SingleThread

Alumnus Keeps Hospitality the Focus at 3-Star Michelin Restaurant

By Melanie Johnson

SingleThread is an apt name for the Sonoma County farm, restaurant and inn where every element, from the food to the wine to the room décor, are stitched together with one common goal in mind — to give guests an unforgettable experience. 

The food and wine may be the headliner at the three Michelin star restaurant, but the staff who serve patrons of the farm-to-table establishment play just as important of a role.

Among them is Akeel Shah ('11, hospitality management), SingleThread’s director of hospitality. Shah joined the staff more than seven years ago, coming in as a captain and working his way up to service director and restaurant director before taking on his current role.

“It’s fun to see SingleThread grow from what is was at the start to where it is now,” Shah says. “The farm was just getting developed at that time. It had been growing a year prior to the restaurant and inn opening.”

SingleThread includes a 24-acre farm, a 52-seat restaurant and a five-room inn in Healdsburg.

As the director of hospitality, Shah oversees all operations for the business, which has 127 employees, and ensures that the high standards set for service are maintained. It’s also an opportunity to mentor.

“With many businesses, a lot of people don’t really focus on the people working for them,” Shah says. “We are here to help people grow. Everybody is here for a purpose. For some, here is where they start their careers. We are helping them along the way so that they can use their experience here as a stepping stone.”

Shah credits the mentorship that he received as a student as his motivation to pass on the same type of encouragement and support to the staff at SingleThread.

Food and Family

Food always has been at the center of Shah’s life. Growing up in Virginia and San Diego, he came from a family that cooked together. Those moments in the kitchen fueled his own passion for cooking and food.

As a teen, Shah worked as a line cook at a few restaurants and debated whether to train as a chef at the Culinary Institute of America in New York or go the business route at Cal Poly Pomona. He chose CPP.

“I loved cooking and still cook all the time, but I think my idea of a career in the culinary world shifted while I was at The Collins College from being a chef to taking on more of a managerial role,” says Shah, who particularly enjoys cooking Indian and Ethiopian food.

Shah attributes a lot of what he learned about hospitality and running a restaurant to his experiences at Cal Poly Pomona, especially as a student chef at The Restaurant at Kellogg Ranch.

“It’s one of the best experiences that I have had in my life,” he says. “It was the hands-on approach, but also the feeling of the campus and the experience of the professors. They cared about us and wanted us to succeed. I feel like I got a well-rounded education, not just in the culinary arts.”

Mentor and Collins Lecturer Emeritus Barbara Jean Bruin (’85, hospitality management) remembers Shah as a kind, diligent and hardworking team player.

As the production manager in the restaurant class, he was tasked with supervising the student chefs and making sure they didn’t run out of needed supplies. “He was outstanding,” Bruin says. “He really had a good eye for detail.”

Her students were required to write “love notes” or training notes for the next person in their position. After being in charge of the beverage station, Shah left notes that included photos of what the lemon slices should look like, a diagram of where the sugar carriers and slicer should be placed, and tips on how often to wash the containers for the creamer.

Bruin says she is overjoyed to see Shah’s success.

“I am happy as a lark,” she says of Shah’s accomplishments. “I’m a proud mama to see where my students go and what they do. I have seen them when they start out and drop trays, and then they end up being general managers or running hotels and restaurants.”

Recipe for Success

After graduation, Shah was selected for the management training program at the JW Marriott in San Francisco. From there, he became the assistant food and beverage manager for the hotel. He was at Marriott for a little over a year, trying to figure out if he wanted to remain in hotels or switch to stand-alone restaurants. He accepted a position with the Michael Mina Restaurant Group, a San Francisco-based restaurant company founded by Mina, an award-winning chef.

Shah held various management positions at several of the group’s establishments in San Francisco, including Aqua, Bourbon Steak and Clock Bar, a high-end lounge serving specialty cocktails and gourmet bar food.

“It was good for me because I was young and needed a swift kick,” he says of his three years with the Mina Group. “I learned a lot about spirits, craft cocktails and fine dining.”

Shah worked a stint at RN74, a Burgundian-style French bistro for a while before deciding to team
up with fellow Cal Poly Pomona alumnus and chef Matt Cruz (‘13, hospitality management). He and Cruz helped open Lazy Bear, a modern American restaurant in San Francisco’s Mission District that earned two Michelin stars.

It was at a party at Lazy Bear when Shah met one of the investors of SingleThread. That chance meeting led to a job offer to help husband and wife team Kyle and Katina Connaughton — the executive chef and the culinary garden/farm manager respectively — open their new venture in Sonoma County. He initially started as a captain, which in the hospitality industry is a supervisory role.

Shah also found love at SingleThread. His wife, Marley Brown, is the head chef, and the couple is expecting their first child in June.

SingleThread’s dinner menu is an 11-course tasting that features fish and vegetarian options. The Japanese-influenced dishes change daily and revolve largely around what is harvested at the 5-acre farm nearby in the San Lorenzo vineyard area. The restaurant is ranked No. 46 in the world, and SingleThread is just one of 13 in the United States to have earned three Michelin stars.

“To be able to be a part of opening one of the leading restaurants in the United States makes me feel very lucky and fortunate,” Shah says. “A lot of my success is attributed to what I learned at Cal Poly Pomona.”