Tip of My Tongue: Petaluma’s Greek food truck is back

Dino’s Greek Food has announced their return to the Block – Petaluma, starting Tuesday, May 14, 2022. The “truck” was shuttered last year when owner Konstandinos “Dino” Moniodis started working on his Sebastopol restaurant, as well as taking over the reins of the permanent kitchen at The Block (and renaming it Zimi, after his dad). However, he recently posted to social media, “we can't wait to serve you out of your favorite GREEK Taverna on wheels!” He promises to have his website back up and running shortly with an updated food truck schedule. We have enjoyed Dino’s numerous times in the past, even writing a feature article about them roughly a year ago so are glad to see them back.

BBQ fundraiser for lacrosse

Lombardi’s has come through again with another great pick-up fundraising dinner, with pre-order due by Friday, April 9, 2022 for pick-up on Monday, April 11. This fundraiser is to help one of our local high school sports teams, this time Casa Grande varsity lacrosse. Pick-up is between 4 and 6 p.m. at the Juliet parking lot at Casa Grande High School. We have had these dinners numerous times and they are always great! This particular dinner is $55, feeds four, and is your choice of either a whole tri-tip roast or pork baby back ribs, both with green salad, baked beans and French bread and butter. Orders must be placed and paid for by Friday, April 8 by sending your order and phone number to Michele Dirrane at thedirranes@gmail.com, with payment to @Patience-Patchet through Venmo, or by cash or check if arranged ahead of time through Michele.

Final voting

The Petaluma People’s Choice Awards voting will come to a conclusion this Sunday, April 10, 2022. Along with a great list of “Professionals and Specialist” (where you will find the best Caterer and best Chef voting) and “Business,” the “Food and Drink” category of the voting can be found by clicking on the “2022 People’s Choice Awards” in the “FIND IT FAST” tab towards the top of the Petaluma Argus-Courier’s website – www.petaluma360.com. Although not an objective judging of food and drink, the People’s Choice Awards are a big ‘thank you’ from us diners and drinkers to those who are nominated and a huge honor for those who win. The restaurant industry was particularly hard hit, so little nods to their hard work and dedication helps encourage them to keep up the good work. Along with some new categories this year (best Appetizers, Dessert and Restaurant Service), you will find all the normal categories that we all talk about when thinking about great food here in Petaluma, from best Bakery to Barbeque to Breakfast/Brunch.

Best New Restaurant is always fun to watch and this year includes nominations for, in alphabetical order, Bistro 201, Café Mimosa and Stellina Pronto. For those still getting a lot of take-out, the choices are between Butcher Crown Roadhouse, Lunchette and Quinua Cocina Peruana, which personally looks like a great day of eating no matter what ordered you chose them. In an interesting twist, there is a Mexican restaurant in the list of Best Vegetarian/Vegan Cuisine options. As we have mentioned here before, Tortilla Real prepares their ingredients separately from each other and so can modify just about anything on the menu. They are also open to suggestions and have actually worked directly with local plant-based eaters to fine tune their offerings.

Easter and Passover

This year Passover starts the evening of Friday, April 15 and Easter Sunday is that same weekend, so we should be seeing a lot of great dine-in and take-out specials relating to both. So far, this is what we are seeing, but as we get past this weekend, I am sure there will be more restaurants posting their specials for that upcoming weekend.

Starting with Passover, Butcher Crown Roadhouse (butchercrown.com) will have brisket dinners available, which is a staple Passover meat option, although we don’t need any special holidays to celebrate and enjoy BCR’s excellent smoked brisket (and burgers).

Penngrove Market does an incredible job with its regular Friday night family meals, but their special holiday meals are even better. We have had their Passover dinner before, and will yet again be ordering it because we love everything from the braised beef brisket to the potato latkes to my favorite matzo ball soup of all time. Dinner for four is $85, and must be reserved in advance by calling the market at 707-753-4974 for fully-cooked, ready-to-re-heat pickup on Friday afternoon.

War Wagon BBQ (warwagonbbq.com) is offering a limited quantity pre-order only Easter dinner for six, for pick-up on Sunday, April 7 from noon to 2 p.m. The dinner includes smoked and glazed leg of lamb, garlic mashed potatoes, cabbage casserole, dinner rolls, grandma’s mustard and scratch-made carrot cake loaf with cream cheese frosting for $200. They are also offering their highly popular Charcuterie Box Special for your Easter Parties. Boxes are packed with four meats, four cheeses, fresh fruit, chocolate candy, pistachios, olives, gherkins, dried fruit and crackers. Everything is on a palm leaf tray inside of a bakery box wrapped with a fabric ribbon. War Wagon will also include a sample of Grandma’s Mustard in a reusable glass jar in each box. Boxes are $75 each by preorder.

Caggiano’s (caggianocompany.com) is taking pre-orders for its 8- to 10-pound gourmet hams, with free delivery if you select “Easter delivery” when checking out. While getting your free delivery, I highly recommend stocking up on their excellent sausages. Although their initial order page only shows “Pork Sausage” and “Chicken Sausage,” clicking the “Shop Now” button will open up to all their options in each meat category. Or simply click on the “Bundles” option and you will see everything they offer.

For sweets, Mariapilar Ice Creamery will be rolling up the doors for a warehouse sale that same weekend. Bert’s Desserts will hold a wholesale Easter sale on Saturday, April 16, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., along with Cakes by Sam, Petaluma Creamery and rock artist Vicki Martinelli at her 501 Lakeville Street, Suite B, kitchen.

Those that have decided to take a break and give their staff the day off include Sax’s Joint and Flamez Grill, so far, but please call ahead so as to avoid disappointment if your favorite plans to be closed. Penngrove Market will also be closed on Easter Sunday.

Bee Experience

Heidrun Meadery (heidrunmeadery.com) is offering a “Bee Experienced” hands-on beekeeping class with beekeepers Bonnie and Gary this Sunday, April 10, as well as on May 15, June 12, July 10, Aug. 14, Sept. 11 and Oct. 9. The experience is from 10 a.m. to noon and is open to kids 12 and older, with an accompanying adult.

We had the pleasure of meeting Bonnie and Gary while attending Heidrun’s recent crab feast when they asked if they could take my photo. Although I was donning my cowboy hat, so may have been more recognizable than normal, I’ve never had someone ask to take my photo out of the blue like that, so had to ask them why. They said that my outfit of all black was the perfect example of what ‘not to wear’ when working around bees. I have never worked around bees, but also have never had problems with them “attacking,” so asked why black was bad. They informed me that bees can confuse my large darkly dressed human with that of a predator, such as a bear, which are well known honey lovers. This explains why beekeeping suits are white, not black.

Being that this “Bee Experienced” event is at a meadery (mead is wine made from honey instead of grapes), calling it “Flower to Flute” is certainly appropriate as it will including everything from hands-on inspections of working hives, pulling frames of honeycomb and extracting the honey, and even jarring up some estate honey to take home. Guests will then learn how honey is made into mead, followed by a mead tasting on Heidrun’s back patio. Visit Heidrun’s website for pricing, COVID-19 requirements and clothing recommendations.

Email houston@avantlard.com with questions/comments.