Decant

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Restaurant Born from Two Worlds

Decant's origin story runs through Florentine piazzas and California vineyard rows. Owner and Certified Sommelier Jessica Cahill was born in Florence, Italy, and grew up working alongside her father on the family's vineyard in Calistoga, California. Those early years shaped everything: a belief that great food and wine begin with place, season, and honest ingredients. After earning her sommelier certification and building a career across fine dining rooms in San Diego, Napa, and San Francisco — and later as a wine industry manager for respected California producers — a visit to Medford, Oregon changed her plans entirely. She stayed, and Decant followed.

The Kitchen

Executive Chef Michael Bryant brings a biography that spans rural Virginia farmhouses, James Beard Award–winning kitchens, and over a decade in Los Angeles. His culinary foundation was laid by a French mother who cooked with whatever the farm offered that day. By twenty, he was already an executive chef; by 2002, he was working under Norman Van Aken at Norman's in Coral Gables, eventually rising to Chef de Cuisine at the Los Angeles outpost. His LA years included stints at Michelin-recognized restaurants Bin 8945 and Joe's, and his work has been featured on Chopped, Knife Fight, and in Wine Spectator and the LA Times. Bryant describes his style as "modern contemporary with a soulful edge — a melting pot of global influences," and that breadth shows clearly on Decant's menu.

Pacific Northwestern Cooking, Rooted in the Rogue Valley

The menu reads as a direct expression of the Southern Oregon landscape. Locally foraged porcini and wild morels appear in a bisque finished with basil pistou and parmesan foam, and again alongside favas and young garlic. Wild, line-caught halibut is marinated in miso, shoyu, and honey before hitting the grill. A lamb rack is paired with bacon-wrapped lamb loin, spaetzle, and morels. Even the bread — Annie's Bread by Floured in Faith — arrives with house-made cultured butter. This Pacific Northwestern approach to sourcing is not decorative; the kitchen works directly with local farmers and prioritizes certified organic produce throughout.

Front of house is anchored by Edward Knight, sommelier and maître d', who came to Decant after years in fine dining rooms across the country and time spent completing a farming internship with the Rogue Farm Corps. He also runs Oak Mountain Farm, a regenerative vegetable operation in its fourth growing season that supplies the local community — and informs the kitchen's relationship with the land.

The Wine and Cocktail Program

Wine Spectator recognized Decant with its Award of Excellence in 2023, a reflection of Jessica's deep expertise and her intention to place world wines in conversation with Oregon's own remarkable producers. Cocktails are made with organic ingredients and fresh-squeezed juices — an Espresso Martini uses Crater Lake Hazelnut Vodka and candy cap mushroom; the French 86 pairs Loire Valley crémant with yuzu sake. A full mocktail menu, equally considered, rounds out the offering.

Decant is a place where Pacific Northwestern fine dining, serious wine, and genuine hospitality come together without pretense — exactly what Jessica Cahill set out to build when she decided to stay in Southern Oregon.