View from Above the Fireplace at Mattei's Tavern
Brothers at Mattei’s Tavern
2350 Railway Avenue
Santa Ynez Valley, CA 93441
(805) 688-4820
Michael Jackson named his “home” where he kept all those wild animals Never-Never Land, and if you are very, very determined, you can still find the security entrance to his palace at the midpoint on a quiet road about a half mile from this hideaway restaurant in Los Olivos, Santa Barbara County. At the guard shack you will see hundreds, thousands of notes scratched into the facade of the structure and fence. While most folks come to this part of the country to taste wine, there are also plenty apparently who also come for a bit of HIStory. For those who aren’t diehard fans of the Prince of Pop, there is BROTHERS AT MATTEI’S TAVERN. - See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/dinner-in-never-never-land/?preview=true&preview_id=1509&preview_nonce=f44a073ac0#sthash.Gvj7mCDg.dpuf
| Brothers at Mattei's Tavern | |
|---|---|
| Food Quality |    |
| Drinks | |
| Environment | |
| Price | |
| $40 per person, depending on what drinks you order | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
The thing about wine country restaurants is that you need to figure out which nights you’re supposed to be there. Back in the day, it was known throughout the county:
• Tuesdays featured a nice weekday fireplace meal at Los Olivos Cafe and Wine Merchants, Fridays that was the hot night at the Santa Ynez Vineyard Restaurant,
• Weekends were for the best flatbread pizzas on the west coast in Los Alamos,
• Thursday and Saturday lunches of tri-tip sandwiches at the Los Olivos corner deli next to the port-a-potties.
• And any day you can get into the Hitchin’ Post II, you need to get a seat. Ask for a table a the window where they grill the quail over the split redwood logs. If heaven has a smell, this is that smell.
So, timing is particularly important at Brothers as well.
Brothers located at Mattei’s Tavern provides a weeknight bar-side meal that is unequalled in Santa Barbara county.(Unfortunately, this establishment is destined to move from it’s particularly impressive quarters on Railway Avenue to a new location near the flagpole in the middle of downtown Los Olivos by March 2012). The owners of the original Mattei’s Tavern are hoping to turn the building into a hotel. We shall see. This spot has been dogged by failure since it opened as a hotel in the early 1900s.
At any rate, I had the opportunity to travel through Santa Barbara wine country recently. And in a search for the perfect Wednesday hot spot, we came upon Brothers at Mattei’s Tavern. While it’s unfortunate that this terrific bar restaurant will have to be moving in March 2012 to the center of Los Olivos across from the flagpole in the old hardware store space, this hundred year old space provided an incredibly delightful locale for me and my mom to settle in by the fire after we had tasted our way through the Syrah and Pinot Noir of the Central Coast region.
Foxen Winery Tasting Room just up the road from Mattei's Tavern and Michael Jackson's Palace
I was so pleased to have discovered this hideaway. We’d been here once before but ate in the dining room. Don’t do that—the bar area is superb, especially during the week. I love how it had so much positive vibe on a Wednesday literally in the middle of nowhere.
As I mentioned at the top, this hot spot is just down the street from Michael Jackson’s Never Never Land, where he kept his zoo menagerie. You can still go to the guards’ gate where fans have carved their names and afterlife wishes into stone and bricks. I really should have asked if MJ had ever dropped in on the Brothers who cook here. Well, MJ doesn’t seem like he was much of an eater, so he probably never dropped in—recluse that he was.
We found that the food here is pretty darned nice. The Little Gem salad with cucumber dressing is light. Perhaps a little tooooo light, as you can see from the photos. The dressing was excellent and that really makes the salad in any case. However, I left wondering how and why they just split a single head of a little gem and tried to make the entire salad. For ten dollars, that’s not a lot of greens.
At any rate, then we ordered the richly-filled vegetable spring rolls. This seemed initially to be a strange choice in a bar. But these tasty and hardy starters are unlike I’ve ever had before. Vegetables! I really appreciated that they bothered to hunker down with their mandolin and shred vegetable after vegetable to make my rolls. I think I do know why they are so memorable, however. I left feeling that the spring rolls are probably also fried in the exact same fryer as the French fries. They enjoy a noticeable French fry taste. Probably not proper preparation, but I’m not sure anyone would care. Full of great crisp vegetables, fragrant oil, and plenty of tangy, spicy sauce, they deliver the goods.
Mom and I were wrecked from the day and so decided to just split the Kobe beef burger. This decision sounded unwise initially, but the chefs were excellent so about splitting the meal for us and out came our dinners on two separate plates. Our attentive waiter knocked our socks off, and lead us from wine to wine, from starter to finale and left us alone at the fireside for our chat. The burger was medium rare, fatty, and flavorful, and my mom—who has a thing about ordering hers with barbecue sauce— helped us discover that Brothers’ BBQ sauce is out of this world…was it as good as K.C. Masterpiece? Better! We’ll never know whether Sysco delivered it or they made it, but it was terrific.
Their wines-by-the-glass selection is paltry for a restaurant/bar in the heart of wine country, but because of where you are, this barely matters. My Cabernet from Happy Valley was terrific, and my mom’s Melville Pinot Noir, Verna’s Vineyard, was top notch.
Truth be told, we didn’t get out of this tavern for under $75, but then I’ve come to expect any place called tavern to be pricey—see my review of Wit and Wisdom in Baltimore for more. Why is that? Urgh…
Anyway, when in wine country, soak up the vibe, enjoy the lovely experience off the highway in the middle of nowhere, just outside the gates of Never Never Land. Put it on your bucket list.
- See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/dinner-in-never-never-land/?preview=true&preview_id=1509&preview_nonce=f44a073ac0#sthash.Gvj7mCDg.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/dinner-in-never-never-land/?preview=true&preview_id=1509&preview_nonce=f44a073ac0#sthash.Gvj7mCDg.dpuf
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