Coddingtown Mall in Santa Rosa, California: A Review

Simon pretty much has a lockdown on mall shopping in Sonoma county, owning both the Santa Rosa Plaza Mall at the center of Santa Rosa as well as Coddingtown out near the north end of town. But while the Plaza Mall is clearly pitched to be the more "upscale" alternative ( though it isn't really "upscale" unless you're talking "teenybopper upscale"), Coddingtown has the better selection of specialty shops, deals and food within its slightly more weather-beaten walls.

First, the stores. Big 5 Sporting Goods is about the best place to get cheap "outdoorsy" shoes and boots, period, and the quality is actually decent most of the time. They also have decent sales on clothes, camping stuff and sporting goods ... check their weekly circulars to see what's good at the moment. Beverly's Crafts is a decent general purpose craft and art supply stop. There's an Old Navy for quick, fairly cheap generic clothes and The Humidor for quick, fairly cheap generic cigars. They even have a branch of the Boston Reed College here apparently? The mall is also anchored by JC Penney, Gottschalks and Macy's.

Now, on to the food. Amazingly, the mall has a good coffee shop. Black Wolf Coffee is the last remnant of Wolf Coffee, the former indie Sonoma small chain that unfortunately folded last year. Black Wolf is on the site of the former Wolf location here, it has changed hands to new (also independent) ownership but still sell the same coffee that Wolf did. Actually, the mall has TWO good places for coffee, because Max Cafe is pretty decent as well (and has decent food too.) L.A. Italian Kitchen provides decent pizza and pasta and Taco Max provides surprisingly decent Mexican food. There's even a few decent sit-down restaurants in Narsi's Hof Brau, Sakura and Sweet River Grill & Bar. The latter is pretty good for sports watching as it doesn't get packed to the rafters and Santa Rosa is far enough from most pro teams that it won't get slammed unless maybe there's a 49ers, Sharks or Warriors playoff game at the moment. Sakura offers OK, somewhat Americanized sushi that isn't bad for being in a shopping mall (and the portions are decent for the money.)

Obviously I don't expect much from a mall, but I like Coddingtown. It's just "downscale" enough to feel welcoming and accessible and have some useful deals, without descending into being dank, grungy and having a crappy and useless selection of stores. Far from fantastic, certainly, but enough here that is actually usable to make it a regular stop for the average Joe who isn't looking for Hot Topic shirts or whatever.