Healdsburg has no shortage of places to drink serious wine. Lo & Behold is where you go when you’re done being serious about it and just want a good cocktail.
The downtown bar has become a magnet for locals looking for a break from “Beverly Healdsburg,” but it is a particular favorite of the hospitality industry: restaurant workers, winemakers, tasting-room staff and others finally off the clock. That is exactly what Tara Heffernon and her business partners, Sean Kelley and Laura Sanfilippo, longtime industry veterans themselves, thought the increasingly touristy town needed.
“It’s the place you’re always looking for when you’re traveling,” Heffernon said — that laid-back insider’s spot where the locals actually eat and drink. “The biggest compliment we get is that people are being sent to us from another establishment.”
Inside the cavernous dining room are comfy chairs and a sofa for lingering, high-top tables, a long banquette lined with bistro tables and plenty of seats at the bar. It’s dark and moody, but in a cozy-nest way, not a sticky-table-and-some-guy-passed-out-at-the-bar way.
Outside, the casual patio is dog- and kid-friendly, with no one fretting over a few crumbs or what you’re wearing.
Heffernon still makes the signature sangria herself, filling it with whatever fruit and herbs are in season. Right now, that means black plums and shiso. It’s an unassuming cocktail that goes down easily after a long day of wine tasting. There’s no need to discuss its legs or finish because, really, who cares? It’s just fun to drink.
Lo & Behold is also one of the few spots in Healdsburg open after 9 p.m., something Heffernon and Sanfilippo knew from experience was sorely lacking in the sleepy town.
The backstory
Heffernon and Sanfilippo were part of the founding team at Duke’s Spirited Cocktails with Cappy Sorentino and Steven Maduro in 2016. The bar became known for working backyard botanicals into its drinks, creating fresh and unusual flavors that helped fuel the craft-cocktail wave that is now almost commonplace.
The team departed in 2021. Heffernon and Sanfilippo then teamed up with chef Kelley, who had run the food program at Burdock, to open Lo & Behold.
“We had an opportunity to start our own place and we wanted to create something really special together,” Heffernon said.
Sensing something was missing from Healdsburg — a warm, friendly, casual spot with good service — they plunged into creating Lo & Behold. Nearly five years later, the place is rarely empty.
“It’s just abuzz all of the time,” Heffernon said. “We want it to feel like people are coming home.”
Fun fact
Inside the men’s room (sorry, ladies), look for the clown painting by longtime comedian Red Skelton. You’ll see it, and it may haunt your nightmares.
When Guy Fieri is filming “Tournament of Champions” or “Guy’s Grocery Games,” celebrity chefs often stop by Lo & Behold for dinner and sign the print.
How long in business
Four years — five in January, according to Heffernon. She is already sweating the grand celebration they’ll throw because, she said, it has to be epic.
Most popular dish
The Almost Famous Chicken Tenders, because they’re the kind of adult kid food that makes people feel comforted and nurtured. But the soul of the menu, Heffernon said, is the Kimchi Noodles, made with broad, housemade noodles bathed in kimchi butter and black vinegar and topped with a generous dollop of kimchi.
When it comes to cocktails, the Guava Paloma has always been at the top of the list. A juicy twist on the Mexican highball, it’s made with white tequila, guava, grapefruit, lime and lychee — a little sweet, a little sour and dangerously delicious.
The food
Chef Kelley is a chef’s chef, meaning he makes the kind of food other chefs crave. He’s not interested in culinary bravado. Instead, he puts his efforts into hearty, rib-sticking, “I’m starving, feed me” food. His creative takes on global cuisine almost always hit the mark, with bold flavors and unusual — sometimes plain wacky — combinations that just work.
Tallow-braised radishes with beef floss ($13) are a head-scratcher, but the soft radishes bathed in fat are like brisket without the brisket. It just works.
The menu changes seasonally, but a few dishes stick around all year. Daily crudos are a signature, along with the craveable pea shoot salad with sesame-yogurt dressing ($13) you’ll dream about for weeks.
The housemade kimchi noodles ($20) are required. So are the Almost Famous Chicken Tenders ($18), served with housemade ranch that will take you right back to childhood, and the brisket tacos.
For dessert, the Thai iced tea shave ice with evaporated milk and whipped cream ($9) may be the best dessert you’ll have all summer.
This is a menu you’ll want to revisit: Jamaican grilled shrimp with chow chow ($17), grilled Vietnamese steak with a cube of fried sticky rice ($19), duck confit with duck-fat potatoes ($29) and the burger ($19). If you know, you know.
The drinks
Lo & Behold is all about craft cocktails, all $15, and the drink menu starts smacking its lips the moment you see it. Sangria and punches are signatures, made with seasonal fruit and spirits.
Dr. Feel Good: A mysterious combination of fruit and herbal liqueurs, allspice and seltzer — an adult Dr Pepper-ish cocktail.
K-Pop: Vodka with strawberry and melon liqueurs, lemon and yuzu. A side of tween-girl BTS tears optional.
World’s Best Vodka Soda: Locally made Young & Yonder vodka is the base, with “improved seltzer” and unicorn tears. The tears are apparently a tedious process, according to Heffernon, but worth it. It is, without a doubt, the world’s best vodka soda, primarily because of the unicorn tears — harvested by tickling unicorns until they weep with laughter.
The Caribbean Queen ($12): This spirit-free cocktail made with passion fruit, lime, orange and coconut is a Billy Ocean song in a glass. Smooth, sexy and full of soul.
The deals
Happy hour runs from 3-5 p.m. Thursday through Monday, with $9 cocktails, including sangria, ranch water, martinis and vodka sodas. The restaurant is closed Tuesday and Wednesday.
The spot
214 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, 707-756-5021, loandbeholdca.com. Open 11:30 a.m. to midnight Thursday through Monday.