"A Michelin Bib Gourmand earned and then lost, too quickly — but the pizzas were ideally blistered, the bucatini amatriciana was the template, and Healdsburg remembers."
About Molti Amici
Molti Amici opened in summer 2023 at 330 Healdsburg Avenue, replacing the long-running Campo Fina in a corner room with an outdoor bocce court that had been part of the town's Italian identity for nearly a decade. The new concept, from co-owners who previously operated in the Napa and Sonoma restaurant scene, was Roman-inflected: wood-fired pizzas, handmade pastas, a Negroni programme built around Italian amari, and a menu that treated the bocce court as part of the dining room rather than a decorative gesture.
The kitchen delivered on the ambition. Michelin inspectors praised the pizzas for being ideally blistered, with simple but compelling toppings — squash blossom with fontina and balsamic became a signature. The bucatini amatriciana arrived with an ideal al dente chew, topped with crunchy breadcrumbs that gave the dish a textural finish most amatriciana preparations lack. In August 2024, Molti Amici was named to the Michelin California Bib Gourmand list as a under-the-radar find “bursting with flavor that won't break the bank.” For a restaurant barely a year old, this was the kind of recognition that usually sets a career in motion.
What followed has become a Healdsburg cautionary tale. Despite the Bib Gourmand honour and a consistent run of strong reviews, Molti Amici closed its doors abruptly on November 2, 2024, less than three months after Michelin's acknowledgment. Co-owner Jason Cutrer stated publicly that the restaurant was “just not in a good financial position to continue.” Wine country restaurant economics — high rents, tourism seasonality, post-pandemic staffing costs — claimed another Italian room.
The space did not sit empty for long. In 2025, high-profile chef Anthony Jones took over the location and reopened it as Bistro Lagniappe, a Louisiana-Californian concept that has since begun accumulating its own following. The bones of the room remain — the bocce court, the patio, the back dining area — but the identity has pivoted decisively south from Italy to the Gulf Coast.
Why Molti Amici Mattered
Molti Amici demonstrated that wine country could support an Italian restaurant that took the Bib Gourmand approach seriously: quality at the $$ price point, generosity without pretension, pizzas that didn't apologise for being pizzas. The model is hard to sustain — as the closure proved — but the short run raised the Healdsburg standard and influenced how competitors price and plate. For visitors who dined there before November 2024, the memory is a complete one: a neighborhood Italian room at its best, briefly.
Readers seeking a current Italian dinner in Healdsburg should consult our other Healdsburg listings for live options. For team dinners, we recommend Bravas Bar de Tapas. For birthdays, The Matheson remains the most festive room in town.