Carmel Valley's steakhouse staple has new menu and some surprises.

I didn’t see this coming: The most memorable tasting from a lunch at a storied steakhouse was a salad.

Then again, I didn’t know what quite to expect.

As Will’s Fargo and its brand new Exec Chef Greg Karjala approach its reopening post two-month remodel – next week, if the new bathrooms are approved – there were reports of a name change. (Those were exaggerated: It will be Will’s Fargo Restaurant.)

There was word of a change in concept, with a polarizing word “gastropub” at the center of the storm. (It will still be a steakhouse as much as anything else.)

There were insider grumblings around town centered on decisions made by Will’s owners Hunter Lowder and Nick Elliott, who also own and direct at Holman Ranch, along with its eponymous vineyard and wine label.

But enough confusion.

Here’s what that salad, the new chef and the revamped menu signal about the new era at Will’s Fargo.

It’s got identity.

The backbone is intact: “Will’s Classics” include steaks with the weight properly listed with each cut. They get as big as the 15-ounce ribeye ($38), as rich as the filet (5 or 8 ounce, $28, $36), and come with seasonal vegetables and a choice of baked potato, twice baked or fries.

But there’s a new spark, too.

It comes with Karjala’s farm-fresh take on tavern-style comfort food, lifted by two local chef obsessions: Swank Farms seasonal produce and the freshest seafood from Robbie’s Oceanfresh.

He worked for four years with Tim Wood at Carmel Valley Ranch, where Wood has earned our readers’ vote for Best Chef in the area for elevated – and playful – ranch-style comfort food frequently made with on-property ingredients. Think items like sweet corn pudding-lobster flatbread, braised beet salads, Vermillion rock cod ceviche and Moroccan spiced carpaccio. (More recently, Karjala led the way at Sticks in Pebble Beach, where Todd Fisher also recently directed traffic.)

In fact, Wood called Will’s on Karjala’s behalf. Which meant something to Lowden – but not everything.

“I love Wood’s food: simple but really great flavor,” she says, “and Tim’s recommendation was great, and I really liked Greg’s food, but most of all I like that he’s a local guy with kids, who’s just really nice and personable and someone you want to come out of the kitchen.”

Not too often, though, because it’s back there Karjala’s curing his own salmon, making his own ricotta and stoked to shift his menu with the seasons.

Having the kitchen staff back from the previous Jerome Viel era means they have the red meats dialed, and Karjala can learn from them there, while focusing on coaching them up on his creations.

Beyond the kitchen, everything is getting at least a minimal update.

The “butcher room” now holds a handful of two-top tables instead of one private table, extending the social feel of the popular but limited bar area. The bar itself feels more open thanks to mirrored backing and paint. The dining area has new flooring. The patio hosts the most dramatic work, with the two-tier brick being reduced to one altitude, with overhead trellises on the way along with some landscaping. (The patio will open after the main restaurant.) The bathrooms are getting a total overhaul that will make them ADA-compatible.

“It’s not a remodel but a restoration,” Elliott says, “bringing back the former glory of the building.”

Lowder elaborates.

“Our hope with the building, restaurant and menu is to preserve and pay homage to the past – and loyal customers – while also endeavoring to provide something novel for first-time patrons,” she says.

Now about that salad.

Karjala grills the hearty kale to dent both the bitterness and tough texture, but the result is as bright as it is smoky, thanks to shaved radishes, shaved fennel and a lively lemon vinaigrette.

Salads are a strong point, in fact, with an iceberg wedge trio ($14), portobello mushroom-napa cabbage number ($14) and a tomato carpaccio ($10) featuring Holman Ranch olive oil.

So are the sides, like the cilantro-lime white corn, heirloom cauliflower and sweet and sour braised cabbage ($7 each).

The starters have me most excited, including the Monterey Bay rock shrimp and calamari ($13) and the salt spring mussels and clams steamed with Prosecco, shallots and lemon verbena ($16), the latter which chef just started growing in his Holman Ranch garden.

He chose the half chicken to spotlight on my visit. He marinates a deboned Jidori breast (“the Kobe of chicken,” he says) in garlic, oil and rosemary, slow sous vides it, then roasts it over a asparagus-carrot-spring onion-green garlic-potato “spring hash” ($32). It’s as good as it sounds.

His beef tartare puttanesca ($15), meanwhile, brings on a creative take on a vintage steakhouse item with cherry tomatoes, serrano chiles and garlic chips – there’s texture and flavor and intrigue – but the cut on the tartare leads to too much sinew.

The best taste of the afternoon, besides the kale salad: his thyme-cured salmon with watercress, pickled onion, fennel and crème fraîche – herbal, light, decadent, crunchy and tender all at once.

~ Ouickbites ~

River Road Grill opened this week (Wednesday, March 2), softly, meeting pent-up demand along the wine corridor in the former Element Wine Bar. Look to www.mcweekly.com/edible for more.

Dawn’s Dream Winery (659-2649) realizes a bit of the vision of turning grapes into good deeds with a 2-7pm Shop the Global Pop-up Marketplace at the tasting room on San Carlos in Carmel, and a 4pm panel on how to create a positive global lifestyle with local activist-educator Jenny Webster, Limitless Horizon Executive Director Katie Morrow and Emmy winnerVirginia Williams.

To celebrate the splendid weather this “winter,” Trailside Cafe in Carmel Valley (298-7453) has a bumper crop of top West Coast IPAs, including Drake’s “Hopocolypse” Double IPA, Alvarado Street Brewery’s Mai TaiPA, Corralitos Brewery’s “Hop Kiss” IPA, Hop Freshner’s “Dank and Sticky” and Deschutes “Fresh Squeezed” IPA.

Great Taste of Pacific Grove ($60, www.SupportPGPride.com) represents a great way to sample P.G. and Pebble Beach’s best restaurant/purveyors’ stuff paired with area wines. And it all benefits schools, 4-7pm Sunday, March 6, Inn at Spanish Bay.

Beach House at Lovers Point (375-2345) and its new Exec Chef Matthew Farmer have new items like cornmeal-crusted portobello fries ($11), grilled ribeye sandwich ($19), scallops pot pie ($15), crab-stuffed petrale sole ($28.90).

Lucia Restaurant & Bar (658-3595) at Bernardus Lodge & Spa has earned four stars from Forbes Travel.

Closing night of Jewish Film Fest (Sunday, March 20) features a 6pm “Deli Dinner” at Congregation Beth Israel followed by the film Deli Man. The highlight: Longtime local chef and deli man Terry Teplitzsky of Boardwalk Sub Shop fame riffs on the art of the J-Deli.

Brace yourself: Flanagan’s Irish-American Pub in Carmel’s Barnyard Shopping Village is planning the luckiest St. Paddy’s night party 4pm-midnight March 17 (625-5500, $39 includes Jameson and Guinness glassware and shirts plus a drink and raffle ticket).

Marty Rubin: “Morning will come, it has no choice.”