SingleThread 🇺🇸
131 North St., Healdsburg CA · ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Michelin Stars · singlethreadfarms.com
Every once in a while something completely unique comes along. Something or someplace distinctive, special, exclusive. From the moment I walked into SingleThread, I knew it would be one of those places. Having been tipped that there was something extraordinary happening out in Healdsburg, I made plans to visit and see what this hyper-local, farm to table happening was all about. One languid, remarkable late Summer lunch later? I was convinced that I was in one of the finest restaurants anywhere and several meals since then have only served to fix my feeling that this is not only the best restaurant in the United States, but that it could soon be the top table in the world.
SingleThread is an interconnected operation of farm, inn and restaurant located in the Sonoma Valley — and if you want to understand what connects them, look to the onion. Specifically the Japanese negi, a leek-like onion that blooms on Katina Connaughton's farm and appears on Kyle's menu in every season, in every form. It is the only crop they can grow and serve year-round. Its flower is the restaurant's logo — on the menus, the uniforms, the paper lanterns in the guest rooms. It is, quite literally, the single thread. A love letter written in soil and rendered on the plate.
The experience that surrounds it is elegant, vibrant and curated with precision. The dining room is serene, everything about the meal carrying a comfortable, Zen-like quality. Artisanal touches abound — hand thrown pottery, and then this: at one protein course, a box of steak knives arrives at the table. Eight of them, each with the same Japanese blade of the highest quality, but every handle different. The server explains that Kyle takes the team on foraging trips into the surrounding landscape, where each person selects a piece of driftwood. The wood is brought back, turned, cured and stained by a local artisan into something singular. No two alike. Every one a piece of the place. The theme is unmistakably Sonoma but with a profound Japanese sensibility — and in those knife handles, nature, craft, team and table are unified into a single, quiet gesture. This is a kitchen that leaves no detail behind.
Describing the experience of being a guest at SingleThread is a genuine challenge — not because the words don't exist, but because none of them are quite large enough. Hospitality. Warmth. Tranquility. These are accurate but insufficient. What SingleThread creates is something closer to a state of mind. The dining room feels like an extension of the Connaughtons' home — serene, unhurried, suffused with a Zen-like calm that somehow coexists with the electricity of anticipation. One of only 16 three-Michelin-star restaurants in the entire country, it is unique in ways that are both immediately felt and impossible to fully articulate. Impossibly beautiful dishes arrive one after the next, each one elevating and inspiring. You don't just eat here. You are carried somewhere.
On one visit the wine captain appeared with something unexpected — a micro-allocation rosé of Pinot Noir from Bob Cabral, labeled American Girl, Russian River Valley. It arrived in a Zalto Burgundy stem — hand-blown, impossibly delicate — and the wine inside it seemed lit from within. The color of cotton candy. I had no idea what I was about to taste. SingleThread had received twelve bottles by virtue of the friendship between Bob and Kyle, and they were quietly pouring some that day. I'll be honest — I didn't entirely believe him. Twelve bottles. Sure. But I didn't think twice about ordering it. What followed sent me down a rabbit hole that eventually led to Bob Cabral himself, who confirmed he only makes it when conditions are perfectly right — and that to date he'd made it twice. Two bottles remained, both in his refrigerator. One to enjoy. One as a reference, in case he ever makes it again. I was simply fortunate to be in the right place at the right time — and I will never forget that wine.
This is the kind of thing that happens at SingleThread. Unannounced access to producers and products from across the bountiful Sonoma Valley and Sonoma Coast — Japan seen through a California lens, extraordinary things arriving quietly and staying with you long after the meal is over.
This is a singularly California kaiseki that in every way is also a real and true vision of Japan. From the initial plate, which in my mind is the most beautiful presentation of food I have ever seen, to the final sweet courses - Chef Kyle and the Team create and conduct a journey unique in all my experience. On this most recent visit, I had the opportunity to see and share in a vegetarian tasting simultaneous to my own. I can unequivocally say that nothing at all was lost in translation to a plant based meal. From salsify, to mushrooms, lotus root to sesame - all expressions were not only on point but remarkable in their direct and unapologetic flavors. Each dish, each plating from both cards was a harmonious and singular thought. This is a kitchen confident in its language and its mission and it shows. SingleThread is exceptional, striking, it is a tour de force and the meal(s) here will likely shape my feelings and expectations about food for years to come.
SingleThread isn’t attempting to be anything but its best expression of itself, and what an expression it is. A soulful, tranquil and extraordinary vision, a place of harmony and art, a room where the finest cuisine in the world is on display and served by a Chef and Team that want (and succeed) in making you feel at home. I can only offer a single word to share my gratitude and wonder at this remarkable place... Bravo.
