Hitting the Top: Oso and Santé make Top 100 list

San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer has released his 2015 list of the Top 100 restaurants in the Bay Area. Sonoma can bask in the delight of having two restaurants in the list this year: the new kid on the block, Oso, and the near-legendary Santé, the latter having been listed on Bauer’s list previously. 

The two restaurants contrast each other, yet have similar qualities: modern cuisine, sexy contemporary dining rooms, and dining experiences that have helping bring Sonoma out of the sleepy stages of dining torpor. 

Locals moaned and groaned when Bauer called Sonoma’s dining scene sleepy in a recent review about Oso, and while we are blessed with the fabulous La Salette, girl & the fig, Harvest Moon and Cafe La Haye, even our favorites need a shake up.

Oso has become a hot spot where we have to fight with tourists to get a reservation and Sante epitomizes special occasion; most locals haven’t even been there but people fly from around the world to dine there. Clearly we locals need to get with the times (go to Oso on Tuesdays and get out of those hiking shoes, dress up, and go to Santé).

Oso, which opened this year, is pocket book friendly, giving diners a modern yet casual dining experience on the Sonoma Square. Chef David Bush works in a tiny kitchen with an equally tiny staff, making magic on hot plates to create well-sized small plates paired with raw bar delights. The wine list is small yet complementing to the cuisine, hand picked by Wine Director Brian Kulich. Bauer was smitten after his three visits to the restaurant, raving about ribs and oysters.

“It means everything,” says Oso’s Wine Director Brian Kulich, regarding their Top 100 acknowledgement, “You strive for recognition like this.” Chef Bush sets the standards for his staff each day in the kitchen, “no one works harder than him. Period.” But it takes a village, Chef Bush teams with Sous Chef Benjamin Richmond to make a “strong culinary force,” as Kulich aptly describes them. 

That drive trickles down to the service staff, but Kulich admits, it isn’t easy: “you never know what’s going to happen and being in such a tight knit community you have to bring it every night.” So true, especially in a town where you cannot just rely on tourists – the locals are your bread and butter, they’re with you thick and thin throughout the year. The casual cool environment at Oso has already earned them a steady set of regulars, which means they are doing something right. 

Santé is home to Executive Chef Bruno Tison and Chef du Cuisine Andrew Cain. Chef Tison has a legendary pedigree of dining experience and was taught by chefs who trained under Fernand Point, including Alain Chapel, who is credited as being one of the originators of nouvelle cuisine. If you aren’t familiar with Point or Chapel, it’s basically the equivalent of saying you learned to paint from Rembrandt or how to play guitar by Jimi Hendrix. It’s a big deal.

Chef Tison brings that experience to Santé, melding old school French practice with innovation. Combine that with a localvore mentality, which stresses the use of local products and maintaining strong relationships with local farmers, growers and ranchers, and Santé serves the most contemporary and fresh cuisine in Sonoma Valley.

“It is an honor to be among the 100 best and to be recognized by Michael Bauer,” says Chef Tison and like Oso, the Santé team finds inspiration in the award, “it keeps us focused and motivated to achieve excellence at all times and perfection most of the time.”

Bauer often makes surprise visits to restaurants, visiting upwards of three different times before writing his reviews, which can make and break a restaurant. But, does Chef Tison recognize him when he shows up? “No, we don’t. Chef Andrew and I could recognize him, but, when you are in the kitchen you don’t know who is out there. Even if we would recognize him, by the time you do it is too late, so your food needs to be perfect at all times.”

Oso is located at 9 E. Napa St, Sonoma; 931-6926; ososonoma.com. Santé is located at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn at 100 Boyes Blvd, Sonoma; 938-9000; santediningroom.com