LaSalette

About LaSalette

LaSalette is the Portuguese restaurant chef Manuel Azevedo has run in the Mercato courtyard off the plaza in Sonoma since 1998. Azevedo, born in the Azores, calls his cooking Cozinha Nova Portuguesa - new Portuguese food that carries the flavours of his homeland onto California produce - and built the kitchen around a woodfired oven, with bread baked fresh each day.

This is Portuguese cooking with a strong seafood streak. For more of the valley's best tables, compare the New American bistro Cafe La Haye a short walk away, the Provencal plates at The Girl & The Fig and the seasonal cooking at Oso Sonoma. For a marker night, see our anniversary dining guide.

The Kitchen

The cooking is rooted in Portugal and turned with California produce. The woodfired oven is the heart of the kitchen, sending out roasted and grilled seafood, while the bread is baked daily in house. The signature is the Dungeness crab empadas - sweet crab sealed in buttery puff pastry - and the menu runs to salt cod, cataplana-style seafood stews and slow-cooked meats, finished with Portuguese touches and a list strong in Iberian wines and ports. Main courses run roughly 28 to 42 dollars. Azevedo has long championed Portuguese cooking in the valley, and the menu rewards a table that orders widely and shares across several plates rather than chasing a single main.

The Room

The restaurant sits in the Mercato courtyard at 452 First Street East, tucked just off the northeast corner of the Sonoma plaza. The room is warm and rustic, the woodfired oven visible from the dining room and the smell of fresh bread setting the tone, with a covered patio for warmer evenings. Service is gracious and unhurried, suited to a long dinner or an easy lunch. LaSalette is open for lunch and dinner daily except Wednesday. It is a short stroll from the plaza and its tasting rooms, which makes it an easy anchor for an afternoon in town; booking ahead is wise on weekends and in the busy harvest season.