Poppy open in Glen Ellen
After months of remodeling, repainting, restyling and recreating their finest memories of France and its food, Sondra Bernstein and John Toulze hosted four “friends and family” practice dinners last week. Their actual opening date of Poppy was Wednesday, May 21.
While we read of restaurant closings in Santa Rosa and all over the Bay Area, Sonoma seems to be flying pretty high and optimistically in our beautiful valley. Three new restaurants were opened in the last couple of months by locals who own other local restaurants.
And now, Bernstein and Toulze are living their dream with a French bistro right here in Glen Ellen.
Reservations will probably be hard to get, but well worth it. Having spent as much time as possible in France since I was 17 (just a few years ago), I dream of French food and food memories. At Poppy you can live those memories.
The green walls are gone and the cozy 40-seat space is now mostly blue and white and feels like the corner bistro.
The menu includes a whole bread section to honor French traditions, with choices of house-cultured butter, shaved Parisian ham, bone marrow persillade, a duck liver terrine or a pâté de campagne.
The “Entrée” section lists what you expect as appetizers. Entrée in French means entrance to the meal, in this case. The mushrooms with an egg and herbs caught my eye, and you might expect escargots, Salt Spring Island mussels, asparagus salad, or citrus with burrata and Niçoise olives.
Still expected to make the changing final menu might be coquilles St. Jacques, Mount Lassen trout, roast chicken as only the French can do it, porc, a short rib confit and possibly steak au poivre.
Wednesday and Thursday will bring weeknight family-style four-course meals with cassoulet Wednesdays and wild flounder meunière on Thursdays. Great selections of aperitifs, local and French beer, mocktails, and wines, with $15 corkage. Open 5 to 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. All checks not paid with cash will have a three percent service fee applied. 13690 Arnold Dr., Glen Ellen. (707) 938-2130.
Stella Stars
After major construction at what used to be Café Citti in Kenwood, Ari Weiswasser, Erinn Benziger Weiswasser, and Spencer and Ashley Waite opened Stella, their super, state-of-the-art new Italian spot with a variety of tasty casual Italian food, a new open kitchen and a sheltered patio to serve mobs of people from all over the valley who might be traveling on Highway 12. Stella means “star” in Italian, as in their Glen Ellen Star. 9049 Sonoma Hwy., Kenwood. (707) 801-8043.
Farmhouse has mobs of guests
Then Pemba Sherpa, owner of Taste of Himalayas off First Street East in Sonoma, finally got to open his Farmhouse Sonoma in what was originally a Denny’s, then Palms Grill, and then empty. A new shopping center landlord and huge work by Pemba and his family turned the large restaurant into a lovely happening “all-American restaurant,” with a full liquor license and more mobs of guests. 18999 Sonoma Hwy., Sonoma. (707) 210-0515.
Noche de Luna is rising
Sometimes called “the best party of the year,” La Luz’s annual fundraiser, on Saturday, Aug. 2, celebrates the non-profit’s 40 years of serving our hard-working Latino community who keep our valley going. This community often does the actual cooking in our restaurant kitchens, keeps our beautiful gardens growing, gives gentle care for many of us in various ways from homes to hospitals and hotels, and eventually some start their own businesses while sharing their community culture.
Many of us empathize with the uncertainties our Latino neighbors and friends are experiencing. La Luz provides a variety of educational programs from computers to English as a Second Language (ESL) and all sorts of classes to help each person work to support and improve their own and their families’ lives.
This year’s fundraiser will be at a lovely private estate with fabulous food catered by the girl & the fig. I can say that because I got to taste the full menu with the organizing committee.
Tickets to help La Luz continue this important work start at $250. Sponsorships range from $2,000 to $20,000 and, if you get those in by June 20, your commitment will be listed in the Noche de Luna program.
Cocktail Hour music will be by The Konstantins Jemelanvous Quintet. Following the girl & the fig caters! dinner, Grammy Award winning Pacific Mambo Orchestra will play moonlight dance music for Noche de Luna. Tickets at: laluzcenter.org/events.
Chili Cook-Off May 31
St. Francis Solano Parish and Men’s Club, and the Knights of Columbus, will host a spirited Chili Cook-Off on Saturday, May 31 at Father Roberts Hall on Third Street West. Food events these folks put on always include good food and lots of it.
Guests can taste all of the entered chiles and vote on the best, and the entire family can enjoy drinks, music and games.
You can indulge in the works for $20 adults, $10 children, both including a drink. Or you can enter your best chili in the cook-off for $40.
Craig Hogan is president of Knights of Columbus here. Get tickets by calling St. Francis parish office at (707) 996-6759, email vomknights@gmail.com, or go to vomknights.com/events.
Don’t forget their First Sunday of the Month Community Breakfast, also in Father Roberts Hall. Loads of hot food prepared under the guidance of Chef Mara Roche, aka Aunt Momo. Breakfast includes all you want of scrambled eggs, sausages, French toast, pancakes, fruit salad, sautéed potatoes and beignets. $15 adults, $25 family. All goes to Knights of Columbus scholarships.
Valley makes Top 100
Only one Sonoma Valley restaurant made the May 11 San Francisco Chronicle’s “Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area 2025.”
Valley Bar & Bottle, on First Street West, site of the former Harvest Moon Café, came in at number 51 and was cited for its morning coffee and pastries, lunch and dinner, plus wine bar and fall figs, chocolate, and olive oil – and a couple of perfect little café tables on the sidewalk in front. Check out the well-known restaurants Valley outranked (below). Valley is also the big sister to Valley Swim Club on Arnold Drive. No swimming.
Among the select few in Wine Country restaurants that made the list are Single Thread in Healdsburg (9), Cyrus in Geyserville (71), Table Culture Provisions in Petaluma (77), Mustards Grill north of Yountville (80), and Charter Oak in St. Helena (94).
As a guidebook author, it has always mystified me how some of these rankings are chosen, so I have collected shelves of everything from Michelin to Zagat guidebooks to compare selections from year to year. And sometimes I wonder if those making the choices actually visit restaurants in each area or rely on others’ opinions or even copy ratings from each other.
In any case, huge congratulations to Valley owners Lauren Feldman, Emma Lipp, Stephanie Reagor, and Tanner Walle, the proud parents of both Valley restaurants.
Wit & Wisdom starts bi-monthly wine tastings
Local Three Sticks Wines will be featured at Wit & Wisdom’s new Wine Cellar Series, which means Three Sticks Wines will be the wines paired with Chef Danny Giroloimo’s excellent four-course menu on Wednesday, May 28.
The menu includes Hamachi crudo with hearts of palm and pea shoots, lobster risotto with watercress, and grilled duck breast with potato dauphinoise, spring vegetables and buttermilk panna cotta with poached rhubarb and a pistachio tuille. $180. Call (707) 931-3405 for tickets.
Hasta la Vista Artichoke Festival
So sorry to see California’s Artichoke Festival fall to its death apparently due to permit and insurance fees after 65 years of fun and yummy artichokes in many sizes and forms.
After all, Marilyn Monroe supposedly made her glamour debut as the Castroville Artichoke Festival Queen.
Having written about this festival in newspapers, magazines and guidebooks, I loved sampling fresh, fried, and stuffed artichokes. They are still one of my favorite foods, but for five dollars?
While The White House says gasoline and food prices have come down under President Trump, please tell me where? Last week, as I was writing this, Regular gas in Sonoma was at $5.27 a gallon. And artichokes were about $5 at both Sonoma Market and Lucky.
A woman on social media mentioned the Artichoke Festival. I added that artichokes cost about $5 here. Someone said they are also $5 apiece where she lives in Santa Cruz, “15 minutes from Castroville.”
These artichokes are not imported. But do they use fertilizer they normally get from Canada, for which Trump still requires at 25 percent tariff? How does this help farmers?
Let’s see: Two dolls and five pencils vs. a $400 million gilded jet from Qatar?
Thank you Kathleen! Great column.
Kathleen, I so enjoy your column. Pity you have to interject negative political comments. We get so much of that on social media. It would be a pleasant experience to for your column to focus on what you do best.