Sonoma’s Breakout Fine Dining Restaurant Enclos Wins Two Michelin Stars

Sonoma’s Breakout Fine Dining Restaurant Enclos Wins Two Michelin Stars

Enclos lands one of the biggest Michelin distinctions in its debut year.

In terms of expectations at Wednesday’s Michelin ceremony, Limoges and the Enclos team were reasonably confident they would get one of the Michelin Green Star designations, which rewards restaurants for their sustainable practices. As Limoges explains, Stone Edge Farm owners Mac and Leslie McQuown set the foundation for sustainability in the restaurant through their farm and its MicroGrid, a “self-contained system of distributed electrical generation and storage” that powers the farm. “Our late founder Mac was very much into [establishing] the MicroGrid,” Limoges says. “So that was really special to get that for him and for his family, too.”

Likewise the chef himself has worked in multiple Michelin-star kitchens — Atelier Crenn (then a designated two-Michelin-starred restaurant, now with three stars), Quince (three stars), Birdsong (one star in its first year, then two stars in later years), as well as Saison (two stars) and Angler (one star). Although Limoges acknowledges that he had given consideration to the prospect of acquiring Michelin stars, in the aftermath of the two-star designation he says he believes the Enclos team’s achievement was less about that mission and more about the fundamentals of hospitality in a new restaurant.

“While it was certainly our goal, in the back of my head, of course — my goal is to eventually get three with a Green Star, to get all of it — in the short term, we just wanted to focus on our guests and hope that Michelin would recognize us. And I think that was the right approach,” he says. “I don’t necessarily know that it’s a tangible goal,” Limoges says of aiming for Michelin stars. “I mean, you can map it out, ‘Hey, this is our goal.’ [But] I don’t think that it’s practical to do that.”

For a moment at the California Michelin Guide ceremony, it almost looked like a star designation wasn’t going to happen for the Enclos team. The new one-starred establishments were announced, as well as the returning one-star restaurants, but Enclos was nowhere to be seen. But in a twist, the host pulled Limoges onstage to give him the Green Star for Enclos, only to follow that up with the announcement that the restaurant also earned two Michelin stars. “Accepting the Green Star was really special, a lot of emotion there,” Limoges says. “And then the one-two punch [of the announcement] — I was just really happy for our team, because we rolled in with nine people, our owners, our chefs, and my wife, and so to be able to celebrate with them within eyeline, it was awesome. It was really cool.”

Later, the moment was made all the sweeter: Limoges shares that they closed the restaurant for the night so the team could hold a watch party of the ceremony’s livestream. They filmed their reaction and sent the video over to the group at the ceremony.

Reflecting on the designation, Limoges recalls conversations with the team over the tiniest details — in one case, whether the smell of a certain lotion was “too much” — and all of the things they “nitpick” daily to construct a special experience for diners. “We have some really, really talented people,” Limoges says. “We also have some people who have never worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant, but are very eager and hungry and believe in what we are doing.” He adds: “[The stars] reaffirm all those little things, and I think that we’re more confident in what we’re putting out, and it allows us to grow further because we’re not second-guessing our decisions.”