Pop-Up Introduces New Big Sur Restaurant: Solstice

May 23, 2023 – All aboard the time machine. Destination: 1967.

Forthcoming epicurean hub Solstice in The Village Big Sur will draw inspiration directly from the paradigm-shifting year in California that was 1967. (The original name was Solstice 67.) 

Thankfully Solstice won’t involve ’60s-centric food, which is probably a good thing—at the time, tuna noodle casserole, Salisbury steak and beef Stroganoff were big.

The important element its three partners—chef Tim Eelman, beverage director Matt Peterson and property pointman Patrick Orosco—want to transport from that year is the feeling.

“The vibe of 1967 is not necessarily in food or cocktail culture,” Eelman says. “It’s in the feeling of an endless summer: the idea of an escape, the joy of celebrating every moment, [thinking] everyday is a holiday worth celebrating, and every meal can be feast.”

Eelman arrives after a stint at Big Sur Bakery, sounding grateful for his time there and ready to enjoy more self-determination and personal equity. 

“This is an opportunity for me to demonstrate my reverence for this community and this part of the world on my terms,” he says. “It’s also an opportunity for a new legacy I felt compelled to be a part of—and root myself deeper into a place I love, and hopefully show some reciprocity for what it’s given me.”

Solstice aims to open by late summer. In the meantime, a downtown Santa Cruz pop-up dinner will mark a coming-out party and hint at what eaters can expect at Solstice.

It happens Friday, June 16, with a five-course affair at Soif ($100), with pairings available from the Walnut Avenue wine hub, which is undergoing some dramatic changes itself. (Details and tickets here.)

The pop-up will feature a symphony of familiar ingredients harmonizing in fresh ways. 

The working menu includes: 

• A warm-up round of comté cheese gougères (aka stuffed French pastry puffs) with a TBD local stuffing; South Coast deviled eggs with smoked redwood furikake and smoked roe; Spade + Plow sungold tomatoes with Big Sur tomato gravy; Parker House rolls with aged Big Sur honey butter; and barbecued oysters with creamed nasturtium and uni

• Blue Heron lettuces with foraged South Coast herbs, toasted seeds, avocado and buttermilk

• Tehachapi Green Dent grits and peppers with eggplant, sesame and black garlic

• 38 North duck and cherries with corn, huitlacoche and coriander

• Central Coast berries and Big Sur jasmine granita over homemade frozen yogurt

In the process, the pop-up will rev up anticipation for the restaurant.

“Solstice will be vegetal-forward, but by no means strictly vegetarian, similar to the Bakery,” Eelman says, rattling off local purveyors and Real Good Fish as key contributors. “Celebrating the amazing bounty of what Central Coast and Big Sur has to offer, turned up to 11.”

The Village Big Sur has been largely dark for months—save for helping host Big Share food distribution amid COVID and some Big Sur Food & Wine opps and post party activities—and occupies a unique place in the South Coast social landscape. 

Those two factors make this debut doubly welcome.

The venue presents a semi-hidden, industrial chic place with interesting spaces and good parking at a central location next door to River Inn General Store.

The property has also long been a rare locals go-to across iterations as the Maiden Publick House and The Village 1.0.

Orosco—whose wife Mandy runs a yoga studio at the multi-use complex, which also houses an event barn—envisions that happening again.

“We’re working on a lot of stuff to provide multiple channels to build a relationship with the space—yoga, the ‘bodega’ with a number of staples for locals, casual opportunities to connect, a spot to grab a cup of coffee,” he says. “We’re going for a pretty wide spectrum, from fine dining in a casual setting to picking up something for a hike.”

Appropriately enough, he adds, basic maps searches for “Big Sur” often pin-drops peeps in the parking lot. 

“The Village has always been the closest thing we have to downtown in Big Sur,” says Orosco, who’s lived there for eight years. “Our ambition is to keep it as that third space, a place to get together outside of work and home, to make it the community’s backyard.” 

In addition to directing the drink program, Peterson will help steer inventory at the mini-grocery-with-big-hopes that’s also in early (i.e. really early) planning stages.

He’s been doing bar-back duty at Pearl Hour in New Monterey with spirits whisperer Katie Blandin to help give Solstice an enlightened take on adult drinks. 

“Locally inspired cocktails—delicious and fun, always changing with the seasons,” says Peterson, a BSFW co-founder who has logged extensive time as a sommelier at Sierra Mar. “We want to add things to Big Sur that are fresh, new and modern.”

A wine list with uncommon library wines from the Monterey County area will add backbone to a similarly celebratory vino list. 

“I’m going to cellar-raid some of the best [winemakers] we have,” he says, a wink in his voice. “We want the wine list to have identity, and to showcase the age-ability of what’s here. It’s gonna be a cool list.” 

Peterson adds he doesn’t aspire to drink local wines exclusively, so both his list and the retail section of the market will have regional and international selections too. 

In addition to wines, the current blueprint for the bodega (and its sneaky big square footage) includes local produce, meats, cheeses, robust salads, noodle bowls, prepared items leaning healthy, all as a self-aware counterpoint to the deli options. 

If you bend your ear in the right direction, that echoes the big-idea aspirations of 1967, the same year Esalen launched its now-global form of human potential thought, and the year Monterey Pop changed modern musical festivals. 

In a way that echoes Big Sur’s spirit, and aims to amplify it.

“We don’t want to compete with anyone in the area,” Peterson says. “We want to add to what we have.”

More at thevillagebigsur.com.