It’s uncommon for a restaurant to garner a Michelin star less than six months after opening.

It’s even more of a rarity to achieve two stars in that short span.

Yet Enclos in downtown Sonoma managed that impressive feat.

Brian Limoges, executive chef of the acclaimed restaurant that opened in December 2024, was caught so off guard that at first he didn’t think he had even been invited to the June ceremony in Sacramento. Turns out the emailed invitation had landed in his spam box.

Sitting in the audience of the awards ceremony, he then had a brief panic when he didn’t see Enclos listed among the new one-star recipients. But good things come to those who wait. And he and his staff were overjoyed to see they had won two stars right out of the gate.

Enclos, French for “enclosure,” is operated by Stone Edge Farm Estate Vineyards and Winery in Sonoma. In fact, you’ll find many ingredients on the restaurant’s tasting menu sourced from that verdant 16-acre farm just minutes away.

The winery is owned by Leslie McQuown and her husband Mac McQuown, a serial entrepreneur who also co-founded the Chalone Wine Group and Carmenet Winery. The couple decided to go all-in on the restaurant, and wow, has it paid off.

Three years ago, I had the pleasure of being invited as a guest of the restaurant to dine on the outside patio when it was Edge. It was a thoroughly lovely experience.

Now, however, it is a far more elevated affair, as I found when I dined with my husband a week ago, with the two of us paying our own tab.

As one of our servers remarked: Before Michelin, there were a few empty tables on most nights. Now? You have to be quick on the trigger to land a reservation when they come available because they go just that fast.

The restaurant is housed in a charming Victorian. Dining here feels like you’re spending a festive and cozy evening in a friend’s well-appointed home, albeit a friend who just happens to have a full brigade of chefs in an expansive open kitchen.

The patio, which serves a more informal a la carte menu, is reserved for wine club members and those who have dined in the Enclos dining room previously.

The tasting menu in the dining room is $280 per person. Four different wine pairings are offered, from $85 for the Stone Edge Farm flight to $300 for the Elevated pairing of rare finds and limited vintages.

When you are seated, you’ll notice a sweet hand-drawn, hand-written, personalized welcome note on that table that was created by dining room manager Lawrence Nadeau, who worked for decades at The French Laundry.

As with so many tasting-menu restaurants these days, you won’t actually receive a menu until the end of the meal. So, just sit back and put yourself in the hands of the restaurant.

You’re welcomed with a non-alcoholic infusion of Galia melon, wild chamomile, and shiso that’s poured from what looks like a futuristic glass canteen. You can really taste the sweet, floral, summery notes from the melon.

The Champagne cart gets rolled to your table. You can enjoy a glass a la carte or choose a selection based on the pairing option you’ve decided upon.

Limoges likes to describe his cooking as Sonoma by way of rural New Hampshire, where he grew up. He has a confident hand, having worked in such esteemed Michelin multi-starred kitchens as Atelier Crenn, Quince, Birdsong, Saison, and Angler, all in San Francisco.

The first bite is a warm gougere crowned with a flower hat of compressed apple and pine dust. It bursts with gooey, molten cheese that tastes buttery and a little funky in the best way.

The spiny lobster tart arrives looking like the world’s prettiest wreath atop a trompe l’oeil plate that looks like river stones on the bottom of a lake. The golden ring tart is crispy, with the sweetness of the crab meat plus the gentle allium note from the onion flowers shining through.

Next comes the most photogenic of signature dishes: a real deer antler with tiny venison tartare tartlets perched on top. It’s a nod to the white tail deer being the state animal of New Hampshire. With a smoked oat tart shell and dabs of egg yolk jam and a tuft of lichen filaments, it’s rich, meaty, and smoky, evoking in one bite a hunting trip and its spoils.

Presentation gets high marks in this restaurant, with fermented rutabaga bread pudding served on what looks like an antique toaster in the shape of a scallop that opens up. The buttery bread is finished with persimmon duck liver mousse, pecans, and a drizzle of 100-year-aged balsamic for a sweet-savory, fruity-tangy nosh.

A medley of 11 different squashes grown at Stone Edge Farm gets snuggled inside a lidded glass bowl. Some are fermented, some done confit, others hearth-cooked, and some even turned into a milk punch gel. There’s also some green mango in the mix. It all gets finished at the table with the farm’s extra-virgin olive oil infused with citrus marigold for a mustardy kick. There is softness and crunchiness, sweetness and pickly-tartness in this salute to autumn.

Raw spot prawn, sweet and delicate, is hidden under an artful presentation of quince, radish, pluot, jalapeno, and shiso oil. It’s refreshing, fruity and tangy, with a taste like Japanese ume.

Bread gets a star turn with a nutty, earthy tasting slices of sourdough made with locally foraged acorns turned into flour, and the most incredible brioche that gets a laminated top as crispy and layered as a fine croissant. Yes, it’s bread and pastry in one. If it weren’t buttery enough, there’s also soft butter sprinkled with roasted sel gris sea salt to spread on.

Custardy, quivery chawanmushi with caviar and aged pork gets finished at the table with a pour of clam chowder for my husband and creamy white asparagus soup for me.

A huge slab of Half Moon Bay tuna belly is presented at the table, its flesh deeply orange-red from being aged for 60 days, before it is whisked away.

You don’t get quite that serving size, but rather a tiny dice of the belly, so fine that it’s like confetti, over dry-farmed, short-grain Koshihikari rice from the Sacramento Valley. Pea sprouts and crunchy oyster plants are arrayed on top, along with toasted sesame seeds, and a cloud of passion fruit-sea urchin sabayon. This dish may be petite in size but it is a powerhouse of umami. It’s almost like chirashi royalty.

Luscious Wolfe Ranch quail arrives in several preparations. First, the leg cooked on the hearth with nectarine and rosehips, and perfectly outfitted in its own silver holder that just begs you to pick it up with your fingers to gnaw off every last juicy bit. Second, the succulent breast served with an artichoke heart wrapped in rose petals and grilled so that it’s perfume permeates.

Lastly, a large silver run is brought to the table to dispense a quail bone broth seasoned with five spice, chamomile, garlic, chives, and butter. (See video here.) It is delightfully reminiscent of pho. So much so, that you wish you had some noodles to dunk into a big bowl of it.

Masami Ranch American Wagyu is served three ways, as well. First, the New York strip with fermented habanero that is shades of Korean fermented pepper but without the heat, grilled kale, and carrot that’s compressed, dehydrated then rehydrated in carrot juice so that it’s chewy and with the warmth of persimmon. Then, skewers of smoked rib are delivered that flood the mouth with fatty, rich juice. Lastly, there is bresaola, the beef salted and cured into charcuterie that’s salty, potently beefy tasting, and with a melt-in-your mouth texture.

To cleanse the palate, there is bracing Stone Edge Farm pear sorbet with yuzu, jam, finger lime and red wood oil.

The plated dessert is an homage to sticky toffee pudding. The farm’s apples are cooked at 60 degrees for an astounding 2 months to concentrate its flavor before being turned into a dollop of sticky, dark puree on the plate that tastes like fine balsamico by way of apples. There is rich sheep milk’s ice cream, bright and lively lemon curd, a tiny caramel apple tart, and a caramelized whey custard with a crunchy, crumble top.

Mignardises are wonderfully playful here. Caneles taste extra toasty-roasty with the addition of nocino, the Italian liqueur made from unripe green walnuts. Macarons shine with a filling of mandarins. Chocolates are formed into sunflowers with a sunflower seed filling, making them taste like a Reese’s but with sunflower seed butter instead.

The piece de resistance are the itty-bitty honey ice cream cones that get presented atop an actual hive frame. Look at them closely to admire the attention to detail. The ice cream is shaped exactly like a domed bee hive familiar from cartoons with honey cascading down it. Don’t be surprised if these grow to be as singularly associated with the restaurant as the salmon cornets are at The French Laundry.

After one meal at Enclos, it’s no wonder why it sparkled its way so brilliantly and so quickly to two stars.