On the morning of Saturday, August 8, about 300 cyclists and 50 walkers set out from Old Caz Beer's taproom at SOMO Village in Rohnert Park and traveled 7.3 miles to Grey Street in Petaluma. They carried one handmade tap handle, the one that poured Old Caz's first beer. When the procession arrived, the handle was installed at Old Caz Backyard in front of a crowd of about 500. The new taproom sits on the lot that had been The Block for close to a decade.
Rachel Pignata, the general manager at Old Caz Backyard, explained the reason for the location in one sentence. "There are a lot of fine dining restaurants and dive bars in Petaluma, but not much middle ground," she told Petaluma News.
Look at what opened this summer and a pattern shows up. The places filling that middle ground mostly aren't new concepts in new buildings. A brewery took over a beer garden from a friend. A winemaking couple combined four businesses into one room. A family restaurant moved into a former chain pancake house. Petaluma's casual evening options grew by reusing spaces people already knew, and that changes how you'd plan an October night out.
A handoff on Grey Street
The Block started as an idea. In 2015, Cody Hildreth proposed a food truck park behind the Washington Street AutoZone, and the Argus-Courier wrote that he wanted to pair food with a community gathering space. It opened to the public during Butter & Egg Days in 2017. Over the years it kept adding pieces: a brick pizza oven, barbecue kitchens, a full bar, an outdoor stage, and a beer Hildreth made himself under his Two Rock Brewing Company label.
That beer label explains what happened next. According to The Press Democrat, Old Caz founders Tom Edwards and Bryan Rengel first met Hildreth at The Block and later advised him when he launched Two Rock. About six months before the May announcement, Hildreth asked them whether they wanted to acquire The Block's assets. "A lot of offers come across our table, but this was a 'hell yes,'" Edwards said.
When Hildreth announced the change, he hadn't yet named the new operator. He described the group taking over as people "we know and trust, and who we consider as family." The farewell Blockfest started at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, with The Hots, The Soulshake, The Incubators Duo and Cody Hill, all acts that had played The Block's outdoor stage many times. Old Caz held a soft launch on the Thursday before its official Saturday, August 8 opening, so the lot sat quiet for less than three months.
The location matters to the founders too. Edwards and Rengel met on the Sonoma State rowing team and practiced on the Petaluma River near Grey Street. "Bryan and I met 100 feet from here when we were 19 years old," Edwards said.
What changed and what stayed at 20 Grey St.
Most of The Block's format is still there. Old Caz Backyard still runs a rotating lineup of food trucks and still pours local wine and cider next to its 30 taps of Old Caz beer. It also added an in-house menu and a fire pit. The menu changes with the season. At opening it included the Pig N Peach pizza with housemade spicy sausage, roasted local peaches and crispy pork skin, and the Cap N Stem with Mycopia mushrooms, fontina, thyme and lemon. A "Local Veg" section recently offered beets with pomegranate molasses, chili crisp and hazelnuts.
The biggest change is the focus on kids. The new play area includes a miniature Old Caz trailer. "We want to offer parents a place to go enjoy a beer and not have to worry about their kids banging on the tables or running around," Edwards said.
Four businesses under one roof on Washington Street
Downtown, the same thing happened for a different reason. Lorraine and Mike Barber opened Petaluma's first downtown tasting room inside Hotel Petaluma in 2015. In 2017, Mike co-founded Barber Lee Spirits with Aaron Lee in a former brick warehouse next door. Over time the couple added Petaluma Cheese Shop inside the tasting room and Nightcap Dessert Bar at the distillery. Running several businesses across two locations while also farming, making wine and distilling became too much. "The financial reality of the wine business and tourism was definitely a factor," Mike Barber told Sonoma Magazine.
In early July, all four businesses moved together into the distillery under the name Taste Petaluma, at 120 Washington St. The bar now sits closer to the entrance, and there's a nook with armchairs in the back. Sonoma Magazine describes couples, friends and families sharing the room while dogs sleep on the wooden floors.
The menu is built for mixing and matching, and the prices are listed:
- Wine: tastings are $25, and glasses start at $16
- Spirits: flights start at $20, and seasonal cocktails are $16, including the Treat Yo' Self with McEvoy Ranch jalapeño olive oil
- Food: the Cheese Pull is $22, a warm wheel of Point Reyes Farmstead Quinta served with Della Fattoria bread, Belfare Sesame-Chili Crunch and Zinfandel chocolate sauce
- Zero-proof: nonalcoholic cocktails, coffee and a tea service
Taste Petaluma stays open until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Few downtown rooms with cheese and dessert on the menu stay open that late.
Higher costs are affecting other downtown businesses too. Once Upon a Slush, the family-run dessert shop on American Alley, served its last day on August 30. Co-owners Dave and Juliet Pokorny said rising costs and a difficult climate for small businesses were the main reasons. In that kind of economy, combining under one roof is a way to keep going, and Taste Petaluma is what the Barbers built when they made that choice.
A former IHOP on the north end
Blue Plate held its grand opening on Saturday, August 22, in the former IHOP building at 5312 Old Redwood Highway N. Restaurateurs Louis and Emily Hoang run it as an all-day American comfort-food restaurant, open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. Breakfast through dinner every day of the week also fits the middle ground Pignata described. It just covers the morning and early evening, where the other two places start in the afternoon.
| Spot | Address | Listed hours |
|---|---|---|
| Old Caz Backyard | 20 Grey St. | Mon–Thu 3–9 p.m.; Fri 3–10 p.m.; Sat 11 a.m.–10 p.m.; Sun 11 a.m.–8 p.m. |
| Taste Petaluma | 120 Washington St. | Wed–Thu 3–10 p.m.; Fri–Sat 3–11 p.m.; Sun 3–9 p.m. |
| Blue Plate | 5312 Old Redwood Highway N. | Daily 7 a.m.–9 p.m. |
The table shows a gap. Monday and Tuesday evenings, Old Caz Backyard and Blue Plate are the two places on this list with posted hours.
Putting October together
The Old Caz calendar is where the inherited format shows up most clearly, because the food trucks still change night to night. These are the dates listed on Old Caz's Backyard events page for the rest of the month, set next to nearby events with fixed dates. Schedules can change, so check the calendar before you go.
- Saturday, October 10. The free Petaluma Pride Festival runs noon to 5 p.m. at the fairgrounds, with live music, Full Queer Wrestling, and food and craft vendors.
- Friday, October 16, and Saturday, October 17. Casa Nostra is listed at the Backyard Friday and Galvan's on Saturday.
- Sunday, October 18. Tita's Cuisine is serving, and Timothy O'Neil plays a solo set.
- Saturday, October 24. Witches & Wizards on the Water runs 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Floathouse, 50 Water St. It's free and includes a trick-or-treat paddle trail and a costume contest. Dino's Greek Food is listed at the Backyard that day, and Saturday hours start at 11 a.m.
- Sunday, October 25. Los Flippin Tacos returns.
- Friday, October 30. Tita's Cuisine is serving, and Osito plays.
- Saturday, October 31. Downtown's Trick or Treat Trail runs 3 to 5:30 p.m. with participating merchants. Galvan's is listed at the Backyard that evening.
The holidays already have dates too. Santa arrives by tugboat at River Plaza around noon on Saturday, November 28, as part of Santa's Riverboat Arrival & Small Business Saturday. The Downtown Holiday Shopping Stroll runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, December 5. Blanton's Boot and Hat, a new western-wear shop in a former hardware store on Petaluma Boulevard, is a few minutes' walk from Taste Petaluma.
If you own a building or a business in Petaluma and are thinking about what comes next for it, Suzanne Ashimine can talk through how local handoffs and reuse of spaces like these are changing the blocks around your home. Request a complimentary home valuation or consultation, and Suzanne will start with your street, not the citywide median.
