California meets Cajun cuisine at Gator’s in Petaluma

An alligator statue greets guests at the front counter of the new Gator’s Rustic Burger & His Creole Friends in downtown Petaluma. He’s a sassy, dapper fellow, dressed in chef whites, a toque, bright red apron and Mardi Gras beads.

But keep your hands to yourself, since a sign warns, “Please do not touch me or I will bite.”

Ok, I do want to touch the grinning creature, perhaps because as a child growing up in Japan, my mother bought me a baby alligator as a pet (it’s a long story). But I distract myself by admiring the other colorful gee-gaws in this casual Cal-Cajun café near the waterfront. A bright purple wall sports gold Mardi Gras masks; another wall is a floor-to-ceiling French Quarter mural and up front, a display of wine and beer is trimmed with three small alligator heads, their mouths gaping open as if to say, “feed me.”

It’s certainly a different experience for the Petaluma crowd, and I like it. The work of chef-owner Glenn “Gator” Thompson, the restaurant brings uncommon-to-the-area fare like first-rate crawfish étouffée ($13.99 half order/$18.99 full), smoked chicken and Cajun sausage jambalaya ($11.99/$17.99), New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp n’ grits ($13.99/$18.99), Dungeness crab gumbo ($17.99) and chicken and waffles ($15.99).

In a California twist, however, these recipes tend to be lighter and less fiery than traditional Cajun-Creole fare. That jambalaya and étouffée are crafted with seasoned brown rice, and the étouffée is simmered in its own “mud bug” juices for a broth that’s less rich and buttery than we might expect. Anson Mills blue corn grits can be topped in wild mushrooms and microgreens for a savory vegetarian turn ($9.25/$14.25), and how did this end up on a Southern menu - farro salad, tossed with dried cherries, toasted pecans, feta cheese and green beans in wildflower honey and balsamic vinaigrette ($12.99)?

Through it all, however, Thompson hits high notes with layered flavors, and quality ingredients. Previously, he worked under acclaimed chef Paul Bertolli at Oliveto in Oakland, and then as chef-owner at Alcatraces in Noe Valley. After relocating to Wine Country, he launched a Gator’s Rustic Burger food truck and catering company in Petaluma, with a specialty of grass-fed burgers dressed in curious bounty like lettuce, tomatoes, caramelized onions, grilled zucchini, roasted red bell pepper, mozzarella and pesto aioli ($9.50), or fried onion straws, Black Forest bacon, blue cheese, pineapple BBQ sauce, lettuce, tomatoes and creole mustard aioli on a from-scratch soft bun ($9.99).

The messy monster burgers are served here, too, but I’m more drawn to Gator’s Southern dishes. I like to sit at the counter and watch the busyness through the peek-a-boo kitchen window, as the cooks whip up bites like black eyed pea poppers, sort of a New Orleans take on arancini, fried golden brown for dunking in choices of dipping aiolis ranging from chipotle tomato, creole mustard, rosemary, pesto or barbecue ($5.99/$9.99).

Apparently, Thompson doesn’t seem to realize he’s operating a fast casual eatery, where we order at the counter, get a number, and wait for a busser to deliver our meals. The lengthy menu is fancy, offering goodies like sweet potato fries with vanilla bean aioli ($4.75, and so sweet it’s a dessert, to my taste), a live band at Sunday brunch, hefeweizen on tap, and pricing that we’d expect at a full-service restaurant. Where else can we enjoy elaborate dishes such as a grilled alligator burger topped with bourbon glazed mushrooms, fontina cheese, caramelized onions and pinot noir demi ($13.99), or a Cajun Bubble & Squeak of crispy potato cakes topped with silky poached eggs over garlic spinach and wild mushrooms draped in jalapeño-jack cheese sauce ($15.99)?

For Cajun heat and Creole finesse, start with wildflower honey-jalapeño wings. The half-dozen nibbles are addictive, the robustly seasoned chicken fried and tossed in a sweet-fiery, bronzed red glaze then laid atop sliced English cucumbers and pickled red onion ($10.99). A little cup of sauce looks like Thousand Island, but it’s a spicy bleu cheese dressing that I’d like to buy by the bottle.

I want more spice in the shrimp ‘n’ grits, but the dish is still very good, bringing five shrimp nestled in a shimmering, rust colored spicy herb-beer sauce scattered with red and green peppers, over a bed of buttery Anson Mills grits. Same thing with the mild étouffée - more spice would amp things up - but it’s still satisfying. For the time being, the order hostess told me, the kitchen is using frozen mud bugs, but come March, she expects to have fresh, shell-on crawfish.

It would be hard to improve on the chicken and dumplings, however. The fluffy dumplings are so smooth and creamy, they’re almost velvet, dense enough for great texture alongside tender chicken chunks and al dente carrot and celery slabs ($16.99). The gravy is odd at first bite, thick and creamy and kissed with chipotle, but by second bite, it’s superb.

This isn’t fast-food fried chicken, either. Plan on waiting 20 minutes for the fried-to-order bird, served as a leg and thigh with a waffle moistened in delicious peach cobbler butter ($15.99). For a perfect meal, finish with the soupy good Grandma’s peach cobbler ($7.99), even better with ice cream melting under a drizzle of caramel (add $1.50).

The only real caveat: if you’ve got your heart set on a specific dish, call ahead. Chef Gator juggles a lot with the lengthy menu, and that means things do fall through. On my last visit, the list of dishes “on vacation” was disappointing: chicken strips, spinach salad, bread pudding, cobbler, gumbo, ribs, farro salad, and - this was strange - root beer.

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.