Bathers' Pavilion delivers a degustation coup with the arrival of their SingleThread residency
The best restaurant in the world meets one of the best views in Sydney
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AWARD-WINNING restaurant and farm SingleThread has spent a decade building its reputation on having the shortest possible distance between field and plate. But for four weeks this winter, that distance stretched to 12,000 kilometres, the gap between California’s Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County, and Sydney’s Balmoral Beach, where the three-Michelin-starred restaurant has taken over the kitchen at Bathers’ Pavilion until August 23.
Bathers’ Pavilion has run international residencies before with UK restaurant L’Enclume. First, in 2023, which clocked a wait list of 2000 names, and then again in 2025. Choosing SingleThread as the third instalment was a different kind of decision for managing director Jessica Shirvington. “SingleThread really caught our attention because whilst it shares many elements of ethos with the L’Enclume Group, it was also very new and different but equally, reaching new heights on the international food scene,” Shirvington tells Esquire. The prospect of a collaboration became particularly exciting when the restaurant, led by husband-and-wife team Kyle and Katina Connaughton, was ranked joint no.1 in the world by La Liste.
The seeds for this particular harvest had been sown some time prior, courtesy of Bathers’ executive chef Aaron Ward, who introduced Kyle Connaughton to Westholme Wagyu in San Francisco. “I wanted him to experience the quality of the beef for himself, and he was just as impressed as I had been the first time I tasted it,” says Ward. “We started talking through the different cuts, what each one could offer, how we would cook them to bring out their individual qualities, and even how we imagined each dish looking on the plate. That initial tasting in San Francisco planted the seed for what we’re seeing here today.”
For his part though, Connaughton says the decision to bring SingleThread to Sydney had as much to do with the Bathers’ team as the beef. “We were so interested and so impressed by the dedication of the Bathers Pavilion team to do these residencies, from sending the team to come and train with us, to really learning everything about what it is that we do at SingleThread,” explains Connaughton.
The harder question was how to carry a farm-driven philosophy to a city where the farm cannot follow. “What we do is of course, based around our own farm and what’s happening there, and we’re telling that story every day, but it’s really more about the ethos of how we approach this,” explains Connaughton. “We were able to really apply the SingleThread ethos to what was going to be in season, what was going to be local, what was going to be the best possible product that was going to be available to us here, rather than feeling like we needed to specifically recreate exactly what the SingleThread experience is.”
The menu began taking shape when Ward travelled to Healdsburg to train ahead of the residency. “We had a chance to really look at the dishes and what we were doing and the style of the menu, and we took a lot of inspiration from that, knowing that would be the season we would be in here,” says Connaughton. “We built dishes around certain products we never get a chance to cook with, like marron and the Murray cod.” From there, sourcing fell largely to Ward. “That’s really where we leaned into Chef Aaron and his knowledge and his connections and his experience here in Australia,” says Connaughton. “He created a lot of those opportunities, made a lot of those recommendations, and we tailored the menu to his recommendations.” Ward describes the timeframe as workable rather than generous: “We had just under six months to prepare for the residency, which gave us enough time to make the most of the last summer produce for fermentation and pickling. We’ve also had a particularly warm winter, so there has been an abundance of brassicas and green vegetables.”
The ten-course menu opens with a hassun, a run of small dishes that includes a bowl of Hakurei fried turnips in a bed of pesto and Crème Fraîche shirae. The panna cotta crowned with white sturgeon caviar, sourced not from California but Italy, basically melted on the tongue while an oyster, dressed in a sake mousse, perfectly pitted merroir with umami. The tempura course, King George whiting under a shell as fine as tissue paper, is finished with a California umeboshi, one of the few direct nods to Sonoma on the entire menu.
The most overt handshake between the two kitchens lands mid-menu. “For me, the clearest meeting point between our two visions was the Wollemi duck,” says Ward. “That’s a dish we cook at Bathers Pavilion, and our approach to the duck impressed Kyle and his team enough that they wanted to carry that style and technique through the residency.” Ward oversees the duck farm supplying it himself. Nearby, the Murray cod arrives wrapped in a barley crepe, its cherry wood scent reaching neighbouring tables before the plate does; the advice from the floor is to eat it as a burrito rather than a taco. There’s also the joy of pairing the familiar pink lady apple with duck liver parfait and crushed pistachio and finger lime, the fruits’ sweet-and-tart contrast cutting through the butter-soft parfait’s richness.
The final savoury course carries the most engineering. Purebred Westholme Wagyu MB9+, served shime style, closes the menu on tenderloin and short rib rather than a conventional steak. “We’re using the tenderloin and the short rib rather than doing a traditional tranche of a steak,” explains Connaughton. “The shime dish is really meant to take all of the flavour that you’ve extracted through the cooking of the food and really cook the rice into that, to where you’re getting all of that flavour soaked into the rice. We’re making this really deep beef stock and jewel from the beef and the bones as well, and really concentrating that flavour into this almost savoury porridge that had all these depths of notes.” On the table, it reads simply: the Wagyu is rich enough to eat like butter.
The drinks list leans into that same push and pull between two hemispheres, Californian, domestic and European wines alongside sake and non-alcoholic pairings made in-house. Among the standouts, an Arbois Savagnin and a sake as smooth as water before the familiar warmth builds underneath it. Alternatively, a non-alcoholic pinot, made onsite at Bathers’, made from beetroot, was a brilliant touch and a must-try even if you are locked in for the wine pairing.
The details run beneath the flourish of food, too. To mark the occasion, Shirvington had custom flatware created to accompany the menu, a punctuation of detail that comes from someone who understands that the best restaurants are as much theatre as they are preparation. If you fancy, you can even buy some of the creations for yourself courtesy a QR code in your gift bag at the end of your dining experience.
Running the residency at this scale carries its own weight. Bathers’ Pavilion is hosting 80 guests per sitting, lunch and dinner, Tuesday to Sunday, at $690 per guest plus service. “The commercial reality is that it makes sense in many ways, and most importantly, it is a lot of fun for our guests and for our staff,” says Shirvington. “The residencies have become part of our identity at Bathers’, a part we are extremely proud of.”
The SingleThread residency closes on 23 August.
Reservations can be made via the Bathers’ Pavilion website.
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