Hog Island Oyster Company is high on the must-stop-to-eat list when our new Tour Crew arrives in the Bay Area each spring. They offer a taste of Northern California’s finest seafood (including, of course, some really great oysters). We’re excited to make our relationship more official, bringing our long table to their ranch overlooking Tomales bay for the first time. We’ll take a stroll to our table site above the oyster beds and learn about the positive environmental impact of oyster farming. Husband-wife duo Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski from Michelin-starred, James Beard Award-winning State Bird Provisions will be joining us in the field kitchen, where they are excited to show off the wealth of ingredients the Bay Area is known for. Stuart and Nicole have joined us several times as guest chefs in the early days of OITF. We are excited to have them back!
Taxonomy: 2023 Tour
Richardson Ranch
This family-owned historic timber and cattle ranch rarely allows outside visitors, so we are honored to be invited back for a second year to set the table in their pastures on the craggy bluffs over the Pacific Ocean. The spirit of the Wild West still reigns strong here, where surfers and cowboys feel equally at home and the cows graze on grasses dewy with salty sea air. This cinematic site also happens to have some extremely personable hosts. The Falk family (and their many dogs) can’t wait to welcome us back to enjoy the incredible sunset views from the table. Better yet, we’ve invited some of our favorite chefs to craft a meal in their honor. A16 is a staple of the San Francisco restaurant scene, known both for their wonderful Italian cuisine and owner Shelley Lindgren’s phenomenal wine program. Chefs Yosuke Machida and Charlie Guyard will tow their pizza oven up the tight corners of Highway 1 in order to serve us wood-fired pizza at reception, before a meal you’ll surely think is worth the drive yourself.
Kleinood Farm & Winery
Kleinood Farm & Winery was our first-ever table in Africa last year, and we haven’t stopped thinking about it. This little farm grows wine grapes and olive trees on the side of Helderberg Mountain, just outside of Cape Town. Their name means “something small and precious”, and we’ve never seen a better argument that good things come in small packages – the soft scent of perfume roses wafting through the air, the flavors of their house verjus, honey and olive oil and the surrounding mountains that turn purple with the setting sun. There are so many good things tucked into this little place. We can’t wait to return for another visit, and we are excited to have Chef Jenny Ward from Makers Landing back in the field kitchen for the second time. This time, she is bringing friend, collaborator and Makers Landing incubator graduate Strone Henry from Kos Gangsta to help create the menu. Together, they’ll celebrate the diverse array of flavors in South African cuisine with a focus on the unique influences of Cape Town.
Mt. Tamalpais
This stunning site never ceases to amaze. Whether we’re cliffside looking at the clouds over the redwoods or staring straight down to the Pacific on a sunny day, the views are nothing short of breathtaking. And the table – stretching majestically along the cliffside road – is pretty splendid on its own. We are honored to set the long table in partnership with One Tam, the community campaign of the Tamalpais Lands Collaborative, who help ensure a healthy future for the mountain that so many cherish. Chef Jeremy Zimmerman of the girl and the fig is an OITF alumnus and knows exactly what he’s getting into. Cooking (or dining) on a mountainside thousands of feet above the ocean is for the genuinely adventurous and not for the faint of heart.
Sausalito Waterfront with Heath Ceramics
Regardless of where we set it, we serve the long table with family-style platters from Heath Ceramics. They hold the abundance of each farm feast in style. As we wind down our tour season we simply have to stop by to celebrate at the source, the Heath Factory in Sausalito. We’ll start the evening in the factory yard to get a peek behind the scenes before seeing their ceramics in action at the table, set on the iconic Sausalito waterfront at the Clipper Yacht Harbor. Guest chef Matthew Accarrino of SPQR & Mattina will bring his soulful, Michelin-starred Italian cuisine to the table while showcasing the freshest catch from our host fisherman, Zander Budge.
Pie Ranch
Every year, we finish out the summer tour season with a foraging dinner at Pie Ranch. Our host forager and king of mushrooms, Todd Spanier, will take us on a tour of the surrounding forests looking for autumnal treasures amongst the redwoods, while host farmers Nancy Vail and Jered Lawson show off their heirloom wheat and organic vegetables. To keep it all in the family, we’re inviting an alumnus of our Tour Crew to celebrate our 2023 Crew’s achievements. Carlo Espinas was our kitchen manager for the 2019 tour, before launching several of his own acclaimed projects throughout the Bay Area — and we are thrilled to have him back in the field kitchen to cook this year’s feast.
Boggy Creek Farm
We love the Sayle family and the historic farmhouse at Boggy Creek so much, we’re sticking around for a second night. We also can’t leave Austin without getting some really great BBQ, so we’ve invited one of the city’s best pitmasters to dinner. Evan LeRoy runs LeRoy and Lewis, an experimental BBQ truck dedicated to sourcing meat from small, responsible purveyors in Texas. You’re just as likely to find beef cheeks as brisket on their menu. It’s safe to say chef Evan knows a thing or two about open flame cooking, so we can’t wait to see what he does in the field kitchen while we dine between Boggy Creek’s abundant vegetable beds.
Peeler Farms
The Peeler family has been in the cattle business for over 100 years. Their 3,000-acre ranch is home to hundreds of Wagyu cattle, goats, sheep, horses and water buffalo who happily graze on green and golden grass—and we’ll be dining right in the middle of it all. If we’re lucky, hosts Marianna and Peter may show off their horsemanship skills by the table, but they will definitely welcome us with their signature Southern hospitality. Patrick Jackson of Austin’s Paperboy and San Antonio’s exciting new addition, Full Goods Diner, will be joining us as guest chef for the night. He has become well known in the area for his seasonally-driven cuisine that artfully blends Mexican and American flavors, a true reflection of Southern Texas style. We can’t wait to see what he does with Peeler Farms’ meat, showing us firsthand why they’ve become a favorite of chefs across the San Antonio restaurant scene.
Pinnacle Farms
Janna Anderson is a first generation farmer, but her land carries a long history. Pinnacle Farms’ fragrant lemon, grapefruit and orange orchards carry on the long-held tradition of citrus farming in the Southwest, and the rare Maktoom date trees have origins in early 1900s Iraq. At Pinnacle, Janna focuses on growing crops suited to the arid climate of Arizona, and has created a vast diversity of tastes and textures from her fields. We will get the chance to try some of her favorites at dinner prepared by our guest chef, René Andrade. Sonoran-born Andrade is a master of woodfire cooking, which he shows off at his restaurant, Bacanora. There, he’s won accolades from the likes of the James Beard Foundation and GQ. Chef René is joining us at Coachella this spring, and we’re already looking forward to his next turn in the field kitchen near his hometown of Phoenix.