Stellina Alimentari - Petaluma, California

Houston Porter

SATURDAY LUNCH...

...from there we walked up to Stellina Alimentari, hoping to get the crispy chicken sandwich again, but alas, it was no longer their special. Instead, the wife got the BLT special and I got a risotto cake (with corn and sweet peppers), with one of their delectable cookies and a glass of their delicious Italian lager (on tap.).

First off, I don't eat BLTs because I don't like "L" or "T" and feel they simply bring down the "B". I have never tried one I liked ...until today and WOW!!! is Alimentari's fantastic!!! (Christian Caiazzo and Katrina Fried - you never cease to amaze us with all the wonderful food you come up with. If anyone could get me to like veggies, you're certainly at the top of that list.)

The tomatoes tasted like right from the garden, the focaccia bread was perfectly grilled, the pesto aioli dressing was amazing, and the bacon was crispy without being too dry. It's so good, that I'd likely order it again. The risotto cake was also excellent. And one of the things I love about their Italian lager is that it goes great with food, even ZERT. (One of the things I like about a good European lager is that we finish it out while finishing out our meal, which in this case was one of Alimentari's fantastic cookies.)

SUNDAY BRUNCH...

we couldn't resist returning the very next day to get another BLT, while it's still on the specials menu.

We learned from Christian Caiazzo that the tomatoes on this phenomenal BLT are not just "local", but are hyper local, coming from a friend's farm out on San Antonio Road. That is the kind of quality that makes so many Petaluma restaurants so good - the owners/chefs have long-standing ties to our community and know their farmers, ranchers, etc. personally!

We also got the Bobby, which is a very creative (and delicious) egg salad sandwich that Jeff at Rex Hardware recommended to us.

And of course, it wouldn't be a proper trip to Alimentari without one each of their draft beers. I'm a huge fan of the Italian lager, but the Sante Adarius is really something special. (From what I know, Alimentari is the only place in the North Bay, other than Michelin-starred Cyrus in Healdsburg that has it on tap. ...yup, that's the kind of "special" Alimentari is.)

Christian was nice enough to share some little extras with us while we were dining. First came some crisped thinly sliced potatoes, followed by a bowl of freshly cooked beans, which on their own would be a very satisfying meal. (They use them in their cold bean salad, so this was a special treat to get them warm out of the pot.) Finally knowing what big beer (and Sante Adarius in particular), shared a can of their rice lager with us. That got us to thinking about cans of Sante Adarius for home, so we grabbed a few for the road.

Another amazing experience at Stellina Alimentari! It's rare we visit the same place twice in two days, but if it's a place like S.A.,and they've got something heavenly and limited edition, like this BLT, it would be crazy not to. (Spoiler alert...we order a second one to go so we can enjoy these incredible flavors again for dinner.)

Cede DeFalco

My mother and I came in for a lunch pickup. We ordered the #5 and #7. I loved the salami and eggplant. The fried onions were a bit too hard to actually bite into on the #5 but other than that it was delicious. This was a super cute deli/market!

Robin Rogers

Delicious! This was my first visit & if I lived here, I’d definitely be back, but unfortunately I’m just here visiting my sister. I wish there were pictures online of all the sandwiches, I think it would have helped me pick a more adventurous sandwich option. I ended up playing it safe & getting #6: The Americano. Everything tasted fresh & I loved how light the bread was.

Miranda Limonczenko

The best Italian, plant-based/vegan sandwich I've ever had. Clean and quality food and atmosphere.

Petaluma, don't sleep on this new business. ✨

Suechu Taing

The sandwiches here are amazing!! Parking is difficult to find since it’s street parking and it was lunch time but the food was so good, really was worth the trouble.

So I wish I would’ve took better photos, but I just snapped a photo, not thinking much about it. And the sandwich was seriously so good. I forgot what the sandwiches were called, but we got one with the mortadella and the second one with the roast beef. I love mortadella, it’s my favorite but to my surprise, the roast beef was the best sandwich. It was literally the perfect sandwich. It’s out of my way to go back, but I might since I overheard that there was an even better sandwich!!

And the affogato was amazing!!!! Don’t skip on this!

Michael Canniff

Sandwich was incredible but the cookie was the star of the show!

Mo Azlant

Most expensive sandwich I’ve ever had and very tiny. Two waters and a sandwich $26. I asked to create my own and they pretty much said no. But it was OK.

Ed Balme

Gets busy for a reason and is worth the wit if you like tasty food. Everything I have had here is fantastic. Stellina
Pronto is a mini version and has similar quality!