“Promised Land,” The San Francisco Chronicle (Oct. 27, 2016)
For the last two years, the buzz has been streaming in from both sides of the Pacific about Single Thread, a farm, restaurant and inn in Sonoma County. Even when it was just an empty building off Healdsburg’s downtown square and 5 acres of weeds a few miles north, it was already being talked up as “the most highly anticipated,” “most important restaurant” headed by “the best chef you’ve never heard of.” It has been regularly mentioned alongside veritable institutions such as the French Laundry, Manresa and Blue Hill in New York.
If all goes accordingly, Single Thread will finally serve its first guests, at a price of $294 each, at the end of November.
No fewer than 250 well-publicized restaurants opened in the past year in the Bay Area, each trying to distinguish itself with some form of farm-to-table fare, although for most that means simply sourcing from the California growers we are so lucky to live nearby. In comparison, Single Thread has all the trappings of a PR coup: The farm, a dedicated R & D kitchen, a full-time forager, cooks and servers fresh from stints at three-Michelin star restaurants in San Francisco, New York, Copenhagen and Tokyo. There is a cement fermentation tank in the dining room for guest vintners, plus custom ceramics by obscure artisans, a rooftop garden and tasting menus of California cuisine with strong Japanese and French influences.