Tucked behind Rialto Cinemas near The Barlow, a small counter that once sold soups and grain bowls to go has quietly turned into one of Sebastopol’s more surprising dinner destinations. The Porch Kitchen, run by chef Lisa Boisset and her husband Kevin, now serves full French bistro fare — dry-aged beef sliders, pan-seared wild salmon, salade lyonnaise — out of a space that has changed identities more than once in just a few years.
According to The Press Democrat, Boisset returned to restaurant cooking after a 15-year break to become The Porch Kitchen’s executive chef, bringing training from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and stints at several Michelin-starred restaurants. She told the paper’s Heather Irwin that Sebastopol needed a little bistro like this one, calling it a humble brasserie rather than anything fussy or formal. The address, 6811 Laguna Park Way, sits near The Barlow’s cluster of wineries, breweries, and artisan food stalls, a location that all but guarantees foot traffic from visitors already circulating through the district, as detailed on The Porch Kitchen’s website.
The space itself has lived several culinary lives. It previously housed Goatlandia Kitchen, a fully plant-based eatery run by a farm animal sanctuary nonprofit, and before that operated as Bar B Que Smokehouse Bistro — meaning the same four walls have hosted barbecue, vegan cooking, and now classical French fare in a matter of a few years, according to the Goatlandia Farm Animal Sanctuary.
From Soup Counter to Full Table Service
Lisa and Kevin Boisset originally launched The Porch in November 2025 as a daytime grab-and-go counter built around soups, grain bowls, and French sandwiches, according to the Sebastopol Times. Customer demand for lingering in the redecorated space quickly outpaced what the owners had planned, pushing them into full table service faster than expected, the outlet reported. The daytime menu still leans on salads, sandwiches, and grain bowls, but evenings now bring out salade lyonnaise, ratatouille, roasted chicken, and crème brûlée…