Vegan buns, ?Barn Diva Light, A-Listing It

Cinnaholic coming to SR: As if the gooey, sugary cinnamon roll couldn’t get any more decadent, Berkeley-based Cinnaholic takes it one step further - mix-and-match frosting and toppings. Think fro-yo meets the bakery case.

Santa Rosa is slated to be one of its next outposts, serving up Irish Cream frosting with pie crumbles and chocolate sauce slathered all over their vegan buns. Not into that combo? There are 39 other frosting flavors and 21 toppings ranging from marshmallows to Oreos.

All of it 100 percent vegan, meaning completely animal, dairy and egg-free. (And yes, Oreos are vegan.) So far no word on the exact location or opening date, but we’ll be looking forward to the sweet smell of fresh baked buns somewhere in Santa Rosa.

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Barndiva Light? One of the curses of success in a small town like Healdsburg? Being too full to accommodate the locals. Which is exactly what’s happened to Barndiva over the years as out-of-towners have flocked to this essential Wine Country destination.

It’s not surprising considering Chef Ryan Fancher’s spot-on dishes - Lobster risotto, goat cheese croquette with wildflower honey, pork belly salad with poached quail egg - and the rustic, Cali-chic indoor-outdoor dining.

Now, however, they’ll be offering a no-reservations, stop-by-for-a-drink option in their nearby gallery (Studio Barndiva) with simple dishes and curated cocktails. Fancher’s sous chef, Andrew Wycoff will handle the studio kitchen, featuring plates like bone marrow tater tots, pork meatballs with fennel, Cuban sandwiches and fish and chips. Continuous service from 3 p.m. on Wednesday through Sunday.

“We miss the custom of neighbors drifting into the Barn after work for a few drinks with friends, groups that would exponentially grow by dragging a few tables together without worrying about the noise or someone with a reservation needing the tables,” Jil Hales, owner and creative director for Barndiva, wrote in her “Eat the View” blog. 237 Center St., Healdsburg.

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Sonoma County Distilling Tours: From grain to glass, this Rohnert Park-based distillery is making some of the best small-batch whiskey in the country. Using in-house mashing, direct-fired alembic pot distillation (a fancy way of describing an ancient distillation process), small barrel aging and lots of know-how, its a fascinating process that’s now open to the public.

Tours are now being offered at the Rohnert Park location (which trust us, is well-hidden from prying eyes) explaining the process and, of course, offering a tasting of several of the company’s spirits. It’s a great way to get up close and personal with your booze. Available Thursday through Sunday by advance reservation only, $20, sonomacountydistilling.com or 707-583-7753.

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The Louvre museum, a white linen tablecloth being gently unfurled, and graceful choreography are among the inspirations for Thomas Keller’s kitchen redesign for his The French Laundry. In the first major overhaul of the landmark restaurant in 20 years, international design firm Snøhetta, California-based firms Envelope A+D and Tim Harrison of Harrison, Koellner, LLC will create a new and expanded kitchen and courtyard, an auxiliary building to house a wine cellar and support offices, and a new arrival experience to enhance the approach to the iconic blue door.

“The French Laundry is being redesigned to be a backdrop worthy of the restaurant’s history,” Keller said. “With the Louvre Pyramid as my inspiration, we wanted to find a way to juxtapose the historic and the modern while maintaining the high quality cuisine and service our guests have come to expect from The French Laundry. The new design will be an innovative and functioning space that will allow us to continue to evolve as a restaurant and develop new standards.”

In addition to expanding the kitchen’s size by 25 percent, the renovation will make for more efficient use of space, creating one contiguous room for the entire culinary team with a visual connection from station to station. With walls, flooring and work stations all fashioned out of Dekton, an ultra-compact surface, the new kitchen will feature a white-on-white palette - a nod to the sense of promise and potential of a fresh start. The kitchen equipment will feature two unique Moltini suites by Electrolux and commercial ranges by Hestan Commercial. The ground-up construction of a new Kitchen Annex will house The French Laundry’s support functions including the prep kitchen, butchery, produce breakdown, and management offices. It is also home to The French Laundry’s regarded wine collection, with the storage capacity to hold up to 14,000 bottles.

Keller’s culinary team, meanwhile, has moved into a temporary kitchen space at the restaurant, and has been serving diners since April 7. During construction, Envelope A+D conceived of using shipping containers as modular units for a temporary kitchen in the restaurant’s former courtyard, allowing for service to resume after the restaurant’s closure in January. The restaurant is offering dinner seven days a week beginning at 5:30 p.m. and lunch on Saturday and Sunday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Construction is slated to be complete by late this year.