A New Season for Ojai

It feels like we’re at the top of the world. After a long drive up dirt roads that twist and turn alongside Sulphur Mountain, we have finally made it to the farm. The view is picturesque with just a sliver of the Pacific peeking through the garden beds filled with tomatoes, cucumbers and berries. The soft sound of chickens clucking can be heard just over the hill while bees buzz nearby. There’s dirt, worms, and so much sun, but it’s hard not to feel romantic about this place at the top of Ojai. 

The Thomas Fire scorched this earth that was once set to become a commune of Tony Yanow and his family. The craft beer entrepreneur purchased the lot and its adjacent acres for his family and friends in 2010 while shuffling between Los Angeles and Meiner’s Oaks. But Mother Nature had other plans. 

When Yanow and his family returned to the property in 2017, stepping over melted solar panels, demolished well parts, and wilted dreams, he’d all but given up on the land. But two years later, with a reinvigorated spirit, the Golden Road Brewing founder returned to this spot with renewed energy and a determination to reignite his original dreams. “It turns out the fire made the land more fertile,” Yanow told me recently over the phone. 

The ultimate goal was always to serve good food to his family, but the verdant area became a catalyst for reimagining regenerative farming. “It’s so expensive to farm this way that we’ve got to get every ounce we can out of it,” he’d said. In the end, a podcast outlining the origins of rye whiskey inspired him to pull further from the ground. 

His original idea was to build a cocktail farm in order to preserve all the bits and pieces that remained following consumption by his family for fermentation and distillation. But the scorched earth that would have been his home produced such an abundance of produce that opening a restaurant felt inevitable. It’s taken grit, but Yanow is used to dealing with every type of setback imaginable — from permit mishaps to health concerns. 

Two years ago when I first reported on the best Ojai restaurants, I spotted the orange, yellow, and green Ojai Mountain Farm logo on the storefront Yanow and his team had secured from Osteria Monta Grappa. I’d hoped to add the restaurant to my list within a few months of the report, but alas, life had other things in mind.

In the space between growing more than 80 varieties of fruit trees and garden crops, Yanow has had a series of health complications that have forced him to take a step back. “I’m a hands-on guy, but I can’t be right now — I just don’t have it,” he said. It’s something he’s dealt with his entire life, and doesn’t shy away from discussing it. It’s actually the reason all of this exists — growing up with heart issues, he learned from a young age how important the food he consumed could be tied to his health. 

Despite these setbacks, he’s been putting his blood, sweat, and equity into this remote farm in ways that even Yanow — a longtime “close to the earth” consumer — could never foresee. The Ojai Mountain Farm team is multi-generational, with expertise in everything from vermicompost to SEC. As a serial entrepreneur, Yanow knows how critical it is to surround himself with fantastic people. His all-female farming team is one part of that, some of whom allowed me to sample tomatoes and smell dahlias on a visit. The other half of that equation is in the kitchen.

The culinary direction for Ojai Mountain Farm is led by chef Jayson Holzworth, who moved over from the hotel industry. Holzworth came onboard in 2021, well before the restaurant even broke ground. Between research and development, he’d spend days working alongside the small and scrappy farming team. It wasn’t for the faint of heart, he admits on a recent evening this summer just months after the restaurant finally opened its doors. “It’s not my specialty,” says the Rocky Mountains native, “but I’ve always wanted to connect to the ingredient.” 

On a recent evening this August, a few guests were invited to try chef Jayson’s full menu, which began with a cocktail featuring the Spirit of Ojai, the brand’s signature spirit that starts as mead, then gets distilled with citrus. But of course, all the drinks that night featured their own distilled spirits, like the OMG citrus vodka or the Garden’s Variety gin, featured in the “Tomato Tomahto,” where tomato shrub, celery horseradish, and clarified tomato are surprisingly refreshing and subtle in combination with the lacto brine and black pepper. 

Dinner began with freshly baked farm bread, a display of pickled vegetables and a crudité alongside a hummus our entire table returned to all evening. Seasonally driven, the menu will likely always have some of these starters for your party to share, though the specifics themselves — whether it’s fennel and endive or another vegetable entirely — will depend on when you visit. The pièce de résistance was undeniably the roasted carrots; every table agreed this seemingly simple dish was the standout among those to come out, showcasing chef Jayson’s extraordinary talent in allowing the stunning produce to shine in its simplicity. 

The farm is hoping to get carrots all year, though Holzworth shares that there will be “evolution every week.” The carrots are also a tribute to Yanow’s vision: that his food tastes like his food. “Get people good food, make it delicious, don’t make it so precious and let [guests] leave feeling nourished,” he says. 

Since first acquiring the property more than a decade ago, Ojai has experienced a true culinary renaissance that has enabled more transplants to plant roots in the area. Natives are returning home to familial plots, neighboring cities have introduced sister locations downtown, and local chains find second or third homes here. But there’s something genuine about Ojai Mountain Farm that deserves a second glance. 

Even if you aren’t invited to the farm (guests may be allowed on-site soon, but for now it’s off limits), the approach to the cuisine is more than just a place to dine, but a destination. Dining at Ojai Mountain Farm is not just for an opportunity to check the place off your list, or to be seen in a fantastic Instagram shot; it’s a place to sit down and get comfortable. To stay awhile, get familiar with the barkeeps’ name, and return again the next day. 

Holzworth may understandably be biased when he says this but I’d have to agree: “I think [Ojai Mountain Farm] deserves to be in the forefront of the hospitality offering in Ojai.” 

Ojai Mountain Farm (242 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai) is open Thursday, 4:30-11 p.m., and Friday-Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. See ojaimountainfarm.com.