Where Guy Fieri Ate in Sonoma County

Season 7, episode 4 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives went hunting for immigrant kitchens in 2009 and stopped on Sebastopol Road for the chicken huarache, the molcajete, pozole and a plate of tacos. Twelve years later the kitchen turned up again in season 34, episode 2, a 2021 Takeout roundup shot remotely rather than a second visit in person. The dining room has since closed, but the truck at 1410 Sebastopol Road is still pressing tortillas by hand.

Season 1, episode 12 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives found this Forestville roadhouse in 2007 and ordered the chicken wings, the pub burger and the chicken sandwich. It resurfaced in season 32, episode 8 in 2020, one of the Takeout episodes put together remotely rather than another trip down River Road. Canoe traffic and locals still share the patio, and the wings are still why the name travels past the county line.

Healdsburg offers almost nothing in the way of second-story dining, which is presumably why season 36, episode 9 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives climbed up here in 2023. The order ran ahi tataki, burrata on wood-fired focaccia and an espresso martini, all of it built at Dustin Valette's rooftop bar above The Matheson. Walk-ins are still taken, which in this town counts as a real advantage.

The Nguyen family's cooking made season 29, episode 5 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2018, an hour themed around meat, and the table got the BBQ pork combo, a bowl of beef pho and pork and shrimp rolls. The family was running two Santa Rosa rooms at the time; a lease that fell through later pushed everything into the Cleveland Avenue counter. Same broth, same recipes, one address.

Season 11, episode 11 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives sat down in the garden behind this Sonoma Plaza storefront in 2011 for a grilled lamb burger, beef borscht and a smoked duck sandwich. The menu has moved on considerably since, so read the episode as a record of one moment rather than as an order guide. The patio out back is the constant, and still the reason to walk through.

Season 2, episode 7 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives spent an hour on turkey and in 2007 came to Santa Rosa Avenue for the turkey hoagie, a crab Benedict and the steak sandwich, back when the sign still read Willie Bird. Joe Castro bought the business in 2020, moved it to Sonoma Highway and shortened the name to The Bird. The turkey menu made the move with it, so the year-round Thanksgiving logic survived the change of address.

Season 1, episode 9 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives went looking for retro counters in 2007 and found this one still trading as Taylor's Automatic Refresher. The order was the ahi burger, the Wisconsin sourdough burger and a tray of garlic fries, eaten at a picnic table like everybody else's. A trademark fight changed the name to Gott's Roadside in 2010, but the window, the paper number and the oaks all stayed put.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives pulled into Geyserville for season 12, episode 1 in 2011 and ate meatball sliders, ravioli and Brussels sprouts out of Domenica Catelli's kitchen, a year after she and her brother brought the family room back. Sonoma County is Fieri's own back yard, which goes some way toward explaining how often the county turns up on this show. Catelli's came around again in season 32, episode 3 in 2020, a Takeout installment assembled remotely rather than an in-person return.

This was an early one: season 1, episode 8 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, shot in 2007, with the house-made corned beef hash, eggs Benedict and cinnamon walnut French toast going out to the table. The segment has been folded into the show's Classics compilations often enough that the creekside patio is familiar to people who have never set foot in Santa Rosa. On weekend mornings that patio still fills before the dining room does.

Season 29, episode 4 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives ran from burgers to Italian and made room in 2018 for the Korean burrito, the Penn Center prime sandwich and a bowl of the house vegetable soup. That cross-wiring is the whole method on Montgomery Drive, and the kitchen does not play the combinations as a gimmick. Portions match the name, which is Yiddish for pleasantly plump.

In 2018 the cameras turned up on West College Avenue for season 29, episode 8 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and the order was al pastor shaved off the trompo, the molcajete mixto, birria de chivo and tripa tacos. That the birria is goat rather than beef is the detail separating this kitchen from a dozen other Santa Rosa taquerias. The molcajete still arrives spitting and keeps cooking once it hits the table.