Ever since the team behind Healdsburg’s fanciest restaurant, the three-Michelin-starred SingleThread at North and Center streets, “signed a 25-year-lease to redevelop” the old Raven Film Center building around the corner in Summer 2023, the community has been wondering what they plan to do with it.
In particular, a group of 60 neighbors sent SingleThread and parent company Vertice Hospitality a stern letter that summer, asking them to explain “the potential uses for your purchase.” The last time we heard anyone from SingleThread or Vertice give any public answers to this quandary was over a year ago, in February 2024, when they held a community meeting at the main Raven Theater (which is now unaffiliated with the film center) and said they were potentially thinking about opening another restaurant and some retail space inside the old film center.
But now, thanks to a new article in Cool Hunting magazine, we’re finally getting something more concrete!
The power couple behind SingleThread, Kyle and Katina Connaughton, tell the magazine that they bought the Raven in hopes of setting up a cutting-edge dining experience where diners are shown a behind-the-scenes film about how their food was made. They’re calling the experience “ThroughLine.” The Connaughtons just tested out the concept last month at a pop-up inside a fancy snow lodge in Park City, Utah, where they screened an eight-part documentary alongside a “twelve-course culinary journey,” according to Cool Hunting.
Next, they’re taking their high-end dinner-and-a-movie experience to a resort in New York’s Hudson Valley in April. And eventually, the magazine reports that SingleThread plans to bring ThroughLine to the currently empty Raven Film Center here in town. More from the story:
SingleThread chef and owner, Kyle Connaughton and head farmer and owner Katina Connaughton began to envision this idea when the historic Raven Film Center building next to SingleThread became available in their quaint Sonoma Valley wine country town. The idea of setting up a dining space with a film screen to combine culinary and film arts sparked an inspired culinary concept.
“For us, the idea of combining a dining experience with film was born out of every day at SingleThread putting plates in front of a guest and having only 30 to 40 seconds to explain the dish and realizing that we are not able to convey the whole story,” says Kyle Connaughton. “It’s hard to just tell it verbally. What is a better way for us to bring the guests into the story of what is happening behind the scenes.” …
Presenting a multi sensory experience with ThroughLine gives them the opportunity to communicate more layers of their story. SingleThread will bring the ThroughLine experience to Wildflower Farms on April 26th and 27th in New York’s Hudson Valley. And eventually to a theatre in Healdsburg where they will bring their film and culinary experience home.
Some of the vignettes that the Connaughtons have been showing between courses reportedly include a meetup with a sea urchin diver in Santa Barbara, a trip to the Knights Valley Wagyu ranch here in Sonoma County and an expedition to source scallops and salmon in Japan — all filmed by a guy they “met on a backcountry skiing trip” abroad. Cool Hunting writes: “Known for his snowboarding films, Justin Taylor Smith was recently nominated for an Emmy for ‘Omoiyari,’ a song film that explores the Japanese American Incarceration during WWII.”
Tickets for the new ThroughLine experience have been going for $400-plus, according to the event info page on SingleThread’s website. Perhaps not quite the commoner-friendly experience locals were asking for in the letter they sent SingleThread and Vertice two summers ago:
“There is legitimate concern regarding Vertice’s marketing audience: ultra-luxury restaurant Single Thread advertises for dinners beginning at $425. Though Single Thread restaurant is acclaimed nationally for its vision and delivery, its extremely high price points discourage middle class residents from participation. Will the hospitality concepts for these two new locations continue to market exclusivity and high-end pricing that is unaffordable to local residents and foster more hospitality imbalance in Healdsburg?”
Note from Simone: This piece originally appeared in the weekly email newsletter I write for the Healdsburg Tribune, called Healdsburg Today. Subscribe here!
