Recently in Slow Food Category

P30 is chic, cheap comfort food in Sebastopol with a familiar roadhouse vibe. Chicken and waffles? Please.

Rock. Paper. Tractor? Naomi Brilliant, owner of Roshambo Winery, tells BiteClub she's trading in grapes for greens.

Best bets for mushrooms

Slow Food: Sonoma Meat Buying Club's Range to Plate Event

AppleAtion Gravenstein Brandy: Guy Davis is distilling several varieties of the historic apples from the ranch into an ultra-premium apple brandy called Apple-Ation (a play on the term for distinct grape-growing regions).

Boon Eat + Drink: Follow the apre-swim, kayak, festival-going and cruising crowd to boon eat + drink (in the former burger & boy). New to the oft-shifting main street lineup, what the dime-sized boon lacks in diameter, it makes up for in taste -- both in its pared-down decor and simply done menu of spot-on eats.

Slow Food: On Sept. 7, 2009, Slow Food conviviums around the nation will hold "eat in" potlucks to mark the kick off of their campaigns. Santa Rosa's Eat-In will be at Bayer Farm.

A family works to save their Sonoma County farm, Gleason Ranch, by raising heritage poultry. Will it work?

Food, Inc.: Whether you're a hard-core food purist or merely interested in hearing the other side of gloriously choreographed commercials for cheaper-than-dirt burgers, chips and soda, it's worth considering the less-glamorous side of the food industry and making up your own mind.

The kind of glee that CSA bags can instill in even the most jaded of fast-foodies is rather remarkable to watch. Just ask my children, who before last summer eyed anything green or leafy with serious suspicion. They now clamor for kale, organic carrots and fresh apples. Miraculous

Don't expect it on the menu every day. Typically the lasagna shows up at Seamus' whim, but he'll be making it Friday, Saturdays and Sundays just for you, BiteClubbers. At least for a while. Or until he comes up with something even more delicious.

Where to find the best artisan olive oil in Sonoma & Wine Country

Top restaurants for vegetarians, vegans, raw foods in Wine Country

With a menu that reads like a Sicilian love letter, former Tra Vigne Chef John Franchetti's newly opened Rosso Pizzeria & Wine Bar ain't your average pie shop. The remodeled space in Santa Rosa's Creekside Center focuses on paper-thin prosciutto, fresh-made tapenades, signature salads, antipasti and bubbling wood-fired pizzas

Zin Restaurant: Riffing on American regional favorites, (Chicken-N-Dumplings, spaghetti and meatballs, Mac-N-Cheese) Zin Chef Jeff Mall feeds the need for dishes just like mom used to make. Only a lot better. But that's just part of the story.

Zazu Restaurant: Devoted to Slow Food and sustainability, the restaurant pulls from its own backyard garden along with a biodynamic plot grown for them at Quivira Winery and other local food sources.

Fleissner is taking her commitment to local and sustainable foods very seriously, which can make for a challenge when folks want out-of-season strawberries or shrimp to show up on the menu.

Epicurean Connection: Sheana Davis is a Sonoma catering institution and nationally-known cheesemaker who recently opened her tiny deli in in Boyes Hot Springs (just outside the town of Sonoma).

It happened before we were ready, which is often the way with death. Walking toward the barn, a 22-caliber rifle popped once. Then again. The sound, unmistakable. Despite being barely 8 a.m. in the morning, Chef John Stewart and I rush toward a small pig sty in the freezing hills north of Santa Rosa. "Damn. We missed it," I said, having spent the previous 24-hours emotionally girding myself to watch a 300-pound animal die at my feet. The pigs had been shot. The slaughter doesn't wait.

The menu is brief, with a strong focus on seafood. Because the duo are committed to using line-caught, ecologically-harvested foods, expect to see ingredients change up frequently. Best appetizer bets: Grilled squid with jalapeno pesto and chickpeas ($11) or salt cod fritters with peppers and lemon aioli ($9). The pork terrine ($11) brought over from Coco500 was a huge disappointment, served too cold to be very enjoyable to eat. (Think cold bacon grease.) Where things get really interesting are with entrees: A perfectly poached line-caught black cod blanketed by its own crisp skin, Himalayan truffles and wild mushrooms ($26) or rich Kobe beef with charmoula, a Moroccan marinade ($25). What could be a spice-rack gone wrong in less adept hands becomes a rich, perfumed, exotic experience. Other dishes pasta with duck, pork loin and a whole baked fish. The wine list features a handful of organic and sustainable wines, along with a healthy number of wines by the glass. Californian and European wines are fairly equally represented, but what's even more fascinating are a number of beers and ales and specialty cocktails featuring artisan distilleries (and made with no more than three ingredients). Pace yourself to include dessert. Though ice cream always seems a cop-out to me, pastry chef Rachel Leising's Cookies and Cream is a scoop of fresh mint leaf ice cream with chocolate cookies. The tarte Tatin is a personal-sized pastry with Calvados ice cream. But tops is the vacherin, a meringue with creme anglaise, chocolate sauce and coffee gelato. Worth the drive: What could easily seem a bit hokey with all its earnestness about sustainability and artisan foods has serious cred with so many solid cooks in the kitchen. There are still some staff kinks to work out (there were a few long waits) and the menu doesn't have the broadest appeal. But what works well works REALLY well. Prices are reasonable, considering the quality and location, but not cheap. There aren't any views and the minimal decor can feel a bit stark. But like so many destination restaurants, dinner at The Moss Room Restaurant is a singular event that will give you plenty of mileage around the water cooler. Provided you can find the place. The Moss Room Restaurant at the California Academy of Science, dinner daily from 5:30pm to 10pm, 415.876.6121. 55 Music Concourse Dr., Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

The second of two downtown Santa Rosa restaurants slated to open before the end of the year is looking for a chef. GG's Earth and Surf, located in the former Worth Our Weight Space, has put out a call for a chef/kitchen manager to help with opening menus for their anticipated Dec. 2008 launch.

Cafe Gratitude: BiteClub is nothing if not adventurous. I'll eat pretty much anything once, but let me say loud and clear that the foods that most concern me aren't pig's ears or cow tongue or chicken feet. It's vegan food.

A lot of restaurants are talking a big game about using local foods, but the reality of securing what they need in a timely manner can be a whole other story. Enter Fork & Shovel, which is hosting a kickoff...

A little bit country. A little bit rock and roll. Barndiva is the hipster hangout in Wine Country, with its organic sensibilities, minimalist barn decor and swanky cocktails.

Santi Taverna: Rustic dishes (beef tripe is a house specialty), braised meats and house-made salumi are main attractions at the upscale Wine country trattoria

Two former Napa chefs are stocking their new eatery, Green Grocer in Windsor, almost exclusively with food caught or harvested within 150 miles. Joe and Susanna Rueter opened the gourmet market in late July 2008 with 95% of their inventory coming from local sources. Currently they're working with folks like Gary Blasi, Sayre, Amstrong, Golden Nectar and Bernier Farms. Joe almost apologies for the fact that some of his pork is from 167 miles away. And the coffee (duh) isn't local, but its fair-trade. You get the idea.

Cafe Saint Rose: Mark's already proven himself to locals--from his years of service as winery chef and caterer to his ever-intruiging menus at the old Saint Rose. We get it. But the new spot reflects more of his comfort with comfort foods. Easy-going preparations of farm-fresh ingredients that feel so very right in Sebastopol.

Solbar at Solage Spa Resort: Chef Brandon Sharp does a combo of spa and solid classics in Calistoga