Handline

Handline is a vibrant celebration of modern Californian coastal flavors, where the casual spirit of a seaside shack meets a sophisticated commitment to environmental stewardship. Housed in a repurposed Foster’s Freeze drive-in in the heart of Sonoma County, the restaurant was built by wife-and-husband team Natalie Goble and Lowell Sheldon on a simple belief: fish by hand while thinking long-term. The result is a menu of fresh, sustainably sourced seafood and hyper-local produce that puts Northern California’s best farmers and fishermen front and center.

Handline holds the Slow Food Snail of Approval, a recognition earned through a rigorous vetting of the restaurant’s sourcing, environmental practices, and community values. Sustainability here runs from the hook-and-line fish on your plate to the Gabion wall surrounding the building, built from chunks of recycled concrete dug up when the old Foster’s Freeze parking lot was torn up. The owners work directly with no fewer than two dozen farmers and producers, and their own family farm, Two Belly Acres, supplies roughly 60% of the produce used across their restaurants.

Handline’s menu is built on transparent, ethical relationships with some of California’s most respected producers.

Handline is a model for accessible sustainability. By weaving elite-level sourcing into a friendly, order-at-the-counter coastal setting, Natalie and Lowell prove that sustainable dining doesn’t have to be formal to be meaningful. It is a place that shows how a local restaurant can act as a vital link in a larger chain of environmental advocacy, community building, and genuine care for the land and sea.