SingleThread
A one-of-a-kind tasting menu in wine country.
GO HERE: Well, let’s be honest, who would spend a cool grand per couple to go here? (That’s $293/person for the tasting menu, plus $186 and up/person for wine pairings.) You’ve got your globe-trotting list keepers checking off every restaurant likely to top the Michelin charts. You’ve got your Silicon Valley money and your Napa Valley tourists. And then you’ve got the rest of us: food obsessives who’ve been following the progress of chef Kyle Connaughton and his farmer wife, Katina, for years, and have saved up to spend a very special birthday or anniversary at their 2016-opened Healdsburg food temple. All these guests expect flawless service, the finest hyperseasonal ingredients in the world, and a chef with a singular vision. That’s what you go to SingleThread for.
ORDER THE: 11-course tasting menu—that’s the only option. The meal will likely start with a tableau of little bites that let you know exactly where you are and what moment of the growing season it is (think: first peas of the season, local oysters and other amuse-bouches), then continue into a progression of lovingly coddled vegetables from Katina’s farm and the freshest raw kampachi, gently smoked steelhead trout, buttery black cod, and more.
THE VIBE IS: thoughtful, quiet, and serious. SingleThread is not about blowing your mind with tricks and gimmicks; it’s about treating ingredients with integrity and serving them with finesse.
STAY FOR BREAKFAST: The best part of splurging for one of the luxurious rooms at the inn upstairs isn’t the enormous, Japanese-style soaking tub or the fridge stocked with fresh juices and rare beers; it’s the extraordinary breakfast on the rooftop terrace. The traditional Japanese breakfast (complete with donabe-cooked rice, miso soup, and grilled trout) might be as memorable as the dinner the night before.
GETTING IN: to the restaurant hasn’t become impossible—yet. Reservations are available in the form of tickets via Tock. Rooms at the inn book up quickly in the high season; if you can’t score one, try the Healdsburg Inn just a couple blocks away.
