For months, cleaning nose smudges and handprints off the windows was part of the daily ritual at Dead Letter as curious locals pressed against the glass, trying to catch a glimpse inside the new restaurant just off the Sonoma Plaza.
Now the doors are open, and owners John Toulze and Sondra Bernstein can finally put away the Windex.
The longtime partners behind The Girl & The Fig and Poppy have reimagined the building at First and East Napa streets — most recently home to Maya Mexican Restaurant for more than two decades — as a modern California restaurant with subtle nods to its post office past.
Surreal black-and-white images quietly shift across tall screens mounted against rugged stone walls. An Art-o-mat vending machine that once dispensed cigarettes now offers tiny $5 artworks the size and shape of a pack. Trashion Fashion Barbies, cocktails made with Chartreuse and red wine, and a wooden postal window filled with vintage postcards add to the funky flair. The space is less themed than curated, reflecting Bernstein’s creative verve and passion for cutting-edge digital art.
Gentle whiffs of charcoal smoke drift through the dark gray and burgundy dining rooms from the kitchen’s three-level Spanish grill. It is the fiery heart of the operation, where cooks move pork steaks, trout fillets and sweet corn from one level to another like mail sorters, adjusting the heat and char by feel.
At the helm, chef Jeremy Zimmerman delivers a lineup of snacks and shareable dishes with a heavy focus on grilled seafood, alongside sweet blistered vegetables, smoky Ibérico pork in a vibrant tomatillo sauce and chopped chicken livers with rhubarb jam — a homey grandma favorite.
“The idea is, ‘Let’s have fun. Let’s eat,’” Toulze said.
Which is exactly why most of the larger dishes are meant to land in the middle of the table, encouraging people to share, talk and reach across one another with forks rather than quietly contemplate their own plates.
“We’re removing food envy,” Zimmerman said. “When the food hits the center of the table, people keep talking.”
A butterflied trout over red curry sauce, drizzled with charred cucumber labneh ($42), is made for two (or more), with crisp skin and tender meat serving as an immediate conversation starter. And I dare anyone to encounter fried chicken karaage resting in a pool of hummus with preserved tomatoes ($24) without raising an eyebrow.
Gleaming Japanese sushi knives flash across the counter as local rockfish is cut into delicate slices, ready to soak up fresh strawberry aguachile ($18), another unlikely combination that somehow works.
Like the room itself, the menu is full of unexpected quirks and combinations that have already drawn the town to the windows.
Reservations are available at deadlettersonoma.com. Open from 5-9 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 5-9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 101 E. Napa St., Sonoma, 707-933-3665
This article originally appeared in The Press Democrat.