Petaluma restaurant openings and closings since COVID-19

The welcoming in of the New Year is always a good time to reflect on the past year’s changes to the Petaluma restaurant scene. Starting with the new restaurants, we have more openings than one might expect during a pandemic.

This may be in part due to the fact that these establishments were already signed into their lease prior to the shutdown. And not knowing when it would end, it made sense to move forward with optimism. Hindsight is 20/20, however all the newbies seem to be hanging in there, so let us hope they came make it just a little bit longer so they can really show off what they have to offer once dine-in is again allowed.

As far as restaurants go, Petaluma actually had several great ones open last year and as dining opens back up, hopefully we can all go out and try them, or at least order some take-out.

First up was Street_Social, which open right around New Year’s last year in the space formerly occupied by Twisted 2. They are small and have been turning out some great weekly and special holiday meals, including some excellent wine-paired dinners.

The rest of the list is a bit of a blur but in roughly the proper order of opening, included Aloh-o poke bowls, which after quite a long wait, opened in the Kohl’s shopping center. Next up were April Pantry (1000 Clegg Court), Ambrosia Indian (southeast corner of Payran and Petaluma Boulevard), Spring Thai (at Casa Grande and South McDowell Boulevard), Café Bellini (in Palms old location at the corner of Washington and McDowell), and Scowley’s Burgers (where Wingstop used to be in the Kmart shopping center). All have received rave reviews, which says a lot considering the challenges of take-home dining.

A couple of spots changed hands with Table Culture Provision taking over Wishbone’s spot at the southwest corner of Petaluma Boulevard North and Magnolia and Acre Pizza took over the space from Acre Coffee (two different companies started by the same person) on the Boulevard, across from the police station.

Black Knight Vineyards open a tasting room just a few doors up from Putnam Plaza. Across the street and down at the intersection of Petaluma Boulevard and Western, Jupiter Foods started off with an outdoor mini farmers market before moving into the space just behind them, where Incavo used to be.

Finally, a couple of pop-ups and mobiles include Pink Turnip, behind South City Market, offering breakfasts and lunches to go. And then there’s the return of the ice cream man, only new and improved because Oskey's Ice Cream not only offers local ice cream plus long-time favorites, they are also available for street-side birthday visits.

The restaurants we’ve lost

When it comes to closing, the list does not appear to be that different than in years past. However, we may see a surge in closures this year as restaurants, which already operate on razor-thin margins, finally decide they can no longer continue.

A few of the smaller places that slipped during the year included Incavo wine bar, PTown Pastries (in Bovine Bakery’s old space), Sift Dessert Bar (in the Target shopping center) and the Sweet Zone (in Theater Square.)

Some major dining losses included the early pandemic shutdown of Whisper Sister, which was followed by Wine or Lose Boardgame Cafe.

Los Reyes holds the distinction of being the only restaurant to both open and close last year. They came in with a bang, but just months later closed down. Through social media posts, Los Reyes helped bring local awareness to birria tacos (kind of like a Latin taco version of a French dip). Thankfully, we soon learned many local restaurants carry this same dish so all is not lost. Penngrove’s Grateful Greek also quietly closed, but may be back in pop-up form.

Although unrelated to the pandemic and directly related to the owners’ move out of the area, Sarah’s Eats & Sweets has been missed this past year. While 4th & Sea closed in the first half of last year, according to a restaurant representative at the time, it appeared to have less to do with COVID and more do with other unrelated circumstances. Regardless of the reason why, fans are still mourning the loss.

At the end of the year we saw a changing of the guard at Wishbone, over to the crew of Table Culture Provision. Then there was an announcement from Maguire’s Pub that, due to the sale of their building, and not being able to keep up with rent, they too were closing down. Finally, and sadly, Bright Bear Bakery has recently announced that Feb. 28 will be their last day, at least at their current location. It seems to be up in the air whether they will be able to re-open elsewhere, but that seems to be the overriding hope of Petaluma diners.

There are a plethora of rumors about which of our bars may or may not reopen once their restrictions are lift but with no solid information at this point, we will leave the speculation for another day.

Coming soon?

The big news this past year as that Sol Food was planning to open a Petaluma location. The owners do not appear to speak to the press, so the “news” was mostly rumors until finally, announcement was made that Sol Food does in fact plan to move into the old Tres Hombres/Sauced space in Theater District. No timeline seems to be set yet, but presumably it will be sometime this year, but fans will simply have to wait until they see social media blow up with posts of the doors finally being open.

Another long-awaited opening is the tiki bar that is planned for Chicken Pharm’s old location on Keller Street, with no word on when that will be. In locations to watch, the owners of the recently shuttered Osteria Stellina Italian restaurant in Point Reyes Station plan to do something with the old Bovine Bakery location on Kentucky, while someone has applied for a new liquor license at Whisper Sister’s old location on the prime corner of Washington and Kentucky.

The old Walnut Grill is still in limbo, even though there appears to be a work truck there each day. The space is owned by El Roy’s but at last check, they did not plan to open another El Roy’s there.

On the east side, Rohnert Park’s Café Mimosa has been planning to open a location in the Friedman’s shopping center and sister restaurant Eggspresso has had a “coming soon” sign up for a while at the old Acre Coffee location across from Trader Joe’s, but at present those projects appear to be stalled.

Tortilla Real appears to be on the brink of opening next to Sugo Trattoria and Depot Café is set to open this spring. Grand Central Cafe is located at the old POST location, in the little white building that used to be the ticket office for our city’s train station. I have spoken with the new owner and hope to have more news shortly but in brief, she plans to offer both food and local provisions.

It has been an exciting, yet challenging year for Petaluma’s dining scene. In speaking with numerous restaurant owners, they credit our incredibly supportive community with helping them make it through and look forward to serving us for years to come. Hopefully, with the warming spring weather we will also see some sort of return to normalcy for our restaurants so that more of us can take advantage of all the great food and drink that Petaluma’s purveyors have to offer.