With all the great wineries in Sonoma come plenty of talented chefs - it's startlingly how many outstanding restaurants there are in such a relatively compact radius and not heavily populated area. The Stark Reality Restaurant group is a particular good bet for dining. The company runs four excellent spots around the area, Stark's Steakhouse, Willi's Wine Bar, Willi's Seafood & Raw Bar, and Monti's Rotisserie. These places all have a relaxed vibe - you can easily show up in jeans and a short-sleeve shirt. But they specialize in top-notch local wines and regionally influenced cuisine.
Most of the Stark restaurants are in Santa Rosa, the one exception being Willi's Seafood & Raw Bar in Healdsburg. Owners Mark and Terri Stark began with Willi's wine Bar in 2002, and they've been adding them steadily ever since, with Stark's Steakhouse having opened in 2008 in Santa Rosa's bustling Old Railroad Square district. They also run a fun little lounge in Santa Rosa called Barcode (404D Mendocino Ave., 707-528-9478), which is an urbane, San Francisco-style spot with an eclectic, stylish following.
Stark's Steakhouse (21 Adams St., Santa Rosa, 707-546-5100) is a bit more of a special-occasion venue, serving such first-rate carnivore fare as filet mignon and Kobe flat-iron steaks, plus slow-roasted organic chicken with lemon-rosemary jus. You can top your steak with a truffle-fried egg, or roasted bone marrow, and a range of sauces - salsa verde, Boursin cheese, and several others. And be sure to order a few of the sides, such as Cambozola mac-n-cheese and rosemary yam fries. It's also open for lunch on weekdays - somewhat rare for a steak house.
The two Willi's operations emphasize light tapas fare, with the newer Willi's Seafood & Raw Bar (403 Healdsburg Ave., 707-433-9191) favoring small plates of, you guessed it, enticingly fresh and globally influenced seafood: tuna tartare with jalapenos, cashews, ginger, and coconut milk; Dungeness crab cocktail with avocado; almond-crusted market fish of the day, with lemon caper butter.
Willi's Wine Bar (4404 Old Redwood Hwy., Santa Rosa, 707-526-3096) is the Stark group's flagship. Just as at the others, you're welcome to bring your own wine 9there's a $15 corkage fee per bottle), but you'll also find a fantastic wine list, with an emphasis on California varietals (not just local ones - up and down the coast), plus a nice mix in of world-beat vintages from Portugal, New Zealand, Chile, etc.
An entire menu at Willi's is devoted to cheese and charcuterie (Truffle Tremor, Ewes Blue, and Washington's Flagship Reserve aged cheddar are among the dairy stars, with Salame Toscano standing out in the meat department). The rest of the menu focuses on various small plates, from rabbit rillette with spiced grape chutney and pomegranate-glazed chicken meatballs with chickpeas and cuke salad. Save room for the dessert of warm olive oil crepes with lavender-roasted strawberries, strawberry ice cream, pine nuts, and quince saba.
And then there's Monti's Rotisserie & Bar (714 Village Court, Santa Rosa, 707-568-4404), a casual and quite affordable spot with both big plates and small plates on the extensive menu, and another terrific wine list. The rotisserie part of the restaurant's name accounts for the likes of spit-roasted leg of lamb with picholine olives and tomato gratin. But there's a good mix of foods here, with quite a bit in the way of Italian influence (parmesan gnocchi with market veggies, rigatoni with short rib ragu). It's in the Montgomery Village Shopping Center.
