The Boonville Distillery
A Trio of Talent
by Torrey Douglass
Natalie Sparks was 21 when her dad brought home some apple pie moonshine. “I thought it was delicious,” she recalls. “That sparked my interest.” She got a book and even considered making her own, but ultimately didn’t pursue it at the time. In fact, many years would pass before she seriously pursued the craft of distilling spirits. Today she is the owner of The Boonville Distillery, home of her distilling business, two restaurants, and the only full bar within 30 miles.
It makes sense that Natalie is doing what she does. A fifth generation Mendocino County resident, she grew up spending time at her grandparents’ home, conveniently situated above the bar they owned on Lake Mendocino Drive in Ukiah. She would rise with them at 5am to mop floors, motivated by permission to play the jukebox before the doors opened. “Being behind the bar is second nature to me because I witnessed it as a kid,” reflects Natalie.
Years later, after moving to Anderson Valley, Natalie decided she wanted to get into the restaurant business. She became business partners with Lauren Keating, owner and founder of Lauren’s restaurant, a long-time and beloved local dining spot in Boonville. Natalie worked alongside Lauren for a few years before taking over when Lauren retired. Eventually, she moved the restaurant down the street to the original home of the Anderson Valley Brewing Company. The Brewery’s owner had selected the property because it had a reputation for possessing “the sweetest water in Boonville,” which was ideal for his beer brewing.
Because of the location’s history as a brewery, Natalie was able to acquire a license to distill spirits and finally try her hand at the craft. She delved in, reading up on old and new techniques and learning from various distillers in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. She started with some good old fashioned apple moonshine, using fruit she picked with her son from their 50 apple trees.
Less than 8% of craft distilleries in the U.S. are owned by women (incidentally, the first known still was invented by a woman known as “Mary the Jewess” in 200 CE). To date, Natalie has produced her own vodka and agave spirits (as a Protected Designation of Origin, only the agave spirits originating in Mexico can be called tequila). She is devoted to using local ingredients, purchasing organic corn from the Sacramento Valley for the vodka and agave grown in central California for the agave spirits. Both spirits are used in their craft cocktails, and the menu is changed every few weeks to incorporate seasonal flavors. This past winter, Natalie featured an apple cinnamon agave spirit made with local apples, and to welcome spring she’s offering a strawberries and cream vodka.
One way to incorporate flavors is by “fat washing,” where the alcohol and a fat— like bacon grease, cream, or olive oil—are combined and left to mingle at room temperature for three days. The mixture is then frozen, which allows the fat source to be removed while leaving the infused alcohol behind. The result is a softer mouthfeel, intriguing and complex flavors, and a great starting point for crafting cocktails. Natalie uses vodka infused with local olive oil in the signature martinis, a customer favorite. The margaritas are popular as well, made with just three ingredients: house-made agave spirits, house-made simple syrup, and lime juice.
For Natalie, all the fun in distilling comes down to the flavors. “My focus is simple, scrumptious cocktails that highlight quality ingredients,” she shares. Some of those ingredients are grown right outside the restaurant door, like the mint used in mojitos, or the rosemary that is burned to infuse agave spirits for the smoked rosemary paloma, combining it with grapefruit juice to harmonize tart, smoky, and herbal notes into one drink.
Cocktails are served at the bar, in the restaurant area, or, if the weather is agreeable, on the decks outside. The food you can enjoy with those drinks changes depending on the night you come in. Tuesday through Thursday is Fiesta, when Libby Favela is in the kitchen serving up the authentic Mexican food for which she’s known.
Libby grew up in a small desert town 35 miles outside of Mexicali. The landscape was flat, the climate hot and dry, and fields of tomatoes, alfalfa, and cotton surrounded the small town. Libby always enjoyed cooking, which was a good thing. Her older siblings had left home, and she was responsible for feeding her eight younger siblings while her mother was at her job sewing clothes.
In 1980 at the age of 20, Libby and her youngest brother left for Los Angeles. A few months later they continued north to Santa Rosa, where they found work making Christmas ornaments. By 1986 she had met and married Jose, and the two moved to Anderson Valley. She washed dishes at a The Floodgate in Navarro. Johnny Schmitt, who would later become the owner and proprietor of the Boonville Hotel, was cooking there at the time, while Lauren Keating waited tables.
“I like to be around people to prepare and cook food for them,” shares Libby. She cooked at other establishments for ten years before opening her first restaurant with Jose in 1996 in Boonville. By that time, her daughters Belma and Alejandra were old enough to serve while she and Jose prepared the food. It was very busy from the start, with a line that stretched down the sidewalk as hungry diners waited for her delicious food. In 2000, she opened Libby’s in Philo, which was a local institution for 16 years.
Libby’s restaurant in Philo served up generous plates of her popular red enchiladas, carnitas, super burritos, camarones a la diabla (a frequent special), and more, but after 16 years her body needed a break, and they closed the restaurant. In the following years, she often heard from locals how much they missed her cooking. These days, her three nights a week at Fiesta is a good fit. She doesn’t miss the responsibility of running an entire business, and fans can get their Mexican food fix again, whether in the restaurant with a margarita or takeout to enjoy at home.
Friday through Monday is The Bistro, when Chef Chris Morrison creates elevated American classics like fried chicken, build-your-own burgers, and smoked ribs, as well as fresh specials inspired by the season. A grill-loving chef who grew up in the Long Beach area of Southern California, Chris knew from a young age that he wanted to be a chef. He’d grown up eating his mother’s top notch fare, and he enjoyed making food for his brothers. For him, it was the perfect combination of being creative and making the people he loved happy.
At 16, Chris got a job as a dishwasher and prep cook at a restaurant in Norwalk called Rosewoods. It taught him responsibility, time management, and the importance of working as a team. “It felt right being in a kitchen, meeting a different group of people, being around chefs, servers, and staff,“ Chris remembers. He went on to attend the culinary program at Cerritos Community College, which impressed upon him the artistic aspects of cooking—namely, how to see the plate as canvas and ingredients as the paints.
After he completed the program, Chris worked at Disneyland’s Plaza Inn before moving up to the exclusive Club 33. He was the pantry and sauté cook there for almost three years, cooking for presidents, basketball stars, and other celebrities. While he was there, the older chefs shared some wisdom: when a chef spends time in a variety of kitchens, they learn new techniques, ingredients, and flavors, so a good chef should never stay too long in one place.
Chris took the advice to heart, and in the following years he cooked all over, including at Paramount Pictures in West Hollywood, barbecue in Idaho, and three years of gig work around Europe. Each experience informed his cooking style, as did personal heroes Sean Brock, an East Coast chef known for popularizing varieties of rice once thought to be extinct, and Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential. Chris tries to keep a couple used copies on hand to share with anyone who might be a kindred culinary spirit.
The recession had hit hard by 2011, prompting Chris to return home from Europe to help his mom pay the bills. A good friend had opened a restaurant in Hermosa Beach—Barrons 2239—and reached out to Chris one day when the pantry chef failed to show. It turned into one of the most influential jobs of his career. Chris cooked there for five years, during which the restaurant earned two Michelin stars. “That’s where I learned about building plates and flavors,“ shares Chris. “I worked with talented chefs, and there was a lot of trust among the team.” Chris held a number of positions in the kitchen, including expediter, sauté chef, and grill chef.
Chris spent time in Idaho honing his BBQ skills after leaving Barrons 2239, then relocated to the Anderson Valley in 2024. When Natalie found herself unexpectedly without a chef in July, he was in the right place at the right time.
Chris has inherited menu favorites from the days of Lauren’s and made them his own, and he’s added new dishes as well. Guests can still enjoy hamburgers with prime beef, sautéed onions, and all the fixings, along with classic fries made from hand cut potatoes, while hungry kids can still gobble up Nora’s Noodles. But Bistro diners can also savor the popular fried chicken and mashed potatoes, barbequed ribs, chipotle salmon tacos, or fish and chips. For folks seeking lighter fare, there is a selection of fresh salads that are delicious and hearty enough to be a dinner entree. As Natalie declares, “We take our salads very seriously.”
“My goal is to bring food to the forefront that pairs well with alcohol,” confides Chris. He likes to make as much as he can in-house, like the fresh pasta dishes that show up on the specials menu from time to time, and even pickles and ranch dressing. “I want to make food with fresh, clean, big, bold flavors,” Chris continues. “And most of all, to have fun!” That fun might involve opening up the patio in the summer, playing with produce from area farms, and, as always, transforming hungry customers into happy ones. That is, after all, why he got into the kitchen in the first place.
Chris is helped in the kitchen by long-time cooks Maria Guerrero and Neli Simón, both of whom have been with Natalie since she took over Lauren’s 9 years ago. “I’m so grateful to them,” Natalie says. “They are a big reason why the restaurant is still here.”
Natalie sees the restaurant as a place where she can be creative and express her playful side. From the restaurant specials to the cocktail menu to the color of the walls, things are always evolving. But the constants remain—unfussy food that’s full of flavor, either from Fiesta or The Bistro, accompanied by craft cocktails, mocktails, regional beers on tap, and local wines. It’s a great place to stop if you are hungry or thirsty, or just ready for a break from the road when you are driving through Boonville. You can even pick up a bottle of agave spirits or vodka, and bring a little Boonville home with you.
The Boonville Distillery
14081 Hwy 128, Boonville,
(707) 895-3869 | boonvilledistillery.com
The Bistro: Sat - Mon 11:00am - 8:00pm, Fri 11:00am - 8:30pm
Fiesta: Tues - Thu 4:00pm - 8:00pm
Food and cocktail photos by Natalie Sparks. All other photos by Torrey Douglass.