Grazing a Petaluma trail

How to dine your way through a lazy weekend like a local expert.|

With Independence Day in the middle of the week, it was as if we had an extra weekend, which made the past two weeks quite a whirlwind of Petaluma dining and drinks around our household. The “extra” weekend certainly did wonders for our taste buds, although it definitely took a bite out of my normal weekday starvation diet.

With my best friend, and travel and food companion, visiting from the East Bay with his fiancé, we were on a mission to show them some of the Petaluma favorites we have been bragging about since their last visit, and Quinua certainly fit that bill to start off our weekend. We ordered all four of their ceviches, along with everything from empanadas to steak to their incredible Quinoto stew, and as always the food was excellent, and the help from server Talia Schlau and owner Juan Gutierrez really impressed our guests.

Brunch: The Drawing Board

After a lazy wake-up call, we began our Saturday with brunch at the Drawing Board. As always, the service pushed our experience over the top, which is in large part why we chose this location for brunch.

We sampled a good portion of the menu, including the spring soup, avocado toast, the brunch tacos, and a couple sides of delicious bacon. We also ordered the “benny of the day,” which is created at the chef’s whimsy, which this time included fresh avocado and asparagus. With carnitas still on our minds from the taco order, we could not resist going off the menu by asking to add carnitas to our bennys, which did not faze our excellent server Sara one bit.

We could not pass up on TBD’s legendary carrot lox tartine, which had both our lox lovers and lox haters amazed with at the wonderful flavor. We also sampled several brunch cocktails, including the bloody Mary (made with bone broth and house pickles), death in the afternoon (St. George absinthe and brut sparkling), and tequila mockingbird (lo-fi gentian amaro, grapefruit, lime, tequila, carpano antica, bubbly water, and a salted rim), as well as a few cups of excellent coffee.

Even though owner Rosie had not arrived on scene yet, her staff (manager Anne Choe, bar manager Jenn Moonbrick, and Chef Kevin Katsolis) takes such ownership and pride in what they are doing that we always know we will have an excellent experience at the Drawing Board.

Drinks: Brewsters

With the temps heading into the high 90s, we headed over to Brewsters Beer Garden to see about quenching our thirst. Our server Bryce was more knowledgeable than expected for her young age, due to a genuine passion for craft beers. One of several we tried, Faction’s Anomaly pale milk stout, on nitro, certainly was out of character for the category, being light instead of dark colored, but was delicious just the same.

We also tried the Marmalde sour, from Barrel Brothers, out of Windsor, and were glad we did. Tangy and tart, it is the stuff of dreams, especially when your body is crying out to replenish electrolytes on a hot summer afternoon.

Dinner: Sake 107

With about two hours left before our dinner reservation, we headed home for a quick nap and some cleaning up, before heading back downtown to Sake 107. Our regular server extraordinaire, Josh Torres, had our table ready for us, and as always, had great suggestions for both food and drinks.

We ordered both signature rolls, the 107 Special and the Melt in Your Mouth, as well as Omakase Sashimi, and the special, which was Hamachi cheek. But as always, the star of the show was the miso ramen, which takes the chef three days to make and is only available in very limited quantities.

Breakfast: Sax’s Joint

On Sunday morning, we hit the Vets Hall first thing, to support the VFW Fourth of July breakfast and then headed over to Sax’s Joint for a second breakfast of Strawberry Cheesecake French Toast. As always, the service was excellent, which really put the icing on the cake when it came to impressing our friends with Petaluma’s food and service, before sending them home to enjoy the rest of their holiday weekend.

Happy hour: The Drawing Board

Home early from work on July 3, we headed back the Drawing Board, just in time for their “happiest hours.” We order the entire happy hour menu, which for just $6 each, made for a full meal for two. Sitting at the communal high-top table, we had the pleasure of meeting Argus readers Amy and Megan.

I always love getting to meet readers and finding out which places they like to eat at and what they would like me to write about next. Having seen us talking with our new friends, owner Rosie, who may be the sweetest person on earth, treated Amy and Megan to a complimentary taste-testing of the same dessert she offered us, which was homemade tart plumb ice cream, topped with fresh plums, along with a warm ginger cookie.

Lunch: Charley’s Wine Country Deli

We took it easy on food on the 4th, but started up again on Saturday, stopping in to Charley’s Wine Country Deli for lunch after a morning hike. We shared the mind-blowing Rueben, which has perfectly thin-cut and string-free pastrami and is topped with excellent kraut.

We paired that with several excellent and affordably priced half-pints of house-made coleslaw, pasta salad, and bacon and broccoli salad, finishing the meal off with perfect Petaluma Toffee. Charley’s has an on-sale beer and wine license, so patrons can either enjoy drinks on tap in the small back-room bar, or can purchase cans or bottles and crack them open while dining on the outdoor patio. With plenty of other sandwiches still to try, we will definitely be back to Charley’s patio soon.

Beers: Brewster’s

On Sunday, we revisited Brewsters Beer Garden in the hopes of having more Barrel Brothers Marmalade on tap, but alas, it has been replaced. Server Rachel pointed us to its replacement, “Frampagne of Beers,” which turns out to be another excellent American wild ale from Barrel Brothers, which goes well with Brewsters house-made pretzel. Free Kittens, a rice lager from Berryessa Brewing, out of Winters, also really hit the spot as the day warmed up.

Dinner: Old Chicago Pizza

For dinner, and in celebration of one of our food crew member’s birthday, we ordered Old Chicago Pizza, which was the perfect way to finish out the evening. And with plenty of heaping slices left over, we enjoyed Old Chicago leftovers well into this past week.

To say that Petaluma has more than enough great restaurants, bars and beer gardens might suggest that we do not want any more. But part of what makes Petaluma such a great place to live and destination spot for travelers is that we are constantly expanding the breadth and depth of food and drink options, and coupled with our excellent down-home service, has helped Petaluma become a mecca for dining experiences.

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