Summer and fall are always the busiest seasons for restaurant openings in Sonoma County, and 2023 has been another whirlwind. Click through the above gallery for 24 new or about-to-open restaurants we’re excited about — and this is just since June!
Leave any thoughts of a rushed meal at the doorstep of Windsor’s Maison Porcella.
Co-owner Maud Jean-Baptiste insists you enjoy your meal without racing from one dish to the next. And she’s not afraid to enforce that very continental philosophy through her charm.
“In the dining room, I will be greeting you, pouring water, taking orders, serving and checking you out! It is an experience, not a regular (meal). We like to get to know you and want you to leave our ‘home’ feeling like you just flew to France for a few hours,” Jean-Baptiste writes on the bistro’s website.
Jean-Baptiste takes care of the dining room and bar, shepherding you into tranquil submission with her lilting French accent (she grew up in the countryside near Lyon), plying you with food-friendly French wines and feeding you mashed potatoes with more cream and butter than should be legal.
Chef Marc-Henri makes clear on the menu that wait times for dishes like their feuillete de jambon ($34) take a minimum of 20 minutes to prepare. So, cool your heels and sink into the moment, savoring each bite as the clock tick-ticks away languorously.
Maison Porcella, which opened nearly a year ago as a showcase for Marc-Henri’s line of luxurious charcuterie, has slowly expanded — first to lunch service last spring and more recently to a proper bistro open for dinner from 5:30 to 7:30. p.m. Tuesday through Friday (lunch is available from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday).
The lunch and dinner menu includes snacks of deviled eggs ($11), bread and homemade butter ($10) and fish tartare ($17) made from a changing daily catch topped with crème fraîche, shallots and capers.
Bigger plates include the poulet de Bresse ($36) with mushrooms, showcasing the coveted Bresse chicken (highly prized by the French); a signature croque-monsieur ($28) made with soft milk bread, ham and three kinds of cheese; and tourte aux pommes de terre, a crackling puff pastry filled with thinly cut scalloped potatoes and cream ($22). The menu does change frequently, so don’t get too attached to any one dish.
Salads with herbs and bitter greens cut the richness of the larger dishes. A tasty selection of housemade charcuterie includes pates, ham and boudin noir or blanc — specialty sausages that are rare in America.
Menu prices include a 20% service charge, a common European practice that sometimes confounds locals. Go with it. Relax. Enjoy. You’ll get your money’s worth by sharing Jean-Baptiste’s convivial conversation and wine recommendations.
After your meal, walk into the Maison Porcella shop for prepackaged provisions such as pates, French ham, savory pastries, imported wines and bread from Marla Bakery. Jean-Baptiste also has curated a selection of gifts, kitchen items and jewelry for sale.
Just let yourself partake in the very agreeable French habit of eating slowly, sharing a meal and focusing on the enjoyment of food. Work can wait.
Maison Porcella, 8499 Old Redwood Highway, Windsor. 707-955-5611, maisonporcella.com.
Chef Darryl Bell of Stateline Road Smokehouse, one of Wine Country’s most anticipated restaurant openings, will begin a chef residency at Napa’s Oxbow Public Market in late October.
The Kansas City native plans to take over the Oxbow space of Milestone Provisions (which will be closing) and serve a sampling of his forthcoming restaurant menu. Highlights will include Burnt Ends ($18); Stateline baby back ribs ($12); and a salad made with cherrywood-smoked Maitake mushrooms, lettuce, crisped purple rice, marinated chickpeas and lemon vinaigrette ($15). Bell’s permanent restaurant is slated for an early 2024 opening in Napa’s Rail Arts District.
Bell first gained attention for the barbecue sauces he created for staff meals while he worked at Bouchon restaurant in Yountville. Chef Thomas Keller was such a fan he asked Bell to scale up the recipe so he could serve it on his Seabourn luxury cruise ship menus.
Oxbow Market has long been a hotbed for culinary exploration, with restaurant outposts from Hog Island Oyster Co. and Gott’s Roadside to C Casa and Loveski Deli from former Restaurant at Meadowood chef Christopher Kostow. Oxbow Market is at 610 First St., Napa, oxbowpublicmarket.com
An A-frame home in Santa Rosa, set on a tree-dotted, 6-acre lot overlooking a vineyard, is currently listed for $2,750,000. The modern dwelling features a sleek dark exterior and a wraparound porch; the interior is cozy with vertical siding and built-in bookcases.
Aside from those design perks, the property also includes a second parcel and a second home. The additional dwelling is a 3,116-square-foot fixer-upper with great potential — for homebuyers with a vision for the future and a budget for remodeling, here’s a chance to make your mark. (The listing suggests that the A-frame could serve as a primary residence while the other home is being renovated.)
The A-frame at 1781 Olivet Road was designed by Lindal Cedar Homes and built in 2004. It features 2,039 square feet of living space, an open-concept floor plan, a loft bedroom with an ensuite bathroom, and floor-to-ceiling windows that allow views of majestic oak trees and neighboring vineyards. The home has been remodeled with wide-planked oak floors, new bathrooms and a new kitchen.
Click through the above gallery for a peek at this property.
For more information, contact Robin Gordon, 707-291-7952, or Caroline Johnson, 707-486-9923 with The Agency Healdsburg – Real Estate, 119 North St., Healdsburg, 707- 756-8052, theagencyre.com, olivetroadhomes.com
“You cannot believe how many people come through here and say they went to school in this building,” says Petaluma’s Catherine Clark, the owner of Tenfold Farmstand.
Clark started Tenfold in 2019 to provide organic vegetables and flowers to her community, and has seen the business grow quickly as locals clamor for her home-grown tomatoes, squash, herbs, and flowers.
Earlier this year, looking for ways to expand the business, Clark signed a three-year lease on the former Union Elementary School on a rural stretch of road surrounded by pasturelands and oak-studded hills a few minutes from downtown Petaluma.
Inside the schoolhouse, there’s space for yoga and live music performances, including family concerts with Petaluma musician Arann Harris, who has a whole repertoire of farm- and animal-themed songs. A small country mercantile offers crafts and apothecary products; pasture-raised meats from Napaluma Farms and Petaluma Beef; and sourdough bread from Bedstone Baking.
On Fridays, Clark hosts a pop-up with baker Mary Denham of Blooms End, who nestles her imaginatively flavored treats on cheery squares of Liberty print fabric stacked in repurposed wooden printers’ trays. Cinnamon rolls with peaches and bourbon cream cheese are a favorite, as are difficult-to-find whole-wheat croissants, light and flaky as can be.
The pretty, white clapboard building, which opened in 1895 and served students for over 120 years, is a west Petaluma landmark, the last historic one-room schoolhouse in the county (other single-room schoolhouses have either shut or moved into more modern buildings).
“So many people have come by to say, ‘I love this school and I’m so glad to see that it’s not abandoned,’” says Clark. “There’s been such an outpouring of support.”
“I hope that this can serve as an inspiration for others—and to inspire the people who are making decisions on the government end. Don’t let these buildings sit alone and sit empty, when there are small businesses who would love to take care of the property and help it live again.”
Tenfold Farmstand, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. 5300 Red Hill Rd., Petaluma. tenfoldfarmstand.com
If you’re dreaming of owning a luxury home in Sonoma Wine Country, but don’t have a few millions to spare, there might be a Hail Mary option. The San Francisco Bay Dream House Raffle is holding its 18th and final contest — the grand prize this year is a sleekly designed, 4,500-square-foot home at 3818 Horizon View Way in Santa Rosa’s Fountaingrove neighborhood.
A $150 raffle ticket buys entrants a 1 in 55,000 chance of winning the luxury property. If you beat the odds, and can handle a monstrous tax bill, then you’ll own a tasty piece of the Sonoma County housing market pie. (The winner also can forgo the home and receive instead a cash prize of $1,000,000 paid over 25 years or a one-time payment of $700,000.)
For the past 14 years, the Dream House Raffle has raised funds for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, the “cultural anchor” of the award-winning Yerba Buena Gardens; a mixed-use development that includes public gardens, art installations, performance spaces and recreational areas. The raffle will end this year as the organization “pursues other fundraising avenues,” according to the Dream House Raffle website.
The raffle has received criticism over the years, in part because it remains unclear if a winner has ever moved into one of the Bay Area mansions that have been advertised as each year’s grand prize or “dream house.” Unless 50,000 tickets are sold, the home will not be given away and the grand prize winner will be offered the cash prize instead. Grand prize winners also might opt for the cash prize instead of the home, since federal and state income taxes on the “dream house” would be prohibitively expensive for many.
The Santa Rosa dream house was built in 2022. It was last listed by Coldwell Banker Realty for $3,695,000. According to that listing, the four-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom property is set on a half acre and features an open-concept interior with tall ceilings, walls of windows and LaCantina sliding glass doors that open up toward a terrace with an infinity pool and spa. Click through the above gallery for a peek inside the home.
The Grand Prize Drawing will take place on Saturday, December 2, 2023 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. There will also be early bird drawings for other prizes like luxury vehicles, vacations and gift cards. Prize winners do not need to be present to receive their prize.
For more information, visit sfraffle.com
Harvest is underway and hotel properties in Sonoma County are ready to celebrate. From new dining experiences to movie nights and dreamy wellness activities, here’s what you need to know about the local hotel scene right now. Click through the above gallery for a peek at the properties and to learn more.
Get ready for fall pastry treats like pear chai scones, vegan apple oat muffins, pumpkin spice latte cake and pumpkin doughnuts as Monday Bakery prepares to open its doors on the Sonoma Plaza.
The soft opening for the new outpost of the Napa bakery is 9 a.m. to noon Sunday. A Monday grand opening is set to start at 7:30 a.m. at the bakery.
Owner Sally Geftakys, a CIA Greystone graduate and passionate baker, launched Monday Bakery at local farm markets and pop-ups in 2017. But after finding a grateful audience for her seasonally inspired sweet and savory pastries, she opened a storefront in downtown Napa in 2019.
“After the success of our Napa location, I’m absolutely thrilled to bring my dream to Sonoma,” Geftakys said.
She’s especially proud of her croissants and sweet kouign aman, a sweet cake made with laminated dough.
“I think we make some of the best croissants in the Valley,” said Geftakys, who said she owes her love of baking adventures to the Easy Bake Oven of her childhood.
“Pastries seemed to be a common thread throughout my life from that moment on, and it soon became clear that owning a bakery was what I was meant to do with my life,” she said on the Monday Bakery Instagram page (@mondaybakery)
The Sonoma bakery also will offer custom orders and sell cakes and cookies. Monday Bakery is at 117 E. Napa St. in Sonoma.
Sonoma Index-Tribune staff writer Rebecca Wolff contributed to this article.
The restaurateurs behind the Flamingo’s Lazeaway Club are teaming up with San Francisco’s Lord Stanley restaurant for a monthlong chef residency and pop-ups at the Santa Rosa resort.
Launching on Monday, Oct. 2, the Flamingo x Turntable series will feature dishes from New York chef Susan Kim of Doshi (Oct. 2-14) and Los Angeles chef Amanda Kuntee Maneesilsasan of Chao Krung Thai (Oct. 16-29).
Both previously did stints as part of Lord Stanley’s two-year culinary series called Turntable, where chefs from around the country — well-known and emerging — hosted pop-up dinners at the Michelin-starred restaurant featuring their unique styles.
Lord Stanley closed in 2021 but is reopening this month, with longtime chef de cuisine Nathan Matkowsky. At the same time, their Turntable concept has gone on the road, first to Los Angeles and now to Santa Rosa.
It’s a bit of a feather in our cap to have the chef-residency series in our own backyard, and hopefully it’ll continue.
Kim focuses on Korean-inspired cuisine and won acclaim in New York City for her doshirak, prepackaged lunchboxes filled with home-cooked rice, meat and vegetables. The Chez Panisse alum gives dishes her chef-y twist, such as with pickled, preserved and fermented goodies including marinated skirt steak, kimchi, braised greens and purple gingko rice.
“I spent a lot of time poring over the details of my version, because the sum of all parts matter. I want people to feel delighted when they are opening this gift,” Kim said in a news release about the residency.
Kim’s a la carte lunch and dinner menus at Lazeaway will feature larger family-style dishes like beef carpaccio with tonnato and anchovy crumble; seared tteok (rice cakes) with halloumi, a seven-minute egg and brown butter gochu; and bugak (fried seaweed chips) with Dungeness crab dip and caviar. Doshirak will be served poolside.
The last two weeks of the series will highlight Maneesilsasan’s Thai cuisine with family-style shareable plates such as smoky prawn pad Thai, Thai-style pork jowl, crab fried rice and papaya salad with salted egg.
Reservations for Flamingo x Turntable are available at flamingoresort.com/events/turntable.
The Flamingo Resort also has announced the opening of Fernando’s Hideaway, a private dining room available for up to 30 guests. The recently redesigned and renovated space will offer family-style meal selections including glazed pork bao, crispy chicken sliders, coconut green curry, grilled prawn tacos and soba noodle salad.
Ricky’s Eastbound restaurant and cocktail bar in Santa Rosa’s Skyhawk Village will close at the end of September to make way for a new family-friendly eatery from the owners of Ausiello’s Fifth Street Bar and Grill.
The Ausiello family’s new project was rumored for months, but Leeanna Kane, the daughter of Ausiello’s founder Armand Ausiello, confirmed Saturday that Ausiello’s Homeslice will be replacing the Mountain Hawk Drive restaurant owned by Rick and Linn Bruno.
“We’ve lived in Rincon Valley for a long time, and we knew we needed a family restaurant around here,” said Kane, who grew up in east Santa Rosa with her brother, Mario. The brother-and-sister team joined their parents in operating the downtown sports bar and will all co-own the new restaurant Kane describes as “family-friendly and cocktail forward.” They hope to open later this year.
It was a matter of good timing for the Ausiellos when Ricky’s went up for sale.
“We had been looking to expand our business for almost eight years, and we’ve been very particular about the location. We know about restaurants and bars and the high turnover,” she said. Kane was confident a restaurant with familiar favorites — wood-fired pizzas, burgers, hearty salads and a happy hour — would be well-received by locals.
The name has a special meaning to Kane, capturing the neighborhood vibe and as a metaphor for growing up nearby.
“This is our homeslice,” Kane said of the slang word meaning “little slice of home” or something dear to your heart. Chef Will Suman, formerly of Bistro 29 and Rosso, will helm the kitchen.
Chef Rick Bruno, who also owned Bruno’s on Fourth (which closed in 2020) and a food truck, said he’s welcoming a breather after more than 40 years of cooking and is ready to start the next chapter, though he plans to continue catering for the next several months.
“After that, I’m going to take a harder look at what I want to do. Getting to be 60 changes your life,” he said, as he prepared to open Ricky’s on Saturday morning.
“We took on a challenge that most people wouldn’t have attempted,” said the longtime chef of the Skyhawk Village location. Several businesses came and went from the site in rapid succession before the Brunos took over the space.
“We made this a next-level restaurant, and we were able to sell it. I never got to sell Bruno’s,” he said. The small cafe he leased in the McDonald Avenue neighborhood went up for sale in 2020 at a price he couldn’t make work at the 38-seat cafe. It stood idle for many years but is now a marijuana dispensary.
During the 2019 wildfires, Bruno operated a food truck in the parking lot at Skyhawk Village, providing a gathering spot and haven for neighbors, he said. During the pandemic, Ricky’s pivoted to a takeout model that sustained the restaurant for over a year.
Bruno’s wife, Linn, has headed the Warm Puppy Cafe at Snoopy’s Home Ice for several years, and he hopes to help her occasionally. “If they’ll have me,” he added.
“I’ve met a lot of great people in this industry and this town, and I thank them all.”
