2022 is a year of milestones in Sonoma County as beloved restaurants, wineries and hotels celebrate decades in business. The Charles M. Schulz museum in Santa Rosa will celebrate the birthday of the man who gave us the Peanuts gang and the Sonoma International Film Festival is turning 25. Click through the gallery above for details. Does your favorite local business celebrate an anniversary this year? Let us know in the comments below.
Linda Murphy contributed to this article.
#CookForUkraine is a plea being heard worldwide by chefs, restaurateurs and home chefs to pick up pans, don aprons and cook their hearts out in solidarity with Ukrainian citizens.
Inspired by the #CookforSyria fundraisers that raised more than $1 million for Syrian children several years ago, the mantle has been taken up again to benefit Unicef UK’s work to assist the estimated 5 million children of Ukraine.
Locally, Sonoma’s Valley Bar and Bottle and Chef Adrian Chang, who teaches Asian-American cooking classes in Occidental through his brand Morihouse, raised more than $2,700 over the weekend, with all proceeds going to Unicef UK’s work in the war-torn country.
“The first weekend went really well and we had a lot of people just give money,” said Lauren Feldman, co-founder of Valley Bar and Bottle.
Chef Emma Lipp and her team made vegan and beef borscht, a hearty Eastern European soup, selling containers for $25. In two days, they raised $900 and will continue to sell the borscht at the restaurant. Details on Instagram @valleybarandbottle.
Chang and his husband Chris Lewis hosted a virtual dumpling cooking class at their Occidental home that raised $1,800. Instagram @mori.house.
Online, the crowd-sourced Just Giving campaign, #cookforukraine, has raised more than 117,000 British pounds sterling, tapping into support from celebrity chefs including Yotam Ottolenghi, well-known international food bloggers, caterers and home chefs offering supper clubs and dinners for the cause. More information online at justgiving.com/fundraising/cookforukraine.
Know of another restaurant fundraiser? Let me know: heather.irwin@pressdemocrat.com.
Bubbles and bivalves are the tasty concept behind Oyster, a new Parisian-style seafood and sparkling wine restaurant coming to The Barlow in Sebastopol this summer.
For months, owner Jake Rand searched the county for a second location for his popular Japanese restaurant, Sushi Kosho, already at The Barlow. But as the pandemic strained the restaurant industry with staffing shortages and supply-chain issues, he realized a large restaurant wasn’t the way to go.
Instead, he leased a small 400-square-foot space just a few feet from Sushi Kosho, where he’ll open Oyster this summer.
The focus at Rand’s new restaurant will be on sparkling wines from around the world, oysters and a curated seafood and shellfish menu, including moules-frites, scallops a la plancha and fried oyster po’ boys. An open kitchen will occupy much of the interior space, with a small bar for prix fixe tastings. The more expansive outdoor patio seats up to 40 and will serve the full menu and a selection of by-the-glass bubbly, including rare vintages. The restaurant also will offer takeout.
“Sushi Kosho is very chef-driven, but Oyster will be more about socializing, small plates, a la carte sharing and just popping in, Rand said. “This just fits the times. People can take out and sit on a bench, take it home or have a one-on-one experience inside the restaurant.”
Sustainable aquaculture is part of the message Rand hopes to convey through the restaurant, by educating consumers about the benefits of sourcing farmed shellfish and oysters for marine habitats. The filter-feeders help to keep ocean water clean, sequester carbon and help to protect shore land from erosion.
“I think ocean farming sometimes falls into a negative context. If people heard more about the parallels between sustainable agriculture and positive ocean farming, I think it might shift some opinions,” Rand said.
Oyster will open at 6761 McKinley St., Suite 130, Sebastopol.
On a drab block of Wilson Street off Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square is a sliding window to bread heaven.
Here, Sonoma Mountain Breads’ owner and yeast charmer Lee Magner works his carbo-licious magic on Saturday and Sunday mornings with little more than a small sign, three little cafe tables teetering on the sidewalk and a team of cooks.
The weekly menu, subject to change, includes pierogies drizzled with truffle oil, brioche breakfast sandwiches with soft eggs and tangy Bearnaise sauce, European waffles crusted with pearl sugar and, oh, croissants and hearty loaves of naturally leavened bread.
By 10 a.m., the mortadella and Havarti croissants, baklava Danish with brown butter-toasted walnuts and lemon curd and baguettes have disappeared. My heart sinks, but a chocolate ganache tart with a short rye shell comforts.
The pop-up is part of an incubation and residency food program by Miracle Plum’s Sallie Miller and Gwen Gunheim. The women took over the former A La Heart kitchen in 2021 and have hosted several chefs at their sandwich and salad spot ever since. Along with Magner, several other small food businesses share the commercial kitchen.
Magner is a pandemic-era entrepreneur. After he was furloughed from his baking job, he started baking bread in cast-iron pans at his Oakland studio apartment and sharing it with friends. Sonoma Mountain Breads grew from there.
His hefty sourdough loaves made with organic ingredients including spelt, wheat flour, rye flake porridge and millet have gained a loyal following. Flaky sourdough-starter croissants made with buckwheat flour, sugary morning buns and Danishes are sweet additions. But he’s also added hot breakfast and brunch at the Wilson St. kitchen.
Coffee from Retrograde Roasters, which you can get at Miracle Plum, is a required addition.
Open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 600 Wilson St., Santa Rosa, sonomamountainbreads.com. Check Instagram for the latest menus @sonomamountainbreads
Marla at Spinsters Sisters: We’ve mentioned another recent weekend brunch pop-up worth checking out — Marla Bakery’s residency at Spinster Sisters restaurant through Mother’s Day weekend.
The hype is real, and the baked eggs are a bit of heaven. You can sit down for a meal (we tried the bagels and smoked trout) or drop in for pastries. Check out the mouthwatering photos.
Rumor has it: The now-vacant Jack and Tony’s in Railroad Square may soon have a new tenant. Restaurateur Brad Barmore of Windsor’s Kin restaurant and Kinsmoke restaurant in Healdsburg said that a “concept development” is underway. The restaurant closed after the death of chef/owner Jack Mitchell in September 2020.
After being rescheduled from January, the Good Food Awards ceremony honoring the 2022 Good Food winners was held last Friday at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
The evening celebrated 244 of America’s top food and drink entrepreneurs from 39 states and was attended by 800 winners, families, judges and grocers.
Here are the North Coast winners honored in various categories by the Good Foods Foundation, whose mission is to foster the kind of food that brings people together and builds strong, healthy communities:
Beer: Eel River Brewing Co. of Fortuna for Organic California Blonde Ale and Sinuous Roots Apple Brandy Barrel Aged Belgian Trippel; Pond Farm Brewing Co. of San Rafael for The Pivot Pale Ale
Charcuterie: Journeyman Meat Co. of Healdsburg for Estate Beef Teriyaki Snack Sticks
Cheese: Bellwether Farms of Petaluma for Whole Milk Basket Ricotta; Bivalve Dairy of Petaluma for Seahaven Cheese; Pennyroyal Farm of Boonville for Vintage Boont Corners; Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. of Point Reyes for its Toma Rashi
Cider: Coturri Winery of Glen Ellen for Aeplz Cider; North American Press of Santa Rosa for Wildcard, a cider made from wild grapes
Fish: California Caviar of Sausalito for Caviar Queen’s Reserve White Sturgeon
Grains: Patagonia Provisions of Sausalito for Fusilli Organic Kernza Pasta
Honey: Clif Family Napa Valley for Solar Grown Hot Honey with Cobanero Chile and Solar Grown Cacao Honey Spread
Pantry: Sonoma Sauces of Santa Rosa for Mango Pinot Grigio Sauce
Spirits: Spirit Works Distillery of Sebastopol for Straight Rye Whiskey
For a complete list of winners, go to goodfoodfdn.org.
A former lumber yard in Healdsburg is getting a new life as the Mill District, a “mixed-use” development that will combine affordable housing, luxury apartments, pedestrian promenades and a boutique hotel just steps from the historic Healdsburg Plaza.
The affordable housing development, named The Exchange, will feature 41 low-income rentals available to Healdsburg residents and workers. The affordable units were designed by PYATOK Architects in Oakland.
The 39 luxury units, designed by Seattle-based Olson Kundig and located in the district’s Canopy neighborhood, will cost between $1 million (for the smallest studio apartment) to $8.5 million (for a penthouse apartment).
The sleek and modern Canopy units are available in three configurations: “the flats,” (ranging in size from studios to three-bedroom apartments), two-level “garden homes” and penthouses with expansive patios and panoramic views (there are five penthouses in total).
The apartments have been designed in a way that make them feel both tranquil and airy. Floor-to-ceiling sliding glass walls offer a seamless transition between the indoors and outdoors. The design is clean-lined and the color palette is subdued. Dark marbles, tactile stone and stained wood cabinetry add warmth to an otherwise cool and sleek look.
The aim when designing the Canopy units was to create “intimate and social spaces,” said lead architect Kirsten Ring Murray. This was achieved through designing spacious patios and balconies, as well as open-concept chef’s kitchens, which were designed in consultation with Chef Kyle Connaughton of Michelin-starred Single Thread restaurant in Healdsburg.
The kitchens feature eat-in counters and ample space to prepare food. Patios with space for herb and vegetable gardens and wine fridges with see-through doors make cooking and entertaining easy and also add the kind of style accents that befit homes in the hub of wine country.
Fireplaces, jacuzzis and kinetic media walls are other amenities that are available in the luxury units. Underground parking with electric vehicle hookups and elevators is also in the plan.
In addition to housing developments, the Mill District will include promenades, courtyards and a 1-acre park with old-growth redwood trees. “The buildings themselves serve to shape the gardens and open space,” said Ring Murray. And the apartments’ interiors are designed to “maximize the views” of the outdoors, she added.
For more information about the luxury units available at the Mill District, call 707-314-0094 or email sales@milldistricthealdsburg.com
For more information about the affordable units at the Mill District, visit: edenhousing.org/properties/mill-district-affordable-apartments
When Sonoma-based furniture maker Michael Palace took a job as a contractor in the 1980s, he had no idea that this would lead him to discover a new medium for making art.
At the time, Palace was working as an artist in Arizona, where he created hyperrealistic paintings from photographs he took on desert hikes. He turned to home building as a means to make more money, which in turn led him to carpentry and discovering the joys of creating three-dimensional art out of wood.
Palace eventually moved to the Bay Area and later to Sonoma, where he honed his craft as a woodworker and furniture maker. He now creates fine art furniture and cabinets in his roadside studio on Arnold Drive, just outside downtown Sonoma.
When people ask Palace how long it takes him to build a piece of furniture, he jokingly tells them, “About 30 years.” While it might take him only a couple of days to build a cabinet or a chair, it is the decades of continuous practice of his craft that enable him to create furniture that are structurally sound and visually stunning.
Palace’s muse is leftover wood on construction sites. “People treat wood like it’s garbage,” he said. He collects the discarded lumber and then creates furniture from it. He likes to “resurrect (fallen) trees into art,” he said. Over the years, he’s collected not only lumber but a library of books on the history of furniture design and joinery.
Palace sources wood primarily from the town of Sonoma and the surrounding areas, which provide him an ample supply of fallen walnut, maple and eucalyptus trees. He rarely uses wood from remote areas or from vulnerable regions, like the rainforests in the tropics. These sustainable practices allow the furniture maker to sleep well at night.
The grains, textures and hues of the wood provide the “color” for Palace’s furniture pieces. He creates contrast in each piece by using woods in a variety of colors, from the ruddy red of the eucalyptus to the honey tones of the maple. He then carves wood overlays into what he calls “erosion patterns.”
Palace likes to play with form, too. He bends table- and chair legs into rounded shapes, which, while not perfectly straight, are perfectly balanced. He finds inspiration for these shapes in a variety of places, from animal legs to his daughter’s feet, when she was a teenaged ballerina dancing on pointe.
The Sonoma artist occasionally uses his painting skills when creating furniture. One desk, entitled Fragile As a Forest, has been adorned with hyperrealistic butterflies that look as though they just landed on the wood. Another cabinet has trees on its doors that appear to be reflected in glass.
Palace’s love for trees stems from his childhood years in Washington, when his family went on numerous camping trips in the woods and brought along books to study the plants and animals around them.
His goal now is to create furniture pieces that are so sustainable that they will last the same amount of time it takes for a tree to reach its full growth, which he estimates to be about 100 to 200 years. Meticulous joinery allows him to create furniture that stand the test of time as it allows the wood to expand and contract with the seasons and changing temperatures. Nails and screws, on the other hand, are more likely to cause splits and breakage, he said.
Palace attempts to capture and emphasize the living essence of the trees in each piece of furniture he creates by using raw edges and highlighting the different grains. “I really want people to value and treasure our environment,” he said. He doesn’t like to conceal any flaws, like cracks or holes in the wood. “Nature isn’t perfect,” he added.
For more information about Michael Palace’s furniture, visit michaelpalacedesign.com
Every year in March, we celebrate Women’s History Month. But did you know that the annual celebration began in Sonoma County?
In 1980, a group of Santa Rosa women formed the National Women’s History Project after noticing an absence of women in school textbooks: only 3% of the content was devoted to women throughout history and their achievements.
The National Women’s History Project (now known as the National Women’s History Alliance) mobilized and convinced Congress of the need to acknowledge and celebrate annually women’s role in history, leading to the first official National Women’s History Week during the week of March 8, 1980 (to coincide with International Women’s Day). Seven years later, the alliance led a successful campaign to officially declare the month of March as National Women’s History Month.
Since then, the alliance and institutions across the country celebrated women’s historical achievements every year. The theme for Women’s History Month changes annually and, over the years, more diverse perspectives have shaped the annual celebration. But the foremost goal of the month remains the same: to provide education on how women helped shape the nation and to empower children by introducing them to historical role models.
This year, the theme is “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope,” recognizing the countless ways women from all cultures have provided healing and hope to the world throughout history and to this day.
Sonoma County will honor the month with various in-person and virtual events, exhibitions and group discussions. Here are a few ways to learn about and celebrate women’s history this month.
Advocating for Your Health: Conversations with Dr. Eki’Shola Edwards
In tune with this month’s theme of providing healing and promoting hope, the Sonoma County Regional Library will host an online conversation series with Dr. Eki’Shola Edwards, who will be offering advice on how to choose a primary care physician, navigate preventive health guidelines and advocate for yourself in healthcare. This presentation and Q&A series will be split into three parts: from 11-11:30 a.m. on March 11, March 16 and April. This virtual event is free, although registration is required.
Breathless ‘Demi’ Debut with Champagne, Charmian and Gold
Sister-owned Breathless Wines in Healdsburg is celebrating Women’s History Month with a release of its new demi (half) bottles of brut and brut rosé, along with a presentation and book signing by award-winning author Rebecca Rosenberg. Winemaker Penny Gadd-Coster will lead a tasting of the new wines and Rosenberg will present three notable women from history from her books “Champagne Widows,” “The Secret Life of Mrs. London” and “Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor.” The event will be held at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 13, at the winery. Tickets are $49 and can be purchased on Tock.
499 Moore Lane, Healdsburg, 707-395-7300, breathlesswines.com
Bessie, Billie and Nina – Pioneering Women in Jazz
The Luther Burbank Center for the Arts will present a celebration in honor of three groundbreaking women in jazz — Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone — featuring dynamic vocalists and an all-female band. Singers Charenée Wade, Tahira Clayton and Vanisha Gould will perform classic songs from Smith, Holiday and Simone with arrangements by pianist and musical director Carmen Staff. The event will be held 7:30 p.m. March 22. Tickets are $35-49. Learn more and purchase tickets here.
50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa, 707-546-3600, lutherburbankcenter.org
Documentary Film Discussion Group: Miss Representation
The Sonoma County Library will host a virtual discussion highlighting the 2011 documentary “Miss Representation,” which exposes how the mainstream media has contributed to the underrepresentation of women in the film industry and in other positions of power. The Zoom event will be held 6-7 p.m. March 24. Register for the free event here.
STEAM Bilingual Storytime with Miss Kelly
The Sonoma County Library is celebrating Women’s History Month with a “Women in STEAM”-themed storytime and book giveaway. A children’s librarian will host the virtual storytime and do a random drawing from the attendee list to pick a winner for the book giveaway, which will include a bundle of five women’s history-themed books in a canvas tote bag. The event will be offered in English and Spanish from 10:30-11 a.m. March 30. Learn more and register for this free event here.
SRJC Women’s History Month – Honoring Women of the Resistance
Santa Rosa Junior College is hosting a variety of events for Women’s History Month, including engaging lectures and discussions with activists, directors, authors, doctors and professors spanning a variety of topics. All of the events will be held on Zoom and are free to the public. Learn more about each event and find the dates and Zoom links here.
“Agency: Feminist Art and Power”
The Museum of Sonoma County is currently presenting an exhibition in collaboration with The Feminist Art Project, curated by Karen M. Gutfreund. The exhibition, entitled “Agency: Feminist Art and Power,” features works from women of various cultural backgrounds and identities that explore the concept of individual agency while challenging societal norms. The exhibit will be on display throughout Women’s History Month and until June 5. Learn more about the exhibition here.
The curator also gives a tour of the exhibition every second Saturday of the month. The next tour will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 12. The tour is included with admission and no registration is required.
425 Seventh St., Santa Rosa, 707-579-1500, museumsc.org
Finding Our Roots: Women of Petaluma Flourishing and Blooming over the Years
The Petaluma Women’s Club and the Petaluma Garden Club have teamed up for a joint project at the Petaluma Historical Library & Museum that includs an exhibition entitled “Finding Our Roots: Women of Petaluma Flourishing and Blooming over the Years.” The exhibition will be on display at the Petaluma Museum from March 22 to April 22.
20 Fourth St., Petaluma, petalumamuseum.com
In a nutshell: Petaluma’s Easy Rider’s approachable Southern-inspired menu standouts like shrimp and grits, blue crab cakes, collards, Cajun-spice fish and fried chicken that draw you in gently rather than forcefully with an overblown caricature of Southern cuisine. Curated local ingredients and California flavors punctuate rather than dominate, accented by Anson Mills grits from South Carolina, Gulf shrimp and Atlantic blue crab.
It’s incredibly rare for a restaurant to come along at just the right time, in the right place, with the right food and the right talent.
Easy Rider in Petaluma is that rare bird that fits with the moment, with their approachable Southern-inspired menu, elevated flavors and damn good cocktails on the bustling corner of Kentucky and Washington streets in downtown Petaluma.
The warm glow from inside spills onto the sidewalk outside. Tables are in short supply at the scandalously early seating of 5:30 p.m., a hint of the restaurant’s early popularity. We sat at one of two semi-enclosed booths — a quieter, more intimate space than the bistro tables or bar area. It’s worth requesting.
Most striking is the easy mix of classic Southern and Low Country dishes like shrimp and grits, crab cakes (with blue crab), collards, Cajun-spice fish and fried chicken that draw you in gently rather than forcefully with an overblown caricature of Southern cuisine. Curated local ingredients and California flavors punctuate rather than dominate, accented by Anson Mills grits from South Carolina, Gulf shrimp and Atlantic blue crab.
Easy Rider isn’t a South-meets-California-style restaurant, but a comfortable marriage of the South and West.
The team behind Easy Rider, Chef Jared Rogers and Dustin Sullivan, aren’t newcomers to the North Bay food scene. Rogers, who grew up in the shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains, founded Marin’s Guesthouse restaurant with Sullivan in 2018, serving a well-sourced modern Cal-Italian, wood-fired cuisine. Both also worked at Larkspur’s much-loved Picco. Easy Rider extends that experience but lets Rogers loose with his native cuisine of rural Virginia.
“I’ve spent thousands Fed-exing grits here,” the baby-faced Rogers said. He’s passionate about using produce sourced from nearby but isn’t shy about bringing in Gulf-caught seafood from Sausalito’s Gulfish to get authentic flavors.
Portions are hearty, almost surprisingly so for the price, but Rogers said he wants guests to experience generous Southern-style hospitality and share around the table.
Dishes range from about $12 for some appetizers and smaller plates and top out at $38 for a New York strip steak. Mixed drinks are $13 and worth the price. We tried four appetizers, two desserts, one salad and three entrees, costing $193 before tax, tip and a $12 “living wage” fee. That’s a gut-busting amount of food for under $200.
It all works brilliantly, if not always perfectly, with heart and soul and the right stuff at just the right time.
Bacon and Cheddar Hushpuppies, $12: Hot, crispy and with just the right amount of cornmeal for its barely there cheesiness and bits of bacon. Strawberry jam with a prickle of jalapeño cuts the savoriness like a champ.
Low Country Crab Cakes, $19: Blue crab has a far more delicate flavor than Dungeness, and it shows in these well-crafted cakes. The addition of Old Bay seasoning plus rémoulade and pepper coulis could overpower but instead merely enhance.
Smoked Trout and Baby Lettuces, $17: My favorite trout salad in the world is at Blue Ridge Kitchen in Sebastopol and is more of a chopped salad with smoked pink trout. This version is equally impressive, though it includes far more greens, an impossibly light lemon dressing, apple, fennel and pecans. It’s luxurious, airy and a great foil to heavier dishes.
Southern Fried Chicken Dinner, $29: Joy, elation and clapping were in order when this impressively huge dish of fried chicken, beautifully browned mac and cheese, collard greens and a gravy boat (no kidding) came to the table. Chile honey on the fried chicken and gravy studded with bacon and an intense perfume of truffle were a little showboat-y but not unappreciated. We agreed the chicken could have used a brine for slightly moister meat, but generally steer clear of saying anything ugly about someone else’s fried chicken.
Shrimp and Grits, $30: Rogers learned grits as a young chef and knows how to make them. The perfectly cooked (no grittiness) Anson Mills grits are topped with slices of andouille sausage, pickled veggies, asparagus and Gulf shrimp. The dish comes together with a savory-spicy Creole sauce made with bell peppers, onion, herbs, butter and hot sauce that makes the dish sing. We did agree that the grits were a little loose, and personally (every Southerner has an opinion about this), I like my grits with more butter. But such minor gripes hardly stood up to our unanimously positive impression.
Sticky Toffee Cake, $11: It’s buttery, sticky, sugary, salty, gooey happiness with a scoop of ice cream. Save room.
Cajun Spiced Catch of the Day, AQ: We may be splitting hairs a bit on this, because the red rice jambalaya with crayfish and a lovely pool of dill butter was perfect. We’d give it another chance for sure. The Cajun-spiced flounder was well-cooked, but what should have been a crisp sear ended up a little gummy. Otherwise excellent.
New Orleans-Style Beignets, $11: We were too full to appreciate these fried bits of dough with hot fudge, raspberry coulis and vanilla cream, but we recommend them highly for brunch.
Pork Belly Biscuits, $16: We really wanted to love these biscuits, with crispy pork belly, Bourbon glaze and pickles. The tiny biscuits impressed, but the belly was tough and dry, making them hard to nibble without ripping the meat with your teeth.
There are plenty of Southern-inspired drinks here, along with modern takes on classics. Each was better than the last — weird, that.
Tan Lines, $13: Think margarita with a kick of green chile.
Gin-gin Gimlet, $13: Gin and ginger with sage, lime, grapefruit and tart elderberry. It’s excellent to whet your appetite.
Pisco Punch, $13: Pisco, pineapple, vermouth and bitters, this drink is like a velvet-gloved slap in the face, in a good way.
Easy Rider, 33 Washington St., Petaluma, 707-774-6233, easyriderpetaluma.com. Open 5 to 9 p.m. daily, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Sunday brunch, reservations recommended at resy.com.
Petaluma’s newest restaurant, an offshoot of the insanely popular Puerto Rican eatery Sol Food in San Rafael, is open. But hold your frijoles and manage your expectations, because it has a limited takeout-only menu rather than the full lineup of the original.
We’re not complaining though, because Sol Food’s pink frijoles, which you can get at the Petaluma location, are manna from heaven. But crave-worthy dishes like Pollo al Horno (chicken thighs); Camarones Empanizados (breaded fried prawns and plantains); and a much-loved Cubano sandwich with roast pork, ham, pickles and Swiss aren’t representative, in takeout form, of the exceptional, line-around-the-block cuisine Sol Food is known for. Think of the Petaluma spot as a sneak preview rather than a full opening.
Locals have been buzzing for more than a year about Sol Food taking over the cavernous former Sauced BBQ spot in Petaluma’s Theater District. We’re told that many Sonoma County residents have stopped at the San Rafael restaurant post-hike or post-bike ride, so it made sense for co-owners Marisol Hernandez and her husband, Victor Cielo, to head north for their third location (there’s another Sol Food in Mill Valley).
On our first visit to the Petaluma spot, we spied more than a dozen white-jacketed cooks learning the ropes in the revamped kitchen. Takeout orders were coming fast and furious, with heaping bags of food on every counter. Service was efficient and friendly, but more cooks and waitstaff are needed before the restaurant can open for dining in with a full menu.
At this point, you’ll have to wait a bit for espresso drinks (like our favorite coconut latte with sweet coconut cream), daily specials or rotisserie chicken. The full menu at the San Rafael location includes dishes like Coconut Milk French Toast, Arroz con Picadillo (ground beef with seasoned rice), coconut stew with shrimp, Mofongo (Creole prawns with garlic and tomato) and many other sandwiches, salads and soups.
If you go, we recommend the Pollo al Horno, Maduros (sweet fried yellow plantains), Cubano sandwich and Tembleque, a creamy coconut pudding with mango sauce. Don’t forget a bottle of pique (spicy vinegar) sauce to pour on … everything. Details and ordering info at solfoodpickup.com or delivery though solfoodrestaurant.com.
Open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday at 151 Petaluma Blvd S., Suite 129, but hours may vary. 707-347-5998.
