Dinner at Petaluma’s Della Fattoria is a feast for the eyes and tastebuds
After massive changes to the physical layout of its downtown café, along with expanding the menu to now include dinner, Della Fattoria has the makings to set itself apart as one of Petaluma’s premier downtown dining spots. It can easily compete with the best that the rest of Sonoma County has to offer.
First and foremost, Della is a world-renowned bakery, started years ago as a hobby by Kathleen Weber. Her bread quickly garnered the attention of such stalwarts as the Sonoma Mission Inn and the French Laundry. Della would eventually be named Top 10 Best Bread Bakeries in America by Bon Appetit.
A family affair, husband Edmund built Kathleen’s original oven and still helps with all aspects of the business. Son Aaron, who just so happens to have graduated Petaluma High the same year I did, returned to Della’s kitchen years ago after his expert culinary training, and daughter Elisa helps with special events, media and the restaurant and café’s management. For the full history, anecdotes from Kathleen, plus a forward by the legendary Thomas Keller, pick up the book “Della Fattoria Bread: 60 Foolproof Recipes,” available at the bakery. Since she is there almost every day, get your copy hand signed by Kathleen. A quick chat with her reveals where her passion for Della.
Back in 2016, when the crew first toyed with the idea of expanding into evening service, Chef Aaron offered periodic prix fixe dinners in the cafe, many of which we attended. The food was exceptional and, at the time, I went so far as to predict that Chef Aaron was going put Della’s non-bakery menu on the map just as Kathleen has done with its breads. However, the reality of changing the space from a café to a full-blown dining room would stall the project until midway through last year.
Della used to host semi-regular ranch dinners out on Skillman Lane at its bakery facility, which were the pinnacle of farm to fork perfection. “We wanted to bring our ranch dinners to downtown,” said Elisa when asked what inspired the menu.
Della’s new dining hall is such a huge space that it is almost barn-like, and even includes a lot of artifacts from Della’s barn. Despite the large space, there is a delicate intimacy to it. This is likely due to the eclectic collection of furniture, mirrors, chandeliers and other antiques that adorn the room, many sourced from the now-closed shop across the Boulevard.
“Everything has a story,” said Elisa, pointing out that we are also eating off her grandmother’s antique glass plates.
She motions towards a chandelier that she personally re-gilded and wired for electric lights. Speaking of lighting, it is intertwined throughout, giving Della a soft and comfortable feel, which is saying a lot considering the size of the space.
Our server was Miles and he could not have been more professional, while still being quite friendly and approachable. He was extremely helpful with our questions even though our group all arrived at different times and had different priorities on our minds, some going straight for the wine list while others wanted to get appetizers ordered.
When asked about her staff, Kathleen says, “After so many years in the business, it just takes a little bit of time in order to find the right team.”
Miles did not balk when we asked for sample tastings of multiple wines, even opening up a new bottle upon request. Several of us settled on an incredible gamay from Bouquetin, of Valle d’Aosta, in the northwest corner of Italy. Being a French varietal, along with the Valle d’Aosta’s proximity to the French border, might help explain why this wine has such a French feel even though technically Italian. Della’s wine-by-the-glass menu is impressive in its breadth as well as its affordability, ranging across several well-known Sonoma County wineries before heading across the pond to include some excellent French and Italian options, all ranging between $9 and $15.
Although not listed on the wine menu, Della usually has at least one port on hand, and this night was no different. Quite affordable at $10 per glass, as with most late bottle vintages, I found the 2013 from Graham’s to go quite well with food.
We could not help but start our food order with the house focaccia with extra virgin olive oil, which is equally excellent to the house table bread. Both were hard to resist polishing off, except we were anxiously anticipating the arrival of the soup special - a bowl of extra thick tomato bisque. All of these showed a deep respect for Della’s farm roots, which is a respectable juxtaposition with the imaginative and heavily French-influenced cuisine that was about to grace our table.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: