CYRUS
Geyserville, California — Documentary, Food & Editorial Photography
When I first stepped away from cooking professionally, I made a list. Five restaurants I was going to work with, no matter what. Cyrus was on it.
Douglas Keane is, to me, the godfather of new-age hospitality. I wanted to photograph his world so badly that I cold-called the restaurant—and ended up on the phone with Nick Peyton, the legendary maître d' and one of the true wizards of fine-dining service. He politely told me no thank you. Short, kind, and final. I hung up and told myself the same thing anyway: this is going to happen.
It took a couple of years. The door finally opened through a friend, a pastry chef I'd worked with in Santa Rosa who'd joined the team at Cyrus. She got me in to spend a day with Doug and Nick—and it remains one of my favorite experiences in any kitchen in California.
Cyrus is built as a journey through three spaces. You begin in the bubbles lounge—bright, windowed, all leather and champagne and caviar. Then you're guided into the kitchen itself, seated directly at the pass as the team plates your meal and Doug introduces each course as it comes, the wine and cocktail pairings keeping perfect time. Finally you're moved into the dining room, wrapped in windows that look out over the hills of Geyserville. It's not a meal. It's a piece of choreography.
After that first day, the relationship took. I've returned again and again since—photographing their menus, the team, the portraits, and the full arc of the experience. Some doors are worth waiting two years to walk through.
