LOWELL’S

• WHO: Lowell Sheldon, co-owner & Natalie Goble, chef/co-owner
• WHAT: Slightly off-kilter community hub offering seasonal, organic, and locally-sourced food and wine
• WHERE: 7385 Healdsburg Avenue, Sebastopol, Sonoma, California, USA

"We’re passionate about local sourcing. We know it’s good for the earth and we’ve learned from experience that it’s really good for the soul. Two Belly Acres, our family farm where Lowell’s partner Natalie grew up and which her family still farms. Other local farms provide pasture-raised chicken eggs, duck eggs, lovingly-raised rabbit, goat, and pork plus local honey, potatoes, local and heirloom grains, beans and vegetables. Our forager friends often stop by the restaurant with crates of wild mushrooms, sweet little bags of wild greens or a whole wild king salmon caught around Bodega Bay in season.

"We are here in service to our community, bringing together food, wine, and the people we love in a comfortable and inclusive setting. We are honoured that the restaurant has become such a communal hub."

Come travel with Lowell’s through Italy! For 2019, Lowell’s is embracing its roots and taking a seasonal stroll through the regions of Italy. Each month, menus will feature dishes, ingredients, and their methods from a specific region (or regions) in Italy. They will also be showcasing local winemakers who are growing Italian varietals. Click here to get all the details.

To read more about Lowell's, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

BACKYARD

• WHO: Daniel A. Kedan & Marianna Gardenhire, chefs/owners
• WHAT: A restaurant that draws its inspiration from the amazing bounty of Sonoma County
• WHERE: 6566 Front Street, Forestville, Sonoma, California, USA

“We are most passionate about supporting our local food system. Just as important is respecting the techniques and craft that allow us to highlight our remarkable bounty of ingredients.

"We draw our inspiration from Sonoma County, with all of its amazing bounties; orchards, farms, ranchers, foragers and fisherman. Every fruit, vegetable and animal is grown, raised or line caught locally – we never use farmed fish – and purchase only from those with the most ethical practices of sustainability. We also grow our own produce at our farm Bee Run Hollow. This is our way to support the community around us and helps to not only sustain, but also to help build the demand for new jobs and revenue streams."

To read more about Backyard, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Backyard (Sonoma, California, USA)

SHED

• WHO: Cindy Daniel & Doug Lipton, founders/owners
• WHAT: A market, café & community space celebrating good farming, good cooking & good eating
• WHERE: 25 North Street, Healdsburg, Sonoma, California, USA

“We source our seafood from the nearby coastal waters off Bodega Bay, and our produce from local farmers, ranchers, and suppliers which allows us to nurture close and meaningful relationships. We have a seasonal pantry in our kitchen which includes SHED powders and spice blends, our pickles and ferments, shrubs, and jams as well as what we produce for sale in the store.

“We have a grain programme which supports local grain growers who provide heirloom wheat and corn for us to mill and use in our pastries and crackers. Our fermentation programme allows us to experiment with different types of processes to produce delicious, healthy, and sometimes surprising ferments.

“SHED is proud to be part of the movement towards carbon neutral dining by joining the ranks of Zero Foodprint along with some of the world’s best chefs and restaurants.”

To read more about SHED, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

SHED (Sonoma, California, USA)

HANDLINE

• WHO: Natalie Goble, chef/owner
• WHAT: A coastal Californian restaurant in a breezy modern building featuring sustainably sourced seafood
• WHERE: 935 Gravenstein Highway South, Sebastopol, Sonoma, California, USA

“Sonoma County offers an abundance of wild ingredients from nettles to mushrooms to edible flowers and we feature many of these on our menu year-round. We also glean fruit from our community by harvesting excess fruits (often-times with imperfections) that would otherwise go to waste.

“We grow our own produce and source produce, wines and beer from other small local farms, vitners and brewers that are transparent about their farming, harvesting and catch methods. We try to use produce that is truly in season (here in West Sonoma County that means waiting until August for that perfectly ripe heirloom tomato!) By sourcing locally and sustainably grown food we are reducing our impact on the environment.”

To read more about Handline, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Handline (Sonoma, California, USA)

FOREIGN CINEMA

• WHO: Gayle Pirie & John Clark, co-owners
• WHAT: A restaurant celebrating the bounty of Northern California under a courtyard movie screen
• WHERE: 2534 Mission Street, San Francisco, California

“The elimination of food waste is a critical issue for us. At Foreign Cinema we use all products for a zero waste model. We ban all single-use plastic and other materials.

“Our fish and protein purveyors are trusted for their concern for humane and sustainable practices, sourcing and purchasing. We only work with seasonal ingredients, highlighting what's fresh in the markets and where ingredients come from. In this way, we support a system of trust and sustainability. Our wine list and cocktail menu follows that same priority. We are a zero waste business that composts and recycles. We use no single-use products and our bar and wine program also represents this belief. We support vendors who make products and ingredients with this same ethos and all of our cooking oils become biodiesel."

Foreign Cinema is approaching a very celebratory milestone – their twentieth anniversary! On 19 September, the restaurant will celebrate twenty years of cooking in the Mission – uniting that magical combination of film and food. They will have a Fellini-inspired bash, so stay tuned for more details closer to the time!

To read more about Foreign Cinema, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Foreign Cinema (San Francisco, California, USA)

DOSA

• WHO: Anjan Mitra, owner & Arun Gupta, executive chef
• WHAT: A modern Indian restaurant specializing in South Indian flavours using local California ingredients
• WHERE: 1700 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, California

“At DOSA, our menu is dedicated to time and place and only offering what is in season in California. We go to local farmers' markets three days a week and base our menu on what is not only in season but available from local farms – doing our best to source only sustainably-grown produce and ethically-raised meat. If we can't get the item from a local small farmer, it comes off the menu. We create dishes based on the produce rather than taking existing dishes and folding local produce into them.

“We recycle and compost at the restaurant and keep waste logs to make sure we don't waste a lot of food. As a company we are also working on reducing single use packaging. We do our best to shop locally so as to lower our carbon footprint.”

Get involved in one or all of DOSA’s great weekly events running at both their Fillmore and Valencia restaurants. Every Wednesday at DOSA on Fillmore, the Winemaker's Dinner gives wine lovers a chance to explore their highly curated, focused and producer-driven list. Book here. At DOSA Valencia, every Wednesday is Martini Night, so stop in and try a new spice-driven cocktail created specifically for a different distiller – and each Tuesday is their a delicious and sumptuous South Indian BBQ! Don’t miss out. Book here.

To read more about DOSA, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

DOSA (San Francisco, California, USA)

GWEN

• WHO: Curtis Stone, chef/owner & Luke Stone, managing owner
• WHAT: A restaurant with a butchery servicing both the kitchen & customers
• WHERE: 6600 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

“Gwen’s European-style butcher shop aims to deliver the best in class for quality, taste, and service. We choose to use pasture-raised, hormone and antibiotic-free animals and ensure that we minimize food waste by utilizing whole animal butchering with our in-house charcuterie programme, using every part of the animal.”

To read more about Gwen, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Curtis & Luke Stone, Gwen (Los Angeles, California, USA) © Ray Kachatorian