Cafe Zazzle Joins List of Closed Sonoma County Restaurants

Popular lunch and dinner cafe closed Dec. 9

Cafe Zazzle has closed. (Photo: Yelp, Andrew D.)

Cafe Zazzle, a longtime fixture on the downtown Petaluma restaurant scene, has closed, according to co-owner Tara Williams.

Located on Kentucky Street, the restaurant served an eclectic menu of noodle bowls, wraps and salads for 17 years before financial difficulties forced Williams and her husband, Rick, to make the difficult decision to close.

“People think COVID-19 is over, but it hasn’t been in terms of numbers,” Williams said. She said that longtime regulars who stopped by two or three times a week stopped coming as their daily patterns changed, and people started cooking more at home.

“(We) just didn’t bounce back. Destination dining might be coming back, but not the three-times-a-week places like us. It’s just a different world now,” Williams said.

For the last two years, the couple supported the restaurant with retirement savings but said they no longer have the finances to continue.

Williams hopes to sell the restaurant to a new owner.

“We’re just trying to get this behind us. We’re just really grateful to Petaluma for supporting us all these years,” she said.

Zazzle is one of nearly a dozen Sonoma County restaurants closed in 2022. Rising food costs, a lack of staff, inflation and a changing food landscape piled on top of winter’s minimal tourist traffic and unpredictable weather have accelerated the list of recent closures, including Zimi on Mission in Santa Rosa, Fork Roadhouse in Sebastopol, Campo Fina in Healdsburg and Trading Post in Cloverdale.