Restaurant openings galore in Sonoma County, with new eateries in Cotati, Santa Rosa and Kenwood. Learn more below on where to satisfy your pizza, ice cream and coffee cravings.
Slow Co. Pizza
We’ve been watching the progress of this family-run pizzeria for a while now. Focused on slowly fermented, naturally rising dough and local ingredients, the newcomer to the Cotati food scene has a brief but well-curated menu. Offerings include The Bird (red sauce, mozzarella), R-Grated with mozzarella and zesty Estero Gold Reserve cheese, “Pretty Fly for a Fungi” (pesto, white sauce and mushrooms) and Hogwarts Express (red sauce, sausage, shaved fennel, mozzarella and shallots). Slow Sauce is a ranch-style dipper because every pizza should come with ranch. Open 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. 8197 La Plaza, Cotati, 707-796-5124, slowcopizza.com
Pink Sugar Creamery
Huzzah, Sonoma County finally has rolled ice cream. It’s a thing, kind of like bubble tea in the 2010s, imported from Southeast Asia and viralized on social media for years. Pink Sugar Creamery, which replaced the long-running Yogurt Farms (RIP), uses a liquid ice cream base poured onto a freezing metal plate, instantly freezing the cream. It’s mostly a do-it-yourself affair with over two dozen toppings, including Sour Patch Kids, Biscoff cookies, Ferrero Rocher and Captain Crunch cereal. Soft serve and mini pancakes are also available. Every wall is bathed in Pepto pink with Instagrammable neon signs, furry swings and roses galore. Open daily from 1 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. 1224 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa, instagram.com/pinksugarcreamery
Pillowfight Coffee
Just in time for sweater weather (or so their Instagram says), this Kenwood coffee shop is serving croissants, breakfast sandos, muffins, quiche and all the pumpkin spice or eggnog lattes you could possibly want. The name is an homage to the much-missed Kenwood Pillow Fights, a summer tradition that pitted neighbor versus neighbor, pounding each other with pillows while sitting on a greased pole above a mud pit. Though the event officially ended in 2006 due to party poopers (the official line was it got too big for tiny Kenwood), we think it should be revived because real mudslinging is a lot more fun than the virtual stuff. But we’re happy to relive the glory days over coffee and some neighborhood banter. Open from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday. 8910 Sonoma Highway, Suite 12B, Kenwood, pillowfight.coffee
You can reach Dining Editor Heather Irwin at heather.irwin@pressdemocrat.com. Follow Heather on Instagram @biteclubeats.