Local Food Spots To Be Featured on ‘Check, Please!’

A Rohnert Park food festival and a Napa restaurant are among the number of Bay Area eateries to be featured in KQED's popular restaurant review series in November.


KQED’s award-winning “Check, Please! Bay Area” restaurant review series will be back next month with a roundup of new locals’ picks from in and around San Francisco, including a Napa restaurant as well as a Rohnert Park food festival.

Host Leslie Sbrocco and three Bay Area locals discussed favorite eateries during the new season of the four-episode series, which airs Thursdays beginning at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 7, on KQED 9.

Sonoma County will once again make an appearance on “Check, Please!” as the show visits Rohnert Park’s Fork’n Good Food Festival in its last episode of the season, airing Nov. 28.

KQED’s announcement of the episode lineup stated reporter Cecilia Phillips of “Cecilia Tries It” sampled the food festival’s gourmet eats. Food included “local Sonoma bites” as well as “globally inspired street food.”

Cecilia Phillips paid a visit to Rohnert Park's Fork’n Good Food Festival to try various foods for an episode of KQED's Check Please, Bay Area! Pictured is Phillips, right, with a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto-crusted burger from Santa Rosa's Indian Village Eats. (Courtesy Check Please, Bay Area!)
Cecilia Phillips paid a visit to Rohnert Park’s Fork’n Good Food Festival to try various foods for an episode of KQED’s “Check Please, Bay Area!” Pictured is Phillips, right, with a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto-crusted burger from Santa Rosa’s Indian Village Eats. (Courtesy Check Please, Bay Area!)
Grilled cheese with birria on Texas Toast is a menu option at Galvan’s Eatery in Santa Rosa. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)
Grilled cheese with birria on Texas Toast is a menu option at Galvan’s Eatery in Santa Rosa. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)

The SoCo Market started the Fork’n Good Food Festival last year, held at Rohnert Park’s SOMO Village. The festival returned in May this year and again in September with over 40 food trucks spanning various cuisines.

Many Bite Club favorites appeared in the food truck lineup, such as Ápí Hot Chicken, War Pigs BBQ (which now has a restaurant on Marlow Road), Galvan’s Eatery, Lila’s Streetside Eats and Healdsburg’s The Wurst. Other county-based food trucks included Moxies Frozen Yogurt, Mama Zara Empanadas, Jamerikan Jerk, Tri-Tip Trolley and Chocolate Things 707.

For updates on the next Fork’n Good Food Festival, keep an eye on The SoCo Market website, Facebook or Instagram.

Click through the above gallery to check out the eats you can expect to find at The SoCo Market’s Fork’n Good Food Festival. 

‘Check, Please!’ visits Napa

On its Nov. 14 episode, “Check, Please!” visits Villa Corona in Napa, where the crew samples “delicious Mexican favorites like platos de carne and tacos de pescado.”

The family-owned Villa Corona, which also has locations in Vacaville and St. Helena, originally began as Villa Azteca in 1972. It changed names to Villa Corona in 1983. The restaurant is known for generous servings, friendly service and an artsy atmosphere (catch the Mexican-themed paintings adorning the walls).

3614 Bel Aire Plaza, Napa, 707-257-8685, villacoronanapa.com