David Lawrence Returns to His Steakhouse Roots at Goodnight’s in Sonoma

Imagine what it must have been like for a Black teenager living in London to get his first restaurant job at the steakhouse where his dad cooked. That experience taught David Lawrence, a California transplant, some life-shaping lessons he will never forget.

“Just watching him prepare food and cook for customers who loved and adored him. They spoke very highly of him, his skill set and just him as a person. I remember that from many years ago,” says the executive chef of Goodnight’s Prime Steak + Spirits in Sonoma County.

The former owner of San Francisco’s 1300 Fillmore and Black Bark BBQ led the opening of Goodnight’s in Healdsburg last August. Lawrence created the menu, combining old and new approaches to time-honored steakhouse traditions.

“It’s been a very enjoyable experience for me at this time. I can pull from my experience, knowledge and journey since starting in a steakhouse years ago,” the critically acclaimed chef expresses.

Curating Goodnight’s Steakhouse Cuisine

Walking into Goodnight’s Prime Steak + Spirits takes you inside a modern barn with rugged décor and rifles in some light fixtures. The Sonoma County steakhouse is named after Charles Goodnight, a famous Texas Ranger and cowboy entrepreneur.

After traveling through a different culinary landscape, Lawrence joined the Foley Entertainment Group’s restaurant. “My culinary path went very much into fine dining, based on Michelin stars and French cuisine,” offers the executive chef. “I came to this country doing French and American cuisines before opening my own restaurants.”

Lawrence brought a culinary style cultivated in London steakhouses and later at the Roux brothers’ three-Michelin star restaurants to Goodnight’s. Once in the San Francisco Bay area, his chef de cuisine positions at 231 Ellsworth, The Carnelian Room and Cityscape Restaurant enhanced his reputation as a first-rate chef.

“I crafted a menu to reflect my journey in the restaurant business and my training,” the chef continues. “We give the customers a chance to be a part of the taste experience. In that way, we are very unique and different.”

The steakhouse veteran modernized the menu with classic sauces and specialty salts. Every steak order comes with one of four sauces: red wine bordelaise, Armagnac green peppercorn, béarnaise and chimichurri.

“The chimichurri sauce is a South American sauce. It has parsley and cilantro in it. Here at Goodnight’s, we add orange zest to it. It adds a zesty component to the steak,” Lawrence explains.

Goodnight’s clientele can also choose from distinctive salts at the table to create a variety of flavors for the steakhouse dishes. Chef Lawrence describes the offerings.

“I have four different salts on the menu, like the aromatic truffle salt with a mushroom smell. The Himalayan pink salt is mined in Pakistan and supposedly has health aspects. I have black sea salt from Hawaii filtered through volcanic rock and smoked salt. I love the smoked salt on a big 42-ounce tomahawk, which gives it a little smoky flavor.”

The Healdsburg restaurant features updated steak options. “I crafted a menu that has fantastic steaks. Back in the day, we weren’t doing tomahawks, Japanese A5 wagyu, or 25-ounce bone-in ribeyes. We’ve brought those kinds of meats to the forefront,” says Lawrence.

Goodnight’s best-selling steak is the 25-ounce bone-in ribeye. “We also have a 45-day aged ribeye. It’s a 16-ounce steak, and when that comes on the menu, it’s very popular. It sells out quickly,” comments the head chef. As for the 42-ounce tomahawk, most diners share it among three or four people.

The chef prefers the New York-style broiler over a wood-fired grill for preparing steaks. The kitchen finishes steaks on a flattop after letting them rest for 10 minutes.

“We render down the fat on the wagyu and the ribeye. All of the sugars that are in the meat caramelize on top of the steak and you get this really crunchy crust on the steak that is unique. You can’t achieve that with a wood-burning grill,” maintains Lawrence.

Goodnight’s Seafood & Seasonal Produce

Customers looking for something besides beef or duck breast can select vegetarian or seafood dishes at Goodnight’s. Lawrence calls one of the seafood dishes impressive.

“Being a steakhouse, you have to have good seafood. I have a seafood tower made of shrimp, oysters, Maine lobster and snow crab. We serve it with three different sauces. When that comes out, people love it.”

The steakhouse’s proximity to Chalk Hill Estate Vineyards & Winery contributes to Goodnight’s exceptional menu. The executive chef and his staff can rely on getting top-notch produce.

“We have a huge garden there where we produce all of our lettuces, herbs, beets, artichokes and tomatoes,” says Lawrence. “We’re very fortunate to have all these organic ingredients grown for us. I coordinate with them on what I need. If I need spinach or Swiss chard, they’ll grow it for me.”

Some ingredients in the salads and side dishes come from Goodnight’s garden. The steakhouse serves roasted Brussels sprouts, Delicata winter squash and more traditional sides, such as hand-cut French fries with ketchup made in-house. “All the sides are my creations. I consider creamed spinach a typical dish served in a steakhouse.”

Chef Lawrence admits he made better menu moves than deciding to replace baked potatoes with a more modern spuds dish. “The owner wanted to do the baked potato. We eventually did the baked potato with all the fixings, and it’s now our top-selling side item. So, I had to go back to him and say, ‘Yea, you were right.’”

For dessert, the steakhouse serves chocolate skillet cake, pumpkin Basque cheesecake and banana splits. In addition to the top-shelf bourbon, customers can order craft cocktails or choose wines produced from Foley Entertainment Group’s vineyards. Lawrence mentions that he did influence a few of the wine selections.

“There were some African American wineries I wanted to bring on, like the Brown Estate Vineyards in Napa Valley. I brought them on with me.”

Steakhouse Lessons from His Father

Goodnight’s benefits from the life-long lessons Lawrence acquired before taking charge of the menu and the kitchen at the Sonoma County steakhouse in Healdsburg.

He received some essential advice working alongside his dad in London. Staying calm is at the top of the list. “It took me longer to get calm in a restaurant than he did. But I’ve reached that now. I can look back with fond memories of my father cooking in a steakhouse and how calm he was. I hope to have adopted those traits in myself, and I can run a steakhouse restaurant very much like my father did,” Lawrence says.

The California chef recalls other vital skills needed to operate an exceptional steakhouse that his father shared. They include organization, precision, balance and speed. For example, he taught him how to place steaks on a grill to keep track of the desired doneness.

“I just remember having so many steaks out and getting lost, and my dad referring to the grill as a chess board,” recalls Lawrence. “If you have 30 steaks on at the same time, the steaks to the left are going to be rare to medium rare. If the steaks are in the middle, they will be medium. They will be well done if they are on the far right.”

Lawrence’s formal training at Westminster College in London helped him build an award-winning culinary career. However, his dad taught him what to do when something goes wrong in the kitchen.

“He told me that when I make mistakes, I should learn from those mistakes and correct them as quickly as possible so the customer never leaves upset, angry or disappointed.”

The executive chef applied what he learned about handling adversity when it came time to make a critical decision about two restaurants he owned. The southern-inspired 1300 Fillmore that opened in 2007 had relocated to the San Francisco International Airport. It had become more of a destination and special occasion restaurant.

His critically acclaimed Black Bark BBQ was doing mostly takeout orders. Lawrence shut the doors on both in 2018. “It was time for us to close the restaurants while we were at the top. And then, lo and behold, the pandemic came along and made our decision look even better,” the former restaurateur acknowledges.

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Savoring a New Chapter in Sonoma

The closing of those doors opened new opportunities for Chef Lawrence at Goodnight’s in Sonoma’s wine country. Once there, he applied his steakhouse training, fine-dining experiences and father’s teachings, especially staying patient in the face of a changing hospitality industry.

“It went from, ‘Oui chef,’ to ‘Chef, are you sure about that?’ That’s the challenge I have. Staff used to blindly follow you wherever you went, and now, they question you,” laughs the executive chef.

Lawrence then shares why he now emulates the calm his dad demonstrated. “At my age, I’m not like that young chef full of spit and vinegar. I’m more of a teacher now. Holistically, it keeps me sane or from getting angry.”

Being a pioneer and visionary who can influence young chefs keeps Lawrence excited about his profession. So does the joy of bringing people together at Goodnight’s.

“It’s a profession I love and will love until the day I die. It’s a profession that brings people from all walks of life to sit at a table, break bread, drink wine, enjoy food and discuss life. And if you sit down and talk to each other, you realize you have the same issues,” he asserts.

Lawrence’s passion for cooking connected him to people the chef probably would not have met otherwise. “I’ve been to Buckingham Palace, to the White House and met Barack Obama. I cooked for Prince Charles and Lady Diana. All these things have been opened to me because of my profession. And I cook for Joe the plumber with the same enthusiasm as I did for all those dignitaries,” says Goodnight’s chef.

As he continues to lead the success of Goodnight’s Prime Steak + Spirits, Lawrence remains optimistic about the future. He feels he has come full circle from his London beginnings to a position of knowledge, experience and respect. The chef is confident about the future and his ability to add new chapters to his culinary story and more opportunities to make a difference. “Whatever gifts you have or were given to you, you must find something to do that is uniquely you to get through life. Then you become somebody in the world, and you make a contribution.”

Follow the executive chef of the Sonoma County steakhouse on Instagram @davidlawrencechef. Get the latest on Goodnight’s Prime Steak + Spirits website on social media @goodnightshealdsburg.

This story originally appeared in Cuisine Noir Magazine