Willi’s Wine Bar
4404 Old Redwood Highway
Phone: 707-526-3096
www.williswinebar.net
Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday, 11:30am to 9:30pm
Sunday and Monday, 5pm to 9pm
Closed Tuesdays
Reservations: Recommended
Price: About $45 per person. (Obviously, prices vary depending on what and how much you order. But, you can use this as a ballpark figure and compare it to the average prices for other restaurants on this site.)
Cuisine: Eclectic. Some dishes are very adventurous, some are very familiar.
Menu changes seasonally
Owners: Mark (chef) and Terri Stark
Ambiance / Décor: Casual, roadhouse.
Outdoor Seating? Yes. Covered, heated patio..
Parking: Ample, private lot.
Dress: Casual but nice.
Kids?: I’d avoid bringing my kids. This is a grown-up hang-out.
Notes
- Willi’s is one of the most popular socializing spots in Santa Rosa.
- Willi’s is all about tasting, not just eating. They serve “small plates,” meaning each dish is about the size of an appetizer and sharing plates and nibbling is encouraged. That way, you can order a few plates, share, and taste a variety of dishes. Plus, all the wine selections are sold as glasses (not just bottles) so that can do an impromptu wine tasting as well.
- Although the small plates are larger than tapas (the bite-size foods typically served in Spanish bars), Willi’s is sometimes referred to as a “tapas bar.” But, back in 1992 when Willi’s opened, the tapas bar concept was still pretty new in Santa Rosa. So, a lot of people mistakenly called it a “topless bar."
- There is a very famous restaurant called Willi’s Wine Bar in Paris. In fact, it was the first restaurant in France to serve American wines. But, Willi’s Wine Bar was not intentionally named after it. The story goes that Terri Stark was working in her first post-college job when a departing manager cleared out her office and gave Terri a poster she had. Terri liked it and ended up having it framed and moving it around with her from apartment to apartment. When she met Mark, her future husband, he liked the looks of the poster as well. It said “Willi’s Wine Bar” on it, and Mark’s father’s nickname was Willi. The two decided that one day, when they opened a restaurant, they’d name it Willi’s Wine Bar.
Eventually, Terri and Mark moved to Santa Rosa after they bought Terri’s grandmother’s house here. Terri got a job at the Vintners Inn, and she would drive down Old Redwood Hwy. as part of her commute. She passed a little roadhouse restaurant each day and fell in love with it. Eventually, the couple bought it. And of course, they named it Willi’s Wine Bar. So, you can well imagine their surprise when just weeks before the opening, they found out about the other Willi’s. Oh well. The couple decided that there was enough room in the world for two Willi’s, and the restaurant opened as scheduled. Now, they get all kinds of souvenirs from customers who go to the Paris local. And, the owner’s of the Paris Willi’s have even visited the Santa Rosa restaurant.
The Local Buzz
Mark and Terri Stark are well on their way to being the Restaurant Royalty of Santa Rosa. And this King and Queen must be some relation to King Midas, because everything they’ve touched—and they’ve been touching a lot—has turned to gold.
The couple moved to Santa Rosa in 2001 and opened Willi's Wine Bar in 2002. The following year they opened Willi's Seafood & Raw Bar in Healdsburg. And, the year after that, in 2004, they opened Monti's Rotisserie in Santa Rosa’s Montgomery Village. All three eateries have been wildly popular. Then, in 2005, the Starks opened Barcode, an upscale, stylish bar in downtown Santa Rosa. And now, they are planning to launch a steakhouse in Railroad Square in what is currently Michele’s, the oldest restaurant in town.
Folks are always trying to come up with answers to the secret of the Stark’s success. But, the most obvious answer is that the Starks give the customers what they want. And it seems that Santa Rosa residents want fun places with a friendly, social atmosphere in which they can eat outstanding food and drink good wine. …So, how come I haven’t parlayed that knowledge into an empire?