Willi's Wine Bar
4404 Old Redwood Hwy.
Santa Rosa
(707) 526-3097
www.williswinebar.net

California eclectic
Lunch Mon., Wed.-Sat.; Dinner Mon., Wed.-Sun.
Small Plates, $8-$15
Full bar, good wine list

Willi's Wine Bar owners Mark Stark and his wife Terri introduced small-plates, tapas-style dining to Sonoma County when they opened Willi's Wine Bar in north Santa Rosa in 2002. The Stark's approach to dining as a form of creative, mix-and-match adventure has proved a popular one. Other small-plate eateries have opened since, and the Starks have expanded their small-plate empire to include Willi's Seafood and Raw Bar in Healdsburg.

The fun and excitement of Willi's Wine Bar comes from building a meal from the restaurant's inspired menu of small plate delicacies and matching each to a wine from the restaurant's well-chosen wine list. Three or four plates make a meal. The seasonal menu at Willi's Wine Bar offers choices like Sonoma fois gras poppers with sweet and sour onions and candied bacon; pancetta-wrapped quail with roasted grapes; and Ahi tuna tartare on crostini. The latter has become something of a standard in Wine Country, but Willi's tangy rendition, redolent of lemon and chili and mixed with pinenuts, is topped with a perfect counterpoint of crème fraiche and tobiko. The Dungeness crab tacos, bursting with sweet crab and crunchy, shaved apple in crisp, house-made tortillas, are real standouts, as are the Moroccan-style lamb chops in a tangy, smoky-sweet barbecue sauce, served on a bed of citrus-infused couscous. Pair the lamb chops with the humble-sounding but out-of-this-world Tunisian roasted carrots with pinenuts, olives and mint.

The wine list isn't vast, but it's extraordinarily well-chosen by Terri - offering an intriguing mix of wines from Sonoma, Napa and the world. Best of all, you'll find wines from very small local wineries, such as Inman Family Russian River Valley Pinot Noir and Acorn Sangiovese, and unusual wines such as Haven's Albarino. You can order by the glass, the bottle or the taste - a generous half glass that lets you try several different wines during your meal, clearly the best option here.

The atmosphere at Willi's Wine Bar is decidedly casual. Stark, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, says that he started Willi's Wine Bar because he thought there should be a place in Sonoma County where you could show up in jeans and still get fois gras. Décor is minimal. Wooden floors and tables and red accents add warmth to the small taupe-colored dining room and bar.

Willi's Wine Bar isn't the sort of place you take a client you don't know very well to talk over business - the act of planning and sharing a meal together is probably too intimate for that, and Willi's convivial atmosphere is a bit too boisterous. But Willi's is a great place to hit after work with a gang of co-workers. You and your co-workers can choose an array of plates to share - an exercise in team building all by itself - or can simply put yourselves in the hands of the knowledgeable waitstaff and sit back and wait for the wonders to arrive.