Healdsburg is already known as a foodie haven, despite being small town Sonoma. Epitomizing Sonoma Wine Country now: it’s a wood-fired pizza, housemade pasta, seafood crudo and cocktail hang with bocce hidden in an inviting back patio.
Molti Amici follows in the footsteps of its predecessor in the same space for a decade prior: former pizza, pasta and bocce favorite Campo Fina. All of us longtime Healdsburg-goers were sad to lose Campo Fina, but I dare say Molti Amici carries on its spirit, yet even improves upon it. It’s certainly a destination for the Bay Area and anyone traveling in Wine Country, thanks to owner and local industry great, Jonny Barr.
You first enter a long, narrow, lofty space before ushering into a more expansive back patio and bocce court. Indoors is sunnier, brighter, more eclectic and utterly transformed by Roy Hospitality Design Studio. In fact, Barr’s design vision was a Wes Anderson movie, so that sure appeals to someone like me who has been an Anderson buff since I was a teen in the 1990s when his first film, Bottle Rocket, debuted. While that connection may not be blatantly obvious, the vintage-looking mustard yellow banquettes, striking new wood flooring and colorful vintage paintings lining lofty cream walls are inviting and playful. As is the mint-colored back patio bar, original Campo Fina bocce mural and outdoor Neapolitan pizza oven.
The team behind Molti Amici is impressive. While servers varied a little, the management are pros, starting with gracious bar director Danielle Peters, a Sonoma local who ran the bar at the former Whisper Sisters Cocktails & Provisions and came from Sonoma County bars like Hopmonk Sebastopol.
But she’s evolved to new levels with her drinks at Molti. Peters nods to her great use of my beloved aquavit in cocktails at Whisper Sisters with Molti’s On the Vine cocktail, mixing Ford’s Gin, New Alchemy Fyllaenst Aquavit, tomato water, lemon, local FloraLuna Smoked Salt & Pepper Bitters and a garnish of tomato powder and caperberry. It’s a silky, fresh herbaceous cocktail that sings of aromatic gardens in late summer. The Asteroid City cocktail cheerily nods to Wes Anderson’s latest color-hued film, with vodka merely providing backbone, but génépy and Luxardo Bitter Bianco being the herbal-bitter soul of the drink. Fresh honeydew, herbs, lemon and welcome dots of chili oil add garden-fresh and acidic brightness.
While I can’t imagine being here and not ordering Peters’ cocktails, as you might expect in the heart of Sonoma Wine Country with their long industry relationships, and especially with Barr’s impressive Court of Master Sommeliers Level 2 Somm certification, the wine list is also strong here. You can weave from Fontaleoni Chianti and French Petit Chablis to local fun like Bloodroot’s Pétillant Maturel Rosé pet nat.
Barr was general manager for years at aforementioned three Michelin-starred SingleThread. A number of people on the team worked with him there, including co-executive chefs Sean McGaughey and Melissa Yanc, who own uber-popular Healdsburg bakery Quail and Condor and sandwich shop with dinner menus, Troubadour — both have their highs and lows over my multiple visits. Chef de cuisine Matthew Cargo originally hails from Florida but was exec sous chef at Gjusta in LA’s Venice Beach, part of the Gjelina restaurants I wrote about over a decade ago.
McGaughey’s five years as SingleThread chef de cuisine show in his technique. He is nailing it with better-than-ever pizzas — Neapolitan in technique with bubbly, charred crust — but oh-so California in ingredients, in red, green or white pizza sections. A squash blossom, zucchini, ricotta salata cheese pizza tastes of the glories of summer. A red sauce sausage and soppressata pizza laden with ricotta and oregano hits the meaty spot.
I lean more towards pizzas than pastas here compared to many SF pasta favorites like Flour+Water or Cotogna, given the almost too al dente nature of the pastas tried. Still, Molti’s chewy, breadcrumb-dusted bucatini amatriciana (black pepper, chiles, guanciale aka salt-cured pork jowl) comforts. Mezzaluna nero is a striking, black, umami pasta filled with fennel pureé and scallop mousse in vermouth butter and dotted with California sea urchin. Again, quite chewy-thick but visually beautiful with an inspired flavor combo.
Seasonal vegetable dishes from our best-in-the-world local bounty show off current joys like heirloom tomatoes or melon, even sweet turnips. But the crudo section is another strength here besides pizza, ideal on those warm Sonoma County nights and hot days. I loved the cooling, green contrast of cucumber, fennel and mint with Spanish mackerel’s omega-3-rich fattiness. But it was the red yin to the mackerel’s bright green yang that stayed with me in kanpachi tartare crudo. This silky yellowtail was swimming in a bright red scallion and Jimmy Nardello peppers sauce, exuding all the sweet intensity of those blessed peppers. McGaughey is sourcing fish locally and from Japan’s Toyosu Fish Market, formerly the legendary Tsujiki market. Crudo with cocktails at either indoor or outdoor bar is a worthy night alone, as is going in for the whole spread.
There are a couple of larger, shareable fish and meat platters in generous portions at just under $50, and a half Petaluma chicken, fried in a rice flour batter almost superceded every dish. It’s dotted with fried herbs and honey chili crisp, accompanied by thrice-cooked potatoes, garlic aioli and dreamy levain bread from neighboring Troubadour.
Yanc’s desserts run the gamut from tiramisu to a berry, makrut lime and melon-graced panna cotta. My Sicilian half pushed toward Yanc’s crispy cannoli, filled with fluffy ricotta, dipped in cacao nibs on each end, touched with fig preserves.
In Italian, Molti Amici loosely translates to “many friends,” and as you watch friends and families playing rounds of bocce ball in between wood-fired pizzas or inside with crudo and cocktails, you find the Campo Fina legacy is not dead. In fact, a place that was one of Healdsburg’s key locals and travelers gathering places feels reborn for a new era by industry vets with three Michelin-level experience, providing a deliciously laid back, all-day modern Italian spot worth drawing us all in on a Wine Country day trip.
// 330 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg; MoltiAmicii.com
Virginia Miller is a San Francisco-based food & drink writer.
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