Baked on the River cafe is right at home in Guerneville

Chef Helena Gustavsson Giesea’s offbeat sense of humor is responsible for the tongue-in-cheek name of her Guerneville cafe, Baked on the River.

It’s clever for her bakery-centric business overlooking the Russian River and majestic redwoods. Here, she tempts customers with baked specialties like handcrafted scones, cookies, cakes and fresh-from-the-oven breads that sandwich tender peach pulled pork with cheddar and balsamic reduction ($16).

The name is also a nod to the famous cannabis culture of the longtime “chillax” residents of the river town.

Giesea also serves playfully titled fare like Hot Hippie granola mixed with pear oatmeal, hemp seeds and maple syrup ($9) or Baked and Toasted, a marvelously crisp-edged, pillowy French toast with house-baked bread that’s soaked overnight in milk, baked in a pan, then baked again to order before being topped with strawberry sauce, vanilla cream, maple syrup and butter ($13.50).

Guerneville is a tight-knit community — its population is just 4,747 across 10 square miles — and when Giesea first opened in December 2018, she wanted the cafe to be a gathering spot for locals who treasure conversation and connection.

It is definitely that.

During a recent leisurely lunch, I watched Giesea greet over a dozen customers by name, sharing their day-to-day life stories. One regular, Gary, had been enjoying some sun in the backyard garden with his ancient yet still-wiggly-bodied black Labrador, Shadow, and on his way out, Giesea asked him, “Will Shadow be OK walking home today, or can we give you a ride?” Shadow opted to trot home merrily.

“It is fun, you know,” she said. “I opened right before the flood, wildfires and the pandemic, so it’s been pretty wild.”

Indeed, in February 2019, Guerneville recorded more than 400% of its usual rainfall. Over a three-day storm, the Russian River crested at 45.38 feet, nearly wiping out the town.

“But we're still here,” she said. “We just celebrated our fifth anniversary. And the cool part is I didn't know how many people had been waiting for me to do something back then. The local support has been quite amazing, so I'm very fortunate.”

Giesea started cooking when she was 3, with her mother in Sweden. She went on to work at San Francisco’s former Fleur de Lys restaurant, as well as the original Cyrus restaurant in Healdsburg, and Forestville’s Farmhouse Inn.

Baked on the River is Giesea’s third Guerneville restaurant.

She first visited from her homeland of Sweden two decades ago, met a man, fell in love, and debuted the short-lived Charizma Wine Lounge & Deli on Main Street, followed by a tiny kitchen at the late Whitetail Wine Bar.

People liked the spots, but a devastating economy took both businesses down.These days, though, the west county burg is attracting many tourists, Giesea noted, making survival easier.

As if on cue, the door flew open just then, and a man blew in enthusiastically. He had been golfing in Bodega Bay and needed oat milk lattes, cookies and scones, and “Oh man, that hash in a pan looks amazing,” he said.

He is Norwegian, he happily pronounced, and saw her Swedish and Norwegian flags outside, hung a safe distance from each other (a tongue-in-cheek salute to the whimsical rivalry between the countries, much like Napa and Sonoma). Another fan was won over.

The hash is truly mouthwatering — a pile of buttery shredded potatoes, chicken sausage, turkey, pancetta, soft egg, red beets and a crunchy kick of cornichons ($16). Giesea caters to many kinds of diets, so this dish, like most other recipes, can be made vegetarian.

I will never look at regular biscuits and gravy the same way ($12). Rather than heavy biscuits and flour-laden thick gravy, this version centers around flaky scones studded with either bacon and cheddar or white cheddar and herbs.

They soak up the thinner, sumptuous gravy that’s made with vegetable broth, enriched with béchamel and Dijon mustard, spiked with a bit of tangy Worcestershire sauce, white pepper, nutmeg and other secret spices. Top it all with a poached egg ($2.75) for extra delight.

Can Swedish meatballs be vegetarian? They can here. I like the classic beef version, but both recipes are springy and satisfying with lavish spices, plus a pond of gravy or tomato sauce ($14). If you order the dinner plate with creamy potatoes, creamy-crisp cabbage salad, and bread ($19), you can get that gluten-free, low carb and/or keto-friendly, too — the kitchen will substitute tortillas for bread and/or coconut cauliflower rice for potatoes.

There are only a few requests Giesea won’t accommodate.

“I've noticed it's a lot of people that don't know what we do,” she said. “Some people think we’re a dispensary because of the name, so maybe we need to get better on our signage.”

And then there was the time a man came in and ordered a hot dog.

“I said, ‘I'm sorry I don't have hot dogs,’ but he pointed to the artwork on my sign. “I told him, no, that is a drawing of a rolling pin. And he said, ‘Well, I'll take one of those, then.’

“I think that guy must have been baked.”

Carey Sweet is a Sebastopol-based food and restaurant writer. Read her restaurant reviews every other week in Sonoma Life. Contact her at carey@careysweet.com.