Outdoor dining at the Girl & the Fig in Sonoma. (Courtesy of the Girl & the Fig)
Just in time for prime patio dining season (and for us to enjoy these unusually warm pre-summer nights), online reservation service Open Table has released its annual roundup of the 100 best al fresco dining restaurants in America. This year, one Sonoma County restaurant – The Girl and the Fig in Sonoma – and two Napa Valley spots made the list. Click through the gallery for more details and check out our list of the top Sonoma County restaurants for outdoor dining.
The Open Table list, which highlights restaurants that offer “stunning views, delicious menus and incredible outdoor dining experiences worth the trip,” is generated by diners using the reservation service. Honorees are determined after analyzing more than 12,000,000 reviews of more than 30,000 restaurants across the nation.
Lagunitas Brewing Co. products from left, DayTime, a 98 calorie low alcohol IPA, Super Cluster, a citra-hopped mega ale, Hop sparkling water and cans for their flagship IPA. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
In what is maybe the best example of service journalism we’ve seen in a while, the brilliant staff of The Washington Post’s Food and Weekend sections decided to answer one of the summer’s most important questions: Which low-calorie beer is the best?
Turns out, it’s none other than Petaluma’s own Lagunitas DayTime IPA, which took home top honors from a highly competitive field.
Lagunitas DayTime IPA, clocking in at 4 percent ABV and 98 calories, was praised for its drinkability, crispness and fresh taste. The Post called the beer the clear preference among its panel of taste-testers, who sampled five beers in all.
To qualify for the taste test, the brews had to follow a set of guidelines put in place by the Post team: No light lagers (they weren’t interested in tasting beers trying to compete with Miller Lite, they explained), wide availability and close to 100 calories.
Lagunitas DayTime IPA beat out Kona Kanaha Blonde Ale (4.2 percent ABV, 99 calories), Boulevard Easy Sport Ale (4.1 percent ABV, 99 calories), Dogfish Head Slightly Mighty Lo-Cal IPA (4 percent ABV, 95 calories) and Harpoon Rec. League (3.8 percent ABV, 120 calories).
Tough competition, to be sure. Makes us wonder how they’d fare compared to some of our favorite Sonoma County summertime sippers. Click through the gallery to see what beers we can’t wait to bring to barbecues all summer long.
Singer-songwriter Star Amerasu, a.k.a. Ah Mer Ah Su, is an artist that defies classification. Her voice has a unique timbre—Paper Magazine calls it “a hybrid of Nina Simone meets Anohni meets Britney Spears.” Her music, sometimes labeled “poptronic,” transcends genres—it blends “a message of activism and self-love” with electronic beats and “catchy-yet-hypnotic pop sounds.” But there’s one thing about Amerasu that remains simple and clear: she stays true to her first name.
A rapidly rising star on the music scene, the Oakland artist’s EP Rebecca was named one of KQED’s best Bay Area albums of 2017. A year later, Billboard picked her debut album, Star, as one of the top 20 albums by LGBTQ artists in 2018. This Father’s Day Sunday, June 16, she will headline new queer music festival “Father’s Gay” at Santa Rosa’s Whiskey Tip. Amerasu will be joined on stage by a lineup of local performers celebrating young LGBTQ+ artists and activists—Oakland-based foursome Copyslut, electro-acoustic artist Tyler Holmes, mixed media visual artist and multi instrumentalist El Primo Inocente, and lo-fi experimental pop project Kohinoorgasm are some of the featured acts.
“This lineup is my dream lineup,” exclaims event organizer Chelsea Rose Kurnick, who is also Vice Chair of Positive Images, a local nonprofit organization that provides support and advocacy to Sonoma County’s LGBTQ+ youth and young adults (20 percent of Father’s Gay ticket proceeds will benefit Positive Images).
Flyer design by Chelsea Rose Kurnick with art by Rubri Simon.
Kurnick believes in the power of music as a tool for activism, mentioning the liberating role of dance music in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. She hopes to amplify this energy with a festival that brings together the LGBTQ+ community while also showcasing local performers who are “loud in their multiple identities.”
“Ah Mer Ah Su’s music has an emotional core and pop hooks that will reach anyone with a pulse, but she’s explicitly writing from her experience as a Black transgender woman,” says Kurnick and adds “Copyslut play raucous cabaret rock dressed in lingerie, and sex worker justice is at the heart of their message.”
In addition to musical performances on an outdoor stage, the Father’s Gay festival will also feature a DJ, art-making and drink specials created in partnership with spirits brand Diageo (proceeds from drink sales will benefit Positive Images).
Tickets to the festival are $25, a relatively low price compared to similar music events. Kurnick says her intent is to create an affordable experience that “isn’t pressuring people to buy something, to look any certain way or be any certain way,” instead, she wants the festival to be “a space for queer people to feel safe just being.” She hopes that the musical lineup and the inclusive nature of the event will attract Sonoma County locals as well as LGBTQ+ people from across the Bay Area.
Bronwyn Simmons contributed to this article.
What: Father’s Gay queer music festival When: Sunday, June 16, 2019, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Where: Whiskey Tip, 1910 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa Tickets: $25, 20 percent benefits Positive Images, purchase online at fathersgay.bpt.me. More information: Iridescence Events was founded in 2019 by local event producer Chelsea Rose Kurnick. She hopes to make Father’s Gay an annual event. Kurnick is also the Vice Chair of Positive Images.
Found in Sebastopol, Handline has it all; seafood, burgers, tacos, local beer and wine. The restaurant also has outdoor picnic tables, perfect for your dog to join you for dinner. 935 Gravenstein Hwy S, Sebastopol, 707-827-3744, handline.com.
Dining outside is delightful. But what about when you’re more focused on a few Bloody Mary’s, a cold beer or a tasty glass of rosé with a few nibbles? That’s our idea of summer fun in the sun. Click through the gallery for a few of our favorite family-friendly, sometimes dog-friendly, spots to cool off.
Wine tasting at Grand Cru Custom Crush in Windsor. (Beth Schlanker/The Press Democrat)
Sonoma County is home to more than 425 wineries. Some of them are owned by big players and notable wine families — E&J Gallo, Jackson Family Wines, Ferrari-Carano, Boisset to mention a few — but many of them are small, family-run businesses.
While popular destinations like Boisset’s Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma and Kendall-Jackson’s Wine Estate in Santa Rosa are definitely worth a visit, visitors and locals should also make time to explore smaller — but just as mighty — wine producers.
Some of these wineries may not have grand facilities or even a tasting room, pouring instead at their office, a co-op or pop-up events. But they all contribute in a big way to making Sonoma County one of the top wine regions in the world.
Click through the gallery for some of our favorite small wineries (producing less than 1,000 cases per year).
Mimosa chicken sandwich at Mimosa Cafe in Rohnert Park. Heather Irwin/PD
After 33 years as the culinary crossroads of early bird diners and late night bar crawlers, Adel’s Restaurant on College Ave. in Santa Rosa has closed.
Windows are papered over and the sign has been removed at the 24-hour café that owner Mike Atallah purchased in 1986 at the triangular junction of College, Mendocino and B streets, but it’s not the end of the road for the historic cafe.
This summer, Atallah plans to reopen the renovated Santa Rosa Adel’s space as a hipper, more modern brunch-style restaurant called Cafe Mimosa. Offering seven kinds of mimosas (of course), waffles, Benedicts, biscuits and gravy as well as burgers, sandwiches and lunch fare, he says it was time for a change.
Mimosa chicken sandwich at Mimosa Cafe in Rohnert Park. Heather Irwin/PD
“When the sign came down I had tears in my eyes,” said Atallah. “In 1986, Adel’s was perfect but now it’s different. The place had been there so long, and it got a little tired,” he said. Atallah had owned a second Adel’s in Healdsburg, but has since sold it to another operator.
Atallah hopes that the revamped concept will bring in a younger crowd for $15 bottomless mimosas on Saturday and Sunday and daily raspberry, pineapple, grapefruit, mango and blackberry $6 mimosas. The Mendocino and College Ave. restaurant’s new 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. hours will leave the Tipsy Triangle bar crowd with limited downtown dining options after 10 p.m., but on the plus side, bottomless mimosas and French toast. mmmmm.
“We start at 5 a.m. making fresh food,” said Atallah, who is focusing on organic and fresh ingredients instead of frozen and canned ones.
Veggie Benedict at Mimosa Cafe in Rohnert Park. Heather Irwin/PD
Though there are some lighter dishes, there will still be plenty of gut-busters on the Mimosa menu including a thick brick of sandwich with breaded chicken, chipotle aioli and pickles, the Veggie Benedict — champagne Hollandaise slathered on a pile of veggies and perfectly-poached eggs — as well as tri-tip and club sandwiches, a Reuben, chilaquiles, steak and eggs, grilled pork chops and salads.
It’s not the first Cafe Mimosa for Atallah, however. He and his son Yazen opened their first Cafe Mimosa in Rohnert Park in May. It’s already become a popular spot on the west side of town.
“You just have to keep using your brain in business,” he said of the change, “and I’m not getting any younger.”
You can check out Cafe Mimosa in Rohnert Park at 451 Rohnert Park Expressway, 707-595-3764.
Guests at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa on opening day of the new location after the Tubbs fire destroyed the original location in October 2017. (Heather Irwin / Sonoma Magazine)
At 11:28 a.m., exactly two minutes before Willi’s Wine Bar was set to officially open, Chef Mark Stark threw the door open to a waiting crowd of 10 people at the Town & Country shopping center in Santa Rosa. “I guess we’re opening a little early,” he said as the first guests entered the 3,000 square foot dining room and bar marking the start of a new chapter in the restaurant’s history.
“It’s been exactly 550 days since I last saw you,” said Marynye Wagner as she and husband Wells, both of Santa Rosa, hugged Mark and Terri Stark. She showed the restaurateurs a receipt dated October 7, 2017, the day before the Tubbs fire destroyed their Larkfield restaurant.
When Santa Rosa’s iconic Willi’s Wine Bar opened in 2002, owners Mark and Terri Stark described it as a place for “foie gras in flip-flops.” A year and a half after the fire, the restaurant has reopened without the foie gras. Flip-flops, however, are still welcome.
“We’re picking up where we left off,” said Mark Stark of the new 3,000-square-foot space in the Town and Country shopping center, less than 4 miles from their old location near Luther Burbank Center for the Arts.
Guests at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa on opening day of the new location after the Tubbs Fire. Heather Irwin/PD
It was the most prominent Sonoma County restaurant destroyed in the fires and for the Starks had served as the roadhouse that launched their restaurant empire, which now includes six restaurants stretching from Santa Rosa to Healdsburg.
Servers at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa on opening day of the new location after the Tubbs Fire. Heather Irwin/PD
Willi’s reopening stands as another benchmark in the fire recovery, a now 19-month period punctuated by loss, grief and persistence for thousands of fire survivors — the Starks, as business owners, among them.
Getting Ready
“We simply refused to let the fire be the end of Willi’s,” said Terri Stark. “It didn’t really hit me until opening day. I was just in survival mode. We’re finally open, and it’s all flooding in,” she said. “Look, I was 32 when we opened Willi’s Wine Bar. Now, I’m not,” she said of the nearly 16 years that have passed since the couple opened the popular roadhouse on a shoestring budget.
Journeyman Meats will be featured on the menu at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa on opening day of the new location after the Tubbs Fire. Heather Irwin/PD
Inside the new restaurant, a lamp made out of an antique fire extinguisher lends a bit of humor to what’s been an emotional journey for the Starks. Though almost nothing survived the fire, they have paid homage to the original Willi’s with reprints of posters that hung inside and the ruby red paint in the bathrooms. A horseshoe pulled from the ashes has been hung over the bar.
Less than 24 hours left before opening day for Willi’s, Mark Stark was slicing carrots and toting around strawberries in the gleaming new kitchen. Finishing anything was nearly impossible for the popular chef as friends and well-wishers streamed in to congratulate him and wish the restaurant success.
Potstickers at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa on opening day of the new location after the Tubbs Fire. Heather Irwin/PD
The new Willi’s menu will include old favorites like tuna tartare, Moroccan lamb chops, mushroom soup shooters, goat cheese fritters, Journeyman Meats’ charcuterie and cheese platters, and Tunisian roasted carrots with mint. The wine list will also remain the same, with their signature wine flights.
“If it was really different, people would have been so disappointed,” said Terri Stark. She’s looking forward to the return of their Tunisian carrots. Though the signature dish appeared on menus at some of their other restaurants in the interim, “they just weren’t the same,” she said.
The site, which housed the former Carmen’s Burger Bar and a cabinetry shop, is unrecognizable, with soaring ceilings, brass lighting, a 13-seat bar and a newly built kitchen. Stark said they demolished everything but the exterior walls and roof, creating an open floor plan. The renovation, he said, cost just under $2 million.
“We always go overboard. I guess we just like to save old buildings,” Stark said.
The New ‘Hood
“The vibe is still a neighborhood gathering place,” Mark Stark said. “There’s no airs about it. This is the same place. The only difference is that 17 years after we opened the first Willi’s, Terri and I don’t have to do the tile and paint.”
Fava bean toast with burrata at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa on opening day of the new location after the Tubbs Fire. Heather Irwin/PD
“Most folks we know are really excited. It’s a wonderful addition to the neighborhood,” said Lise Butier, who attended one of the preview events and lives near the restaurant. “It will be so nice to have something to walk to in the neighborhood. It elevates dining here for sure,” she said as she walked her dog past the restaurant. “You can’t beat the Starks,” said Butier. “And the truffle fries,” said Cynthia Axell, who was walking with Butier.
Diane Dolan, who owns La Belle Fleur flower shop in the Town and Country Center, said the restaurant will be a boon for the area.
“This shopping center is a well-kept secret, and a new population of people coming to the restaurant is really going to revitalize it,” she said. There are 15 retail businesses in the two-block area surrounding Willi’s, and include salons, exercise studios, a dry cleaner, Sandy’s Take and Bake, and Pacific Market, which is the largest business.
Crab tacos at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa on opening day of the new location after the Tubbs Fire. Heather Irwin/PD
The Starks, who live within walking distance of the restaurant, said that they’re sensitive to the neighborhood concerns.
“I’ve been watching, and there are some peak times, but overall, I think it will be fine. There are so many people — literally thousands — who can just walk here. Maybe we’ll create a ‘Walk to Willi’s’ campaign,” Terri Stark said.
“Parking is an issue everywhere in the city, and parking at Willi’s was always a nightmare in the past. People were walking on Redwood Highway in the dark without a sidewalk. We have a lot more spaces now than what we had,” she said.
Opening Day
During the staff lineup just before service, Mark said emotions were running high even among the usually stoic kitchen staff.
Landon McPherson, an original Willi’s employee and now-owner of Harvest Card with Terri and Mark Stark. Heather Irwin/PD
“The whole team was there, and I was telling them, ‘Let’s do what we do!’ and one of the chefs just started tearing up. I just had to walk away,” he said. When the Starks rehung the original Willi’s sign outside the new restaurant, both Mark and Terri said there were plenty of tears.
More than 70 percent of the original staff are returning to work at the restaurant, including Chef de Cuisine Matt Weinberger. After the fires, the Starks absorbed most of the staff into their other establishments.
“When they all walked in for orientation, it was like a family reunion,” said Mark Stark.
The restaurant will seat 71 people inside and 30 outside, said Terri Stark, who co-owns the restaurant chain in Sonoma County with Mark, her husband. It includes Stark’s Steakhouse, Monti’s, Stark’s Steak and Seafood, Bravas, Bird and Bottle and Willi’s Seafood. The Starks are also opening a Jewish-style deli in Railroad Square called Grossman’s next fall.
Willi’s Wine Bar is at 1415 Town and Country Dr, Santa Rosa, willis-wine-bar, 707-526-3096.
The remodeled dinning room at The Harbor House Inn in Elk uses the warmth of redwood found in groves along the Mendocino coast. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
A remote Mendocino County restaurant, the Harbor House Inn (Elk), has received the county’s first Michelin star after the first statewide restaurant awards were announced on Monday.
The remodeled dinning room at the Harbor House in Elk uses the warmth of redwood found in groves along the Mendocino coast. (photo by John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
A total of 90 restaurants from the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County and outlying areas like Elk and Sacramento, were tapped by the century-old restaurant guide. Michelin stars are considered one of the highest achievements in the culinary world. The 2019 Michelin Guide California, which will be released this month, is notable because of its first-time inclusion of restaurants outside the San Francisco Bay Area.
“We are elated to have been awarded one star from the Michelin Guide,” said Harbor House Inn chef Matt Kammerer, formerly of the two-starred Saison in San Francisco. “We’ve always known Mendocino to be a special place, and we feel honored to be able to display our passion and talents in such a beautiful setting.”
The 25-seat restaurant has received critical acclaim locally since opening in May 2018 after being carefully renovated by owner Edmund Jin.
Restaurants in Sonoma and Napa, which have received previous stars in the 2019 Bay Area guide last fall, remained on the list. They include The French Laundry (Yountville), the Restaurant at Meadowood (St. Helena), and Single Thread (Healdsburg), with the top billing of three stars; and Auberge du Soleil (Rutherford), Bouchon (Yountville), Farmhouse Inn (Forestville), Kenzo (Napa), La Toque (Napa), and Madrona Manor (Healdsburg) with one star. There are no two-star restaurants in Wine Country.
Other one-star notables include Sacramento’s first Michelin-starred restaurant, The Kitchen; Maum in Palo Alto; and 25 restaurants in the Los Angeles area getting their first Michelin nods.
A total of 657 California restaurants will be featured in the 2019 guide, including 151 “Bib Gourmands,” which are described as notable restaurants that are priced under $40 per person.
“Michelin is honored to reveal the 2019 star selection and to celebrate the talented California chefs and their teams included in the first statewide guide in the U.S.,” said Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides. “California’s trendsetting, laid-back and health-conscious culinary scene continues to boom, and as a result is an amazing showcase for the great local produce.”
The San Francisco Ferry Building—in its current incarnation as a ferry terminal-slash-marketplace for extraordinary goods and foods—is an impressive spot to pass through. If one looks at the ferry building as sort of a foodie microcosm of “the City,” then it’s fair to say that one of the great things about San Francisco is Sonoma. In this Grand Central Station of tastes, Sonoma businesses have a standout presence—click through the gallery for details.
There are so many breathtaking spots to get married in Sonoma County. From small gardens to expansive vineyards, here are just a few of our favorite venues. Keep these in mind if you’ve got some “big day” planning in the near future. If not, consider paying one of these places a visit as many are wonderful to experience sans wedding. Click through the gallery for details.
