Who We Are

Do you know where your food came from today? We do!

Söntés is a locally owned, locally grown restaurant in Rochester, Minnesota. We have seasonally spontaneous food and an extensive array of wines and beers for the tasting. Our dedicated culinary staff creates unique and innovative dishes using green and sustainable methods. We support local farmers and artisans, ensuring that we serve the freshest produce, meats and cheeses possible.

About the blog

Here is where you’ll find information on what we’ve been up to lately. You’ll find food tips and explanations, wine musings, event summaries, conversations with featured artists and musicians, explorations of local farms and some of our vendors, and much more!

Please feel free to join in the conversation by posting your own observations or questions in the “comments” section of the blog. We’d love to hear from you!

Have a question? Call us at 507-292-1628, or visit our main website’s contact page here to email us or to make a reservation.

About the people

Tessa Leung
Tessa is the founder, proprietor, manager, and certified sommelier for Söntés. She’s Minnesota-born (hailing from Stewartville), but her love of food and wine has taken her all over the world. She brings her globetrotting adventures back home in the way she creatively pairs food, wine, and cheese, adding an international flair to Söntés’ locally sourced ingredients. Her favorite thing about working in the restaurant business is that no two days are ever the same, always giving her the chance to meet new people and learn about food, wine, and culture through another person’s eyes.

Bryce Lamb
Head Chef Bryce traded rain for snow when he moved from the coastal area of Washington State to join the Söntés team here in chilly Minnesota. It must have been a real shock for him after his time spent working as a chef in tropical Hanoi, Vietnam, but he’s been pretty tolerant of the frigid weather so far. Bryce has a true passion for farm-to-table dining, and a real talent for creating fabulous seasonal dishes with whatever he can get at the farmers market or from our local vendors during any given week. His knowledge of charcuterie was honed in Austria with Master Butcher Marcel Kropf and Christoph Wiesner, which has given him a not-so-secret weakness for the unique taste of Mangalitsa pork.

Trevor Garett
Chef Trevor also joins us from Washington, proving that some people do move inland from the coast, not just vice-versa. Trevor’s cheerful humor, plethora of memorized factoids, and enthusiasm for farm-to-table dining makes us proud to call him our Sous Chef. Many Söntés customers will be familiar with Trevor’s inventive and addicting desserts; he loves having the opportunity to make people’s special occasions even more special for them.

Amanda Vail
Amanda’s work with Söntés began the month that we first opened our doors when she was hired on as one of the original group of waitstaff. She spent time working the floor and behind the bar before moving to Seattle, where she settled in and got a job with French bistro Crémant (which only cemented her love of duck fat). Unlike Trevor and Bryce, Amanda’s quite happy with rain, so we haven’t been able to pull her back to Rochester yet—but fortunately, she can write and edit from anywhere, so she currently serves as this blog’s chief editor, writer, and social media guru.