Known for using fresh and local ingredients, Ojai’s many restaurants offer visitors a unique taste of the central coast. No trip to Ojai is complete without a delicious meal – use our quick restaurant guide to help you plan your culinary adventure!
Agave Maria’s Restaurant and Cantina
10:30 am – 9:00 pm
106 S. Montgomery St. | 805 646 6353
Mexican food with a fresh twist, featuring several organic and healthy options. Restaurant has a large outdoor patio and a wide selection of drinks. Located downtown. Reservations are recommended.
Bonnie Lu’s Country Cafe
7:00 am – 2:30 pm, closed Wednesday
328 E. Ojai Ave | 805 646 0207
Homestyle breakfast and lunch diner. Features a wide range of traditional American entrees – a local favorite for breakfast. Make sure to arrive early to get a table.
Ca’ Marco Italian Restaurant
11:00 am – 3:00 pm & 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
1002 E. Ojai Avenue | 805 640 1048
Delicious and inventive Italian favorites.
Reservations recommended.
Deer Lodge
Mon – Thurs: 11:30 am – 10:00 pm (2:00 am Fridays)
Sat & Sun: 10:30 am – 10:00 pm (BBQ 12:00 pm – 4:30 pm)
2261 Maricopa Way | 805 646 4256
Legendary Ojai restaurant featuring farm to table dining in a welcoming lodge environment. Reservations recommended.
Farmer and the Cook
11:00 am – 8:00 pm
339 W. El Roblar Ave. | 805 640 9608
Natural grocery with a restaurant featuring locally sourced and organic meals. Their weekly menu always includes tasty vegan and gluten-free options. Check their website for the menu of the week.
Feast Bistro
Tues – Sat: 11:30 am – close (lunch) | 5:30 pm – close (dinner)
Closed Sundays, except for special events
254 E. Ojai Ave. | 805 640 9260
New American bistro-style restaurant with seasonal daily specials and fresh desserts featuring locally grown ingredients. Special seasonal menu items and deals featured on their website. Reservations strongly recommended.
Los Caporales Restaurant
307 E. Ojai Ave. | 805 646 5452
Located right next to Libbey Park, Los Corporales features traditional Mexican food in a comfortable and cozy setting. The bar has several unique specialty drinks. Reservations recommended.
NoSo Vita
205 N. Signal St. | 805 646 1540
7:00am – 5:00pm (Espresso Bar)
7:00am – 3:00pm (Breakfast & Lunch, no kitchen on Tuesdays)
See website for detailed hours
Coffeehouse and bistro featuring fresh-brewed coffee, espresso, cold craft coffee on tap, and a fresh, vibrant locally-sourced menu.
Ojai Beverage Company
Mon: 12:00 pm – 9:00 pm , Tues & Wed: 11:00 am – 10:00 pm, Thurs – Sat: 11:00 am – 11:00 pm, Sun: 11:30 am – 9:00 pm
655 E. Ojai Ave | 805 646 1700
The Ojai Beverage Company serves upscale bar food at its restaurant and is a premier destination for fine wine, craft beer and unique spirits. Has an extensive tasting menu and shop. Take away is available. Reservations are recommended for dining in.
Ojai Cafe Emporium
7:00am – 3:00pm
Dinner: Wed-Thurs, 3:00 – 8:00pm
Longtime favorite Ojai Cafe Emporium serves up soups, sandwiches, quiches – and now dinner – alongside their famous baked goods.
Ojai Coffee Roasting Co.
5:30 am – 6:00 pm
337 E. Ojai Ave. | 805 646 4478
A local institution and favorite, the Roasting Co. serves coffee, tea, and pastries, as well as a variety of sandwiches and salads. Food can be called in ahead to be picked up.
Osteria Monte Grappa
Sun – Thurs: 11:30 am – 8:30 pm, Friday – Sat: 11:30 am – 9:30 pm
Closed Sunday dinner
242 E. Ojai Ave. | 805 640 6767
Authentic Italian cuisine offered at the heart of downtown Ojai. A wide range of pastas, entrees, and pizzas made fresh from local ingredients. Reservations are strongly recommended.
Rainbow Bridge
8:00 am – 9:00 pm
211 E. Matilija St. | 805 646 6623
Rainbow Bridge’s hot deli offers a wide variety of dishes as part of their rotating menu, as well as sandwiches, soups, and smoothies. The grocery has all the ingredients to perfect your picnic.
Suzanne’s Cuisine
Wed – Mon: 11:30 am – 2:30 pm (lunch), 5:30 pm – close (dinner)
502 W. Ojai Ave. | 805 640 1961
Suzanne’s is a favorite destination for locals and visitors alike. New American cuisine is served in a relaxing atmosphere featuring a beautiful outdoor patio. Reservations are strongly recommended.
The Ojai Vineyard
12:00 pm – 5:00 pm (Sun – Thurs), 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm (Fri – Sat)
109 S. Montgomery St. | 805 798 3947
Owned by Adam and Helen Tolmach, the Ojai Vineyard produces artisan wines using local Ojai and Central Coast grapes. Located a block from Libbey Bowl, their cozy tasting room is a great place to unwind between concerts.
The Ranch House
5:00 pm – 10:00pm
102 Besant Rd. | 805 646 2360
Famed for its original award-winning cuisine, the Ranch House’s menu and beautiful garden setting have long made it a destination of choice for Ojai visitors. Reservations are strongly recommended.
BLUE IGUANA INN | 805 646 5277
CASA OJAI | 800 255 8175
fragility and is primarily interested in exploring limits of perception. More specifically, he is interested in the use of silence, listening, text, and sound as equally considered elements in the compositional practice; for instance, the composer’s task is not only to consider the parameters of determined sound making (both text and instrumental), but also the parameters of how we listen, and how we may interact with and frame silence. The composer, then, seeks to create situations of possible events which the audience, performer(s), and composer all experience concurrently. Further, Luke considers the social and political disposition of a performance a very connected aspect of his work: how can one critically think about the hierarchical roles and power relations at work in a given performance, and then potentially subvert or support them. Recently inspired by David Dunn’s notations for listening and Lasse Thoresen’s spectromorphological analysis of electronic music and sound, Luke is in the beginning stages of developing a notation for silence (i.e., incidental sounds, contingency).
Opera, theater, and festival director Peter Sellars has gained international renown for his groundbreaking and transformative interpretations of artistic masterpieces and for collaborative projects with an extraordinary range of creative artists. He has staged operas at the Dutch National Opera, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, Salzburg Festival, and San Francisco Opera, among others, and has established a reputation for bringing 20th-century and contemporary operas to the stage, including works by Hindemith, Ligeti, Messiaen, and Stravinsky. 
For the first time the composer 
Jean-Baptiste Barrière was born in Paris in 1958. He has studied music, art history, philosophy, and mathematical logic. He made a career at IRCAM/Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, where he started as a researcher in 1981, before becoming a director of musical research, education, and finally production. In 1998, he left IRCAM to concentrate on his own composition and multimedia projects. 
Julia Bullock, equally at home with concert repertoire and opera, has been hailed for her versatile talent. This season, she appeared as soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle, the New World Symphony with Christian Reif, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall, and in recitals at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Kennedy Center, to name a few. In November, she sang the lead role in the Berlin Philharmonic’s Orchestra Academy performance of Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone, directed by Peter Sellars, which she now reprises at the Ojai Festival. 
Cambalache is the direct result of Los Angeles musicians, community workers, and artists creating a space and cultivating relationships with Jarocho musicians and community workers in Veracruz, Mexico. Their primary concept of organizing and exchange comes from the “el fandango” model which is: building community through participatory music. In January of 2003, Los Angeles music group Quetzal, along with a dozen other musicians, visual artists, writers, and community workers from LA visited Xalapa, Veracruz to help organize and form part of the first encuentro Chicana/o/Jarocha/o. This dialogue, from which a myriad of projects, recordings, writings, performances, and relationships have evolved, extended that concept of el fandango to a transnational network of artists, community workers in Veracruz, and the Chicano and Mexican immigrant communities in Los Angeles.
Noted for her vibrant performances in a wide diversity of musical styles, Joana Carneiro has attracted considerable attention as one of the most outstanding young conductors working today. In 2009, she was named music director of Berkeley Symphony, succeeding Kent Nagano and becoming only the third music director in the 40-year history of the orchestra. She also currently serves as official guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, working there at least four weeks every year. In January 2014 she was appointed principal conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica Portuguesa.
The Calder Quartet, called “outstanding” and “superb” by the New York Times, performs a broad range of repertoire at an exceptional level, always striving to channel and fulfill the composer’s vision. Already the choice of many leading composers to perform their works – including Christopher Rouse, Terry Riley and Thomas Adès – the group’s distinctive approach is exemplified by a musical curiosity brought to everything they perform, whether it’s Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, or sold-out rock shows with bands like The National or The Airborne Toxic Event. Winners of the 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant, they are known for the discovery, commissioning, recording and mentoring of some of today’s best emerging composers (over 25 commissioned works to date). 
Laura writes, “What an honor to be involved with the Ojai Music Festival as the new Education Coordinator! Andy Radford has done a wonderful job of enriching the lives of the community, and I look forward to continuing his good work. Through the avenues of singing, percussion, flutes, and learning about the music of the Chumash culture, the BRAVO program acts as an important voice, bringing many enriching experiences of music to the people of the Ojai Valley and Ventura County. I’m so excited to be able to contribute! Music helps us feel a larger whole, a part of something bigger than ourselves. When beauty is created through feeling and thinking, an elevation occurs, a greater awareness and appreciation. Our world is better for it.”
Benjamin Champion (15) is a sophomore, studying composition and piano at Idyllwild International Arts Academy in Idyllwild, CA. Ben began his piano composition studies in 2011 with his parents, Chris and Sandy Champion. He has also studied piano with Dr. John Walker from SDSU and composition with Kevin Michael Sullivan at Idyllwild. Ben currently studies composition with Mark Carlson of UCLA, and piano with Dr. Jeanette Louise Yaryan, and Parvati Mani at Idyllwild. Under Dr. Walker’s instruction, Benjamin won first place in the 2013 Grant Piano competition and the South Dakota Music Teacher’s Association for piano and composition, Junior Division. In the summer of 2014, Benjamin was chosen to study and perform as a Young Artist at the Dakota Sky International Piano Festival. Here he studied piano with Dr. Paul Tuntland Sanchez, Jacob Ertl, Dr. Gregory DeTurck, Adam Golka, Angelina Gadeliya, and Jon Kimura Parker. Benjamin also attended the Idyllwild Summer Music Camp, where he studied with Dr. Jeanette Yaryan, Parvati Mani, and Doug Ashcraft. In the summer of 2015, Ben returned to the Young Artist program at Dakota Sky International Piano Festival. He studied with Dr. Gregory DeTurk from University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Douglas Humpherys from Eastman. Benjamin has written music for piano, string quartet, vocal and chamber ensembles, and orchestra. Benjamin aspires to pursue music composition at the conservatory level.
Phyllis Chen is a pianist, toy pianist, and composer whose musical interests have led in numerous directions as a soloist and collaborative artist. In 2007, Chen founded the UnCaged Toy Piano Composition Competition to encourage composers to write new music for the instrument. Since its inception, the call has received over 200 toy piano pieces from composers around the globe. In 2011, she launched the first biennial UnCaged Toy Piano Festival: three days featuring new works for toy piano and a variety of toy piano performers. Each year the festival has been greeted with great enthusiasm, with audience members crossing state borders and oceans to attend.
Robby Good (15) is a sophomore at Hart High School in Santa Clarita. Robby started his musical journey at age 6 with piano lessons, and is currently studying piano with Richard Parizer. He started playing percussion at age 9 and is currently studying under Matt Cook. At 12 years of age, Robby started taking composition, percussion, and ensemble classes at California Institute of the Arts through the Saturday CAP Program. Robby’s first original percussion composition made its debut at the Cal Arts Spring Concert in 2014. In May of 2014, Robby was recognized by Assemblyman Scott Wilk for his dedication to Music Composition. In 2016, he received an honorable mention in the ACF NextNotes High School Composition Awards. While at Hart High, Robby has had the privilege to be a part of the Hart High marching and jazz bands as well as the acclaimed Wind Ensemble under the musical direction of Anthony Bailey. Robby was selected as a percussionist to the 2015 SCSBOA All-Southern High School Honor Symphonic Band. He received a Superior Rating on marimba from the SCSBOA Solo Ensemble. He was also selected to perform in the William S. Hart High School All District Honor Band as a percussionist and pianist under the direction of Professor Sharon Lavery from USC. Robby is a member of the California Scholarship Federation and the National Jr. Honor Society. He currently studies music composition with Professor Ian Krouse of UCLA.
Sharon Hurvitz (17) has been a Composer Fellow of the LA Philharmonic since 2013. She recently won First Prize in the High School Division of the 2015 Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers, is a Music Composition Honorable Mention Winner (2016) and Merit Winner (2015) of two National YoungArts Foundation Competitions, was a 2014 Finalist in the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, and a 2015 Finalist in the National Young Composers Challenge. She also was First Place winner two years in a row at the Music Teacher’s Association of California Composers Today State Contest and has been granted its highest accolade for high school and college-age composers, a five-year (2015-2020) honorary membership in The Young Composers Guild. She also was recently commissioned by the Olympia Philharmonic Society for performance by its Youth Orchestra in June 2016. Sharon is a graduate of Yamaha’s International Junior Original Concert Program, where starting at age ten, she performed her own compositions in four U.S. National Yamaha Junior Original Concerts and two National Association of Music Merchants Conventions, including NAMM’s 2012 opening Breakfast of Champions, while studying composition with Yamaha Music Academy Director, Carlton Liu. Now taking piano repertoire lessons with Mark Richman, she has performed in four Celebration of Young Talent Concerts (2 Concerto, 2 Chamber), and numerous other recitals for solo, chamber and piano 4-hands. Sharon also studied violin for 8 years with Chyi-Yau Lee of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, and took four years of cello at public schools in San Gabriel, California, where she became Principal Cellist with the Advanced Orchestra and recipient of a 2012 U.S. National School Orchestra Award. She then enrolled in the Classical Piano Department of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, where she has won its 2014 and 2015 Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Music – Piano, and is also a 2015 College Board AP Scholar with Honor. Sharon is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, having studied at the Chinese School of San Marino for 8 years.
Though Carla Kihlstedt began her journey with music as a classical violinist, she has become equally committed to the craft of singing, songwriting, composing, and improvising. She is a founding member of a wide variety of ensembles, including Tin Hat, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Rabbit Rabbit, The Book of Knots, Minamo, and Fred Frith’s Cosa Brava.
Through his activities as a conductor, vocalist, pianist, and composer, Eric Dudley enjoys a busy schedule of performances in the United States and abroad. After distinguished tenures as assistant conductor for both the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton Symphony, he recently appeared as principal conductor for the 2015 Bendigo Festival of Exploratory Music in Australia. Among his latest guest conducting engagements are the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, Hartford Symphony Orchestra (CT), Adelphi Chamber Orchestra (NJ), TENET Vocal Ensemble (NY), Signal Ensemble (NY), International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and the Melbourne International Arts Festival. He served for four years on the part-time faculty of Mannes College in New York as director of the Mannes Prep Philharmonic and The New School Chorus, and begins his next appointment as music director of the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra in the 2016–17 concert season.