Songbird Parlour 14301 Arnold Drive #3 Glen Ellen 707-343-1308
Songbirdparlour.com
Friday and Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 5 to 8:30 p.m.
is strewn with framed pictures of the village’s most notable residents—Jack London, of course, but food-writer MFK Fisher, WWII Gen. Hap Arnold and gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson also line the wall, a reminder of the diversity of characters that have sought refuge over the years in the solitude of the townlet. Our server next brought pork belly ($24), braised in a cabernet vinegar and accompanied by sauteed greens, and a plate of grilled salmon (the steelhead advertised on the menu wasn’t available) topped by shaved celery and livened by a tangy herbed yogurt sauce ($38). The meal came to a sweet conclusion with shared dish of Sweet Scoops’ vanilla, topped by a drizzle of fennel-pollen honey, and a brown butter chocolate chip cookie. Songbird Parlour not only serves up a delightful, modern farm-to-table menu, but does so while capturing the cozy salon air of mid-20th century Glen Ellen. “First we eat, then we do everything else,” MFK Fisher famously said. She’d have gotten off to a good start at Songbird Parlour. t Did You Know? Hunter S. Thompson rented a cabin on Bennett Valley Road in Glen Ellen for about a year in 1964. With wife and newborn son in tow, Thompson wanted to be near the emerging counter- culture scene of San Francisco, while reporting on the American West for the National Reporter and National Observer. Unlike Glen Ellen’s other literary luminaries Jack London and MFK Fisher, Thompson wasn’t a fan of the hamlet, deriding it as “Tulsa with a view.” By the end of the year, he and his family had moved to San Francisco where he began writing Hell’s Angels .
Jason Walsh is editor in chief of NorthBay biz magazine and northbaybiz.com. A North Bay native, he’s spent his career covering the news, lifestyles and people of Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties. When not up to his elbows in page proofs, you can find him and his family exploring all corners of the North Bay from their home base in Novato.
Songbird Parlour’s atmosphere harkens back to Glen Ellen’s mid-20th century heyday.
October 2025
NorthBaybiz 51
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