Review: Rosso Pizzeria

The Roman at Rosso Pizzeria and Mozzarella Bar in Petaluma. (Jeff Kan Lee/PD)

Is there anyone in the restaurant business here who has more enthusiasm for the job and more fun with the customers than Richie Hovden?

Hovden works at Rosso Pizzeria and Mozzarella Bar in Petaluma, the second Rosso in the county, if you don’t count the traveling wood-fired oven on a trailer that Rosso Catering will haul to your venue. Patrons coming through the door are greeted by Hovden with genuine gusto. His sense of humor and energy really make a visit to Rosso Petaluma a pleasant experience. Owners Kevin Cronin and John and Gesine Franchetti should be proud.

The first Rosso is the wildly popular spot in the Creekside Center off Montgomery Drive in Santa Rosa. And the Petaluma version is just as popular, given the many customers filling most of the 86 seats inside and out in the atrium at the center of the Petaluma theater district’s building on a recent night.

While pizza is central to both the Santa Rosa and Petaluma Rossos, the latter is more focused on dairy and cheese; hence the Italian word for dairy, Latteria, hangs in large letters above the open cooking area. And the prime focus of the Latteria at Rosso is the mozzarella di bufala made by Craig Ramini from his 46-animal water buffalo herd in Tomales.

Water buffalo mozzarella is the pinnacle of mozzarella quality, and in Italy it is a silky, melt-in-your-mouth bit of gastronomic heaven. Ramini is trying to reproduce that here, but it has been a struggle. Still, the former software developer is sticking with it. On a recent night, the kitchen made it from curds that Ramini had just delivered, using the classic technique of hand-stretching the heated curds. It’s not rubbery like commercial cow’s milk mozzarella, but still has a lightly springy texture and a sunny, rich flavor. It’s served with condiments — tomato, capers and shallots.