Lauded California restaurant SingleThread will welcome guests at Sydney’s Bathers’ Pavilion for a four-week residency in July–August 2026.
Operated by husband-and-wife team Kyle Connaughton (chef) and Katina Connaughton (head farmer), SingleThread holds three Michelin stars and was named the joint number-one restaurant in the world by La Liste in 2026 (sharing the title with nine others). Its philosophy and cuisine are built around vegetables, fruit, herbs, flowers, and honey grown on its own 24-acre farm in Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County, supplemented by premium proteins, including seafood from Japan.
The cuisine of the Healdsburg restaurant (about 20 minutes’ drive from the farm) applies a Japanese lens to the tenderly produced ingredients, reflecting Kyle’s career which includes experience as the head chef of research and development at The Fat Duck under Heston Blumenthal, with noted French chef Michel Bras (also known for a love of dressing plates with flowers), and at traditional kaiseki restaurants.
“SingleThread is about the dialogue between farm, kitchen and guest,” said Kyle Connaughton. “Coming to Sydney allows us to explore that philosophy through Australia’s extraordinary produce while maintaining the integrity of what defines us.”
The Sydney residency — which will run from Tuesday 28 July to Sunday 23 August — will be delivered in the same format as SingleThread’s Californian restaurant, following a 10-course tasting menu beginning with a hassun-style snack course of individual bites sharing the pinnacle of produce available that day, presented on a visually stunning bed of flowers.
“The way florals are integrated into dishes and presentations is our way of bringing the outdoors in — showing what today feels like,” says Kyle. “We grow our own cut flowers and also use floral materials from the agricultural process — bolting asparagus, cabbage going to seed, tomato vines, peas on the vine — highlighting the beauty in farming. We’ll work on ways to tell that story in Sydney, combining a sense of place with a sense of California.”
Bringing SingleThread’s philosophy even closer to the Sydney operation, Bathers’ Pavilion’s executive chef Aaron Ward will spend several weeks at the Sonoma restaurant in April, while the restaurant’s Southern Highlands farm has begun producing vegetables and botanicals in consultation with the Connaughtons in anticipation of their arrival.
“On the farm, we’re very interested in getting into local varieties of vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruit that are native to Australia and that we don’t have in California,” said Kyle. “Our seafood sourcing is also very important to us, so we’re really interested in exploring the seafood in Australia. We recently did a collaboration dinner with Neil Perry in Copenhagen, and he brought pearl meat, which we had never seen or experienced before.”
Reflecting SingleThread’s location in the prized American wine region and ongoing connection to Japan, the residency’s drinks offering will span Californian, domestic and European wines with sake.Â
The July pop-up will mark the third instalment of world-class residencies at the esteemed Mosman restaurant, following two visits from Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume in 2023 and 2025. Following the form of the past residencies, restaurant details including ceramics, crockery, artwork and more will completely transform the Bathers’ Pavilion dining room, with key staff also joining Kyle and Katina.
“These residencies are cumulative — each one aims to raise the bar,” says Bathers’ Pavilion managing director Jessica Shirevington. “To have the world’s joint number-one restaurant choose Balmoral for a four-week collaboration is something we are immensely proud of. For diners, that translates into an experience that feels truly transportive — as close as you can get to dining at the source, without leaving Sydney.”
It’s also a key period for the Connaughtons; their first outpost, SoNoMa by SingleThread, opens this month in the brand-new Capella Kyoto — marking a return to Japan, and a significant international expansion of their concept.
The SingleThread residency at Bathers’ Pavilion is priced at $690 per guest (a rough conversion of the price to dine in the States) and will be available for lunch and dinner, Tuesdays–Sundays, between 28 July and 23 August 2026.
Bookings are available from 10am on Thursday 12 March on Bathers’ Pavilion’s website or on (02) 9969 5050.
