Wine on tap? Old news. But how about coffee in a keg?

Taylor Maid Farms unveiled this innovation in caffeine delivery last month. The cold coffee pours and looks like a pint of Guinness, frothy head and all. Just like Guinness and a growing number of craft brews, the coffee, in three- and five-gallon steel barrels, is dosed with nitrogen. As in beer, adding nitro to the coffee makes for a creamier, more supple beverage. (But unlike nitrogenated beer, Taylor Maid’s nitro coffee has no carbonation, but maybe that would be cool: coffee soda).

Tayor Maid general manager Rob Daly is a fan of the beloved Dublin stout and had it in mind when the coffee was developed. It’s a dark roast that’s cold-brewed for 14 hours. It’s strong stuff that makes for a silky iced coffee and it’s beautiful to watch the ebony liquid pour out of the stainless steel tap.

“It pulls like a Guinness,” says Daly.

There are a few other coffee makers that offer it on tap, but Daly says Taylor Maid is the first to go with the dark roast, stout-like coffee. Right now, it’s only available at Taylor Maid’s Sebastopol and San Rafael locations, but look for it in restaurants soon. Daly says the company is also exploring a line of canned coffee on nitro with one of those little marbles inside, just like Guinness in a can.

Taylor Maid Farms, 6790 McKinley St., Sebastopol, 707.634.7129 and 850 Fourth St, San Rafael. 415.524.2802.

Pizza, pasta and salads are a winning combination. Why mess with it?

Santa Rosa’s Rosso Pizzeria could have gone with that formula at its North Dutton Avenue location and done just fine. They serve great pizza at their other Santa Rosa and Petaluma locations. But they dug a little deeper and have come up with something better.

Fourteen-month-old Rosso Rosticceria & Eventi offers pizza, yes, but it’s the rest of the menu that interests me. There’s a bit of everything. The spacious restaurant is surrounded by office parks and caters to desk jockeys with breakfast and an especially good lineup of lunch offerings. You’ll never guess what “eventi” means: events, as in the space is available for private events.

I haven’t yet tried breakfast, but I plan to next time I miss the meal at home. Rosso’s got good-looking stuff like a spinach, bacon and pimento-cheese omelet served on a housemade croissant ($7.50), frittatas ($7.50) and “rotisserie hash” ($11.75)—eggs served with roast chicken or porcetta and peppers, onions, mushrooms, potatoes and bacon.

Lunch is the main event. I love a good sandwich, and Rosso has them in spades. Your first stop should be the flagship porcetta sandwich ($9) served with salsa verde and arugula dressed with anchovies, parsley, capers and lemon. Rosso’s porcetta, stuffed and roasted boneless pork, was crisp and aromatic, juicy and delicious. Stacked between ciabatta from the Cousteau Bakery, it’s a high-caliber sando.

Just as good was the sirloin tip sandwich ($9), sliced slabs of juicy beef with chimichuri, caramelized onions and housemade aioli and a bowl of delicious beef broth for dunking. All the sandwiches come with a choice of one of two changing side salads. My favorite was the dino kale/quinoa salad.

For something more substantial than a sandwich, the rotisserie chicken is great, a quarter bird crisp and juicy from the broiler anointed with dollops of a Sriracha-like sauce.

Though I didn’t have a pizza, I did have a “Roman pizza” ($3.50), which is really a crusty, well-toasted plank of focaccia with the toppings of the day. On my day, it was bacon, asparagus and blue cheese. Darn good.

One menu highlight is the shoestring fries tossed with strips of Black Pig bacon ($8). Bacon makes most things better, and it definitely elevates these featherweight fried potatoes. I loved the housemade catsup and aioli, but given the small size of the fries and the tiny ramekin the condiments are served in, more went on my fingers than on the fries. The lamb rosticcini ($8), four skewers of tender, oven-roasted lamb seasoned with lemon and harissa, a North African spicy pepper, is another good finger-food snack.

Service is fast and friendly. You order at the counter and grab a number and a seat. I didn’t save room for the good-looking desserts, but I did enjoy the housemade chai and “Hong Kong” black tea made with sweet cream (both $3). There’s also a small, well-chosen lineup of beer and wine.

Rosso Rosticceria succeeds because of the quality and variety of its food. It’s quite reasonably priced, too. I could eat here several times a week and still look forward to going back.

Rosso Rosticceria & Eventi,
1229 N. Dutton Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.526.1229.