Rebecca Horrigan
Pulling up to Mattei’s Tavern, nestled on a dirt road in Los Olivos, with the unmistakable water tower out in front and a white fence surrounding the quaint front porch, it might feel like you are traveling back in time.
It was, after all, created in 1866 by Felix Mattei and his wife Lucy. Known as the Central Motel, the building housed passengers arriving off the railroad as they awaited the morning stagecoach to whisk them off to Santa Barbara. Renovated in 2021 by the Auberge Resorts Collection, in its current iteration, this luxury resort hardly beckons one to leave its beautiful grounds.
Although Los Olivos boasts fantastic tasting rooms, the food and beverage program at Mattei’s is so impressive, you could spend your entire stay on premises and find a world of deliciousness and wonder.
I had the pleasure of visiting Mattei’s for dinner, which is a dazzling experience in and of itself. The expansive dining room oozes charm and history with plenty of leather accents and relics from the ranch life of the past. At the same time the meticulously thought-out space sings with both freshness and sophistication in both the service and culinary realm. From the moment we walked in, the team at Mattei’s struck that perfect balance of warmth and professionalism that makes every bite of food, every sip of wine, just taste better.
Our meal kicked off with the Golden Spur cocktail, a zingy combination of lavender vodka, Singani 63, honey, lemon, and gold honeycomb; it was the perfect mix of sweet and sour to perk up any palate for the delicious road ahead. I’ve always believed that you can tell the quality of a restaurant from its bread, and the Bread for All appetizer, served warm with butter is a delectable omen of the goodness to come.
The generous serving of Crispy Cauliflower, with roasted garlic tahini, almond dukkah, and spiced local honey is also a must-order. With our meal, after browsing the strong wine list, I opted for a glass of the perfectly balanced Lieu Dit Melon, which went along for the ride like an ideal passenger, complementing but never overpowering each course.
Their menu changes seasonally, and while summer’s bounty is at its best, we had to take advantage of the Stone Fruits Salad, a beautiful mix of arugula, ricotta salata, walnuts, pickled red onions, opal basil and urfa biber. For the main course, the Tavern Strip served with aji amarillo bernaise and onion rings left us perfectly sated, while accompaniments like the carrots with maple oats, carrot curry, chickpea and herbs rounded out the meal beautifully.
We were guided enthusiastically by each of our servers to order the chocolate souffle with creme anglaise and ice cream for dessert, and like loyal friends, they certainly did not steer us wrong.
Stuffed and snug in our cozy leather chairs, as we finished our last sip of a delightful Sauternes dessert wine, we wished at that point we were back in 1866, fresh off the railroad and securing lodgings at this sanctuary of a shelter for the night. Realistically, I’m grateful that this special spot is less than an hour’s drive away from SB for when you need a night of good old fashioned indulgence and a deliciously rustic escape.
…she failed to mention that with tip, a $500.00 plus outing.
If you can’t afford it, don’t eat there. Similar to what you’ve said about housing right? If you can’t afford to live here then move.
Sure, we can have everything go to the highest bidder Surferguy. Eventually the character, history, and local feeling are all gone and you have a bunch of ultra rich dickheads flying in and buzzing around in their Ferraris. Good plan bud.
Stop the hysterics, Doc. We live in one of the most affluent areas in the country. There’s gonna be some restaurants you can’t afford to go to. Nothing new here. Still shocking that a “local” is so outraged and surprised. LOL!
…where did I say I “couldn’t afford it…? ” The SYV is being overrun by “occasion dining” (meaning special occasion only as it’s over $150 per person) Solvang has Coast Range, First & Oak and The Gathering Table- Santa Ynez has the SY Kitchen and the once moderately priced Red Barn… All very expensive, “Chef Owned” restaurants. This is great, but the “Chef’s” who own these restaurants take $250k a yr off the top, to pay themselves- That means a huge customer cost to cover margins-Result is a $70 steak,$30 dollar salad and $18-25 drinks…
It would have been better if they restored instead of “re-imagining”. The original Mattei”s Tavern is still etched in my memory from not too long ago. No imagination necessary. The bar, the wicker room, the red room, the tower room, the pull toilets, original stage coach/railroad rooms up above, etc. In this case, history was desecrated.
Desecrated or falls into a state of disrepair. Which would you prefer? A group bought it, renovated it, and kept this landmark around so maybe be a little grateful that it’s not a local relic fallen to the wayside.
The group that bought it before this group were the ones who destroyed it and did not preserve history.
Is this article for real . . . or was it generated by an AI-enhanced robot? My God, this is an adventure in manipulation of high volume marketing work that would get this author a corner office in a Madison Avenue high rise! This is certainly not the Mattei’s I knew from the 1950s, when the place still evoked the aura of a stage stop, with comfortable but well-worn furniture and real comfort food at reasonable prices. You won’t find it a gathering place for any of the locals I know; it’s become an outrageously-priced bordello of a computer-designed mixture of Franken-food and ultra hype. There’s got to be a special parking area for one’s Lamborghinis and Rolls. I agree that none of the guests would dream of leaving the property and demean themselves by mingling with the real world just outside.
She writes/blogs like that apparently- recall the last one posted here as well. Same deal. Very Montecito sheik vibe as always. It’s an unfortunate trend in SB area restaurants – more expensive, less value, “fancier”. Less local.
Then don’t read it, but you’ll find a way to complain about every article posted here Basic. Grow up.
BASIC – You always complain about how it’s getting this way or that as if it hasn’t always had a very high-end, “fancy” vibe in some areas, especially the more affluent area and publications. It’s like you moved here from LA and expected some quaint, modest, semi-rural beach community or something and now you’re outraged that it’s just like where you came from. You sure you grew up here?
Born and raised, and anti-LA. You really misinterpret.
“Born and raised” but still acts surprised and upset anytime someone writes a “sheik” sounding review about a high-end restaurant. Have you not been paying attention to your surroundings for your “entire life” here?
But yeah…. it’s just HER that seems “less local.”
Hilarious too how you body and fashion shame tourist on State St while at the same time crying about a bougie restaurant in another town.
I believe you mean “chic”, not “sheik”. 🙂
Yes, thank you.
LOL, Basic wants the taxpayers to subsidize fine dining for the Middle Class.
Dude grew up in Montecito without money, it explains a lot.
lol, Alex blue wants SB and the Valley to keep becoming LA. Lots of us hate that idea. We disagree fundamentally.
LOL, Santa Barbara and Montecito have been a luxury destination for as long as there has been a railroad, crazy that you don’t know the history of the place you claim to have grown up in.
Not true. You haven’t been raised here or you’re too young to know.
Yup, BI is definitely are unaware of the history.
HAHAHA!!!!!
Not true that Santa Barbara and Montecito have been luxury destinations since the RR went in?
OMG. Dude. Here, learn something about your home town.
“The year the railroad arrived, a prominent San Francisco banker, William H. Crocker, and his mother-in-law Mrs. Caroline Sperry, bought Rancho Las Fuentes (“the fountains,” so called because of the numerous artesian wells and ponds on the ranch), south of East Valley Road. The Crocker-Sperry Ranch was devoted to citrus, and a large sandstone-block packing house was built to handle the lemon crops grown by most of Montecito’s ranchers. A huge reservoir, the size of a football field, stood until 1965 near the present gatehouse of the Birnam Wood Golf Course. The upper end of the Crocker-Sperry Ranch is still called China Flat by old-timers because of the Chinese stone masons who camped there in the 1880s. The ranch was inherited by Mrs. Sperry’s daughter, Princess Elizabeth Poniatowski, in 1906.
Two pioneer brothers, George and Fred Gould, planted olive groves along a “trail to the beach” which was named Olive Mill Road after the Goulds built a stone olive mill in 1893. The mill, “El Molino” is now the home of actress Lena Horne at 200 Olive Mill Road.
More and more wealthy people, drawn to Santa Barbara when it was in its heyday as a fashionable health resort, began establishing luxurious private estates in Montecito during the 90s. This trickle became a flood after the Potter Hotel opened in 1902, luring such ultra-rich names as Rockefeller, Carnegie, Fleischmann, Cudahy, DuPont, Swift, McCormick, Bliss and others. Many of them fell in love with the area’s incomparable scenery and climate and began developing fabulous estates in suburban Montecito, ranging in size from 30 to 200 acres. The ruling echelons of the millionaire migration were dubbed “The Hill Barons” because their palatial mansions occupied hilltops overlooking Montecito’s beautiful woodlands.
A working-class population to serve the needs of the wealthy increased in Montecito and social patterns began to emerge. The original Hispanic inhabitants kept pretty much to themselves in the shady bosques of Old Spanish Town, where they built two dance halls, a cantina, taverns, and a co-op store known as “La Cooperacion” which was destroyed in the disastrous floods of January, 1914.
The middle-class Americans built two recreation centers in Montecito Village, Montecito Hall in 1897, Montecito Home Club in 1908. A popular social center for the elite was “The Peppers” at 430 Hot Springs Road, built around 1900. Its ballroom, with a balcony to accommodate a large orchestra, was the scene of a piano recital by Paderewski, a vocal concert by Madame Schumann-Heink, and the dancing debut of Santa Barbara’s world-famous Martha Graham.
In 1915 Mrs. William Miller Graham, an active social leader, built the octagonal “Country Theatre” on lower Middle Road. Its auditorium seated 320 playgoers around a center stage, a theatrical concept far ahead of its time. Fire destroyed the theater in the early 1920s, leaving only the existing collonade of white pillars.
Sports activity in Montecito followed caste lines. Farmers, servants. chauffeurs, gardeners, tradesmen, they played sandlot baseball or croquet, being unable to afford the more aristocratic pastimes such as golf, polo, or tennis.
In 1804 the Santa Barbara Country Club was incorporated by a group headed by Judge R. B. Canfield. An 18-hole links was laid out between the highway and Channel Drive, from Santa Barbara Cemetery (founded in 1867 easterly to the present Biltmore Hotel where a clubhouse was erected. This redwood building burned down and was replaced by an elegant structure at 1070 Fairway Road. When the golf course was moved inland in 1907 to an area north of the bird Refuge, the former clubhouse was converted into a residence by Mr. and Mrs. John Percival Jefferson’s son, who called it Miraflores. A later owner deeded the mansion to the Music Academy of the West.
A new golf clubhouse was designed by Bertram C. Goodhue and built in 1915 on Summit Road. In 1922 the club changed its name to the Montecito Country Club. For many years it was privately owned by Avery Brundage, who sold it to the Japanese interests now operating the course. The club lost nearly half its membership in 1928. when Major Max C. Fleishmann and others of similar financial standing formed the Valley Club of Montecito, purchasing ranch land south at East Valley Road on either side of Sheffield Drive. It was joined in 1968 by the Birnam Wood Country Club, owned by Robert McLean, publisher of the News-Press. It occupies the former Crocker-Sperry ranch. and the original sandstone lemon packery was converted into an elegant clubhouse which has become a center of Montecito social life.
Tennis was highly favored by Montecito’s haut monde, activity centering on several courts at the Willis Knowles estate at 1675 East Valley Road, site of today’s Knowlwood Tennis Club.
Many Montecitans are unaware that a polo field once flourished along Middle Road. In 1913 William H. Bartlett bought 34 acres on Robertson Hill and built a polo grounds complete with grandstands, stables, and a luxurious mission-style clubhouse which opened in the spring of 1916. Polo became a casualty of the 1930s depression, but the clubhouse remodeled as a residence still stands at 184 Middle Road.
Montecito’s popular image involves its “millionaire estates,” which enjoyed a boom around 1920 when the area’s shady lanes were traveled by as many as 3,000 cars a day bringing tradesmen to and from mansions in progress of building. America’s foremost architects, including the likes of George Washington Smith (whose home at 240 Middle Road, the first of over 30 he built in Montecito, still stands); Francis T. Underhill, Bertram C. Goodhue and Frank Lloyd Wright were erecting English manorhouses, Normandy castles, Italian palazzos, Cape Cod Colonials and incredible marble palaces at the end of tree-lined lanes.
Even to list Montecito’s fabulous estates is obviously outside the scope of this pamphlet. In 1930 Harold C. Chase, a noted realtor, published a roster of over 200 “major” estates. Among them were McCormick’s “Riven Rock,” Hammond’s “Bonnymede,” Bothin’s “Piranhurst,” Murphy’s “Rancho Tijada” (since 1945 the campus of Westmont College), Knapp’s “Arcady” (since subdivided), Peabody’s “Solano” (later the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions), Gray’s “Graholm” (now the Brooks Institute of Photography), Mine. Chana-Walska’s “Lotusland,” Gillespie’s “El Fuerides,” Bliss’s “Casa Dorinda.” Ludington’s “Val Verde,” Clark’s “Bellosguardo” – an entire book could be written about any of these estates, and there are countless others.”
My god Alex, we all know there were some ultra rich here back then. No one needed a history attempt by you. Get a clue. You didn’t actually grow up around here did you….
Alex- Nice cut and paste bro! Got some time and SUPER basic computer skills! I’m so proud of you Buddy! Hey, want to fish?
Ya, you’re welcome. What, you want me to educate you in some other way? I got some that Chubasco at the Apit today. You and Basic Kook definitely weren’t there.
You’re not one of those kooks that sit and drink at the Pit all day are you? Sounds like it…
For the 1%, not everyone. Big difference.
Begin the backpedal.
Whoa whoopsie, hey oh….. watch out… ! Be careful, backpedalling is tough hahahaha!
LOL Bro, you’re making stuff up again and getting caught…. again. Just give it a rest already.
Did you mean sheik or chic? Either one kinda works, tbh.
Except the first is illiterate, and the second is apropos.
So many grumps on this page. Are you for real? This is no different than the fluff pieces posted on the Independent or Noozhawk or KEYT but I bet you don’t make the same comments there. It’s how the publishing world works. Again, would you prefer this place sits covered in weeds and falls into disrepair? Someone brought it back to life and is maintaining this history but modernized it. We can’t all still live like it’s the 50s.
They will literally cry about anything.
A missed opportunity to do some good for the community. Should have been converted to low income housing for at least 30 in need people.
Very thoughtful of you, SAIL.
Classic that someone would think that was a good idea – 100% joke from Sail. Let’s give away a bunch of historical landmarks from early California for bums to hang out in!
No Joke. Imagine the public outcry if a out of area company swooped in purchased and renovated a derelict apartment building into luxury units. The story is the same only the product has been changed. Food is more essential than shelter. Why no uproar??
Uhm, because dining in a restaurant has no relationship to being able to secure food.
Generally, people who can’t afford to dine in a restaurant can afford to buy food and cook it at home.
Ridiculous analogy.
This was never an apartment building. The tavern was always a hotel and restaurant so *gasp!* now it’s a nicer hotel and restaurant. If the developer wanted to turn this into housing, fantastic we need more housing, but also a bummer to lose a historic building. Your hypothetical doesn’t apply to this case.
Dang, I got all the Edhat hater wannabe locals all stirred up today! Sweet. You guys should chill.
So I have eaten there many times back in the day. After reading this I thought it might be nice to stay for a few days and enjoy. $1200 per night during the week for a room…. Cheap room. WTF? (Yeah I know trolls, just move cause we’re rich. FU)
Are there enough people spending this kind of money to keep the place in business? It boggles my mind.
chill out people….I give it a year at best.
I’ll give it 6 months at best!