went there today and was happy to find plenty of parking, the store was spacious and not too crowded and the lines only had one person each (compared to San Rafael which often has 10-20 people each).