
Jeff and Janet Olsson, owners of New West Catering (1998) and Industrial Eats (2014), say their intent with creating Eats was to open a restaurant that they themselves would want to frequent, wisdom acquired from an admired restaurateur acquaintance many years ago. It’s inviting to the masses, a place where anyone can feel comfortable and appreciated. The camaraderie starts at the front counter where customers meet the Eats crew and get advice on all the innovative menu options (oysters with caviar, smoked pheasant salad, and the beef tongue pastrami reuben, to name a few). Then you take a seat at one of their communal tabletops and strike up a conversation while you watch skilled chefs working with fresh local ingredients, plating every dish with just plain mad respect for food; and servers buzzing around, keeping the flow steady but stealth. Enter Jeff and Janet, who are almost always there, shaking hands, taking selfies with celebrities (#melissaetheridge), and sitting down to meet, greet, and even eat with new friends. The pride permeates. And it’s often hard to leave.
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Jacob Grant
Roots Organic Farm
Jacob Grant, a California native, started Roots in 2002, and it’s small even for a small farm, with only 10-15 acres planted at one time. In a very short time, Roots gained favor for its sweet carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, and melons. On a bicycle tour across the U.S., Grant fully realized his passion for farming. While cycling through hundreds of miles of corn and soybean crops in the Midwest, he came upon a farmer, also on a bicycle, and they struck up a conversation. Right after he finished that bike trip is when he got back into hands-on farming. It was late 2002 when he rented a five-acre parcel and Los Olivos Organic Roots was born. By putting in 10-hour days, six days a week, with part-time help during the summer, he was able to make enough to support himself the first year. Each year he added another acre until he was leasing a 15-acre plot with a barn.
Jacob has been a friend of Jeff and Janet’s for years but it wasn’t until this past year that they developed a real working relationship. Industrial Eats designs its menu around his produce.

Stephanie Mutz
Sea Stephanie Fish
Stephanie has two fundamental commitments to the local marine resources: she is a commercial fisherman working out of the port of Santa Barbara, and a part-time biology adjunct professor at Ventura Community College.
She operates her own boat, and fishes predominantly for urchins and snails, but does catch fish every now and then.
She strives to keep the seafood close to Santa Barbara by selling directly to the community.
Her main goal is to link the relationship with the harvesters to the community with the food they eat.
She wants to make fresh, local, sustainable seafood more accessible to her community in order to provide a healthy and balanced lifestyle with local resources.
Jeff and Janet met Stephanie years ago at a Cambria/Byron wine dinner featuring local producers. They have been hooked on her urchin ever since.

Abel Basch
Classic Organic Farm
Abel was born in L.A. and came to Santa Barbara to attend culinary school. After finishing his studies he worked in restaurants, but along with his love of cooking food he started to love growing food. He started an "urban" garden on the patio of his apartment growing herbs, vegetables and mushrooms.
Looking to connect with his family history he left for Israel to study permaculture at the Hava Ve Adam Farm where he learned to work with nature instead of against it.
Abel loves being out in the fields enjoying the land by day, and cooking up the produce he’s grown at night.
Jeff and Janet met Abel in 2014. He has provided small amounts of beautiful produce to the restaurant and soon will be supplying crab.

Jake Francis
Valley Piggery
The goal at Valley Piggery is to provide the community with a holistic approach to eating pork. They invite you to reconnect to the reality of being an omnivore, and share in their respect for pigs, as they honor them in the field, on the butcher block, in your kitchen, and on your plate.
Jake met Jeff and Janet shortly after moving here from Athens years ago. At the time, New West Catering was just beginning to make their own prosciutto, so a steady supply of local pork was welcomed. Through a unique partnership with Industrial Eats, Valley Piggery hosts monthly Pig Butchery Workshops to teach simple butchery and home cookery skills. Visit Jake’s website (by clicking on his image above) for more information and to reserve space.

Debby & Shu Takikawa
The Garden Of..... Farm
Shu first came to California from his native Japan in the 1980s, and began working for Nature Farm, a large organic farm based in Camarillo. Debby had been living and working on her family‘s 24-acre farm in Los Olivos, which is home to some of the first wine grapes planted in the Santa Ynez Valley. After Shu and Debby were married, they settled at Debby’s family farm and began The Garden Of ... in the early 1980s on 4 acres of assorted vegetables, greens, and flowers.
The Takikawas‘ specialty is lettuce, which is crisp and succulent. Their potatoes have tender skins, sweetness and a clean flavor. Whether it’s beets, zucchini, kale or carrots, all approach the ideal in appearance and freshness. Other certified organic produce on the farm includes a variety of cruciferous greens, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, squash, leeks, and carrots.
For more than 20 years, the Takikawa family has been farming in Los Olivos. This third-generation, 15-acre farm focuses on sustainable farming practices, with an emphasis on mindfulness. Shu is also as revered for mentoring young farmers as for growing pristine produce.
Jeff and Janet have known Debby and Shu for over 10 years but it was the opening of the restaurant that got them all working more closely together. Jeff truly believes that their lettuces are integral to the success of Eats.

Travis Meyer
Commercial Fisherman
Travis was introduced to the Eats community by Stephanie Mutz and since 2015 has provided the restaurant with all of their rockfish, mackerel, ling cod, calamari, and sardines.

John & Matt Givens
John Givens Farm
Certified organic for 25-plus years, Givens Farms is committed to a more sustainable farming ecosystem — from composting to cover cropping and offering greater biological variety. The farm harvests daily, so consumers have a chance to sample the best produce available. Specialties include a variety of leafy greens and salad mixes (including kale, swiss chard, dandelion greens, arugula), cilantro, parsley, spring onions, squash, sugar snap peas (a local favorite), cucumbers, carrots, and other “green juice” favorites.
While John Givens has been farming organically in Santa Barbara for decades, it was when Jeff and Janet met his son Matt, who had just moved to the valley, that led to them working together. Tomatoes, greens, berries and all sorts of other amazing stuff makes its way from them to the Eats menu.
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