our chef

Thad Lyman

Executive Chef and Co-Proprietor

Growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, Thad Lyman wanted to become President of the United States. Along the way, he was cooking all sorts of creations for his three siblings, including Green Eggs and Ham. "They were awful," he admits. "But in my family, the guys always cooked."

As his political dreams diminished and the culinary world beckoned, at the age of seventeen with "more passion than skill," Lyman started taking culinary classes by day and pulling kitchen shifts by night. He finished the University of Alaska's Culinary Arts program and spent the next ten years honing his craft in several notable restaurants across the Pacific Northwest, including Simons & Seaforts in Anchorage, Alaska and Stanley and Seaforts in Tacoma, Washington.

In 1995 Lyman met his future partner, Katie Doherty. The two fell fast in love before moving to the Bay Area, where Lyman became sous chef for Horatio's and then Skates on the Bay in Berkeley. A turning point came when Lyman was offered the sous chef position of Restaurant Viognier in San Mateo under Bay Area Rising Star Chef, Scott Giambastiani. From Giambastiani, Lyman learned finesse and refinement.

In early 2004, Lyman and Doherty were offered a unique proposition: to become proprietors of one of the founding restaurants in Yountville. They jumped at the chance to have a restaurant to call their own.

Lyman describes his food as a rustic approach to refined American cuisine and his motto is "Leave your inhibitions and diets at the door." Lyman works with Napa Valley's premiere purveyors; he is one of a handful of chefs in the Valley to work with Brown Forni Farms in Calistoga. You'll find local, artisan ingredients sprinkled throughout his menu, such as Grace Family olive oil, Marshall's Farm honey and Cowgirl Creamery cheese. His portions are "generous but not obnoxious" and he's known for his delicately flavored seasonal soups as well as his half pound Kobe burger. He makes all of his own pastries and bakes the focaccia bread daily.