Eating Around Sonoma County

There are few places in Northern California wine country as charming as Sonoma. The towns of Sonoma and Healdsburg have charming squares and Sebastopol is home to dynamic restaurants that are part of the Barlow market section in downtown.

It’s hard to choose, but let’s start with Sonoma before moving onto Healdsburg up North and Sebastopol on the Coast. One of my favorite restaurants, is just off the square, in Sonoma and is called La Salette. The charming little restaurant has tables outside and features an abbreviated Brazilian menu. The caldo verde, kale soup with potatoes and chorizo—a dish that ordinally hails from Portugal—is delicious. The Feijoada Completa is a heavy, rich Sunday stew of sausage, beef and pork served with black beans.

On to Healdsburg

Wherever the great mixologist Scott Beatty is I want to be. He headed up the program at the long-defunct Cyrus, creating metal straws that could spear drink garnishes, and later worked at the Meadowood Resort and Goose and Gander in St. Helena.

He is now overseeing the drinks program at Barndiva, where he is putting together classics like the French 75.

He is also making some unusual shrubs to use in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. The wine list is short and sweet, and so is the menu, but standards like burgers and steak frites are always delicious.

Just around the corner is a favorite Spanish place of mine: Bravas Bar de Tapas. Grab an outdoor seat if you are there in the summertime. I often enjoy the tapas so much I rarely get to the main courses. Spanish restaurants also tend to focus on Paella and I am not a rice fan. Great starters here include the duck meatballs, crunchy fried potatoes and roasted Brussel sprouts with chorizo.

Right in the main square, Valette’s cozy dining room has wood panels on the ceiling and a menu of locally sourced proteins. The Kobe Beef Tartare with Perigord black truffle is a treat, as is the raw ahi tuna with aged soy sauce. The main courses are the big guns like duck breast with pickled cherries and a bone-in pork loin with apples and cabbage.

Sebastopol Bound

This up-and-coming town packs a punch culinarily, from the Sebastopol Community Market, which has more kinds of miso than you can count to tons of local breweries and distilleries. One of my favorites is the Spirits Work Distillery. You will recognize it from the outside because there is a funny sculpture of the owners’ dog outside.

The couple behind the distillery makes everything from vodka to whiskeys and sloe gin. One of my favorite experiments they did was aging two whiskeys side by side, one was listening to the Nutcracker while the other was tuned into rap. I never had a chance to taste them together but have done some coverage on how music affects both the aging and the experience you have tasting wine.

Sadly Zazu, which always had some crispy pork on the grill, is no longer with us. So, I will have to console myself with some tasty sausages to go at the market.