Man cannot live on bread alone. But you know, add a little cheese, some crème fraiche, maybe a slice or two of jambon, and a person could survive in quasi-Parisian bliss for, gosh, days.
Toss in a half-gallon bowl of latte so rich you can feel your thighs ballooning, and the odds get even better. And hey, that cupcake with the butter frosting bouffant definitely wouldn’t hurt either.
In fact, it seems pretty certain that no one’s going hungry at Della Fattoria Café in Petaluma. The airborne carb quotient of this bakery/coffee house/café alone ensures nourishment.
The popular meet-up spot is the first retail outlet for Della Fattoria breads (usually only sold to the likes of the French Laundry and La Toque, and oft-revered as the best loaves in the county, maybe the whole Bay area).
But calling the café merely a bakery would be remiss. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, the café does a brisk business filling up hungry bellies with its popular grilled sandwiches (made of course on Della Fattoria bread, duh), plus soups and salads–as in pumpkin and bean soup, or Niman Ranch pork and duck sandwiches, and precious little piles of mixed greens that clearly have the mark of a trained chef upon them. (As well as the price tag: Soup and a sandwich will likely cost you upwards of $15.)
Sometimes a little Euro-style indulgence is called for. The rich bowls–and by bowls, I mean a small bathtub–of frothy milk-laden lattes and mochas make finishing that expense report and checking a few emails (there’s free WiFi and plenty of tables for one or two) a happy chore.
So while Della Fattoria Café isn’t just a coffee house (though the espresso is divine and staking out a table for more than just a nosh is perfectly acceptable), or just a bakery (though the bread can make you weep openly) or merely a cafe (there’s far too much relaxed gossiping and coffee drinking for that), it is instead a little bit of all three. Pretty much ensuring the gastronomical survival of men and women everywhere.
Cafe Della Fattoria, 141 Petaluma Boulevard N., Petaluma, 707-763-0161
