"Success for me is a new relationship with time," Matthew Greenbaum told Sonoma Magazine this month, describing why he sold Underwood Bar & Bistro after almost 24 years. His last official day is New Year's Eve.
For three decades the center of Graton was mostly one person's work. This winter it is passing to a wider group: three new owners at Underwood, a cafe in the old firehouse raising money from community investors, and a town square owned by the community services district. The block is the same one it was in the 1990s. The number of people with a stake in it has grown.
Graton started as one person's project
When Greenbaum came to Graton in the early 1990s, it was a sleepy town that processed apples. Sonoma Magazine reported that it had a couple of dive bars, plenty of empty buildings and hitching posts still along the sidewalks. He opened Willow Wood Market Cafe in 1995, then Underwood across the street in December 2002.
Underwood's dark room, red banquettes, nickel bar and Parisian bistro tile made it an unlikely draw for a town that size. The same report says it became a gathering place for local winemakers, restaurant workers and neighbors who came for French brasserie cooking and classic cocktails. Between them, the two restaurants turned Graton into a place people drove to for dinner.
That history is why the handoff matters. Graton's identity as a destination for food grew mostly from one person's two businesses on opposite sides of the same street.
At Underwood, the new owners have worked the line
The buyers are Sean Kelley, Tara Heffernon and Laura Sanfilippo, the team behind Lo & Behold Bar + Kitchen in Healdsburg. Kelley's history with the restaurant is the important part. He started as an Underwood line cook in 2004 and spent 12 years working up to sous chef and co-manager. According to Sonoma Magazine, Greenbaum had joked for years that Kelley should buy the place someday. Heffernon and Sanfilippo were part of the founding team at Duke's Spirited Cocktails in Healdsburg in 2016, before the three opened Lo & Behold in 2022.
What the new owners have said publicly breaks down like this:
- Staying: steak frites, chou-fleur, cocktails rooted in the classics, and chef Mark Miller in the kitchen.
- Coming back: lunch service.
- New: online reservations and a reimagined happy hour.
- Leaning into: the restaurant's original French brasserie roots, with a nod to San Francisco classics such as cioppino.
Heffernon and Sanfilippo will split their time between Healdsburg and Graton, and Kelley will oversee the kitchen during the transition. "This place is a legacy restaurant with a loyal following. We just want to breathe a little new life into it," Kelley told Sonoma Magazine. Underwood is at 9113 Graton Road. Hours may shift as the new owners settle in, so check the restaurant's own site before planning a lunch.
Willow Wood keeps the founder across the street
Greenbaum isn't leaving the block. He will keep running Willow Wood Market Cafe at 9020 Graton Road, and Jen Warfel, Underwood's longtime general manager, is moving there with him. Sonoma Magazine reported that he plans more time for poetry, travel and his letterpress studio, and that he expects to keep coming in as a customer. "I feel like Underwood is going to stay and be there another 25 years, and I'll be sitting there having a cocktail," he said.
So the most familiar name in Graton is still on Graton Road, at the casual cafe he opened first. The difference is that after New Year's Eve, the town's evening anchor belongs to a team led by a cook who learned it from him.
The firehouse is becoming the coffee shop Graton never had
On Ross Road, the next piece of the town center started from scratch. Sonoma Magazine's September profile of Graton Station began with a plain gap: Graton had no coffee shop. Four locals are building one. Chefs Ferrell Carter and Adrian Apana have cooked at SingleThread, Troubadour Bread & Bistro, Quail & Condor and Maison Porcella. Tori Immel and Matt Jorgensen co-founded the ReVillage Foundation, a nonprofit working to strengthen Graton's local economy and create more shared community spaces.
The project's first phase is a weekend coffee cart outside the former Graton firehouse, which had stood mostly empty for almost 13 years. A full cafe and bakery is under construction inside, with communal tables, lounge space and room for dinners and music. The Graton Station site lists the cart at 3120 Ross Road, serving Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and says more hours and a grand opening are coming.
The menu plans are as local as the location. Early ideas include breakfast sandwiches, savory porridge, mushroom toast, soups, roasted chicken sandwiches, and house-made breads and pastries. Through Preservatory, Carter and Apana's food preservation project, local apples, tomatoes and berries become jams, pickles and shrubs, and the shrubs are already on the cart as sodas. The team has also described canning and fermenting classes and a community-supported kitchen, where members would receive rotating baked goods and pantry items.
The ownership model is what sets it apart from Underwood. Sonoma Magazine reported that Graton Station is raising money through Wefunder, which lets community members invest in the project directly. Underwood started with a single founder. The firehouse cafe is inviting investment from the people it plans to serve.
The old gas station lot belongs to the town
The third piece is the most public one. Graton Town Square sits on a long-vacant former gas station lot at 9155 Graton Road. The Graton Community Services District acquired it, and the West County trail runs along one side. The Press Democrat reported that the effort began in late 2023 and is a collaboration between the district and ReVillage, the same nonprofit behind Graton Station.
The square is still unfinished but already in use. Since public programming began in 2024, it has hosted Lawn Chair Cinema, Graton Day, the Green Valley Food and Wine Festival, community work parties, town halls and the Holiday Lights Tractor Parade. On May 30, 2026, more than 400 people came to Sip and Stroll, which featured Green Valley wineries and raised about $16,000. That is a modest share of a broader campaign of roughly $1 million to build out the site and fund its programming and long-term care. The current fundraising targets grading, utilities and other preconstruction work.
"One of my favorite moments from the evening was looking out across the crowd and realizing how many of the people there had first met one another through Town Square events over the last two years," Immel told the Press Democrat. Jennifer Butler, president of the Graton Community Services District, told the paper: "There is still important work ahead."
The block this winter
Put together, the center of Graton this winter has several kinds of owners. A founder still runs Willow Wood, three Healdsburg operators take over Underwood, a cafe is raising money from its neighbors, and the square belongs to the district. A few established neighbors fill in the rest of the walk.
Here is the stretch in walking order, from Graton Road onto Ross Road:
- Bowman Cellars, 9010 Graton Road. Tasting Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the winery's visit page.
- Willow Wood Market Cafe, 9020 Graton Road. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch, under the same founder.
- Graton Gallery, 9048 Graton Road. Open Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The current show, "Fresh Work," runs through December 6. The juried "Small Works" show runs December 10, 2026, through January 10, 2027, with an artists' reception on Saturday, December 12, from 1 to 4 p.m., according to the gallery.
- Underwood Bar & Bistro, 9113 Graton Road. Under Greenbaum through New Year's Eve, then under Kelley, Heffernon and Sanfilippo.
- Graton Town Square, 9155 Graton Road. The district-owned lot beside the West County trail.
- Graton Station, 3120 Ross Road. Weekend coffee cart outside the old firehouse, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
That makes December 12 the simplest way to see the whole block in one visit. Start with coffee at the cart, see the Small Works reception at the gallery that afternoon, and book dinner at Underwood during its last weeks under the man who opened it in 2002.
Graton's town center sits at the Green Valley edge of the Russian River Valley, and Healdsburg is part of its new chapter through Lo & Behold. If you own property near Graton or across the Russian River Valley and want to talk through how a changing town center fits into your property's story, Graham Sarasy is glad to hear from you. Request a confidential consultation.
