Get a taste of Sonoma County's best restaurants with these delicious award winners by Michelin and Zagat for 2019.
Read on for suggestions on new hot spots, revamped gems and ideas on what to eat this year:
Michelin and Zagat had plenty to say about Sonoma County restaurants. Quite notably, in the 2019 edition of the Michelin Guide San Francisco Bay Area & Wine Country, the new Single Thread in Healdsburg scores with three stars. That makes it the first restaurant in Sonoma County to ever win this honor.
As the Guide notes, “Single Thread has risen to the top of Sonoma County’s dining scene since its opening in 2016. The talented couple behind this powerhouse project has shown consistent commitment to the highest standards of ingredient quality and exceptionally refined cuisine.”
Restaurants honored with One Star (“a very good restaurant in its category”) include Madrona Manor in Healdsburg, and Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant in Forestville.
Michelin handed out the Bib Gourmands awards, too, representing remarkable restaurants that serve two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for $40 or less (tax and gratuity not included). Gaining acclaim were Diavolo Pizzeria + Salumi in Geyserville, Backyard in Forestville, Bravas Bar de Tapas in Healdsburg, Chalkboard in Healdsburg, Glen Ellen Star in Glen Ellen, Risibisi in Petaluma, El Molino Central in Sonoma, and Ramen Gaijin in Sebastopol.
Zagat Guide's “Essential Sonoma County Restaurants” for the year:
In Petaluma, Della Fattoria Café and Thistle Meats.
In Healdsburg, Journeyman Meat Co. from Pete Seghesio of the Seghesio winemaking family, Single Thread, Bravas Bar de Tapas, Dry Creek Kitchen, Valette, Chalkboard, and The Brass Rabbit.
In Santa Rosa, The Spinster Sisters.
In Freestone, Wild Flour Bread.
In Duncan Mills, Gold Coast Coffee & Bakery.
In Forestville, Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant.
In Rohnert Park, Hana Japanese Restaurant.
In Geyserville, Diavolo Pizzeria + Salumi.
In Sonoma, El Molino Central and Café La Haye (the national Eater.com also declares El Molino as an “Essential California Restaurant”).
In Sebastopol, Ramen Gaijin.
We still weren’t done. In December, The San Francisco Chronicle weighed in with its Top 100 restaurants of all of 2018, recognizing Healdsburg’s Single Thread, and Sonoma's El Molino Central.
Newest showstopper, award-winning restaurant recently opened in Sonoma County, garnering three precious Michelin Stars:
Single Thread, Healdsburg
Restaurateurs Kyle and Katina Connaughton finessed every last detail of the combination restaurant and luxury inn. They planted their own five acre Single Thread Farms property between the Russian River and the historic San Lorenzo Ranch nearby, and established a 3,000-square-foot rooftop garden above the restaurant, both dedicated to growing boutique ingredients for the food and cocktail menus. There, Katina raises delicacies like several types of negi (onions), root vegetables like kintoki carrots and kabu turnip, greens like chingensai and komatsuna, Japanese pumpkins, kamo nasu (eggplant), and yurine (lily bulbs).
Set in a grand building owned by the Seghesio wine family near Healdsburg Plaza, the elegant space is home to equally sophisticated cooking. The concept is kaiseki — elaborate multicourse meals crafted as art — and donabe — rustic clay pot cooking. Menus change daily, but might means delicacies like black cod Fukkura-san (donabe style) with root vegetables, cabbage, charred onion, and walnut-nori pesto; plus wild salmon donabe-smoked over cherry-blossom-wood with fermented rice, salmon roe, and wild ginger.
Even with all the exotica, there’s a healthy dose of Sonoma County in the seasonal recipes, with the farm boasting olive trees, beehives and chickens, all to feed the restaurant. Other specialties might include Sonoma Coast sea urchin with kojo negi custard, watercress and caviar; and whole roast Sonoma pigeon with purple mustard spinach, matsutake mushroom and sansho (pepper spice) vinaigrette.
Enjoy these other new, top-notch restaurants just debuted this past year, too, including a remarkable collection of highly inventive, global cuisines:
Bollywood Bar & Clay Oven, Santa Rosa
Butcher Crown Roadhouse, Petaluma
Cascabel Mexican Bar and Grill, Santa Rosa
Gerard's Paella y Tapas, Santa Rosa
Geyserville Gun Club, Geyserville
Stockhome, Petaluma
More Favorite Sonoma County restaurants:
Valette, Healdsburg
Former Dry Creek Kitchen talent Dustin Valette is rocking the food world, bringing in crowds for his contemporary Cal-global cooking and a sexy, reclaimed wood-trimmed, open kitchen ambience. Reservations are recommended to score a table laden with seasonally (and often weekly) changing dishes like slow cooked celeriac soup with toasted pistachios, yellow beet tartare and goat cheese meringue, or crispy skin local sable fish with MIX garden bok choy, roasted ginger dashi, toasted soba noodles and spicy kimchee purée.
Be sure to start with hand crafted charcuterie from the custom-made curing case, and if you’re feeling adventurous, tuck into the “Trust Me” menu where Valette sends out a multi-course feast of his daily picks.
Bird & The Bottle, Santa Rosa
Matzoh ball soup, prepared ramen style. Cheesy grits topped in pickled shiitakes, grilled chicken, cured egg, and spicy schmaltz. They seem like odd recipes, but restaurateurs Mark and Terri Stark are professionals, so their modern tavern melting pot works well.
There are grilled and chilled shellfish accompanied by Southern Saltines and Korean chile buerre blanc; clam chowder studded with kielbasa; kimchee latkes with sour cream and garlic chives; chicken fried oysters with shiso leaf and spicy mayo; and schmears like smoked black cod with sour cream, onion, and fresh horseradish. Try it, you’ll likely be happily surprised.
Harvest Moon Café, Sonoma
Tucked away off Sonoma Plaza, Nick and Jen Demarest have created a true jewel, which charms diners with glittering fresh Cal-Med cuisine. Cuddle up with your sweetheart at a table set with wildflowers in the country-casual dining room, or on the Wine-Country-perfect garden patio.
The chef-owners trained at Chez Panisse, and it shows, with craft cooking on a nightly changing menu that might feature roasted fennel soup decorated with chive blossoms, sea beans, and Olive Leaf Hills Farm olive oil; marinated beets and golden cauliflower with tarragon, soft-cooked egg, bonito, and tonnato sauce; or grilled local swordfish with grilled asparagus, steamed Basmati rice, and sage-roasted garlic butter.
Amy’s Drive Thru, Rohnert Park
It may seem odd to be proud of a drive through, except this is a showpiece of locally sourced, boutique products, and it might well be a true café, decorated with a living plant roof and solar panels. There’s even table service, and the fast food isn’t entirely fast, since all recipes are made from scratch and cooked to-order.
It comes from the creators of Amy’s Kitchen, all the food is vegetarian, and available as vegan and/or gluten free, but really, you won’t miss the meat. Skinny sunflower seed oil-fried fries are smothered in thick tofu chili and cheese, while the Amy’s Burger brings a double patty of veggies, mushrooms and grains, topped with double cheese, tomato, onion, Sonoma Brinery pickle, and Fred Sr.’s regular or spicy secret sauce all on a toasted bun. For more farm-fresh flavors, dig into the sweet salad of seasonal lettuces, roasted yellow beets, dried cranberries, candied pecans and goat cheese with ranch, balsamic or raspberry vinaigrette, and cap it off with a Sonoma dairy-sourced milkshake.
Trading Post, Cloverdale
The bakers are hard at work at this steaming hot project from San Francisco’s AQ, TBD, and Bon Marché team. From the hearth oven emerges golden crusted country levain, focaccia to be topped with goodies like meat and cheese, and a sinful dessert bread made with 50 percent flour and water, and 50 percent fruit and nuts.
Recently, a full restaurant opened next door, tempting with farm-to-table bites such as fried chicken with veggies in apple cider glaze, cabbage bacon soup with poached pear and brown butter crouton, or Dungeness crab tartine with fennel and radish.
Hazel, Occidental
Owners Jim and Michele Wimborough wow with Cal-Med cuisine at this cute cottage, in savory signatures like scallop crudo dressed with Santa Rosa plums, or grilled octopus with River Dog cannelini beans, shaved fennel, watercress, orangen and olives.
Most ingredients are local, like the Valley Ford cheese on the sweet corn, cherry tomato and jalapeno pizza, or the just-caught salmon roasted in the oven with leeks, Yukon creamers, tomatoes, spring onions, and Greek olives. Local wines? You bet.
Guerneville Bank Club, Guerneville
In 1921, the big white building on Main Street housed an actual bank full of money. Now, its vaults are full of pies and ice cream. Doing double duty as a collective retail and art gallery space, the eye-candy design offers an eclectic mix of art shows, handcrafted pies, homemade ice cream, clothing, and home accessories, plus a history display of Guerneville compliments of the Russian River Historical Society.
The pies come from Chilepies Baking Co. in flavors like strawberry rhubarb, apricot cherry, or the signature chile apple pie made with sweet apple and green chile filling, cheddar cheese crust, walnut streusel topping, and red chile honey drizzle. The ice cream, meanwhile, is the work of Nimble & Finn’s, in temptations like Bulleit Bourbon with chocolate covered pretzels, cold steeped Melody coffee, or lavender honeycomb.
Revamped Gems to Enjoy:
K&L Bistro, Sebastopol
This magical little spot was recently expanded in order to serve its many fans, but hasn’t lost an inch of its charm. The setting is bistro, down to white linens, and the service is old-school delightful, meaning it’s attentive, friendly, and professional, without being obtrusive.
The food is elegant but Wine Country approachable, offering seasonal and local fare such as house-made crab cakes, fresh oysters, and house made charcuterie. New to the menu are chef-caliber craft cocktails, more wood-fired grill items, a greater variety of craft beers, and an expanded raw bar. And it all adds up to a dreamy place to gaze into each other’s eyes — more oysters, please?
Fig Café, Glen Ellen
Sondra Bernstein’s Cal-Med restaurant has been a neighborhood gem for nearly two decades now, but an extensive renovation has updated the rustic space into an artsy treasure that feels nearly big city with its stunning handcrafted woodwork, bold geometric metals and eclectic use of minerals, refined ceramic, glass and granite. Much of the work was by local artists, and even the menu board is presented on wood slabs dyed with juice from local Grenache grapes.
The small eatery is constantly busy, so make reservations, especially for weekend brunch. What’s on offer changes with what the local farms produce fresh, but it might be lightly fried housemade mortadella-stuffed olives with anchovy rémoulade, or Mt. Lassen trout in brown butter with sunchokes, preserved lemon and marinated ricotta. And for a real deal, a daily plat du jour dinner brings three luscious courses for $29.
Hana Japanese Restaurant, Rohnert Park
In 2015, owner Ken Tominaga completed an extensive renovation on his wildly popular Japanese eatery, nearly doubling the space. He added a lounge with a low-slung, overstuffed couch, a long, raw wood table, and a raw wood bar set with raw stump stools, to complement the main dining room and sushi bar that shines with seasonal offerings like gnome fish and amberjack.
Now, get ready to eat!
Restaurant Week, March 1-10, 2019
More than 100 restaurants offer fantastic meals at special prices during the eleventh annual Sonoma County Restaurant Week. This is a great time to explore new dining options or enjoy old favorites, and build many more mouthwatering memories.
Find more info about restaurants in Sonoma County.
Written by Sonoma Insider Carey Sweet
