Bird & The Bottle

Family style tapas. Great service, drinks, & food! Highly recommend the soft shell sliders, bone marrow, and the quail dish.

Two visits: first was superb, second slipped a bit. Food was good both times, but service second visit was mediocre, a real surprise for a Stark Group restaurant.
Food was consistent start to finish: everything was good. The fried oyster wraps were delightful. Don’t miss the mashed eggplant «Schmear» if you love eggplant as well as rye bread – it may ruin you for everybody else’s baba ghanoush. Tasty shrimp wontons; B&TB makes their own dipping sauces so altho they look like typical Chinese restaurant versions, they are much, much better.
The fried chicken has a thin brittle crust, very good with the Mambo house sweet/​sour/​hot sauce. But the real winner is its side of black-​eyed pea/​napa cabbage slaw – magnificent! DH said he would buy this by the quart if they sold it, and he doesn’t normally like coleslaw. That touch of sesame oil in it is inspired
Fried oyster wraps and fried cheddar curds are excellent. Mac’n’cheese is creamy but not over-​rich, tasty cheddar sauce with good quality kielbasa.
We’ll be adding B&TB to our «A» list.

The Stark family hit another home run with Bird & The Bottle!
The fiancé and I came by for a light lunch to wrap up our weekend and it was nothing but seriously tasty eats from start to finish. The menu is fairly eclectic with notable Asian influences on a number of the dishes.
First up was the smokey poke that was not only mad fresh, but bursting with flavor from the smoked EVOO and chili. Next, the wood grilled goat brie was fantastic in its softer pungency (compared to classic brie) that allowed it to jive particularly well with the sweetness of the red pepper roasted garlic jam.
For bread lovers, $ 7 got us a ginormous mound of «pletzel» bread that was largely reminiscent of fluffy focaccia.
In the realm of brotein, we loved the tender, juicy wood grilled quail. Charred nicely and complemented well by the citrusy notes of the adorning pear salad. Lastly, get on the B&B mini burgers like white on rice. They were essentially a pair of miniature Double-​Doubles with even more tender beef patties and decked out in griddled onions. Glorious.
On a sunny day, the patio was fantastic for dining in the relaxing open air. And with exceptional service and a large pot of French press coffee to round out the experience, we couldn’t have been happier with our meal.

Had dinner there on June 17, 2016. The four of us shared about 12 dishes. Every one of them a winner. Chicken skin, asparagus, little gem salad, rib lets, mac and cheese, bread and the carrot cake in a jar. The nightly specials were a soft shell crab slider and fresh sardines. We didn’t leave a bite on any plate. And our server was wonderful. So accommodating. Great wine and nice selection. It was a really fun evening. My only recommendation is that the upstairs room where we were seated was noisy. Something to soften the room, curtains, some fabric of some kind, would soften the noise.
Loved every minute. Can’t wait to go back! Another winner for the Starks.

Wow! Amazing first night in Sonoma! Beet salad was refreshing: sweet, tender, crunchy sunflowers, and yogurt — aka middle eastern heaven!
Sliders were mouth watering… a nostalgic back throw into shake shack before they were…
For dinner the fried chicken made the top three. Steak with kimchi was perfectly cooked and flavorful. Hello and see you again! Xoxo Goldbergs

Great small plates!
Bbq octopus, bone marrow, chicken liver pâté, chicken crackling with onions and smokey poke. All great. Definitely coming back for more dishes.
The buttermilk fried chicken was way too salty. I am sure they were trying to give some contrast to the skin which was fairly bland if you did not use salt but they went a little too overboard this time.
4 stars.

The Stark Reality Restaurants hit it out of the park again with Bird & The Bottle further instilling my faith in their magic touch. I was surprised both the food and environment exceeded my expectations. Santa Rosa is fortunate to have this jewel in their backyard.
Today, I tasted five dishes. The B&B Miniburgers were insanely delicious and addictive. The Fried Chicken Biscuits were excellent both in flavor, crisp, and size. The Grilled Radicchio and Pesto Asparagus were both ridiculously tasty. Lastly the Mu Shu Style Pork Shoulder with homemade chive potato pancakes were also yummy but I had a difficult time being present to their flavors because my mind was battling 10 minute old memories of those damn Miniburgers which kinda distracted me from fully enjoying them. I didn’t eat any dessert but the list looked equally creative and desirable.
I can’t wait to return on a regular basis. I’m grateful to have another top notch restaurant in my backyard! Thank you!

Convenient downtown location, though at times parking can be a challenge. Excellent bar and cocktail program helps visitors feel right at home in this cozy, multi-​level space. The kitchen offers a varied menu of delicious, savory dishes, and service is prompt and efficient, despite the busy, bustling environment. My favorite of the Stark restaurants so far!

B&B has a great atmosphere for dinner and drinks with some friends. Food is in reasonable portions that would not leave you starving and complement the drink menu perfectly. The array of alcoholic beverages was substantial. Sadly, I couldn’t partake because I was being responsible.
I did, however, eat a lot. Thrice Fried Potatoes, BBQ’d Octopus, the Wood Grilled Goat Brie, and some things that I do not see on the current menu. Everything was definitely a great experience with each offering it’s own special kick. Oddly, the brie was probably my favorite, just because I love CHEESE.

Came highly recommended by my manager who’s been a veteran in the restaurant business and boy this place still exceeded my expectation.
Small bites, unique seasonal ingredients, meticulously crafted and prepared, can’t make any wrong choices:
–Crispy Chicken Skin Cracklings ($ 6), spicy, flavorful, and a wonderful treat to wash down with the beers on tap ($ 7 a pint).
–Terri’s Bay Shrimp Wonton ($ 8 for 5pc). Delightful puffy clouds encased in that crispy wonton skin served in Chinese inspired Mustard and Chili sauce, my type of snack.
–Smoked Black Cod ($ 12) creamed with fresh crème fraiche, horseradish, and fresh herbs served along side of toasted bread, clean, delicate, and refined.
–Grilled Artichoke ($ 10) boiled perfectly tender and roasted to perfection, smoky savoury with a touch of mustard seeds for additional texture, can’t stop snacking these spring-​treats.
–Wood Grilled Quail «Kalbi (Korean)-Style» ($ 16) is perhaps our favorite, the perfectly cooked quail with a touch of pink glazed in savoury sweetness with a touch of smoke served in skewers… What else could you ask for?
Everything was great, the beautiful and tasteful décor is only bested by the food. The service is on point and we definitely will find more excuses to visit Santa Rosa and stop by this little gem.
Cheers.

My husband and I went to dinner here last night.
I ordered the mac n cheese and nashville spicy chicken. The mac n cheese is made fresh to order and I was able to omit the sausage. Big bonus points there. The mac n cheese was amazing! I would come back for this alone. The chicken was very good and you can tell they use a higher echelon of chicken. The flavor/​spice didn’t really seep into the chicken but it was still pretty tasty.
My husband got the wontons and roasted artichoke. The artichoke was too lemony but the wontons were very good.
The monkey bread/​cinnamon pull aparts were the worst of the bunch. The bottom was super greasy and the dough was less dense than I prefer. Blech.
They do not have name brand sodas and they come in a glass so if you want refills on your soda the price will be double. Not a fan of this.
My husband thought his Bloody Mary was overpriced at $ 11.
Service was good.
Ambiance is nice and polished.

We’e back — love this place — fried chicken is grand, mac and cheese are grand and smoked fish smear is fabulous — brought extra to bring home — big fat yum!

MMMMMMMMMMMMM. My husband and I are still thinking about our meal here. Went with 2 friends and their parents while we were up in Santa Rose last weekend. Called ahead and they didn’t have a table for 6, but I didn’t want to give up on trying to go here, so we walked in just to try.
They had had a cancellation for 6, which was perfect! The main cocktail area is very cute with padded chairs and small tables. The downstairs was definitely more noisy than the upstairs (it’s located in an old house that used to be an italian place for many years). Very modern décor, whites/​greys. We were seated in a small rooms with a few other tables, so we were able to hear each other nicely, which was perfect for who was with us.
We tried many things — including some incredible cocktails. Everyone got different things and no one was disappointed. Not only was flavor on par, but so was presentation.
Menu items:
1. cheese curds with dill pickle salt — these are 2 of my fave things together, so I loved every bite, but half the table agreed this was the one thing they would pass up
2. mac and cheese — was divine — super creamy, noodles cooked perfectly and while everyone thought this was going to disappoint, no one was disappointed at all
3. artichoke — while good, there was nothing special about this that would make me order it again. this was the other one people agreed could be left out
4. bone marrow — delicious — bacon onion jam and grilled crostini — I would have eaten a plate of this myself!
5. nashville spicy chicken — DELICIOUS — this was definitely a favourite of everyone
6. squid — everyone loved their bite, but the portion was pretty small to share among 6. Maybe among 4 would be better.
7. Pork shoulder — also super delicious, no complaints at all on this one!
Our server was from France, she was attentive and wonderful at making suggestions. Would definitely come back here if I am in the area. Was a great recommendation made to us by a friend.

Party of four. We ordered 9 dishes, 6 glasses of various wines plus desserts. But just three stars rating from me. Why?
Will admit that the food items display interesting creativity and skilled cooking. But the small plates format has liabilities, especially for big eaters. When I chose 4 dishes to fill a ravenous appetite it’s potentially a flavor variety overload. Does your stomach really want to combine mu shu pork shoulder, tri-​tip beef steak, buttery grits, beet salad, fried oyster lettuce wraps, topped off with a really gooey ice cream sundae? My answer a day later with 3 urgent bathroom breaks is No.
Downstairs dining room noise level is screamingly loud. Almost impossible to converse with table mates.
Wine list is semi-​adventurous. Some labels you will not find in any other Santa Rosa restaurant. But price levels are high. $ 13 for a glass of a wine that costs $ 24 a bottle retail is a rip-​off.
Service was attentive and maybe a little too rushed. 3 times busboys attempted to take dishes away from us while we were still finishing up final morsels.
Price /​value ratio is hard to justify. Our total bill was $ 250 before tip and tax. $ 73 per person seemed a little steep for what we got. Basically glorified high end bar food.
No return for me.

Bird and The Bottle had great food, charming décor, pleasant service and a personable and attentive staff. Shout out to their superstar manager! We came in for lunch on Sunday with four and were seated right away. The restaurant was full, but not packed. The whole restaurant, exterior and interior, is constructed and decorated to feel like you are in somebody’s luxurious Southern home; whoever designed this restaurant, hit it out of the park. It sort of reminded me of the Hotel Fauchere in Pennsylvania. They have an extensive beer and wine list, a full bar and a list of house made non-​alcoholic beverages like seasonal sodas.
We started off with the Bibb lettuce salad which had a buttermilk cheddar dressing that was thinner than a ranch, very similar in texture to a Caesar dressing. It had whole, lightly-​candied pecans, thinly shaved Granny Smith apples, tossed with the dressing and big, luscious leaves of Bibb covered with a fluffy pile of aged cheddar cheese that was grated with a microplane to keep it feather-​light.
We ordered a combination of large and small dishes and shared everything.
The sliders were on soft little buns with friend pieces of white meat chicken, honey mustard sauce and pickles. They were great!
The spareribs are brined and smoked pastrami-​style and served piled atop toasted pumpernickel bread with a yummy mustardy sauce. The ribs are tender and flavorful and totally rendered down to no fat at all.
The grits were incredible, probably my favorite dish. They’re served in a generous bowl with a delicious drizzle of a sauce or jus with large pieces of tender and meaty Hen of the Woods mushrooms over the top, a luscious poached egg nestled right in the middle, fried onion strings, strings of scallion greens and these thin red strings that I regret that I don’t know what they are, but they are served over the top of the Ramen that I get at this Japanese spot in SF all the time so… my guess is they are some sort of Asian chili pepper maybe? They are not spicy, but that might be because they are so thin… not sure. This dish is a show stopper, you MUST order it. If you are not a mushroom fan, you should make some life changes, but please still try this dish because Hen of the Woods, or Maitake, mushrooms are so meaty and texturally pleasing. My guess is that Bird grills them and then dunks them in this fabulous jus and then spoons them over the grits. Phenomenal luscious dish.
The fried chicken is the best I have ever had. I should mention that I have not had a lot of fried chicken in my day, but still, this was RIDICULOUS. The manager, Zack, came to our table to greet us and actually took part of our food order. He suggested we have our order of fried chicken tossed in their Spicy Nashville sauce. I’m not a fan of fried things that are tossed in a sauce because you often lose the crispness of the breading, but this was not the case with this fried chicken. The texture honestly seems like there is no skin at all, just a super flaky, crispy breading on lean chicken. The sauce is thin and light and obviously tossed over the chicken milliseconds before it landed on our table. That sauce is so good. It’s not too spicy but it is so savory and delicious. It honestly tasted like there was some miso in it because it was sooo savory and deep roasty. A black eyed pea and mung bean slaw is served on the side and is super interesting, light, crisp and fresh.
The Mu Shu was my mom’s favorite dish. I really liked it too, but the fried chicken and the grits were my favorites. The pork is a roasted shoulder, pulled and served in this cute little lidded glass jar, set on a board with 4 folded and fanned green onion crepes on the side. Alongside comes a second plate with house made Kimchi, pickled Japanese cucumbers and a pile of pea shoots and cilantro and a little dish of Hoisin that I bet is also made in-​house. My mom said the green onion crêpe was the best thing she ever had. These crepes could honestly be served alone, that’s how yummy they are. But that is just the thing about Bird: every little facet of each dish was thoughtful and well-​executed. They left no stone unturned when creating each dish.
The prices may seem on the higher side, but this is certainly fine dining, which, in my opinion, actually constitutes even higher prices. The ingredients they use are expensive and luxurious and their cooking techniques are master-​level. I can’t wait to go back and try the chicken liver mousse and sturgeon schmears. I’ll definitely be ordering some pretzel bread to go with.
Both our server and the manager who took the time to come by and suggest menu items were professional and lovely. We were treated so kindly and really appreciated the manager’s suggestions and friendliness. We felt very well-​taken-​care-​of and it made all of the difference.
I can’t recommend Bird and The Bottle highly enough; it’s certainly a new destination in Santa Rosa.

Wines good. Food interesting. Potato triangles disappointing (old baked potatoes cut up and fried from Starks maybe because they aren’t on this menu…) Menu small, same for wine list. Patio lovely. Staff was great. Glad I went. Won’t go back.

I was a little skeptical about trying here as I saw a lot of shellfish initially, but I am glad we went. Everything and I mean everything was top notch. Portions felt good value and most importantly were delicious. I tried one of their beer cocktails, and was happy I did.
We had
Triple fried potatoes
Pulled pork
Fried chicken — very delicious with the right amount of heat
Brussel sprouts
Mac and cheese
Beet salad
Pretzel bread
Eggplant spread
Cinnamon pull apart for desert with a scoop of ice cream.
So there was 5 of us and this was plenty.
Excellent, will be back.

We came in for dinner Friday night. The place was super busy. We gave our name and got on the wait list. Sat at the bar and enjoyed a drink. That was an interesting experience. I had the Oaxacan welcome cocktail. Which I really enjoyed.
The bar is tastefully built. Kinda reminds me of restoration hardware. The bartenders wear denim aprons. They look more like someone who would be building you a hot rod than a drink. But they are very good at what they do so whatever.
After about 30 min we were seated.
We ordered the buttermilk fried chicken, which came with a fantastic coleslaw. As recommended by our server, we got the buttermilk chicken, with the Nashville hot sauce on the side.
We also ordered a side dish of grits. Those grits were fantastic! They came with grilled hen of the woods mushrooms. And a wonderful tasting reduction sauce!
Everything was wonderful!!! We will be back!!!

LOVE this place — went here with a friend on Christmas Eve impromptu and everything was Outstanding.
We had some wines btg (by the glass) and shared several appetizers.
We started with Cheddar Cheese Curds, Gribene’s (decadent fried chicken skin and onion strings), and the Grilled Prawns. The Cheese Curds were delicious with a light breading, the Gribene’s were so good — really fantastic with a kick of heat at the end. You don’t notice it until a few seconds after. And the Prawns — OMG! You get 4 Huge Prawns in the shell which peels off very easily. I prefer getting the shell because the head is quite good (picked that up from Sushi restaurants Ama Ebe where they fry the heads). The Prawns are served with a few saltines that are baked with a Korean Chili Butter — Mmmmmmm, and there’s a dipping sauce served with it, sorry cannot remember, but we used it on everything it was that good.
Then we had the BBQ’D Bone Marrow $ 14 with Maple Bacon Onion Jam /​Parsley Salad. Super Rich and again decadent. It’s served with toasted bread and it’s very very good — the Bacon Onion Jam is out of this world. Don’t let it go to waste. Put it in your pocket for later.
We finished up with the Chicken Liver Mousse — don’t like liver, this has no taste relation to the liver my mother made. It’s almost sweet goodness served with grilled Pumpernickel bread and this bread is the perfect match to the mousse. if you like Pâté’s or Rillettes (Ree-​Ette) then you’ll absolutely love this. I loved everything else — but this one really blew me away how good it was. Served with Pickled Shallots, hint of maple, Cracklings, and Smoked Salt. This is 5 star French Food in my opinion.
I really enjoyed the wines By-​The-​Glass available. Nice diversity, not your usual standard Sonoma County wine list. Also like the beer list — a lot of creativity, I started out with the Russian River Blonde. And it’s a full bar with seating at the bar. It was packed when we showed up — must go back and try it.
We were waited on by a French Waitress named Maguy sounds like Maggie. She was awesome and had excellent recommendations. I like the ambience and atmosphere of the place. No comparison to what was there before.
Open Kitchen concept — were in my view and looked like they have a great crew working together making magic.
Excited to have a great new restaurant closer to my side of town and definitely heading back there.

To celebrate my birthday lunch with my friends, we decided to finally try The Bird. We had all decided to wait until all the hoopla from the grand opening had a chance to settle down. We arrived on a Monday at 12:30 and found the restaurant to be quite calm with only a few other diners so far. We were seated at a great table for 6 in a quiet corner of the room. We were greeted immediately and I could tell that the service was most likely not going to disappoint at all.
I have never really been a big fan of the «small plate» type of dining. Looking on the menu I notice that once again, Starks is focusing on the small plate offerings as they do in the majority of their restaurants. However I did see a section on the menu with 4 different large plate selections.
We started with a few appetizers:
Oregon Bay Shrimp Won Ton
Chicken Liver Schmear (mousse)
Grilled Goat Brie
For me, the only one of these starters that was worth ordering again was the Chicken Liver Mousse. It was delicious, however I thought the portion was rather small. The Won Ton’s were OK, but I didn’t really see how the Won Ton’s fit in with the rest of the menu choices. The Grilled Goat Brie was very forgettable — and it came to the table cold in the middle with a few grill marks on the outside of the cheese round.
Then we ordered:
Grilled Whole Fish — Today it was Red Snapper
8 Hour Smoked Pork Shoulder
Applewood Smoked Duck
The Red Snapper presentation was gorgeous and spot on. However for $ 32 don’t you think the servers could be taught how to de-​bone the fish for the table? I understand that with the beautiful presentation, that’s what they want you to see.
But really — after you present the fish, take it back to the kitchen and de-​bone it for us. The flavor of the fish and the sauce they provided was spectacular.
The 8 Hour Smoked Pork Shoulder was delicious, although a bit salty.
The Applewood Smoked Duck was tasty as well and served with a crêpe style pancake and some sort of a hoisin style sauce.
Then to dessert — there were two choices of cake that day. A carrot cake and a chocolate cake. We ordered the Chocolate Cake, which is served in a mason jar and it was amazing! There was some sort of a chocolate pudding/​sauce mixed in with the cake layers and it was to die for! Really the best chocolate cake I have had in a restaurant.
All in all we enjoyed most of the meal and the fantastic service. The décor is quite different from any other Santa Rosa restaurants, which is a nice change. There are many other items on the menu I want to go back and try, like the fried chicken!