I’m not here to defend $20 avocado toast. But if you’re going to spend $20 on avocado toast, Santa Rosa’s Dolce Rosa Cafe makes a pretty good case for it.
The brunch staple starts with housemade focaccia drizzled with olive oil, then gets piled with avocado, arugula, burrata, cherry tomatoes, rainbow carrots, crushed pistachios, balsamic pearls, chili crunch and hot honey. Add prosciutto or bacon for $4, because at this point, you might as well see this thing through.
It’s not an enormous portion, but there’s a surprising amount of fine-dining flair packed onto the plate. The balsamic pearls are little bits of food-science sleight of hand, transforming vinegar into glossy beads. The whole thing is so carefully arranged that the toast seems to be angling for a cameo on your Instagram feed.
That, in many ways, is Dolce Rosa’s calling card: small flourishes that take familiar cafe food somewhere a little more interesting.
Tiramisu ricotta pancakes come dotted with rosettes of espresso mascarpone. Beef hash gets a jolt of sun-dried tomato pesto. A pistachio latte arrives with its rim coated in crushed pistachios, like a margarita dressed for dessert.
And brunch is only part of the plan.
More than brunch
In quiet Rincon Valley, Josie Ortega and Martin Chaparro opened Dolce Rosa in July in the former Phyllis’ Giant Burgers space.
They’ve transformed it into a cozy cafe, with an abstract mural of golden roses covering one wall and plants propagating in wine bottles along another. A large espresso machine anchors the semi-open kitchen. Outside, a covered patio offers a pleasant place to linger, provided you don’t mind the occasional truck rumbling along Sonoma Highway.
Ortega and Chaparro also own Chila-killer Cafe in Rohnert Park, known for Mexi-brunch favorites such as chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, churro French toast and tacos rooted in the food and flavors they grew up with.
Given Chila-killer’s success, opening another location might have seemed like the obvious move.
It was the last thing Ortega wanted.
“We decided to never open another Chila-killer,” she said.
Instead, Dolce Rosa draws from another side of what the couple likes to eat: Italian flavors, pasta, sandwiches, brunch dishes and, in no small supply, pistachio.
Beyond brunch, the cafe serves all-day entrees including burgers, sandwiches and mix-and-match pastas with sauces such as hearty Bolognese and tomato with burrata.
“We just want to bring to the community what we love to eat,” Ortega said.
That means making as much as possible from scratch and tinkering until things taste right — including the avocado toast.
Ortega, an avowed avocado-toast devotee, and Chaparro started with a pile of ingredients and kept adding and subtracting until they landed on the combination they wanted. Hot honey came late in the process, but it turned out to be the finishing touch, adding a sweet-spicy edge to all that creamy avocado, crunchy vegetables and crisp focaccia.
It’s also a pretty good summation of Dolce Rosa itself: Start with something familiar. Keep tinkering. And know when to add the hot honey.
Best bets
Tiramisu Ricotta Pancakes, $16: These plate-sized pancakes are good enough on their own, but the espresso-spiked mascarpone and chocolate syrup, finished with a dusting of cocoa, push them firmly into dessert territory. Breakfast, meet tiramisu.
Beef Hash, $24: Soft chunks of roasted beef, rather than the usual shreds, give this classic a more substantial feel. Bell peppers, onion, zucchini and mushrooms mingle with a rich gravy, while two poached eggs and a dollop of spicy tomato pesto add extra punch. It comes with toasted focaccia and hash browns.
Pistachio Latte, $8: The espresso menu runs from a straightforward Americano to elaborate milk-based drinks such as this one, made with housemade pistachio syrup, pistachio cream, whipped cream and crushed pistachios. Also worth a look: the housemade chai latte, golden milk latte and Nutella latte, whose rim is coated in Nutella sauce.
Eggs in Purgatory, $18: Poached eggs sit in a spicy-but-not-too-spicy tomato-garlic sauce, with focaccia alongside for dipping. Warm, filling and nearly impossible not to mop clean.
Dolce Rosa Cafe is at 4910 Sonoma Highway, Suite B, Santa Rosa. 707-931-4625. It is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.