A Nightcap Dessert Bar, Spirits, and Nostalgia At Petaluma's Barber Lee: The After Hours

PETALUMA, CA —Petaluma is a sort of border town with a forever-nostalgia vibe, trying to hold on to the past while capturing a 21st-century entertainment economy.

An alluring neon-tinged nostalgia fuels the twin engines of entertainment and agriculture — mainly chicken — earning Petaluma the nickname "chick-a-luma."

You can smell the authenticity of the name from time to time, all the way from Highway 101, and see it in signs like the one at the entrance to the Poehlmann Hatchery building that once beamed the words "Baby Chicks."

Weekends the town and its visitors fill a downtown so well-preserved that it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the Visit Petaluma website (movies like American Graffiti, Cujo, and Peggy Sue Got Married have filmed there). They stroll along a riverfront dreamy with canopies of white lights strung from charming boutiques, restaurants, and trees. They shop Kentucky Street in boutiques offering Sonoma County chic — style with a rustic charm. The Petaluma Yacht Club serves up cold glasses of chardonnay and strong vodka cocktails but has very few boats. And there is an annual "Butter and Egg Day Parade" as well as a "World’s Ugliest Dog Contest."

As one observer wrote, "Petaluma doesn’t just do events—it throws celebrations with a wink and a nod to its quirks."

Petaluma is proud of its past, whose infrastructure is being repurposed for coworking spaces, startups, exercise studios, medical offices, music and antique stores, boutiques, restaurants, cafés, breweries, and bars.

It was on a foodie blog that I noticed Barber Lee Spirits, which carved out a niche on Washington Street as a cocktail lounge serving house-distilled spirits and now a "nightcap dessert bar."

Barber Lee sits on Washington Street between the Petaluma Hotel and the centenarian, Volpi's.

The night I visited was warm and late enough by Sonoma County standards for a nightcap.

Passing three women in brewery-clubbing shorts (super short, disco tight but no sequins), I opened the door to Barber Lee, housed in a warehouse built in 1910 when industrial buildings in the downtown were made of brick.

I settled into a high-backed settee styled like a velvety shell and, passing on the chili gummy bears, ordered a Paper Plane (rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, Campari-like aperitivo, lemon juice) and a Gravenstein negroni (apple brandy — made, of course, from local Gravensteins, aperitivo, sweet vermouth). I was here for the dessert bar, so I added a spicy piece of chocolate cake laced with cardamom, cayenne, and passionfruit.

A couple in casual hiking pants and fleeces climbed onto rose-pink seats at the window overlooking the quiet, dark street.

A man in Oktoberfest lederhosen and Tyrolean trachtenhut — his shirt printed with pictures of sausages, beer glasses, and pretzels — entered, sat at one of the larger tables, and pulled out his phone. Behind him stood a 1980s-style video game console: Miss Pac-Man, I think.

A quartet of mother-father-son-son's wife settled into a table and looked around awkwardly until a woman brought menus and explained the varieties of bourbon, and their distinctions, offered at Barber Lee. She warned them that Barber Lee serves spirits that can challenge unaccustomed taste buds.

Towering behind them was a mural with a two-headed rattlesnake, wormwood plant, Golden Gate Bridge, crow, California poppies, corn, rye, a BLS emblem, and a giant hand holding a glass of their spirts.

The Barber Lee name comes from the partners, Aaron Lee, and Lorraine and Michael Barber, winemakers at Barber Cellars. Their more subtly designed tasting room (which they claim to be the first in downtown Petaluma) is next door.

The trio, according to their website narrative, started with a "flagship" single malt rye, moonshine, and absinthe before adding "heirloom corn" bourbon, apple brandy, and rum to the menu.

Although the wine tasting room has a sort of soft, wispy aesthetic, both businesses share a similar narrative: brutal hills, handcrafted, unique, memorable, honest, painstaking, everything done by hand.

Like other Sonoma County towns in the process of reinventing an economy, Petaluma is crafting a persona to distinguish one town from another. To create an allure for tourists and people looking for something close to the city but not too close, as well as the long-timers.

The businesses double down on the master narrative and etch out a way to stand out with little touches.

Barber Lee does that by leveraging spirits, brick, and Pac-Man for a nostalgic twist.

The After Hours is a recurring column written by Patch Editor Angela Woodall where she will share her opinions on all things that happen after hours. The opinions expressed are her own.

Join the Conversation below to let her know about your favorite After Hours spots.