Main Street

A marathon
I met the new people. Kyle and Katina Connaughton hope to open Single Thread Restaurant early this summer in the new building at the corner of North and Center Streets.
The building – which is nicely detailed but suffered from a bad first paint job and nostalgia for the burned-down Post Office that used to occupy the site – is improving on the outside. Awnings and wrought iron details are breaking up the scale of the facade and landscaping will do even more.
The inside is a happy sort of mess. The previous floor plan won’t work for the new concept, so the floor was torn up, walls torn down and new plumbing and wiring is going in now.
The second floor has five guest rooms and Katina pointed out that, “We will be a restaurant with five guest rooms, not a small hotel with a restaurant.”
The roof is a revelation, and I recommend you finagle a way to get up there and look around. It’s not the tallest building in town by far, but it’s taller than anything for a block in any direction, and you can see across downtown, past to the ridges above Dry Creek and back into the neighborhoods.
The roof will play a key role in the restaurant. According to Kyle, guests will be invited to come upstairs, relax and discuss the night’s menu before heading downstairs to meal priced in excess of $200.
It sounds very civilized. Maybe too precious and pricy for me, but darn civilized nevertheless.
I was skeptical when I met the Connaughtons. The breathless quality of their publicity made me worry that they want to establish an expensive and exclusive hideaway that’s disconnected from Healdsburg.
I think I was wrong. They live here, farm here, send their kids to school here and are already working with local farmers.
Most importantly, they say they’ve listened a lot – and want to listen more – to what Healdsburg is really like and what it needs. With more than $5 million into the project so far, they say they aren’t looking for another gold star on their impressive resumé, but they want to stay for a while.
“This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon,” says Kyle. “We too want to see the right kind of change in Healdsburg and we love that the community is engaged. We want to be part of that.”
And yes, Pete and Cathy Seghesio are still part of the project. Their deli and meatery will open this year too. Expect good sandwiches, custom made salami and meat.
Tom Cashman died March 30. A quiet guy with a charmingly cocked sense of humor, Tom worked at various downtown businesses, always bustling around, and he was a valued and beloved pet sitter to many. I first met Tom when he stopped me on the street to tell me about a secret Red-Shouldered Hawk nest. (It’s still there, but maybe less secret.) A community memorial for Tom will be at the Villa Annex, from 2 to 5 p.m. on April 17. More details are in his obituary on Page 4.
April 10 – 16, 2016 is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. These telecommunicators, also known as dispatchers, are the quiet core of every law enforcement agency and we have some of the best.
If a dispatcher has ever stayed on the phone with you while you wait for help, you know how important they are to our community well being. And, I happen to know that the Healdsburg Police Department dispatchers like cookies.
Ray Holley likes cookies too. He can be reached at ra*@so********.com.