Hidden behind a curtain of foliage on an otherwise forgettable stretch of Bohemian Highway, and marked only by a cryptic sign, La Bodega Kitchen insists it’s not a restaurant. A handmade placard above the bar makes that clear — the word “restaurant” in “Sonoma Wine Shop & La Bodega Restaurant” has been crossed out and replaced, in a scrawl, with “not a restaurant.” And yet, somehow, it is one. Sort of.
For 16 years, Bryan Cooper and Meekk Shelef have operated their low-slung Sebastopol roadhouse with the serene confidence of people unbothered by categorization. Depending on the hour, the place is a bottle shop, a social club, a lived-in family dining room rearranged for a gathering no one quite planned. There are banquettes and sturdy wooden tables that shift around to accommodate parties large and small. No one seems in a rush to turn anything over.
“We want to feel like your grandmother’s house,” Shelef said. She’s the general manager, host, pastry chef and designated hugger, embracing you like your mee-maw the moment you walk in…