Bites Nearby: Petaluma's Della Fattoria Downtown Does More Than Bake Breads
This is a perfectly integrated artisanal business with first-class sandwiches and other tasty treats.
Each week, GraceAnn Walden picks a restaurant in Petaluma or Novato that is worth checking out. Here's this week's choice:
Della Fattoria Downtown (The Cafe)
141 Petaluma Boulevard North, Petaluma, CA
www.dellafattoria.com, 707-763-0161
Overview: Kathleen and Ed Weber may have started out as bakers, but what they have created is the whole package: growing their own food, distributing their baked goods to restaurants all over the North Bay, selling at farmers markets, hosting folks at their farms and (for my purposes) they dish up a pretty yummy lunch.
They concentrate on serving breakfast and lunch. I can’t wait to go back for their café dinners on Friday nights or their summer dinners at their land in west Petaluma.
Décor: The interior is airy and attractive, but unfortunately too small at peak times.
The Drinks: The hibiscus lemonade is the bomb. Coffee drinks are expertly made.
Appetizers: None really.
Entrees: Sandwiches made with great, fresh ingredients, mostly organic on terrific bread. My favorites, having chomped on my two friends’ sandwiches, are the Reuben made with Niman Ranch pastrami, fresh sauerkraut and thousand island dressing made in house and the Rancho Gordo beans on toast with chevre, roasted garlic on rosemary-lemon toast. I had the piadini (a crispy pizza base with goodies on top) with tuna, cheddar and arugula. Sandwiches come with a small salad.
Anyone who complains that the sandwich is outrageously expensive at $12-$13 doesn’t know what goes into making and obtaining quality ingredients. For example, the tuna is Pacific Northwest, wild albacore tuna, pole/troll caught in our waters.
Desserts: Any of the pastries, especially the chocolate croissant.
Service: I heard the staff was cold and unfriendly, but found them to be the opposite.
Disabled accessible: Yes.
Noise level: Noisy, when full.
joyceapplen
8:27 am on Friday, May 6, 2011
I try to go there for lunch everytime I'm in Petaluma. The menue is imaginvative also. Friday night dinners are the best also.
Everything is very high quality.
Marjanne Pearson
10:21 am on Friday, May 6, 2011
I am a huge fan of Della Fattoria (@DellaFattoria on Twitter) — it's actually part of the reason why I moved to Petaluma a few years ago. I had met the Webers at the SF Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market but didn't know about the café. When I first had lunch at the café, I was blown away. I think that for us as consumers, what's particularly important is the care that the Weber family takes with regard to the ingredients — in most cases buying from local growers and ranchers with whom they have longstanding relationships — as well as the artisanal approach to the menu, the food that is crafted, and the café itself. For me personally, the added value comes from the warmth and sense of community that enfolds me every time I visit, making wonderful food even better.
Annie Archer
2:45 pm on Friday, May 6, 2011
I ate there last summer while vacationing in the area, it was great and despite the packed house on a Sunday morning the service was terrific. Wish we had something like in my Patch.