Montecito Club Lands a Role in Netflix’s ‘Beef’

For years, Santa Barbara County’s estates, vineyards, and coastal vistas have quietly played supporting roles in Hollywood productions.

Montecito’s 10-acre estate El Fureidis, for example, served as Tony Montana’s mansion in the 1983 classic Scarface. The region also provided the backdrop for the 2004 road-trip rom-com Sideways, with scenes filmed throughout Santa Ynez Valley wine country, while the 2009 romantic comedy It’s Complicated, starring Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, featured the iconic Santa Barbara County Courthouse.

More recently, viewers who tuned into Season 2 of the Netflix series Beef, which premiered on April 16, may have spotted another familiar local landmark. In the first 30 seconds of Episode 1, the Andrée Clark Bird Refuge appears in the background, slightly softened and out of focus. As the camera pulls wider, another unmistakable sight comes into view: Montecito Club.

Created by Lee Sung Jin, Beef is an anthology series, meaning each season tells a standalone story. The show’s acclaimed first season, consisting of 10 half-hour episodes, follows Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong), who become locked in an increasingly destructive feud after a road-rage incident in a parking lot. The series was a critical and awards-season darling, taking home eight Emmy Awards at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.

The second season, set in Montecito at the fictional Monte Vista Point Country Club, follows two couples: Joshua (Oscar Isaac) and Lindsay (Carey Mulligan), and Ashley (Cailee Spaeny) and Austin (Charles Melton). Their lives become entangled after the younger pair witnesses a heated argument between the older couple, sparking a feud that spirals out of control and creates, you guessed it, beef.

According to the club’s General Manager, Michael Orosco, Montecito Club’s connection to the production began when Jin visited a friend who was a club member; he supposedly took a liking to it and hoped to film shots there for Season 2 of Beef.

Realizing he needed an expert perspective, Jin turned to Orosco, who walked him through the membership process and the nuances of private-club culture to help him better understand how a club operates.

While the season is set in Montecito, with one character even name-dropping Lucky’s restaurant on Coast Village Road, no interior scenes were filmed at the club — just a handful of exterior shots. As a result, filming took place over a single day, with the crew starting early and wrapping once they had captured all the footage they needed.

Orosco said it was important that no members were affected by filming, which took place on a Monday while the golf course was closed for repairs. Members who happened to be at the club that day likely saw only “a bunch of people running around” and a small film crew. For many, the first real confirmation came much later — when they recognized their own club while watching Beef at home.

Since the show’s release, Orosco said he has received “hundreds” of messages and phone calls from people who recognized the club and from members who were excited to see it featured.

“I think,” he paused, “you’re the fourth person I’ve talked to today about it.”

Orosco applauded the production team for accurately portraying the ins and outs of club culture, but noted a few embellishments in the show.

“Obviously,” he joked, “we’re not murdering people here.”