Last Updated on September 29, 2023 by Leah Hall
The Matheson Healdsburg offers regional flavors in a farm to table concept. 3 levels of dining options, including a rooftop bar, The Matheson is a great option on Healdsburg Plaza for an epic meal!
The Matheson Healdsburg just opened in September 2021 just off the plaza in downtown Healdsburg, California. We love this great farm to table concept and want to share our experience with you below!
This post contains affiliate links for products that we think you as readers might find useful, and we make commission off of these! For more details about our affiliates, click our Disclosure and Contacts Page.
Photo Courtesy of The Matheson
The Matheson Healdsburg
The Matheson is a 231-seat, three level restaurant and rooftop lounge. The tri-level building has different dining and drinking options: upscale restaurant on bottom floor, a sushi counter, two bars, and rooftop lounge, so options for everyone!
Opened by Dustin Valette, a Healdsburg native who also owns Valette and Valette Wines. He has said the concept is his desire to have the kind of restaurant he likes to enjoy with his friends and family. This could be a casual place for pizza and drinks or for date night with sushi and fabulous wine.
The large space designed by architect Cass Calder Smith uses saved historical character that mixes with modern day wine country beauty. The Matheson is an open space with eight murals of agriculture and culinary makers of wine county done by San Francisco artist Jay Mercado with a barrel stave inspired ceiling with huge ring lights.
Photo Courtesy of The Matheson
Touches of oak and walnut woods, stone, steel stairs and leather make a modern touch. I am sad I didn’t get a pic of the bathrooms – they are lovely tiled spaces with the same tiles on the walls and floor, making a seamless and pretty space to do your business. Valette’s great grandfather operated a bakery in this same building years ago, which is a cool bit of history.
Honoré Valette, called Pépé by his family, was known for his sourdough. On The Matheson’s website they encourage you to ask about Pépé.
The Matheson‘s main dining room downstairs where we ate, comprises a large open kitchen and it was fun watching the chefs cook from a distance. The night we were there, (a Wednesday), sushi wasn’t offered, but the tasting menu that we had was absolutely lovely, and we cannot wait to show you what we ate below!
The Matheson’s Menu
Having a la carte and prix fixe options, the farm to table menu highlights local meat and produce from Sonoma County’s growers, ranchers, fishermen, and artisans.
There is also a full bar with craft cocktails (surprisingly we had none, what?!) their wine list with more than 400 bottles, and a wine wall with 88 wines on tap. The wine wall was pretty neat, and showcased a broad range of local producers and wines from all over the world.
Photo Courtesy of The Matheson
From the wine wall you can try a splash or a half glass. The staff will guide you to types to try, and it makes for a fun way to taste wine for sure. We would have definitely considered this option if we hadn’t done the tasting menu. It’s a great way to try different price points and kinds of wine.
Photo Courtesy of The Matheson
Jay and I had glanced at the wine menu, but then asked to see the sommelier because we wanted to do the tasting menu, and were delighted to find out that we could get a specialized wine pairing for the tasting menu.
We will tell you more about these pairings below, but each one was better than the last and paired perfectly with the food courses! Needless to say, we VERY much enjoyed our meal.
The Matheson Healdsburg Sushi Kitchen
The Sushi Kitchen does have a 12 seat counter with a front row view of the sushi chef and team at work when they do offer sushi, sashimi and nigiri. (Currently the Sushi Kitchen is closed for research and development, so make sure to check before making a reservation.)
I did see some menus of previous sushi and Japanese offerings of items like kona kampachi with cucumber and a Japanese milk bread starter with cultured butter.
Roof 106 Healdsburg
Almost a different space, Roof 106 is upstairs and is a more casual indoor and outdoor setting. Offering a small bar inside and outside seating under a pergola, there are also shareable snacks and wood fired seasonal flatbreads. Also its’ own list of cocktails, different than the downstairs dining area.
Roof 106 does not take reservations, it is first come, first served. The Mugnaini wood fired oven is used for those aforementioned flatbreads and appetizers. The outdoor seating with fire pits make the perfect spot to watch a wine country sunset!
Photo Courtesy of The Matheson
Each flatbread is made with dough from flour grown at local winemaker Lou Preston’s farm and a California yeast strain often used in making pinot noir. The rest of the Roof 106 menu offers everything from orange & rosemary crusted marinated olives, white bean hummus and salads to different piadines (flatbread sandwiches). Desserts include two kinds of Push Pops, coconut rum mojito and a yuzu strawberry!
The craft cocktails include a clarified margarita, tiki cocktails over pearl ice or bourbon on the rocks. Non alcoholic cocktails are offered as well.
Photo Courtesy of The Matheson
Unfortunately we didn’t get to experience Roof 106 because our dining experience closed down The Matheson (we were seriously the last ones out!), but definitely will be going when we get back to wine country. The bar has a beehive-ish theme with beautiful hexagon shaped tiles. We loved the food images and touches throughout the whole space and even on the menus.
Mezzanine
The Mezzanine is the second level extended over the kitchen and open to the main dining room below. The loft has views into the Healdsburg Plaza and has the restaurants’ private wine cellar. This space can be used for events or private dining, and has special menu offerings for events, too.
Private dining is also offered on property.
Other Places to Visit in Sonoma County
Our Meal at The Matheson Healdsburg
Jay and I knew we wanted to try the tasting menu before we went, and as we were traveling with our 4 friends we encouraged them to give it a go, too! Since the whole table needs to participate to do the tasting menu, that’s exactly what we did. As we said above, we asked for the Sommelier to talk about wine, and he encouraged us to try his wine pairings for the tasting menu, and boy were we glad we did!
John McCarthy is the beverage director at The Matheson, and he absolutely nailed each pairing, and was sweet enough to make sure we had a list of the wines we drank because 1) we loved them all, and 2) there was no way we were going to remember all 6!
Our first course started with a Benovia Blanc de Blancs. Grown in the Russian River Valley, this sparkling white gave notes of lime blossom, ripe pear and fig along with hazelnut and cream. Candied lemon and ripe apricot, too, the palate is rich and creamy. We could have shared a whole bottle of this, and we hadn’t even had our first course yet!
This sparkling wine was paired with a Confit Egg Yolk. This had a mushroom foam, puffed rice and caviar. The combo of the wine and caviar with the richness of the egg was perfection. Earthy, rich and salty, this dish was the perfect start to our meal.
Secondly, we had the Young Beets. This was a gorgeously colored dish with all different beets, pomegranate, feta and pistachio dukkah. We all decided that the pistachio butter with the foam would have to be recreated at home!
This was paired with a Captûre Sauvignon Blanc. This Sauvignon Blanc is styled like a Bordeaux and has the nose of white blossom, stone fruit, spice, lime leaves, and Meyer lemon. The flavors are of tropical and citrus fruit. This paired so well with the earthiness of the dish and the root vegetable that was highlighted.
The third course was Cured Foie Gras. This was such an artistic dish, the foie gras was layered between slices of kiwi. There was almond and sorrel highlighted on the plate as well. This was accompanied by a Merry Edwards Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, the last of the white wines of the meal.
The Merry Edwards Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc has some flavors of citrus, ginger, flowers and mint. It had a great acidity that cut the richness of the foie gras and the sweetness of the kiwi. A tasty pairing that we didn’t want to end!
Starting the 4th course meant fish. The fish turned out to be a local Petrale Sole with celeriac, endive and apple butter. It was rich, melted in our mouths, and between this and the next course was all we talked about for days, too!
The sole was paired with a lovely Vignobles Bulliat Morgon Nature, Beaujolais. The flavors in this red wine were of berries, pomegranate and stone fruit. Rich and flavorful, this played very well with the fish dish.
The meat course, the 5th, was a Durham Ranch Wagyu Striploin. Again, it is melt in your mouth meat, this Wagyu is perfectly cooked and pairs with a potato pave and black truffle. Rich and decadent, this course was a favorite, as was the wine that was paired with it.
The wine was an Aperture Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. We loved this wine so much we even looked up if they had any tasting appointments available while we were in wine country. Alas, they didn’t. So we enjoyed the glasses we had immensely.
The Aperture Cabernet Sauvignon had aromas of violet, tar, cassis, cherries, and graphite. It was dark and rich and as I said, a favorite.
The last course was dessert. We were served a “pre-dessert” of a lemon sorbet in cones laid on a plate. It was a palate cleanser before our dessert course and was cold and sour, perfect palate cleanser for sure!
We then had for dessert an Apple Tarte Tatin with an aged Cheddar crust and caramel. Rich and the perfect ending to the meal, this dessert was sweet paired with a lovely dessert wine.
The wine was Kracher Auslese Welschriesling, a Chardonnay dessert wine. It is fermented and aged for 12 months in steel tanks. The Welschriesling is made using noble rot and has a nose full of lemon, honeysuckle, green apple, melon and orange blossom. The wine was nicely sweet but not syrupy, and has grapefruit, tangerine, green apple, lemon and pear flavors. A nice acidity worked really well with the sweetness of the tart.
Make sure to check out another local winery, Jordan Winery, located just north of Healdsburg!
The Matheson Information
The restaurant hours will be 5:00 to 10 pm every night by reservation only. The Matheson menu will change over the coming weeks and months with the seasons. So, while we had the plates below, it may not be what is offered when you go.
Roof 106 is open Monday-Thursday 5:00-10 pm, and noon-10 Friday-Sunday.
Reservations online at thematheson.com. 106 Matheson St, Healdsburg, CA.
Can’t wait to visit again next time we are in town! Check out our Napa Valley wine tastings, too! As well as brunch in San Francisco at Hilda and Jesse! Or, if you are headed to Northern California, then stop in at Humboldt Bay Social Club or Humboldt Distillery. If you are in the most remote part of Utah, try out Hell’s Backbone Grill & Farm or Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch!
If you are staying in Healdsburg, we recommend the Hotel Healdsburg and the Montage!
Also, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and tag #gastronomcocktails so we can see all the wonderful recipes YOU recreate from this site!
You can also subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss a delicious recipe again!
Like this post? Check these out below, too!
Interested in stocking your own home bar? Make sure to see our favorites at our Amazon Store!
If you liked this post, don’t forget to subscribe for new (and of course free) recipes by entering your email address on the side bar (and get all the recipes delivered to your inbox when we post), so you don’t miss out on a thing. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Gastronomblog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com