Chalkboard, Fancy Healdsburg Restaurant, Closes Abruptly

Chalkboard, one of Healdsburg’s best-known fancy restaurants, closed abruptly late last month. It was on the ground floor of Hotel Les Mars, located on North Street next to Little Saint. Chalkboard’s windows are now covered in brown paper. “Our final day of service was Sunday, March 24th,” the restaurant’s website says. It also says that a “new and exciting restaurant concept” will be debuting in early summer of this year. Both the hotel and restaurant space are owned by billionaire Bill Foley, who likewise owns the new Goodnight’s steakhouse on the Healdsburg plaza and the Farmhouse Inn and restaurant down in Forestville. He hasn’t announced what will replace Chalkboard yet — but insiders say it’s likely going to be an upscale Mexican restaurant. And for what it’s worth, Foley Family Wines did recently announce they’re going into the tequila business. A former Chalkboard employee tells me the staff was informed their restaurant would be closing just a week before shutdown, and that the whole experience was rather sudden and jarring. The employee says some former Chalkboard colleagues are now working a few blocks away at Goodnight’s. I’ve reached out to the Foley Entertainment Group for comment, and for more details — will let you know if I hear back. (Source: Hotel Les Mars & Foley Family Wines)