Tortilla Real makes its tortillas, guacamole and other ingredients from scratch and you can taste the added time and care. They also have a separate vegan menu with alternatives to their beloved dishes.

The current hot restaurant (read: get a reservation) is L’Oro di Napoli. It’s a unique space with interior windows and a balcony, reminiscent of a historic Italian street, though it’s located in the old US Bakery building. The pizzas are thick and delicious and cooked in a beautiful, blue-tiled pizza oven.

On the same block as L’Oro di Napoli, but with a very different vibe, is Brewsters Beer Garden. The friendly staff serves a variety of beer, some local, in a large, half-covered space with heat lamps. Their menu includes duck fat fries, mac and cheese and a brisket, ribs and sausage combo called the Uncle Buck.

Brewsters also serves buffalo milk soft-serve ice cream, made at the nearby Valley Ford Creamery. For traditional ice cream, with many more flavor options (including vegan and gluten-free), try Angela’s Organic Ice Cream parlor.

Music, games and beer

You may still be eating your cone of crème brûlée ice cream if you walk out of Angela’s and follow the big band sounds (on Wednesday nights) across the street into The Big Easy. The former speakeasy hosts live music every night except Monday in a dark, throwback space. Another old speakeasy, Volpi’s, is known to feature an accordion-playing grandpa in the bar, and the restaurant was an Italian grocery when it first opened 100 years ago.

If you want to be the one doing the playing, head to the spacious Buffalo Billiards pool hall, busy even on a weeknight with locals enjoying pool, of course, but also darts, pinball and foosball.

The Phoenix Theater is an all-ages nightclub that promises a cool hang for teens and tweens (they serve no alcohol). The one-time vaudeville venue has a long history of keeping the punk music flame lit. It also hosts a non-profit skate shop, and the building has a half pipe.

Two of Petaluma’s most fabled drinking establishments lay just out of downtown’s reach. (No, not wine country — though Keller Estate winery is only 15 minutes away and open for various tasting experiences by appointment.)

The Lagunitas Brewing Co. taproom is a hoppy Valhalla with a bar, two outdoor stages hosting live music most days and a large picnic area. It also offers tours and has a shop for beer-branded swag. Fans will revel in the fact that the taproom serves rare labels on the premises, such as the Arcticus Maximus (a cold double IPA) and the limited release Waldos’ Special ale triple IPA (11.4% alcohol content).

Ernie’s Tin Bar is another pilgrimage spot, worth the short drive from town center. The long bar, with a propane pot-belly-looking stove on one end, is located in an old filling station that is a still-working garage and has a rare beer-only license.

A 1943 Chrysler Windsor sits behind patrons on barstools, and a sign over the bar warns that anyone making a phone call on this hallowed ground incurs the penalty of buying everyone a round.

Ernie’s has been around so long that one of the owners, Ernie Altenreuther, is the grandson of the original Ernie. Regulars of the roadhouse bar (that began as a blacksmith shop more than a hundred years ago), come for the live music, the local, German and Belgian drafts, and the friendly way strangers easily strike up conversation with one another.

Shopping downtown, along streets lined with distinctive buildings from the mid-1800s, rewards curiosity. One of the pretty store fronts is owned by nationally known jewelry designer Robindira Unsworth, who has a studio in the back. The store also sells a nice collection of other brands’ homewares and clothes.

At the Heebe Jeebe general store you can find toys or a NorCal, Petaluma or “Deport Elon” T-shirt. The two floors of Copperfield’s Books are a joy to wander and chat up the friendly staff.

Ask questions at the Petaluma Seed Bank about their thousand-plus varieties of herbs, flowers, vegetables and garden fruits and vegetables, and you’ll learn that their seeds are open-pollinated, non-GMO and heirloom. They also sell honey, organic chocolate, and Petaluma Seed Bank swag, naturally.

The Petaluma Historical Library and Museum is located in a beautiful old library funded by Andrew Carnegie in 1906, with a stained-glass dome ceiling, and demonstrates modern Petaluma’s pride for its delicious place in California history.

The displays include its pre-industrial period, when this was Indigenous land (the town’s name comes from the Miwok people, meaning “sloping ridge”), but much of the focus is on the years listed in the “poultry timeline” of Petaluma.

Un-egg-related, there is a small display on the local filming of 1973’s “American Graffiti” — a high school tale dripping with nostalgia — directed by pre-”Star Wars” George Lucas, whose Skywalker Ranch is 30 minutes away in Lucas Valley.

You can’t visit the ranch, but Petaluma is home to Rancho Obi-Wan, a nonprofit museum that houses the world’s largest collection of “Star Wars” memorabilia. “American Graffiti” fans may want to time a visit to the annual Cruisin’ the Boulevard gathering of classic cars.

A stroll through Petaluma, past its historic buildings and the architecturally significant houses highlighted in the history museum, reveals how much the past mingles with the present. It’s also fun to run or walk along the river trail, adorned with outdoor artwork. Or rent one of The Floathouse’s 16 types of human-powered watercraft to explore by river.

Whether by foot or kayak, you see old Petaluma still in action everywhere. The tallest building downtown is a grain factory still operating for dairy feed. The Hampton Inn Petaluma is in a nicely renovated silk mill. The Mystic Theatre — the showcase music venue in town — is another old vaudeville stage.

Petaluma’s pre-tourist boom only adds to the charm of the current heyday. Nostalgia mixed with food, drink, shopping and local pride.

Where desert mountains and Mexican culture meet