Making Wine at Home Is a Growing Trend in Sonoma County

By Matt Villano
Emily Ernst and husband Greg, home winemakers topping off their zinfandel

During harvest, the most prized possession in Emily Ernst’s Geyserville garage isn’t a motorcycle or vintage car, but a 30-gallon plastic bin of fermenting Zinfandel.

Every year since 2013, Ernst and her husband Greg have picked grapes from the 250 vines in front of their home, de-stemmed and crushed them in rented equipment in their garage, and then poured them into plastic bins to start fermenting, the first step in becoming wine.

Ultimately, the juice ends up in American oak barrels, where it remains for at least a year. And when the couple finally gets the wine into the bottle, they label it Ernst & Ernst—E&E for short. “It’s a passion we take seriously,” says Emily, who adds that the duo has won several Sonoma County Harvest Fair Wine Competition medals. “There’s something special about making your wine in a garage.”

The Ernsts aren’t the only ones embracing hobby winemaking these days. With so many people moving here to indulge in a love of wine, it’s not surprising that a growing group of locals carry on the time-honored tradition of the garagiste. These folks have fermentations bubbling away, and maybe even a barrel or two tucked away to age in the corner of a garage or shed.

With plenty of access to high-quality grapes and with professional winemakers and growers nearby to offer creative input, Sonoma has become a hotbed of the home winemaking movement. Garagistes in other parts of the country obsess no less about their wines but must to make do with lower-quality grapes that are picked and then shipped overnight — not an inspiring kickoff.

“Garage winemakers might be part of the commercial wine industry, or they might have jobs that are entirely separate, but they all share a love of wine and winemaking that they simply can’t shake,” says 86-year-old Healdsburg resident Bob Bennett, considered the grandfather of the local home winemaking movement. “Once you get a taste of what it’s like to make your own, you get hooked.”

Wine presses and barrels and other equipment at the Beverage People, the landmark store in Santa Rosa that helps SoCo home winemakers with the equipment and advice they need.
Wine presses and barrels and other equipment at the Beverage People, the landmark store in Santa Rosa that helps home winemakers with the equipment and advice they need. (Chris Hardy)

Getting started

If anybody knows about garage wines, it’s Bennett. He’s the founder of Garage Enologists of the North County, or GENCO (the name is a subtle nod to the movie “The Godfather”), which is one of two popular garage winemaking clubs in Sonoma County. The other group, Sonoma Home Winemakers, is based in the town of Sonoma. “It’s developed into a real community,” says Bennett.

He started his group in 1994 with a classified ad in the Press Democrat, and the group now has nearly 100 members. They get together monthly, lately over Zoom, to share best practices and listen

to speakers, often well-known winemakers. Until recently, meetings included plenty of tastings, and members encourage each other to submit wines for judging at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair, which rewards home winemakers in a variety of categories.

According to Bennett, the biggest difference between garage winemaking and making wine at a commercial winery facility is scale. Garage winemakers usually are working with a few tons and no more than a couple of barrels. Another difference: Because they’re not bonded, amateur winemakers aren’t legally allowed to sell their wine. Each household can make up to 200 gallons per year; the wine must be given away as gifts.

Because home winemakers are working with such small quantities, they usually buy grapes from friends or local growers looking to offload surplus. One great spot to find grapes of all varieties: an online marketplace run by the Sonoma County Winegrowers. Procuring equipment is important, too. Some garage winemakers own their equipment or share with friends through winemaking clubs or word of mouth. Others turn to The Beverage People, a Santa Rosa company that sells winemaking equipment and supplies, including small-scale crushers, de-stemmers, and presses along with fermentation bins, barrels, bottlers, and more.

Gabe Jackson, president and CFO of The Beverage People, says most customers come in with some basic ideas about winemaking and are exited to experiment and learn by trial and error. The shop also offers garage winemakers the opportunity to submit their wines to a wine lab for information about sugars and acid balance.

“You’d be amazed at the kinds of questions we receive and the conversations we get into,” says Jackson. “People take this stuff very seriously, and it’s great to be able to get them the things they need.’

Making it happen

The winemaking process begins in earnest with harvest. Most garage winemakers like to pick their own fruit to establish a connection with the land, often making harvest and crush into a social event with family and neighbors.

Quinn Donovan, a member of GENCO who recently completed the viticulture program at Santa Rosa Junior College, planned an entire Saturday last fall around harvesting Tempranillo with friends. They got up early to pick at a vineyard outside Windsor and brought the fruit back to Donovan’s garage. After lunch, they de-stemmed the fruit, crushed it, and transferred it into bins to ferment.

“It’s hard work, but I look forward to the process of picking and crushing all year long,” says Donovan, whose day job is in rural development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “If I sold the wine for money, it wouldn’t be fun.”

After anywhere from 10-21 days, most of the wine is ready to be transferred into storage vessels. Some winemakers age their juice in oak barrels, just like they do in the big leagues. Others, such as Donovan and his friend, invest in giant glass jars dubbed carboys. Then comes perhaps the hardest part of garage winemaking — standing by and waiting while the wine matures. For white wines, this can six months or longer. For reds, it can be years.

Gary Alvey, a retired firefighter in Healdsburg, is a home winemaker and says one of his favorite moments in the process is taking that first taste and to see how a vintage is shaping up. Over the last 15 years, Alvey and his winemaking partner Mike Sinclair have experienced serious success, taking home two double gold honors for their Sauvignon Blanc. But that recognition pales alongside the fact that his friends think the wine is delicious.

“There’s nothing like seeing the look on a friend’s face when they pop open your wine, swirl it around, and say, ‘Man, that’s good!’” he says, noting that he served the award-winning Sauvignon Blanc at his daughters’ weddings in 2015 and 2017. “At the end of the day, that’s really what this entire hobby is all about.”

Feeling inspired?

Budding hobby winemakers in Sonoma County have plenty of resources. A good first step is to reach out to a local home winemaking club for ideas and mentorship. Fall is the perfect time to get started, as most grapes are picked in September and October and are used fresh.

Home winemaker clubs:

Garage Enologists of North County (GENCO), gencowinemakers.com

Sonoma Home Winemakers, sonomahomewine.org

Equipment:

The Beverage People, 1845 Piner Road, Santa Rosa, 707-544-2520, thebeveragepeople.com

Education:

Santa Rosa Junior College Wine Studies program, ag.santarosa.edu/wine-studies

Grape marketplace:

Sonoma County Winegrowers, sonomawinegrape.org

Becoming Farmers: A Couple Builds Their Dream Small Business in Sonoma

By Derek Moore

Chris and Lori Melançon were living in San Francisco and burning out on the hustle of city life when they started having discussions about buying land and becoming farmers. “We were doing the city thing, the rat race so to speak, working really hard at our corporate jobs and still not able to quite afford the apartment we were in,” Lori recalls.

They talked about purchasing a small plot of land where they could meditate, garden, and, in Lori’s case, practice yoga. After reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” Michael Pollan’s groundbreaking book on the ethical choices we make with the foods we produce and consume, Lori wondered whether she and Chris could be making more responsible choices. They thought the dream of having their own small farm was something that would have to wait until they retired from their current jobs. But then Chris spotted an opportunity.

It was an online real estate listing for a ranch house built in 1920 on four acres of grazing land just southeast of the town of Sonoma. “When he showed me the picture, I had a feeling,” Lori says.

Seven years later, the couple live full-time on the site of what is now Lola Sonoma Farms (“Lola” is Lori’s nickname) and oversee a thriving enterprise. It’s been harder than they ever imagined. Chris said had the couple known then what they know now, they would have ramped things up more slowly, taken a little more time to understand what they were getting into — and started with better fences. “One thing we learned is when you put male and female animals together, they will procreate,” he says with a laugh.

A handsome Wyandotte rooster keeps watch. (Rebecca Gosselin)
Livestock guardian dogs Coal, left, and his sister Kat are a cross between two breeds, Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd. (Rebecca Gosselin)

They are not typical farmers. Chris, who grew up in Southern California, honored his family tradition by graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and serving three years as a light infantry officer. Afterward, he went to business school, which led to a career in biotechnology. He met Lori, who grew up in the Bay Area and has an MBA, at the company where they both worked.

Other than tending a small garden near their apartment and taking a few gardening classes, the couple had zero experience with the gritty day-to-day reality of growing crops or raising animals before launching Lola Sonoma Farms. They have since learned by trial and error, by taking advice and counsel from other farmers and by attending classes and networking sessions.

Lola Sonoma Farms produces all kinds of row crops, including rainbow chard. (Rebecca Gosselin)
Lori cuddles a one-week-old mini-Nubian goat. (Rebecca Gosselin)

The Melançons grow a range of produce in hoop houses and beds, which they sell at farmer’s markets and to restaurants. Barns and pastures support 40 hens, 17 goats, 32 pigs and a small herd of sheep. Customers can purchase pork through a farm share program. They also keep bees, offer workshops for making goat cheese, and breed livestock guardian dogs to fend off predators, including coyotes, foxes, and raptors.

The couple’s mission is to further regenerative agriculture and put back into the land what they take from it. They’ve received grant funding to plant a hedgerow that supports organic pest control and pollinators. “We’re not going to solve climate change on 12 acres, but we’re doing our part,” Lori says.

Native bush mallow in bloom along a hedgerow. (Rebecca Gosselin)

The work is hard, and the days and nights are long. This spring, Lori bedded down in a stall with a goat that had gone into labor. Two of the kids were born without complications, but a third was breach, forcing Lori to reach inside and turn the baby, likely saving its life and the life of the mother. Such life-and-death moments carry profound weight for the couple, who say losing an animal unexpectedly is the hardest part of working the farm. “We’ve seen enough of those instances, more than I care to admit,” Chris says. “But when I talk to other farmers, they say they’ve all been there, that it’s part of the profession. You have to focus more on the beginning and not the endings, and move on.”

Chris works the farm full-time, while Lori still has a biotech job. One silver lining of the coronavirus outbreak is that she has been able to work remotely from the couple’s home. Most days, she rises before dawn, pours herself coffee and logs on to a computer for meetings with her colleagues on the East Coast. In the early afternoon, she changes into her grubbies and heads outside for farm chores.

On warm summer evenings, the couple enjoys home-cooked meals on their outdoor patio in the glow of string lights. Farm volunteers, many of them WWOOFers (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms), are often invited to share the experience. “You get to meet so many people from around the world, and there’s no better way to share a relationship than over food – especially food you’ve grown,” Lori says.

Having traveled widely, Chris says they can’t imagine a place more suited to fostering their dreams than the place they call home. “I can say pretty confidently I don’t think there is another place on the planet that values the small farmer more than Sonoma County.”

This Sebastopol Shop Offers One-of-a-Kind Native American Arts and Clothing

By Karen Kizer 
Leather artist and Comanche descendent Kerry Mitchell, owner of Native Riders in Sebastopol. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)

“History seems to be repeating itself”, says leather craftsperson Kerry Mitchell after reopening his Sebastopol business, Native Riders, following months of closure due to the pandemic.

Nearly 50 years ago, Mitchell’s family’s Native American arts and clothing shop in Laguna Beach also closed abruptly. The property on which they operated the store was converted into a parking lot, he explains—ironically enough, right around the time that Joni Mitchell was singing those very lines: ‘They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.’

Mitchell, whose family heritage is Comanche, learned the craft of leatherwork from his father. He cuts, ties, and sews leather, often adding embellishments such as beads, feathers, or coins. He also creates exquisite “augmented denim” and works with vintage Pendleton wool blankets and jackets.

Leather artist and Comanche descendent Kerry Mitchell, owner of Native Riders in Sebastopol. (Photo by John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
Leather artist and Comanche descendent Kerry Mitchell, owner of Native Riders in Sebastopol. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)

Mitchell says work is his therapy and estimates he puts in about 70 hours
a week into his craft and managing the shop, which sells the work of artists from 26 different tribes. He goes to his crafting bench to tinker with pieces in between helping customers, many of whom are fellow artists.

While assisting one customer with a question about materials to make a ceremonial fan, Mitchell suggests crafting a handle from antler instead of wood and adds a precious scrap of smoky-smelling cured hide to the purchase. These details are important, he explains. “It’s more traditional.”

851 Gravenstein Highway S., Sebastopol, 707-829-8544, nativeridersarts.com

Iconic Sonoma County Restaurant Turns 40

By Heather Irwin
Then: Bill and Cindy Price of San Jose enjoy lunch on the patio at John Ash & Co. restaurant at River Rd and Hwy 101 north of Santa Rosa. (The Press Democrat)

John Ash and Co. is celebrating its 40th year in business this month. For a human, that’s middle age. For a restaurant, it’s a miracle.

A restaurant lasting four decades or more is so exceedingly rare that comprehensive statistics for restaurants open more than 10 years don’t even exist. But it’s also exceptional when a restaurant engenders an entirely new genre of cooking, as John Ash and Co. did with Wine Country cuisine.

Taking cues from his time in France, notably Provence, Chef Ash put the bounty of Sonoma County’s farms, ranches and coasts to good use — the original farm to table — rather than simply mimicking other cuisines and using imported or canned products.

Chef John Ash. (Courtesy of John Ash)

In 2000, Ash sold the restaurant he started in 1980, but it continues to carry his name, under the leadership of Executive Chef Thomas Schmidt. And from now until Oct. 25, Schmidt will prepare 40th anniversary prix fixe dinners to pay homage to many of Ash’s early dishes, including Hog Island Oysters Rockefeller, Baby Greens with estate pears and roasted beets, Beef Wellington, Alaskan Halibut in spicy coconut broth, Sticky Date Pudding Cake and a chocolate caramel tart with vanilla bean gelato.

The dinner is $65 per person, and diners can enjoy the restaurant’s lovely outdoor patio. To make a reservation, go to vintnersresort.com/dining

We talked to Chef Ash about his early inspirations, the secrets of a restaurant lasting 40 years and his early influences.

Is there a secret to a restaurant lasting for 40 years?

Hard to believe that John Ash & Company has been around for 40 years. It is often said in the restaurant business that if you can make it for five years, you are doing good. The reason that the restaurant has lasted so long is clearly through the hard work and dedication of so many talented people. I helped start it, but it then took on a life of its own.

What was Sonoma County like when you started John Ash & Co in 1980?

Forty years ago, Sonoma County was a quite different place. Yes, there were wineries, but not so many. (There was) agriculture of all kinds; dairy, cheese, poultry, lamb, beef, fish and shellfish, plus amazing produce were all here, but generally it got shipped down the road to San Francisco or even farther south to Los Angeles.

You’re often called the “Father of Wine Country cuisine,” but in the 1980s there weren’t really any farm-to-table restaurants featuring local products here. How did that change?

It took some time for Sonoma to be recognized for its culinary brilliance. I came to Sonoma County on a dare, having worked in San Francisco for several years. I loved coming up to Sonoma to visit. The countryside and its agriculture reminded me of my time in France. A winemaker friend invited me up for a meal at one of the “best” restaurants in Santa Rosa. It was the middle of summertime and, despite having amazing fresh products nearby, they were serving canned vegetables. My immediate thought: “I could be a big fish in a small pond,” and with the help of some doctor friends, I opened the first John Ash & Company in Montgomery Village in 1980.

A pivotal article appeared in W Magazine in the mid 1980s which described Sonoma as America’s Provence. A nice review of the restaurant was included and that encouraged favorable reviews from the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and a slew of culinary magazines such as Food & Wine, Bon Appetit and others. We were launched!

What were some of your early influences?

My bent was very much the same as I experienced in France: fresh seasonal and local foods, ethically grown and carefully prepared with generally French technique. We also emphasized that wine was an especially important part of the meal and an important focus of our offerings. We were one of the first to offer wine suggestions with menu foods. For many years we took on the role of “ecole du vin,” offering regular wine tasting classes and events.

Your foundation is in European culinary traditions, but you also love Asian cuisine. How did that come about?

At the end of the 1980s I was lucky enough to be invited to Japan to share ideas and help promote California food and wine. I spent a month or two each year for the next 15 years doing these promotions and discovered the elegance and sophistication of Japanese cuisine. This led me to a now-lifelong exploration of Asian foods, especially Japanese and Southeast Asian.

What is your culinary legacy?

Five cookbooks, three years on the Food Network and participation with ethical agricultural organizations such as Seafood Watch and the Chef’s Collaborative. I owe it all to that modest Montgomery Village restaurant.

Around Healdsburg with Erika Dawkins

By Karen Kizer

Bon Ton Studio owner Erika Dawkins remembers her parents having lots of visitors. After traveling and studying fashion, she now understands why her hometown attracts so many — like those come from- afar wine interns working the fall harvest. Dawkins met and married one of those interns, Ross Dawkins, a South African winemaker.

Ross, Erika and Sophie Dawkins. (Courtesy of Bon Ton Studio)

Bon Ton Studio is the brick-and-mortar iteration of the online business Erika started while living in southwest Australia for her husband’s job. It offers imported housewares and apparel in her signature

aesthetic: natural materials, a subdued palette, and punches of vibrant color. Her elegant storefront sits across from several businesses owned by friends from her school days, including the El Sombrero taco shop and Noble Folk Ice Cream & Pie Bar. She laughs, “It’s like a Healdsburg High School reunion on this corner.”

Click through the above gallery to see some of Erika’s favorite Healdsburg spots.

 

Spice Up Fall with This Chile Recipe

By Michele Anna Jordan

The names of fall chiles are as colorful as the chiles themselves: Lemon Drop, Satan’s Kiss, Trinidad Scorpion, Carolina Reaper. Cinderella gets its name from its squat, pumpkin-like shape, and the Lunchbox is sweet and mild enough for a child’s lunch.

All chiles start out green; some stay green to maturity. Others take on an array of fall colors as they ripen, from pale yellow to orange, red, purple, even chocolate. Chile season in Sonoma continues until the first frost, usually sometime in November in most areas of the county. Some farmers anticipate this moment, pulling plants and hanging them in a cool barn, where they can be harvested for a few more weeks.

Stuffed Poblanos with Corn Salsa

Serves 4

• 8 poblano chiles

• 4 to 6 ounces Vella Mezzo Secco, Bellwether Carmody, Matos St. George, or similar cheese, sliced

For corn salsa

• 1 large ear of fresh corn

• 2 tablespoons minced red onion

• 1 small serrano chile, minced

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 tablespoon lime juice

• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

• salt to taste

For serving

• 8 corn tortillas, hot but not crisp

• 1 lime, cut in wedges 

First, make the corn salsa. Cut the kernels off of a large ear of fresh corn, and place in a small bowl. Toss the kernels with the remaining ingredients and a couple pinches of salt. Adjust salt and lime juice to taste.

Using tongs, sear the chiles over a high flame or very hot burner, turning as their skins take on color and loosen. Set aside, cover, and let cool. When cool, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, then use your fingers to peel off the charred skins of the chiles as completely as possible. Cut off the stem ends and pull out the seed cores. Divide the cheese between the chiles and insert into the cavity. Put the stuffed peppers on a lightly oiled baking sheet, set on the middle rack of the oven, and cook until the cheese is melted, about 6 to 7 minutes.

Remove the chiles from the oven. Top with corn salsa, and enjoy hot with corn tortillas and lime wedges.

Volunteers Harvest Surplus Produce for Locals in Need

By Ethan Varian
Duskie Estes with the Farm to Pantry program, Friday, July 10, 2020, picks peaches at a west Dry Creek ranch (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat) 2020

A growing number of volunteers are working to make sure that Sonoma’s fall bounty gets to locals in need by harvesting surplus produce that would otherwise go to waste. Duskie Estes, a popular local chef and Food Network star, says her Healdsburg nonprofit, Farm to Pantry, has over 180 gleaners gathering produce six days a week for food pantries and aid groups.

And Dani Wilcox, founder of Sonoma County Gleaners, says more residents have asked her group to pick fruit and vegetables from smaller backyard gardens. “The people that have that surplus feel they won’t let it go to waste this year,” she explains.

David Goodman, chief executive of the Redwood Empire Food Bank, says

gleaned produce is often a key ingredient in the premade entrees the food pantry makes and distributes.

These donations are needed, especially as the organization has seen demand for its emergency food boxes increase by 300% since the pandemic began. “It’s an opportunity for people to engage in hunger relief who didn’t necessarily have the ability to contribute in other ways,” he says.

How One Healdsburg Restaurant is Mastering Socially-Distanced Dining

By Dana Rebmann
Day boat scallops with summer squash and tomato confit Wedding at Barndiva
Day boat scallops with summer squash and tomato confit at Barndiva in Healdsburg. (Chris Hardy/For Sonoma Magazine)

We’re all craving visits to our favorite restaurants, without face masks and coronavirus concerns. But, until we enter the post-pandemic era, restaurant owners across the country are working hard to make our dining experience as enjoyable and safe as possible. While we are impressed with the incredible efforts all of our local restaurants continue to make, we particularly enjoyed a recent lunch outing at Barndiva.

The owners of this Healdsburg restaurant, known for its farm-to-fork fare, seem to have thought of everything when adjusting to our new reality.

Reservations for lunch and dinner are required. When you check-in alongside the building — this is the closest you’ll get to stepping inside the restaurant — your hands are spritzed with hand sanitizer. (On our visit, they used sanitizer made by local distilleries Sonoma Brothers Distilling and Sipsong Spirits).

Before you are shown to your table, there’s a temperature check of all diners in your party. This is just the first in a series of steps taken to keep diners and employees healthy.

Menus are printed on cardstock paper, but they’re disposable. A table number and phone number are clearly noted at the top; the Wi-Fi network and password can be found at the bottom. Gone are the days of waiting for the server to appear: all ordering is done via text from diners’ personal cellphones. Patrons can also call the number if they prefer to have a conversation. Communication with restaurant staff during our visit was swift, spirited, and seamless.

“I really just thought about how we could best use the technology we already have to mitigate the interactions between our employees and the general public,” said Lukka Feldman, co-founder and owner of Barndiva.

Perhaps a sign of the times, Feldman says only a handful of diners have arrived empty handed and had to run to their car or nearby hotel room to pick up their cellphone.

“I would say 90 percent of the feedback is overwhelmingly positive,” said Feldman. “Not just for right now, but many have said they prefer this style of service and would like to see this remaining after we are all allowed to roam around unmasked and get back to ‘normal’.”

After the meal, the credit card used to secure your reservation is automatically charged to cover your tab. A 19 percent service charge is added to all bills.

It’s minimal contact at Barndiva, but the exceptional quality of the food and setting remains. Vases still overflow with cut flowers from the Philo farm and, although I didn’t count, I think the trees in the garden now outnumber the tables. Aside from the servers and staff in gloves and masks, having lunch at Barndiva almost felt normal.

Cafe Citti Leaving Kenwood

By Heather Irwin
10/28/2012: D4: PC: Cafe Citti in Kenwood on Wednesday, October 17, 2012. (Jeff Kan Lee/ The Press Democrat)

The owners of Kenwood’s iconic Italian eatery, Cafe Citti, have announced they will be leaving the Sonoma Valley and moving into the former Whole Pie location on Fourth Street in Santa Rosa. Also, the restaurant will end in-house dining, which has been limited to outdoor seating only during the pandemic, and instead focus on take-out at the new location.

Luca and Linda Citti cited a combination of reasons for the move, including the need for renovations to the building they’ve leased for more than 30 years, coronavirus restrictions, power outages and the recent Glass fire that burned through parts of Kenwood.

The family-friendly roadhouse is a longtime favorite of locals, winemakers and ranchers with its approachable Italian classics, stellar Caesar salad and huge sandwiches. In my teens, it was a much-anticipated pit stop on the seemingly interminable drives from Santa Rosa to Sonoma, where we got the tuna-egg-mayo sandwiches I’ll never forget. The restaurant also was featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”

Related: Guy Fieri's Favorite Sonoma County Restaurants

Here is the full announcement from the owners of Cafe Citti:

“It is with a heavy heart that after 30 years of business in Kenwood, we announce that Cafe Citti will be relocating. Our landlords have made the decision to address the stability of the building and will be making renovations that will take several months. Due to the new restrictions placed upon us during this time of Covid, the annual PSPS shut off‘s, and most recently the Glass fire, we will be leaving the dining portion of our business behind and we will concentrate our focus on continuing with our take-out business at a new location in Santa Rosa. We will be occupying the space next door to Hank’s Creekside at 2792 4th Street in Santa Rosa and we look forward to seeing your friendly faces there. On behalf of ourselves and our staff we would like to thank you for your patronage over the last 30 years and particularly the community of Kenwood for supporting us through thick and thin. Our hearts will always be in Kenwood but we are excited about the next chapter.
Please stay tuned for an opening date.
Luca and Linda Citti”

Sudden Closure for Popular Downtown Santa Rosa Restaurant

By Heather Irwin
Bollywood Bar & Clay Oven on the plaza in downtown Santa Rosa. (photo by John Burgess/The Press Democrat)

Five weeks of smoke and ash proved to be the final blow to downtown Santa Rosa restaurant Bollywood, which marked its last day in business Friday after months of reduced service amid pandemic restrictions.

Owner Sonu Chandi of Chandi Hospitality Group said that despite encouraging patio dining for several months, ongoing prohibitions on indoor dining coupled with an early and prolonged fire season made the Fourth Street restaurant a losing proposition.

“We tried, we really went out of our way, and Bollywood was a successful concept that people loved, but the odds were just against us,” said Chandi. “You can’t eat inside and then you can’t be outside. What do you do?”

The upscale Indian eatery was an homage to the Chandi family’s Indian roots and a restaurant their patriarch had planned to open himself six years ago in Santa Rosa. It had reached its two-year milestone just days before the closure announcement Thursday and was part of a portfolio of downtown restaurants owned by the Chandis, including Stout Brothers on Fourth Street and Mercato Pasta and Produce (formerly Bibi’s Burger Bar) on Third Street which both closed this year.

The Chandis closed County Bench, their previous restaurant in the Fourth Street space, to make way for Bollywood.

Another Chandi venture, Beer Baron, is a joint project with Bay area restaurateurs Harpreet and Manraj Judge and will remain open. Chandi said that property is doing well.

Bollywood joins a growing list of Sonoma County food establishments that have closed since March in a nightmare year for restaurants. Bistro 29, Acre Coffee, Bruno’s and Whole Pie folded in Santa Rosa, Tisza Bistro and Jaded Toad were shuttered in Windsor and Brass Rabbit in Healdsburg, Osteria Stellina in Point Reyes and Whisper Sisters in Petaluma have all closed.

“It remains very challenging for our restaurants to stay open without indoor dining. They’ve been hit again and again this year between the pandemic and the fires and having to constantly shift their business models to accommodate,” said Cadance Allinson, executive director for Santa Rosa’s Downtown District, an affiliate of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber. “We’re doing everything we can to try and keep them going and encourage our community to support them however they’re most comfortable ― whether dining outdoors or ordering takeout.”

In Sonoma County, restaurants continue to pay sky-high rents ― challenging enough before the pandemic, but untenable for many as public health restrictions continue to curb business and federal disaster loans dry up.

While Chandi declined to discuss specifics about the monthly lease cost for Bollywood, he said that finding creative solutions to rent issues should be a high priority for landlords. “Many more restaurants will close if they don’t,” he said.

On the income side, Bollywood’s revenue was down more than half from 2019, hampered by coronavirus restrictions that began in March and the fires that erupted first in August and continue to burn. Chandi said that last year the restaurant grossed more than $1.48 million. For the same period this year, they grossed around $600,000 — not enough to keep up the lease and cover other overhead, he said.

“We’ve pushed hard to keep it going, and the whole team put so much effort in but we’re dealing with labor challenges and inconsistent revenue,” Chandi said.

Chandi said his family’s hospitality group has sustained itself with its diversified holdings, including eight Mountain Mike’s pizza restaurants in Sonoma and Mendocino County and franchise management of more than a dozen others. Chandi said another Mountain Mike’s is in development in Cloverdale.

The built-in, quick-service delivery model for pizzerias has boosted that business during the pandemic. QSR magazine, a restaurant industry publication, reports that 61% of Americans have ordered pizza delivery during the pandemic.

In comparison, low-margin, high-overhead restaurants with large staffs are a bigger risk. Chandi said the family business expanded into that sector because he has long been a cheerleader for the downtown Santa Rosa restaurant scene and wanted to add to the quality and vibrancy with unique, locally owned eateries.

“With these (downtown) restaurants we’ve gone out of our comfort zone as entrepreneurs because we thought they’d be a great addition to the local restaurant scene, but obviously, these were going to be the most challenged ones,” he said, referring to the pandemic.

The closure of Bollywood is especially emotional for the family. Prior to opening the restaurant, the family had operated the space as County Bench, a high-end California-style restaurant with a large selection of wine. When that concept flagged, the family turned to their roots.

Chandi patriarch Gurcharan Singh Chandi spent nearly two decades as the owner of an Indian restaurant in Walnut Creek and in 2014 planned to open a restaurant called Monsoon in downtown Santa Rosa. The restaurant never panned out, and the family tested the waters with a popular “secret” Indian menu at Bibi’s Burger Bar before opening Bollywood. The Chandis hired high-profile Miami chef Niven Patel to create the original Bollywood menu.

For now, Chandi isn’t saying a final goodbye to the Bollywood concept.

“I envision Bollywood will come back. I truly think we built something special, with a future. When and where time will tell,” he said.