Why This Wine Country Town Is California’s Next Culinary Destination
Two hours from Los Angeles, California’s overlooked wine country town gets a culinary makeover at The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, and it makes Los Olivos worth the detour.
By David Hochman | FORBES
The Inn at Mattei's Tavern opened as a stop on the stagecoach line in the late 1800s and was recently reborn after a three-year renovation by Auberge Collection.
If you've been driving past Los Olivos on the 101 freeway all these years, you might want to rethink the itinerary next time.
Santa Barbara has its Mediterranean charm and billionaire following. Paso Robles draws bigger crowds to its expanding tasting room scene. San Luis Obispo offers that relaxed college-town vibe. But sweet, sleepy Los Olivos (and nearby towns like Buellton and Ballard) just kind of sat there, undeniably pretty but offering little reason to actually stop.
That's changing.
The Central Coast wine region that the movie Sideways put on the map two decades ago has filled in with tasting rooms as good as anything further north, and a handful of dinner spots worth seeking out, including NaNa Thai, where the modern take on pad see ew and other dishes is so delectable you’ll be tempted to make the drive from Los Angeles to try it again.
But it's what's happening at The Inn at Mattei's Tavern, Auberge Collection, that feels like the real shift. The Los Olivos property is the kind of wine country escape you'll book for dinner and wish you could stay at for a week.
Los Olivos’s Culinary Moment—A Prodigal Chef Returns
The bar at Inn at Mattei's Tavern retains its clubby roadhouse charms but with an updated menu by returning chef Kevin Malone.
Chef Kevin Malone's been living a choose-your-own-adventure culinary career that's straddled high and low, east and west, big city and small. He’s an easygoing guy who grew up in western Massachusetts where his culinary journey began in high school alongside his father, a chef.
After training in kitchens with his dad, Malone landed at The Tavern restaurant at The Inn at Mattei's Tavern in 2015 as a line cook. He worked his way up to Sous Chef, then packed up for Los Angeles to become a business partner in Proudly Serving LA, a smash burger operation that treated seared patties on a squishy bun with actual finesse.
Surrounded by old-growth palm trees and nearby vineyards, the Inn at Mattei's Tavern has been a culinary and social hub for the Santa Ynez Valley for over a century.
When Mattei's temporarily closed in 2020 and underwent its three-year Auberge transformation, Malone could have stayed in the big city game. Instead, he returned to bucolic Los Olivos in September 2023 as Chef de Cuisine. Now, as Mattei’s Executive Chef he's overseeing four food and beverage venues, and orchestrating a menu that honors both his foundation in honest, craveable cooking and his fine-dining skills (there's even a Tavern Smashburger with American cheese, caramelized onions, and hand-cut fries).
Fire, Char And Flavor—It’s What's On The Plate
This is Santa Maria grill country, a California-ranch approach to live-fire cooking that relies on red oak, high heat and smoke at an iron grill you hand-crank to adjust the height over the coals.
Here’s where the Tavern really excels. Malone's steaks come off the grill with deeply caramelized crusts and interiors cooked exactly as you want them. The menu features a Prime Filet with brown butter potatoes, a Grass Fed New York Striploin with bleu cheese butter, and a Wagyu Tomahawk for the table.
The standout might be the pork chop with apples. On paper, it sounds like something your grandmother (or Mrs. Brady and Alice) made in 1971. On the plate, it's a lesson in Central Coast deliciousness—a perfectly cooked chop with apple cardamom compote and vidalia onion soubise.
You don’t eat meat? The seared salmon comes with skin so crispy it cracks under your fork.
Los Olivos Luxury: A Setting As Lovely As The Food
The Inn at Mattei's Tavern isn't exactly roughing it. Opened by Swiss immigrant Felix Mattei in 1886 during the Pacific Coast Railroad’s boom as a stagecoach stop, the 67-room property has been through countless iterations, but the recent Auberge Collection renovation brought out a luxe-rustic polish that feels exactly right for the moment. Think post-pandemic California-Craftsman-ranch-meets-European-countryside-villa chill (got that?), with clawfoot bathtubs and push-button fireplaces. The Lavender Barn, an Auberge Spa, has five treatment rooms and one couples suite, two pools, a sauna and steam room.
The weather is almost always glorious.
Auberge kept the look of the original stagecoach-era bar, with sepia-toned photos and old ledgers and a ton of cozy nooks to linger on a leather club chair with an off-menu dirty martini with olive oil washed gin.
Make A Weekend Of Los Olivos
The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern may be the draw but the rest of Los Olivos gives you the total picture of what a California Central Coast getaway delivers.
Start your morning ten minutes away at Bob's Well Bread in Ballard, where Bob Oswaks bakes crackling artisan loaves that draw lines of customers the minute the place opens. It’s well worth the wait. The egg-in-a-jar dish with purple potato puree, Gruyere, poached egg, bacon lardons, chives, and creme fraiche is a country breakfast you’ll dream about for weeks.
Back in Los Olivos, the compact downtown packs nearly thirty tasting rooms into five walkable blocks. Stolpman Vineyards pulls crowds for Rhône-inspired blends in a light-filled space with a shady patio. The Los Olivos Tasting Room, in a 19th-century general store, was California's first independent tasting room and rotates through ninety-plus wines. Carhartt Family Wines, from the folks who gave you the workwear-turned-hype-brand, offers estate-driven Pinot Noir in a very cozy setting.
The Los Olivos General Store is housed in a renovated garage (look for the vintage gas pump out front) and sells locally made olive oils, honeys, handcrafted jewelry, gourmet pantry items. The Larner tasting room sits next door. To ground yourself in true cowboy culture, step into Jedlicka's Western Wear, which has outfitted locals and visitors since 1932 with Wrangler jeans, Justin boots, and quality leather goods.
By dinner, you'll be ready for dinner at The Tavern, or maybe you’ll just want to hang out. The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern has a Wednesday Winemaker Takeover at the bar where local winemakers pour their bottles for a mixed crew of hotel guests, California cowboys, road trippers and wine industry folks, who all end up talking about the same thing: how much there is to love about Los Olivos, how the place isn't a pit stop anymore, how the Los Olivos “secret” isn’t so easy to keep anymore, and, mostly, how nobody's in a rush to get back on the 101.