Wine Country Inns With Exceptional Dining

Photo Credit: Eric Wolfinger

That also grow their own produce

BY: VIRGINIA MILLER

There’s no shortage of award-winning restaurants dotting Wine Country—and for decades, it’s standard for many to source from their own garden. These three destination-worthy Mendocino and Sonoma County hotels take that combination to world-class levels.

Three Michelin-starred, Worlds 50 Best Restaurants’ SingleThread is one of the most exquisite restaurants anywhere. This ultimate farm-restaurant partnership was opened by husband-and-wife team Kyle and Katina Connaughton in 2016. Kyle was chef at three Michelin restaurants and Katina worked on farms in both Japan and England before returning home to California to launch their farm, restaurant, and inn.

Photo Credit: Sally Egan

SingleThread’s 5-room inn is just off Healdsburg’s town square, outfitted with luxury down to Aesop soaps, Japanese glassware, and sophisticated, in-room coffee and tea equipment. Besides one of the world’s best restaurants downstairs, other unparalleled dining opportunities include in-room snacks, like Japan-worthy chilled soba noodles or decadent breakfast spreads paying tribute to Japan, Sonoma, or England (calling on Kyle’s years at The Fat Duck).

Photo Credit: Copyright Virginia Miller

In-room donabe pot service especially delights, utilizing their Japanese clay pot collection, with vegetable-tofu and American Waygu — shabu shabu or pork meatball versions. It’s hard to resist the Hokkaido rendition, featuring local seafood, seaweed, and vegetables from their garden and served in the style of Japan’s northern island where the Connaughtons lived. Begin with appetizers in-room or in the rooftop garden, then return to your room for pots and sides. The ultimate extravagance? Dine in pajamas and house Sasawashi slippers.

Photo Credit: Eric Wolfinger

Heading north, Mendocino County moves from Anderson Valley’s farmland and vineyards to miles of redwood forests before hitting the rocky Mendocino Coast, where towering redwoods meet ocean waves crashing below. Elk’s sleepy stretch is home to Harbor House Inn, opened 2018 in a historic 1916 house. The restaurant earned a Michelin star in less than a year, among accolades like Food & Wine’s top 10 US chefs for chef Matthew Kammerer, who cooked in acclaimed kitchens like Tokyo’s RyuGin and Saison in San Francisco. His girlfriend, Amanda Nemec, is the inn’s gracious GM. The inn and cottages offer decks and ocean views, while the restaurant has only gotten better during its first year, enhanced by breathtaking views and the garden growing on cliffs leading down to the crashing sea. Mendocino seaweed, shellfish, and coastal glories dominate tasting menus, as do local wines and exceptional, grass-fed beef from 11 yearing cows at a nearby ranch.

Photo Credit: Harbor House Inn

Back in Anderson Valley, quirky, charming Boonville Hotel recently gained celebrated chef Perry Hoffman, who returns to his roots having grown up in laidback Boonville where members of his extended family have long run the hotel and nearby businesses. Whether staying in the main house or cottages, lush gardens draw guests in for a soothing stroll or to sit with a glass of wine. Hoffman grows every manner of produce and herbs used in his daily changing menus.

Photo Credit: Harbor House Inn

Farm-to-table exploded in the Bay Area five decades ago, alive and well in these ultimate overnight retreats.

Photo Credit: Brendan McGuigan