Sunflower Caffé Espresso & Wine Bar

Iron Chef

Marc Forgione

So we were at the bar and we were drinking but we weren't hammered...yet. Mila and I were waiting for our Snobby Ass Wine Club buddies to join us for an evening of amazing food at the Dry Creek Kitchen. I happened to notice Marc at the bar - not difficult, his hair is a Mohawk and his attire is very definitely New York Cool. Bottom line is this dude is humble and appreciative of his new found fame and glory. Iron Chef, lets face it, that is amognst the crème de la crème of chef titles and he deserves every bit of the accolades. I remember watching him during the Next Iron Chef competition and was super stoked to have met him, cant wait to check his place in NYC. I asked if life is much different since the win and his says "Absolutely, I get to hang out here in wine country with good people such as yourself". He was in town to be one of the celebrity guest chefs at Charlie Palmers Pigs & Pinot event. Marc spoke kindly of his friend and fellow Next Iron Chef competitor, local favorite, Duskie Estes. Duskie and her husband, John Stewart own restaurants Zazu & Bovolo, we've been to both and they are great!

Cheers Marc!!!

 

If you're new to our caffe and are coming in after watching the show we just wanted to provide a little more info.

• Old Fashioned Chicken Salad is available year round.
• Beef Borscht will be available on the Tuesday following the show and most likely for the entire week following. Soups change at the Chefs whim.
• The Lamb Burger is made on our outdoor grill so we are planning to offer it on weekends for now, as weather allows until the grill officially opens for the season.
• Lucky for all you wine lovers we are re-opening the Wine Bar April 1st - no foolin!!! Weather permitting.

Guy and the rest of the DDD crew loved the recipe and really wanted to showcase that burger so we made it happen.

The grill is going to be fired up again May 1st!!!! Weather permitting of course.

Please be patient, we are weeks away from having the burger as well as our other grill items available again 7 days a week!

If the grill isn't up and running when you stop in there will be plenty of other goodies for you to choose from, promise!!

See you soon!

A Diner a Drive-in or a Dive?

Well we aren't sure which of these we are but we are happy to be a part of local Food Network talent Guy Fieri and his hit show

      Diners Drive-in's & Dives!

It was an great experience and the whole crew was very professional and hard working, defintely worthy of their success!!!

 

Photo 1: Guy and our very own Kathleen Hill local food critic and columnist for the Sonoma Index Tribune, chowing down one of Chef Curtis' dishes, Beef Borscht. Curtis certainly wowed him, each dish they shot Guy took out back and wolfed down every last bite!

Photo 2: Chef Curtis working in even tighter quarters than usual with all the Food Network crew and equipment, Thank You Chef for not blowing your cool and giving them all the boot!

Hey its this guy!

Doug McConnell from

 Bay Area Backroads!

OK, so no hes not doing a bit on us but he is lending his celebrity to a worthy cause. If I understood correctly he is helping a group that is pursuing some grant money to use for Historic buildings in the area. I could be completely off but either way he's doing a good thing and it was cool seeing him here, super nice dude too!

He said he has been coming to the Sunflower Caffe for years, loves the coffee, way to go team!!!

 

   
At the caffe drinking a wet cappuccino with Jim Lamb

   
I wanna eat that dinner again! OK, I know the video is garbage, but its all we got.

Chef Curtis making Chicken and Chicken Lasagne with 3 cheeses!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Melissa Cameron is one our resident rockstar baristas, check out the killer snowman she's been making for the holidays.

Whats next Mel?

Can you make a picture of me drinking Champagne for the New Year?

Cheers All!!!

This was a very cool experience. Greg Hjort from Equator Coffee stopped by to perform a quality check. Equator cares, of course, how their product is represented. After all the Equator Coffee is served in some of the most respected restaurants in the world, French Laundry, Bouchon Bakery, Citizen Cake and of course Sonoma's own Sunflower Caffe. Greg, being the awesome coffee geek that he is brought an array of hi tech gear you'd expect to see in the latest sci-fi movie or in my teenage children's possession. It was seriously cool, he had a refractometer which is a little device that you drop some of the brewed coffee on. This device measures the amount of solids, in this case coffee solids, in the brewed batch of coffee. Now with this information he plugs it, the ounces of coffee and volume of water used to brew a batch of coffee into an iPhone app called Extract Mojo. Ultimately whats really cool about all of this is that it allows us to follow a set of standards set by the SCAA a coffee association and our customers flavor preferences. So once we find the sweet spot regarding our customers preference of coffee strength and flavor we can do a better job of hitting that exact profile each time. Now I know there will be times we fall short so i don't promise we perfection every time but one thing I can assure you is that we practice a philosophy of continuous improvement, always striving to be better.

Thanks Greg and Equator!!!

*There is some background noise due to the fact that we filmed during service.