The Herbfarm
Pacific Northwest restaurant (US) · Woodinville ·
9-course tasting menus with local wine pairings in a bucolic setting
9-course tasting menus with local wine pairings in a bucolic setting
"Originally a literal herb farm in Fall City, Washington run by Ron Zimmerman’s parents, it was transformed after Ron joined the family business in 1986 with his wife Carrie Van Dyck into a destination that combined cooking and craft classes, a world-class mail-order catalog, and meals designed to showcase fresh herbs so customers would buy plants. What began as luncheons to promote plant sales evolved into multi-course dinners that became impossible-to-get reservations and helped set the standard for cooking with local, seasonal ingredients; a few years in Ron installed Jerry Traunfeld as chef, who went on to win a James Beard Award. The operation was adventurous and influential—hosting a microbrewery festival long before craft beer was a trend, staging “100-mile dinners” that even involved making their own baking powder and salt to meet strict sourcing rules, and pioneering generous staff compensation like health insurance and 401(k)s. The original farm burned in 1996 and the restaurant later relocated to Woodinville; it is now run by longtime employee Chris Weber carrying on that legacy. Ron wrote and designed a charming cookbook-memoir, The Spirit of The Herbfarm, before his death in 2023; some recipes are famously fiddly (one calls for carefully stuffing zucchini blossoms with salmon), and sales help fund the Ron Zimmerman Scholarship to place local culinary interns at the restaurant. The Herbfarm also staged whimsical public events—the herbal weekends with ad-lib actors portraying characters like Miss Thyme, Sir Basil, and Aunt Rosemary were a highlight—and offered family-friendly farm activities (doves, pigs, llamas, picnics) that made the place feel magical to generations of visitors." - Harry Cheadle
"Co-founded by Ron Zimmerman, I remember this legendary farm-to-table restaurant as having begun on an actual herb farm in Fall City, where Zimmerman and his wife Carrie Van Dyck taught herb-gardening and cooking classes and started serving luncheons to promote herb sales. Over the years it grew into one of the state’s most famous (and also expensive) dining destinations, routinely winning accolades for its nine-course meals typically built around a seasonal theme and focused on local ingredients, making it a pillar of the Slow Food movement. It maintained strong educational roots—the chef delivers a lecture on the night’s menu, Zimmerman and Van Dyck gave guests tours of the farm, and you can still book packages that let you help in the fields before eating—and it now offers only dinner with a single seating each night. The original Fall City restaurant burned down in 1997 and reopened in Woodinville in 2001; after the founders began looking to sell in 2018, chef Chris Weber and then-sous chef Jack Gingrich bought it in 2021 (Gingrich is now general manager)." - Harry Cheadle
"The iconic Woodinville farm-to-table restaurant is serving up a ready-to-eat New Year’s Day feast for two, including items such as an egg and sage quiche, Dungeness crab and caviar parfait, and a chocolate and hazelnut babka. There are also fancy mimosas to-go, made with an Oregon cranberry and Douglas fir-infused mixer." - Gabe Guarente
"I saw that Woodinville’s high-end, farm-to-table Herbfarm has shut down its dining room to focus solely on giving away meals to healthcare workers, is accepting donations through a GoFundMe page, and has provided about 2,800 meals to medical teams at Evergreen, Overlake, Virginia Mason, Swedish, Kaiser Permanente, and other hospitals." - Megan Hill
"The farm offers a CSA box with seven to 10 items a week, from June through November. The inter CSA box begins in January." - Megan Hill