Nectar Chef Returns With New Santa Rosa Restaurant

Railroad Square's newest restaurant serves up breakfast, dinner, happy hour and custom barrel-aged cocktails.


Railroad Square has a new restaurant, Railroad Stop Bar & Kitchen at the Hyatt Regency Sonoma. The former Brasserie has been redesigned completely, with Executive Chef Rene Jakushak heading the kitchen. Jakushak was, for many years, the chef of Nectar Restaurant at the Hilton, which burned during the 2017 wildfires.

The restaurant calls itself, “farm-to-fire” with custom barrel-aged cocktails, wines and craft beer. Offering breakfast and dinner, the menu includes a fairly straightforward breakfast lineup of hearty Benedicts, buttermilk pancakes, pastrami hash and lighter plates of smoothies, oatmeal and the required avocado toast (shall we just assume this is now the official California breakfast?)

Dinner plates that caught my attention on the new menu: Lobster, tomato and smoked mozzarella arancini, Roseland Street Cod Fish Tacos with pickled onions and smoked chili aioli, Cubano sliders, pastrami Reuben and Jakushak’s signature Bellwether Farms “adult” mac and cheese with a few veggies tucked in for good measure.

Happy hour runs from 4-6p.m. daily with Chile Relleno fundito dip, bacon whiskey meatballs, and Cubano sliders along with $6 red and white wines of the day, $4 well drinks and $3 off barrel-aged cocktails.  The restaurant is now open, but expect more to come.

Lead Bartenders Jonathan Grady and Sarah Boryszewski helm the beverage program creating custom barrel-aged cocktails ($10-15) with a twist highlighting unexpected spirits, such as tequila for an Old Fashioned, among others. Up to 10 cocktails at a time are available on tap after being aged for 30-90 days.

Railroad Stop Bar & Kitchen is located at 170 Railroad Street, Santa Rosa,  and is open daily for breakfast from 6:30-10:30 a.m., happy hour daily and dinner from 6-11 p.m.