Little Saint is doing the most —by way of plant-based dishes
Yes, it’s a vegan restaurant. And from the dynamic team behind three-Michelin-starred, The World’s 50 Best’s SingleThread, no less. Open on Earth Day, April 22, 2002, in Healdsburg’s former SHED, Little Saint’s massive 10,000-square-foot space houses an all-day cafe, bar, wine and gourmet foods shop, full-on restaurant and art gallery with live music — and reasonable $70 tasting menus at night (plus optional wine pairings $40) or a la carte dishes. Famed designer Ken Fulk refreshed the interior, partnering with local artisans, warming the space up with handmade tiles, vibrant fabrics and local art.
This “plant-based” restaurant is helmed by Kyle and Katina Connaughton: Kyle, SingleThread chef who previously helmed three Michelin restaurants in England and Japan, and wife Katina, farmer extraordinaire, who farmed in Japan, now in Wine Country with their 24-acre SingleThread farm and newer five-acre Little Saint farm. They’ve teamed with Bryan Oliver, who was chef at SHED under chef Perry Hoffman (who runs the special Boonville Hotel in Mendocino County), and is now Little Saint’s chef de cuisine.
None of the chefs are vegan, but often cook so, especially given our environmental realities and future. Given the glories of NorCal produce alone, there is no end of delicious plant-forward possibilities, then you factor in Katina’s farms, growing rare and wide-ranging produce, and you see how it can easily star. Katina and team focus on healthy soil at the farms, while Kyle and Oliver’s playful experimentation with the vast range in plants, the huge space is now a temple to all things vegetables and fruit… but it’s not fussy.
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In fact, on a recent Thursday night, my husband Dan, The Renaissance Man, and I found the live music atmospheric but a bit loud. Still, it kept things convivial, while an enclosed back patio and side deck where we sat was removed enough, celebrating the warm summer night, while still part of the buzz inside (here, the music stands strong, but didn’t overpower conversation).
Little Saint is elevated but utterly casual, the plating striking, the service sincere, though we experienced some long gaps between courses at dinner. Most importantly, the Connaughtons add to the global conversation on what is possible sans animals, a crucial conversation in sustainability and longevity, without sacrificing artful deliciousness.
Don’t think of it as a vegan restaurant. It’s a restaurant for all, one that will fill you up and leave you satiated, showcasing the immense bounty of North America’s key growing belt: California, which feeds the nation, growing over half its produce.
When a slew of mini-plates arrive with dips, perfect veggies and lavash flatbread gently dusted in olive oil and shichimi togarashi, it looks and tastes like pure California, with everything from SingleThread and Little Saint farms. We dug into brine-pickled carrots dusted in wild fennel pollen, Meyer lemon and bay laurel-marinated olives, with Katrina cucumbers, tokyo turnips, broccolini and other crudite to scoop up the dips. Vibrant bread+butter pickled zucchini and onions in mustard seeds was my favorite of these little banchan-esque bites, an explosion of flavor.
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Then, the dips: split pea hummus accented with spicy zhoug, pumpkin seed dip in chile oil, cultured cashew “cream” dotted with charred spring onions and a dip special of carrot tahini in black sesame oil. One could make a meal of the dips, lavash and veggies alone and leave happy. It’s an ideal meal at the bar or counter top with a glass of wine or cocktails.
We moved into arguably my favorite dish of the whole meal, showcasing a fruit California grows for the entire U.S.: strawberries. These are Albion strawberries in gazpacho form, the cool, pink soup teeming with pickled green strawberries, a whisper of jalapeno, lavender olive oil, almond cream and wildly aromatic lavender buds. It tastes like California summer in all its radiance, cooling the dry heat with sweet, tart, aromatic goodness.
Ordering the tasting menu with supplemental dishes (way too much food, but the only way to try more), a tasting menu fennel-crusted, soy-based cheeseball was a quintessential drink snack marked by apricot fermented chile jam and flaky house biscuits/crackers that crumbled easily but tasted fab.
Even more gratifying were toasted slices of seeded levain bread — made by Quail & Condor bakery down the street — spread with a vibrant orange zucchini “‘nduja.” No, this isn’t spreadable pork sausage, but does exhibit those umami joys with a mixture of zucchini, miso, paprika, cayenne, sundried tomatoes and shio koji yeast. It’s not meaty but it is layered with umami depth. Rounds of squash and summer flame peach “ceviche,” crimini mushroom carpaccio and a cucumber kohlrabi salad (in pistachios, nam prik sauce, cilantro) all kick in with lively, summery lightness.
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But heavy and hearty isn’t wanting here. Japanese eggplant is filling, its starchy richness contrasted with red cabbage, black puffed rice and purslane (a succulent) in umami-rich XO sauce, textural with tahini. The other hearty standout was tasting menu herb spaetzle, more chewy and soft than traditional German spaetzle, almost dissolving in the mouth. Served in a hot, mini-cast iron skillet with oven roasted with tomatoes and citrus, it’s dusted in sumac breadcrumbs and marigold flowers. While I preferred this to the equally filling entree of roasted Zephyr squash in sweet corn, chickpeas, red harissa paste, toasted almonds and bronzed fennel, both were a “lesson” in contrasts and flavorful, rich, veggie dishes.
There was no room for dessert, but that didn’t keep us from nearly finishing a bowl of stone fruit (apricots, plums, nectarines) at their peak, sheer perfection over coconut mousse, sunflower-sesame dukkah and berries. Yet again, California summer at its best. A more common chocolate hazelnut torte in miso caramel was amped up compared to other versions I’ve had, thanks to the right amount of salt and a super nutty crust. It worked well the next morning with espresso.
On the drink side, expect plenty of local plus a few carefully selected international wines, with sections featuring some of California’s very best underrated wine regions like Santa Cruz Mountains, as well as non-alcoholic wines from Leitz in Germany. Unfortunately, Little Saint’s Russian River Brewing Co. collaboration Pilsner — brewed just 7 miles down the 101 in Windsor — was out the night we dined, but reflects the few but thoughtful drink selections in every category from beer to cider.
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Cocktails include shaken and stirred sections, with some of the standouts being beautiful non-alcoholic cocktails, like a soft but vibrant M.E.T. Gala (pistachio, rose, maca/Peruvian ginseng, hibiscus, blood orange, sumac, salt), or bold Beet the Heat (beets, cinnamon, plum vinegar, sparkling water, All the Bitter non-alcoholic bitters), which gains body and character from that vinegar shrub.
In “alcohol included” cocktails, The Green Initiative (Nadar Climate Positive gin, Sauvignon Blanc, Midori, holy basil, Green Chartreuse, sparkling water) was a bit of a disappointment, playing too soft and sweet, instead of the herbaceous brightness I was hoping for given the ingredients. Whey Out There was more integrated and interesting, a cocktail of bourbon, scotch and Fernet that wasn’t spirituous, but rather, tiki-esque. It’s served tall on crushed ice, lush with pistachio whey, lemon, bitters and mint, the Fernet unfolding in intriguing whispers of bitter herbs and mintiness. Armonia feels like it belongs in the family of classic sherry/vermouth cocktails (like the Adons) with its deft blend of Oloroso sherry and Salers Gentiane bitter aperitif, given nutty depth from 123 Organic Reposado Tequila, with shio koji misted on top.
A paper bag stamped with “Little Saint” holding two peaches was our take-home treat. These two utterly perfect peaches felt like a legendary Chez Panisse moment with Alice Waters’ impeccable, locally foraged produce. But in this case, the peaches are grown in the restaurant’s own farms, needing no accents, adjustments or manipulation. But across the menu, the chefs’ craft and technique highlights, rather than bogs down, the purity of the ingredients, making a strong case that it is possible even us meat, seafood and dairy eaters will not miss any of the above.
// 25 North Street, Healdsburg; www.littlesainthealdsburg.com