The best new places to eat, from Sonoma to Healdsburg

Sonoma County is beloved for its agricultural roots and all-around un-Napa vibes. It might be the only place where you can get third-wave coffee made by woodworkers, hummus with Michelin cred and a self-serve taste of $350 cabernet.

Last month, we went specifically to eat. My son was in search of premium pizza. I was looking for micro-seasonal, veggie-forward yum. And my husband, who allows himself about two steaks a year, wanted the best cut he could find. Our pup, like always, had scraps on the brain. Each of us found our bliss — and then some.

Despite the pandemic, the number of noteworthy bars and restaurants that have opened in Sonoma County in the past two or three years is astonishing. And that doesn’t include the hidden gems and weekend pop-ups we discovered, like Woodshop Coffee, which is tucked inside the trellised alley of a French antique shop, Chateau Sonoma, near Sonoma Plaza. That’s where we start on this particular Saturday morning.

Owners Cameron Iturri-Carpenter and Sasha Papadin are local woodworkers with “an active passion for third-wave coffee.” Someday, they’ll have a brick and mortar that marries the two obsessions. For now, you’ll find them perched between the vine-strewn buildings, usually on a Saturday morning, selling their white-oak charcuterie boards and pour-over stands alongside medium-roast blends and pastries from Taarts by Aline.

My cup of round, berry-tinged Fiddleback has enough zip to get a sloth going. But we need walk only 210 feet to find breakfast at Valley Bar + Bottle Shop. Valley opened in 2020 in the 186-year-old Leese-Fitch Adobe formerly housing Harvest Moon Café. In its short tenure, Valley has already made numerous national best restaurant lists. To me, it has the magic of a Barcelona bodega.

Inside, minimal-intervention wines with names like Scar of the Sea line the shelves. And a cook in the open kitchen is lost in her empanada dough. I order a slice of the towering Spanish tortilla on the counter and admire the speckled ceramic bowls that will soon be filled with soft-boiled eggs, feta and pickled beets. We find seats on the rug-covered patio and dig into both dishes.

The tortilla is perfection: Potato slices and onion slivers suspended in paprika-stained egg. And all that remains of the other dish is an olive pit and some pink-stained yogurt. Dazzled and sated, we hop on our bikes and head back to our hotel, The Lodge At Sonoma. A Mission-style resort on Broadway, The Lodge has all the trappings of top-notch wine country accommodations: Recently-remodeled cottages, a spa offering CBD treatment massages and a lobby with an art gallery.

But for me, the pull is outside, among the laurels, roses, wisteria vines and plum pine trees that dot the pathways. As part of a renovation completed in 2021, the resort  invested $1 million into landscaping its grounds, which includes garden sculptures and vintage pieces, like a wine press, curated by a team that includes San Francisco design firm Wilson Ishihara (of Viceroy and Four Seasons fame).

Beneath the property’s 400-year-old Heritage Oak tree is a wall where guests are invited to write their “personal dreams” and place them in a bottle. Over time, the resort will gather these papers as compost and add them to the soil that feeds the on-site vineyard. I marvel at the tree, consider scrawling my present dream — dinner — on paper, but set out for the real thing instead.

The resort’s spiffy tavern, Wit & Wisdom, ends up among the highlights of our weekend; the dining experience that others would be tested against, from the swift service and dynamic wine list to the lively bocce ball on the terrace.

A somm starts me off with a splash of sparkling California albariño, which stokes my appetite for the hearth-oven dishes that start surfacing in succcession: Snappy, slow-roasted beets with tangerine labneh. Pappardelle cacio e pepe, its plump fava beans and mushrooms inky with pepper sauce. And my husband’s steak, a perfectly-crusted eight-ounce filet that slices like butter to reveal a pink middle.

He’s so mesmerized, he doesn’t notice us sneaking his duck fat potato wedges onto our plates. We made it up to him with dessert, a slice of Basque-style cheesecake, its slightly burnt and bitter exterior the ultimate match for that creamy, custardy interior. We waddle back to the cottage and binge-watch the British reality show, “Sexy Beasts,” on Netflix.

The next day after a bike ride to Dirty Girl Donuts, we make our way to The Barlow, the 12-acre outdoor market district in Sebastopol. A marathon is wrapping up, and the runners are drinking beer in tents instead of eating carbohydrates, which is what my family does. I duck into Region, a high-tech wine bar that offers tastes of hard-to-find wines, like Immortal Estate’s $350 cabernet, but not before swinging by Acre Pizza for a slice.

Acre Pizza was opened two years ago by the owner of Acre Coffee, which has locations across the county. Opening chef Alastair Hannmann, the same expert behind Walnut Creek’s City Square Pizza, is known for his New York- and Detroit-style pies made with a Central Milling-based flour dough that ferments for 72 hours. My kid goes for two slices of New York made with local tomatoes and mozzarella from Double 8 Dairy in Valley Ford.

The pizza is staggeringly good, he says, and I take his word — and the remnants of sauce on his cheek and just-washed hoodie — for it. He’s happy, and so am I. Because it’s my turn. We pile into the car and drive 22 miles to Healdsburg for dinner at Little Saint, arguably the most highly-anticipated new restaurant in the county. And all they serve is vegan food.

Little Saint is run by the same team behind three Michelin-starred SingleThread. The food is grown on that farm and on Little Saint’s own plot. Inside, the 10,000-square-foot space has the same open plan as it did in its Healdsburg Shed days. There’s a cafe, wine shop and bar, and everything has an upscale bohemian feel, like a rocker’s lair. Steven Tyler would hang out here.

The first half of the menu — From the Larder, From the Fields — blows me away. We order freshly-baked lavash studded with seven-spice shichimi togarashi for lapping up dips like a red lentil hummus so alarmingly good, I actually pause, pressing my fingers into the flecks of fenugreek, trying to make it last. Even something as simple as brine-pickled carrots with wild fennel pollen or castelfranco radicchio and asparagus feels elevated. The latter is speckled with sumac breadcrumbs and a creamy ravigote dressing that mimics Caesar.

The main dishes, particularly a much-talked-about cauliflower biryani, falls short, though. It arrives with such showmanship — two servers each carrying a wooden tray; one filled with yogurt and pickled goodies; the other, the rice dish topped with edible flowers — I’m expecting each basmati grain to be its own fluffy delight, the way my Persian mom’s tastes. Not the case. The rice is unevenly cooked, some under-dente and in clumps. But the flavors and textures are there, from the spicy cauliflower to the crunchy fried onions and plump, pickled golden raisins, so there’s hope.

The next day, we make our way back to the East Bay, with a slice of Spanish tortilla for the road.

If you go

Woodshop Coffee: Open from 9 a.m. Saturdays (and sometimes Sundays) at Chateau Sonoma, 453 First St. West, Sonoma. Check Instagram (@woodshopcoffee) for updated hours and pastry partners; www.woodshop.coffee.