This past Saturday was gorgeous here in Sonoma County with temps in the mid 80s and sunny skies and light breezes. I went to the town of Healdsburg, CA, in wine country and took in some fabulous antique shopping. Healdsburg is surrounded by several vineyards, wineries, and tasting rooms. There is the “town square” where I spent my day and it has the very finest things life has to offer and of course large Antique malls and several Antique shops. Wine country brings a lot of visitors to the region and antiquing in wine country has quite the draw.
I visited Mill Street Antique Plaza (located a couple blocks from the main town square), Healdsburg Classic Antiques and Antique Harvest. These shops are all very big and Mill Street is a huge Antique mall as is Classis Antiques.
I found Mill Street Antiques to be crammed with a ton of “stuff” and when I say stuff I am mostly referring to junk. The booths are not all that well maintained and stuff is literally everywhere, so much so that you can hardly enter booths and many booths you look at and decide you don’t want to enter. I don’t know why booth owners allow their spaces to turn into such a mess and why the mall does not enforce a rule that customers should at least be able to walk into a booth without falling down. Prices however are reasonable. Not many shoppers. They were also holding an early 4th of July sale. This mall was very hot and stuffy and because it was so large it could have used a little tea room or restaurant. Also, no staff welcomed you and there was no one walking the floor to see if you had questions or was looking for anything special. Felt like you were picking through junk all alone.
Classic Antiques located right in the main town square of Healdsburg was packed with shoppers. The Antique shop is large and has such a wide variety of antiques and collectibles. If you are interested in paintings there are lots and lots as well as the largest selection of French furniture. The prices in this shop are extremely high so come with lots of spending money!! This shop was very hot and stuffy….I would think if shoppers were kept cool and comfortable they would be more likely to pay top dollar for items but, perhaps hot and stuffy is what brings in the buyers. Staff welcomed you at front desk when you entered and were really friendly.
Last stop was Antique Harvest. But, before exploring this shop I needed a very long break. My feet hurt and I was hot and sweaty. I found my way to Spoon Bar which was a super hip and trendy bar/restaurant that had its windows opened all the way and you could practically sit on the sidewalk and the breeze was so refreshing! I was not hungry but really needed water, coffee and something sweet. Staff super nice and desert was a coconut cake and cannoli with espresso coffee – yummy and very reasonably priced.
Okay, final stop was Antique Harvest. This was a nice shop, had lots of collectibles and antique furniture. Because it was already late in the day, close to 5pm the shop was not super busy and it was actually closing. I made my way through the shop quickly and found some furniture I would have liked (end tables and chairs) but there was no way of fitting it in my car so, mental note to go back one day with a truck.
Driving back home through the vineyards. Everywhere I look I see vineyards and it is gorgeous!! Hope you all get a chance to visit Healdsburg, CA.
