Douglas Keane aims to reopen Cyrus in Alexander Valley

Chef Douglas Keane wants to reopen his acclaimed Cyrus Restaurant in a vineyard setting in rural Alexander Valley, but already is meeting resistance from residents worried about the precedent it could set for the agricultural area.

Two years after shuttering his Michelin-starred restaurant in Healdsburg, Keane said Wednesday he is planning to revive it in Jimtown and serve a relatively small number of patrons by reservation only.

“The biggest goal with this restaurant is I want it to be surprising and stunning when you drive up through the vines,” Keane said. “I want it to blend in, so you don’t even know it’s there. I don’t want any street presence whatsoever.”

Keane has been reaching out to residents the past four to six weeks to let them know of his plans to build the destination restaurant off Highway 128, on a parcel owned by Jackson Family Wines, which agreed to lease the property to him.

But the 0.83-acre parcel with a century-old house and barns is zoned for agricultural purposes and does not allow for a restaurant, according to Sonoma County Planner Dean Parsons.

“It would take a general plan amendment and zone change,” said Parsons, who said approval would be needed from the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. “There would have to be a significant public benefit for the board to do that.”

Residents of the sparsely populated, vine-laden Alexander Valley voiced concerns Wednesday that the restaurant will lead to commercialization and the type of congestion associated more with Napa Valley, farther to the south on Highway 128.

“It does set a precedent we’re kind of concerned about,” said Ralph Sceales, past president of the Alexander Valley Association. “There are no permitted restaurants in Alexander Valley at this time.”

He said it could open the door for more restaurants and tourist attractions typified by high-class restaurants like Mustards Grill and the French Laundry in Napa Valley.

“It’s commercial; I don’t think very attractive,” he said, adding that Alexander Valley is “one of the last areas in Sonoma County that’s rural. People want to come here for that reason.”

Grape grower Karen Passalacqua said, “Alexander Valley is an agricultural area of Sonoma County ,and there is no need for a restaurant. We have plenty of places for restaurants in Geyserville and Healdsburg and no need for a rural restaurant, no matter how exclusive.”

But Jason Hunke, a spokesman for Jackson Family Wines, said it makes sense to retain great chefs like Keane in Sonoma County.

“Sonoma County is a world-class food destination. It’s in all our interests as a community to have and continue to want great chefs to stay,” he said.

Keane closed his restaurant in Healdsburg in 2012 following a high-profile legal dispute with his landlord, the owner of Les Mars Hotel.

Barbara Banke, head of Jackson Family Wines, “sat me down right after Cyrus closed and said, ‘I don’t know what you’re planning on doing, but if there’s anything you could to do to keep Cyrus in Sonoma County, I’d like to help,’?” Keane said Wednesday.

After closing Cyrus, he won a celebrity chef contest, “Top Chef Masters” on national TV, winning $100,000 for his favorite charity, Green Dog Rescue of Windsor.

He went on to open a chicken-wing restaurant in the new Graton Resort and Casino, but closed it within several months. He said Wednesday that he had decided the restaurant was not the right fit for him.

Keane said he has participated in a number of events with Jackson Family Wines, including catering and charity work, as well as the tomato festival for Kendall-Jackson, the winery founded by Banke’s late husband Jess Jackson.

He said the lease option she offered him for the restaurant in Alexander Valley “is a very fair, fair deal.”

The proposed location is 6809 Highway 128, just past the Jimtown Store, on the opposite side of the road.

Keane, who lives on West Soda Rock Road in Alexander Valley, said he understands that some people fear his restaurant could open a “Pandora’s box” of growth.

“I get it. This is my home, too,” he said. “I live out there. I understand any development is a hot-?button issue.”

His plans are to serve 36 to 48 guests, five nights a week, 49 weeks of the year. There would be three to four seatings between 6 and 9 p.m., with a maximum dozen guests per seating.

Keane wants to have a liquor license, to serve restaurant patrons only, with no bar, since he does not want it to be a place to drop in “for a bite and a drink.”

Reservations would be booked and sold up to six months in advance.

Like Cyrus, which garnered two coveted Michelin stars, the new restaurant would have a similar “very refined tasting-menu format,” where patrons can choose three to five courses from different categories of food.

He said his longtime associates, business partner Nick Peyton and chef Drew Glassell, will be part of the venture, and there will probably be investors, depending on what the budget is.

Keane said if he gets necessary approvals it likely would open in 2016, but he has not yet submitted the application. He said he is working on a landscaping plan and does not yet have architectural drawings for the restaurant or an estimate of costs.

A former blacksmith’s shop likely would be relocated to help provide parking for 39 cars, including for 15 employee vehicles.

Keane said he wants to address neighbors’ concerns and hopefully win them over.

“I want to keep Cyrus in Sonoma. If enough people don’t want it there, it won’t happen. I will go somewhere else. But I don’t want to move,” Keane said.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 ?or clark.mason@?pressdemocrat.com.