North Bay Woman

20 NORTH BAY WOMAN | F A L L 2 0 1 8 can just savor the scenery, or have some tidbits and wine from the extraordinary multi-page wine list that emphasizes vintages from Sonoma County as well as wines from around the world. Then it's a short elevator ride down to the restaurant's epicenter. An open kitchen dominates the 52-seat street-level dining room that's separated into different areas by soothing panels of thread-based woven screens. Guests can watch the almost measured pace of the non-stop kitchen action, or concentrate on such edible spectacles as the hassun, a beautiful set piece inspired by Zen temple cuisine and that's already waiting for all diners when they sit down. Call it the ultimate amuse bouche. What's on the hassun changes nightly, as does the entire menu. But they are always 3-D still-life paintings, dioramas of nature in their amalgams of soft moss, fl owers and leaves as the backdrop for tiny bowls and plates with up to 10 different tidbits to launch the meal. At my August dinner, the hassun was so intricately beautiful, I felt like I was both in a museum and about to open a present. It contained: fresh cantaloupe with lemon and shiso, braised lotus root, turnip panna cotta and Hokkaido Uni in ponzu sauce, lettuce with braised onion and chicory, Aji yuzu kosho, a raw fi sh from Japan sashimi-style, geoduck clam with yuzu and cucumber, a tiny cured lamb cube with carrot, Kanpachi sashimi with watermelon and rind, Shigoku oyster and wasabi. That alone could have been the meal. Yet this was followed by another 10 dishes that were, each in their own way, a ballet of vegetables, fi sh, fruit or grains. Three of these were dessert courses culminating in another small hassun of four miniature sweets called wagashi. Mine contained an olive oil chocolate ganache egg, walnut treacle cookie, lemon custard and yellow raspberries stuffed with crème fraiche, bringing closure to the meal in the way a well-crafted ending neatly completes a play Diners can choose from three 11-course tasting menus: one called omnivore, with meat, fi sh and vegetables; one with fi sh and vegetables; and a vegetarian/ vegan collation. So detailed is SingleThread on making sure each guest is served the right meal for him or her, that you are contacted before you dine, encouraged to list what you can and cannot or will and will not, eat. Slightly smaller portions of each dish are available if requested. I chose this option and was glad I did. SingleThread is about multiple tastes and textures. I still walked out utterly replete. In retrospect, dining here is other-worldly. From being surrounded by Katina's farm- grown fl owers in Ikebana-style arrangements everywhere you look, to the ever-changing Japanese-style pottery, fl atware — wood, stone, bone, metal — and ultra-modern sleek glassware in your meal service, to the wall of womb-like Japanese earthenware SingleThread con't on page 62> At SingleThread, each diner sits down to an 11-course Kaiseki feast with a hassun awaiting at every table. Other-worldly meals are presented as still lifes on small plates of seasonal vegetables, meats, herbs and seafood. – Photos of early winter Sonoma fare and summer vegetables by Eric Wolfi nger, bottom photo by Leslie Harlib

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