— The Chef Behind the Kitchen —
Every dish on our menu carries a memory. A grandmother's kitchen in Carroll County. A farmhouse in Sonoma. A fish station at three Michelin stars. A wood table set for friends. Chef Colby has cooked in some of the finest rooms in the country, and each one brought him a little closer to this one.
Colby grew up in Carroll County, Maryland, rolling farmland, small towns, a place where the seasons have always meant something. Much of his childhood was dedicated to sports, and for years, wrestling was his life.
The mat taught him things no kitchen could have: that hard work is not a feeling but a daily habit, that you lead by standard rather than volume, and that there is no finish line, only the next morning's work.
When he wasn't at practice, he was almost certainly at his grandmother's house, eating.
His Gram was his first and most lasting influence on food. She hosted family meals with real care, a calm, clean, comfortable home, generous food, and a table where people left feeling looked after. That, before anything else, was Colby's introduction to hospitality.
After high school, Colby spent four years at Pennsylvania College of Technology, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Culinary Arts & Systems and an Associate degree in Hospitality Management. He studied the food and the business of caring for the people eating it.
He also met Meagan. She became his wife and partner in every sense, every city, every kitchen, every early morning and late night. She is half the reason he is the chef he is.
Culinary school opened early doors: management at the original Phillips Crab House, then Café Boulud in Palm Beach, where Colby fell in love, not with the luxury of fine dining, but with the craft and precision behind it.
Colby and Meagan packed up and moved across the country to Seattle, where he joined the kitchen at Canlis, one of the most storied restaurants in the Pacific Northwest, during the Brady Williams era.
He spent two years on that line. While he was there, the restaurant earned recognition from the James Beard Foundation, including Outstanding Wine Program and Best Chef: Northwest.
He learned more in two years at Canlis than he thought possible, about what it looks like when an entire team pulls in the same direction, night after night, without ever getting tired of the standard.
From Seattle, Colby and Meagan moved to Sonoma County, California, where he joined SingleThread, a three-Michelin-star farm, restaurant, and inn that was named the 37th best restaurant in the world on the San Pellegrino 50 Best list during his time there.
He started as a Commis and worked his way through Chef de Partie and Sous Chef, helping run breakfast, lunch, and dinner programs. For a full year, he ran all fish operations as the fish butcher Sous Chef, one of the most demanding roles in any kitchen.
It was at SingleThread that Colby developed a deep love for Japanese culture and cuisine, not as a style to borrow, but as a philosophy to carry: the reverence for product, the restraint on the plate, the way a meal can be shaped by the season rather than imposed on it.
A Quiet
Inheritance
From SingleThread, Colby carried something that does not fit on a résumé: a reverence for product, a restraint on the plate, and the understanding that a meal is shaped by the season rather than imposed on it.
"The discipline you bring to the small things becomes the standard of the whole room."
After SingleThread, Colby stepped away from the three-star pace to help friends open Troubadour Bread & Bistro in Healdsburg. He made naturally fermented sourdough and worked with a small team to build their dinner program from nothing.
There is a humility in leaving a famous dining room for a bread station. Colby welcomed it. Sourdough teaches what a tasting menu cannot: patience with a living thing, an honest relationship with time, and the quiet satisfaction of feeding someone a loaf made at dawn.
During this period, he also led freelance catering events, weddings, pop-ups, dinners in unfamiliar rooms. The ability to walk into any space and deliver a meal that feels effortless is something you can only earn on the road.
Eventually, Colby and Meagan moved back to the East Coast. Family was closer. The landscape was familiar. He accepted a role as Executive Sous Chef at The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm, one of the most respected farm-driven kitchens in Virginia. Nine months later, he was named Executive Chef.
He leaned fully into what he had always believed: local farms, seasonal product, considered craft, a team that cared. In his final year, the restaurant was named #1 in Northern Virginia Magazine's Top 50 Best Restaurants.
He will talk about the farmers. He will talk about his team. He will not talk very much about himself. That restraint is not modesty for its own sake, it is, in a way, the most telling thing you can know about him.
Now, he is
here, in Middleburg.
Carroll County. Palm Beach. Seattle. Sonoma. Healdsburg. Virginia. Every move deepened the craft and brought him a little closer to this table. We are glad it ends, and begins again, here.
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