Brunch, Fish and Chips, and Dinner Behind the Rialto: What's New to Eat at The Barlow This Fall

Where do you eat at The Barlow on a Tuesday morning? Or on a Sunday night? Six months ago those questions had shorter answers. Since June, three kitchens have opened or expanded in and around the McKinley Street complex.

None of them keeps the same schedule as the others. Wild Poppy's new cafe handles mornings and early afternoons. Chippy covers lunch. The Porch Kitchen, tucked behind the Rialto, carries the evening four nights a week. On Wednesday through Saturday they cover a day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. On the other three days you'll find gaps, and it helps to know where they fall.

Mornings belong to the old brewery

The biggest change is at 6780 McKinley St., Suite 160, the former Woodfour Brewing space. Martin and Danielle Maigaard opened their second Wild Poppy there, a 3,500-square-foot cafe and marketplace. When Sonoma Magazine visited on Oct. 8, the patio was busy with brunch and lunch crowds.

The couple started small. In 2024 they took over a roadhouse at 9890 Bodega Highway that had no big kitchen, little parking and a marketplace about the size of a closet. They had wanted all three for 22 years. The Barlow space gives them the kitchen and the parking. Martin built much of it himself without a contractor, which Sonoma Magazine described as six months of welding torches and saws.

"You walk in and it feels like home. We wanted it to feel like we were hosting, like a backyard gathering or a dinner party."

Martin Maigaard, speaking to Sonoma Magazine

The menu keeps the favorites from Bodega Highway and adds a few dishes:

• Carried over: Baja fish tacos and Cosmic Queso nachos
• New at The Barlow: fancy toast, salads, a salmon burger and rice bowls, including the Korean chicken rice bowl
• For the table: French toast with apple compote, coffee and espresso, beer and wine, and a house turmeric lemonade
• To take home: gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, plus pottery, spices, blankets, napkins and towels from the marketplace. The deli case was being stocked with grab-and-go soups, dips and salads.

One part of the original plan hasn't started. Maigaard hopes to turn the former brewing room into a tofu factory, and Sonoma Magazine's fall dining roundup reported that as a plan for next year.

The schedule matters most here. The Barlow location is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Monday and closed on Tuesday. The original cafe, now called Wild Poppy Creekside, is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. On Mondays only the Barlow location is open, and on Tuesdays neither one is.

Midday at the fish counter

Chippy fills the gap between brunch and dinner. Steve DeCosse, who owns Acre Pizza, opened the fish-and-chips counter in mid-June at 6751 McKinley St., Suite 130. Sonoma Magazine listed New England clam chowder, a burger, chicken katsu, a fish sandwich, a shrimp po'boy, salads and a mushroom sandwich with furikake alongside the fish and chips.

The counter took over the former Acre Pasta space. In September, a Sebastopol Times business column said the fish came out "hot and properly crisp." Chippy's hours weren't set when it opened in June, so check its current posting before planning a lunch around it.

The new kitchens join a group that already covers plenty of daytime eating. Sarmentine makes pastries, Taylor Lane pours coffee, and Acre Pizza, Sushi Kosho and Genero's handle the rest. Sonoma Magazine's view is that Wild Poppy fills a different niche, a relaxed place for a Wednesday morning meetup or a long weekend meal.

After 5:30, the kitchen behind the Rialto

The Porch Kitchen sits at 6811 Laguna Park Way, at the edge of The Barlow behind the Rialto. Chef Lisa Boisset and her husband Kevin, the caterers behind The Cook & The Drummer, opened it late last year as a daytime grab-and-go counter in the old Goatlandia catering kitchen.

According to the Sebastopol Times, more people wanted to sit and stay than the counter was built for, so this summer the Boissets added full dinner service. The menu is scratch-made French bistro food: dry-aged beef sliders, pan-seared wild salmon and a salade lyonnaise, from a Cordon Bleu-trained chef who still bakes her own focaccia.

The Porch's own page lists these hours:

• Tuesday: lunch, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Wednesday through Saturday: lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., happy hour 3 to 5:30 p.m., dinner 5:30 to 8 p.m.
• Sunday and Monday: closed

Another line on that page, and The Porch's own site at theporchkitchen.com, give the hours as 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, so call ahead before planning a Tuesday dinner.

That puts Tuesday lunch here, on the one day Wild Poppy's Barlow cafe is closed. Dinner runs four nights a week and ends at 8. For a Sunday dinner nearby, Alesta Modern Mediterranean at 7233 Healdsburg Ave. opened this spring and serves dinner from 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Founders Ugur Akkaya and chef Kadir Senel run a meze-forward menu of Turkish, Greek and Eastern Mediterranean dishes.

The week, laid out

Here are those posted hours side by side. Chippy is left out because it hasn't published fixed hours.

Thursday through Saturday is the full run. Both Wild Poppy cafes are open, The Porch goes from lunch through dinner, and Alesta adds a second dinner choice. Sunday is a brunch day with two Wild Poppy locations open and no Porch. Monday comes down to one cafe. Tuesday moves the daytime meal to The Porch and dinner to Healdsburg Avenue.

Plan around these hours if you're bringing visitors on a weekday or meeting a friend for a long lunch. Restaurants adjust hours as they settle in, especially in their first season, so check the latest posting before you go.

Two Barlow dates before Thanksgiving

The calendar keeps the complex busy through the fall too. The Barlow lists Tricks & Treats at The Barlow on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 3 to 5 p.m. That afternoon falls before The Porch's 5:30 dinner service, so trick-or-treating can roll straight into an early dinner.

Head West Marketplace comes to The Barlow on Sunday, Nov. 15. The Barlow's calendar lists it from 2 to 8 p.m. Head West's own schedule gives an 11 a.m. start for its third-Sunday markets, so confirm the time with the organizer before you set out. Because it's a Sunday, Wild Poppy will be serving until 3, and The Porch will be closed.

Another opening may come before then. The Sebastopol Times reported in late September that Angela's Organic Ice Cream was getting its own counter inside Iggy's Organic Burger at 6700 Sebastopol Ave., in the former Cock Robin space, and expected it to open within the month. Angela Pryor and her son Ignacio "Iggy" Garat started both brands after taking over Lala's Creamery in Petaluma in 2017. The ice cream has since spread to Forestville, Healdsburg, Mill Valley and San Francisco.

If you have family visiting this fall, or you've been on The Barlow side of town less since Woodfour closed, I'm happy to share what I've been keeping track of in West County. I'm Stephanie Sabo, and I spend a lot of time between Marin and Sebastopol. If you'd like suggestions, let's connect.