At Cheers Chico, everybody might not know your name, but they will greet and serve you as if you are an old friend.
“The name was inspired by the u-shape of the bar, which is the same shape as the bar in the 1980s sitcom ‘Cheers,’” said David Halimi, the establishment’s owner. “Not only that, but it had a nice ring to it. So I named it Cheers Chico, ‘where we say cheers to good times in Chico.’”
The new restaurant, bar and live music venue, which opened in September on Main Street in downtown Chico, is the latest venture of Halimi, a local businessman, event producer and Chico State College of Business instructor.
“My vision was to create a fine dining space with an element of live entertainment,” said Halimi. “I’ve always believed that what makes Chico different than other small towns is how much arts and music it offers. I’ve always been very supportive of that and wanted to contribute.”
From its entrance — which features an inlaid mosaic dollar sign installed in 1948 when JC Penny built its store there — to the interior’s warm lighting and custom African mahogany hostess station, tables and bar, Cheers Chico provides a welcoming and comfortable space for drinking, eating and hanging out.
“I’m a great believer that everything should be nice and go together,” said Halimi. “There should be a flow, a symmetry so that there’s a balance. People are telling me the space has a great ‘vibe.’”
That attentiveness harmony and elegance is also evidenced in the presentation of the restaurant’s drinks and food. Cocktails and mocktails are served in pre-chilled glasses and delicately garnished. And, each dish on the menu from starters to desserts is presented like a work of art.
“You eat with your eyes first, so the food should be presented beautifully,” said Halimi. “The dishes, the napkins, the silverware, the food, all of it should be appealing. It should invite you to eat.”
Foodie roots
Halimi’s interest in both eating and cooking fine food started when worked at Bull Valley Roadhouse in Port Costa, California, while he was in high school and an undergraduate at East Bay College. There, Halimi became a “foodie” and found he enjoyed expressing his creativity through culinary inventiveness.
“Fine food became a hobby,” Halimi said. “Creating things is easy to do with food.”
After nearly five decades, Halimi – who holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and economics and a master’s degree from UC Davis in ecometrics – took his hobby and turned it into a business. He opened his first restaurant, Meze Moon Mediterranean Cuisine, in Chico in 2023.
When the restaurant that had occupied the lower floor of the building he owned at 135 Main Street closed in 2022, Halimi decided to open another restaurant in its place because “no one else was stepping forward” to reopen it. That decision was made in December 2023, and after a nine-month remodel, Cheers Chico opened fulfilling Halimi’s “dream of creating a fine dining space.”
“I spent a long time creating the menu. My goal was to offer a menu unique to Chico, to offer dishes no others offered,” he said. “Like architects design buildings that builders build, I did the same with the dishes, creating dishes for the chefs to cook.”
The foundation for Cheers Chico fare is fresh and, when possible, locally sourced ingredients and to making everything from scratch.
“My philosophy is, if you want to end with a great product you have to start with the best ingredients,” Halimi said. “We make everything in house. There are no cans, jars or microwaves. It takes five people in the kitchen to create the dishes we make.”
Cheers Chico offers dinner, lunch, happy hour and late night menus. A weekend brunch menu is in the works and Halimi hopes to open for that meal in the near future.
Among the appetizers offered is a variation on deviled eggs. This dish is prepared using beet-juice pickled egg whites with a whipped sundried tomato and egg yolk with spices filling. There’s also a fresh-baked, five-seed flatbread served with melted cheese and a light marinara sauce made from fresh tomatoes.
Perhaps the most unusual starter dish is the Polenta Nigiri, an original Halimi creation. This starter is made from cold-pressed, crispy polenta bites topped with a warm meatball slice, the house marinara, melted cheese and topped with fresh basil leaves.
Halimi enjoys the Cheers Chico menu so much he said “every dish is my favorite” but, the entrée he’s most proud of include the charbroiled, grass-fed leg of lamb served with a pomegranate reduction sauce, saffron rice and herbed root vegetables. The oven roasted duck breast with an orange demi-glace served with a flambe peach half, French lentils and snap peas is also high on Halimi’s list, as are the veal marsala, lobster lasagna, prime rib and porterhouse steak which, the restaurateur says is “the best steak in town.”
There are also seafood selections — halibut and black cod — as well as a vegetarian lasagna on the dinner menu.
“Everything on the menu has been really well received. People love the food,” said Halimi. “I had couple who have dined all over the world come in for dinner and tell me afterwards that they never expected to find food like this in Chico.”
Lunches include a prime rib French dip sandwich; a house-ground beef cheeseburger, pappardelle pasta served with a garlic cream sauce, smoked mushroom, spinach and a choice of chicken, beef, salmon or vegetables; as well as a classic Caesar salad with chicken, among other dishes.
Among the five dessert offerings is the Cheers Cassata Slice, a rum infused vanilla-bean ice cream with chopped candied fruit, nuts and chocolate chips.
“I used to make this dessert 50 years ago at Bull Valley,” said Halimi. “It’s been a hit.”
Drinks and dancing
The bar serves more than 30 beers on tap including those from local brewery’s such as Ramble West, Feather Falls Brewery and Sierra Nevada. There is also a wide selection of affordable wines and specialty craft mocktails and cocktails.
“The Cheers Cherry Times house cocktail is quite unusual,” said Halimi. “It’s made with Pierre Ferrand cognac, orange juice, a persimmon puree, pomegranate and champagne. That’s a hard one to stop drinking.”
Live music, usually classic rock, is offered on Friday and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., with electronic music filling the venue afterwards until closing.
“We try to cater to Chico’s different demographics,” explained Halimi about the music. “The live classic for the dining crowd and dance music for the younger crowd. We basically follow the tastes of the locals.”
For further information on Cheers Chico, visit cheerschico.com.
Reach Kyra Gottesman at [email protected]
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