Chalkboard
29 North St., Healdsburg, CA
(Menu is the same for lunch and dinner: http://chalkboardhealdsburg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/dinner-4.12.14.pdf) 
Review date: May 2014

At one time this was the most celebrated address in Sonoma County – the location of the famed restaurant Cyrus from chef Douglas Keane. Situated in the Hotel Les Mars (not that anyone ever noticed who the landlord was), Cyrus swiftly garnered Chronicle and Michelin stars, moving ever-upscale into tasting menu-only territory. What started as a relaxed white-tablecloth Wine Country restaurant eventually segued into a hushed, properly reverential, don't-rattle-your-soupspoon atmosphere where diners could worship at the alter of Trophy Chef Hunting. 

I loved Cyrus the first time I went with my family, soon after it opened. Carlos and I loathed it the second time, as the tasting menus reigned supreme and the majority of courses disappointed, especially the endless parade of dessert courses. The main desserts, we felt, should never have been allowed to even leave the kitchen, they were so ill-conceived.

The hotel, for whatever reason, began to argue with Keane over the lease, and eventually the two permanently parted ways October 2012. Keane talked about re-opening another upscale restaurant elsewhere (Les Mars owns the Cyrus name) but never has. The hotel owner Bill Foley, the executive who owns Chalk Hill, Sebastiani and other wineries; and David Fink, whose holdings include L'Auberge Carmel hotel and Aubergine restaurant in Carmel, announced plans to open their own restaurant. They named the new restaurant Chalkboard and remodeled the dining room back into a more casual space.

They hired Shane McAnelly away from Walnut Creek's Va de Vi, where SF Chronicle's Michael Bauer had virtually enshrined his cooking into his annual Top 100 Restaurants. We ate at Va de Vi in April 2010 but weren't impressed. Some of the CA tapa plates were good, but others were merely average. Many were excessively salty. We found Va de Vi's service marginal at best, and a waiter who didn't believe in deodorant on a 90-degree day wasn't a plus either as he constantly passed by us wafting unpleasant body odors.

Chalkboard opened May 2013 to plaudits for its own small plates menu, and once again was given three stars by Bauer although it was deleted from his Top 100 for 2014 (Bauer's 2013 review: http://www.sfgate.com/restaurants/diningout/article/A-casual-turn-suits-Healdsburg-s-Chalkboard-4690437.php). 

We decided to try it on this trip and went for a Saturday lunch. Although it was a warm day, the patio wasn't open so everyone was being seated inside. The basic layout of the long rectangular space hasn't changed from Cyrus days: you go in through the narrow single door to the left of the hotel entrance, where a hostess stand guards a couple of tables before the long dark bar. You walk past the bar into the dining room, which has changed décor but whose dimensions remain the same as before, except for the open kitchen. 

The latter allows the less than charming shout from the kitchen to announce when an order is complete for pick-up by the waiter. It's straight out of old-time diners, except these days even most diners don't yell over the counter for order pick-up. 

You might enjoy having your table conversation interrupted by a booming male voice announcing "Pork belly sliders! Chopped Salad! Scallops! Ready for pick-up!"

Or, you might not. It was...ummm, a little odd. 

It didn't happen all the time, just once in a while. Which was even odder, as it wasn't crowded and there were only three waiters, all of whom seemed to be working the room without pause.

At any rate, Carlos and I looked over the menu with our aggressively efficient waiter happy to answer questions and make suggestions. We decided to start with the duck liver crostini and beef tartare.

As is common with daily printed menus, there are sometimes small changes not reflected in the descriptions. The duck liver crostini was excellent, but the menu's onion marmalade was replaced by a drizzling of strawberry balsamic jam. Despite the avowed intent of "small plates", we received four good-sized crostini. As it turned out, most of the plates seem aimed to be divisible by either two or four, and the portion size is decidedly to the hearty side. Everything is sized either larger or in greater quantity than nearby competitors such as Stark Group's Willi's and Bravas, also both small plates restaurants.

We liked the crostini – we always like duck liver, and this smooth mousse was very tasty, almost as good as goose liver. But as often happens with chef McAnelly's previous work, the second plate dropped a full level. The beef tartare with quail egg yolk, parsley and crostini was a mediocrity. The vaunted "Snake River Farms beef" was not minced, but sliced into too-big shreds more suitable for dumplings or a pasta sauce than the fine hand-chopping that tartare demands...and worse, the fat wasn't trimmed off properly. 

The menu's celery hearts had disappeared which was fine with us – Carlos loathes celery unless it's so small he can't see it. But the beef had far too much spring garlic chopped and mixed in, giving it a harsh flavor. Even the cute little quail yolk couldn't tame this one. The parsley was a few leaves tossed with a bit of vinaigrette and a couple of rings of hot red pepper(!). The crostini were perfect, so at least one ingredient came out properly.

The waiter brought the Little Gem salad instead of the chopped salad, but it wasn't worth sending the dish back. We'd been considering it anyway, as the description of beets, orange pickled fennel, and avocado dressing sounded tasty. But again, the sum of the ingredients was not as good as it should have been. The individual elements were tasty, yet somehow not in the right balance that would have made us say, "Wow, this is wonderful!" It was good, with high quality ingredients, but not much above average. 

The grilled asparagus had great possibilities: crispy grits, malted leeks, 63-degree egg. The asparagus was nicely grilled despite being unevenly thick short spears, which is difficult to pull off successfully, but Chalkboard did it. The leeks didn't taste malted but they were definitely buttered, and are one of Carlos' favorite foods. The grits were deep-fried little squares with a fine breadcrumb crust, quite nice. There was a long bright red slash of sriracha hot sauce adding both visual and flavor attraction. It was a nice-sized portion as well, easily good for two or three people to share.

The problem was the egg. Last week at Five/Berkeley I got an egg that was overcooked from its stated 63.3 temperature. This time it was Chalkboard's turn to give us an egg that was undercooked from its stated temp. The egg was at most 61 degrees, meaning the white was just beginning to change color and was still gel-like, a state most people find marginally unpleasant. It wasn't a deal breaker, but it showed sloppiness. How hard is it to read a thermometer (I'm assuming the egg was sous-vided, which is common in most restaurants nowadays)?

We asked for the next three dishes to be brought together. This was (of course) ignored, and out came the spicy shrimp with baby leek, jalapeno, white wine and parsley, in a cast iron gratin. Wafting up was the smell of...iodine.

The shrimp weren't fresh. In fact, they were as marginal as could be. If Carlos hadn't shrugged and accepted them, I probably would have sent them back. There was oil, leek, a lot of burnt jalapeno, and chopped parsley in that round casserole dish, but there wasn't any wine and worse, no salt. The shrimp were chile-hot but unsalted, and as they weren't that fresh I found the concept and execution unpleasant. There were five small shrimp; I ate two and Carlos had the rest.

But the roller-coaster culinary ride continued, as they brought our last two plates. Both were pastas. One was the strozzapretti, a doubled narrow tubular pasta that is lightly twisted together. Today's version was only a little different than the one Michael Bauer praised: very spicy pork sausage, a bit of rapini, red pepper flakes in a light cheese sauce. The menu didn't identify the cheese, and we guessed it might be Edam or something similar.  Carlos really loved this, and I agreed it was the best dish we'd ordered. It had a good balance of flavors and wonderful textures. The pasta was a proper Italian al dente instead of the awful crunchy-in-the-middle that too many CA chefs produce. The sauce was loose and light-tasting, not heavy or too rich. The bitterness of the rapini and the heat of the sausage were a perfect point/counterpoint.

The Lumachine "mac'n'cheese" wasn't as successful. Duck confit, duck fat breadcrumbs, and white cheddar on giant-sized macaroni combined into a heavy, leaden dish. The breadcrumbs were irregularly crushed, another sign of kitchen sloppiness. The duck was fatty, the breadcrumbs were greasy, the cheddar sauce was thick and lumpy.

When I looked over the wine list, I noticed they offered Sabra liqueur from Israel. This is a chocolate-orange liqueur so I ordered a glass for us to share after our meal. Carlos had never had it, but he liked it a lot although he thinks it would be better in food, as it's extremely sweet drunk straight.

We found the dessert menu indifferent. Doughnuts, ice cream, and pseudo-Snickers bar cakes don't interest us. We didn't even bother with coffee, as Flying Goat Coffee is less than two blocks away.

Out of seven dishes, Chalkboard gave us only two that were very good: the duck liver crostini and the strozzapretti pasta with spicy sausage. The rest were either forgettable or indifferent. Indeed, if I hadn't kept one of the menus and marked it, I would have a hard time remembering what we had, although our lunch was just yesterday.

Many people enjoy Shane McAnelly's cooking. We don't. He's just too erratic, too inconsistent. His ideas are good, but there is no discipline in his conception or in the supervision of his line cooks. 

Chalkboard gave us worse food at a higher price than any other restaurant we visited on this trip. Fremont Diner was abysmal as well but they're a lot cheaper than Chalkboard. For a casual-upscale CA bistro, Chalkboard doesn't measure up to its many competitors here and in Sonoma and Sebastopol

Two people, lunch: seven small plates, one beverage, one liqueur, with tip was $122.