Petaluma’s Water Street Bistro inspired by France

The first restaurant I tried on my first day in Petaluma more than two years ago was Water Street Bistro. I ate there after someone at the Visitors’ Center recommended it as a place for delicious and unusual food.

It was so impressive I have been back many times, and it is high on my list of recommended restaurants in a town full of great places to dine. This charming, French-inspired little bistro is located along the river in downtown Petaluma at 100 Petaluma Blvd.

The service here is a bit unusual. Customers wait at the counter to order, and if you are dining there, you order and then seat yourself. Check out their chalkboard menus while you are in line because the line moves quickly with regulars who know what they want.

There are a few add-ons to the menu in the display case next to the register worth checking out. There are two dining rooms as well as the patio that faces the river and Water Street. When your food is ready the friendly and efficient servers bring your meal to your table. Pay when you order, or leave your check open until you are all done.

There is a self-serve water station right next to the salt and peppershaker station, which is a collection of one-of-a-kind vintage salt and pepper shakers that are just so sweet, you have to pick up a set to bring to your table if only to admire them.

It is also a great place for coffee or tea and a pastry. They serve organic Taylor Maid coffee, and they brew their specialty coffees in the French tradition. For example their café au lait is served in a large bowl, not a cup, and their cappuccino is not an overly huge portion, as is traditional in France.

They serve outstanding Mighty Leaf teas, and I highly recommend the tea called Leaves of Provence. A nice sized pot of tea or cup of house coffee is only $2, with café au lait and cappuccino at just $2.50. You will have plenty of money in your coffee budget to try one of their housemade pastries or other sweets.

For breakfast we tried their waffle ($5), which is made to order, traditional, old-fashioned thin and crispy style, not the thick Belgian style. It was outstanding. We also tried one of their crust-less quiches. We had the one that had cooked potatoes in it, and loads of yummy prosciutto in and on top of it. It comes with a choice of fresh fruit or a salad.

Since it was breakfast, we opted for the fresh fruit, an array of strawberries, ripe cantaloupe, pineapple, ripe pears and red grapes. The fruit filled half of the generous plate.

Though it wasn’t on the menu, I ordered a slice of avocado toast. Special orders are a fast way to check the hospitality standards of a restaurant, and while I don’t make a habit of doing things like that when a restaurant is clearly very busy, when we were there it was early enough in the day for them to accommodate my special request.

For lunch on our first visit the crab chowder with a half sandwich ($8.50) was an amazing value. The chowder was loaded with Dungeness crab meat in a creamy base with a few potatoes. It was one of those soups where you want to lick the bowl clean, but can’t figure out how to do so politely.

You can order “half” lunch specials with half a bowl of soup, half a sandwich and half a salad - choose two - for a bargain price. I chose the half muffuletta sandwich, and while it was not exactly like the ones from Central Grocery in New Orleans, it was a mouth-watering warm sandwich featuring toasty crisp bread with layers of cold cuts, melted cheese and olive salad nicely melded together.

On this same visit my husband Walt ordered one of the daily special sandwiches, pastrami and Swiss ($9.25). This sandwich was also served hot with nicely melted Swiss cheese and very high quality pastrami that made my meat-and-cheese-loving husband very happy. He even ate the salad that came with it.

On another visit, on the recommendation of friends who have a second home in the south of France, I tried the Provencal fish soup ($4.50) which is made with seafood that was so fresh it tasted sweet rather than fishy, and was flavored with saffron.

On that visit I also tried the smoked trout salad with arugula and fresh fennel ($11.75). It was a huge serving, and came with fresh bread from Della Fattoria.

Walt had the traditional quiche with ham and cheese ($8), served with a mixed green salad with vinaigrette dressing. The quiche was so rich and delicious it is hard to fully quantify just how good it is.

Over our two lunch visits we tried the kouign-amann, $2.50, (pronounced QUEEN-ah-mahn) which is made of sugared croissant dough baked in a cupcake-sized shape and portion. This specialty pastry originated in Brittany, a region of France, and has gained a popular following here in the U.S. in the past few years.

We also had an affogato ($4), an Italian dessert drink made by pouring a shot or two of hot espresso over a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Everything we were served was nicely prepared and delicious. My only suggestion for improvement is regarding their website. While some of the menu items are listed there, the website lists less than half of what you will find, and no prices are given, so it is hard for a potential diner to get an idea just how reasonably priced Water Street Bistro is.

I spoke to the owner, Stephanie Rastetter, after completing our third visit, and learned that she had been the owner/chef of Water Street Bistro for 18 years. She clearly loves what she does, and it shows in every meal I have had there in the past two and a half years.