a giant hand sculpture outside the Macy's exit in the Santa Rosa mall. Interesting this was.
Across from the train depot was a historic building which now houses Flying Goat Coffee..
This area is called Historic Railroad Square. The surrounding neighborhood was their "Little Italy" and Italian stonemasons built many of the structures here in the early 1900's. After the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, much of Santa Rosa was also destroyed and had to be rebuilt. The only remaining buildings left were in this area, including the former Western Hotel, the Train Depot (originally built in 1870) and a few brick warehouses.
Like many hipster coffee shops we've been to, this one had minimalist black and white decor, with a great tiled floor, and judicious pops of color (in this case yellow). Bert was up for coffee again, so we placed our orders...
He ended up trying their popular Aztec Mocha (a latte infused with some sort of hot pepper and man did it have a kick). TC had an iced chai (she hated it because it was too spicy) while I stuck with my preferred Macchiato (the perfect size in terms of espresso and milk ratio).
Shoe note - I ended up wearing my old brown slip on Converse during most of our trip. They are so old and ratty but they were comfortable and I didn't have to deal with shoelaces either. Plus, we weren't going any place fancy where I needed to "dress up".
Our drinks. I have to say that their latte art was quite lovely. Both of our espresso based drinks were quite excellent and very smooth. Now we could say we had Flying Goat Coffee up north (there is another location in Healdsburg even father north). We first heard of this roaster from local coffee house Hawthorn which uses Flying Goat beans.
TC's drink actually had spices sprinkled on the top. I had a sip myself and wow...it was really spicy and I don't know how anyone could drink this. Poor TC. She only had a few sips and that was it. I don't blame her. I was also surprised she wanted to drink this hot too.
Before we left, I bought a bag of Flying Goat beans for ourselves, which I didn't know came with a free cup of house coffee. Well, Bert ended up having his third coffee that morning within the span of about three hours. Wired much he was.
Up the street from Flying Goat was the historic downtown area of Santa Rosa. We walked a few blocks before turning back since our parking meter was timed. I noticed that this art gallery had art work by Grace Slick, former member and singer of Jefferson Airplane. Incidentally, her work is featured at the SD Fair's "Mad About the Fair" exhibit. I considered this peek through the window a little "preview".
That street also had various Peanuts character sculptures which was fitting since Charles Schulz, "Peanuts" creator, lived in Santa Rosa.
The historic train depot also served as the Santa Rosa Visitor Center. It was also featured in "Shadow of a Doubt" when evil Uncle Charlie comes to visit his family in Santa Rosa.
We had a nice chat with Dick, one of the workers there. He was very knowledegable and gave us many recommendations on places to visit (which were mainly wineries which we didn't have the heart to tell him we weren't going to any). He also perked up when I told him that we just saw the house from "Shadow of a Doubt"; he knew a lot about that as well and delved a tiny bit into Santa Rosa's architectural history with me.
It's great that the train depot and a few of the neighboring stone buildings are still standing. Although the day wasyoung, we still had other places to visit that morning...
Here is a short video I found about the train station:
More info on Railroad Square:
A History of Railroad Square" RailroadSquare.net
"Railroad Square Historic District in Santa Rosa", SFGate, Nov. 1, 2013
Flying Goat Coffee
10 4th St.
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
(707) 575-1202
flyinggoatcoffee.com + reviews from you know where & tripadvisor
Their coffee drinks were pretty good except for the chai latte. The prices were on par for a coffee shop of this caliber. I've seen other places charge more. Flying Goat was pretty good and I'm glad that San Diegans can at least try their coffee at Hawthorn on Adams Ave.
Up next...a cheese factory visit!
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