New Restaurants in Sebastopol, Fall 2026: Familiar Spaces

On April 2, a Press Democrat photographer took a picture of new signs hanging outside a construction site at The Barlow. The signs said The Wild Poppy. The space behind them had been Woodfour Brewing, one of the complex's original tenants, and it had sat empty long enough that locals had stopped expecting anything to happen there. By September, it was serving food.

The same thing happened across town this year. Look at Sebastopol's 2026 openings and nearly every one sits in a room people already knew under another name: a brewery, a pasta counter, a catering kitchen, a Georgian wine bar, a long-running burger stand. Most of the people running them were already cooking somewhere in West County. The town didn't add much new space. It handed its familiar rooms to people it already knew.

The brewery that became a café

Wild Poppy is the clearest case. Martin Maigaard, who cooked at the now-closed Gypsy Cafe, opened the first Wild Poppy on Bodega Highway with his wife, Danielle, in 2024. It earned its following on breakfast, brunch and lunch. The second location, at 6780 McKinley St., Suite 160, was planned with grab-and-go meals plus daytime and evening menus.

On HappyCow, early diners at the Barlow site have reported a Korean BBQ tofu banh mi with coleslaw and fries. Vegan versions of the original café's favorites, including the cosmic nachos and beans and greens, are on the menu too. Directory listings show hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and Sunday, stretching to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Those hours come from a third-party listing, so check them before planning a late lunch around them.

The best part of the Woodfour makeover hasn't happened yet. Maigaard hopes to open a tofu factory in the old brewing space next year. For now, the brewing room is a plan, and the café is the part you can visit.

Two more Barlow rooms, two more second acts

A few doors away, Steve DeCosse of Acre Pizza quietly opened Chippy in mid-June. It took over the former Acre Pasta space, so one of his own concepts made way for another. The counter at 6751 McKinley St., Suite 130 serves fish and chips, chowder and a burger. Hours weren't set when it opened in June. Its current map listing shows dinner every night, with noon openings most days, a 3 p.m. start on Mondays and Tuesdays, and a 9 p.m. close on Fridays and Saturdays.

The Porch Kitchen went through the same kind of change inside a single business. 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. More people wanted to sit down and stay than the original plan allowed for, so this summer they added full dinner service.

You'll find it at 6811 Laguna Park Way, tucked behind the Rialto. Sonoma Magazine's August profile lists lunch Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner Wednesday through Saturday from 5:30 to 8 p.m. The Porch's own site adds a Wednesday through Saturday happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. Boisset trained at Cordon Bleu, and the dinner menu leans French bistro: dry-aged beef sliders, pan-seared wild salmon, a salade lyonnaise and focaccia she bakes herself.

That makes three Barlow kitchens that opened or grew this year, and none of them came from out of town. Chippy is a pizza operator trying a second idea in its own space. The Porch is a catering business that turned into a restaurant because its customers wanted one. Wild Poppy is a creekside café that grew a second location.

Off the Barlow, the same pattern on Healdsburg and Sebastopol Avenues

It isn't only a Barlow story. On Healdsburg Avenue, Alesta Modern Mediterranean opened this spring at 7233 Healdsburg Ave. It took the room that held Piala, the Georgian restaurant and wine bar that closed last year after three years. Founders Ugur Akkaya and chef Kadir Senel cook from Turkish, Greek and Eastern Mediterranean traditions using French technique. The menu is heavy on meze, along with grilled meats and seafood, and every table gets complimentary Turkish black tea. It's open Tuesday through Sunday, with dinner from 5 p.m. The setting is a modest strip mall, and the beef dumplings with garlic yogurt and brown butter have already shown up on local food feeds.

On Sebastopol Avenue, Iggy's Burger opened in January in the old Cock Robin space at 6700 Sebastopol Ave. According to Iggy's posted hours, it serves daily from 11 a.m., until 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The next change at Iggy's is a family one. Angela Pryor and her son, Ignacio "Iggy" Garat, took over Lala's Creamery in Petaluma in 2017. That business became Angela's Organic Ice Cream, which has since grown to Forestville, Healdsburg, Mill Valley, two Petaluma parlors and several San Francisco shops. In late September, Sebastopol Times reported that an Angela's counter inside Iggy's should open within the month. As of early October, Angela's own locations page doesn't list Sebastopol yet, so treat the counter as coming soon, not open.

Rooms that just went dark

The cycle runs both ways, and two rooms are now waiting for their next tenants. Campanella, the Italian-American restaurant on Healdsburg Avenue, closed this spring after a short run. Coffee & Moore, the coffee house at Gravenstein Station on Sebastopol Avenue, has also closed.

If 2026 is any guide, those spaces are likely to go to someone who already cooks or pours nearby. The Woodfour space shows how long that can take: empty for a long stretch, signs up by April, food by September. Both Alesta and Iggy's opened in rooms that had housed a well-known business before them.

A week of eating in the rooms that changed

Here's how this fall's openings line up by day, using the hours listed above. Pair them with the town's standing events.

• Sunday: The Sebastopol Farmers Market runs 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. year-round. Afterward, Wild Poppy at The Barlow is open until 4 p.m. and Chippy opens at noon.
• Monday: The Porch and Alesta are both closed. Iggy's opens at 11 a.m., and Chippy starts serving at 3 p.m.
• Tuesday: Lunch at The Porch from 11 a.m., then Alesta from 5 p.m. for meze and black tea.
• Wednesday and Thursday: Dinner returns to The Porch at 5:30 p.m., and its happy hour runs 3 to 6 p.m. Wild Poppy stays open until 6 p.m. on Thursdays.
• Friday and Saturday: Chippy and Iggy's both stay open until 9 p.m.

The arts calendar fills in the rest of the season. Sebastopol Center for the Arts is showing Under Many Moons: Asian and Pacific Islander Art, Identity, and Community through Oct. 11, the week after the second Many Moons Festival filled Ives Park on Oct. 3. Finely Crafted: Works in Ceramics, Glass, Wood, or Metal follows from Oct. 24 to Nov. 29. Its opening reception is Saturday, Oct. 24, from 2 to 4 p.m., and The Porch's happy hour starts at 3 that afternoon.

On Saturday, Nov. 14, from 6 to 8 p.m., SebArts holds The Bowl 2026 at 282 South High Street. It's a dinner-and-film fundraiser where each guest gets a custom-made ceramic bowl and a meal cooked by a local chef.

Curious what's moving into the Campanella or Coffee & Moore spaces, or how a storefront's history shapes the blocks around it? Brianna Benz follows these changes across Sonoma County and is happy to talk them through. Schedule a free consultation, and bring your questions about the corners of Sebastopol you care about most.