Latest news with #California-Mexican
Eater
4 days ago
- Business
- Eater
Historic Ojai Hotel Debuts Two Chic Restaurants and a Bar by the Little Dom's Crew
A pair of seasoned Los Angeles restaurateurs just debuted two restaurants and a bar inside Ojai's historic Hotel El Roblar. Little Dom's Warner Ebbink, documentary filmmaker Jeremy McBride, Turtle Conservancy founder and filmmaker Eric Goode, designer Ramin Shamshiri, and chef Brandon Boudet have opened the Condor Bar, hotel guest-only restaurant La Cocina, and Snug Bar this summer in the newly refurbished 50-room hotel. Ebbink and Boudet are the same duo that introduced Los Feliz's longstanding Little Dom's, Little Dom's Seafood in Carpinteria, and Montecito's Bar Lou, which opened in late 2024. The two-acre Hotel El Roblar first opened in 1919, before reopening as an all-inclusive, adults-only spa hotel in the 1970s onward. After the 2017 Thomas Fire, Hotel El Roblar closed indefinitely until the current team purchased it in 2019. The design was a collaborative effort between the co-owners, with Ebbink and Boudet spearheading and leading the hotel's food and beverages. Little Dom's Boudet is not an official partner at Hotel El Roblar, but collaborated on the reopening of the historic hotel. 'I could never see doing this project with anybody else,' says Ebbink. 'Brandon's been part of this process just as long as anyone else. He put his heart and soul into this business. The restaurants and bar are at the heart of the operation with Brandon's fingerprints all over them.' The updated property boasts an elegant pool, chic boutique rooms, and a stunning design that's a tribute to Spanish Revival architecture, but Hotel El Roblar's dining and drink offerings are still a main draw, with a California-Mexican menu for Condor Bar rooted in California's history. 'The menu lends itself to Mexican cuisine,' says Boudet. 'It all melds together with deep roots in California, the Old World, and Mexican techniques and ingredients.' On July 16, Condor Bar revealed its 100-seat restaurant with a menu designed for sharing. The restaurant cooks over live oak on a Santa Maria Grill, a regional barbecue set-up that hails from the 19th century in Santa Barbara County's Santa Maria Valley. In the kitchen, Boudet uses it to add smoky flavor to king oyster mushrooms with mole verde, carne asada, chicken asado, a Veracruz-style Vermillion snapper, and pork ribs al pastor served with a green papaya pineapple slaw and miso pineapple butter. Sides include sauteed chayote squash and refried pinto beans with chicken fat and chicharron. Condor Bar makes all the tortillas in-house with organic masa from Kernel of Truth, though the team is also developing its own nixtamal program. Starters include a jicama salad, oysters, wild shrimp coctel de camaron with chiles, avocado, cucumber, and local tomatoes. For guests staying overnight, La Cocina serves breakfast and lunch, including chilaquiles, a Santa Maria grilled chicken asado torta, and breakfast burritos. The 45-seat Snug Bar serves complimentary coffee and a cocktail menu. The bar is in the beginning stages of assembling an agave spirit and wine collection, with particular interest in winemakers from Baja California, California, and Spain. El Roblar's cocktails are classics with margaritas, Old Fashioneds, Palomas, and a simple carajillo with Paranubes Oaxacan Rum, Licor 43 Spanish liqueur, and fresh espresso. Hotel El Roblar resides on the same street as another historic adjacent building that was recently restored: the Ojai Playhouse on Ojai Avenue. El Roblar is a short walk away from Ojai's local favorite, Rory's Place. The charming neighborhood, with its orange groves and walkable downtown strip with the third outlet for Highly Likely, and surrounding Los Padres National Forest, Ojai continues to evolve into a dining destination for Southern California. The Condor Bar is open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and La Cocina serves lunch and breakfast to guests from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The lobby's Snug Bar is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 122 E. Ojai Avenue, Ojai, CA, 93023. Duck leg carnitas at Condor Bar in Ojai. Bethany Nauert Prime arranchera steak on a Santa Maria grill. Bethany Nauert Oysters, Oaxacan After Midnight cocktail, and Best Friend cocktail. Bethany Nauert Bar closeup Gregory Goode Gregory Goode Bar view. Gregory Goode Bar adjacent dining room. Gregory Goode Patio dining. Gregory Goode Snug Bar. Gregory Goode Lobby. Gregory Goode Pool. Gregory Goode Entry. Gregory Goode Eater LA All your essential food and restaurant intel delivered to you Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Forbes
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Los Angeles Gets A New Wave Of Blockbuster Restaurants
Meatballs are made with grass-fed wagyu at Matū Kai. Los Angeles dining is showing its resilience with major players opening prominent restaurants around the city. In Brentwood, Matū Kai (the sibling restaurant to Beverly Hills meatery Matū) is showcasing its luscious wagyu steaks and its bar cheesesteak alongside new dishes like tenderloin satay with crying tiger sauce and rib eye/New York strip brochettes with harissa spice. This restaurant, which serves 100 percent grass-fed wagyu from First Light Farms in New Zealand, wants to take guests around the world for an exploration of beef. Hand-torn maltagliati (from Uovo, another Los Angeles restaurant co-founded by Matū's Jerry Greenberg) is made in Italy and served with a toothsome rib eye ragu. Meatballs with marinara, meanwhile, taste like an Italian-American classic. In Beverly Hills, Mei Lin (the Top Chef champion who previously ran Nightshade and also operates Daybird) is serving Chinese food that's both traditional and upscale at the new 88 Club. Wontons, stuffed with prawn meat and bamboo shoots, are bathed in soul-warming umami-rich chicken stock. A whole sweet-and-sour squirrel fish is sauced at your table. Nam yu roast chicken, with ginger scallion oil and aromatic soy, is a nod to one of Lin's favorite childhood dishes. Jasmine milk tea custard buns are a nice sweet-but-not-too-sweet finish. Brighten your day with a citrus salad at Beethoven Market. In Mar Vista, veteran operator Jeremy Adler (who also runs Cobi's in Santa Monica) has opened Beethoven Market, a grand but welcoming neighborhood spot that was born out of his obsession with creating a custom rotisserie for perfect roast chicken. Beethoven Market also serves crowd-pleasing Italian food like housemade pastas (the spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino is beautiful simplicity) and standout pizzas like a Meyer lemon and clam pie. Zippy giardiniera and elegantly calibrated tuna carpaccio shows that this restaurant is paying attention to the little details. For dessert, there's tiramisu, served out of a tray at your table. It's a flourish, but the kind you can enjoy on the regular. In El Segundo near Jame (the restaurant that started it all for Memento Mori Hospitality), prolific chef/operator Jackson Kalb has turned his attention to California-Mexican food at the vibrant Jaime Taqueria. Kalb (who also recently opened an outpost of Ospi in Costa Mesa) and chef Marco Arreguin (previously at Wes Avila's MXO) are slinging beef-cheek quesabirria and shrimp gobernador tacos while making flavorful salsas that run the gamut. Other menu highlights include queso fundido, a kale salad (if you've ever been to Jame, you'll know why), ceviches, a crispy pork shank and branzino zarandeado. In City of Industry, Lynn Liu has turned what was 19 Town into the newest location of mala standard-bearer Sichuan Impression. This is billed as a 'concept' restaurant, so Liu will likely be trying out many new dishes as she uses this as a test kitchen for her restaurant empire. Sichuan Impression, of course, already serves bangers like stir-fried cumin lambo, oxtail tomato soup, mapo tofu and its signature boiled fish with rattan pepper in Alhambra, West Los Angeles and Tustin. It will be exciting to see what Liu, one of the most talented and creative Chinese chefs in Los Angeles, plays around with at her new location.
