Healdsburg’s Little Saint has been named one of The New York Times’ 50 favorite restaurants of 2022. The plant-based restaurant, operated by Kyle and Katina Connaughton of Michelin-starred Single Thread, opened in April.

“The preparations revel in the produce, rather than just ratcheting up the umami in a quest to conjure animal flavors,” wrote Brian Gallagher, describing the cuisine of the recently opened restaurant for The New York Times’ “The Restaurant List 2022: 50 places in America we’re most excited about right now,” which was published online Sept. 19.

The Healdsburg restaurant, cafe and bar are stocked daily from the 24-acre Single Thread Farm and the 5-acre Little Saint Farm that offer fresh produce year round.

“It may seem like a cheat to open a plant-based restaurant in the Sonoma Valley’s cradle of organic abundance. But it would almost be a shame not to open one, if you had not only a 24-acre farm nearby but also the cooking brain trust of Single Thread,” Gallagher said.

Chilled strawberry borscht, smashed cucumbers with XO sauce and a chocolate tart made with a coconut cream crust were among the dishes highlighted by The Times. Locally, the restaurant has garnered praise for its innovative meat- and dairy-free menu.

“We are incredibly proud of the recognition for the hard work of the team at Little Saint that is so passionate about not only our food and hospitality but the mission to create something new and different within the community,” said Chef Kyle Connaughton.

Chef de Cuisine Brian Oliver and the Little Saint staff spent months before the restaurant’s opening doing extensive research and development on plant-based ingredients and have made limiting food waste part of their ethos. For example, water from cooked chickpeas is used as a plant-based emulsifier for cocktails or egg-white replacement.

The restaurant and cafe are part of a collaboration between the Connaughtons; designer Ken Fulk; philanthropist Jeff Ubben and his wife, animal activist Laurie Ubben; and program director Jenny Hess.

The 10,000-square-foot building, which formerly housed Healdsburg SHED, also offers live music, art and events, a market, a wine cellar and a bakery.

In the Bay Area, San Francisco’s Abacá (Filipino cuisine) and San Ho Won (Korean barbecue) also were recognized by the newspaper.

Little Saint, 25 North St., Healdsburg, 707-433-8207, littlesainthealdsburg.com

In late August, Mitote Food Park moved to its permanent location on Sebastopol Road. Now, it has an enclosed dining square flanked by a changing lineup of food trucks and vendors.

A small shipping container is home to the new Mitote cocktail bar that sells wine, beer, mezcal and tequila cocktails like La Coqueta (The Flirt), with tequila-hibiscus-strawberry syrup and blood-orange liqueur.

We also loved the La Charla, with smoky mezcal, pineapple, cucumber, habanero peppers and lemon juice; as well as the spicy La Leyenda (The Legend), with mezcal and mole syrup. Simple margaritas are $10, and specialty cocktails are $12 to $14.

Don’t miss the churro from La Churroteka, where you can get crispy cinnamon-sugar sticks filled with chocolate, condensed milk or caramel (after 4:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday).

A pre-ticketed mezcal tasting and food pairing event, Sabores y Saberes de Mexico, will take place 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18, at the park. Tickets are $50, available at eventbrite.com.

Geneva Melby and Ryan Miller, both alums of Sebastopol restaurants Khom Loi and Ramen Gaijin, will open The Redwood, an all-day wine bar and kitchen at the former Ginger Thai space in Sebastopol.

The Redwood will focus on natural wines, with small bites and wine tasting during the day and a full restaurant menu and wine at night, according to Melby. The announcement of a brick-and-mortar location comes after the pair held dining pop-ups for more than 18 months at Khom Loi.

“When we moved (to Sonoma County), we started meeting all of these natural winemakers, joining this community but realizing that we had to go to SF or Oakland to buy or even have a glass of these natural wines in person,” Melby said. Though natural wines have become more common at places like Miracle Plum, Scribe and Pax, Melby said there’s still plenty of room for growth.

“We just saw that niche and wanted to fill it,” she said.

The field of natural wines, sometimes called low-intervention wines, is expanding. These wines are typically made from grapes grown in small vineyards, processed without additives such as sulfur and fermented with native yeasts. Without chemical manipulation or filtering, the wines take on particular flavors and variations from their growing environment.

The Redwood primarily will sell natural wines from California, Oregon and Washington. A few local natural wine producers they’ll include are Two Shepherds, Jolie Laide and Pax.

“It hearkens back to how wine was made for millennia. People think these wines are going to be funky or flawed, but we want to put these wines in front of people,” said Miller, who will head the wine program at The Redwood.

Most small-production natural wineries are labors of love run by vineyard owners or winemakers, and they don’t have tasting rooms, according to Melby. The Redwood will stock 10 to 15 wines to sell by the glass and eventually include more than 100 wines for purchase.

The restaurant menu will change with the seasons, with plenty of shared plates and Mediterranean flavor, but Melby also leans heavily on cuisines from around the world.

“We make what we like to eat,” she said. That includes cheeses, charcuterie and seafood.

“It has to be food we feel pairs well with the wine,” she said. “We’re defined by the seasonal bounty and whatever we’re most excited about at the time.”

More details about The Redwood and upcoming pop-up events are at theredwoodwine.com.