Check Out the Meaty American Menu of Chalkboard’s Spinoff, The Brass Rabbit

A new restaurant is hopping into Healdsburg on May 20, in the form of The Brass Rabbit. Chef Shane McAnelly, also executive chef of nearby Chalkboard, is behind the meat-heavy menu here too, serving a menu of “supper club classics.”

Like Chalkboard, the restaurant is connected to mega-wealthy entrepreneur Billy Foley, owner of Chalk Hill winery (and others like Sebastiani) from whose garden both restaurants will source produce. This time, though, it’s the younger generation taking up the reins— Robert, Patrick, and Courtney Foley are the owners, though McAnelly and general manager Nathan Grise Myers are the visionaries. That also means McAnelly will do double duty, opening this restaurant while maintaining his position as executive chef of Chalkboard.

Brian Cary

Brian Cary

Most of the menu will come from the huge six-foot wood-burning Grillworks grill that will also feature a rotisserie and plancha. (The only other restaurant in the area to have such a thing is Coqueta in SF.) It’s taking over the former location of Bistro Ralph, with just 40 seats split between the main dining room, bar, and chef’s counter, and around eight on the patio out front.

Dishes like grilled ribeye with red wine cipollini onions, duck fat potatoes, turnips, and bordelaise are a good indication of McAnelly’s devotion to protein— each day a different special will offer classics like lobster thermidor, lamb wellington, and Peking duck a l’orange. And it wouldn’t be a true American supper club feast without caviar, and oysters, which McAnelly serves raw with frozen mignonette. Really though, the grand platter is the real order, with oysters, shrimp cocktail, lobster, and uni parfait. Desserts from pastry chef William Woodward sound innocently classic, but offer inventive twists like a chocolate hazelnut tart served with a scoop of beurre noisette (brown butter) ice cream. See the full menu below.

And, like any good restaurant surrounded by wineries, there will be lots and lots of cocktails to combat wine fatigue. General manager Nathan Grise Myers will continue the classics them with mint juleps, Manhattans, and a whole menu section for martinis with options like foie gras-stuffed olives. There will be wine, however, focusing on California wineries.

When it opens, the restaurant will be open seven days a week for dinner from 5:30 p.m. - 10 pm.