The Gardens of Avila at Sycamore Mineral Springs
As diners everywhere are becoming increasingly more conscious of where the food they eat is coming from, the farm-to-table era is in full swing on the Central Coast, where the weather is always favorable and the fields are just a short drive from the heart of downtown. But how often can you actually seethe farm from your table?
Photos by Alexandra Wallace
Charles Crellin, the General Manager of Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort & Spa and the Vice President of Boutique Hotel Collection — which also encompasses The Cliffs and SeaVenture in Pismo Beach, as well as the Apple Farm in San Luis Obispo — says The Gardens of Avila restaurant at Sycamore Mineral Springs has been sourcing its produce from local farms for years, and yet, up until recently, a one-acre lot directly across the street from the restaurant offered a unique opportunity that they had not yet taken full advantage of.
“The plans started last fall,” Charles says. “I got all of our chefs together with a consulting farmer, and we said, ‘Here’s our menu, and here are the things we would really like to do.’”
Those plans would push the concept of farm-to-table all the way to its natural conclusion, with a curated Chef’s Garden within walking distance from the kitchen. It’s the kind of creative control that most chefs only dream of.
“My image that I have for the food that I’m making is, ‘the fresher the better,’ and this is the best way of doing it,” says Chef Edward Ruiz. “I mean, how many restaurants can say they have their own robust garden? I’m very fortunate to have come in when I did because they had a garden before, but now there’s an actual farmer here [tending to it], who knows what she’s doing.”
That farmer is Haley Trengove, a 25-year-old graduate of Sonoma State University, who grew up in Atascadero. “This is my office,” she says excitedly, gesturing around us to the one-acre garden, which sits just 150 yards away from The Gardens of Avila restaurant, across a beautiful green bridge that arches over Avila Beach Drive and the San Luis Obispo Creek.
“These raised boxes are growing beets, carrots, radishes, chard, salanova lettuce, onions, artisan tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, six different types of cucumber, tomatillos, cantaloupe, honeydew and two different types of watermelon,” she says, laughing as she stops to catch her breath. “This morning, I harvested 25 pounds of beets from just this one box,” she adds, pointing to a large planter a few feet away from us.
The proximity to the restaurant affords the chefs a unique symbiotic relationship, where they can influence the crops, and the harvests can influence the menus.
“Haley and I try to get together once a week, so I can let her know what I need,” Edward says, “but she’s really the expert. I don’t even know the names of some of the stuff she grows out here, but I say, ‘I don’t know [exactly] what it is, it looks great and I know I can make something with it!’”
In a sunhat, shorts and Chelsea boots, Haley crouches over another large planter box and carefully uproots three brightly colored carrots. “I’ve never planned out my own [entire] garden before,” she says, “so it’s been somewhat like a fun art project, piecing it all together.”
In the next planter, she unearths a bright purple-and-white swirled beet. “These are Chioggia beets. Marinate it in lemon and salt — like candy.”
Bandon Sanders, the consultant brought in at the start of the project, runs his own seven-acre farm with his wife in Templeton, and remembered Haley from Sonoma State. “My mindset leans more towards linear efficiency,” he tells me. “But they wanted this spot to be beautiful and curated, too, so they could hold specialty events out here, like weddings. They wanted someone who could combine production and aesthetics, and so I told them that Haley was the perfect person for that.”
With Brandon and Haley working together to bring their vision to life, they quickly found that the space offered a few logistical challenges, the biggest of which has been the weather. “The rain was non-stop through February and March, and the fact that we got rain in May was unique,” Haley says. “Luckily, we’re having a really gentle start of the season so far, so hopefully our seasons have just shifted a bit.” The joy in farming, she says, is that you learn not to get too attached to the outcome, and to just go with the flow. “Mother Nature writes her own rules.”
Back inside The Gardens of Avila, customers are responding well to the revelation that their food was grown just steps away from where they’re eating it. “The other day, we were out of mint,” Restaurant Manager Kelsay Shorter tells me. “So I said, ‘Let’s run over to the garden and get more mint!’ People love that they can have a meal and then walk right over here and see how the whole process started.”
Just over the bridge, in the Chef’s Garden, diners can rest assured that Haley is dedicating every last ounce of her soul to the food on their plates. “Last night, I had a dream about the onions,” she says, her eyes still dreamy. “That’s how you know you’ve been thinking about something a lot.”
