Random acts of restaurant kindness, boozy milkshakes and more

The stories of generosity abound across Petaluma as we move into our sixth week of the shelter-in-place order. Petalumans know how to step up and step in during a crisis and so these acts of kindness come as no surprise, but are heart-warming and a great reminder that we are all in this together and with patiences, understanding and compassion, we'll get through this.

Lunchette is the small family run lunch spot just up Fourth Street from the B Street intersection. A busy community activist herself, co-owner Naomi Crawford mentioned two major meal deliveries made possible by donations from Good Samaritans. Patrons purchased gift cards from the shop and then donated them back to Naomi and her crew, who then delivered meals to the staff at the Petaluma Health Center and to Kaiser San Rafael. These cards can be purchased at lunchetteonline.com and made out to Naomi Crawford. These types of donations to your favorite local restaurants not only help them stay in business, even if just barely, but also help to support our frontline workers. A special thanks to Jeremy Forcier and Cara Forcier of the local brand of Cross Country Mortgage for purchasing 100 salads towards the effort.

At Mariposa Ice Creamery, the donation was a bit more informal. Owner Pilar says, “A wonderful lady, who asked not to be identified, met me in the parking lot, handed me $80 and ask that I send ice cream to people who needed something delicious in their life. I gave a call to (Casa Grande High teacher) Lynne Gordon Moquete, and she delivered 10 quarts and eight pints of ice cream to families in need.”

Stockhome's Andrea Sundell posted an update to the Hero's Plate project, which I wrote about in last week's paper. “Your generosity has fed five front-line organizations. You donated 340 meals, 72 sets of snacks and four boxes of candy to the heroes devoting themselves to our safety.” Meals were provided to frontline workers at Kaiser Petaluma, Kaiser San Rafael, Petaluma Fire Department, COTS and Petaluma Post Acute Rehab. Upcoming meals will be going to Petaluma Valley Hospital ER on April 23 and Petaluma Health Center on April 30.

The Hero's Plate is a concerted effort by several downtown businesses, including the Shuckery, Whisper Sisters, the Bagel Mill, Barber Cellars, Barber Lee Spirits and the Sweet Zone to give community members an avenue to donate in a way that also helps these establishments survive this crisis. Visit theheroesplate.com (yes, that's how it is spelled) for more info on how you too can help.

As direct evidence that this program is helping our restaurants, Andrea was thrilled to announce that thanks to all the volunteer work through the Hero's Plate, Stockhome was able to bring back two of their employees. “Masked and gloved we worked together for the first time in over a month. The back of the house was busy preparing food that you have so generously donated. The front of the house was boxing it up and getting ready for delivery. Almost every table was full of boxed food. Words cannot describe how good it felt to have some of the team back together again. It was the first time, in all of this mess of COVID-19, I felt hope. For this, with all of my being, I say thank you.”

Liberty Duck meals

Bay Laurel Culinary has announced this week's family-style meal special and it includes Liberty Duck. Regular readers are sure to recognize that name because it is both a local duck farm but is also the only duck I will order off a menu, a decision made after year and years of ordering duck in restaurants. Even since I figured out how much I love duck, which was sometime in my 30s, I gravitated to it whenever I see it on a menu. However, over the years there have been a lot of hits and misses when it came to finding good duck at a restaurant. Then I discovered Liberty Duck, probably at Twisted 2, but I can't quite remember. From that day on, if a restaurant serves anything other than Liberty Duck, I don't order the duck. Bay Laurel's family-style meal special starts with Tomales Farmstead Creamery cheese and house-made focaccia, followed by a spring salad with west county ranch dressing and topped with radish and toasted pepitas before hitting the main Liberty Duck meatballs with Hunter's sauce, bacon, mushrooms and peas, soft polenta and a side of sage-roasted veggies. Dessert is Meyer lemon berrymisu. Dinner is $120 and serves four to six people and can be ordered through their website at baylaurelculinary.com.

Boozy Shakes

Correction: It is Seared, not McNear's that offers this alcoholic treat - this story has been updated for accuracy.

To much applause, Seared has introduced their version of adult milkshakes. If you do not know what an adult milkshake is, you are not alone. Basically, I call it booze in a milkshake. With the mixologists behind these creations, they would more accurately be called a milkshake cocktail. Chef Joe O'Donnell posted a photo last week to Petaluma Foodies of the Version 1.0 which garnered quite a bit of attention from both those who knew what it was and those who wanted to know. Version 1.0 consisted of Mariposa salted caramel, Templeton rye bourbon, Dolda chocolate liquor, and vanilla bean whip. This week Chef Joe has Version 2.0, which is house-made Cinnamon Toast Crunch ice cream, bourbon, Dorda chocolate liquor, Cinnamon Toast Crunchies, vanilla bean whip and amaro cherries. Stay tuned for more creative concoctions to come.

Restaurant Updates

Rosen's 256 North announced that they will re-open Wednesday, April 22, with an updated take-out menu, likely including more of their pizza from their great new wood-fired pizza oven.

Ray's Deli and Tavern will close shop for a short hiatus in order to attend to some family matters as well to update the online ordering system and to better set their space up for take-out orders. Their last day open will be this Saturday, April 25, but they will be back Tuesday, May 12.

Bianchini's deli on the southside of town (next to the Elks Lodge) announced that they have taken an extra step and have been fully treated by Abacus Labs for all viruses and bacteria in order to ensure the safety of take-out and deliveries coming from their shop. Bianchini's South, as I call them, is also now offering deliveries of any size to anywhere in Petaluma south of Washington Street. (There is a Bianchini's North, which is why the south of Washington delivery zone.)

Mother's Day

A conscientious reader was thoughtful enough to write and remind me that Mother's Day is a little over two weeks away (Sunday, May 10). As the largest dine-out day of the year, this year's holiday could be an opportunity for restaurants to get a real boost to their bottom line. For restaurants, the suggestion is that you post your menus early and offer pre-orders and scheduled pick-up times. All these things could help avert a real disaster, especially considering how many restaurants are running with skeleton crews and are trying to limit their supply chain ordering so as to avoid waste. And for us diners, let's give the restaurants a break and plan ahead ourselves by pre-ordering where we can. Even if a restaurant itself is not offering pre-orders, delivery services like Petaluma Food Taxi allow for it, passing your orders along to the restaurants in advance.

Cocktail Hour

Along with a pivot into sanitizer production in order to support our local communities, Griffo Distillery kicks off a new cocktail program today, offering both pick-up and delivery cocktails in collaboration with fabulous local bartender, Danny Ojinaga. Each week Griffo and local guest bartenders will offer two fresh, delicious and innovative cocktails in a one-size-drinks-all large mason jar for $45, which is enough for five cocktails. Each week will introduce new cocktails, created by two visiting bartenders in order to help them make up for lost wages due to COVID-19. Always stepping in to help the community, Griffo is donating all the ingredients and the workspace so that the vast majority of the income will go to some of our struggling local bartenders. Let's not forget that our favorite bartenders have also been hit hard by all of this and so this gives us a chance to not only help them, but also enjoy delicious cocktails made with quality ingredients. Griffo has also started an e-commerce site offering shipping to most of the U.S. and local same day delivery in Petaluma.

Barbecue To-Go

Roy's Chicago Dogs at the Yard is often overlooked or forgotten, sitting at the back of a gravel parking lot just west of Petaluma Boulevard North on the south side of Corona Road. The “at the Yard” refers to its location, which is on the ground floor of the gray building with huge signs painted it on it stating “Auction Sales Yard” and “Petaluma Livestock Auction Yard.” The location may be unusual, but their selection of dogs (all beef) and Italian beef sandwiches is impressive and delicious. But what makes them a true hidden gem in their barbecue. They started a few years back, offering just a few plates a week because they were borrowing smoker space from a friendly chef at Lagunitas Brewing. Now they smoke their own meats and so offer up barbecue brisket and ribs on the regular and both are excellent. Don't miss Ginny's famous potato salad and the panko crusted Roy's mac-n-cheese ballz. I have had their dogs, brisket, ribs and all the sides and have enjoyed every single one. Current hours are listed as Thursday, Friday and Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. Orders can be placed directly by calling 774-1574 or through Petaluma Food Taxi.

As luck would have it, when I placed our order last week for the new Friday night slow-smoked brisket dinner deal at Butcher Crown Roadhouse I accidently placed it for tomorrow night instead of last Friday. Thankfully, I noticed the mistake immediately but figured why bother BCR with a change. So instead I placed a second order for the earlier day. One might call that a risky move as we had not had BCR's brisket yet, but having loved everything else we've tried from them, figured it was a risk worth taking. Boy are we glad we did with our only regret being that we ordered the two-person dinner instead of the four. We can't wait for this week's repeat performance. On a side note, although last week's order window was supposed to remain open until 8 p.m., they received so much interest that all spots were reserved on the smokers early and ordering had to come to a halt a bit early. So, if this piques your interest, I would get on their website to place your order ASAP at butchercrown.com. You can also order for delivery through Petaluma Food Taxi. Saturday night's dinner is tri-tip and Sunday's is Piri Piri chicken.

And not to be forgotten, What a Chicken decided to shut down their restaurant as soon as the Shelter in Place Order went into effect, which was probably a good thing because social distancing would be nearly impossible in their place. However, in the meantime, they have gone back to their roots, which here in Petaluma started with the Eastside Farmers Market years ago. If you have been missing their incredible chicken, or even just Griselda and Cesar's great smiles, they will be smoking things up at the Tuesday markets yet again.

Special Visit

Correction: The date of Wayfare Tavern's visit has been pushed back - keep an eye on their social media for an appearance in the next couple of weeks.

The Wayfare Tavern's fried chicken food truck is scheduled for a special visit to Petaluma next week. The Wayfare Tavern is a San Francisco favorite and is owned by Marin resident, TV host and super chef Tyler Florence. Tyler is no stranger to Petaluma as he has been the national spokesperson for Rocky and Rosie chicken. In fact, I met him by chance at Butter and Egg Days while visiting the Rocky and Rosie food truck. Tyler was super friendly and even offered to exchange cards when he learned I was the local food writer. In addition, his restaurant and food truck menu often feature Petaluma producers.

The Wayfare food truck posted to social media asking for invites and a Petaluma fan requested that they pay a visit to town. They accepted, although the original date was canceled, although they promise to come in the next few weeks. Pre-ordering is suggested and can be done at 10 a.m. on the day of service either through their text app (415-840-8566). For the menu, text “menu” to that number or visit wayfaretavern.com/foodtruck. No news yet if Tyler will be on site but if he is, let's offer him a warm welcome and thanks for being a Petaluma supporter over all these years.