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"  The front window clearly states what Ubuntu is about: &amp;quot;restaurant &amp;amp;amp; yoga studio.&amp;quot; Still, it&amp;#039;s hard to imagine how those two disparate worlds find a home together in Napa, California, until you step inside.  As you look over the 20-foot communal table made of recycled 370-year-old wood, your eyes move to the stainless steel hood that canopies the open kitchen and, above that, to translucent glass doors that turn yoga students into twisting, bending silhouettes. It&amp;#039;s an impressive warehouse-size room with native-rock walls and open rafters, but the genius of the concept doesn&amp;#039;t emerge until diners taste the food that glorifies vegetables in a way that makes carnivores wonder why they ever craved Kobe beef.  The name, Ubuntu, a South African term that means &amp;quot;humanity toward others,&amp;quot; reflects owner Sandy Lawrence&amp;#039;s philosophy. Lawrence, who sold her event-planning company in Miami and moved full-time to the Napa Valley in 2002 to open Lion&amp;#039;s Run Winery, is trying to live a good life and significantly reduce her carbon footprint. This desire is reflected in her rammed-earth house about six miles away, in the lush biodynamic garden that serves the restaurant and in the dramatic design of Ubuntu.  Instead of hiring an experienced restaurant architect, Lawrence turned to Michael Baushke of Apparatus Architecture in San Francisco, who was the visionary designer behind her home. They worked closely to make Ubuntu a model of green design, using, for example, reclaimed floors and furniture produced by local artisans. Mark Chatterley&amp;#039;s figurative sculpture, aptly named &amp;quot;Alternative Perspective&amp;quot; because one of the four figures is upside down, stands sentry between the bar and the communal table.   When it came time to focus on the food, Lawrence brought in ten top chefs from all around the country. Upon their arrival she sent them to the farmer&amp;#039;s market to buy the ingredients needed to prepare a meal for her and seven other tasters. Jeremy Fox, who was the chef de cuisine at Manresa, a Michelin two-star restaurant in Los Gatos, was the clear winner. &amp;quot;All of us knew right away that Jeremy brought something special,&amp;quot; Lawrence says. He also brought along an added bonus -- his wife, Deanie Hickox Fox, who works beside him as pastry chef.   There&amp;#039;s no tofu, tempeh, seitan, brown rice or other meat substitute to be found in Fox&amp;#039;s repertoire. In fact, the chef refuses to use the word &amp;quot;vegetarian&amp;quot; to describe his food; he simply refers to Ubuntu as a &amp;quot;vegetable restaurant.&amp;quot;  At the height of summer, about half the produce comes from the restaurant&amp;#039;s one-acre garden, created by legendary wine-country gardener Jeff Dawson. What&amp;#039;s grown on site is noted in capital letters on the daily menu; the rest is brought in from farms that adhere to a similar organic philosophy. Even most of the 200 labels on the wine list are from organic producers.   Each dish Fox creates celebrates the natural flavors of an ingredient, but like an artist he adds his own exciting twists. It could be something as basic as Marcona almonds, which he tosses with sea salt and lavender sugar. Or it could be as complex as his roasted-beet salad, featuring baby chioggias baked in salt spiked with fennel, juniper berries and other spices. When they&amp;#039;re ready to serve, he places the beets on a pur\u00E9e of Asian pears with wisps of arugula and dollops of airy whipped blue cheese. For a main-course cassoulet, the chef cooks yellow-eye beans separately, cold-smokes tomatoes for the sauce and finishes the dish with a farm-fresh egg.   &amp;quot;I want to show all the ways you can prepare a vegetable,&amp;quot; Fox says. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t want to cover up the ingredients.&amp;quot; In his farro with roasted vegetables, for example, he saut\u00E9s baby turnips, carrots and other roots in brown butter and deglazes the pan with saba, the fruity Italian condiment, to add a rich coating. He then spoons the vegetables over the cooked grain.   Deanie Fox&amp;#039;s desserts are equally imaginative, whether she&amp;#039;s preparing a whimsical float with Concord-grape-and-mascarpone ice cream and house-made ginger soda or little pads of brown-butter shortcake topped with honey-roasted figs and rosemary cream.  Ironically, neither Lawrence nor the chefs are vegetarians, yet together, with their dedication to serving organically grown, locally sourced food, they have created a groundbreaking destination here. &amp;quot;We always knew we&amp;#039;d have a philosophy-driven restaurant,&amp;quot; says Lawrence. A restaurant and yoga studio makes perfect sense.  Click here to see the resources. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/life-culture/food-drink/a3832/sustainable-dining-a-51026/>