Los Olivos tavern sold

 

Because a convenience store planned for a piece of property adjacent to Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos seemed out of character with the town, Doug Herthel, a local veterinarian who was active in the formation of the community group Preservation of Los Olivos, purchased the property a number of years ago to protect it from development.

“It was safer to do that then let the government decide”, said Herthel.

That was then. Fast forward to last August and Herthel’s slice of land and the property under the tavern, owned by the Firestone family, were sold to a limited partnership with a San Francisco address.

Herthel, who does not know the plans Santa Rita Land & Vine had for the Mattei’s property, said that he thought that the company would renovate the kitchen and restaurant, and that the company seemed ecologically and aesthetically responsible.

 

Mattei’s Tavern was the brainchild of Swiss immigrant Felix Mattei who, through some insider information and his own snooping, found out that chance was very good that a narrow gauge railroad would be constructed into what is now Los Olivos in the middle of 1885.

Felix was adept at his profession as an innkeeper, managing a successful hotel in Cayucos, and he became preoccupied with finding the right place to build his own hotel, as the railroads were going through a huge expansion in California in the 1880’s.  Building a hotel directly across the road from the terminal of a narrow-gauge railroad line made sense.  Many north and southbound routes went through the area on their way to link up with the lines of the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad in Santa Barbara.  The full railroad around Point Conception had not been decided upon yet and the area was still served by stagecoach. 

 

By early 1886 Mattei had established a hotel and tavern with the name of Central Hotel on the corner of Railway Avenue and Nojoqui Avenue.  Although the first train was heralded in 1887, the boom of the 1880’s was wearing off.  But not so the future of Mattei’s.

With wife Lucy doing the cooking, the hotel and eatery prospered through the last of the horse drawn stagecoaches at the beginning of the 1900’s. Mattei was distressed to see the end of the stagecoach era. He purchased a couple of worn coaches and continued to provide stagecoach service from Los Olivos, through Alisal Canyon and on to Gaviota.  Felix Mattei was perhaps the last operator of a horse-drawn stagecoach line in the United States.

 

Stagecoach service ended in 1911 when a Model T Ford replaced the horses.

About 1910, Mattei hired a middle-aged Chinese man named Gin Lung Gin to do the cooking, and from then on the tavern in Los Olivos became even more respected for its excellent food.  Even though train service to Los Olivos ended in 1933, the tavern prospered and stayed in family hands after the 1930 death of Felix Mattei.

Felix Mattei’s oldest son Fred and his wife Elaine took over in 1932, catering to the steady traffic to this area from travelers and the tavern’s reputation for good food. 

It became a “get-away” place for many of the then famous Hollywood stars including Clark Gable and Marjorie Main, who would stay at the tavern while she studied her script for her starring role as “Ma Kettle.”

The tavern left Mattei Family hands with Fred Mattei’s passing in 1962 and the family having no living heirs who could take over the operations. The property and tavern was sold in 1963 to Solvang resident Carl Birkholm.  Through the years and several owners and operators the restaurant at Mattei’s Tavern continued to operate.  The property was purchased in 1972 by the Firestone family and Sherwood Chillingworth who were local ranchers and enjoyed eating at the tavern.  Having already been designated as a historic landmark in 1963 the Firestone Family and Chillingworth set out in restoring the building and preserving it for future generations.

 

Since 2002, brothers Jeff and Matt Nichols have operated the Brothers’ Restaurant on the location and have continued the tradition of outstanding food.

Santa Rita Land & Vine LLC has only a registration address in San Francisco and is represented by a California attorney, Aaron Faust.  Information on Santa Rita Land & Vine LLC and the representative Fraust was limited; however, the attorney is also on the board of directors for a trade group, the California Lodging Industry Association. According to the biography on the group’s website, Mr. Faust is the managing partner of Terroir Capital LLC, which is the managing partner of other limited partnerships with interests in luxury resorts and luxury resort development. 

One of their developments is one in Northern California called Meadowood Napa Valley.

Messages left with Faust’s San Francisco office have not been returned.