ESTATE is officially CLOSED at 400 West Spain Street in Sonoma.

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A Fond Farewell - (for now)

Thank you for your support, your patronage and most of all your friendship. It has been an honor to be the caretaker of this magnificent property over the past four years. We have been the witness to truly memorable moments and some beautiful events with friends and family -- engagements, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and memorials.

With regret, I must tell you that the property has been sold and we are closing. If we find a new location for ESTATE - you will be the first to know! In the meantime we wish the owners and staff of Ramekins all the best in their new endeavors.

The Property

We have certainly enjoyed the delicious harvests from the property, including olive oil, fava beans, heirloom apples, pomegranate, artichokes, Meyer lemons, bush beans, kale, herbs and persimmons, (not to mention the red fleshed peaches and the cherries that hung over the neighbors fence). We have explored the Mediterranean - Italian classical regional cuisine, blended it with the Sonoma bounty and created our own recipes. Huge thanks go out to many talented green thumbs including Ray & Matt from Local Landscapers, Ann & Andy, Lynn Bernstein from A Garden of Ease, Israel and Judy.

Fire

The chefs mastered the Wood Fired pizza oven; fine-tuning the dough just right, mastering the fire, experimenting with wood and how it changes flavor, and of course, cooking the flatbread, with a slight blistered crust, with just the right flavor to complement the ingredients that topped the crust and heavy enough to hold the weight of the cheese.

MANO FORMATE

Other artisanal methods that have infused into our culture; including barrel-aged red wine vinegar, small batch gelato and all sorts of pickled vegetables. However, the one culinary art that really captured our heart was learning how to cure meats, make bacon and pancetta, prepare sausages and salami, and to butcher a whole pig or lamb and use pretty much the whole animal including the head and trotters. In 2010, we were lucky to be the winner in the inaugural Good Food Awards for John's Coppa recipe. We will continue to prepare these wonderful examples of salumi in our other restaurants.

Aperitivo and Negroni

The world of Amaro opened up for us at ESTATE. Not only were the aperitivos good enough to sip on their own, the uniqueness of different flavors gave us the inspiration to create special original cocktails and serve them alongside the traditional versions that are coming back in fashion. Negroni & Nibbles on Tuesday was the night that we tried our cocktail experiments on you before they made it on the menu.

Grappa Bar

When was the last time you had a Grappa Flight or indulged in a curated 6-course Grappa and food pairing? We will miss the guys we call the "Grappa Boys" and Nicoletta's grappa presentation as she rolled the cart to the table.

Pizza and Pinot

will become Pizza, Pinot and Ping Pong at Suite D - We got to taste a lot of amazing Pinot Noirs (yes, just because we are Rhone-Alone at the fig doesn't mean we don't like a great Pinot Noir or Pinot Grigio!

Last but not least - AT ALL - The Staff

We have been fortunate to have worked with some amazing people. At first I thought I would list them all here, but maybe not. The staff that is sticking with us til the end are truly special - they want to remember every last day with you - and would stick around if they could. You will still see some of them around in our businesses.

Stay in touch with us! We will be featuring some special ESTATE dinners at Suite D - they may not have the same effect as sitting on the garden patio, but we can assure you some really delicious aperitivo and antipasti, wood-fired pizza, and some of your favorite ESTATE recipes. Dates will be posted on the Suite D website with contact information and pricing. www.figsuited.com

WHY the name ESTATE?

ESTATE - 'es-tah-tay' - the Italian word for SUMMER

ESTATE - 'the grounds (such as farms, housing, woodland, parkland) associated with a very large property - General Vallejo purchases 500 acres of Sonoma openland in 1850, renamed as the Lachryma Montis "ESTATE"

ESTATE - 'grown'