Santa Margarita Institution, The Range, Stands the Test of Time
When the check arrives at the table after a steak dinner at The Range restaurant, don’t expect to pay the bill with plastic. Jeff Jackson, the owner of this country-style Santa Margarita institution, appreciates a simpler life, one that’s not complicated by credit cards, cellphones or computers for that matter.
In what was formerly the drive-thru of a burger joint on the small town’s main street, Jeff sits at a wood-planked table in his restaurant’s patio area. Jeff, a self-described hillbilly, remembers growing up on a farm, where he and his family butchered their own rabbits and harvested vegetables.
“We picked peas while watching the TV,” he says.
Since he was old enough to work outside of the home, Jeff found himself in the kitchens of French restaurants in Southern California. The exposure to such exquisitely plated cuisine was captivating. “I’m not an artist but I saw those plates and said, ‘I want to do that,’” he recalls.
Jeff later co-owned a restaurant in Los Osos called Mare Blu, which one Yelp reviewer hailed as “the most unpretentious breakfast and food in the county.” The unpretentious vibe seems to follow Jeff wherever he goes.
And he did continue to go, go, go. “You know what they say, when God hates you, he gives you a restaurant,” Jeff says.
But Jeff ultimately sold his share of the restaurant and set his sights on a small lot in what was then, by his own account, a “one-horse town.”
“When we moved here, it was very oaky, drunks passed out in the front,” Jeff reminisces about moving to town nearly two decades ago. The old burger shack became the perfect spot for him and his wife, Lindsay, to serve what he envisioned as “hillbilly meets French fusion.”
What may seem like an odd pair, if not an impossible coupling, is an obvious match to Jeff, who points to a common link. “It’s all country,” says Jeff. “The style of cooking is the same. I’m just using crawfish, not langoustine.”
While his wife runs the front of the house, Jeff is in the kitchen cooking menu items like Angus beef carpaccio, pomegranate BBQ St. Louis ribs and a filet with Gorgonzola cheese and wine sauce. Many of the restaurant’s offerings feature local produce and protein, as well as honey from nearby almond groves and wine from San Luis Obispo County vineyards.
The Range has not only served as the watering hole for many repeat customers, but it also has loyal wait and back-of-house employees who have remained consistent for much of its 16 years of operation.
“We have the best staff. No one wants to leave,” Jeff says. That includes his wife, who greets customers as the face of the restaurant, and his three children, who have taken on various roles throughout their teenage years.
“They grew up here,” Jeff shares, pointing to a black and white photo of his wife and their then-young kids framed perfectly under the giant long-horned steer painted on the front of the restaurant. “It’s a family affair.”
When the Jacksons opened The Range in 2004, they expected no more than a handful of people to stop in, so they were shocked to welcome over 70 customers the first night. “It was just me and one other guy that night,” Jeff recalls. “I thought, ‘What did I do?’”
After that debut, he properly staffed the restaurant and held on tightly, as the community around him grew and tourists from neighboring wine country began to trickle in for a nice roast chicken dinner and glass of vino.
On a busy night, The Range now serves as many as 177 tables of customers eager for a taste of the countryside in a coastal California area dominated by avocado toasts and charcuterie boards.
Despite the hardships created for local restaurants by COVID-19, which shuttered many successful businesses, the legacy of The Range and Jeff’s no fuss approach to keeping on have allowed the restaurant to survive another year.
With the music of George Jones and Johnny Cash pumped in through the overhead speakers, hungry people settle in under a string of lights that glow overhead like lightning bugs. It feels to Jeff a bit like magic.
“It’s like stepping back in time,” Jeff says. “That’s what you’re doing when you come here.”
