The building at 10439 Highway 1 has always been easy to find. It's the one with the deck hanging over the spot where the Russian River gives up and becomes the Pacific. For most of the last two decades, that address held two separate businesses that shared a parking lot and, some afternoons, a soundtrack. Café Aquatica served the coffee and the crab sandwiches. Next door, in a space marked Suite A, a wine bar called Tasting by the Sea poured Sonoma reds behind a small gift shop, with a fire pit for foggy evenings and, some Sundays, a cellist.
By this past January, Suite A had gone dark. By June, it had become home to a retail shop and wine bar alongside Café Aquatica. Rachel Kulinski, who bought Café Aquatica in 2018 and the building itself two years later, operates the café and retail shop, while Patrick Cappiello runs the wine bar.
What Closed Quietly
Tasting by the Sea belonged to Gregory and Gypsy Keim, and for years it was the kind of place regulars mentioned by name: Gabriel-Glas crystal stemware shipped up from Napa, a deck that connected straight into Café Aquatica's own patio, and a policy of letting customers bring over sandwiches from next door as long as they cleaned up after themselves. A visitor who stopped by on January 17 found the wine bar closed, along with the small gift shop attached to it. There was no announcement built around the closure. It simply stopped being there.
That kind of turnover isn't unusual on a stretch of coast where businesses run on thin margins and long winters. What made this one different is what happened to the space next.
What Kulinski Built in Its Place
Suite A now houses two businesses alongside Café Aquatica. Those businesses are: Jenner Outpost, a retail shop selling gifts, picnic supplies, and local art, and tucked behind it, The Siren's Cellar, a wine bar run by Patrick Cappiello.
Cappiello's résumé is not typical for a town with one gas station and one inn. He worked as a sommelier in New York starting in 2001, first at Tribeca Grill, then at Veritas, then as wine director at Gilt. In 2013 he opened his own restaurant, Pearl & Ash, known for a cellar that rivaled fine-dining temples even as Cappiello worked the floor in jeans and a metal band t-shirt. He followed it with Rebelle in 2015. By 2018 he had closed both restaurants and moved to Sonoma County, working harvest alongside winemaker Pax Mahle before launching his own label, Monte Rio Cellars, built mostly on heritage Zinfandel and Carignan sourced from Lodi.
The Siren's Cellar is that label's first tasting room. Cappiello had planned to pour Monte Rio wines exclusively, but the liquor license opened the door to more.
The Press Democrat quoted Cappiello: "The list is going to be really special and pretty big, about 1,000 bottles, with many older vintages and large verticals."
Alongside Monte Rio's own bottles, the by-the-glass list draws from Lioco, Pax Cellars, Ryme Cellars, and Martha Stoumen, all names with roots in West Sonoma County. Cheese boards built from local cheeses, cured meats, tinned fish, and pickles run $25 to $35. Cappiello has said he wants the shop to be a place where he can shine a light on other like-minded winemakers he's passionate about.
The hours are narrow, which matters if you're planning around them:
- Monday: 2:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., or sunset
- Tuesday through Thursday: closed
- Friday: 2:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
- Saturday and Sunday: 12:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
That's four open days a week for a business drawing attention well past Sonoma County. It opened by late June, ahead of the August target the couple had floated earlier in the year.
Word Traveled Fast
Café Aquatica had already built a reputation of its own. Since Kulinski took over in 2018, she added a crab sandwich that became the menu's signature item, introduced alcohol service, and in 2025 landed the café a spot on San Francisco Chronicle critics' list of the 25 best restaurants in Wine Country. The Siren's Cellar picked up outside recognition almost as quickly. By mid-July, Michelin Guide's online coverage of a Highway 1 road trip called it an appealing stop along the route. By mid-August, a 7x7 feature on a North Coast California road trip was steering readers toward Cappiello's new wine bar, tucked behind Jenner Outpost, next to Café Aquatica, as a reason to add miles to a trip that already runs past Mendocino.
The building now houses three businesses at one address: Café Aquatica, Jenner Outpost, and The Siren's Cellar. Café Aquatica handles food. Jenner Outpost handles retail. The Siren's Cellar handles wine. A year ago, that same square footage was split between two operators who happened to share a deck.
Jenner's Commercial Landscape
Jenner doesn't have much else in the way of commercial real estate. Outside of the Sea Store gas station and convenience shop, an inn, and this one building, the rest of the town is beach, bluff, or state land. The town's small commercial footprint is part of its setting. The Redwood Empire Food Bank has run a distribution outside the Sea Store every second Wednesday for six years running as of this February, and solar-powered Wi-Fi at the Jenner Community Center parking lot exists specifically because power outages have long been part of life here. Together, these details offer a picture of Jenner's local services and infrastructure.
If you're already in Jenner on a weekend afternoon, the wine bar sits within easy reach of the rest of what draws people here. The Kortum Trail runs 4.6 miles round trip between Wright's Beach and Blind Beach, part of the 17-mile stretch of Sonoma Coast State Park that frames the town. Goat Rock Beach, where the river actually meets the ocean, is a short drive south. Eleven miles north on Highway 1, the Fort Ross Store remains the only other food stop before the historic park itself. None of that changed this year. What changed is that after a hike or a beach walk, there's now a reason to linger at 10439 Highway 1 that didn't exist twelve months ago.
The next chapter for that building probably depends on whether Kulinski and Cappiello decide the current footprint is enough, or whether there's more of Suite A's old floor plan left to use. For now, Suite A houses Jenner Outpost and The Siren's Cellar alongside Café Aquatica, and the rest of the coast has started to notice.
If you're curious about what else is shifting along this stretch of the Sonoma Coast, from small business turnover to the property behind it, SOCO PROPERTY keeps a close eye on this coastline. Let's Talk.
