OK, so you remember how local Italian restaurant Molti Amici suffered a fall from grace last November and was forced to close its doors just over a year after opening? The three SingleThread alumni who opened the high-fashion restaurant at 330 Healdsburg Ave. said they hoped to revive the spirit of Campo Fina, the shuttered casual-Italian place that long served as a beloved community hub in that same spot. Needless to say, their dream fell short. The San Francisco Chronicle reported in the weeks following Molti Amici’s sudden closure that the restaurant, which was getting some Michelin attention right before it closed, had meanwhile been operating more than half a million bucks in the red.
Now, the paper follows up with a story filled with far more sordid financial drama than we could have imagined. A headline in the Chron last Tuesday read: “Wine Country restaurant founder embezzled money, drank $250,000 worth of wine, lawsuit alleges.” What’s more, the lawsuit blames a whopping $23K of that quarter-million on the founder opening a single bottle of Domaine de la Romanee Conti (DRC) — one of the world’s most expensive wines, from France. More from the story:
On Feb. 3, Molti Amici and its majority investor filed a lawsuit in Sonoma County Superior Court against restaurant founder Jonny Barr and his company HiLo Hospitality Group for more than $1.5 million in damages. A hearing is scheduled for June 24.
The lawsuit comes just two months after a Chronicle review of the Healdsburg restaurant’s financial records revealed that Molti Amici — one of the highest profile Wine Country openings in recent years — was in significant financial distress, losing more than $600,000 in its first year. It accuses Barr of embezzlement, a claim the restaurant faced last summer; at the time, a Molti Amici owner filed a police report stating an unnamed “business partner” had failed to deposit $60,000 into the restaurant’s bank account. In November, police told the Chronicle they were in the process of closing the case.
“It’s unfortunate it’s come to this,” said Jason Cutrer, Barr’s investment partner who took over restaurant operations in May. “We look forward to the court’s resolution on the matter based on the facts and data provided.”
The Chronicle couldn’t reach Jonny Barr for comment after this new lawsuit was filed — I’ve never been able to reach him, either — but it looks like the Press Democrat did. From the PD story, published last Tuesday night:
“This is David versus Goliath,” said Barr, a former pro wrestler who gained acclaim in the Wine Country restaurant world as a former sommelier and general manager of SingleThread, the three-Michelin-star restaurant, also in Healdsburg. “Everybody knows my true character and everyone who has worked with me at and outside of Molti knows my true character.” …
According to Cutrer’s lawsuit, in 2023, Cutrer invested $700,000 into the restaurant and $200,000 into the restaurant’s holding company, Lox of Love, “for the benefit of Molti Amici.” Lox of Love also is a defendant in the case, which is set for a status hearing June 24.
After Cutrer’s investment, he paid closer attention to the books, the lawsuit alleges. Between July 2023 and January 2024, Barr provided a log of roughly $60,000 worth of bills, services and goods “that had purportedly been paid with cash, which served as a source of frustration for Cutrer, who wondered why bills weren’t being paid through the restaurant’s bank account. …
“Each time [Cutrer] raised the issue with Barr, [he] continued to make excuses or provide false explanations for the location of the money that should have been deposited into Molti Amici’s bank account,” the lawsuit says.
To thicken the mystery, multiple news outlets reported that sometime before Molti Amici closed, Jonny Barr moved from Healdsburg to Indiana for a “family matter.” Depending on what happens with this lawsuit, maybe we’ll see him around here again for a court appearance…
