Napa and San Francisco

Later this month we will be visiting CA wine country. I do not know how much free time I will have, but I am interested in knowing if there are any wet shaving vendors or other locations of interest that I should try to visit while I am in the area.

Any input is appreciated.

The Wiki knows aaaaaalllllllllll!!!

http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/USA_SFBay_CA

BTW, if you want my personal advice, spend a day in Napa then move over to Sonoma. Same quality, half the price, a quarter the snootiness.
Tastings in most Napa wineries run about $20 a person and you need to buy 2 bottles before they comp you. In Sonoma, it's usually $5-10 and 1 bottle, by the end of the day the difference could be pretty significant for a group.

I was up in Santa Rosa last August visiting family, so here are what I remember...

Santa Rosa Mall & Coddingtown Mall, both in Santa Rosa about 45 minutes from Napa. Both have Tobacco Shops that have some Col Conk Stuff and Santa Rosa Mall has a Cutlery & More(?name) has a decent spread of Merkur and Conk stuff. IIRC SR Mall also has a Bath & Body Works, Crabtree & Evelyn, and The Body Shop. There are also a good deal of antique stores in Railroad Square. Another Cutlery & More in Petaluma, plus a bunch more antiques stores. Sebastopol has a Nancy Boy Shop that I never did get to stop in and also a ton of Antique Stores. Napa has some antique dealers, tho I don't remember seeing any DE razors, and IIRC there were several Salons and at least one had Jack Black shave cream and I think another had a whole wall of Tweezerman stuff but thats before I knew about their brush so I didn't look real hard.

Thats what I found in a week just as we were popping about with family. You might also google Indian(dot not feather) grocerys as I had some luck in Las Vegas finding Godrej that way. We have some more members that still live in that area and they can probably chime in with some more locations!

Hope that helps!

Jay

Go West Young Man said:

The Wiki knows aaaaaalllllllllll!!!

http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/USA_SFBay_CA

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Yeah, the SF shops listed in the Wiki are probably your best bet.

Cable Car Clothiers is an awesome store, but crazy expensive. MWF w/ Bowl costs something like ~$130 there...insane.

Go West Young Man said:

The Wiki knows aaaaaalllllllllll!!!

http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/USA_SFBay_CA

BTW, if you want my personal advice, spend a day in Napa then move over to Sonoma. Same quality, half the price, a quarter the snootiness.
Tastings in most Napa wineries run about $20 a person and you need to buy 2 bottles before they comp you. In Sonoma, it's usually $5-10 and 1 bottle, by the end of the day the difference could be pretty significant for a group.

Click to expand...

completely agree, nothing special as far as brick and mortar in the shave world around here. but sonoma for the wine thing is better than napa for the whine thing.

Ian

try olive oil at the jacuzzi winery in sonoma and chocolates at anettes chocolates first street napa's downtown area

My guess would be there just has to be something, especially SF.

KM-instructor said:

My guess would be there just has to be something, especially SF.

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LEHR'S 1581 church st.. sf.... you may find tabac,speick and a few other german toilettries for men (and women) there

KM-instructor said:

My guess would be there just has to be something, especially SF.

Click to expand...

Of course. Hence the entire wiki page referenced.....

malocchio said:

LEHR'S 1581 church st.. sf.... you may find tabac,speick and a few other german toilettries for men (and women) there

Click to expand...

I have gone to lehr's and it is a neat little shop, not a ton of shave stuff, but they wanted like $23 just for a tabac soap refill which made my decision easy. If i get over to noe valley i will get the name of a shop on 24th. st. which i think is in the wiki that had PDP soaps and balms for about online pricing. grant tobacco shop on mkt. st. also had a few merkur razors and col. conk soap for sale. seemed to be rather fairly priced. other wise we do have most of the big corp. shops packed around union square. and i believe nancy boy started around here so them also. I agree with benvh about cable car. insanely priced but the store is a wonder. I will give this more thought and try to come up with more. Also if you are concerned about blades let me know what hotel and when you will be here and i can drop off a few at the front desk for you. shoot me a pm if you need any assistance with this trip.

Ian

Does your stay take you through the beginning of August, or just in July? If you're staying through Aug 7, I'd suggest you head into Alameda (still in the bay, not terribly far) and hit the Antique Flea Market (http://alamedapointantiquesfaire.com/). There are usually some treasure to be had in the wild there! If not, I'd still check into what's going on in town (the internet is your friend!) during your stay...maybe you'll get lucky and find a flea market or two! Have fun!

-Matt-

Lehr's has Speick sticks for a competitive price.

Nancy Boy. 347 Hayes Street San Francisco. Give it a try and keep us posted.

sanfranciscian said:

I have gone to lehr's and it is a neat little shop, not a ton of shave stuff, but they wanted like $23 just for a tabac soap refill which made my decision easy. If i get over to noe valley i will get the name of a shop on 24th. st. which i think is in the wiki that had PDP soaps and balms for about online pricing. grant tobacco shop on mkt. st. also had a few merkur razors and col. conk soap for sale. seemed to be rather fairly priced. other wise we do have most of the big corp. shops packed around union square. and i believe nancy boy started around here so them also. I agree with benvh about cable car. insanely priced but the store is a wonder. I will give this more thought and try to come up with more. Also if you are concerned about blades let me know what hotel and when you will be here and i can drop off a few at the front desk for you. shoot me a pm if you need any assistance with this trip.

Ian

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Thanks for all the info about wet shaving supplies in Napa and San Francisco. Thanks also for the generous offer to drop off blades. I am packing blades in baggage that I will check through to our destination so hopefully I will not need any assistance. I will, however have my internet access so that I can contact you if the need arises. Again, thanks.

PM me. I grew up in the Valley

Feel free, I do live in the city so i would be glad to help you out with any thing i can. doesn't have to be shave only.

Ian

We are about to embark on our trip. Thanks to all who offered information and assistance. B&B is a wonderful community and you posters are the best. Thanks!