You know Molti Amici, the casual Italian restaurant that replaced shuttered community favorite Campo Fina at 330 Healdsburg Ave. in summer 2023? It just abruptly closed its doors for good. “We regret to inform everyone that Molti Amici has permanently closed,” restaurant owners wrote on Instagram yesterday. “Thank you to the community, our patrons and employees for the ongoing support.”
Molti Amici owner Jonny Barr opened the restaurant just under a year-and-a-half ago with a couple of his fellow alumni from the Michelin-starred SingleThread empire, to much fanfare and excitement about keeping the Campo Fina spirit alive. (The Italian phrase “molti amici” roughly translates to “many friends.”)
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Jonny moved to Indiana with his family this summer, leaving restaurant operations to his CEO, Jason Cutrer. Apparently he’s the one who made the decision to shut down. From the Chronicle story:
Co-owner Jonny Barr said the announcement caught him “off guard” and that he learned of the closing from the restaurant’s Instagram post. … While Barr maintained an ownership stake in Molti Amici, he has not been involved in the restaurant since, he said. He said it’s been “a whirlwind of a day” and that he still has not been given a reason for the sudden closing.
“I’m heartbroken for the staff and the community deeply,” Barr said. “That’s what’s been troubling me — the staff. They mean the world to me.”
Cutrer said the restaurant “was just not in a good financial position to continue. We are all bummed and wish the staff and everyone who visited us and loved us the best. I’ll be glad when the industry has a bit of a turnaround. We are providing severance for the staff and hate that we had to make such a tough decision.”
Molti scored a couple of big Michelin wins over summer, in the form of a mention in the Michelin Guide’s list of recommended restaurants for 2024, as well as a Bib Gourmand designation for “good quality, good value cooking.” (No official stars, but still, pretty big deal. Or “a nice feather in the cap,” in the words of Sonoma Magazine.) But the restaurant hadn’t even been basking in its Michelin nod for 24 hours when it started popping up in the news for a different reason. A July 12 headline in the Press Democrat read: “Embezzlement alleged — then recanted — at Michelin-recognized Molti Amici: Healdsburg police tight-lipped, top chefs depart.”
Basically, a higher-up at Molti called Healdsburg police in early June to accuse a colleague of embezzling money. According to the police log entry, “the reporting party indicated that his business partner failed to make deposits into the business account between September 2023 and February 2024 totaling $60,000.”
However: When Press Democrat journalists talked to restaurant owner Jonny Barr and CEO Jason Cutrer a month later, they insisted that everything was fine now, and that the complaint was being retracted. Jonny said: “Everything has been resolved. We just found truth to the matter. Everything was accounted for. That’s really it. All it took was digging into the paperwork. Molti Amici will continue to be open and thrive.”
Adding to the trouble-in-paradise factor, the restaurant’s original head chefs — Sean and Melissa McGaughey, the power couple behind the Quail and Condor bakery and its offshoot sandwich shop, Troubadour — told the Press Democrat during the embezzlement controversy that they’re no longer involved with Molti Amici, even though they’re still listed on its website as executive chef and executive pastry chef, respectively.
Asked why they parted ways with Jonny, Melissa told the PD: “Nothing went wrong for us. We are just allocating our time where we need to most. Put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.”
Back in summer 2023, when the trio was getting read to open Molti, Jonny described his vision to the Healdsburg Tribune:
“Campo was a space that I would dine at three to four times a week,” said new owner Jonny Barr, who moved to Healdsburg from New York. “It was one of the first restaurants that really made me feel at home and at ease. The first time I walked through the doors, it felt like a New York restaurant. Narrow, tight, exposed brick, lots of energy.”
Barr, 38, came to Healdsburg to work as general manager at SingleThread, the Michelin three-starred restaurant on Center Street. That put him at center stage in Healdsburg’s rapidly developing haute cuisine trade, where he met multiple restaurateurs and their customers, who form the culinary heart of today’s downtown.
That’s what gave him the idea for the name, Molti Amici.
“Going into Campo Fina meant walking past multiple tables that you would have to say hello to, if it was winemakers or it was a tasting room attendant or an art gallery owner in town that you had some connection with,” he said over a glass of wine at the Troubadour Bakery and Bistro across the street. “It always felt like a modern-day Cheers, where everyone knew your name.”
Campo Fina owner Ari Rosen, for his part, closed the original restaurant in Fall 2022, after a full decade as a local staple. At the time, he said there were multiple contributing factors — like the building’s rent doubling, a labor shortage, a lack of housing for staff and a general “need for change.”
In a closing ceremony that October, the beloved Italian spot’s huge fan club joined Ari in marching an actual Campo Fina coffin from the 330 Healdsburg Ave. restaurant space down to the plaza. According to the “Shop Local Healdsburg” blog and Instagram account: “Locals masterminded a funeral procession a la New Orleans style with a brass band, complete with a wooden coffin parading around the Plaza at a word-of-mouth, locals-only-party.”
So yeah, there were some pretty high hopes for Campo’s second coming. “Nooooo,” one customer commented on the Molti Amici closure announcement Sunday. “SO disappointed.” Another chimed in: “Oh no, I had really hoped to go back and try more dishes. Happened so suddenly, can’t imagine why. Hope the staff lands on their feet somewhere else.”
