Among the thousands of people who lost everything in the 2017 Tubbs Fire, Josh and Regina Silvers were exceptionally lucky. And they don’t take their good fortune for granted.
The couple was on the verge of moving into an old house they owned in the Mark West Springs area north of Santa Rosa when one of the most ferocious wildfires in California history—fueled by gale-force winds—raced over the Mayacamas from Calistoga, destroying more than 5,000 structures, including their house. A tenant who had been living there had all but moved out, so it was nearly empty and unoccupied.
“The house completely burned down. The only thing left was a little bit of chimney. We couldn’t even find the well,” Josh says. “We had to drill a new one, which actually worked out better for us.”
Even the permitting process went smoothly, relatively speaking, and they were able to move into their new home within 18 months.
The Silvers are inveterate collectors and stewards of treasured family art and heirlooms. The fact the fire happened during that in-between time spared them the heartache of losing irreplaceable keepsakes that now occupy every nook and cranny. Working with the local design team of Tracey and Winfield Klein, the new house they built on the footprint of the aging 1962 rancher that had been in desperate need of a facelift, keenly reflects their food- and family-centric life.
“It’s more for living than showing,” Josh says of the home. “If you’re going to have a house, you should live in it.”
The heart of the house is the kitchen, designed for duty, where Josh, a semi-retired chef, can continue to play. The house may have only two bedrooms, but it has three kitchens—one inside and two outside—each equipped with time-tested tools of the trade rather than the latest culinary gadgetry. His pride and joy is a 9-foot-long rack lined with well-used knives—including his own first professional knife and the knife his father used in cooking school. All hang within easy reach of the high-performance analog Blue Star six-burner range, outfitted with two ovens, a grill, and a griddle.
Open shelving next to the stove keeps frequently used vinegars, oils, spices, flour, sugar, and rice within easy reach. Instead of a single sink in the middle of the island, he has two—a prep sink by the refrigerator and a clean-up sink on the opposite end of the island near the dishwasher. They have a pot filler faucet by the stove and another sink in a large walk-in pantry fully stocked with serving platters and trays and staples, with back-ups of everything so Silvers never has to run to the store for a last minute condiment.
The thoughtful design reflects the influence of his father, Don Silvers, a chef and kitchen designer for stars such as Barbra Streisand, who wrote “The Complete Guide to Kitchen Design with Cooks in Mind.” The elder Silvers’ copper pot collection has an honored place in his son’s home kitchen.
“He approached it from a chef’s point of view,” Josh says. “Everything has to work. And that’s what we’ve done.”
The house has the same welcoming vibe as Jackson’s Bar and Oven, a casual, family-friendly hangout offering leveled-up comfort food that the Silverses have run in historic Railroad Square for 16 years. It is named for son Jackson, now 21, who lives with his folks and loves cars as much as his dad loves cooking.
“Cooking is my favorite thing to do,” says Josh, who moved to Santa Rosa and opened his first restaurant, the former Syrah Bistro, in 1999. Cashing out all their savings, including a fund that Regina, a paralegal, was saving for law school, they set their sights on opening an upscale Wine Country restaurant that would allow them to live near Josh’s uncle Steve Maass, founder of Oliver’s Markets. They splash-landed on the cover of Wine Spectator and nearly 30 years later are respected fixtures in the Sonoma County food scene.
The Silverses prefer wine drawn from a temperature-controlled wine closet. But for guests who prefer a cocktail or a shot of whiskey, they have a vibrant array of bottles and barware on a buffet, inventory they bought from the old Jack & Tony’s in Railroad Square when it closed a few years ago and from the former K&L Bistro.
Food is the love language spoken in this home. The Silverses throw an annual Halloween bash, host the extended family at Christmas, and hold a New Year’s Eve party and brunch for friends in the martial arts community. The couple met at a martial arts class, and Josh is accomplished in jujitsu, aikido, and shinkendo performed with swords.
Between holidays there are numerous gatherings of friends. There is always a place at the 9-foot-long, 3-inch-thick table overlooking the open kitchen for Jackson’s buddies. “Eating at the dinner table is really important to us,” says Josh. “We never watch TV while we’re eating. We play music. “
The table was hand-hewn from reclaimed redwood by Brandon Jennings, the husband of Jackson’s Bar and Oven’s pastry chef, who also crafted the open shelving in the kitchen and bookshelves in the living room.
“We have 3,000 cookbooks, no joke. They were in boxes in my garage on Tupelo (where they were living at the time of the fire) waiting to move over here when the house burned down,” says Regina. The collection includes prized first editions and signed copies from luminaries like Julia Child, vintage editions of the “The Boston Cooking School,” and cult favorites like “bad-boy” chef Marco Pierre White’s “White Heat,” as well as books that belonged to Josh’s father.
The rest of the home is filled with what Josh calls “love stuff,” like an entire wall of family pictures, his mother’s recipe box, random heirlooms, and artwork galore, including his grandfather’s acid etching prints and three-dimensional pieces made by his mother, Monica Maass, who worked in wood and papier-mâché.
“I love the feeling of being surrounded by family stuff,” Josh explains, “and art has always been really important in my family.”
The couple spend a lot of time outdoors and have made it an integral part of their living space with a pool, a cozy firepit where they can gather with a whiskey or glass of wine after a swim, a koi pond faithfully guarded by their dog, Rocco, and open areas for outdoor games like pétanque, cornhole, and a giant Jenga set. Herbs, citrus fruits, and raised beds of homegrown peppers and tomatoes planted throughout the yard offer fresh ingredients for the plucking.
Josh gave as much attention to his outdoor kitchens as the one indoors. The large, lighted Syrah sign that once beckoned diners to the Fifth Street bistro now greets friends bellying up to the counter at his big outdoor kitchen, with a full-sized refrigerator stocked with beer, cold drinks, ice creams, and homemade cooking stocks. He has about every device imaginable for outdoor cooking, from a paella burner to a Big Green Egg kamado grill and smoker. His prized possession is an American Muscle Grill, designed after a 1960 Ford Shelby muscle car, with a rotisserie, griddle, and a 60,000 BTU double burner where he makes everything from old-fashioned southern boils to roasted meats, including an entire pig.
The other kitchen near the deck and koi pond offers a quieter and more intimate space with a smaller grill and pizza oven.
While many chefs travel the world in search of gastronomic adventures, the Silverses say they have everything they need to live the good life at home.
“It’s resort-like,” Josh says of the backyard, outfitted with everything he, Regina, and Jackson find fun and relaxing, including a sauna Josh inherited from his mom. “We don’t travel all that much, but we don’t feel we’re missing a whole lot because we have this great space to hang out in. People come from all over the world to hang out in Sonoma County and we’re so fortunate we can do that without ever leaving.”
