D I N E W I S E WITH JASON WALSH
Santé N estled within the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa in Sonoma Valley, Santé is as much a hidden gem as it is a restaurant whose reputation precedes itself. You can’t see it from the main road—the resort is set back from Highway 12 and Santé is out of eyeshot from the thoroughfare—but it’s earned a stellar reputation locally since replacing the Big 3 Diner a few years ago as the Fairmont’s house restaurant. With bright interiors matching modest white linens and lived-in merlot-shaded armchairs, Santé has a stately, Old-World ambiance reflective of its French-inspired menus and extensive wine list. Large east-facing windows looking out upon a nearby pool area also lend to Santé’s summery charms. We started with a small plate of diver scallops and pork belly ($27), replete with green scallion pancake, olives, capers and a sweet-pickle relish—a tantalizing blend of flavors, the savory pork working especially well against the pickle and similar briny elements. Other menu starters run from burrata and mushroom tartine to duck confit cassoulet to salads, a potato leek soup and beyond. Priced between $14 to $27, starters are ample enough to share or, in some cases, even serve as an entrée. Santé’s home base, the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa, dates back nearly a century when it opened in 1927 as the Boyes Hot Springs Hotel, one of the busy locations when the Boyes Springs area was known far and wide as a wellness destination due to its warm, subterrestrial mineral waters. Today, the Fairmont is the last bastion of that resort heyday, a luxury inn and spa amid a mostly working-class neighborhood outside the Sonoma city limits. A taste of Chablis “La Sereine” chardonnay from Burgundy winery La Chablisienne was indicative of Sante’s French roots, though the wine list largely steers toward prominent local labels—Merry Edwards, Duckhorn, Sixteen 600, Bella Union, J Vineyards, among others. The cocktail menu ranges from a dirty martini (with BR Cohn olive oil, $25) to the trendy Pink Pony Club (vodka and various citruses, $22). Next arrived our entrees: A server-recommended bouillabaisse ($47) and Mary’s dry-aged duck breast ($49).
Sante’s boasts a stately, Old World ambience within the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn.
48 NorthBaybiz
June 2025
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