Ten years after closing its doors, the former two-Michelin-starred Cyrus finally reopens in Geyserville on Friday. 

Only a few of the original details have carried over to the new 9,000-square-foot fine dining restaurant at 275 Highway 128 from chef-owner Douglas Keane. Instead, it’ll offer an unusual, progressive experience ($295 tasting menu, $250 wine pairing) where diners will move through four rooms, consuming at least 20 bites and dishes along the way. Expect to see Asian flavors infused in items like hamachi poke with sweet potato and passion fruit, or uni with cauliflower cream and yuzu.

“One of the cool things about being in Wine Country is people will give you (several hours) of their time for dinner because it’s the only entertainment,” said Keane, referring to the lack of nightlife in towns like Geyserville. “You get to do extended meals, but I remember people talking over and over about how they hate sitting in dining rooms for that long at one table. Here, three hours will have passed and you won’t even know it.”

Located 10 minutes from Cyrus’ first home in Healdsburg, the new spot is upscale and modern, a major departure from the previous Old World vibe. 

Across three seatings a night, a dozen guests will start in the Bubbles Lounge, where a Champagne cart — an homage to the original Cyrus — will also serve liquid nitrogen-chilled martinis and, for an extra charge, white truffles and caviar. The room is inspired by a cocktail party at someone’s home, except this one features a 1,600-pound steel bar that appears to be floating. 

Diners can mingle, nibbling on canapés that showcase the five basic tastes. Sour, for example, will be a miniaturized play on a lobster dish that was once a Cyrus staple: king crab with avocado and Thai dressing. 

“That’s the way to start a meal,” said Keane, who got the idea for the Champagne cart when he spent his 30th birthday alone in Paris. 

This lounge is the one part of Cyrus that will be open for limited walk-ins starting in October, with drinks, small bites and a smaller menu. The bar was a local’s hot spot at the former Cyrus, and Keane wanted to bring that spirit back. 

Next, parties will move through the wine cellar to the kitchen and gather around a counter. They can watch the chefs, including Keane’s longtime co-chef Drew Glassell, at work while enjoying crudités, appetizers served on a sashimi board and the first plated courses, such as Billi Bi (cream of mussel soup) with fennel pollen.

In the kitchen, guests will watch the chefs work while enjoying crudités, appetizers served on a sashimi board and the first plated courses.

Even with the old Cyrus, Keane preferred inviting guests back to the kitchen as opposed to chatting in the dining room. “There’s something real about it, like you’re in someone’s home and it just happens to be kind of fancy,” he said.

The main courses will be served in the most traditional space, a glass-walled dining room with vineyard views and an elaborate water feature. In place of standard bread and butter, Cyrus will serve steamed buns with miso butter. Seven dishes will follow, such as a red wine truffled risotto with a Parmesan froth, a cheese course and two desserts. 

Keane insists diners won’t leave feeling like they’ve overindulged. “One of the things I learned from cooking in Kyoto is you can have a 30-course meal and still feel light and good but satiated,” he said. “It’s the amount of carbs you feed someone.” 

The evening will culminate in a “Willy Wonka” moment in a secret dessert room. There, a chocolate waterfall gushes down a back wall. It’s for show, not consumption, but there will be other treats. 

The comeback that almost never was

The resurrection of Cyrus, which closed in 2012 following a landlord dispute, has been a long time coming, a classic “Will they or won’t they?” story line a la Rachel and Ross from “Friends.” Keane has been trying — and failing — for years to find a new home. Three other properties didn’t work out.

He had essentially given up when he learned about this commanding two-story building set in the middle of a vineyard. Formerly the site of a prune packing plant, it was redesigned by the same architects of Healdsburg’s Shed, which now houses Little Saint. “When it was offered to me, I wasn’t sure,” said Keane. “I was kind of beat.”

It turned out to be exactly what Keane and longtime business partner Nick Peyton, Cyrus’ maitre’d, had been searching for. But securing investors was another uphill battle due to economic uncertainty during the pandemic. Keane signed a 30-year-lease in February 2020; several investors later backed out and Keane, who called the process “crushing,” struggled to recover. 

In the end, they secured funding from roughly 50 investors. 

The evening culminates in a “Willy Wonka” moment featuring a chocolate waterfall.

From progressive dining to a progressive staffing approach

When it comes to staffing, Keane is joining a growing group of restaurant owners taking ambitious and unorthodox approaches in an attempt to fix what they believe is a broken industry. They are pushing for better working conditions, including increased pay, shorter hours and mental health benefits, by replacing tips with service charges or shifting to a form of worker ownership. His solution: fewer workers and cross-training for better efficiency. His full-time employees will make a minimum of $65,000 a year. 

“We had captains at Cyrus that would stay years, but cooks would burn out after a year. They were making so little money,” Keane said. “Captains were making $100,000, cooks were making $40,000.”

Captains, who oversee service, will learn to plate and prep; cooks will learn to drop, clear and serve food. If cooks are interested in training to the captain level, they’ll be able to make $75,000. This breaks down to $23-$26 per hour for a manageable 50-hour workweek.  

Cyrus is tacking on a 20% service charge, which goes back to the restaurant to help offset the higher wages. Any tips on top of that will be split evenly among the staff. Down the line, Keane hopes to find a way to offer four- and five-day workweeks, calling that “the ultimate achievement.”

Pastry chef Joshua Gaulin, who previously worked at Truss at the Four Seasons in Calistoga and San Francisco’s three-Michelin-starred Quince, said that cross-training will break down the “natural segregation” between the front and back of the house, as well as different parts of the kitchen. 

Cyrus captain Matthew Gay, formerly of the Matheson in Healdsburg, cold-emailed Keane after hearing about his staffing concept. Gay was inspired by the ability to see — and even have a hand in — the progression of each dish from start to finish, enabling him to give guests the full story of where the ingredients came from and how the food was prepared. 

“I think every day will be different and we’ll all be prepared to come in and be able to help,” Gay said. “Everyone says a restaurant is their family, but this really is going to be a very tight and close family.”

Cyrus. Opening Friday. Seatings at 6, 7 and 8 p.m. Thursday-Monday through October; and at 4, 5 and 6 p.m. starting in November. 275 Highway 128, Geyserville. cyrusrestaurant.com

Jess Lander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jess.lander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesslander