Petaluma Road Butler, Quinua restaurant team up

Petaluma’s Road Butler and Quinua Cocina Peruana have teamed up to offer a winter special. Juan from Quinua and Mark, of the Road Butler food delivery service, are joining forces to offer 15 percent off any delivered order. This is a great way to enjoy Quinua’s incredible food, delivered straight to your door by Road Butler. Call 217-5238 to place an order.

Fall Beer Festival

The 3rd annual NorCal Beer Geeks Festival will take place on Saturday, Nov. 5 from 1:30 to 5 p.m. at the Petaluma Veterans Memorial Building. Participating breweries and cideries are a who’s who of local breweries, as well as some lesser known, yet equally tasty up-and-comers.

Pouring all their best will be Petaluma Hills Brewing Company, Lagunitas, 101 North, Cooperage, Fogbelt, St. Florian’s, HenHouse, Third Street, Lost Coast, Bear Republic, Ruth McGowan’s, Faction, Temescal, New Glory, Barrel Brothers, Anderson Valley, Out of Bounds, Hermitage, Barley Lodge Brewing, Firestone, Cider Brothers, Sonoma Cider and many more.

General admission tickets include unlimited beer tastings from more than 25 breweries and cideries, a tasting glass and an automatic entry into the main raffle. VIP tickets include all general admission perks plus entry one hour earlier, a tasting glass lanyard and two food samples. There will be live music and food will be available for purchase.

The event benefits Sonoma County Vet Connect, a nonprofit assisting veterans in locating the services they have earned during their military service.

Learn about bee keeping

Keller Estates invites those interested in bee keeping, or those who want to sample some great wine, to join them on Sunday, Nov. 13 from 1 to 2 p.m. as their friends from Planet Bee Foundation help harvest honey from Keller’s bee hives. This is the perfect opportunity to learn more about bees, whether for your own beehive project, or simply to broaden your knowledge of how important bees are to our environment.

Keller Estate supports Planet Bee Foundation in its efforts to produce the next generation of environmental stewards. Tickets are available at www.kellerestates.com for $5 per person.

Sausage Sandwich of the Month

Although their sausage special changes month to month and year to year, Yanni’s Sausages of Penngrove always offers the fan favorite “Thanksgiving in a Link” sandwich during the month of November. Nestled in a Full Circle Bakery bun, their “Thanksgiving in a Link” (turkey, celery, onions, and dried cranberries) is topped with Yanni’s fresh cranberry sauce and grilled onions.

Don’t wait until Thanksgiving week to give this one a try because Francesca and Johnny take that week off so they can spend time with their kids and grandkids. My family has been so enamored by this sandwich that we’d been joking for years about buying them in advance and bypassing the hassle of making a full-blown Thanksgiving dinner.

Well, last year our matriarch followed through and surprised the family by making them for us at home. As fellow New Yorkers, Francesca and Johnny were nice enough to invite my mom out to the shop to give her a lesson on how to make this delicious sandwich at home.

It is pretty simple, but requires strict adherence to the ingredients list, including Yanni’s sausage links, which can be purchased in bulk, and Full Circle Bread, which is made just down the block from Yanni’s, at the corner of Old Redwood Highway and Petaluma Hill Road.

Last year she surprised us, but this year the family voted unanimously to do it again.

Dempsey’s changes

Dempsey’s held a “Handover Hootenanny” on Oct. 18, where long-time customers could bid a fond farewell to founders and long-time owners Bernadette and Peter Burrell while meeting to the new owner, Robert Moxley, a Santa Rosa resident and partner in Sonoma Muffin Works in Sebastopol. With the help of new head brewer, Andrew Floraday, who brewed for Sebastopol’s Woodfour Brewing Company for the past three years, Moxley plans to update the current beer lineup with some new editions.

Dempsey’s was the first brewpub in Sonoma County, opening in 1991, and has been offering locals one of the best outdoor dining spots ever since. One of Petaluma’s oldest continually operating restaurants, Moxley says he doesn’t plan on changing the food menu, but I hope this isn’t true. Although Dempsey’s menu is great, change is good, especially when trying to put your own brand on a newly acquired restaurant.

The Ultimate Wine Cruise

Wine lovers set sail on March 23, 2017, for seven days of cruising along France’s Rhone River, visiting ancient Roman ruins, medieval villages, and of course tasting the region’s best food and wine.

The journey begins in Lyon, France’s gastronomic capital, before cruising through France’s legendary Rhone River wine region, tasting such famous vintages as Beaujolais and Côtes du Rhône. Guest will also enjoy four winemaker dinners, hosted by Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Association movers and shakers Ana Keller of Keller Estates, Evan Pontoriero of Fogline Vineyards, Alexandre Remy of Agnitio Wines and Rickey Trombetta Stancliff of Trombetta Family Wines.

For those unfamiliar, this is a river cruise so the boat is relatively intimate and shore excursions are plentiful. Tickets are available at: www.petalumagap.com.

Happy hour, Oyster Girls style

The Shuckery has introduced their happy hour, which is Monday through Friday, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Oysters are only $1.50 each, Lagunitas is $5, and bubbly is $8.

Offering an oyster happy hour special was a unique challenge because the Shuckery didn’t want to run out of oysters prior to their dinner guest arrivals. But after several months of packing the dining room, the Shuckery has got a good enough feel for Petaluma’s oyster consumption to be able to finally offer a happy hour special.

Burgers on the horizon

SlamBurger’s founder, Maurice Mickel has been in contact with me, and the news is all good all around. He is shooting to open around Thanksgiving, so stay tuned for more info.

What I can tell you is that the menu will source from local and ethical producers such as Mindful Meats (certified non-GMO beef and hot dogs) and BN Ranch, Bill Niman’s newish venture.

Sign up at www.slamburger.com to receive a coupon for a free side order, as well as updates on the opening.

Things I’ve eaten in the past two weeks

Thistle Meats is turning out as close to a perfect beer brat as I’ve had. For Halloween, this week’s beer brat uses Petaluma Hills’ Pumpkin Patch Traffic Jam Ale.

With ever so slight hints of pumpkin at both the front and back end of each bite, this is a truly unique beer brat, and one that I could easily eat many more of. If you are lucky, and call today, you still may be able to grab the pumpkin version before they switch back to the Petaluma Hills’ Triple J Beer Brat, which is no consolation prize as I find it has the perfect balance of sour and sweet that I expect from a beer brat, and is possibly the best beer brat I’ve ever had.

We attended Barber Cellar’s last cheesemaker’s night of 2016, which highlighted Cowgirl Creamery, along with Barber’s wines, Zoe’s Meats and LaLa’s Jams. Cowgirl’s Red Hawk is one of my favorite cheeses, so it was great to hear from one of their cheesemakers how this cheese came to be, and about all the other great cheeses in their lineup.

Although I have had it before, I forgot just how great their Mt. Tam Brie is too. Other cheesemaker’s nights have included Laura Chenel’s, Redwood Hill, Dachiva, Bohemian Creamery and Point Reyes Farmstead.

Yanni’s Sausages of Penngrove put on quite a show with their October special, the Portokali. With orange infused caramelized onions and feta cheese, it was the perfect combo of sweet and savory. It’s possible I had more than one, but one thing is for sure, I never leave Yanni’s without an order of Greek Fries.

We visited Covet Bakery, six-time Double-Gold Winner at the 2016 Harvest Fair, during a recent pop-up at Moj San Gift and Garden Gallery here in Petaluma. Covet sold out before noon, which speaks volumes to how badly they need to get themselves into a brick-and-mortar space. Your next chance to try their baked goods is this Saturday, Nov. 5, from 9:30 a.m. until they sell out, which will likely be well before noon.

I had occasions to visit Seared twice over the past two weeks. The first was for an impromptu Friday night happy hour, where we enjoyed about half of the enticing and affordable happy hour bar menu, including two mini pork belly banh mis, deviled eggs, mac ‘n cheese, barbecued oysters and the best f ried calamari in town, followed by what has quickly become my favorite dessert, Tres Leches.

I know that means three milks, but honestly, I was so blown away by this dessert’s flavors, textures and temperatures - it is warm and cold at the same time - that I don’t know what else to say other than that you are depriving yourself if you don’t give it a try. Relying on ice cream directly from LaLa’s Creamery down the street, this dessert is one of the best I’ve ever had.

We also held a luncheon event in the Riverview room in the back of Seared, which is where the second bar is located. Chef Joe and his staff put together a stellar Oaxacan variation on the standard South of the Border buffet.

Our guests were from all over the country and were duly impressed, as well as stuffed, by such a great meal. If we’re lucky, manager Andrew will add some of these items to the regular menu, especially the cheese enchiladas, which I ate at least half a dozen of, although the pork and chicken were excellent too.

We attended both the Sunrise Rotary Club’s Fall Oyster Shuck Fest, at Bodega Bay Oysters, as well as the annual Spaghetti Feed at the Petaluma Woman’s Club, where I called the auction for the dessert items. Both were fundraisers for Petaluma’s less fortunate, and both were a great time. Much great food was had by all.

Farron’s delivery

Farron’s BBQ is now available for delivery at 101 North Brewing Company’s taproom. Currently cooking up great Southern treats from Thursday through Monday at Petaluma Hills Brewing Company, Farron will run food down to 101 North too, so Lagunitas isn’t the only brewery where you can now grab grub with your favorite brew.

(Contact Houston Porter at houston@avant-larde.com.)