Little Saint during Friday’s grand opening in downtown Healdsburg on April 22, 2022. (Chad Surmick / The Press Democrat)
Little Saint in Healdsburg, which opened Friday, features an international bounty of wines from 13 countries — including Greece, Croatia, Lebanon, France and South Africa. The 300-bottle list also has an impressive selection of exceptional wines made in Sonoma County.
For Wine Director Alexandria Sarovich, who joined Little Saint’s sister restaurant, Single Thread, as a sommelier three years ago, creating the wine program at the highly anticipated new restaurant was an exercise in curiosity and intuition. With a strong focus on sustainably produced wines and those made by women and people of color, the wines at Little Saint’s restaurant, bar and wine shop illustrate Sarovich’s interest in supporting winemakers from underrepresented communities.
“When choosing a wine, we choose what feels right,” she said. “I hadn’t tasted many BIPOC wines prior to starting this program, but that’s what I’m most curious about. It just feels right to look at these wines with an open mind.”
Located in the 10,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by SHED Modern Grange, Little Saint is a restaurant, cafe, wine shop and event space from Single Thread’s Kyle and Katina Connaughton, philanthropist Jeff Ubben, animal activist Laurie Ubben and designer Ken Fulk.
Approximately 80% of the wines available in the restaurant will be sold in the wine shop, with the remaining 20% reserved for restaurant guests only. Local winemakers will offer complimentary wine tastings to the public every other Tuesday, beginning with Tom Darling of Darling Wines on May 3.
On other days, guests can drop by the tasting area and buy a white, red or skin-contact wine by the glass from a list that is updated weekly.
“I want people to feel like they can come in on a regular basis and enjoy an affordable glass or bottle of wine, whether it’s a $13 bottle of cava or $40 bottle of nebbiolo,” Sarovich said. “I don’t want the space to feel like it’s reserved just for special occasions because of the price.”
In the future, Little Saint expects to host wine release parties, wine dinners and other special events.
Leslie Schulz of Little Saint prepares a to-go order in downtown Healdsburg on April 22, 2022. (Chad Surmick/The Press Democrat)
The massive industrial-style space that once housed SHED Modern Grange in downtown Healdsburg opened Friday as Little Saint, a restaurant, cafe, bar and retail space from the owners of three-Michelin-starred Single Thread restaurant.
The much-anticipated opening comes four years after SHED closed in 2018, leaving the prime 10,000-square-foot space just off busy Healdsburg Avenue empty. Since it opened in 2013, SHED had been a popular central venue for an increasingly high-end Healdsburg dining scene.
On Friday, locals entered Little Saint unsure of what to expect and with faces registering a combination of recognition and surprise. Everything and nothing is different as you walk in. The layout of the cafe, coffee bar, mercantile and food cases have changed little since SHED closed, but there’s a new warmth with cozy banquettes, floor-to-ceiling drapes hung with modern art and double the seating. The 25 North St. location is welcoming in a way that builds on SHED’s original vision, but with the skilled hospitality and of-the-moment cuisine of Single Thread.
Plates from Little Saint in Healdsburg. (Emma K. Morris)
A flag graces the exterior of Little Saint during Friday’s grand opening in downtown Healdsburg on April 22, 2022. (Chad Surmick / The Press Democrat)
Behind the project are Kyle and Katina Connaughton of the upscale Single Thread, designer Ken Fulk of San Francisco nonprofit Saint Joseph’s Arts Foundation, philanthropist Jeff Ubben and his wife, animal activist Laurie Ubben, and Program Director Jenny Hess. In addition to its food offerings, the expansive Healdsburg space will also be used as community hub for conversations with thought leaders, live music performances and events.
“This is a community gathering place that’s been missing for a few years,” said Little Saint General Manager Akeel Shah, most recently of Single Thread. “That’s what SHED was all about, and it’s exciting to bring this back.
“Immediately, when we told the community that we were opening our doors, it started a spark,” Shah said.
Little Saint both embraces and expands on the ideals of SHED founders Doug Lipton and Cindy Daniel, who took a leap of faith by self-funding the design and build of a “modern grange” in 2013. Considered groundbreaking at the time, their project aimed to celebrate the farms, wines, makers, artists and thought leaders of Sonoma County in a buzzy modern space.
When it closed at the end of 2018, the former SHED lay fallow, with ongoing rumors of purchase. When the Ubbens bought the building in 2020, they vowed to continue the SHED legacy.
Single Thread’s management arm, Vertice Hospitality Management, operates the food and wine components of the space. Chef de Cuisine Bryan Oliver will make a return to the kitchen, where he once worked with executive chef Perry Hoffman when SHED was in operation.
The restaurant’s plant-forward cafe and restaurant menus pay homage to 30 acres of Alexander Valley farmland: the 5-acre Little Saint Farm and the Connaughtons’ 25-acre Single Thread Farm.
The food, said Kyle Connaughton, showcases the micro-seasonal produce of the farms, a reflection of what’s happening today in Sonoma County. Restaurant dishes include lavash with togarashi, purple haze carrots with crunch rice and XO sauce, cauliflower biryani and rice pudding for dessert.
The cafe, open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., sells a variety of salads, bowls and desserts with dishes such as beets in coconut yogurt, potato salad with egg-less mayonnaise and orzo with asparagus and preserved lemons.
Fulk’s design elements include a cozy collection of upcycled vintage and custom pieces by local artisans. The curated art collection at Little Saint showcases Ken and Laurie Ubbens’ private collection as well as pieces from California expressionist artists Jack Freeman and Gerald Wasserma. Installations will change frequently.
Co-owner Laurie Ubben said that the timing for opening was perfect, after years of lockdown and social distancing. The result has far surpassed what she expected when the project began.
“How we engage with our surroundings is the future of food. Having connection to where things come from is important. In some small way, having everything here under one roof is representative of that,” she said.
Allah-Las, ESG, Turnover, W.I.T.C.H., Damien Jurado, La Luz and Woods are among the more than three dozen music acts lined up to play June 10-11 at the Huichica Music Festival at the Gundlach Bundschu Winery in Sonoma.
Two-day general admission passes go on sale at huichica.com at $295 each at 10 a.m. Friday, with single-day tickets to follow later. Children under 12 are free. A portion of the proceeds from Huichica will benefit the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation.
Presented in partnership between sixth-generation vintner Jeff Bundschu and Bay Area promoter and curator FolkYEAH Presents, the all-ages, family-friendly music festival takes place throughout Gundlach Bundschu’s winery estate in Sonoma, including its historic barn and outdoor amphitheater.
The Huichica 2022 lineup includes: Allah-Las, ESG, Turnover, W.I.T.C.H., Woods, La Luz, Damien Jurado, Midlake, Tamaryn, Avey Tare, Isobel Campbell, Bobby Oroza, Wand, Lilys, The Altons, Mega Bog, Mary Lattimore, Tropa Magica, Mystic Chords Of Memory, Dummy, Starcrawler, Tapers Choice, Spaceface, Jess Williamson, Oog Bogo, Brigid Dawson, Frank Locrasto, Thumpasuraus, Light Fantastic, Oliver Ray, Sylvie, Uni Boys, Madeline Kenney, The Shacks, Nico Georis, Matt Baldwin and Companion. The lineup may be subject to change.
Founded in 2009 by Jeff Bundschu, president of Gundlach Bundschu, and musician Eric D. Johnson, the festival joined forces with famed Northern California concert promoter and curator FolkYEAH in 2010.
“We created Huichica because we believe that music and wine is best shared in intimate and epic settings with our community, family (and) friends,” Bundschu said in a statement.
The festival was not held in 2020 due to coronavirus concerns.
“After a couple of tough years for live events and the music industry, it means the world to us to present this fun and diverse music experience at the oldest family-owned winery in California — it’s always one of my favorite music and family weekends of the year,” said Britt Govea, founder of FolkYEAH Presents, in a press release.
Food and beverages will be available for purchase from the winery and local food purveyors.
The Huichica Music Festival will comply with any laws and mandates recommended by the county and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For more information on attending Huichica or to buy tickets, visit huichica.com or connect through social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts. This article was originally published in The Press Democrat.
The Western Burger featuring onion rings, cheddar cheese, applewood bacon, and barbecue sauce at the new Carmen’s Burger Bar location at 619 4th St in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, August 21, 2019. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat)
Burgers don’t have to be fancy to be incredible. And while we wouldn’t turn down a patty smothered with foie gras or brie, we’re usually perfectly content with some nice ground beef, American cheese and lettuce. Maybe a pickle if you want to get fancy. That’s precisely what we’ve found in Santa Rosa — terrific burgers that keep it simple (mostly) with only the best stuff between their buns.
Did we miss one of your favorites? Let us know in the comments below.
Chuck/brisket blend, house-smoked bacon, crispy onion rings, American cheddar, garlic chili aioli and Kansas City BBQ sauce on a brioche bun from Lunch Box. (Courtesy of Lunch Box)
Lunch Box, a semi-frequent pop-up burger grill at Henhouse Brewing, Shady Oak and Bacchus Landing, has taken over the former East West Cafe spot in Sebastopol as a brick-and-mortar home.
Owner Derek Harn has been renovating the space over the last few weeks with plans for about 50 seats, including a chef’s counter with five bar seats facing the open kitchen. The menu will feature locally sourced ingredients, craft burgers, sandwiches, fries and salads. They’ll also prepare much of their own food in-house including bacon, special sauce and French fries and will cure their own pastrami and grind their own meat.
Lunch Box burgers are the kind of messy, smushy, everything-good-about-beef burgers paired with “dirty fries,” a pile of crispy fries, chevre ranch dressing, bacon, green onion, roasted garlic and pepperoncini. You’ll need a handful of napkins and a stout appetite.
Lunch Box had planned to be part of the forthcoming Livery on Main food hall but the owners decided to open the larger space instead. No word yet on an opening date, but you can follow their progress at lunchboxsonomacounty.com.
Speaking of pop-ups: Sangsan, a pop-up from chefs Ploypailin “Ploy” Sakornsin and Jeremy Kuo (both alums of the Michelin-starred SingleThread), is Thai and Korean cuisine like you’ve never tried.
After hosting dinners at Lioco winery and special take-out dinners at Quail & Condor, now they’re dishing up shrimp patties with plum sauce, rich shrimp and pork peanut sauce with rice cakes, grilled turmeric chicken thighs with tamarind sauce and a sweet-sour cold Thai pork salad on Saturday and Sunday nights at the Miracle Plum Kitchen in Santa Rosa (the menu changes and you need to order ahead, to get a pick-up time).
On Tuesdays through May 24, find them at Lo & Behold in Healdsburg, 214 Healdsburg Ave. Find details and ordering info at sangsanhealdsburg.com.
Hungarian pancake with walnut cream at Tisza Bistro in Windsor. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)
Chef Krisztian Karkus of the former Tisza Bistro in Windsor is planning a second act, to open sometime this year, at the one-time location of Singletree diner in Healdsburg.
Karkus closed Tisza, his Eastern European restaurant, in August 2020 after a three-year stint complicated by multiple fires including the 2017 wildfires that closed the restaurant just days after it opened.
When I first met Karkus, he was trying to feed wildfire evacuees, cooking with a waffle iron he bought a Kohl’s. Since then, Karkus has been popping up at the Windsor Certified Farmers Market serving schnitzel and holding over his grateful fans. Rumor has it Karkus may be making his own beer at his new location, also to be named Tisza Bistro.
Singletree Cafe closed in February after more than 20 years in business. It arrived in Healdsburg long before the many high-end restaurants now in the area created the current Beverly Hills vibe. A major struggle for Singletree, at 165 Healdsburg Ave., was ongoing construction of the Mill District just across the street. Ongoing road closures made it difficult to turn left into the restaurant’s parking lot.
The Garagiste Festival returns to the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Hall on April 30, with wines from more than 40 small-production, commercial wineries. (The Garagiste Festival)
Depending on which winemaker you ask, 1,500 cases of wine may seem like a lot — or a little. For the major wineries that make upward of 500,000 cases per year, it’s merely a drop in the wine barrel.
For others, like winemaker Bart Hansen, 1,500 cases is more than double what he makes. That’s why his wines are perfect for the upcoming Garagiste Festival on April 30 at the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Hall.
Launched in Paso Robles in 2011, with satellite events in Sonoma County since 2018, the Garagiste Festival invites winemakers who produce 1,500 cases of wine or fewer per year to share their wines with consumers at the one-day event. Hansen, who previously made medium- to large-production wines for Kenwood Vineyards and Benziger Family Winery, now makes just 625 cases under his own label, Dane Cellars.
“When you work at a large winery, you understand the importance of producing a consistent product for consumers every year,” Hansen said. “You’re always looking at previous vintages to see where you need to go. With small-production wines, I can fully embrace the diversity of each vintage and make the wines I truly want to make.”
Coined in Bordeaux, France, in the early 1990s, the term garagiste was given to rebellious winemakers who were fed up with the region’s strict, centuries-old rules for winemaking. Rather than adhere to tradition, these adventurous men and women made small lots of uncharacteristically robust wines in garages, warehouses and anywhere else they wanted. Threatened by this novel way of making wine, the traditionalists called these turncoat winemakers garagistes. While the term was intended to insult, it was eventually a badge of honor to those who took pride in going rogue.
The Garagiste Festival was inspired by the pluck of these independent French winemakers and their determination to forge a new, creative path. While American winemakers don’t face the same stylistic limitations many French winemakers do, they do share the burden of needing a cash flow.
(Perri Jaye Vineyards)
Winemaker Perri Haughwout, who produces about 100 cases of wine for her micro-winery, Perri Jaye Vineyards, funds the small label by selling the pinot noir grapes she grows in her 2.6-acre vineyard. Winemaking is a passion project she took up later in life, and she only reserves a small lot of the fruit for herself.
“I am not driven by aspirations of fame and fortune. I just want to showcase my beautiful vineyard and the special wine it produces,” Haughwout said.
“When you are as tiny as I am and you don’t have access to a tasting room, the Garagiste Festival is a great opportunity to connect with consumers who are looking for small wine gems. I feel like I fit right in.”
At the Garagiste Festival, the wines are poured by the winemakers themselves, which lends an air of intimacy to the wine tastings and encourages dialogue among the winemakers and attendees. Great varietal diversity is nearly always present, so there is plenty of opportunity to expand your palate and try something new.
The red wines average no more than $45 a bottle, and there is nary a limo or bachelorette party in sight. What you will find, however, are limited-production wines you can’t taste anywhere else.
“There is a real sense of community at the Garagiste Festival, “ said Hansen, who also hosts the popular wine-centric podcast, The Winemakers. “I’ve had people who listen to my podcast come up to me and introduce themselves. For me, that builds connection.”
Downtown Forestville spans only three blocks along Front Street and the town’s population is a tiny 3,761. But lately, chefs have been taking note of the quaint burg, setting up exciting new restaurants next to the classic favorites. Here are five to visit. (Click through the above gallery to see some favorite dishes.)
A La Heart Kitchen
Deborah Rodgers opened her catering business in Duncans Mills in 1982 and moved to Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square in 1991. This spring, her daughter, Mariana Krambs Belew, relocated the shop to downtown Forestville and expanded it into a café.
The charming enterprise offers premium picnic groceries and grab-and-go meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. “You come in, check out the fridge and see what looks good today,” Belew says. That might be everything, since the daily changing menu tempts with mouthwatering specialties like bacon and shrimp hush puppies, biscuits and sausage gravy, chile cheese cornbread, chicken and tofu satay with peanut sauce and Tuscan chicken with sour cream mashed potatoes and cauliflower gratin. Save room for cheesecake with pecan praline sauce.
So close, we can taste it… The former pizza pop-up has landed a brick-and-mortar setup in the former Jigar’s wine tasting room space and is hiring pizzaiolos, prep cooks and service experts. That means we’ll soon be devouring lots of great, wood-fired stuff, like a Pizza Margherita loaded with creamy fior de latte and mozzarella; a Nirvana pie topped with Ezzo Supreme pepperoni, Grana Padano, basil, ricotta and hot honey; and a Bianca Fun Guy smothered in local mushrooms, housemade roasted garlic crema, charred kale, mozzarella and Grana Padano.
For an edible adventure, try the Bora Bora piled with organic pulled pork, charred pineapple, beer battered onions, Bachan’s Japanese ginger-mirin barbecue sauce, mozzarella and Grana Padano. You can get gluten-free dough and/or vegan cheeses and plant-based meats, too.
Pizza Margherita from Sonoma Pizza Co. in Forestville. (Courtesy of Sonoma Pizza Co.)Pizza with Alba clamshell mushrooms, caramelized onion, mozzarella and goat cheese. (Courtesy of Sonoma Pizza Co.)
Gerard’s Paella Catering
Chef Gerard Nebesky famously beat star chef Bobby Flay in a Food Network paella throwdown in 2008. He also turned his successful catering business into a Santa Rosa restaurant, shuttering it after COVID-19 set in. Now he’s back, working on a new bistro in the former Twist location. He called in with this report: “I’m setting up for the first Coachella since the pandemic and I said I feel a little rusty…..then someone yells … ‘we’re all rusty together.’ Ugh, so true.”
After fixing up the Forestville space, Nebesky’s been doing tastings there for weddings and other events. On periodic Fridays, he has been offering take-and-bake paella. “As the season calendar fills in and stabilizes, we will have more announcements on how to get paella to the people,” he promises.
Francesso Torre learned to cook in his grandmother’s kitchen, while growing up in the Tuscan coastal town of Massa, Italy. One of his favorite feasts was – and still is – tordelli, large raviolis stuffed with meat and a touch of cinnamon. As a teenager, one of his first jobs was working with chef Giuseppina Moscaat at her Michelin two-star Il Bottaccio in Montignoso.
Since opening Canneti in 2013, Torre puts his own California accents on his Italian cuisine. It takes a full day of slow simmering to make his Bolognese, he makes his own fennel salame, focaccia and even olive oil, and wows with signature dishes like steamed savoy cabbage rolls stuffed with handmade whole milk ricotta over San Marzano tomato cream and crispy capers.
Cannoli from Canneti Roadhouse Italiana in Forestville. (Courtesy of Canneti Roadhouse Italiana)
La Rosa Market and Taqueria
Founded by Rosa and Pedro Lepehernandez nearly two decades ago, this cozy gem delights with sturdy, savory staples like chile rellenos stuffed with tons of gooey Jack under a mantle of more cheese; a pork chile verde burrito plump with veggies, beans, rice, cheese, sour cream, guacamole and salsa; and delectable shrimp sautéed in butter, garlic, onion and bell pepper, served with rice, black beans and warm tortillas.
Go for the street tacos, as well – an order of four lets you choose two types of meat (we love the carnitas and the tender lengua). Bonus: you can sip wine and beer with your meal.
Santa Rosa natives and high school sweethearts Brad Villeggiante and Caroline Hall were happy in the snug 1,200-square-foot West Petaluma cottage that they had renovated top to bottom. But when their daughter, Cecily, arrived six years ago, the couple was prompted to dream bigger.
As in, really big. What they found was an eight-bedroom, 3,800-square-foot Queen Anne in Petaluma’s historic Brewster-Oak Hill neighborhood. The home was founded as a private hospital and later was put to work as a group home for youth and a bed and breakfast inn.
But Hall, a freelance art director, stylist, and producer, could tell the house had potential, both for a new chapter as a single-family dwelling, and also as a new income stream as a location for filmmaking and photo shoots.
“We went to an open house and looked at it and just loved it so much more than we thought she would,” Hall says. “Initially, my husband took some convincing, mostly because it was so big.”
The Hall home in Petaluma. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)Daylight streams through gauzy curtains into the main living area, where Hall’s love of botanicals is on full display, with feathers, antlers, and a large fiddleleaf fig tree. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)Hall’s love of botanicals is on full display. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
Hall immediately noticed that the home, built in 1905 and graced with large windows throughout, was much brighter than other Victorian-style homes, and it still had highly sought-after original features, including wood floors, crown molding, antique chandeliers, and stained-glass windows.
“What I loved about it was all the amazing light,” Hall says. The couple didn’t want to change any of the good stuff. Their mission was to freshen up the interior and make it more appealing for commercial photography work as well as their own family life.
Hall and Villegiante ripped out dated wallpaper, restored the floors, and repainted the entire home.
“We were scraping paint for a year,” laughs Hall. “We kind of just took it one room at a time.”
Decorating such a large space was an adventure— one that was no problem at all for Hall, who had a large collection of accessories and furniture she’d used at work and on photo shoots over the years.
The family took on a major kitchen remodel during the pandemic. They preserved a beautiful, original stained-glass window, but added a large new range, a honeycomb tile backsplash, and IKEA cabinets. On weekends, Hall usually has an all-day cooking project simmering away — often soup or homemade bread. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
Overall, Hall and Villeggiante created an eclectic blend of ornate Victorian and contemporary industrial, like metal airplane chairs from Restoration Hardware paired with a tufted sofa. Hall leaned into her love of botanicals with terrariums, bell jars, indoor plants, and scientific posters. “The house was amazing, like a sponge,” she explains. “We found a way to fill the space really quickly.”
“The nice thing about Victorians like this is that they embrace a lot of different styles,” Hall says.
“You get a midcentury modern house, and you feel like you have to put midcentury furniture in there. With Victorian you can get away with many different kinds of styles.”
The family has found uses for the multitude of rooms. Downstairs is a formal living room, a playroom for Cecily, a family room, a formal dining room, a kitchen, and a guest bedroom. Upstairs, in addition to the family’s bedrooms, Villeggiante and Hall each have a home office. Villeggiante went for a midcentury modern look with abstract wallpaper, sleek Scandinavian furniture, and a restored console stereo. Hall chose a mod British urban loft look with a teapot lamp and a vintage World War II flag.
Now that much of the restoration work is finished, the family can relax and simply enjoy being in the space. “Usually there’s something cooking or being prepped all day that we’re working on for dinner. We both really like to cook, so he’ll often smoke something, and I like to make bread or sourdough pizza,” says Hall.
“And we do actually use the dining room every night.”
A small dining area, above, started with a mid-century table and chairs. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)Collections of ceramics and plants form carefully considered displays. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
Weekend days revolve around the garden: feeding the birds, collecting eggs from the chickens, and peeking into the palm tree out front, where a barn owl — which Cecily has named Owl-bus Dumbledore — is nesting. This time of year, the backyard is filled with tulips and daffodils they’ve planted as a family.
Cecily creates mud projects in her outdoor play kitchen while Hall works nearby. “She’ll hang out with me while I garden all day,” says Hall. “Everything gets kind of overgrown and wild for a little bit with all the bulbs in bloom, but I kind of love it. I don’t like it when things are too manicured.”
The couple sees themselves staying in the home for the long term, bonding with their neighbors and fellow parents. “We’ve met a lot of people who are similar to us, creatively—and it seems like so many people we’ve met here have kids our kid’s age,” says Hall. “I don’t really know what it is specifically, but it’s special here. It just feels like home.”
The Hall family outside their home. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
What’s it like to rent out your house for photo shoots?
Freelance stylist and art director Caroline Hall once worked as a photo director for a large housewares company, working with location companies to find interesting homes for product photo shoots. “That was my job — to look at locations and book them. I initially thought I would book this house,” she says.
Renting out your home for a photo or film shoot can mean $1,500 to $5,000 a day of extra income. Crews take over the home for the day, though, requiring the homeowner to find somewhere else to stay during filming.
What are location scouts looking for when they book a home? It’s not just the architecture or design.
It’s also about beautiful light and plenty of space for camerapeople to move around. There’s also the issue of ease of access and convenient parking. It’s nice to have neighbors on board who won’t complain about shortterm disruptions. And access to gardens and outdoor space is helpful. “It’s great especially if they’re doing outdoors stuff, to have a nice yard you can shoot in.” Interestingly, a home’s décor isn’t usually as important; most crews bring in their own stuff, explains Hall.
Hall lists her Petaluma Victorian with two area companies: Scout Napa Valley and Mint Locations in Marin.
When Jan O’Brien and Craig Hartman first set foot on an undeveloped rural plot of land along Chalk Hill Road southeast of Healdsburg, they were initially a bit unsure, though that quickly changed. “There was just a little truck path to the top of the hill, and we came up it and looked back out and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is just unbelievable,’” says Hartman. “Whatever the site had in mind, the house was always going to be bold.”
As architects, O’Brien and Hartman could parse both the promise and the particular challenges of the site. Both have been with the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for decades. O’Brien focuses on interior architecture and residential design, while Hartman serves as a senior consulting partner for projects such as Oakland’s Cathedral of Christ the Light, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles, and the International Terminal at San Francisco International Airport. The couple raised two children in Marin while overseeing large-scale projects in San Francisco and China, work that connected with themes of social justice and environmental sustainability.
Architects Jan O’Brien and Craig Hartman with their dog Gryffin. (Kim Brown Photography)
Given the couple’s grounding in green design, it was fitting that Hartman and O’Brien connected so deeply with the rural, rolling landscape of Chalk Hill. “It feels rooted in old Sonoma County,” says O’Brien. “It’s one of the reasons we wanted to be here. This area has agrarian roots; there’s cattle around. Not everything being vineyards is kind of nice.”
The 840-square-foot home the pair designed is nestled tightly in a stand of valley oaks and consists of two separate rectangular pavilions that are connected by an open-air walkway. The decision to split the spaces with a breezeway was meant to engage the couple in their natural surroundings — even on a rainy day, one has to go outside to get from one portion of the home to the other. “We spent a lot of time thinking about that and not leaving too much to chance,” says Hartman. “Though in the end,” adds O’Brien, “the serendipitous things are the things we love — such as when a branch breaks, and it completely changes the view.”
A picture window just off the kitchen centers on an old-growth valley oak. O’Brien, who studied ornithology, follows a family of woodpeckers that makes its home there. (Cesar Rubio)Kitchen in the day pavilion. (Cesar Rubio)
The slightly larger pavilion, dubbed the daytime pavilion, has the kitchen, dining area, and living room, along with a front deck that spans the width of the space. From here, Hartman and O’Brien take in a broad sweep of open space, including the actual Chalk Hill, with its light-colored soils, a stand of redwoods, a few neighbors’ homes, and a small slice of vineyards in the distance, part of Warnecke Ranch. It’s an ever-changing view as layers of morning fog burn away, gradually revealing the land and its wildlife. “We seem to be on a migratory path through here,” says Hartman. “You see ducks and geese flying through, almost at eye level sometimes. We’ve had pigs, lots of deer, obviously, and foxes.”
The smaller nighttime pavilion has the primary bedroom, the home’s only bathroom, and an office/guest room, where Hartman often works, and where the couple’s daughter spent time during the pandemic. Both pavilions were designed to sit gently in the landscape. “We did a lot of 3D mock-ups before committing to anything.
For the most part, it worked out,” says Hartman.
The overall effect is an airy simplicity — essential, elemental spaces, pared back to the furniture, books, and art the couple loves the best.
Constructing a home on a hilly, rural lot meant thinking about issues that neither architect had addressed before. “We quickly had to learn about the infrastructure of building in a place like this,” explains Hartman. “Number one was the well, and number two was the septic field. We did some backof- the-envelope analysis of what it was going to cost.”
They also had to factor in road access, rainwater storage tanks, and the home’s electricity needs, which they’ve addressed with a solar array and batteries.
“I think part of it is, it’s always going to be a leap of faith,” says O’Brien. “At some point, you do fall in love, and you go, ‘Well, we’ll make it work.’”
Two bedrooms and a modest bath are in the nighttime pavilion sited across from the main living area. Oak shutters in the primary bedroom fold back to take in the full view of the oaks. (Chun Lai)Blue Oak Cottage
In the summer of 2019, Hartman and O’Brien were about launch a project to build a second dwelling further up the hill. But a few days before they were to head to the permit office, the Kincade fire turned those plans upside down. As the blaze moved through the property, O’Brien and Hartman evacuated to Marin, hosting their Chalk Hill neighbors, who were also fleeing the flames. Their home fared well — its concrete foundation and metal cladding offered strong protection. But they decided to abandon plans for another building at the top of the ridge. After what they’d witnessed, that site felt too exposed.
The experience with the Kincade fire did help the couple understand the resilience of the land. Though the fire consumed dry grass and a few trees, the land rebounded and animals returned. “It is amazing how quickly the property recovered from the fire. The next year, it was almost invisible,” says Hartman.
The couple and their dog, Gryffin, have embraced the rhythms of a life centered around the land. Gryffin loves to follow the deer and hawks, bounding off into the hills to sniff out exciting things. Hartman and O’Brien keep fit with outdoor projects, planting native toyon trees to sustain wildlife and cultivating a patch of valley oak seedlings near the house.
Weedwacking is their new exercise, jokes O’Brien, who once had to go to urgent care to get a foxtail removed from her ear after an afternoon working on the hill. They have a few tomato plants, but they get eggs and most of their vegetables from their closest neighbor just down the hill. “Having really good neighbors is important,” says O’Brien.
Spring is especially beautiful here, when the hills are an intense green that reminds the couple of Ireland, and lupines and other wildflowers are all around. There’s water in the creeks and balmy temperatures—not the intense heat of the summer, but warm breezes that carry a freshness and sense of growth. O’Brien, who also has a degree in divinity, says the intensity of springtime has reminded her of the need to embrace meaning in the everyday. “Like so many things, you know that it’s not going to last forever, so you appreciate it more,” she explains.
“When I grew up in the Midwest, I thought I could never live without winter sports and without snow,” says Hartman. “But this place has such distinct, seasonal changes, though they’re more subtle. With the wildflowers, you see some places that are just spectacular, and other places where you happen to come across tiny flowers—purple tidy tips and blue-eyed grasses—that reveal themselves in the landscape in much more subtle ways. And I think that’s what’s so beautiful about this place. It’s a beautiful subtlety.”
Resources
Architects: Craig Hartman, with Jan O’Brien and Anesta Kothari
Structural Engineer: David Shook, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, San Francisco / som.com
Mechanical Engineer: Paul McGrath, Meyers+, San Francisco / meyersplus.com
