Big restaurant on North Street: Not even three months after shutting down the decade-old Chalkboard restaurant on the ground floor of Hotel Les Mars, billionaire Bill Foley is opening a new Mexican restaurant called Arandas in the space on June 17. Foley’s local holdings include the hotel, the Goodnight’s steakhouse on the plaza, multiple Healdsburg-area wineries and the Farmhouse Inn and restaurant in Forestville. As it happens, the giant new “community pavilion” currently being constructed on the other side of Little Saint also bears Foley’s name, thanks to $7 million he threw at the project back in 2020. But I digress! The future staff of Arandas hosted a popup event at the Maison Healdsburg wine bar near the roundabout last night to show off some of their menu items — creative twists on Mexican staples like tacos ($7-9), tostadas ($14), quesadillas ($11) and shrimp cocktails ($11), plus Mexican-ized oysters (3 for $12) and steak ($40). The dream being to serve more “shared style” foods than at Chalkboard, according to returning general manager Iana Vovk, including dishes meant to be eaten with your hands. They totally wined and dined me last night so I’m probably biased, but I thought the food was pretty delicious. (Another local at the tasting, retired doctor Jed Weissberg, wanted me to tell you all that he thought it was “great, very fresh” as well. And unlike me, I’m pretty sure he picked up his own bill.) The chef hired by Foley to helm this new Arandas joint, 41-year-old “MasterChef” alum Adrien Nieto, also seemed like a cool guy. He calls what he’s cooking “Chicano food,” which to him encapsulates the “ni de aqui, ni de allá” vibe of second generation Mexican-Americans like himself. He told me he grew between L.A. and Santa Barbara, in the small city of Oxnard (as you can tell by his hat in the photo above), and said he’s so stoked to move to Healdsburg. “I’m in love with wine country,” he said. “I get so elated just driving through it.” Oh, and if you know of any short-term, fully furnished rentals in or around town — Chef Nieto is in the market. You can email him here. Outside the kitchen, many of the Chalkboard floor staff will return to work at Arandas, some after pulling interim shifts at Goodnight’s. Foley Family Wines also just became the official global distributor for a tequila brand called El Mexicano, so the new restaurant will obviously serve as a showcase for that stuff. More details from the Arandas press team: “The restaurant’s 60-seat dining room has been transformed with the alluring vibe of a sophisticated hacienda. Black-and-gold snakeskin-like wallpaper embellishes the walls, while a series of artsy hanging lights evoke cascading jungle foliage. … The food will highlight the fresh bounty from the restaurant’s own farm at nearby Chalk Hill Winery, where peas, arugula, kohlrabi, nasturtiums, and citrus flourish. At Chef Nieto’s direction, tomatillos and specialized peppers also have been planted. He’s looking forward to highlighting them in signature dishes, some based on family recipes, including his mom’s pitch-perfect salsa.” So that’s the deal at 27 North! (Source: Arandas & Healdsburg Tribune & Foley Family Wines)
