Each year, there are a handful of local restaurant openings worth celebrating. It’s not one specific thing that catches my attention. Instead, it’s a little bit of everything — decor, the general vibe, the staff, the story of how the restaurateur got to this point, and most importantly, the food. If one thing is off, everything is off.
This year, I’m incredibly excited about my top two openings, Bazaar Sonoma and A & M BBQ, because they embody everything that’s right with Sonoma County’s restaurant scene. Both are minority-owned, have compelling backstories and noteworthy cuisine, but what keeps them top of mind is the kind of hospitality and passion for the craft that feels so rare.
All of this year’s Best Openings are impressive, and I’m grateful for the addition of these terrific new Sonoma County restaurants.
Best opening of 2024: Bazaar Sonoma (BaSo), Forestville
Sonoma County restaurateurs usually don’t have the luxury of taking risks — the rent is too high, diners are often fickle and the cost of doing business can’t support menus that aren’t crowd-pleasers. And even then, nothing is guaranteed.
Bazaar Sonoma’s Sean Quan and Jenny Phan are breaking that mold, creating striking Szechuan-inspired, homey and approachable dishes.
Quan, a former SingleThread cook and fine dining alum, has centered BaSo around family. His dishes are inspired by his Chinese-American upbringing and the family meals he created for his restaurant coworkers before each shift. You’ll also see plenty of nods to the pop-up dinners the couple hosted over the last three years, ranging from spicy fried chicken to home-style Chinese cuisine.
At Bazaar Sonoma, dishes like toothpick beef, featuring small toothpick-skewered bites of beef encrusted with cumin, fennel, sesame seeds, dried Chinese chiles and roasted brown sugar, are sweet and spicy with a kapow on the tongue.
Homey mapo tofu, wonton noodle soup and hot and sour fried potatoes invite you to sit down, grab some smoked plum tea and enjoy the moment.
Handmade zhong dumplings, however, are my favorite dish. They’re served with a gravy-like sauce made with three kinds of soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, a collection of Chinese spices (Quan calls the mix his “mystery spice”) and Bazaar Sonoma’s chili crunch. Poured over the soft, slippery dumplings, it is an intoxicatingly sweet, spicy, savory mess that surprises you with every bite.
Sometimes, taking a big risk is the right thing to do, and BaSo gets my vote for its unapologetic, sometimes perfectly imperfect but always lovingly made dishes.
A note: the restaurant is small with limited staff, and dishes tend to run out, especially the dumplings. Go with a sense of adventure and patience, if there’s a line.
6566 Front St., Forestville, 707-614-8056, bazaar-sonoma.com
Runner-up: A & M BBQ Café
There’s a good reason you’ll often find a line out the door of Kris Austin and Marvin McKinzy’s Southern barbecue restaurant — because it’s that good, and they frequently run out of their perfectly smoked brisket, tri-tip and pork ribs.
Both pitmasters in their own right, Austin (of Austin’s BBQ) and McKinzy (of Marvin’s BBQ) joined forces to create A & M this spring (which is not named for the Texas university but for their first initials). But you’d be forgiven for the mistake because their wood-smoked barbecued meats are Lone Star-inspired, with a seasoned dry rub instead of slathered with sauce.
With so little good barbecue in these parts, A & M has become a much-needed destination for ‘que lovers.
495 S. Main St., Sebastopol, 707-799-2892, instagram.com/ambbqllc
Brigitte Bistro
Chef/owner Nick Ronan serves the kind of food he loves best: hearty bistro-style dishes like beef bourguignon and duck confit, along with tableside beef tartare and the requisite steak frites. But instead of pandering to us, he brings the flavors of his French homeland directly to the table. Ronan’s motto, “Love. Food. Wine. Passion. Life. People” comes through in his “maman”-style cuisine. 841 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma, 707-981-8381, brigittebistropetaluma.com
Tisza Bistro
After closing their Windsor restaurant in 2020, owners Krisztian Karkus and Alena Rebik took their schnitzel show to weekly farmers markets and pop-ups to keep their fans happy. The couple spent two years remodeling the old Singletree Café in Healdsburg, creating a permanent home (and outdoor beer garden) to showcase hard-to-find Bavarian dishes, including chicken Cordon Bleu, duck leg confit, Wiener schnitzel, or hunter’s schnitzel, made with wild mushroom sauce. Don’t miss the strudel, spaetzle and wonderfully messy currywurst. 165 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, 707-291-5193, tiszabistro.com
Acorn Cafe
Healdsburg is known for many things, but breakfast isn’t one of them. Despite a wealth of fine dining options for lunch and dinner, there are precious few spots to tuck into a hearty pancake breakfast, eggs Benedict or morning mimosa. Acorn Café is staking a syrup-soaked claim on that void with its over-the-top takes on breakfast, brunch and lunch. The lineup includes tiramisu French toast, a brown butter hollandaise Benedict and quite possibly the world’s most-inspired fried chicken sandwich.
The former Oakville Grocery has been reborn as a joyful, light-filled downtown gathering spot decorated in sun-kissed oranges and blues with modern wood accents. There’s plentiful seating inside, and a built-in fireplace warms the patio. Chef/owner Beryl Adler is a longtime fine-dining chef who worked in far-off locales like Bali, Australia and the Caribbean but saw an opening for a sit-down café in Healdsburg dedicated to morning and early afternoon eats. Mission accomplished. 124 Matheson St., Healdsburg, acornhealdsburg.com
Wild Poppy
The journey to Wild Poppy is a trek, which has always been a blessing and a curse for this west county location. Located well west of Sebastopol, you won’t stumble upon it unless you’re headed to or from the coast. But it’s well worth the detour, like Wild Flour Bakery in Freestone, Altamont General Store in Occidental, Estero Café or Rocker Oysterfeller’s in Valley Ford.
Wild Poppy opened in late April with chef Martin Maigaard, formerly of the Gypsy Cafe (now closed), helming the kitchen with plenty of family on hand to help. On sunny days, the rambling outdoor patio of this quirky Sebastopol hideaway is a magical place, full of nooks, crannies and secret spaces to explore. There are plenty of vegan and vegetarian options, including my favorite Cosmic Queso, with freshly made corn chips, creamy cashew queso dip, a swirl of pepita chimichurri and a side of slaw. 9890 Bodega Highway, Sebastopol, 707-503-6332, thewildpoppycafe.com
Rocker Oysterfeller’s at Lucas Wharf
The owners of the longtime Valley Ford roadhouse and Southern cooking destination Rocker Oysterfeller’s reopened the former Lucas Wharf restaurant as a second seafood-focused location in mid-August. Locally sourced seafood, rock star chef Jamilah Nixon (of Jam’s Joy Bungalow) and a full bar have made the restaurant a new destination dining spot for visitors and locals seeking the kind of experience coastal restaurants often promise but rarely deliver.
Classic wharf-side dining includes butterball potato and Manilla clam chowder, Crab Louis salad, pan-roasted local fish of the day, and the Captain’s Platter with a ridiculous amount of saltine-fried shrimp, beer-battered rock cod, salt and pepper calamari, a Dungeness crab cake and Kennebec fries served with tartar, rémoulade and cocktail sauce for your dipping pleasure. Full bar and great views for the win. 595 Highway 1, Bodega Bay, 707-772-5670, rockeroysterfellers.com
Also worth noting
Songbird Parlour
This cozy Victorian-style lounge/restaurant opened in mid-November and has barely had a chance to settle in, but my first visit was auspicious. Owner and caterer Lauren Kershner has used the space for private events and pop-ups for several years but expanded its offerings to a five-day-a-week restaurant at the Jack London Village in Glen Ellen. The 42-seat restaurant has a soaring ceiling and open kitchen where executive chef Eric Moulton creates a seasonal, hyperlocal menu using ingredients from nearby farms. I loved the head-on prawns with coconut curry and fried farm potatoes with leeks. 14301 Arnold Drive, Suite 3, Glen Ellen, 707-343-1308, songbirdparlour.com
Sarmentine in Petaluma
If there was a doorbuster opening in 2024, it was this much-anticipated outpost of the Santa Rosa French patisserie. Lines snaked around the bakery in anticipation on its first day in late July. Though it’s first and foremost a bakery, the expanded offerings include brunch and some yet-to-be-announced additions to the menu. A drool-worthy collection of bakery cases populates the spacious new location, piled with cream-filled desserts like Paris Brest (pate a choux filled with praline cream) and Mille-Feuille, chocolate croissants, brioche buns, fruit tarts (the passion fruit is a favorite) and Madeleines. Tiny caneles have a sticky, crunchy crust and custardy center that buckle my knees with happiness. This is the third location for the bakery. 840 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma, 707-623-9595, sarmentine.com
Enclos
Though it technically opened in mid-December, this ambitious Sonoma restaurant is just too new to officially include on this year’s list — notably since I haven’t had the chance to dine there yet, but it’s noteworthy enough to deserve a mention. Chef Brian Limoges has created a multicourse, terroir-driven menu for the 12-table restaurant, which is housed in a renovated 1880s Victorian home in downtown Sonoma.
Showstopping dishes like “Antlers” (smoked oat flour tarts filled with venison and topped with fried lichen served on a deer antler) and “Honeycomb” (tiny ice cream sandwiches made by pastry chef Sophie Hau, perched atop a honeycomb frame) are already making waves with their over-the-top presentation. There’s now talk of Michelin ambitions for the sleepy town of Sonoma, which currently has no stars, unlike tonier Healdsburg or nearby Napa Valley. Limoges acknowledges his aspirations — he’s helmed several starred restaurants — but wants the driving force to be people rather than prizes. The 11-course meal is $225 per person, and reservations are being accepted for February. 139 East Napa St., Sonoma, enclos-sonoma.com
You can reach Dining Editor Heather Irwin at heather.irwin@pressdemocrat.com. Follow Heather on Instagram @biteclubeats.