"I'm glad I won't have to pay a rent increase year after year. I am happy for this new beginning, even though I have to serve on a patio instead of an indoor dining area."
Alma Mendez said that in August. She had just closed the indoor dining room of La Texanita after 21 years on Sebastopol Road and moved the business to a food truck on a lot she owns a short way down the same street. Her move is one of four morning-food changes in Santa Rosa's neighborhoods since July. All four have something in common. Each one is run by an owner who had already built a following somewhere else in Sonoma County, and each moved into a storefront that already existed.
That matters more this fall because the city's biggest coffee chain is heading the other way. Starbucks closed its cafes at 138 Calistoga Road and 2240 Mendocino Avenue, and neither was listed with open hours after Sept. 26. The one new Santa Rosa location it has approval for will have no seating at all.
Here is where the sit-down morning went, corridor by corridor.
Mendocino Avenue, where the swap is easiest to see
The closed Starbucks at 2240 Mendocino Avenue is on the same avenue as the summer's most productive new bakery. Don Luis Craft Bakery opened its second shop in July at 1915 Mendocino Avenue, in Redwood Plaza.
Luis Enrique Tierrablanca didn't arrive here untested. He spent 10 years baking at Lola's Market in Santa Rosa. He then worked at Camacho's Market in Windsor, Costeaux French Bakery in Healdsburg and Ortega's Market in Guerneville, and opened his first panadería in Cotati in 2022. The Cotati shop opened with five employees making 10,000 baked goods a week. With the Santa Rosa location added, the business now turns out up to 30,000 a week with 15 employees and two delivery vans. It supplies around 30 accounts, including small coffee shops, grocers and gas stations across the county.
The Mendocino Avenue space came from a "Rent by Owner" sign. Co-owner Rosalinda Soto spotted it at Redwood Plaza and learned the unit had been empty since the year before. The first batch of bread and pastries comes out of the oven at 4:30 a.m.
Prices are part of the plan. A concha costs $1.45, a telera $1.05 and a bolillo 88 cents. Soto has said the goal is "to make it easy for people to try our bread." Conchas, teleras and bolillos are the top sellers. Tres leches cake and flan are popular too, and one Healdsburg customer drives in every week for the capirotada, a bolillo bread pudding soaked in evaporated milk, spiced sugar syrup and vanilla.
Sonoma Highway, where the owners chose not to repeat themselves
The other Starbucks that closed was in the St. Francis Shopping Center on Calistoga Road. In Rincon Valley, the summer's new sit-down morning room is Dolce Rosa Café at 4910 Sonoma Highway, Suite B, in the former Phyllis' Giant Burgers space. It's open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the phone number is 707-931-4625.
Josie Ortega runs the front and her husband, Martin Chaparro, runs the kitchen. They already own Chila-killer Cafe in Rohnert Park, known for chilaquiles, huevos rancheros and churro French toast. A second Chila-killer would have been the easy expansion. "We decided to never open another Chila-killer," Ortega told Sonoma Magazine. They took the old burger kitchen apart and rebuilt it, put a mural of golden roses on one wall, and set a large espresso machine at the center of a semi-open kitchen. Outside is a covered patio, though trucks on Sonoma Highway rumble past now and then.
The menu leans Italian, with a lot of pistachio. Sonoma Magazine's best bets give a sense of the prices:
| Dish | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Tiramisu ricotta pancakes | $16 | Espresso mascarpone, chocolate syrup, cocoa |
| Eggs in Purgatory | $18 | Poached eggs in tomato-garlic sauce, focaccia for dipping |
| Beef hash | $24 | Roasted beef chunks, vegetables, gravy, two poached eggs |
| Pistachio latte | $8 | House pistachio syrup and cream, crushed-pistachio rim |
All-day pastas such as Bolognese and tomato with burrata run past the brunch hours, along with burgers and sandwiches.
Sebastopol Road, where one building changed hands between two veterans
In Roseland, the pattern happens twice at the same address. Su Casa 2 opened July 27 at 1667 Sebastopol Road, in the building La Texanita had used. The lease passed from Mendez to co-owner Ramon Sandoval in early July. Sandoval and Vicente Campos have run the original Su Casa in Rincon Valley for more than 20 years. Sandoval worked there for 17 years before buying it six years ago. The Roseland menu closely mirrors the Rincon Valley one, with its American and Mexican breakfasts, and adds molcajetes and seafood.
La Texanita went back to where it started. Mendez began on Sebastopol Road in 1999, and the taqueria became known for its handmade tortillas on the lot at 1410 Sebastopol Road. She bought that lot three years ago. Paying both a lease and a mortgage, she said, made staying profitable impossible. The truck soft-opened Tuesday, Aug. 18, with posted hours of 9 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and Sunday, and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. KSRO confirmed the mid-August launch the next day. Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives featured the pozole and handmade carne asada tacos in 2009. Mendez plans to turn the lot into a gathering space for families, with other food trucks joining over time, "step by step."
College Avenue, where the new format has no chairs
Starbucks has a new Santa Rosa location in the works. On Aug. 13 the Santa Rosa Planning Commission voted 4-2 to approve a conditional use permit for 131 College Avenue. The plan replaces a 3,300-square-foot former auto repair building with a 1,280-square-foot coffee shop for walk-up and drive-thru orders. According to the staff report, the site has nine parking spaces, room for 21 cars to line up from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m., and no customer seating. A Starbucks spokesperson didn't comment to the Press Democrat on when the new store will open.
Starbucks says the closures are part of about 250 North American store closings. Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams described them as locations "where we do not believe we can consistently deliver the experience we want for customers and partners or where we don't see a path to acceptable financial performance." The company also said it would let workers transfer to other stores "wherever possible." Local coverage hasn't reported what will fill the Calistoga Road or Mendocino Avenue spaces.
Side by side, the changes look like this:
| Corridor | Closed or changed | Opened | Operator's track record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mendocino Avenue | Starbucks, 2240 Mendocino Ave | Don Luis Craft Bakery, 1915 Mendocino Ave | First panadería in Cotati, 2022 |
| Calistoga Road / Sonoma Highway | Starbucks, 138 Calistoga Rd | Dolce Rosa Café, 4910 Sonoma Hwy, Suite B | Owners of Chila-killer Cafe, Rohnert Park |
| Sebastopol Road | La Texanita dining room, 1667 Sebastopol Rd | Su Casa 2, same address | Su Casa in Rincon Valley, 20-plus years |
| Sebastopol Road | La Texanita truck, 1410 Sebastopol Rd | Same owner since 1999 | |
| College Avenue | Former auto repair building, 131 College Ave | Starbucks drive-thru, approved | National chain, no seating planned |
A Saturday route through the new rooms
These spots open at different hours, so the order matters:
- Start early on Mendocino Avenue. Don Luis's first bake comes out of the oven at 4:30 a.m., so the morning's bread is at its freshest early. Pick up conchas and a bolillo or two for the week.
- Sit down in Rincon Valley. Dolce Rosa opens at 7 a.m. and stops serving at 3 p.m., so plan brunch there on the covered patio.
- Head to Roseland for a late lunch or a late night. Su Casa 2 serves breakfast plus molcajetes and seafood. The La Texanita truck down the road keeps its posted hours until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. It's a good idea to check the truck's current hours before you go, since the latest confirmation dates from its August launch.
For downtown, our late-summer guide to what's new in Santa Rosa covers the revived restaurant rooms around Old Courthouse Square. This post sticks to the neighborhood corridors, where the summer's sit-down morning openings landed in storefronts that were already standing: a burger stand on Sonoma Highway, an empty unit in Redwood Plaza, and a taqueria's old dining room on Sebastopol Road.
When a favorite morning spot closes or a new one opens down the block, it changes how a street feels day to day. Apryl Lopez follows these corridor-level changes across Santa Rosa's neighborhoods closely. If you'd like to know how your part of town is shifting, and what that could mean for your home, start with a free home valuation and a conversation.
