The eagerly anticipated restaurant Chez Noir expected to open on Friday in Carmel.

When Jonny Black wants squab on his menu, he seeks out a woman named Helen who raises the birds. Before a guy named Tony left the Central Coast for a ranch in Nebraska, he was happy to allow the chef to take artisanal hams, cured in the revered Spanish style, from his barn.

For caviar—which Black prepares in house using Big Sur Salt—he first splashed into sturgeon tanks at the California Caviar Company and selected a fish. Last weekend, with the finishing touches on his restaurant still being applied, Black traveled the county, visiting four local farms in an hour and a half.

To say the culinary standout is a bit on the obsessive side when it comes to local, seasonal, daily-catch, this-morning’s-harvest sourcing is an understatement. His first role after graduating from the rigorous Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York was as a line cook and gardener at an Ohio restaurant. And he’s been known to forage personally for mushrooms, herbs and other edibles.

“We’re hoping to get a bluefin [tuna] this week,” Black says, noting that one of his team at Chez Noir has a boat and commercial fishing license.

Along with recent openings like Maligne in Seaside and downtown Monterey’s Cella, the arrival of Chez Noir in Carmel has been eagerly anticipated. The food section of the San Francisco Chronicle was already teasing its readers about the place more than six months ahead of Chez Noir’s opening, planned—hopefully, as this is an industry subject to many whims—for Friday, Oct. 7.

Of course, Black was a rising star at multiple Michelin Star Bay Area destinations like Quince and Atelier Crenn—and prior to that at Thomas Keller’s New York outpost Per Se—before he landed as executive chef at Sierra Mar in Big Sur’s Post Ranch Inn.

His brief pre-Covid tenure at the exclusive Big Sur resort is yet another reason for the excitement over Chez Noir. The Weekly visited for lunch in 2019, three months after he had taken over as executive chef, and came away with this impression:

“He got to know the farmer, to see the produce ripen and select just what he wanted. He also drove to pick the stuff up. And all of that for just a few crates of tomatoes.

“Some of those tomatoes end up cold smoked and spread on the bun of a simple burger. The result is profound—a fruity sweetness that is rich and deep, with acrid curls of smoke that mimic the presence of a backyard grill. This layers into a ground beef patty so musky, so earthy, so evocative of pasture land you begin to realize this is one of the few times you’ve truly savored beef.”

Since 2020, Black has been cooking and thinking. The first comes naturally, but the second is foreign in an industry that can consume 18 hours of one’s day. As the pandemic upended routine, however, it gave the chef and his wife Monique time to consider everything involved in opening a restaurant of their own.

It’s a space that suits a self professed Francophile—in downtown Carmel, but set away from the rivers of people on Ocean Avenue. With a two bedroom apartment above serving as the family’s home, Chez Noir shares the vibe of a village bistro, yet attired for fine dining.

“I like to cook food that is fancy, but I don’t want it to be too precious,” Black explains. He prefers that all the fussy technique used to coax a dish to its apogee remains a mystery to the dinner guest. Instead, the ingredients take the stage in apparent effortless glory. Even this, however, is an exercise of finesse. To reach the prized savor of the Basque txuleton steak, for instance, not only requires beef from an old cow, but also a cooking process that would cause American steakhouse chefs to wail in dismay.

The menu at Chez Noir will change often. If temperatures dip, Black may decide suddenly to add a warming soup to the list. If a gardener calls with a basket of freshly picked chard, it may end up in a dish.

“I love the spontaneous style of cooking,” Black observes. “We want to showcase what’s around us.”

Expect a menu inspired by the Central Coast and informed by the culinary traditions and techniques of France and Spain. What that plays out as on the printed page, however, was something Black and his team were still debating on Monday. The “We should put this on?” “No, this is the one” discussions were taking place as the kitchen staff lobbied for favorites.

“I’m trying my best to commit to an opening menu,” Black says with a chuckle.

No matter. What is certain to rank as one of the county’s best new restaurants—and one of the best destinations for years to come, assuming no new global interruptions—is set to open. And the excitement is palpable after two years of Chez Noir existing theoretically.

“We’re passionate about all this,” Black says. “We believe in restaurants. We want people to leave feeling better than when they came in.”

Chez Noir plans to welcome guests on Friday. After that, it’s schedule will be Tuesday-Thursday 5-8:30pm, Friday-Saturday 4-9pm. 5th between Dolores and San Carlos, Carmel. cheznoircarmel.com.