If you went to La Texanita for pozole this summer, you probably found a different sign over the door at 1667 Sebastopol Road. Where did 21 years of handmade tortillas go? Down the road to 1410 Sebastopol Road, a lot the owner bought three years ago. That one move says a lot about Sebastopol Road this fall. The businesses still feeding the corridor are mostly the ones that control the ground under them. Meanwhile, the new public park built to be the neighborhood's gathering place is open, landscaped and still waiting for its crowd.
La Texanita traded a dining room for a deed
The Press Democrat reported in August that La Texanita closed its brick-and-mortar restaurant in July. Owner Alma Mendez had been paying a lease on the restaurant and a mortgage on the lot at 1410 Sebastopol Road at the same time, and she chose to keep the lot. That lot is where the taqueria started in 1999, before it moved into the larger space. So she moved back to it, this time as a food truck.
Mendez told the paper:
"I'm glad I won't have to pay a rent increase year after year. I am happy for this new beginning, even though I have to serve on a patio instead of an indoor dining area."
The truck soft-opened on August 18. Its hours make it one of the latest kitchens on the corridor: 9 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and Sunday, and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Mendez has also said she would like to turn the property into a family gathering spot with other food trucks on the lot. For now that is her plan, not a schedule, and she described taking it "step by step."
The old dining room didn't stay empty. Su Casa 2 opened at 1667 Sebastopol Road on July 27. It's the second location for co-owners Ramon Sandoval and Vicente Campos, whose Su Casa has served Rincon Valley for more than 20 years. Sandoval worked at the original for 17 years before buying it. The new menu follows the original's American and Mexican breakfasts and adds molcajetes and seafood. So the corridor gained a sit-down breakfast room and kept its late-night taqueria. The difference is that the taqueria now runs on land its owner owns, with no landlord setting the rent.
Del Valle's three-year fight for a drive-through
Further along at 2000 Sebastopol Road, the family-owned Del Valle Mexican Restaurant is betting on its own site too, and the price of entry is clear. According to the Press Democrat's October 17 report, the City Council voted 6–0 on October 13 to grant the restaurant's appeal, with one councilmember abstaining. The Planning Commission had denied the permit in February, and the restaurant had been working on it for three years. The applicant, Pedro Martinez Navarro, is the owners' son. He put the cost of studies and appeals at $150,000 to $200,000.
Here's what the permit allows:
- An 850-square-foot drive-through building
- A 230-foot queue lane entered from Sebastopol Road
- Fifteen more parking spaces, plus new lighting and sidewalk improvements
- Drive-through hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday
There's also a condition you'll see in practice if it gets built. When 10 cars are in line, one of two employees has to close the Sebastopol Road entrance until the line drops to seven. Traffic studies projected 30 to 34 vehicles an hour and no backup onto Sebastopol Road or Kenmore Lane. For now, though, the approval is only paperwork. Navarro said financing comes next, and no construction timeline has been set.
What it costs to open a stand now
Those two stories make more sense next to the price of starting small. In its September profile of Roseland, the Press Democrat reported that a new food stand owner might pay $10,000 for a zoning permit alone, before other fees and insurance. Food carts can cost up to $100,000. The same article gives a sense of how much that has changed: the cart that Bianca Castillo's mother bought decades ago to start Tamales Magos cost $18,000.
That gap helps explain why the corridor's long-running names matter so much. Tamales Magos and Tamales Oaxaqueños still serve from their stands near Sebastopol Road, and Sam's For Play Cafe and Catering still runs its breakfast counter. None of them is new, but the September reporting places all three at the center of daily eating along the corridor. Replacing any one of them would cost a newcomer far more than it cost the people who started them.
Mitote made way for Tierra de Rosas
The best-known example of a food business leaving its ground is Mitote Food Park, which the Press Democrat's September piece says was moved to make way for the first phase of Tierra de Rosas. Its original home was 665 Sebastopol Road. When it announced a last day there in January 2025, the Press Democrat reported a sign pointing to 500 Sebastopol Road, though nobody could confirm that as the next location. Sonoma Magazine later reported that owner Octavio Diaz invited the public to a soft opening at 100 Sebastopol Road that April.
The most recent published schedule, a July 2025 Visit Santa Rosa guide, listed it as open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. More than a year has passed since then, so check Mitote's Instagram before you head over.
That move left the corridor without the central meeting place it used to have, a point the Press Democrat's September piece makes directly. The project built to fill that role opened this month.
Plaza Permanente: built, open and waiting for its mercado
On October 9, officials cut the ribbon on Plaza Permanente, a one-acre park at Sebastopol Road and West Avenue. The Press Democrat's coverage of the opening puts the park's cost at $4 million. The Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District contributed $2 million of that, the same district that has helped fund nearby Bayer Farm and the Roseland Creek Community Park now in development. The plaza sits beside Casa Roseland, the 75-unit apartment building that makes up the rest of Tierra de Rosas' first phase.
The park has a lawn, picnic tables and a small playground. In mid-September the Press Democrat saw few people using it, noting that the fences had only recently come down and the apartments weren't fully occupied yet. An outdoor mercado is planned for the site, but no dates have been set.
The commercial pieces that would bring regular foot traffic are further off. In the spring, Sonoma County issued a request for proposals for the small commercial parcel and got no responses. The county has a memorandum of understanding with the local nonprofit Health Equity Rising for the civic parcel just south of the apartments. The 100 market-rate apartments planned east of Casa Roseland have no timeline, and the county's community development director pointed to high construction costs and interest rates.
A small business owner turned her own lot into a late-night food stop in a matter of weeks. The public plaza, nearly two decades in the making, has its lawn and playground in place, but the market that would bring people there is still a plan.
A Sebastopol Road loop for this fall
Here are the corridor's food stops and anchors in order of street number, using the latest published details for each:
- Mitote Food Park, 100 Sebastopol Road. Regional food stalls. Last published hours were daily, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Check before you go.
- Roseland Regional Library, 470 Sebastopol Road. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday and Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. A permanent library is under construction at the Hearn Avenue community hub.
- Plaza Permanente, Sebastopol Road and West Avenue. Lawn, tables and a playground. The mercado has not been scheduled yet.
- La Texanita food truck, 1410 Sebastopol Road. Open 9 a.m. to midnight weekdays and Sunday, and until 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Pozole and carne asada tacos are the dishes that got it on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2009.
- Su Casa 2, 1667 Sebastopol Road. Breakfasts from the Rincon Valley original, plus molcajetes and seafood.
- Del Valle Mexican Restaurant, 2000 Sebastopol Road. Same dining room as before. The drive-through is approved but not yet built.
Over the next few months, watch for three things: whether other trucks join Mendez on her lot, when Del Valle lines up its financing, and whether the plaza's mercado gets a date.
Berg Group follows changes like these block by block, from a taqueria's move to a county parcel that drew no bids. If you'd like to see Santa Rosa's west side with someone who tracks what's opening and what's still on paper, request a tour with Lauren Berg.
