Toad in the Hole Pub in Santa Rosa, known for its British vibe and “Cheers”-like warmth, has closed after 17 years.

For many, the Railroad Square spot wasn’t just a place to get a pint. It was where friends gathered to watch live local bands, find camaraderie during World Cup matches or belly up to the bar with a basket of fish and chips.

But like so many other restaurant and bar owners, owner Paul Stokeld said he just can’t make the numbers pencil out anymore.

“It was a battle through COVID, and after that we were just trying to get back on a level playing field,” he said. “But we were behind the eight ball the whole time.”

In what’s come to be a sad procedure for many small businesses, Stokeld informed fans of the closure on Facebook Jan. 29.

“It’s been an incredible ride. We cannot dig out of the ‘hole’ that COVID gave us, and the cavalry is not coming,” he wrote.

Hundreds of comments flooded in immediately — from a family who brought each of their children to the Toad before going home from the hospital, a musician who played his first public show there, a married couple who met at the pub and many others who saw Toad in the Hole as an extension of the Old Vic, owned by Stokeld’s uncle, Chris Stokeld.

That downtown watering hole closed in 2003 but was a longtime destination for more than a decade. It’s also where the younger Stokeld learned to make his uncle’s much-loved meat pies, which were on the menu at Toad.

“My uncle established what a pub means here,” Paul Stokeld said. “It’s a community hub and has its own energy. I just took up the mantle proudly and kept it going.”

Toad in the Hole joins a growing list of breweries and pubs that have closed in recent months, including Steele and Hops in Santa Rosa and Grav South Brewing Co. in Cotati, and others, like Third Street Aleworks, who plan to close when their lease runs out this year.

Stokeld said one of the main challenges was the food program.

“We became known as a restaurant, more than anything else, as tap rooms proliferated. Regulars became people that came here to eat, and there just isn’t enough money in that. We were doing all the bistro stuff, getting our food (locally) and then we had to charge higher prices,” he said.

“It all just snowballs, and there’s nothing you can do about it. When the numbers don’t add up, they don’t add up.”

The meat pies, pints and music aren’t going away entirely, however. Stokeld is co-owner of Healdsburg’s Elephant in the Room. He and KC Mosso, a longtime musician and promoter, have frequent events and bands at the tiny space (which Stokeld plans to expand), along with the famous pies.

“We established a nice little pub in Healdsburg for the proletariat,” Stokeld said.

Several people have expressed interest in buying the Santa Rosa pub, according to Stokeld, but so far no one has offered what he needs to come out above water, financially.

“All of the help the government said would come after COVID just isn’t true,” he said. “Everyone is shaking the tree for money. It’s just time to hang it up.”

Since the recent closure of Sky Lounge restaurant at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, there’s been plenty of buzz about the new tenants, SSP America, and their plans.

The 15-year-old Sky Lounge, owned locally by Jim Goff, changed hands in early January after a competitive bidding process awarded the contract to SSP.

The new restaurant will be called Flying Ace Kitchen + Taproom, a nod to Schulz’s “World War I Flying Ace” Snoopy (who frequently fought the Red Baron from his doghouse in the “Peanuts” cartoons), according to SSP representatives.

The global company develops and operates airport restaurants, including 1300 Fillmore and Union Street Gastropub at San Francisco International Airport and Oakland Draft House at Oakland International Airport.

“We want to create a taste of place and make sure passengers coming in know they’re in the middle of Wine Country,” said Kyle Phillips, Vice President, Concepts & Development at SSP America.

Plans include a major remodel and bringing in a high-profile Bay Area chef to create a new menu. Construction will happen in stages to keep the airport’s only full-service restaurant — currently operating under the name Tap & Pour, also from SSP — open for limited breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Renderings of the new restaurant show an open indoor/outdoor space nearly double the current size. Adjustable glass panels will allow outdoor bar seating, and a revamped patio will have tables and lounge seating around a fire pit.

Phillips added that most of the Sky Lounge staff were offered jobs at the new restaurant.

Chef David Lawrence will create the new menu for the restaurant, focused on local products and dishes. A resident of Sonoma, Lawrence has an extensive culinary background and owned 1300 Fillmore and Black Bark BBQ in San Francisco (both are now closed). In his native London, he worked with the French chefs Albert and Michel Roux at their U.K. restaurants, including Michelin-starred Le Gavroche and the Waterside Inn.

Lawrence’s menu won’t fully debut until the restaurant officially opens (possibly late 2023), but Lawrence has a few dishes he’s planning for the casual pub.

“Fish and chips, done fresh to order,” he said. He also plans to include the signature fried chicken sandwich from his restaurant in San Francisco, adding that sushi — a staple of Sky Lounge — will make an appearance.

“We want to keep people happy and incorporate things that are Sonoma. There’s an ocean right here next to us, and Sonoma is the garden of California because everything grows here,” Lawrence said.

Santa Rosa is officially a cheese lover’s paradise. We knew this already, of course, but in case there was any doubt before, we now have a survey from a rather unlikely source to back it up.

A questionably scientific but undoubtedly delicious curd-to-curd survey of 200 U.S. cities by lawn care services company Lawn Starter (yes, you read that right) ranks Santa Rosa a respectable eighth in the country when it comes to cheese access, quality, affordability and community interest.

The judging rubric, according to Lawn Starter, includes the number of cheese factories and plants (Santa Rosa ranks second) in the area, total points for past U.S. Championship Cheese Contest Awards, average per-pound price of cheese and the number of cheese-related events and festivals.

The kudos come as no surprise to anyone who’s put together a gourmet cheeseboard in Sonoma County. The North Bay wrote the book (or at least the Cheese Trail Map) on delicious, artisanal cheesemakers along the North Coast, including Sonoma’s Vella Cheese, Sebastopol’s Joe Matos Cheese Factory, along with nearby Bohemian Creamery, Spring Hill Jersey Cheese, Petaluma Creamery, Valley Ford Cheese Co., Bellwether Farms and Wm. Cofield Cheesemakers.

Laura Chenel practically invented goat cheese (not really, but she popularized it with chefs in the 1980s) here in Sonoma County. Cowgirl Creamery, now in Petaluma, brought small-batch sustainable cheeses to the forefront in the late 1990s and continues to produce exceptional cheese.

The list goes on and on, especially when we include our nearby friends in Marin (Marin French Cheese, Point Reyes Farmstead), and our neighbors to the north (Pennyroyal Farm, Cypress Grove).

No matter how you slice it, Sonoma County (and Santa Rosa) have some Edam good cheese, and that’s the whey we like it.

Don’t miss: The annual California Cheese Festival will take place March 24-26 at the Sonoma County Event Center and Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. The event includes a cheese crawl and an artisan cheese tasting and marketplace. For more information and tickets, visit artisancheesefestival.com.

Click through the above gallery for a few favorite cheese from Sonoma County.