FOOD+WINE
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y now, most food-lovers—from curious upstarts to bona fide gourmets—know the mantra of a besttaste scenario: Seek out the freshest ingredients and buy directly from the folks who work the land from whence they came. For those handy in the kitchen yet unequipped to grow their own, farmers markets have always done the trick. For those craving pro preparation, farm-to-table restaurants are flourishing like tomato plants in warm weather. Improving on that theme is Santa Barbara’s Rancho San Julian. “Because of the drought, I’ve had time to diversify my beef business and showcase more of what the ranch has to offer,” says Elizabeth Poett, 35, part of the ranch’s long line of family owners. “I have a passion for food and I love putting on parties, so this seemed like the next step.” By inviting guests to the very acreage that produces the protein so generously arranged across the shaded outdoor dining space, a San Julian ranch-to-table lunch doesn’t get much fresher. And there’s more. After a late-morning arrival to ranch headquarters situated in a shallow valley west of Gaviota Pass, patrons gather beneath an old oak for lessons in lore from Elizabeth’s dad, Jim Poett, the ranch’s general manager. Jim knows his stuff, having absorbed and studied the family tree back to 1837, when the Spanish crown granted the land to José de la Guerra, whose granddaughter, Francisca de la Guerra, and her husband, Thomas Bloodgood Dibblee, are Jim’s great grandparents. The 14,000-acre ranch—roughly the size of Manhattan Island—has been owned and operated by the CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Elizabeth Poett in her family’s early 1800s “Casa” on Rancho San Julian; Jim Poett slices the succulent oak wood-grilled tri-tip; guests dining under the vined pergola. OPPOSITE, TOP TO BOTTOM: The simple yet festive table set with Mexican serapes; inside the Casa situated on Rancho San Julian, which has raised cattle for more than two centuries.
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