Menu dazzles at Café Zazzle

The first thing owners Rick and Tara Williams would like you to know about Café Zazzle is it’s not just a great place for a vegetarian meal.

Along with lots of vegetarian choices, there’s chicken on the menu and even tri-tips and the occasional pan-fried pork chop. What you will also find is versatility and the willingness to adapt to people’s food needs. Zazzle’s chefs can even whip up a gluten-free meal for the wheat-sensitive.

This year the restaurant earned the title of best place for a vegetarian meal in the Best of Petaluma People’s Choice Awards, but carnivores won’t be disappointed with the menu, either.

Owner Rick Williams has been a chef or sous chef for most of his career, most recently for 14 years at Stinson Beach Grill. Tara Williams has a background in restaurant and office management. It’s a true family business: their 16-year-old son works in the kitchen during the summer.

Café Zazzle occupies the former Polly Ann Bakery on Kentucky Street. Its tiny kitchen called for food prep innovations that proved to be a blessing in disguise. The selection of wraps, noodle soups, pastas and salads is a synthesis of the Williams’s favorite cuisines: Asian, Italian and Southwestern-Mexican.

Try the chicken breast sautéed with six vegetables and a ginger-garlic hoisin sauce tossed with glass noodles and garnished with bean sprouts – or if you prefer, the vegan version without the chicken.

A fresh and simple “fressca” consists of angel hair pasta, virgin olive oil, fresh tomatoes, lots of garlic and basil – vegan, unless you decide to pile on the freshly grated Parmesan.

The goal from the start was “a small family restaurant with fresh, healthy, fun food; big flavors and lots of specials to keep ourselves from getting bored,” says Rick Williams. “Healthy food, not health food, at a reasonable price.”

Many vegetables arrive freshly delivered from Petaluma’s Bounty Farm, which also supplies organic produce for low-income families.

“We’ve supported them from the beginning,” says Rick Williams. “It’s such a great idea to provide food for low-income families and elderly. We buy from them and we’ve done dinners to help them and served food at one of their events last year.” The café has also done dinners for Mentor Me Petaluma and Food for Thought.

Two years after Café Zazzle opened, a night-time kitchen fire left the interior a smoking ruin. “We were down about three months,” says Tara Williams. The café, with its whimsical décor and brightly painted walls in vibrant colors, seems fully recovered.

“But then the economy crashed,” Rick Williams says. “It was kind of a one-two punch. We survived. But it was a big setback.”

Nevertheless, they are making ends meet, he says. “We have not raised our prices since we reopened from the fire. I didn’t want to raise prices with the economy being what it is.” Many menu items are in the $9 to $11 range, with six children’s dishes from $3.50 to $4.50.

Despite setbacks, “The best thing that ever happened to us was deciding to move here,” he says. “I love Petaluma. Our son just had a great experience growing up here. It’s a great place for children and families.”

“We have such a strong local following and so supportive since day one,” adds Tara Williams. “We’re happy to be here and serve people.”