At last, the scene blossoms

Lured by the glamour of wine country, thousands flock to the Napa Valley each year, eager to lap up the luxurious image bottled by media-savvy vintners. Instead they sit in traffic, idling en masse on Highway 29.

If only they knew relief from the tourist hordes was just around the corner in roomy Sonoma County, where wine roads are less traveled and offer more glimpses of real life than manicured sets for the wine country lifestyle.

Sonoma County is still largely rural, a patchwork of vineyards and small farms that produce the baby lamb, free-range chickens and eggs, foie gras, handcrafted cheeses and heirloom vegetables that show up on all the best tables in Northern California. Yet Sonoma has never had a restaurant with the high profile of the French Laundry, say, or even Mustards Grill in Napa Valley.

The new Cyrus in Healdsburg may change all that. Named for Sonoma pioneer Cyrus Alexander, this ambitious California-French restaurant is part of Les Mars, a luxe 16-room hotel that mimics a French chateau, just off the town square. The two principals in the restaurant, chef Douglas Keane and maitre d’ Nick Peyton, are both veterans of Restaurant Gary Danko in San Francisco. Keane was also executive chef at that city’s Jardiniere. The partners also own Market, a casual, no-reservations restaurant in St. Helena with an American comfort-food menu. Cyrus, though, is the real deal, a sophisticated fine dining restaurant that has both great food and great service. For Sonoma County, it’s a first.

In the dining room, with vaulted ceilings surfaced in Venetian plaster, staff members, dressed in dark suits with citron ties, weave among the tables in tight choreography. If you like, you can start with caviar and Champagnes by the glass served from the elegant caviar cart. But that’s just caviar. The menu holds out much more interesting plans for your meal. The format at Cyrus is prix fixe, priced by the number of courses you order, and you can choose one or more from any category. Somebody once ordered all desserts.

This is subtle, impressive cooking for a restaurant that’s been open only since March. The chef, who is all of 33, has a quiet confidence that precludes the need to show off. He’s a wonderful saucier, and he must know and love wine, because his food goes with it beautifully. The young, eclectic wine list has very fair prices for a restaurant in the wine country.

It’s fun to mix and match dishes to make your own menu. I loved the billi-bi, a velvety mussel soup enlivened with white wine and shallots, served with a tempura mussel on the side. Roasted asparagus with black trumpet mushrooms and a white asparagus coulis is just as beguiling, and from the tasting menu, so is a chilled ramp and avocado soup garnished with a scoop of Dungeness crab salad.

Cyrus: splendid

Keane has a particular affinity for seafood. That night, he served rouget with fingerlings and long beans in a sauce embroidered with Thai red curry. Seabass from the Canary Islands swam in a subtle shiitake and dried scallop broth. But the prettiest dish that night had to be the ragout of spring peas and radish in a ramp nage, which was followed by an espresso cup of chilled pea soup with a dab of creme fraiche and tiny plum-colored blossoms.

I had thought the black truffle poussin splayed out on the plate with some seriously delicious potato puree would be my last course -- before dessert, that is. But when the cheese cart rolled by, I changed my mind. Every cheese is interesting, every one perfectly ripe. Which calls for another bottle of wine. Fortunately we were staying right on the outskirts of town that night.

If you feel like something more casual, Willi’s Seafood & Raw Bar around the corner is a good place for a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and some raw shellfish in the front courtyard. They’ve got great oysters and clams on the half shell. Get some of the delicious fries that come with a ranch dressing made with Laura Chenel goat cheese too. The sparkling fresh ceviches or the fried oyster sandwich are better choices than more complicated dishes, which in my experience have been disappointing.

Healdsburg, rather than the town of Sonoma, seems to be where all the restaurant action is these days. The town already had a nice little collection of restaurants, including Bistro Ralph, Manzanita and, in the stylish Hotel Healdsburg, Dry Creek Kitchen from New York chef Charlie Palmer. It also has a great place for a takeout breakfast -- fabulous pecan-laced sticky buns from Downtown Bakery & Creamery.

For lunch, try the newish Barndiva, a short stroll off the square. The large contemporary barn with high ceilings, dangling rice-paper lamps and a bar wrapped in corrugated tin is a surprising sight in the context of demure Victorians and California bungalows. But the real treasure is the walled garden in back, with a rusted steel fountain, newly planted mulberry trees and big green umbrellas for shade. It’s a great place to kick back after a morning bike ride or winery visit.

The wine list holds plenty of local treasures, like the Rochioli Sauvignon Blanc. The menu, though, is pretty much limited to good sandwiches, salads and, in colder months, potpies. In the heat, the salads make the cut, especially one of wild arugula, sliced pears and shaved asiago. If you fancy something more substantial, there’s a mighty Reuben made with Niman Ranch pastrami, a fine chicken salad sandwich, or an individual chicken potpie made with an all-natural Rosie’s bird. Dessert might be a Scharffen Berger chocolate pot-de-creme with a frill of whipped cream or a flaky tart topped with vanilla-scented pastry cream and two kinds of pears.

Zazu’s cheerful vibe

Zazu, a low-slung roadhouse outside Santa Rosa, gets more of a local crowd. The place has excellent karma: It’s actually the third worthy restaurant to grace the same location. And thankfully the new owners, Duskie Estes and John Stewart, both chefs from Seattle, knew enough to leave well alone. An unruly lavender hedge frames the entrance, and Christmas lights are still wrapped around the wooden sign.

When we walked in after 8 on a weeknight, a slip of a woman with a shining smile popped out of the kitchen to greet us: That’s Estes who cooked with Tom Douglas in Seattle at the Palace Kitchen, where she was chef, and several of his other restaurants.

Start with one of her husband’s hand-thrown pizzas. Ours was delicious, topped with black pig sausage, roasted peppers and a soft blanket of cheese. Stewart has a passion for everything Italian. He also makes his own cured meats, which you can sample as part of the stupendous Butcher’s Antipasto plate as opposed to the Gardener’s, which is vegetarian. I loved the rustic panzanella salad with quartered baby artichokes and arugula, and the grilled asparagus with green garlic aioli, which I could have eaten by the fistful.

Big plates include a fork-tender balsamic pork shoulder with loads of caramelized onions, their own handmade sausage, or a naturally raised flatiron steak with roasted garlic. For dessert, try the vin santo ice cream with Johnny’s biscotti. But then again, the kitchen will probably have moved on to something else: The menu changes daily.

Straight to heaven

A note of caution: If you’re making a Sonoma trip, reserve a room well ahead, especially on the weekends.

Not being much of a planner I ended up one night at a chain hotel in Santa Rosa where I woke to some of the worst coffee I’d encountered in years. Fortunately, I could flee down the 101 to Petaluma and the new Della Fattoria cafe, from Sonoma County’s cult bread bakers. It was like going straight from hell to heaven in one fell swoop when I took my first sip of cafe au lait, a swirl of espresso and steamed milk, in a bowl.

The new cafe is a lovely spot on Petaluma’s main street, the site of Della Fattoria’s original bakery, decorated with antique chandeliers and marble-topped tables. On the counter, jars of knobby cookies, sandwiches wrapped in wax paper, and other goodies compete for space.

The handsome, thick-crusted breads, which always sell out at San Francisco’s Saturday farmers market, are proudly displayed behind. The cafe is compelling enough that I went back -- twice -- for breakfast.

Both times, I devoured buttery croissants, almond buns and a sort of Danish made with mascarpone and homemade jam. I wanted to move right in.

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Worth the trip

Dining

Barndiva, 231 Center St. (at Matheson), Healdsburg; (707) 431-0100; www.barndiva.com. Open noon to 11 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; noon to midnight Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday. Lunch items: salads, $9.50 to $14.50; sandwiches, $10.50; pot pies (winter only),$11; desserts, $6.50.

Cyrus, 29 North St., Healdsburg; (707) 433-3311. www.cyrusrestaurant.com. Open 5:30 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Monday. Three courses, $52; 4 courses, $63; 5 courses, $74; chef’s tasting menu, $85.

Della Fattoria Downtown, 141 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma; (707) 763- 0161. Open 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday; 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. www.dellafattoria.com. Breakfast items, $3 to $6.

Willi’s Seafood & Raw Bar, 403 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, (707) 433-9191. www.williswinebar.net. Open 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Monday (until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday). Ceviches and tartares, $8 to $10; New England-style seafood rolls, $7.50 to $13; small plates, $2 to $22.

Zazu, 3535 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa; (707) 523-4814. www.zazurestaurant.com. Open for dinner 5:30 to 9:30 or 10 p.m. (or until everyone is gone) Wednesday through Sunday; pizzas, $15.50; small plates, $2.75 to $17.50; big plates, $19 to $26.

Shopping

Chalk Hill Clematis Nursery, P.O. Box 1847, Healdsburg; for directions, call or go to its website, (707) 433-8416, www.chalkhillclematis.com. Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday.

Chelsea Antiques, 148 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma; (707) 763-7686. Open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. And its sister store Sienna across the street at 119 Petaluma Blvd. N.; (707) 763-6088.

The Gardener, 516 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg; (707) 431-1063; www.thegardener.com/healdsburg.htm. Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.