Your Gluten-Free Guide to Santa Rosa and Sonoma

Criminal Baking Co., Santa Rosa

Criminal Baking Co. offers the best gluten-free selection of any coffee shop in Sonoma County. The downtown Santa Rosa cafe always has at least a few gluten-free scone options in addition to a few cakes or other specialty baked sweets, gluten-free bagels (from Mama Mel’s Bakery), gluten-free granola and oatmeal, and at least one savory gluten-free frittata. The cafe also offers the option to add gluten-free bread to any sandwich. 

Criminal Baking Co. recently opened a second location in Sebastopol that focuses on pies and always features both a sweet and a savory gluten-free pie by the slice. Check out what the pies of the day will be on their Facebook page (Criminal Baking Co. and Noshery).

Both bakeries offer the option to place advance orders for gluten-free pies, cakes, or cupcakes for an event or special occasion.

Avid Coffee, Santa Rosa

Avid Coffee offers Mama Mel’s gluten-free bread for any of their breakfast toasts (yes, they have avocado toast, and you can add a poached egg!) or lunch sandwiches. The cafe also always offers at least one sweet gluten-free bakery item.

Grossman’s Noshery & Bar, Santa Rosa

Dubbed a “New York style deli, bakery, and bar,” Grossman’s makes it easy for gluten-free diners by providing a separate gluten-free menu upon request. At last count, we spied 27+ menu items on Grossman’s gluten-free menu, including a wide range of brunch items and sandwiches that come with house-made gluten-free bread or toast. Try the incredibly popular potato leek latke Benedict or the griddled Pastrami breakfast sandwich, served with poached eggs and avocado on freshly baked gluten-free rye!

Located in Railroad Square in downtown Santa Rosa, Grossman’s serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, and cocktails (as well as beer and wine). It offers both indoor and outdoor seating, and its covered patio with picnic tables is dog-friendly. Due to its popularity, reservations are strongly advised, especially for breakfast or brunch on weekends!

Monti’s, Santa Rosa

Monti’s provides a gluten-free menu upon request that contains only the restaurant’s gluten-free dishes. This makes it easy to peruse the menu and select your plates safely! The restaurant always offers a few different gluten-free main courses and at least one gluten-free dessert.

Rosso Pizzeria and Wine Bar, Santa Rosa

Rosso Pizzeria and Wine Bar offers a fantastic selection of gluten-free menu items, including salads, main dishes, pizza, and some great small plates such as shishito peppers and charcuterie. The restaurant always makes an effort to use gluten-free ingredients whenever possible, such as frying their fried chicken in rice flour, to make the menu friendlier to gluten-free diners. A few gluten-free favorites include the pork or veggie polenta plate, the Mediterranean lamb salad, and any pizza with a gluten-free crust.

Willi’s Wine Bar, Santa Rosa

Willi’s Wine Bar specializes in internationally inspired small, shareable plates and an extensive wine list featuring both local and international selections. Willi’s Wine Bar provides a gluten-free menu upon request, containing only their gluten-free dishes. In our experience, there’s always a large number of gluten-free plates on Willi’s menu. A few of our go-to gluten-free favorites include the warm spinach salad with goat cheese and pancetta, butter-braised Alaskan halibut, and pulled duck with polenta.

Il Fuoco, Sonoma

Il Fuoco offers wood-fired farm-to-pie art that incorporates ingredients from as many local sources as possible — from the purple potatoes to the mozzarella that tops their pies. The modern Italian pizzeria also offers a house-made gluten-free crust on any pizza, making it one of the two best places in Sonoma to enjoy a gourmet gluten-free pizza.

The Red Grape, Sonoma

The Red Grape offers gluten-free pizza crust (not made from frozen, but from fresh gluten-free dough) on any of its delicious, gourmet pizzas. Try its pizzas with red sauce or with white — extra virgin olive oil and garlic. A few of our favorites include the Glen Ellen (caramelized apples and onions, prosciutto, goat cheese, parmesan, fresh rosemary, and balsamic reduction), the Pear and Gorgonzola, and the Pesto Chicken with fresh pesto, grilled chicken breast, and toasted pine nuts.

Jackson’s Bar and Oven, Santa Rosa

Jackson’s in downtown Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square was the first place with a wood-fired pizza oven in Santa Rosa to offer a gluten-free option, and they’ve still got one of the best house-made gluten-free crusts in town. A few of our favorite pizzas at Jackson’s include the Mixed Mushroom drizzled with truffle oil, the Prosciutto (pear, mascarpone, arugula, and balsamic), and the Calabrian Sausage with white sauce, broccoli rabe, and caramelized onions.

Oliver’s Market, Santa Rosa

Oliver’s Market offers a gluten-free bread option in the deli, where fantastic sandwiches are made. The deli normally toasts the bread for all gluten-free sandwiches, but you should always ask.

Things get really busy at Oliver’s during lunch hour, so if you are picking up food for a group and want to reduce your wait time, place your deli (or taqueria) order online for pick-up.

Ike’s Sandwich Shop, Santa Rosa 

Ike’s is one of the “OG” sandwich shops in Santa Rosa. It has been around since 2007 and is one of the locals’ favorite places to get a messy, hot, delicious sandwich.

The restaurant has a cold and hot sandwich menu that will get sandwich lovers drooling. They also offer the option to substitute gluten-free bread on any sandwich, hot or cold.

Whole Foods, Santa Rosa and Sonoma

Whole Foods has always offered tasty gluten-free bread at its sandwich and deli counter. Most Whole Foods toast gluten-free bread (because it’s much better this way, in our opinion), but again, make sure to ask just in case. There is a Whole Foods store in the city of Sonoma, and two stores in Santa Rosa: Montgomery Village and Coddingtown.

Noble Folk Ice Cream and Pie Bar, Santa Rosa

All of Noble Folk’s ice creams are gluten-free unless they contain additions that aren’t. In-store signage next to each ice cream notes whether it is gluten-free. 

The dessert bar also offers gluten-free cupcakes: ‘The Local’ and ‘The Out of Towner,’ made with almond flour in a Norwegian almond cake style. Currently, these cupcakes are filled with cherry jam and topped with either chocolate frosting or cherry buttercream frosting (this one is so popular that the recipe made it into Bon Appetit magazine!).

Noble Folk also makes deliciously delicate, light-as-air French Macarons, which are 100% gluten-free.

Oliver’s Market, Santa Rosa 

The bakery in Oliver’s Market offers the best freshly baked gluten-free pies we’ve had in the North Bay. Oliver’s bakery mainstays are mini cherry and peach pies, but the store also sells full-sized gluten-free pies from Upper Crust Pies.

In addition to Oliver’s pie selection, there is also an assortment of gluten-free cookies, ice cream sandwiches, and bags of gluten-free cookies from local Cookie Take a Bite (normally stocked in the coffee counter/bakery area).

Patisserie Angelica, Sebastopol

Patisserie Angelica is a cozy, French-style bakery and cafe that crafts non-GMO and organically focused desserts, custom cakes, truffles, and other sweet baked treats such as made-to-order holiday cookies for any holiday. This bakery always has a few homemade gluten-free cakes and desserts. Their motto? “Life is short; eat dessert first.”

Three Leaves Foods, Santa Rosa 

Three Leaves 100% gluten-free kitchen and bakery offers a great selection of gluten-free and largely vegan sweets, including the popular cassava brownies, Mexican wedding cookies, take-and-bake chocolate chip cookie dough (vegan and gluten-free), and sea salted caramel granola. Three Leaves desserts are made using no refined sugars or flours, so if you’re looking for something to satiate your sweet tooth that won’t leave you feeling too guilty, this is a great choice.