Harvest Moon Café sold to hospitality-consulting company

“We opened on Friday the 13th and we have been open for 13 years,” Harvest Moon Café owner Nick Demarest told the Index-Tribune on Saturday. “It’s time for a break.”

Few of Harvest Moon’s regular customers could imagine how Demarest and crew could physically survive cooking over hot burners in a small kitchen and restaurant without air conditioning. But they did it thousands of times, and amassed a substantial following during their 13 years in the Plaza restaurant at 487 First St. W., designed by Sonoma architect Adrian Martinez.

“I need a break. I want to help (spouse) Jen be successful at her new endeavor, Baker & Cook in Boyes Hot Springs. I need to wrap my head around doing something sustainable for myself and my family,” Demarest said. “Our daughter is 13 and we need to be home with her in the evening.”

Demarest lamented the rising price of goods in the food business.

“I have always bought the best from (Paul’s Produce) and 85 percent of what we serve comes from within a two to three mile radius of the restaurant,” said Demarest. “But now meat and fish and utilities have all gone up.”

According to Demarest, an alum of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, most restaurants spend about 25 percent of their costs on food. “I’ve always spent about 40 percent without raising prices, just to get best quality,” he said. Demarest also cited the increasing difficulty in finding young people to employ in Sonoma.

“Young people, 18 to 35, are the core of this business, and young people don’t move here (to Sonoma) anymore because they can’t afford it.”

Many restaurants and wine tasting rooms are still seeing a lingering downturn in business in the wake of the 2017 wildfires ­- and a year later the Paradise fires - both of which polluted Sonoma Valley’s air and disrupted local tourism.

The Demarests have sold Harvest Moon to Lauren Feldman and her partners at SurPointe, a beverage and hospitality consulting firm.

Feldman and her SurPointe partners - Tanner Walle, Emma Lipp and Stephanie Reagor - say they plan to call their 487 First St. W. restaurant “Valley.” They each have substantial experience in the food and wine fields, and all have worked with Scribe Winery in Sonoma.

Feldman started out at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa and grew through well-known restaurants in New York, Molina in Mill Valley, Cala in San Francisco and Scribe Winery in Sonoma. Walle worked at Terroir and the Riddling Widow in New York, as well as an event wine consultant for NBC, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine and Scribe Winery. Lipp spent time at Navarre in Portland and Antica Terra in the Willamette Valley of Oregon; while Reagor worked in top Chicago restaurants and at the Spotted Pig and others in New York.

While their plans aren’t firm yet, the group hopes to extend the bar into the current main dining room toward the windows and sell glasses and bottles of wine, plus dedicate the rest of the room to retail wine sales, still respecting the historic Leese-Fitch Adobe.

Feldman said they plan to continue as a neighborhood establishment.

“We look to launch with evening restaurant hours and will gradually incorporate daytime service,” said Feldman. “The beverage program will include local producers as well as imports with an emphasis paid to organic and biodynamic agriculture practices. The food menu will be driven by the availability of seasonal produce and the offerings of local purveyors, and influenced by our travels and personal history.”

The SurPointe, or “Valley,” group still need to go through lease negotiations and permit processes before they proceed with plans.

Nick and Jen Demarest plan to close Harvest Moon on Sept. 1 with a few personal and staff parties during the following week.

The Demarests expect Baker & Cook to open in late August or early September, subject to county permit processes, at the former 18812 Sonoma Highway location of Rocket Sushi in the Boyes shopping center owned by Don Richards.

According to Demarest, Richards has repaved the entire parking lot to include ADA parking spaces. The Demarests have completely renovated the back kitchen, and, unlike Harvest Moon, Baker & Cook has air conditioning.

Jen Demarest plans to open Baker & Cook for breakfast and lunch, Wednesday through Sunday.