A week after opening its doors in downtown Santa Rosa, Capriciano Osteria is already packed with diners eager for a taste of chef Baki Bekci's Italian classics. The restaurant has taken over the former Tipsy Taco space at 505 Mendocino Avenue, bringing Italian-American cooking made with high-end local ingredients to a corner that has seen a long line of dining concepts come and go.
Bekci, who is Turkish, grew up working in his family's restaurant in Fethiye, Turkey, before moving into luxury hotel kitchens, according to Sonoma Magazine. He worked in Four Seasons hotel kitchens in Istanbul, Los Angeles, and Calistoga before setting his sights on Sonoma County, and he later left Mezzeluna, the Greek and Mediterranean restaurant he founded in Cotati, to launch his own concept in Santa Rosa. That earlier chapter of his career combined Aegean and California flavors, shaped by a Turkish father and Greek mother, before he shifted his focus toward upscale Italian menu development, according to The National Herald.
Bekci co-founded Mezzeluna in Cotati alongside business partner Ali Cetin, with the Greek eatery facing La Plaza Park soft-opening in January 2024, per the Sonoma State Star. Now, as owner and chef of Capriciano Osteria, he's applying that same hospitality instinct to a menu built around fresh pasta, risotto, and wood-fired dishes. “I just want people to feel happy and enjoy the restaurant and the food and come back again,” Bekci said, per the Sonoma Magazine report.
What's on the Menu at Capriciano Osteria
Bekci's signature dish is the risotto frutti di mare, a $34 plate loaded with shrimp, lobster, clams, and basil oil. Other highlights include the burrata salad, priced at $19 and topped with seasonal stone fruit, heirloom tomatoes, and basil, and the grilled octopus, served for $24 with a southern Italian-style tomato-caper sauce and smashed potatoes. The red wine-braised short ribs run $36 and come with carrots, mushrooms, olive-oil mashed potatoes, gremolata, and basil oil.
The restaurant's pasta lineup includes ravioli al limone, a $28 dish filled with mushrooms and finished with a lemon-cream parmigiano sauce, capers, and parsley. Diners can also order shrimp carpaccio for $22, made with raw shrimp, passion fruit vinaigrette, Sicilian chile, avocado puree, and croutons, alongside a chicken parmesan topped with spaghetti, pomodoro, béchamel, parmesan, and fresh herbs. A wood-fired petrale sole rounds out the offerings as a daily special, and the funghi and salsicce pizza brings wild mushrooms, Italian sausage, fontina, and arugula to the wood-fired oven. For dessert, the cherry coffee kick, at $12, layers tart cherries, espresso, and dark chocolate cake alongside tiramisu and affogatos on the dessert menu.
A Corner With a Long History of Turnover
The 505 Mendocino Avenue address has cycled through numerous concepts over the years, including The Tipsy Taco & Cantina, Acapulco Lounge, and various French, Mexican, and Brazilian restaurants, according to Bite Club. The building itself is a 15,647-square-foot, single-story structure built in 1925 and renovated in 1980, sitting on a 0.44-acre lot with commercial zoning, per property listing details from LoopNet. The Tipsy Taco & Cantina closed in March 2025, leaving behind a turnkey restaurant footprint with seating for 170 guests, according to a BizBen listing.
Capriciano now fills that same footprint with a cozy dining room flanked by two large fireplaces, plus an outdoor patio larger than most in the region. The restaurant operates under the corporate name Capriciano Restaurant Group LLC and enforces an automatic 20% gratuity for parties of five or more, according to job postings for front-of-house and kitchen staff that went up over the summer as the opening approached.
Downtown Santa Rosa's Dining Boom
Capriciano's early crowds arrive amid a resilient stretch for downtown Santa Rosa's commercial district. An April 2026 economic report from the City of Santa Rosa found storefront vacancy remained below 3%, reflecting steady foot traffic even as the area has seen a wave of new dining and retail openings. That local stability is backed by a broader regional tourism boom: Sonoma County's hospitality sector generated $2.4 billion in visitor spending in 2025, supporting more than 22,700 local jobs, according to Sonoma County Tourism.
Bekci's fine-dining pedigree traces back in part to his time at the Four Seasons Resort Napa Valley in Calistoga, home to Auro, a restaurant that has held a Michelin star since 2023 and maintained that status through 2026, according to Visit Napa Valley. Diners paying for a meal at Capriciano will also owe Santa Rosa's combined sales tax rate of 9.25%, which applies to all prepared meal and beverage purchases within city limits, per the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
Hours and Where to Find It
Capriciano Osteria serves lunch Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner service runs Sunday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Whether the restaurant can sustain its early momentum remains an open question, given the corner's history of high tenant turnover, but for now, tables at 505 Mendocino Avenue are filling fast.
