There’s a stretch of road in Idyllwild that has long served as connective tissue between the town’s two centers of commerce. Not quite downtown, not quite uptown—the portion of North Circle in between. For decades, it’s been a pass-through. A place you move along, not necessarily a place you stop. But lately, something has started…
Dan Fedrick picks up a Newton’s cradle from the counter at Remember When Toys and gives a quick lesson on the three principles that guide it: inertia, equal and opposite reaction, and conservation of momentum. It’s the kind of object that feels perfectly at home in a store like this — simple, tactile, a little…...
In Idyllwild, some roles aren’t assigned—they just appear, and everyone agrees they were always there. Such was the case with Sofía Landis, the chocolate princess of Idyllwild. Sofía didn’t grow up going to school in the morning and coming home in the afternoon. She was raised behind a chocolate counter. El Buen Cacao, tucked into the…...
Seventy years separated bassist Dr. Marshall Hawkins and pianist David Lim on stage at Town Hall this week — but the musical conversation between them felt timeless. As the two musicians settled into their instruments, the room seemed to lean closer. Hawkins, 87, coaxed deep, resonant tones from his upright bass while Lim, a 17-year-old…...
On Saturday mornings, a white tent appears on North Circle as the town wakes. Almost Heaven, a pop-up bakery, isn’t a storefront yet. It’s a window. Miss it, and it’s gone. Idyllwild sees its share of weekend ventures — operations that crest the hill with the tourists and disappear by dusk. That pattern is part…...
Tucked back from North Circle in a historic building just off the main road, Mountain Mike’s feels less like a storefront and more like a waypoint — the kind of place you find because you’re meant to. Mike prefers it that way. People don’t stumble in. They arrive. His love affair with the mountain began…...
In an era when small-town diners are polished into theme restaurants, the Red Kettle has refused the makeover. It reads less like a destination than a constant — a place that has outlasted trends by simply remaining itself. This year marks its 100th anniversary. In 1926, it began as an ice cream saloon with a…...
