Everything We Ate in: Ojai
Sourdough pizza, buffalo milk soft serve, and grass-fed beef masala.
Moss’ birthday was on February 7th, so we took the opportunity to finally make the drive up to Ojai (first time for both of us!). While we planned to spend our weekend hiking the nearby trails, we ended up spending a majority of our weekend eating. The restaurants in Ojai boasted local produce, cheese, meats, and seafood, so it only made sense to fit as many meals in as we could— here are the highlights:
Before embarking on our trip, I pre-saved Pinyon for us to check out. I read about it in Emily Wilson’s substack, The Angel, a year prior (coincidentally, her article was published on Moss’ birthday in 2024).
When we first got into town, we grabbed a couple of drinks down the street at Topa Topa Brewery. After an hour of cards and beer, we wandered down to Pinyon to split a pizza— we settled on the Margheritaville (tomato sauce, house mozzarella, basil) and added pepperoni to half. Moss and I are both suckers for wood-fired pizza and local products, so Pinyon immediately checked all of our boxes. We devoured the pizza over a game of cambio, and returned two more time during our 48-hour trip: the next day we split the same pizza as a post-pool/pre-dinner snack, and on our way out of town we grabbed a Pinyon (pecorino, spring onion, broccolini, local sausage, pine nuts, and house kefir) for the drive.
While the pizzas were spectacular, we’re eager to try their small plates and dinner specials— we’ll definitely be back (see you in May!).
On our last night, we agreed to splurge on a nice dinner— both as a birthday celebration for Moss, and as an early Valentine’s celebration for our relationship. We decided on Rory’s Place, nestled between the Ojai Playhouse (where we had watched CatVideoFest earlier in the weekend, but that’s a story for another time…) and Rory’s Other Place, the restaurant’s sister café.
The menu was simultaneously extensive and concise, and the food felt thoughtful, fresh, and exciting. We rarely, if ever, order a bottle of wine at dinner, but this evening we split a bottle of Domaine de Sulauze Super Modeste Pet Nat. For dinner, we ordered a few plates to share, and everything came out in succession.
We started with the braised fennel (grabiche, sourdough bread crumb, marjoram). I’m drawn to braised fennel when eating out at restaurants, as it’s something I never think to make at home. It was everything I want in a dish— creamy with bursts of citrus in every few bites, a smooth and savory sauce contrasted with crunchy sourdough breadcrumbs.
Alongside the braised fennel, we ordered the herb salad (soft herbs, chicory, shallot vin, coriander pepita), a perfectly refreshing contrast to the rest of the heartier and creamier dishes we’d decided on. Moss and I both love an herb salad, this one included (although, we did consider the little gem salad, another favorite of ours).
The third dish was clams and chorizo (cranberry beans, confit, toasted sourdough). I have to be honest, despite growing up by the beach, I’ve unfortunately never been a huge seafood person, so I hesitated on this one. We considered the roasted half chicken, but had eaten that for lunch earlier in the day at Ojai Rôtie, and the hanger steak, however, after some deliberation, we ended up with the clams and chorizo. I was pleasantly surprised by the earthy notes of the dish, and Moss described it perfectly— an elevated clam chili.
We ended our meal with the nettle ravilio (ricotta, wild mushrooms, pea tendrills)— a nice light, earthy, and very creamy pasta dish to cap off our meal.
Although we tried our hardest to finish our meal in a timely manner, we ended up being the last table at the end of the night, so we ordered the chocolate mousse (with blackberries, whipped cream, and buckwheat cookies) to go. Truthfully, I didn’t even look at the dessert menu. Moss scanned it for a second before deciding on the chocolate mousse, and it was the perfect night cap when we got back to our hotel.
Rory’s Other Place
The sister café to Rory’s Place is everything you hope and expect it to be: shelves packed with a diverse selection of natural wines, local cheeses and meats in the fridge, and a pastry case filled with sandwiches, scones, and quiches. We stopped by a couple times— once for breakfast and coffees, another to grab canned wine and provisions to have by the pool, and lastly for an afternoon matcha and soft-serve on a sunny afternoon.
Pre-breakfast, I opted for a mocha over a game of scrabble— it was divine and tasted like vacation; rich, creamy, and chocolatey!
We also ordered blueberry scones and the goat cheese and leek quiche— the crust was flakey and buttery, but didn’t get soggy under the fluffy eggs. It was delicious, and Moss and I are planning to recreate it at home this week.
On our last day, after strolling through town and lying in the sun at the park, we needed a sugar rush to wake us up for our drive home. We grabbed an outdoor table, ordered two iced matcha lattes with vanilla syrup and split a malted chocolate and vanilla bean swirl buffalo milk soft-serve with olive oil and flakey salt.
Ojai Tortilla House:
We had wanted to grab a few tacos or a burrito from Ojai Tortilla House on our only full day of the trip, but that day also happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, and they were closed for the big game. Instead, we stopped by for an early lunch on Monday after checking out of our hotel, and took our meal to the park nearby. We shared a kid’s bean, cheese, and rice burrito and two al pastor tacos. The tortillas were thin, chewy, and buttery; the perfect vessel. The burrito left a little to be desired, but that was on us for ordering from the kid’s menu and forgetting to ask for a side of hot sauce. The tacos, on the other hand, were incredible— the tender meat was seasoned perfectly, and the sweet chunks of pineapple cut through the pork and spices. Next time, I think we’ll try the al pastor burrito.
Honorable mentions:
Ojai Certified Farmer’s Market: Local fruit (we bought a carton of perfectly ripe strawberries in February)! Local dairy (Drake Family Farms goat cheese in olive oil and herbs)! Local honey (Blue Ridge Ojai Wildflower honey)! What more could you ask for?
The Dutchess: Probably the most highly recommended restaurant in town, we met up with friends here for dinner on our first night. We ordered a few plates for the table to share: chickpea fritters (pressed chickpea, tamarind chutney), Weiser Farms crispy potatoes (masala spice, herb aioli), tea leaf salad (fermented tea leaf, cabbage, heirloom tomatoes, Burmese nut mix), grass-fed beef masala (braised beef chuck eye roll, masala spice, sunchokes, arugula, calrose rice), and the organic half chicken (tandoori yogurt-marinated boneless chicken, Darby’s Farm orange cauliflower, garlic confit, tikka masala). Moss and I also ordered the s’mores ice box pie (Queen of the South + cocoa semifreddo, torched marshmallow, black sesame caramel, chocolate ganache magic shell) to take back to the hotel with us. We had tried to go before our reservation to grab a cocktail and play pool, but the back room as closed for a wedding party. We didn’t end up trying the bakery in the morning, but would love to grab a few pastries on our next trip.
Ojai Rôtie: Moss and I ordered the half chicken meal with two picnic sides (we went for potatoes two ways: roasted and potato salad), pickled turnips, toum, and grilled flatbread. We ate the meal by the pool and felt extremely lavish doing so— sorry, but you can’t go wrong with rotisserie chicken! The half chicken meal was more than enough food, and we took the leftovers home to make dinner after our drive back to L.A. We combined the rotisserie chicken and the Yuzu Ranch from Pinyon with lettuce and herbs in our fridge to make a tangy, herby chicken salad.
Topa Topa Brewery: Good beer, plenty of seating, and a friendly atmosphere— the perfect place to play cards or get a pre-dinner drink. The brewery is also home to Little Sama, serving Southeast-Asian-inspired cuisine; We almost ended up here instead of the Dutchess on our first night, but we’ve saved it for our next trip to Ojai.
xx
After I saw you two post about your trip, I immediately went to plan on of my own so thank youuuuu for the epic inspo
Perfect weekend 👼