A House That Rocks
Justine Roddick and Tina Schlieske play at home
Justine Roddick and Tina Schlieske play at home
Decorative tiles frame the colorful dining room at Casa del Greco, a 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival style home designed by George Washington Smith.
Written by Lorie Dewhirst Porter
Photographs by Yoshihiro Makino
Imagine owning a 100-year-old house designed by a famous architect. How do you make it your own? Often the best solution is finding an interior designer skilled at combining iconic architecture with a client’s personal taste and lifestyle. Just ask Justine Roddick and Tina Schlieske, who enlisted interior design maven Tamara Kaye-Honey to apply glam-rock magic to an iconic George Washington Smith house—with spectacular results.
Built in 1920, Casa del Greco is the second house Smith designed and built for himself in Montecito, and is a classic example of Spanish Colonial Revival style. Following Smith’s death in 1930, Casa del Greco passed through several owners’ hands before Roddick and Schlieske discovered it in 2004. For at least a decade after moving in, the couple were torn between reverence for Smith’s creation and the desire to feel at home. “We just weren’t really ready to do anything for a long time,” Roddick says.
But like many homeowners who suddenly found themselves in lockdown, the owners found that the pandemic provided the impetus they needed to personalize their environment. They contacted Kaye-Honey, founder of House of Honey, whose work Schlieske had admired online. At their initial meeting, Roddick recalls outlining their needs and describing their aesthetic: “We don’t want to take anything away from what was originally here; we just want to make it feel like our home. Tina’s vibe is very ’60s, and I’m all disco ’70s. What can you do with that?”
Quite a bit, as it turned out. Roddick’s fondness for the swinging ’70s—an era she experienced in her native England—appears in Kaye-Honey’s treatment of the dining room, with its glamorous dark green walls and elegant starburst chandelier suspended over an elliptical dining table surrounded by streamlined vintage metal-and-leather chairs. As Roddick says, “London is still very much part of my DNA.”
Speaking of DNA, Roddick gleaned her business experience early on, working for her parents, who founded The Body Shop, the natural beauty-product company that helped shape ethical consumerism worldwide. Working for The Body Shop brought Roddick to California. She eventually settled in Santa Barbara, creating an international chain of retail shops—Coco de Mer—with her sister, Sam. (They sold the company in 2011.) Currently Roddick is copresident of AHA!, a local nonprofit that helps teenagers, educators, and parents tackle apathy, prevent despair, and interrupt hate-based behavior. She’s also a trustee of The Roddick Foundation, a charity that supports projects involving human rights and social and environmental justice.
The home represents a peaceful coexistence of
Spanish Colonial Revival and urban style.
The Roddick-Schlieske household is a musical one. “Music is at the heart of the family’s passions,” Kaye-Honey says, “and a through line of the design and approach of the home.” It could hardly be otherwise, when you consider that Schlieske is an actual rock star. With her bands, Tina and the B-Sides and the Graceland Exiles, her musical repertoire includes Americana, blues, punk, and her latest passion, jazz. Locally, Schlieske has performed at the Lobero and the Granada Theatres; her annual shows at Cold Springs Tavern on Memorial Day and Labor Day have thrilled audiences for a dozen years. She often performs in her hometown of Minneapolis, where she has a dedicated and passionate following. (Prince, another Minneapolis native, was a fan; Schlieske appeared as an extra in the film Purple Rain.) “I’m so thankful that people still want to hear me sing at this age,” she says. “I’ll go anywhere I get invited to play.”
Kaye-Honey followed her clients’ musical mandate by transforming their formerly staid living room into a serene listening salon. Anchored by an inviting circle of six swoon-worthy tub chairs upholstered in emerald green velvet, the space features Schlieske’s impressive vintage sound equipment displayed on a custom-built shelving system by Jason Koharik. A colorful portrait of Elvis Presley by James Holdsworth presides over the surroundings. But distinctive Smith trademarks remain intact: the original wood-beam ceilings painted by Lutah Maria Riggs, the rough plaster walls, and the magnificent tile-clad circular staircase leading to the second floor. The home represents a peaceful coexistence of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture and sophisticated urban style.
Built in 1920, Casa del Greco is the second home that architect George Washington Smith designed and built for himself in Montecito.
The pièce de résistance—and likely the most beloved room in the house—is a former playroom that Kaye-Honey remade into a bar–performance space with midnight blue walls. “The best thing we did, without question, was the back bar,” says Roddick. “It used to be our kids’ playroom, and when [Mayla and Atticus] moved out, we’re like, Now we want a big kids’ playroom.” The bar itself, with four graceful stools, is indeed a star. The scalloped marble top and sleek brass base were also created by Koharik, as were the dramatic glass pendants illuminating the room. There’s even a performance stage fashioned out of vintage rugs. As Kaye-Honey says, “We playfully pushed the period home to its rock ‘n’ roll limits.”
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A Delicious Revolution
Alice Waters returns to Santa Barbara with her sustainability movement
Alice Waters Returns to Santa Barbara With Her Sustainability Movement
Written by Jennifer Blaise Kramer
Photographs by Sara Prince
Alice Waters has been spending significant time in Santa Barbara. It’s not just for the sunshine; it’s a full-circle moment for the chef to be visiting restaurants and ranches on the American Riviera, where she started her academic career at UCSB before transferring to Berkeley. That move altered her life, igniting a love for food and politics that would turn the student into a lifelong restaurateur, author, and activist.
“I was just having too much fun in Santa Barbara, and my friend said there’s something going on at Berkeley—let’s transfer. We walked right into the Free Speech Movement, and it changed my life. I really understood the power of a group of people who were committed to making change,” Waters says, adding that from a very tender age, activism was tied up with her love of food. “Then I went to France, and the rest is history.” Waters opened Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley in 1971. In 1995 she started the Edible Schoolyard Project, which fused her passions—food, education, and equality—and eventually created change.
“It’s extraordinary how one woman can plant a seed for an edible schoolyard and for that to grow and carry to feed children all over the world”
“I had a vision of how we could plant a garden over in a vacant lot and build the cafeteria on the asphalt and use these portable buildings for kitchen classrooms, but I never imagined teaching gardening or cooking,” she says. The concept caught on quickly, and kids loved cooking the food of, say, the Middle East while studying geography. “I understood again the power of food, the power of nature, to be outside where you can grow your own food, and how calculations in math class could help you plant seeds. It was hugely successful, but I didn’t know it was going to grow to 6,500 schools around the world,” she says.
Now celebrating 30 years of the Edible Schoolyard, Waters is shifting her focus to school lunches. School-supported agriculture is her current passion, bringing her to fund-raising events and farmers markets nationwide—in Washington, D.C., she recently won the Julia Child Award and Kamala Harris showed her around—to raise money and awareness. It’s a concept that could also make waves, benefiting both the students (by offering them healthier options and locally grown food) and the farmers (by boosting their economy).
“The idea is for the schools to buy directly from farmers, because when you buy directly, you leave out the middleman, and the farmer or the rancher gets the money,” says Waters, whose next book, School Lunch Revolution, will be published in 2025. “We did this at Chez Panisse, and I know it will stimulate local farming in a way that will build the community.”
In Santa Barbara, Waters met with farmers, growers, and thinkers, such as Mary Ta. She’s a kindred spirit who’s combining regenerative farming with biophilia (an expanded appreciation for nature) at her Skyfield Ranch, which boasts 80 acres of organic farmland in the Los Padres National Forest. Waters then ventured up to Santa Ynez, over to Lotusland, and downtown to the Saturday morning farmers market. “I just couldn’t believe the biodiversity of the produce, all different colors of raspberries, and children everywhere,” she says. She reunited with an organic farmer she knew in the ’60s and told him what she’s been up to, and he quickly volunteered to help.
“So many people in Santa Barbara care about the environment—I just might have to move back!” she says. “I love the proximity to the ocean, the care everybody feels to the land. And the whole UC system could be critical to this idea of school-supported agriculture. And what better place to do this than the whole state of California?”
The city showed up for Waters on one fall evening, when she captivated the community at a dinner hosted by sisters Belle Hahn and Lily Hahn Shining of the Twin Hearts Foundation. The event benefited the chef’s school-supported agriculture mission in Washington, D.C., where Waters hoped to raise awareness and bring some actual farmers to the tables where big changes take place.
“Everyone gave generously to the cause because of Alice. She is pure heart,” says Gina Andrews of Bon Fortune, who oversaw the garden party at a private estate in Montecito. In addition to arranging strategic lighting and decor, Andrews made thoughtful decisions that aligned with the chef’s philosophies. In lieu of florals, Truman Davies opted for vegetable centerpieces that wouldn’t distract from the food. Upon hearing of Waters’ love for sea urchins, Andrews got local commercial fisher Stephanie Mutz to bring the seafood, which the Gala restaurant team prepared for the party. And in true Waters fashion, Andrews made sure Mutz also had a seat at the table. “We wanted to tether that localism and celebrate our biodiversity and the gifts from the sea that make our area so rich,” Andrews says.
Guests also enjoyed heirloom tomatoes from Tutti Frutti Farms, pan-roasted Liberty duck, and Santa Barbara black cod with local wine pairings. “While every element of the decor was intentional and lovely, it was never about the design,” Andrews says. “The focus was on the food and honoring the people and sources that contribute to the message that Alice has championed for decades.”
“So many people in Santa Barbara care about the environment—I just might have to move back!”
Cohost Belle Hahn continues to be inspired by Waters. “Alice was a hero of mine from early childhood, as I believed that she was the original, all-time goddess of the slow-food movement,” says Hahn. “It’s extraordinary how one woman can plant a seed for an edible schoolyard and for that to grow and carry to feed children all over the world, including this mission now for school lunches and edible classrooms.” Hahn, who shares a passion for regenerative farming as executive producer of Feeding Tomorrow, bonded with the chef around creating opportunities where children can learn and grow.
“The education around regenerative agriculture and this shift back into the simple abundance of life is the catalyst of the delicious revolution Miss Waters talks about,” says Hahn. “And those are the waters that I want be a part of.”
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Conversations with Carol
Dennis Miller chats Broadway, Bradley Cooper, and what’s next for this iconic comedian at Lucky’s, their Montecito hang
DENNIS MILLER chats Broadway, Bradley Cooper, and what’s next for this iconic comedian at Lucky’s, their Montecito hang
Photographs by Rainer Hosch
Routinely, a quiet, dimly lit table near the back window at Lucky’s old-school chophouse is reserved for a petite, smartly dressed woman with a well-coiffed strawberry blonde bob. The hour is early when her companion, a kind-looking man with a mischievous smile, joins her for dinner. The pair greet as longtime pals and talk animatedly throughout their sometimes-weekly rendezvous, clearly delighting in each other’s company.
She could be any sophisticated woman, in any picturesque Southern California suburb, but this is Montecito, and Lucky’s patron of honor is none other than Carol Burnett, one of the greatest comedic figures of the 20th century—and the present day. Her dinner date? Another local, Dennis Miller, who is a force of nature in his own right in the comedy and commentary scene—and, more recently, Burnett’s neighbor.
When these two dine (most often with their spouses, Carolyn Espley-Miller and Brian Miller—no relation), it usually begins with a cocktail. The devoted Lucky’s staff knows the order well, with no hesitation. Burnett is served a chilled cosmopolitan, the classic pink drink that has been her signature for decades. Miller orders his usual martini, and the conversation continues.
“There are things happening for me that I never dreamed would happen at my age.”
Their standing dinner reservation recently came to light as one of the more fascinating odd-couple date nights in the neighborhood, and eavesdropping on their conversation for just a few minutes was irresistible.
As this issue goes to print, Burnett is 91 and has just become the oldest woman ever nominated for an Emmy, her 26th, for her portrayal of Norma Dellacorte in the Apple TV comedy-drama Palm Royale. Her career has spanned nearly seven decades. One of her acolytes, Miller, wonders what could be left for Burnett. Turns out, she thought he’d never ask.
Dennis Miller: I’m talking to somebody who has done it all. What do you still want to do? What do you see coming down the road?
“Burnett is 91 and has just become the oldest woman ever nominated for an Emmy, her 26th.”
Carol Burnett: Bradley Cooper. [Laughs] Before him I would say George Clooney. That kind of answer always gets a good response.
DM: Seriously, though, is there anything that’s still an unchecked box?
CB: There really isn’t, Dennis. There are things happening for me that I never dreamed would happen at my age. It started when I did a guest spot on Better Call Saul. After that aired, my husband and I would go out to dinner and people who didn’t know me from my variety show would recognize me from Saul. It just took off! I thought, Well, that’s really kind of wonderful. Next thing I know, I get a call from Abe Sylvia, who is a producer and writer of a series called Palm Royale. He said, ‘We’d love you to be on it. And it stars Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney, Laura Dern, Ricky Martin, Leslie Bibb, Julia Duffy,’ and on and on. I said, ‘I’m in. I don’t care what you want me to do.’ Then I found out I’d play this matriarch of high society in Palm Beach in the ’70s, but I’d be in a coma for a few episodes.
“The standing dinner reservation recently came to light as one of the more fascinating odd-couple dates in the neighborhood, and eavesdropping was irresistible.”
DM: It’s a funny idea.
DM: I was hoping that when they first showed you supine in the bed and completely out of it, you would pull on your ear.
CB: I should have done that!
DM: I always think of you as such a feminine figure. You’re so proper and you have such great manners. But inside, you’re a stone killer when it comes time to get to business. And when I think back on your heyday at The Carol Burnett Show, at that time you were known in New York and the theater scene, but you exploded on that show.
CB: And I taught myself how to fall! I tumbled out of windows and was surprised to find there was a mattress there to catch me. I learned how to walk into walls and get pies in the face. The secret was to go slow and not stiffen up, and just go with it.
DM: Some of the old pros from the variety show—I have so many memories. Tell me about Mickey Rooney coming on your show.
CB: I grew up loving Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies. When he was a guest, it was a ‘Wow!’ moment. Mickey was fabulous. He was on, he was funny, he was adorable—just sensational.
DM: We’re having dinner here at Lucky’s, which is one of our favorite places, and one of the themes here is they always curate beautiful pictures of great stars. I love the one right over your shoulder, Carol, because you’re with Ed Sullivan.
CB: I remember the first time I got on his show. Relatedly, when I first got to New York, I thought, Should I change my name? Because there was another actress named Carol Bennett. I thought maybe they were going to get us mixed up. My middle name is Creighton, which was my mother’s maiden name, so I could’ve been Carol Creighton. But then I thought, No, if I ever make it I want to be Carol Burnett, because I want my crush from junior high school, Tommy Tracy, to know. I want him to know it was me. [Laughs]
DM: When I think back on your show, you were the hostess with the mostess. But I also love the fact that for all the young comedians and comedic actors, you’re a lodestone for them. Tell me about all the Palm Royale girls who are coming up.
CB: They’re all so great. Most of my scenes were with Kristen Wiig and Ricky Martin. But then you look at Allison Janney and, I mean, Laura Dern! They couldn’t be sweeter. It was a gang. It was a party. I was really lucky both with Saul and with this one, Palm Royale—there was no temperament, there were no divas.
DM: There was a beautiful esprit de corps on those shows.
CB: Everybody was on time. We knew our lines. We laughed in between scenes. I really feel blessed. And for a second season!
Check out Season Two of Palm Royale on Apple TV, coming soon. In the meantime, watch the full conversation between Dennis Miller and Carol Burnett at sbmag.com. •
Hair by Sachi Worrall; Makeup by Marja Webster
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Outstanding in Los Alamos
A dinner showcases the renewed bounty of a central coast ranch.
A dinner showcases the renewed bounty of a CENTRAL COAST RANCH
Las Cumbres Ranch sells beef and honey direct to consumers, and it also offers cow shares. The ranch is available as an event space, and its Saturday tours can be booked online.
Written by Caitlin White
Photographs by Jake Lutz
The life’s work of land artist and Outstanding In the Field founder Jim Denevan is to continually create better iterations of extraordinary and memorable dining experiences that invite guests to commune with the physical environment where their food is sourced and produced.
“The events are a way for people to have more meaningful connections at this long table, and a deeper sense of where they live or where they might travel,” Denevan says of the series. “My inspiration for Outstanding In the Field is to bring the farmer, the chef, and the general public closer together. This happens through experiences that inspire greater connection, which over time makes for a more meaningful food culture.”
Taking place for more than 25 years, the wildly popular series has become something of a phenomenon, particularly on the West Coast, where an abundance of fields, farms, and functional outdoor spaces are available for transformation into a hospitality pavilion for one night. The events have become renowned among food and wine lovers, aficionados of the hyperlocal, and anyone with a soft spot for farm-to-table dining.
“Outstanding In the Field events have become renowned among food and wine lovers and aficionados of the hyperlocal.”
Denevan has thrown multiple dinners in the greater Santa Barbara area, including many in idyllic vineyards. A number of collaborations have been with chef Clark Staub of Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos. One of these gatherings recently spotlighted Las Cumbres Ranch, a holistically managed cattle ranch near Los Alamos. Acquired by the Selbert family in 2017, the ranch is known for its soil-regeneration practices, a system that has changed the quality of its produce and beef in a few short cycles. There has also been an increase in different types of animals and plants on the ranch, including native grasses, flowers, birds, and insects.
“We found out about regenerative agriculture in 2019, and I was hooked on the idea of making positive changes in our environment,” says Stefan Selbert, the operations manager and son of ranch owners Jim and Patricia Selbert. “Our family started implementing regenerative practices right then, and we’ve been practicing holistic management ever since. What excites me the most is to see how these practices expand the amount of life on the ranch while also improving the quality of the beef, honey, and eggs we produce.”
““We get to share how our regenerative practices heal the land while also
celebrating what makes our community so special.”
Bonsmara cattle are perfect for the Central Coast and are an important part of land management at the ranch, helping increase the stocking capacity of the ranch every season so they’re able to support more animals year after year. “The main tool we use in working our land is called holistic planned grazing. We move our animals in a way that mimics grazing patterns of ancient migrating herds that evolved along with the native fauna of California. We do so because it helps propagate all species of native plants while sequestering carbon, healing the soil, and improving resiliency of the land.”
To feature the beef, honey, and eggs produced here, Staub created a dinner menu that used all these ingredients. It was a celebration of the ranch with beef included in nine separate dishes of the 12-course meal—from beef-bone broth consommé and beef gelée on top of Morro Bay oysters to sirloin carpaccio and bone marrow ice cream.
“Outstanding In the Field espouses using hyperlocal ingredients, which is also what my restaurant does,” Staub says. “Full of Life Flatbread is six miles down the road from Las Cumbres Ranch, so it was really nice to create something so hyperlocal.”
Part of the setup for the dinner at the ranch was situating guests in an area where they could enjoy all aspects of the beautiful landscape, including the flowers, trees, and wildlife that have thrived here because of the regenerative practices.
“Las Cumbres shows how important the culture of ranching is to not only the Central Coast but the United States,” Selbert says. “We get to share how our regenerative practices heal the land while also celebrating what makes our community so special. Historically, the Central Coast has been one of the best growers of quality beef, wine, and produce. With these practices we can ensure that, for generations to come, the Central Coast will continue to grow delicious food.”
Denevan says places like Las Cumbres, and what the Selberts are doing to restore the land there, are helping transform the food culture across America and create a greater sense of stewardship for future generations. “It sounds a little pretentious to call the series ‘dinner art,’ but I do see it as an extension of my land art,” he says. “Learning about the cattle and the history of that particular site is always going to be the coolest thing for me.” outstandinginthefield.com
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European Elegance
Designer Birgit Klein transforms a home in Santa Ynez
Designer BIRGIT KLEIN transforms a home in Santa Ynez
The six-acre Amara Ranch showcases a new chapter in the oeuvre of interior designer Birgit Klein.
Written by Lorie Dewhirst Porter
Photographs by Madeline Tolle
I love anything that has to do with ranches,” interior designer Birgit Klein says as she surveys the spectacular view from a trio of tall windows in her kitchen. The framed pastoral landscape reveals a lush meadow, an immense wooden barn, and an expansive view of the majestic Santa Ynez Mountains. “I grew up in Munich and spent a lot of time in Austria,” she says. “So I’ve always been drawn to fields and mountains, and for years I’ve wanted to design ranches.” That desire has recently transformed a glorious six-acre property known as Amara Ranch (@Amararanch), showcasing a new chapter in the designer’s oeuvre.
Klein is a well-established international design talent whose elegant spaces reflect her European heritage. Her interiors business originated in London, where she opened her first studio in 2006 after graduating from KLC School of Design. Love and marriage ensued, as did a move to Los Angeles, where Klein opened a second office. “Eventually I started having a lot of work in on the East Coast,” she says. Many of her clients are financial world titans, so Klein shuttled among projects in Los Angeles, New York, and London.
Several years after the move to Los Angeles, while she was pregnant with her second child, Klein and her husband attended a polo match in Montecito. It was a coup de foudre moment, and Klein decided she wanted to leave Los Angeles and raise her children in Santa Barbara. (Luckily her polo-playing husband agreed.) The family relocated in 2015. Their stunning Montecito home—designed by Klein, of course—garnered national and international press. Her charming stone-clad design studio-showroom in San Ysidro Village opened in 2018.
Although Montecito remains Klein’s primary home and business locale, the acquisition of Amara Ranch—the name refers to “something eternal” or “grace” in various languages—has enabled Klein to demonstrate another aspect of her design skills. “I wanted to show you can do a lot of things up here,” she says. “It doesn’t always have to be this very traditional old ranch-style home. It’s much more, a little bit of an edge, but it has atmosphere. It has depth that’s richly layered, which is what I love, but with clean lines.”
“I wanted to show you can do a lot of things up here. It doesn’t always have to be this very traditional old ranch-style home.
It has an edge and an atmosphere.”
In the kitchen-dining area, the fireplace has a polished plaster finish that matches the limewashed walls. Colt Seager’s graphic artwork shares space with accessories and vessels Klein has collected over the years. Chairs from Restoration Hardware surround the vintage metal-topped table.
For Klein, each room needs its own mood: “It has to have a feeling. I want to walk in a room and feel the room.” Texture is key. “It’s very important for me. We use plaster on the fireplaces, and the mirror is antiqued. We have ceramic sconces, we have velvet, things like that,” she says.
Klein designed much of the furniture at the ranch, carefully balancing strong elements, like bold light fixtures, with large-scale artwork by local creatives. The walls are painted with a subdued putty color, as opposed to bright white, and signature pieces have a dark red or even black hue. “They have to be rich colors, so that when I look out in nature, I can see them there too,” Klein says. “Any color that’s inside I can find outside.”
The ranch renovation took a mere 12 months to complete, which is a testament to Klein’s sure-footed approach to the design process. “We didn’t really do any structural changes,” she says. “We left it pretty much the way it was, but we ripped everything out in the kitchen.” She concedes, however, that much remains to be done with the surrounding landscaping, which is hardly surprising when you consider the property’s size. “There’s still a lot of work for the next year or so,” she says with the smile of a passionate gardener.
In addition to the main house, Amara Ranch includes three pastures, a barn, and a guesthouse. “We always wanted to have a ranch,” Klein says. “My husband plays polo; I used to do dressage when I was younger, and our daughter is a hunter-jumper.” Of course, there’s also a separate building on the grounds that will eventually house Klein’s studio. “It’s a passion project,” she says, “but also something for me for work. I can spend more time up here and work from here and hopefully do a lot more ranches.”
In the meantime, Klein has plenty of projects on the boards to keep her busy. “We are working on a beautiful yacht in the South of France right now and on a very large home in the Bahamas, and we’re doing something in Jackson Hole—a ranch,” she says. Not to mention commissions in Montecito and Los Angeles.
Klein attributes part of her design success to her own experience: “I have a young family, and I’m super tidy,” she says. “I have to live in a space that always has to look really beautiful and clean but also has to be child-friendly and pet-friendly. I’m not an interior designer who has a particular style. Every project is a new challenge.” birgitklein.com
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Making Waves
Rodeo comes to the beach
RODEO Comes to the Beach
BreakaWave Rodeo is the Wild West at the country’s Pacific shore.
Written by Amelia Fleetwood
Photographs by Elizabeth Hay
We all know what a quintessential California postcard looks like: swaying palm trees, a cloudless sky, and perfect sets of waves rolling in from the Pacific Ocean onto an expansive beach. Take that endless-summer image, and add a rodeo on the sand. Sunbathers and surfers make way for galloping horses and bucking broncos, while young women and men wielding lassos and wearing cowboy hats fiercely compete in the fourth annual BreakaWave Rodeo. It’s the Wild West at the country’s Pacific shore, with the ocean acting as the fourth fence of the competition arena.
The one-of-a-kind rodeo experience takes place this year on September 17 at Pismo Beach in San Luis Obispo County. The event is created and hosted by the rodeo team at California Polytechnic State University, and it’s the brainchild of head coach Ben Londo.
As the fourth generation of bucking-chute regulars, Londo comes from rodeo royalty: His father was famous for holding the National Finals Rodeo world record in the saddle broncs event for an astounding 22 years. But Londo himself is no slouch when it comes to rodeo. The Cal Poly alum competed in saddle bronc and bareback events professionally during college and won a world title before retiring from the arena in 2017. In 2013 he returned to Cal Poly as the head coach with his young family in tow. Thanks to him, the school is one of the top universities creating high-level rodeo professionals.
“Rodeo is one of the most humbling sports. Nothing comes easy, and you have to work hard for it.”
With an incomparable get-it-done attitude and a massive ability to multitask, Londo has kept the history and tradition of rodeo alive, while bringing it into the modern world. He balances nostalgia and innovation, seeking to improve the BreakaWave event each year. That name refers to not just the waves crashing on the beach but also “breakaway roping,” a women-only event that takes center stage at the competition.
“Our focus has been pushing for more of a female presence in rodeo and Western heritage,” Londo says. “Women did not have much to do in rodeo traditionally other than barrel racing, but now the popularity of breakaway roping gives women another platform to rise to the top and earn equal prize money to the male ropers. We have been trying to help build up that atmosphere of putting women athletes where they belong—up on a pedestal in rodeo.”
Londo jokingly describes his role at Cal Poly as a glorified janitor, but the achievements of his 105 students—75 of them women—suggests otherwise. The school has one of the toughest and most respected college rodeo programs in the country, and breakaway roping is the event they are winning most.
It started as an idea to help boost students’ morale during the COVID-19 shutdowns. “Having the kids just practice to practice, with nowhere to compete, got me thinking about how to create an opportunity for them to build up morale,” Londo says. “In the past we had used the beach as an alternative place to train. When heavy rains flooded out the arena, we would pack up and have a fun day practicing at the beach.” As luck would have it, the beach was one of the first public spaces to reopen, and in 2021, in keeping with the school’s mantra, “Learn by Doing,” the BreakaWave event was born.
Haleigh Grant, one of Cal Poly’s top student athletes, competes at the collegiate level of breakaway roping and hopes to make the National Finals Rodeo someday. “The BreakaWave is unlike any other event I have ever competed in,” she says. “I competed the very first year, and I had so much fun. It’s a memory I will never forget. Last year the tournament-style setup was unbelievable.” (The women compete concurrently in different pens.) “There’s nothing that will ever give you that much adrenaline, not knowing how the other girl across from you just did and having to focus on your own run. I can’t wait to see what Coach Londo has planned for this year.”
Londo notes, “Tensions build because we have such a narrow window of time to put this event on between tides, which is one of the big challenges for the production team.”
Ultimately, Londo’s favorite part of working with the team at Cal Poly is being able to give these student athletes opportunities. “I’m dealing with pretty high-caliber individuals. To get into Cal Poly they have to be very well rounded and very dedicated, and I’m facilitating chances for these kids to become better in and out of the arena. That’s really rewarding.”
Grant adds, “Rodeo is one of the most humbling sports. Nothing comes easy, and you have to work hard for it. Rodeo has taught me to accept loss and be even more determined in the practice pen. I have learned so much.”
“As a school, we have been lucky in regional championships and at the national level,” Londo says. “But all that can feel like back-burner accomplishments compared to the feeling I get when a kid calls me three years after they graduate and asks me to officiate at their wedding because I made an impact on their lives. That is what it really boils down to.”
There is a beauty to rodeo that might not seem immediately apparent to the casual onlooker, he explains. “What I’ve seen from a coaching level in the kids is the sheer determination and willingness to work hard. The payoff might be the connections they make, the experiences they have, and the people they develop into through being part of a team, in a program that is pushing these values and learning by doing.”
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Family Ties
Generations of Alli Addison’s kin have lived at Dana Adobe, which inspires her equestrian-themed Milton Menasco line
Generations of ALLI ADDISON’S kin have lived at Dana Adobe, which inspires her equestrian-themed Milton Menasco line
Alli Addison outside the Dana Adobe in a Norma Kamali gown, Milton Menasco x Street & Saddle lariat tie, and American Hat Co. felt hat.
Written by Elizabeth Varnell
Photographs by Dewey Nicks
If you grow up on a ranch, “it’s almost required that you have braids and braces and draw horses all day,” says Alli Addison. The founder of the equine-inspired Milton Menasco lifestyle line (shopmiltonmenasco.com) was raised on generational property in Nipomo that once stretched from the foothills of the Santa Lucia Mountains west to the Pacific Ocean. Her great-great-great-grandfather William Goodwin Dana married Maria Josefa Carrillo—the daughter of Alta California’s provisional governor—and became a Mexican citizen to get the land grant. He built the Dana Adobe (danaadobe.org), now a landmark run by a nonprofit, where members of Addison’s extended family lived from 1839 to the 1990s.
“I have this lifestyle, and this is my passion. Horses are my passion.”
Addison, a mother of two, lives five miles north of the historic house on part of the original 48,000 acres granted to Dana by the Mexican government. “I’ve lived here my entire life. We’re raising our kids on the same property where I grew up,” she says. Her parents live next door, as do her brother and his family. Herds of cattle still roam the land. “With this horse culture and cowboy culture, there’s a tradition to honor the land and animals and to be a steward of it,” she says. “There’s an innate tie to the land.” But cattle ranching isn’t as viable as it used to be, and these days it’s more of a hobby. “My dad, he hangs on to it out of tradition,” she says. “We all have other jobs and things that help sustain it.”
Still, the family continues the traditional work of branding by using ropes, riding on horseback, and what Addison calls “all the old-fashioned stuff.” Each year new calves are given ear tags and vaccinated. “Adults with day jobs will give up their day to help a neighboring ranch do this. If they don’t have cattle, they wake up early, load up, and come over. My dad drops everything to go help out. That’s the way it’s done. I tell people the West is still alive and well in California,” she says.
Addison’s ancestors’ original house was built just after the cattle arrived. It’s the oldest historic adobe in San Luis Obispo County, according to Jim Corridan, the president of the nonprofit organization Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos (DANA), which restored the structure and added a cultural center and vineyard. Built by Dana, a ship’s captain from Boston, the house has an adobe exterior with a floor plan influenced by his New England roots. “You can see adobe bricks and the original windows and doors,” says Addison.
Corridan points out a number of East Coast influences that set the structure apart: “The most obvious difference are the closets [shelves] flanking the fireplace in the primary bedroom. Nearly all rancho-era adobes didn’t have closets at all.” There’s also wooden furniture made of sandalwood and redwood acquired from fellow ship captains. “Almost nowhere else in California can you stand at one of the grand adobe homes and look out at a nearly pristine view of the landscape, just as it appeared when the building was being constructed,” says Corridan.
In addition to the cattle and the adobe, horses are also a through line for Addison and her family. Staying true to her roots, she named her company after her great-uncle on her mother’s side, Milton Menasco. The Los Angeles–born artist began his career creating movie posters and sets, became an art director who later drew World War II air and sea battles for Life, and then became a sought-after equine portraitist in Kentucky. He painted Secretariat for Penny Chenery, the horse’s owner, and executed commissions for Thoroughbred aficionados John Hay Whitney, Isabel Dodge Sloane, and Lucille Markey.
Menasco died before Addison was born, but his wife came to live with her family. “I’d spend my days in her home poring over his art,” she says. Her parents and grandparents also had many of Menasco’s original paintings and prints. “He had a long career, so there’s a lot of art. And because I grew up on a ranch and in a horse world, I was obsessed with the art.”
“With Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams embracing cowboy culture, you see it through their eyes. It’s going to help change the narrative.”
She began collecting Menasco’s work and posting digital images on an Instagram account, and it snowballed. An avid equestrian who rides English and Western, Addison began incorporating fashion and lifestyle designs into the posts, and the brand took off. “I have this lifestyle, and this is my passion. Horses are my passion,” she says. Her line of elevated ranch wear embraces all aspects of horse culture. There are collaborations with the Canadian line Street & Saddle, yielding handmade shirts, plaids in neutral tones, chore jackets, overalls, and other pieces that evoke her elegant grandmothers’ grace and grit on horseback.
The look is getting an international glow-up with Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album, Olympic equestrian events held at Versailles, and fashion houses like Louis Vuitton, which is saddling up with Pharrell Williams this fall. “With Beyoncé and Pharrell embracing cowboy culture, you see it through their eyes. It’s going to help change the narrative,” says Addison. “It promotes knowledge, and people want to learn more about horses. For those of us who are immersed in it, we love this; we just want people to come and do it with us,” she adds.
Addison in Milton Menasco vintage Wrangler denim blazer and high-rise trouser jeans, Milton Menasco x Street & Saddle shirt, and Stetson hat inside the Dana Adobe living room.
Milton Menasco fall designs are rooted in the company’s elegant work wear aesthetic and its trove of vintage, including restored midcentury pieces and gems from past seasons. Also joining those looks are some based on art from Western and equestrian artists and artisans. The lineup speaks to the company’s beginnings, “what Milton Menasco was originally established for: the love of art,” says Addison.
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Wave Riders
Collector Wayne Babcock’s quest for totemic surfboards
Collector Wayne Babcock’s quest for totemic surfboards
Wayne Babcock has hundreds of surfboards in his collection representing the span of design evolution, from the earliest Hawaiian alaias to today’s high-performance boards. Outside his storage and display space on a ranch in Carpinteria, he keeps an array of early 20th-century boards called kook-boxes, designed by surfer Tom Blake and inspired by ancient olos, the 14- to 16-foot solid koa-wood surfboards of Hawaiian royalty.
Written by Christian Beamish
Photographs by Dewey Nicks
Surfboards embody the cultural mores of their time; the chemical composites of today no less than the great olos of Hawaiian chieftains, selected from sacred forests. But what thread links the cultures of the Polynesian voyagers and the surfers of today? As the holder of one of the preeminent collections of surfboards—a grouping that includes boards that date to Hawaiian royalty and contemporary world champions—Wayne Babcock is uniquely positioned to answer that question. “It’s all connected,” he says, by “the same beautiful act of riding a wave and playing in nature.”
Born in Los Angeles in 1958, Babcock describes his childhood wonderment at the butterflies and flowers that, for him, represented the real magic of the universe. This notion of magic, or at least of a grander scheme at work, continues to inform his view of the world. “It’s funny how the universe works with me,” he says. The historic surfboards that are his passion seem to come to him, he adds. “They manifest.”
Babcock’s long-running connection to Carpinteria includes a deep appreciation for the Channel Islands surfboard label, started by Al Merrick in Santa Barbara in the 1970s.
Randy Rarick, who runs classic surfboard auctions and does restoration work on boards, says, “Surf aficionados and collectors are a rare breed. Of this select group, probably the most knowledgeable and prolific collector is Wayne Babcock. He has, arguably, the best collection in the United States, if not the world.”
““Surf aficionados and collectors are a rare breed. Probably the most knowledgeable and prolific collector is Wayne Babcock. He has, arguably, the best collection in the U.S., if not the world.”
But it’s not as though Babcock sits around waiting for the boards to manifest. He’s been a collector for a long time. His mother was a collector, and when he was young she took him to estate sales around Los Angeles, helping him develop an eye for the valuable and unusual. Babcock held a spot at the Rose Bowl Flea Market for years, adding to his trove of 20th-century ephemera, such as sunglasses, lighters, and pocket knives.
The surfboards are his heart’s delight, but Babcock pays the bills running Angels Antiques in Carpinteria, where for 40 years he has been the go-to guy for anyone looking for that special midcentury object—a chair, table, teapot, or tchotchke. Hawaiiana is another specialty; he has an encyclopedic knowledge of Hawaiian slack-key guitar players.
In his flea market days, Babcock displayed a placard designed like a wanted poster from the Wild West. But instead of desperados, he was after vintage surfboards: “Top dollar paid!” read a graphic explosion. Rather than provide contact information on the poster, he waited for people to talk with him directly so he could gauge whether a lead was worth following.
The older boards in the collection speak of summers long passed yet suggest the timeless joy of getting into the surf and simply riding back to shore. George Greenough, originally of Montecito but long ensconced among the glistening forests and point surf of Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia, is surfing’s patron saint of high-performance design. His experiments with kneeboards led to the shortboard revolution in 1967, forever altering the way surfers approach the waves. His windsurfing boards (shown lower right) incorporate highly advanced foils for maximum hydrodynamic efficiency.
During one such conversation, a woman mentioned that her husband had a very old board. So began a series of phone calls that Babcock likens to an affair, in which she quietly kept him apprised of her spouse’s willingness to let the board go. Her husband had bought it from another Angeleno who had acquired the board in the 1930s in Waikiki, the cradle of contemporary surfing. Waikiki was the stomping grounds of a cadre of Hawaiian watermen known as the Beach Boys, among them the greatest of all surfers, Duke Kahanamoku.
It was not Duke’s board, but the man in the 1930s had asked the Beach Boys—whom he presumably met through surf lessons—if he could buy the oldest surfboard they knew of. And it is the thought of distant generations of Hawaiian grandfathers riding this surfboard that fires Babcock’s imagination.
His oldest boards (including the 1930s-era board) were shaped by master crafters who obtained the characteristics they wanted in their designs through concaves and chines, well-shaped rails, and pure, functional outlines.
Ultimately, perhaps, it is the refinement of these earliest boards that connects the surfing and seafaring technologies of ancient Polynesia to those of the modern era. Babcock’s collection comprises some 400 surfboards, many representing important shaping developments: Joe Quigg’s Malibu Chip design sits on a rack above a Bob Simmons planing hull; there are Renny Yater’s era-defining noseriders and his California guns of the 1970s. Dick Brewer big-wave spears share space with George Greenough’s high-speed windsurfing boards. Al Merrick’s shortboard precision and John Bradbury single fins attest to the lineage of Santa Barbara surfing.
“Carpinteria needs a surf museum,” Babcock says. His wave-riding talismans, though well- catalogued and properly stored in a temperature-controlled container on a private ranch in Carpinteria, are not available for public viewing. He envisions a venue where these boards can inform, inspire, and help people connect to the splendor of surfing and its long history in the Pacific and around the world.
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Capturing Changes
Ann Diener's new works address issues of land and water
Ann Diener's new works address issues of land and water
Agricultural Product Map– San Joaquin Valley, 2022, acrylic ink and beads on printed map, 8.5 x 11 in.
Written by John Connelly
Photographs by Sara Prince
Ann Diener’s artwork has always revolved around a sense of place, time, and history. Her drawings and installations often explore the societal and anthropological ramifications of our complex relationship with land and culture. Her tranquil seaside art studio just south of Santa Barbara, designed by longtime friend Robin Donaldson of Donaldson + Partners, is nestled among gardens and towering trees and has views of the Pacific. She says it has “incredible light” and a huge main wall that “has inspired her to work at a large scale.” This expanse of blank creative space allows Diener to put up sketches and other research materials from her extensive reference library of “image and idea files” that she refers to constantly while working. Her newest collection of work created in this inspirational setting delves into California’s complicated and fraught relationship with water and farming.
During a visit to the farm where her grandparents lived, Diener—a fourth-generation descendant of a California farming family—was struck by how much the landscape had changed since she was a child. This alteration was embodied in rows of suburban tract housing and strip malls or, in the remaining fields, enormous greenhouses churning out produce from genetically and scientifically engineered seeds. Before beginning work for her upcoming show, Diener read “a couple of dozen books on factory farming and issues relevant to it,” as well as “numerous articles on soil, water, and other issues pertinent to industrial agriculture.” The technological changes in farming practices over the past century, she realized, signified a profound shifting of the land from “agrarian to industrial, natural to man-made, organic to planned, and flat to stacked.” Diener was interested in rendering this dramatic transformation in her drawings. Her process of layering images, one atop another, supplemented by maps, prints, diagrams, photographs, and cutouts of smaller drawings, is well suited to a subject that reflects how “place is experienced both currently and historically, how identity is tied to place, and how politics influence the systems that structure our lives.”
“Ann Diener’s drawings often explore the societal and anthropological ramifications of our complex relationship with land and culture.”
Diener was inspired by writer and journalist Mark Arax’s The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California, a book about California’s water and soil. Arax traveled the state to explore its unprecedented and ambitious water-distribution system, a complex juggernaut built in the middle of the last century that has fueled California’s relentless growth. The state is straining to keep pace with its role as one of society’s most prodigious food providers.
Diener’s projects focus on the fertile San Joaquin Valley, home to agriculture that produces a large portion of the world’s food supply. She chose the area because it epitomizes both “the good and the bad” of our modern agribusiness approach to farming. Diener describes the place as “a land of stark social, racial, and economic inequalities,” where giant industrial and agricultural operations leave gaping land scars and exert control over water tables to the detriment of smaller family-owned farms. In her latest work she seeks to embody this inequality visually and to “illustrate the chasm between the few who control the capital and resources and the low-income families, peripatetic immigrant labor, and small farmers.”
The resulting tapestries, drawings, maps, and sculpture are on view this summer in an installation at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (lancastermoah.com) titled The Invented Land. Diener’s drawings typically feature beautifully orchestrated gestural compositional lines, symbols, and forms that move fluidly between representation and abstraction. In Liquid Gold, a large-scale graphite, ink, and colored-pencil drawing on paper, a series of compact repeated circular forms ebb and flow, suggesting both the fruit of vineyards and droplets of water. The vertiginous space created by dynamic swooping lines suggests rhizomatic root systems and conveys the literal and dramatic steep drop in land heights when aquifers are drained.
Greenhouse, 2024/2023, wood with metal, acrylic elements, and beads, 14 x 10 x 12 ft.
In Agricultural Product Map–San Joaquin Valley, Diener uses the power of graphics to project a colorful cornucopia over an antique map, showing the orderly fields and hills of central California being devoured and bulldozed by a symbol of abundance.
The heart of Diener’s new installation is Greenhouse, 2023, a chapel-like sculpture adorned with dangling clear and white acrylic leaves and beaded copper-colored wire branches representing almond trees. Dancing outside the structure’s natural wood beams are more lyrical line drawings. The sculpture was created in collaboration with D+ Workshop, the fabrication arm of Donaldson’s architectural studio.
“The paramount issue of California agriculture is water,” Diener states in the catalog essay accompanying the exhibition. “The adaptation of industrial agriculture to a changing climate represents a metaphor for climate change on a larger level. It creates a parable of the need to respond to environmental shifts to continue to produce food for a growing human population.”
This insight suggests that although technology and change are wrapped up in science and advancement, they need not forget the history of the place we come from. And that is the land, which as Arak points out in his contribution to the catalog, sustained a 10,000-year-old native culture that was erased in the name of white American settlement and progress and was subsequently transformed by what Diener poignantly centers in her recent work—one of the most dramatic alterations of earth’s natural terrain in human history.
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The Magic of Zaca Lake
A place once thought to be a portal still has the power to transport
A place once thought to be a portal still has the power to transport
Zaca Lake is the only naturally occurring spring-fed lake in Santa Barbara County.
Written by Anna Ferguson-Sparks
Photographs by Blake Bronstad and Maia Hinton
Zaca Lake lures guests with its mysticism, its otherworldly energy, and its varied natural history. Once rumored to be bottomless, the emerald-toned body of water—which is the only naturally occurring spring-fed lake in Santa Barbara County—was formed approximately 10,000 years ago by a landslide that caused a fissure in the earth. Chumash legend held that Zaca Lake could essentially siphon swimmers to other regions of the Santa Ynez Valley and beyond. Today the lake is the centerpiece of a 320-acre resort that remains secluded, spiritual, and stylish.
“The legendary lake sits at an altitude of about 2,400 feet above sea level.”
Early one spring morning, we bounced along the nearly seven-mile drive from Foxen Canyon Road to the lake. After working our way uphill, through a final series of corkscrew turns, and then back down, we were rewarded by the sight of a bald eagle taking flight over a marshy pool of water, Zaca Lake’s seasonal overflow. One of several eagles that have been spotted on the property, the creature seemed symbolic of the rarity of this body of water and the land we were about to explore.
We would see the bird again from the dock that juts out in front of the 16 restored and redesigned cabins that line the lake’s northern shore. Towering redwoods planted in the late 1940s shade those cabins, and pines blanket the mountain range on the far side of the lake, at an altitude of about 2,400 feet above sea level. It is hard to remember that this spot is less than an hour from Santa Barbara and just 10 minutes from downtown Los Olivos, in Santa Ynez Valley’s wine country.
Zaca Lake is being preserved as a hidden natural oasis functioning as a bespoke group guest ranch, a role it has played for more than 100 years. The property was in sore need of repair and maintenance when it was acquired by the current partners, whose goal is to protect, preserve, and respect the history of the land and the lake. Water used for the property is pulled from its springs; solar panels supply electricity. The new stewards aim to maintain the land’s natural resources while they also share it with locals and visitors through customizable, rustic, elevated experiences that highlight the place’s magic.
The original wood cabins, which were built in the 1940s and have been restored in the camp vernacular, are available for private events and as part of property buyouts. There are fireplaces in the sleeping areas, and the furnishings are designed with luxe fabrics that play well with rough-edge limestone vanity tops, glass-enclosed showers, and flagstone bath and patio floors. Wooden trusses crisscross the cabin ceilings, and the floor is done in white oak.
Between the cabins and a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house, the property can sleep as many as 42 guests, plus staff. The Barn, also an original structure, serves as a gathering place for guests, with its grand fireplace and billiard table, and an expansive deck that looks out toward the horse corral. The view also takes in The Dome, a focal point for a new series of events hosted by Santa Barbara–based PALMA Colectiva. Husband-and-wife founders Daniel Pozas and Meredith Markworth-Pollack had been searching for the right spot in the Santa Ynez region to hold retreats, and in April they started the Nature Within at Zaca Lake.
“When we first visited Zaca Lake, we sat with the spirit of the land,” says Markworth-Pollack. “We were inspired by the story of the property, beginning with the Chumash and having many iterations over the years of spiritual and well-being uses. We felt connected to the design and new aesthetics of the restored property and how the inherent beauty and grace of the land has been revitalized in an organic and respectful manner. We’re utilizing the retreat space and bringing healing and wellness for the community back to its most authentic use.”
Explaining the name of the retreat, Markworth-Pollack notes, “You feel so isolated here, with all of the elements of nature—wildness, beauty, extremes…they all reflect the nature within ourselves.”
PALMA Colectiva’s first three-day, two-night retreat included workshops and activations such as a cacao-and-sound ceremony with vibrational artist and healer Micah Sheiner, who also opened the weekend with a land-and-water blessing that honored the history of the land and its people.
“Zaca Lake is being preserved as a hidden natural oasis functioning as a bespoke group guest ranch.”
Inside Zaca Lake’s acoustically unique Dome, which was staged with custom EmmaRose Floral arrangements, guests attended a yoga flow session with Krista Fleming, followed by a silent tea ceremony with Morgann Francesca. Reiki and intuitive bodywork by Markworth-Pollack and Pozas complemented the meals curated by chef Natacha Stojanovic’s MIDI Foods, and a zero-proof beverage program sponsored by nonalcoholic Tilden Cocktails. To close the weekend, grief coach Amar Atma led retreat attendees in a “Funeral for Self,” effectively leading guests to decide which parts of themselves they could let go as they cycle through life.
PALMA Colectiva is planning a similar Zaca Lake retreat in November—expanded to four days and three nights, with attendees limited to 26 overnight guests—and will also host single-day social well-being retreats open to a greater number of people.
Historical images of Zaca Lake’s past lives, culled from a 1994 book on the subject, History of Zaca Lake.
Zaca Lake’s intimate commercial kitchen is used by chefs and catering crews brought in for retreats, private events, weddings, and corporate affairs. The original lakeside lodge, which has a larger kitchen facility, was damaged in a fire in 2015 but is being rebuilt.
One of the most fabled elements of the property is its original outdoor kitchen and stone-paved barbecue area, the Alamo, which has “1939” carved into one of its keystones. Featuring two barbecue pits, a rotisserie, a massive fireplace, and a live-edge wooden bar, the structure is said to have been built for the storied Rancheros Visitadores, who used Zaca Lake as an encampment during their spring retreat.
Outdoors enthusiasts will revel in the range of activities available for guests at Zaca Lake, such as swimming, fishing, paddling, and rowing. Equestrian outfitters are on call for guided trail rides into the Santa Barbara backcountry, hiking and mountain biking trails line the ridges that ring the lake, and culinary adventurers can forage for edible gems like chanterelles.
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An Alfresco Evening
Goop and Loro Piana orchestrate an elegant poolside gathering at Gwyneth Paltrow’s home
Goop and Loro Piana orchestrate an elegant poolside gathering at Gwyneth Paltrow’s home
Written by Elizabeth Varnell
Photographs by Jason Sean Weiss/bfa.com
On a Friday in May, Gwyneth Paltrow welcomed friends and neighbors to an alfresco dinner at her Montecito residence, hosted by goop and Loro Piana. The gathering, in celebration of the Italian fashion house’s Summer Resort 2024 collection and complete with elegant linens and cashmere blankets from the line, also offered a first look at the seasonal clothing capsule worn by Paltrow’s family and numerous guests. The natural palette blended with the stone walls and bronze doors of Paltrow’s house, a collaboration with Roman and Williams’ Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, visible across a rectangular pool from tables set for the evening feast.
The goop founder and CEO has said she felt the region’s pull long before falling in love with the land and its views. She briefly studied at UC Santa Barbara before pursuing an acting career, and she returned for holidays while living in Europe. Now a resident, she began the evening’s festivities with basil margaritas and rhubarb white negronis while she and her son and daughter, joined by husband Brad Falchuk, greeted guests.
“The gathering offered a first look at the seasonal clothing capsule worn by Paltrow’s family and guests.”
As drinks made the rounds, Loro Piana’s inspiration for the summer looks—a nod to the Tahitian embrace of la vie heureuse, French for the happy life—also became a theme of sorts for the tranquil gathering. The natural linens, silks, and cottons used to create flowing silhouettes, including wide-legged trousers, wrap skirts, kimono-sleeved shirts, jumpsuits and jackets proved to be ideal for the shift from daylight to evening. Expanding on the collection’s island theme, floral motifs of hibiscus flowers and tree-of-life patterns joined the subtle multicolored stripes on the pillows decorating outdoor couches and the nature-derived neutrals worn by many in attendance.
The line’s palette, which included Loro Piana’s signature kummel red and a deep blue, was reflected in the elegant blue-and-white porcelain dinnerware, part of the L’Art de la Table offerings, arranged atop long tables. The blue hue echoed the color of crockery inside Paltrow’s kitchen, where she and the house’s architects, along with interior designer Brigette Romanek, devised a wall to display her collection of patterned china. Wicker vases and trays held seasonal blooms, while matching leather-and-wicker baskets contained cashmere throws to offset the evening chill.
Local band Django Foxtrot, comprising CalArts graduates, played its blend of jazz and pop covers on the main lawn. Once guests took their seats, Paltrow toasted the celebratory evening devoted to the art of living well, a philosophy prized by both goop and Loro Piana, which is known for its range of innovative textiles and understated designs.
As the sun set, guests dined on Italian-inspired fare, including spring vegetables and burrata, carciofi alla giudia, striped bass, and Wagyu steak bavette. Desserts, including fragrant basil semifreddo and torta al cioccolato, made the rounds before everyone began their farewells.
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On the Waterfront
Photographer Matt Albiani captures the sights and sounds of the Santa Barbara Harbor
Photographer Matt Albiani captures the sights and sounds of the Santa Barbara Harbor
Beyond the Boardwalk
Santa Barbara has always been a sea-facing town, but for years it lacked a real harbor. A long civic campaign raised the funds to build a breakwater, which was finished in 1930. Today the harbor is home to a fleet of working fishing boats as well as pleasure craft, marine-oriented businesses, water-sports enterprises, seafood markets, and restaurants. The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum is here too, with exhibits that tell the colorful story.
“The salty harbor, with its seals, fishermen, and sailing boats, always brings me back to my New England roots.”
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Mind of an Architect
A new book reveals William Hefner’s talent for tailoring homes to fit his clients
A new book reveals WILLIAM HEFNER’s talent for tailoring homes to fit his clients
Architect William Hefner in the Montecito office of Studio William Hefner. He has an enviable roster of pending and completed residential projects throughout California, the U.S., and internationally.
Written by Lorie Dewhirst Porter
Portraits by Dewey Nicks
“I just never thought of being anything else,” says William Hefner about his decision to become an architect at the tender age of four. Enraptured by trace-paper sketches created by an architect hired by his parents to enlarge the family home, young Hefner was out the door every morning, watching the renovation’s progress. He even joined the construction workers for lunch.
His attraction to architecture continued unabated through high school and college, and he was inspired by visits to a friend whose parents owned a home in Sea Ranch, a planned community in Sonoma County with distinctive wood-sided homes. It was no coincidence he ended up attending UCLA’s graduate architecture program; its dean at the time was Charles W. Moore, a founding architect of Sea Ranch.
A dramatic home in Los Angeles features pitched rooflines with clerestory windows. The art studio, which is clad in metal, acts as a sculptural feature at the entry.
After graduation, Hefner signed on with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, an architectural powerhouse known for its highest-in-the-world skyscraper designs. At 28, Hefner was responsible for planning 50-story buildings.
“I just love houses,” Hefner says. “I just like the whole level of personal interaction and customization.”
“It was really fun,” he says. It was also a lot of work—especially because he had side gigs designing house additions for friends: “At one point, I had two or three people coming to my apartment when I would leave for work; they would work there because I didn’t have an office. I’d get home at night from work and I’d mark up drawings and go to sleep.” Eventually he realized he preferred doing residential work and left Skidmore.
“I just love houses,” Hefner says. “I just like the whole level of personal interaction and the customization. I like trying to figure out the lifestyle, how they live, what their priorities are. And I like the personal challenges of trying to figure it out.”
Some three decades later, Studio William Hefner has more than 40 employees and two locations—in Los Angeles and Montecito—and an enviable roster of pending and completed residential projects throughout California, the United States, and internationally. It’s clear that Hefner has an innate ability to tailor architectural styles to suit his clients’ needs and is equally fluent in classical, modern, and contemporary design.
The architect’s third book (Images Publishing, $75) includes a selection of residential projects spanning the design spectrum from traditional to contemporary.
His third book, Studio William Hefner: California Homes II, featuring a selection of residential projects that span the design spectrum from traditional to contemporary, has just been published. The following three homes are among those showcased in the book.
A Grown-Up House: One of the most dramatic homes in the book was designed for a couple in Los Angeles who were ready to move on from their 1920s Spanish colonial home to a modern open-plan residence with plenty of light and low maintenance. “They said, ‘We’re done with that phase; the kids are gone,’” Hefner remembers. The wife, an artist, needed a studio, which Hefner designed as a metal-sided sculpture attached to the house and surrounded by a Zen garden. Local zoning requirements mandated a pitched roofline, which might have daunted other architects designing in a modern idiom. But according to Hefner, “it created opportunities for clerestory windows” that flood the house with light. At the entryway, an impressive staircase—with glass guardrails anchored by a three-dimensional oak wall with embedded lighting—is a sculpture in itself.
A French Retreat in Montecito: A home Hefner designed for himself in Montecito prompted a couple with a neighboring property to commission a similar design. “They liked the materials,” says Hefner. “We decided to make it a little more traditional than my house and less rustic.” The concept was a compound with an assembly of buildings. A glass breezeway separates the primary bedroom suite from the main house, enabling glimpses of the garden when traversing from the public to the private realm. As a nod to the couple’s home in France, several structures are clad in stone, including a separate painting studio inspired by Cézanne’s atelier in Aix-en-Provence. The landscape was designed around a very old California oak tree that shelters an outdoor dining area.
“I just never thought of being anything else,” Hefner says about his decision to become an architect at the age of four.
A House for Art: An art collector who wanted one of the midcentury Case Study houses in Los Angeles came to Hefner after realizing his art collection would never fit inside a diminutive vintage home. Hefner designed an entirely new residence on a larger scale “as a love letter to Case Study houses.” Situated in the hillside above Beverly Hills, the home’s stunning entry, with its white terrazzo floors and white walls, serves as the perfect art gallery. The main body of the house opens up to the panoramic view, and the minimalist walnut cabinetry and vintage furniture perfectly evoke the Case Study ethos.
A contemporary home in Los Angeles is the perfect container for an extensive art collection. The vintage Italian rosewood table and chairs provide a midcentury modern vibe.
Since the pandemic, Hefner has seen a change in residential commissions. Originally his work in Santa Barbara focused on designing homes for retirees from the East Coast or Midwest who wanted homes for entertaining with space for visiting family. Now he’s designing homes for families.
“It’s been an interesting dynamic,” he says. “They’re full-time residence houses, rather than third or fourth homes.” This trend mirrors the type of homes he’s designed for years in Los Angeles, but because Santa Barbara has less density, Hefner has been able to expand his landscape practice here.
“Landscape is such a big part of what we do,” he notes. “It’s been so amazing to have all this extra land and design some real gardens.”
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In Bloom
At a fundraising event, everything was coming up roses—and hydrangeas, dahlias, and more
At a fundraising event, everything was COMING UP ROSES—and hydrangeas, dahlias, and more
Written by Joan Tapper
Photographs by Sara Prince
With a jaw-dropping abundance of flowers and design imagination, the Rose Story Farm showcase event last November—a fundraiser for Casa del Herrero—was a huge, sold-out success. But it all started out far more modestly, says Danielle Dall’Armi Hahn, who owns the farm with her family. The author of The Color of Roses (Ten Speed Press, $35), Hahn has found myriad ways to promote the beauty and variety of the signature blooms, but this event offered something new.
“The designers installed flowers everywhere, from the entrance into living and dining rooms, into bathrooms and bedrooms, upstairs and down.”
“The original idea was to do it for fun for [floral design] clients and provide photography for them. It was just going to be for local florists, but as others heard about it, they wanted to join in. And once we got started, it was too big not to invite the public.” As a longtime admirer of the Casa and its board, she decided to turn the showcase into a benefit. “They are supportive of my business,” she adds. “We have a historic home as well, so I felt it would be a good match.”
The venue would be the 19th-century residence on the Rose Story Farm property. “The house was built in 1890 by a Boston sea captain, and it’s reminiscent of a ship,” Hahn says. “There’s a central staircase, which provides interior light and windows all around. We lived in it for 20 years, and no one has remodeled it.” When her kids left for college, the family moved to a smaller home, but they still return for the holidays. The Victorian architecture provided an apt backdrop for the wide-ranging over-the-top floral installations.
“You hear about design houses,” says Hahn, “but that can be an expensive way to do PR. We didn’t want this to cost anybody anything but time.” After her sister, Nina Dall’Armi, and staffer Alex Ivory came up with the idea, they put virtually no restrictions on the designers, who were free to use anything on the property—roses, of course, dahlias, hydrangeas, hellebores, lots of greens, persimmons and lemons, vegetables, and fruit. They could take as many roses as they wanted and use any props they found on the farm. Otto and Sons Nursery and Florabundance also contributed blooms. “No one had to buy anything,” Hahn notes. “They could do as little or as much as they wanted. They just had to come up with a design.”
Eventually 17 teams—from Santa Barbara, Ojai, and Los Angeles—participated, and although some planned to do modest arrangements, “when people saw what the others were doing, they got inspired.”
The Santa Barbara Garden Club and Casa del Herrero both took part, and Rose Story Farm’s designer, Claudio Cervantes, worked on the outdoor table arrangements and the large urns. Inside, at the top of the stairs, was a photo booth where guests could pose among prolific blooms. The visitors were entertained by opera singers Dorothy Gall and Geoff Hahn in the music room. The results tickled the senses with visual beauty, fragrances wafting through the house, and the sounds of music.
Toast Santa Barbara drew on a dream narrative for the fanciful branch-hung bower on a sleeping porch.
The designers installed flowers everywhere, from the entrance into living and dining rooms, into bathrooms and bedrooms, upstairs and down. Two designers shared the kitchen, with Your Creative Light Designs even filling the dishwasher and oven with flowers, as well as setting them on tables, while Pacwest Blooms placed their arrangements in the dining half of the room.
SR Hogue took over the bay window sitting room and created a tea setting there. Teresa Strong installed a tribute to Wendy Foster using dress forms and clothing in the dressing room.
Jenn Sanchez of Jenn Sanchez Designs incorporated rare plantings and red roses in her creation in the library. She says, “Rather than a formal arrangement, I opted for a large central tower to live at the center of the room, experiential in that visitors can walk around and interact with it.”
Kim Curtis of Toast envisioned a boy spending the night at his grandmother’s house and imagined a scenario for one of the bedrooms and an adjoining sleeping porch: “When she tucks him into bed for the night, she places armfuls of roses from her garden on his nightstand and around the room.”
For the master bath, Ashley Morgan of Ojala Floral had a vision. “I was inspired by the painting of what I imagined to be the Italian countryside hanging above the clawfoot tub,” she says. “I selected large and round antique hydrangeas from the garden as the focal flower accented with waist-high, blushy Princess Charlene de Monaco roses from the farm.”
One of the designers summed up her enthusiasm: “We never get to design what we want. We’re always led by clients. I was incredibly thrilled to design with no budget, no design constraints, no color demands.”
Says Hahn, “It was so surprising to see what people could do. People were blown away. You see how creative everyone is.”
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The Villa Among the Vines
La Tarantella adds old-world glamour to the wine country
LA TARANTELLA adds old-world glamour to the wine country
The approach to La Tarantella and a French limestone birdbath that provides just a preview of the treasures that inhabit The Villa.
Written by Anna Ferguson-Sparks
Photographs by Nicole Franzen
Once upon a time, a globe-trotting entertainment attorney fell in love with the Santa Ynez Valley. He and his wife decided to construct a dream home, La Tarantella, in what is now the Happy Canyon AVA of Santa Barbara County.
Grassini Family Vineyards’ Happy Canyon vines hug La Tarantella, which boasts bucolic vistas.
The couple, who had a passion for travel, filled their 6,000-square-foot manse with historic treasures collected on their worldly adventures, including an early 18th-century limestone fireplace from a French château, meticulously reconstructed on-site. The showpiece hearth was followed by a second imported limestone fireplace. To frame the entrance to the living room, the couple added walnut columns from a 19th-century French crypt, complete with their original, intricately carved stone bases. That same room received cedar beams for the ceiling, hand-assembled 21 feet above the ground by a local building crew. Douglas fir and cedar beams also graced the ceiling of the lounge, which is paved with the Mexican Saltillo floor tiles that are underfoot throughout La Tarantella.
The home’s construction was completed and celebrated in the early 1990s, with the help of famous family friends like Frank Ostini of Hitching Post 2, who purportedly rotisseried meats in the kitchen’s cavernous fireplace.
“The Villa blends beautifully with the Family’s own European heritage and love of entertaining.”
Over the next two decades, the adjacent property was acquired by the Grassini family, who opened a winery at Grassini Family Vineyards in 2010. The Grassinis befriended their neighbors, whose Mediterranean-style villa sat in the midst of the new vineyards. In time, the owners of La Tarantella and their residence began to show signs of graceful aging. The Grassini family stepped in to preserve the property and carry it forward.
In early 2022 the Grassini family acquired La Tarantella and immediately set to work breathing new life into all the glorious elements that make the property unique. They opted to keep the estate private, renting it only for select events. The deadline for the first of those was already looming when the Grassinis enlisted Santa Barbara–based designer Corinne Mathern, who worked with a variety of local artisans and tradespeople to restore the interior and exterior spaces of the stately residence, which they called The Villa.
The grand entrance to The Villa’s inner Fountain Courtyard.
With only five months until a high-profile wedding took place, the design team rearranged some of the venerable furnishings and introduced several elegant new pieces. The living room’s grand piano, which had a wooden frame that had been gorgeously burnished by decades of sunlight, was joined by a new coffee table, situated in front of the centuries-old fireplace that’s now topped with hand-painted tiles reclaimed from the elder Grassini’s Montecito home. Olive trees, uprooted from other spots on the property, were replanted along the pool lawn.
With the opening of La Tarantella in the fall of 2022, Grassini Family Vineyards, now encompassing 104 acres, was ready to serve as an ornate-yet-blank canvas for private events.
The Villa’s living room, with an early 18th-century limestone fireplace from a French château nestled below hand-assembled cedar trusses above the original Mexican Saltillo-tiled floor.
“The focal point of La Tarantella is the main house, which has stood for over three decades.”
The focal point of La Tarantella is still the main house, which has stood for more than three decades on the property, encircled by Grassini vineyards. With its original mix of Italian, French, and Spanish architectural elements, The Villa blends beautifully with the Grassini family’s own European heritage and love of entertaining.
La Tarantella’s six different outdoor event spaces accommodate as many as 250 guests. The Meadow, centered on a 300-year-old oak tree, sits near the Vineyard Oak Courtyard, a well-manicured grassy area shaded by two ancient oaks. The Poolside Lawn boasts views of Sauvignon Blanc vines, which extend 15 acres into the distance—and, as the name suggests, lead onto a vibrant green lawn and an inviting plunge pool. Another Saltillo-tile-lined patio leads into the house through three sets of French doors.
Olive and cypress trees line the entrance to The Villa, leading to The Piazza, an outer courtyard lush with foliage. Mission wood doors open to an inner Fountain Courtyard, similarly paved with sunset-hued Saltillo tiles, a trickling fountain at its center. The Olive Grove setting is distinguished by its namesake olive trees and dotted with oaks.
A restored tapestry of unknown origins befits the scene in one of The Villa’s previous bedroom suites, now used as a VIP wine-tasting area.
An additional rental fee grants use of The Villa’s interior, which features a chef’s exhibition kitchen. Two refurbished bedrooms and bathrooms are also available for bridal preparations, and a third bedroom suite has been transformed into a VIP wine-tasting area with a fully restored wall tapestry that depicts the gracious hospitality at La Tarantella.
Above the lounge, a spiral staircase leads to a custom-fitted library that rewards visitors with 180-degree views of the vineyards and the valley that attracted the home’s original owners.
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The Great Estate
Fashion-industry mogul Jeff Abrams invigorates El Mirador
Fashion-Industry Mogul JEFF ABRAMS Invigorates El Mirador
Written by Lorie Dewhirst Porter
Photographs by Dewey Nicks
Jeff Abrams is a very busy man. In addition to helming his global fashion brand, Rails, with 200 employees and 15 retail stores across the United States and Europe, heʼs a passionate preserver of El Mirador, the historic Montecito estate formerly owned by Chicagoʼs meatpacking Armour family.
“Once the house was revealed to me, I had this emotional, visceral response. It reminded me of being in Europe.”
In the early 20th century, El Mirador was a sprawling 70-acre estate, replete with Italian and Japanese gardens, an outdoor theater, and a private zoo. Over time, as with many grand estates, the land was subdivided and sold to separate owners. In 2018, Abrams fell in love with a 1990s Mediterranean-style mansion built on one of the property’s parcels. Created by local designer Michael DeRose, it was commissioned by legendary art dealer Stephen Hahn, beloved benefactor of the Music Academyʼs Hahn Hall. “Once the house was revealed to me, I had this emotional, visceral reaction to it,” Abrams told one interviewer. “It reminded me of being in Europe.” The property also includes a magnificent old adobe structure flanked by a pool and a tennis court.
With the advice of local interiors doyenne Elizabeth Vallino, Abrams has been gradually furnishing the 12,000-square-foot residence. “I just want it to be a comfortable place to live,” he says. “Even though the spaces are grand, I want them to feel cozy and at home.” Abrams has acquired several adjacent properties that also formed part of the Armour estate, including the original gatehouse, the farmhouse with horse stables, the Japanese garden, and the stone grotto. He now owns 30 acres, nearly half of the original El Mirador estate. “I actually bought a couple of golf carts,” Abrams admits, “because if you’re really spending time walking around here, it could take a fair amount of time.”
“Every time I come here, I feel thankful and want to show respect for the fact that I have access to this.”
In addition to golf carts, Abrams acquired a tractor and other industrial equipment to grapple with maintaining the extensive grounds. Fortunately, the property has its own well to provide water for the extraordinary plantings that continues to thrive under Abrams’ watchful eye, aided by DeRose, who also does landscape design.
Abrams has also grown accustomed to sharing the property with local wildlife. “There are definitely predators and prey,” he says. “Coyotes and foxes and bobcats and bears and mountain lions; and then you have all these animals that are trying to survive. This is a glamorous setting, but you also have to respect that you’re in nature.”
All this may seem grandiose, but Abrams has earned it fair and square, having launched his business in 2008 with a $5,000 investment and no fashion background; today Rails generates more than $750 million in retail sales.
“Iʼm approaching this property with a sense of humbleness,” he says. “Every time I come here, I feel thankful and want to show respect for the fact that I have access to this. That’s also what drives me to maintain it and be a caretaker; I know how long it’s taken to get here, and how much hard work it takes.”
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Lights,Camera ... Home!
Jordana Brewster renovated a 100-year-old house as a weekend getaway for her newly blended family, then realized she never wanted to leave
JORDANA BREWSTER renovated a 100-year-old house as a weekend getaway for her newly blended family, then realized she never wanted to leave
Alberta Ferretti dress, earrings and rings from Roseark. Opie Tete A Tete chaise, vintage Swedish floor lamp. Hair by Clariss Rubenstein at A-Frame Agency. Makeup by Lilly Keys at A-Frame Agency.
Written by Elizabeth Varnell
Photographs by Sami Drasin
Styling by Katie Bofshever
Says Jordana Brewster of her first forays to Montecito, “I started coming here to escape. There was no one around, and I’d read and write, and there was a level of peace. It felt very rooted.” Those initial visits led Brewster and her husband, Mason Morfit, to a century-old Winsor Soule–designed house that they renovated in time to stage their rehearsal dinner underneath the venerable oak tree out front. Now the couple, who recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary, have taken up permanent residency in the labyrinthine space. “We had been here all summer,” says Brewster. “And I thought, ‘Why should we leave?’”
The Yale-educated actress began her career at 15 and made her feature film debut three years later in a Robert Rodriguez sci-fi mystery before being cast in The Fast and the Furious, the street-racing film that begot a lengthy action franchise. Her work brought her to the West Coast, but a feeling of connectedness and contentment remained elusive during the two decades she lived in Los Angeles.
“In a way, moving has allowed me to get far more focused on what I want to do.”
Brewster, who was born in Panama, moved around as a kid, relocating to London and Rio de Janeiro before landing in New York for her formative years. She says she felt at home in all those places, yet Los Angeles always felt transient. “That’s the piece I found in Montecito—that sense of home and groundedness. Nothing really gets me off balance here,” says Brewster, sitting in her sun-filled dining room, where antique-mirrored walls reflect elegant glass doors leading to a back porch. In the yard beyond, Zelda, her Spanish poodle, and Endicott, her Portuguese water dog, are sprawled in the sun.
The house was designed in 1917 by Soule, an East Coast–raised architect who studied at Harvard and MIT. It sits on almost an acre of land planted with the arching oak plus palms and citrus. “We were lucky enough to inherit original drawings,” says architect Marc Appleton, whose firm helped the couple update the property, taking cues from Soule’s initial designs. “What’s unique about this house is that it’s built in more of a French Riviera, Mediterranean style than the typical Spanish Colonial Revival approach,” he adds, noting Soule relocated to Santa Barbara in 1911, making this an early project in his decades-long career. “Jordana and Mason were enamored of and attracted to the history of the old house. We worked to refresh it and bring it up to date but at the same time respect it architecturally.”
“There was a lovely awareness of making smart changes, rather than throwing out the DNA of the house,” agrees Chloe Warner, founder of Oakland-based Redmond Aldrich Design. Although Brewster and Morfit, who is the head of a San Francisco activist investment fund, aimed to preserve the character of the rooms, they relied on a vibrant palette devised with Warner to update the interiors. For example, bold blue Portuguese tiles line the kitchen. “I love the color and how happy it is,” says Brewster, whose mother is from Portugal.
“We all worked to refresh it and bring it up to date but respect it architecturally”
The dining room is painted in a dusty blue hue, and the game room’s terra-cotta walls complement the family’s Ping-Pong table and a Fast and Furious arcade game in one corner. “What they saw is what we truly believe, that color can be uplifting, calming,” says Warner. By necessity the space is a stomping ground of sorts, where Brewster’s two young boys and Morfit’s four children can gather. “They’re blending their families, starting this new chapter together. They wanted this serene home base for their families to merge,” she adds.
Tucked away from the large common rooms, the upstairs primary bedroom includes a century-old essential: an airy sleeping porch. A double-sided chaise lounge, bathed in sunlight coming through the surrounding windows, is a favorite spot. “They’re readers, and they wanted a place where they could sit together and read,” says Warner.
Lanvin dress, Mach & Mach sandals, Carolina Herrera earrings. Formations’ Market dining table, Nicky Kehoe dining chairs, and a BDDW Captain’s mid credenza.
Brewster also records auditions in a guest room, allowing her to remain in town rather than travel. Cellar Door—a thriller with Brewster, Scott Speedman, and Laurence Fishburne—will be out later this year, and the actress is producing a film this summer. “I’m also working on writing something with my husband,” she says. “In a way, moving has allowed me to get far more focused on what I want to do.”
In all, the house offers a very personal snapshot of the couple. “Jordana brought us a wallpaper she found while shooting in Rome,” says Warner. The Tree of Life design by Arjumand’s World, the creation of Milan-based textile designer Idarica Gazzoni, adorns a lady’s lounge adjoining a powder room. A Harlan Miller painting above one of the house’s cascading staircases came from London, acquired during a Fast production. The work depicts a fictional play with the title Wherever You Are Whatever You’re Doing This One’s For You. “I love the quote there, it makes me think of Paul,” Brewster says, referring to her late Fast co-star Paul Walker. She also has an eye on works by New York painter Karyn Lyons, who portrays the heightened emotions and dreamy haze of adolescence. The canvases remind the actress of her girlhood in Manhattan. “We want things around us that mean something,” she says.
Carolina Herrera dress from Wunderkind Montecito.
Morfit found original Dr. Seuss drawings from books he’s read to his children, and those now line the living room mantel. Above the stairs is a photograph of Joatinga beach in Rio de Janeiro. “I can almost see the place where I lived,” says Brewster. Her Montecito house’s yellow front door is also an homage to Brazil. “That culture of going to the beach after school, you didn’t need the demarcation of being inside or being out in nature—you were constantly out. That’s what we have here.”
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California Spirits
On a former avocado ranch, Rancho Del Sol is the beginning of a Montecito agave legacy
On a former avocado ranch, RANCHO DEL SOL is the beginning of a Montecito agave legacy
Written by Caitlin White | Photographs by Michael Haber
“We grow in an unconventional way. We don’t have regular irrigation. After the plants are established, we simply let them be.”
Rancho del Sol, the 11-acre agave ranch in Montecito where husband-and-wife duo Ane Diaz and Mark Peterson live and work, wasn’t always home to the spiky plants that are the source of distilled spirits like mezcal and tequila. Formerly the place was an avocado ranch, until fires and mudslides got the couple thinking about alternative crops. “It was Mark’s father, Dave Peterson, who shared an article about growing agaves in California,” Diaz explains. “The article mentioned that agaves need little water and can help slow down and, in some cases, even stop fires. We were hooked. Even though we don’t have a background in spirits, both of us have been bartenders.”
The couple “met cute” in Minneapolis, where Peterson was working as the manager of the iconic Loring Bar. Diaz happened to be in the Twin Cities for a conference, and a friend suggested visiting the Loring. The pair quickly hit it off. A few days later Peterson became Diaz’s tour guide around the city, and the rest is history. These days they work as partners farming agave, with each playing to their strengths.
“Our approach is divide and conquer,” says Peterson. “Ane likes to research and study, and she is involved with the younger plants. I tend to learn from experimentation. I work with the larger plants and the layout of the property. We have a family joke: I’m ‘nature,’ and Ane is ‘nurture.’”
“In Rancho del Sol we grow in an untraditional way,” says Diaz. “We call it semi-salvaje—semi-wild. That means we don’t have regular irrigation. After the plants are established, we simply let them be. Even though the agave plant has been growing in California for a very long time, the challenge in this area is growing plants to mature size. Gophers and ground squirrels can decimate a mature crop, and for the very young plants we’ve found deer and snails like to nibble on them. Also, the cold winters can kill or at least slow down the growth.”
Growing their agave crop led the couple to appreciate the plant for all its by-products and to dream of eventually distilling it, an idea that seemed far-fetched until another chance meeting—this time with Patricia Swenson, the executive chairman of Shelter Distilling—led to a partnership between neighbors.
“My husband and I walk in our neighborhood every morning,” Swenson says, “and over a period of months in 2019 we watched Mark Peterson move earth, rocks, and hundreds of agave plants around his property, driving the heavy equipment himself. One day we asked him about his passion for agave, and he shared his dream. We informed him that we had a distillery in Mammoth Lakes, and that was the beginning of our creative partnership.”
“The distillate from agaves made in the U.S. can’t be called mezcal because of its protected designation under the denomination of origin,” Diaz says. “Mezcal can only be made in eight Mexican states, tequila in five Mexican states, so we’re calling our output agave spirits. The distilling process has been at the hands of Jason Senior and Marcos Magdalano at Shelter Distilling. We couldn’t be happier with their results.”
Diaz and Peterson choose the different agave varietals that will go into an ensemble, or mix, selecting agave species based on the potential sugars needed to make the spirits. “Every spring and fall we choose which plants will be distilled,” adds Diaz. “As the agaves start to bloom, we either allow them to flower to seeds or bulbils [secondary plants]. Or, if we decide to make the spirit, the flower will be cut to quiote [stalks] and left in the ground for six to ten months before harvesting for Shelter Distilling to process.”
Agave farms like Rancho del Sol require very little water, and the plants are able to slow and sometimes even stop the spread of wildfire, an environmental boon for California landowners.
To describe their sold-out batch of Rancho del Sol Agave Spirit, which was distilled from a blend of five varietals—Agave americana, A. potatorum (tobala), A. salmiana, A. parryi, and A. tequilana—Shelter notes “stone fruit, floral, and peppery smoke.” Plans are currently in the works for a third batch of agave spirits from Rancho del Sol, which recently completed its fall harvest. Says Diaz, “This time we’re doing americana, salmiana, tobala, mapisaga, tequilana, and desmetiana—and we’re very excited.”
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Sculpting the Future
Goleta’s clay studio Reaches Beyond Southern California
Goleta’s Clay Studio reaches beyond Southern California
Various 3D-printed ceramic objects. All by Lynda Weinman.
Written by Lorie Dewhirst Porter | Photographs by Bruce Heavin
Don't Miss •
Artist Trunk Show
• SBMA
Nov 16 •
Don't Miss • Artist Trunk Show • SBMA Nov 16 •
“We’ve been really focused on local all this time. We can still serve our community, but we also believe it would be a really amazing experience to come from far away and be able to study here.”
For the past three years, the nonprofit Clay Studio in Goleta has been a local community hub for creatives who love the ceramic arts. The 24,000-square-foot facility boasts a state-of-the art ceramics studio, a 3D clay printer, potter’s wheels, kilns, and plenty of room to work. Current programming includes weekly classes, workshops, artist’s talks, and gallery exhibitions.
But there’s more. Clay Studio is getting ready for the future, with a new executive director and gallery coordinator, Matt Mitros. An artist in his own right, Mitros spent the past 16 years in academia, teaching ceramics at the university level. His decision to relocate to California from Illinois to lead Clay Studio was initiated and encouraged by philanthropist Lynda Weinman, who had attended a 3D clay-printing workshop taught by Mitros.
3D-printed ceramic vase. 3D-printed kinetic totem. All by Lynda Weinman.
Weinman, who cofounded the online learning platform Lynda.com, helped launch Clay Studio in 2020 and sensed from the start that it could become a global resource for creative exploration and design.
Meta flower vase with various glazes
3D-printed brick designed to deflect heat on the outside and retain heat on the inside. Created by M.I.T. students at Clay Studio.
“We’ve been really focused on local all this time,” Weinman says. “We can still serve our community, but we also believe it would be a really amazing experience to come from far away and be able to study here.”
To that end, Mitros plans to feature intensive workshops lasting several days, taught by renowned experts from all over the world and open to local as well as national and international participants. New equipment will be added—3D printers for clay and plastic—and the curriculum will be expanded to include emerging fabrication technologies.
“We want to be a place where we can say, ‘What do you want to do? We have a solution for you, and we welcome your ideas,’” says Mitros.
Cactus vase with various glazes and luster. 3D-printed weavzy object. All by Lynda Weinman.
In reality, some of this vision has already been happening in the Clay Studio’s warehouse-like space, where students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology have spent the past two summers working on-site. Their doctoral program, called Programmable Mud, resulted in fabrication of a brick that can deflect heat on the outside and retain heat on the inside, potentially a huge game changer for the global construction industry. “It could become the Central Coast Bauhaus,” Mitros concludes, referring to the Clay Studio, “with people sharing ideas.”
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The Shape of Surf
A pioneer in our midst: the legendary RENNY YATER and board members of the Hope Ranch Surf Club
A pioneer in our midst: the legendary RENNY YATER and board members of the Hope Ranch Surf Club
Reynolds Yater tamed and documented this wave, the largest ever ridden at Rincon, December 1969.
Archival Photos Courtesy of Hope Ranch Surf Club Yater Portraits by Dewey Nicks
Personal Accounts by James O’Mahoney and Andy Neumann
JAMES O’MAHONEY
In 1959 Santa Barbara was graced with the addition of the Yaters. Reynolds (“Renny”) and Sally pulled up stakes in Laguna Beach and replanted here. Both surf culture pioneers got right to work. Renny, a commercial fisherman and surfboard builder, opened his first shop on Anacapa Street. Sally fired up her sewing machine and opened “The Bikini Factory” at 310 Chapala. She immediately started f illing orders for the outlaw swimwear.
That same year brought one of the significant events that helped shape the surf culture phenomena: Gidget, the true story of Kathy Kohner and her initiation into California surf culture. The best-selling book became a movie and a television series, and it spawned the beach party f ilm genre. The real stories of surf culture—documentaries by Bruce Brown, Bud Brown, and more—brought even more attention to the sport.
Yater surrounded by examples of 70 years of shaping, including Gidget’s (Kathy Kohner) 1958 balsa board.
In 1962 the United States Surf ing Association posted 93 registered surf clubs in the United States, 87 of which were in California. There were even landlocked clubs on the East Coast: The Downtown Surf Club of Philadelphia and The Potomac River Ripple Riders of McClean, Virginia—210 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
One of the California clubs was the Santa Barbara County Surf Club, which a group of locals formed in 1960. Renny Yater was the first president of the club, which also included Arlen Knight, Tim Knight, Bob and John Perko, Stu Fredricks, Ken Kesson, Jerry Shalhoob, John Bradbury, George Greenough, Don Bittleston, Willy Norland, Andy Neumann, Alan Hazard, Michael Cundith, and Shaun Claffey. The club formed an informal partnership with Clinton Hollister of Hollister Ranch. The club could surf the Ranch but would be expected to police themselves, limit their membership to 60, monitor out-of-town surfers, and follow the rules and regulations of the Ranch.
In the 1990s the longboard revolution ignited the competition bug. There were two big competitions: The Malibu Team Invitational and the Santa Cruz Log Jam (the riders had to use only ’60s longboards).
In 1997 past president John Bradbury passed me the torch. Hope Ranch Surf Club changed again. The main emphasis was competition: no meetings, just surf and compete. Competition director Andrew Buck has successfully molded our team into a top placing club.
ANDY NEUMANN
It was early 1963 when I received a phone call from my surfing buddy Jim Hansen. “The Malibu Surfing Association is having an invitational surf contest this summer,” he said. “I just met with Dave Rochlen, who is in charge of the contest. I told him we had a great surf club with surfers, such as John Peck and Renny Yater. He was impressed.” John Peck had just graced the pages of Surfer Magazine with spectacular photos of him surfing the Banzai Pipeline on the famed North Shore of Oahu . Jim asked if I wanted to join. “Of course!” I said. “That would be fantastic!”
“It is still going strong today. Coming full circle, in 2021 I won the 70 and over Legends division at the annual MSA Malibu Invitational.”
Hope Ranch has a private stretch of sandy beach, and the local junior high and high school kids had formed a little surf club. Their president was leaving to attend Annapolis, so there was an opportunity to take the club in a different direction. Jim used the club as a platform for recruiting the best local surfers to compete in the Malibu Contest. We basically commandeered their club.
Renny Yater, Jeff “White Owl” White, John Eichert, and Doctor Bittleston were our first sponsors and mentors. I was 16, one of the oldest, and was elected president. Our first meetings were held upstairs in the East Beach Pavilion, about 30 raucous teenagers. Being a surfer in Santa Barbara in the early 1960s felt like being out of the loop. Most of the surf stars featured in the magazines and movies were from down south. Being invited to surf in the exclusive Malibu Invitational Surf Contest was like being asked to join the Major Leagues.
The winning club that first year was Windansea Surf Club from La Jolla. Like us, they had also formed to surf in the contest. Rather than rounding up the local high school talent, they recruited many of the top surfers from up and down the coast—and even a few from Hawaii.
The day of the contest was gorgeous and sunny, with perfect glassy waves peeling around Malibu Point. Most of us had never surfed in a contest. We were awed to be in the company of our surf heroes. Joey Cabell, who started the Chart House restaurants, won first place, and our ringer John Peck came through for us, placing second. Somehow we held our own and were invited back every subsequent year. The Hope Ranch Surf Club had arrived!
Wheelhouse of the Alta Verde: Captain Yater steers a straight course with a Cuban Montecristo as his
first mate.
That was the beginning of the second phase of the Hope Ranch Surf Club. I did not have a letterman’s sweater, but I proudly wore my pewter Hope Ranch Surf Club jacket while walking through the halls of Santa Barbara High. In the early ’60s, surfers did not have the best reputation, so we made a point of doing public service. We had cards made up that said, “You have been assisted by a member of the Hope Ranch Surf Club. Our aim is to better the name of Surfing and Surfers.” We began to compete in contests up and down the coast.
Original logos for the SBCSC featuring club President Reynolds Yater on the nose and turning.
I graduated from SBHS in 1964 and went off to study at Berkeley on a surfing scholarship from the United States Surfing Association. John Bradbury, local surfing and shaping legend, took over as president. With his leadership and guidance, Hope Ranch won the prestigious West Coast Club Championship in 1965. He organized an invitational club contest at Rincon in 1966 with a similar format as the Malibu Contest. The Who’s Who of the surfing world showed up from as far as Hawaii and Florida. Unfortunately, the surf did not show up, and the contest had to be canceled.
Things started to change. The short board revolution began in 1968, and with it came the decline of surf club contests. Noncompetitive “soul” surfing became the focus and soon the Hope Ranch Surf Club went dormant. Fortunately, it was revived in 1996 by a group including James O’Mahoney, Andrew Buck, Franky Morales, and Wayne Rich. It is still going strong today. Coming full circle, once again competing with my teammates for the Hope Ranch Surf Club, in 2021 I won the 70 and over Legends division at the annual MSA Malibu Invitational.
