On the eve of The Junction’s May 11 opening, the sprawling hilltop beer garden already felt like the neighborhood gathering place Santa Rosa didn’t know it was missing. Friends and family filled the expansive patio for a preview night while children swarmed the playground slide in gleeful chaos and adults clustered around pizzas, fried cheese curds and spicy chicken wings. Craft beer and espresso martinis flowed as dogs circled hopefully beneath the tables, waiting for stray crumbs.
Among the crowd was Gaspare Bernardo, who operated The Villa for more than four decades. Sitting with his family over pizza, Bernardo — now in his 80s — watched the transformation of the longtime restaurant space that had been dormant for years. According to co-owner Liz Fiedler, he was simply happy to see life return to the building.
Fiedler, her husband Dez Fiedler and business partner Jimmy Simpson saw possibility in the shuttered property when few others did.
The reopening marks a fitting second act for the former Villa restaurant, which had been vacant for more than three years, slowly deteriorating above Montgomery Drive. After a year of renovations and a top-to-bottom reimagining of the decades-old Italian landmark, the original doors were finally ready to open again…