A new all-day brunch and pasta spot has taken over the former Phyllis' Giant Burgers space in Santa Rosa's Rincon Valley, serving $20 avocado toast piled with burrata, chili crunch and hot honey alongside tiramisu ricotta pancakes and pistachio lattes. Dolce Rosa Cafe opened in July at 4910 Sonoma Highway, Suite B, bringing Italian-leaning flavors to a stretch of Highway 12 long associated with roadside burger stands.
The cafe is the second venture from Josie Ortega and Martin Chaparro, who also own Chila-Killer Cafe in Rohnert Park, according to Sonoma Magazine. That original restaurant, known for chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, churro French toast and tacos, opened in Rohnert Park in November 2022 after the couple bought an existing business with community help, drawing on Chaparro's 32 years of commercial kitchen experience, per the City of Rohnert Park. Rather than replicate that concept, the pair took a different route this time. “We decided to never open another Chila-Killer,” Ortega said, according to the same report.
What's on the Menu
The headline dish is the $20 avocado toast, built on housemade focaccia with olive oil, avocado, arugula, burrata, cherry tomatoes, rainbow carrots, crushed pistachios, balsamic pearls, chili crunch and hot honey — with prosciutto or bacon available for $4 more. The tiramisu ricotta pancakes, priced at $16, come topped with espresso-spiked mascarpone, chocolate syrup and cocoa, one of five toppings offered on the ricotta pancakes. Other dishes include a $24 beef hash loaded with roasted beef, bell peppers, onion, zucchini, mushrooms, gravy, two poached eggs, spicy tomato pesto, toasted focaccia and hash browns, plus $18 eggs in purgatory — poached eggs in a spicy tomato-garlic sauce served with focaccia.
Coffee drinks lean into the Italian theme as well, with an $8 pistachio latte layering pistachio cream, whipped cream and crushed pistachios over the housemade syrup. The menu also includes a red eye latte, a chai latte, a golden milk latte and a Nutella latte with its rim coated in Nutella sauce, along with an ice cream champagne float for something less caffeinated. Beyond brunch, Dolce Rosa serves all-day burgers, sandwiches and mix-and-match pastas, including bolognese and a tomato sauce with burrata. The cafe is open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., mirroring the daytime-only schedule Ortega and Chaparro established at Chila-Killer Cafe, according to the Rohnert Park Chamber of Commerce.
A Building With a Long Burger History
The commercial building at 4910 Sonoma Highway carries decades of neighborhood history. It housed Heavenly Hamburger for more than 50 years before that roadside fixture gave way to Phyllis' Giant Burgers in April 2008, per Dave's Travel Corner. Phyllis' Giant Burgers still operates its other Santa Rosa location at 1774 Piner Road. The building also houses Yutaka Japanese Grill, placing Dolce Rosa within an established dining node along Highway 12 in east Santa Rosa.
Opening Amid Rising Local Wages
Dolce Rosa's debut comes as Santa Rosa's municipal minimum wage climbed to $18.21 per hour on January 1, under a city ordinance that adjusts local pay annually using the Bay Area Consumer Price Index, according to the City of Santa Rosa. That's $1.31 higher than California's statewide minimum wage of $16.90 per hour, which also took effect this year. Job listings for the new cafe reflected those local labor costs, advertising line cook pay between $22 and $24 per hour and full-time prep cook pay of $22 to $26 per hour, according to postings reviewed on Indeed.
The opening also fits a broader pattern of concept-driven restaurant launches across Santa Rosa this year. Hoodline previously covered the debut of the Barbiecore-themed Café Carrusel in June and the Italian-focused Capriciano Osteria in August, part of what has been a rapid rotation of stylized dining concepts opening across the city in recent months. At their flagship Rohnert Park restaurant, Ortega and Chaparro also built out a private event business, renting a banquet room on weekdays for $100 per hour, though it remains an open question whether they'll bring a similar offering to the Rincon Valley location. Dolce Rosa Cafe can be reached at 707-931-4625.
