Central Market

Central Market has anchored downtown Petaluma's dining scene since 2003, when chef-owner Tony Najiola opened it in the 1918 Maclay building on Petaluma Boulevard North. The room is open and high-ceilinged, with full views of the wood-fired oven and the line, and the kitchen cooks rustic California-Mediterranean food from scratch, including the ciabatta and baguettes baked in that oven each morning. Najiola, a constant presence in the dining room in his chef's coat, built the restaurant around seasonal, farm-to-table cooking, and it has kept that course for more than two decades. Petaluma's historic downtown sits right outside, and the same chef has run the room since the start, with regulars who have been coming nearly as long.