Traxx offers ʹsip and shop’ event on Saturday

Traxx Bar & Grill will host an outdoor, masks-required, social-distancing shopping and sipping experience this Saturday, Aug. 15, from 1 to 4 p.m. at 219 Lakeville. And for those that missed last week’s Petaluma People’s Choice Awards announcement, Traxx took home the top honor for both Best Bar and Best Burger. Various vendors will be on hand, including Anchor 21 Branding (clothing), the Hemp General Store (various hemp products), NorCal Nails Color Street (finger nail application), 4 Eva Love Designs (handmade jewelry), Usborne Books (children’s books), Sedition Brews (syrups, vinegars and tea), Moonbodyspiritcreations (art) and Scone Rollin’ Pastries. “That blueberry cheesecake pastry was worth every burpee I did that day,” says Sarah Speckman Gyrion of her last experience with Scone Rollin. Petaluma’s newest coffee roaster is not yet pouring publicly at a coffee house, but Kuksa Coffee Roasters does offer online sales and subscriptions, as well as being available for retail sales at Penngrove Market. However, this event at Traxx gives you a chance to meet and talk with one of the owners and buy a bag or three directly.

Intimate dining

Street Social will be seating three tables in its breezeway this Thursday and Friday night from 5 to 7:30 p.m. for a special “condensed” version of their eclectic comfort food menu, which always highlights small, local, organic purveyors. Street Social plans to continue this through the end of August and if it goes well, they hope to continue these tables and times into the future. One Saturday night, there will be one lucky table reservation at 6 p.m. for the “chef’s table,” a special dining experience (get more details on Street Social’s social media pages). For those who crave Street Social’s golden fried chicken, it will still be available for pre-order takeout, but on Saturday only. Reservations should be made by emailing StreetsocialLA@gmail.com.

You can read more about Street Social in my prior Petaluma Argus-Courier article online at petaluma360.com.

More free food delivery

This week’s Petaluma Food Taxi free delivery days will highlight a few of Petaluma sweet treat options, along with a handful of our excellent delis. Thursday, Aug. 13, is April Pantry’s night of free delivery, which includes plenty of sweets and deli as well as some incredible entrees. You can read about them in last week’s feature food article in the Petaluma Argus-Courier.

Just in time for the weather to bump back into the 90s, frozen treats are available for free delivery from Wicked Slush on Friday and Baskin Robbins on Saturday. And no need to worry about frozen treats melting on the journey. We have ordered ice cream delivery before and it showed up as frosty as could be. Not to mention, the Sweet Zone has all sorts of great candy and chocolate available for the perfect sweet tooth Sunday on Aug. 16

Monday Charley's Wine Country Deli is on the menu and along with all the regular sandwiches, Monday’s special is a meatball sandwich. It comes with your choice of chicken meatballs with creamy pomodoro sauce or beef with meat sauce, either on a soft or hard roll, with provolone and parmesan and a choice of one of their great side salads. Tuesday, Aug. 18, includes more great sandwiches at Ray's Deli, with local favorites like the Reuben and the Rachel (a Reuben with pastrami instead of corned beef). Rounding out this week of free delivery is Bianchini’s South with sandwiches in every style, from oven-roasted chicken to classic baked ham to Cubanos, and with plenty of veggie options. For the free delivery coupon code and to place your orders, visit petalumafoodtaxi.com.

Fryday chicken

Penngrove Market’s “Fryday Chicken Dinners” have quickly become all the rage, right around 4 p.m. each Friday, at least for those who called in orders ahead. “We’ve done it for two weeks now and it’s going strong, and we’re definitely going to keep it going,” says co-owner Shaina Ita Ferraro.

This meal for four is $40 and includes eight pieces of Rocky Chicken, slaw, mashed potatoes, drop biscuits and house-made sweet pickles. “We’re also going to start offering the same dinner, but with one of our roasted chicken in place of the fried chicken, for people that prefer gluten free or just don’t want fried chicken.” For gluten-free folks, they’ll substitute cornbread for biscuits. With limited kitchen capacity, the Fryday Chicken Dinners sell out quickly; call 753-4974 to place a pre-order.

Seeking chicken parm

While on the topic of chicken, Laura Sunday, the Queen of Cuisine and the Chili Empress (organizer of such favorite food fundraisers as Taste of Petaluma, Great Petaluma Chili Cookoff and Lagunitas – Cinnabar Crab Feed) posted a request for chicken parmigiana restaurant recommendations on Petaluma Foodies this week, a food item for which I have yet to write a “Petaluma Guide.” The recommendations came in fast and furious, with a few staples as well as a few surprises. But first, for a bit of food history, it can be called either parmesan or parmigiana, although is often shortened to “parm” in the US and “parma,” “parmi” or “parmy” in Australian, where it is even more popular. Developed by Italian immigrants in the mid-1950s, it is not something you will normally find in Italy. The origins trace back to a dish that highlighted breaded eggplant slices with a breaded veal cutlet. By using chicken instead of veal, Italian immigrants created an affordable dish that quickly became a household name in the US and Australia.

Of course, many of our favorite Italian places got the nod, including Alfredo’s, Caffe Giostra, Trattoria Roma and our staple Sugo Trattoria. Cucina and Risibisi reportedly have it as an occasional special. Mary’s Pizza Shack and the New Yorker both offer more than just pizza and both offer a chicken parm, with Mary’s being the full dish and the New Yorker offering theirs in a sandwich. Petaluma Market offers one for take-home/re-heat which is actually quite good. (With menus being more limited than normal due to COVID, check with your favorite restaurant to see if it is currently on the menu before getting your heart set on ordering their chicken parm.)

As luck would have it, this week’s family meal from Bay Laurel Culinary includes your choice of chicken parmesan or its vegetarian counterpart, eggplant. The meal starts with complimentary spiced picholine olives (white pepper, fennel and coriander) before leading into the coastal lettuce salad (red wine and caper vinaigrette). The parm is wrapped in crispy olive oil breadcrumbs and topped with BLC’s pomodoro sauce, Petaluma mozzarella and Sonoma dry jack and Genovese basil. On the side are roasted farmers market veggies with kitchen garden rosemary and for dessert, Straus Family Creamery yogurt panna cotta with summer berry compote.

We had the opportunity to try one of BLC’s family meals a couple of months ago and was thoroughly impressed with both the flavor and the portion size. A new menu is available each week with curb-side pickup Wednesday through Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. The family meal is $130 and says it serves four to six but we found it easily provided several days of leftovers. Orders should be placed 48 hours in advance by calling 981-8100.

(You can see my prior article on caterers, including Bay Laurel Culinary’s family meal, at petaluma360.com)