The Next Bathers’ Pavilion Residency Welcomes a World-Class Californian Restaurant to Sydney

Every meal at Single Thread begins with a collection of bite-sized dishes. They’re dotted over an intricate installation of florals, moss and wood – bringing the outdoors indoors, and giving a “snapshot of today”, according to owner-chef Kyle Connaughton. And this very experience is coming to Sydney this July, when Single Threads joins the Bathers’ Pavilion kitchen. 

Kyle runs the three-Michelin-starred Californian restaurant with his wife, and head farmer, Katina Connaughton. In Sonoma, their 24-acre regenerative farm supplies produce to the Single Thread kitchen, which is informed by Japanese cooking techniques. In Sydney, this considered approach is threaded through a 10-course tasting menu – including the aforementioned kaiseki-style garden introduction.

“It’s something we’ve developed over time, coordinating wooden structures with floral material, and we look forward to recreating that in Sydney,” Kyle says. “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.”

The Sydney experience is $690 per person, the converted price of what it costs to dine in Sonoma, with lunch and dinner services running from Tuesday to Sunday. There’s capacity for 80 people per service, and bookings are expected to move quickly.

“Guests who come during those few short weeks will have an experience they can’t have at another time – not with Bathers’ Pavilion, and not with us,” Kyle says. “We’re so inspired by the place, by what [Bathers’ Pavilion has] done there already, and by the collaborations you’ve had up until now. We were honoured to be asked. The collaboration is everything.

“This isn’t about just bringing Single Thread and thinking of Bathers’ Pavilion as a venue to do what we do in a different location. What intrigued us was the ethos, the level of detail, the commitment – the desire to do something not only authentic to Single Thread, but to create a real moment in time, in a real sense of place.”

Produce is being grown in the Southern Highlands specifically for the residency, in consultation with the Connaughtons. And in April, Bathers’ Pav head chef Aaron Ward is travelling to Single Thread along with others from the Sydney team to immerse themselves in the intricacies of the lauded restaurant (which was recently named joint-first in La Liste’s top 1000 restaurants of the world list.

“It is a very different season from where we’ll be coming from – and a totally different palette of ingredients,” Kyle says. “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. We’re also interested in where we have similarities – our climates, the coastal nature of where we are. What can we find as common ground?  What feels like home?”

The 2026 residency follows two  collaborations between Bathers’ Pavilion and L’Enclume. The British paddock-to-plate restaurant swapped the English Lake District for Middle Harbour in both 2023 and 2025, for a sold-out takeover that generated 2000-person waitlists. So the best advice is set your alarms – tickets will go fast. Bookings open at 10am on Thursday March 12.

Single Thread is in residency at Balmoral’s Bathers’ Pavilion from July 28 till August 23, 2026. Bookings open at 10am on Thursday March 12 AEST via the Bathers’ Pavilion website or by phone.