Welcome Bell Street Farm

When the potato salad is spiked with pancetta and the rosé is nicely dry, you know you’ve chosen the right place for lunch. In early August, we visited Bell Street Farm in Los Alamos on the invitation of owner and proprietor Jamie Gluck to help celebrate their first day of business.

Clean lines and openness infuse the space, which was only recently a biker bar with tire marks on the floor to prove it. Bell Street Farm is an exciting and thoughtful new addition to the southern Central Coast foodie scene where visitors can eat in or provision themselves for a day out wine tasting and sightseeing.

406 Bell Street, Los Alamos

“I want to be a destination for people’s first stop in wine country,” says Jamie, who intends to provide a foodie focus for visitors as they get ready for a day of touring and tasting. Items on the Bell Street Farm menu such as meats, cheeses, olives, sandwiches, and salads are ready to eat in or for take out.

Guests eating in the cozy storefront can spy on the kitchen and peruse the interesting retail selections as well as take in the air on the sunny back patio with the Bell Street Farm garden shop. The garden shop will be focused primarily on encouraging home vegetable cultivation. Bell Street also delivers to wineries, parks, and other scenic locations in the Santa Ynez Valley.

[More photos below]

owner and proprietor Jamie Gluck

Jamie regaled us with 406 Bell Street’s colorful backstory, telling how since 1916 the space originally served as a bank and then eventually morphed into a market/restaurant and then to a biker bar and finally, 95 years later, a foodie destination. He also filled us in on his French and American foodie roots which made this venture a natural step after living here some years and longing for more Santa Ynez Valley gourmet options. Based on early response to this new business, he’s not alone in his desire for more flavorful options in Los Alamos. From the few dishes we’ve tasted so far, we’ve enjoyed their smashed potato & pancetta salad, Bell Street Tuna Niçoise, and tamarind chicken salad.

sipping and shopping

Offering reusable baskets as well as recycled-paper packaging, Bell Street Farm has carefully considered how to promote sustainability through their business model. Unique cutting boards produced by a local artisan with wood from local fallen oak trees share shelf space with carefully selected foodie books promoting farm-to-table eating. With Central Coast wines, chic picnic supplies, and Slow Food schwag as tasteful as the food on their menu, Bell Street Farm makes it easy to eat well while drinking well in Santa Ynez Valley.

Eat Well, Drink Well: Plan Ahead

Opt to create your own picnic or have it delivered to your favorite winery picnic table with a view of the Santa Ynez Valley. With sometimes sparse lunch opportunities in certain areas of the valley, this new business helps wine country visitors provision themselves well to enjoy the landscape and its beautiful wines.

More about Bell Street Farm on CCFoodie