7 new things to do in idyllic Ojai, like roam in an oasis of giant tortoises
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The census people will tell you that Ojai’s population is something like 7,563, but don’t be fooled. This is a small town that contains multitudes.
That is, this little, liberal enclave beneath the Topatopa Mountains cherishes creativity yet often resists change. It celebrates freedom yet relies on regulation. Though its prosperity is driven by visitors from Los Angeles (just an hour and a half away), its leaders get nervous about anything that might lure more of them.
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Somehow, this mix keeps producing new and intriguing things — including enough recent developments to fill a lively weekend. They include a new hotel (Hotel El Roblar, which is really a dramatically retooled old hotel); new restaurants; a spiffy new movie theater with cocktails and organic popcorn; a mezcal bar and listening room; and increased odds of encountering a rare tortoise (at the Turtle Conservancy outside town).
Also, in the days since my visit, the new chefs in charge of the Ranch House, where Alan and Helen Hooker pioneered California cuisine in the 1950s and ’60s, have opened their doors. Perfecte and Alia Rocher offer prix-fixe dinners in a 15,000-square-foot garden. The restaurant’s new name: The Rochers at the Ranch House.)
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In addition, actor Jon Bernthal leads a team that has upgraded the Ojai school district’s Chaparral Auditorium, a 115-seat black box venue on Ojai Avenue that housed a stage production, “Ironbound,” in May and is to be used by Nordhoff High School. If Bernthal and team have their way, an Ojai Theater Festival will become an annual event, joining a local cultural schedule that includes the Ojai Music Festival, Ojai Playwrights Conference and the Ojai Pops Concert Series.
The options will easily fill a couple of days. But if you stay twice as long and do everything half as quickly — that’s closer to the Ojai way. Now, on to these seven new (and renewed) possibilities.
Find a classic film at the Ojai Playhouse
Capable of handling digital and 35mm projection, the theater features high-end sound and screens an eclectic mix of new and older movies, such as “Shaft,” “Speed” and “Body Heat” with occasional free screenings. When I popped in for the free screening of “Step Brothers” in July, actor Mary Steenburgen (one of the stars and a longtime Ojai resident) was on hand to introduce the movie and tell a few tales about its making.
By the way, she added, the Ojai Playhouse “was the first movie theater where I took my kids to the movies.”
If you go, consider the snack bar carefully. Besides vintage candies, it has organic popcorn, root beer floats, beer, wine and cocktails.
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Slip into Old California at Hotel El Roblar
The vibe is Old California with Mission Revival details here and there, along with abundant antiques and artwork. Its 2 acres on Ojai Avenue include 39 guest rooms, 11 bungalows, a pool, an event space, a gym, a dinner restaurant (the Condor Bar), a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant (La Cocina), and Abra and Cadabra, a pair of resident tortoises. Most of the bungalows have kiva-style fireplaces. In the Cocina breakfast-and-lunch room, the bar wall is a stack of colored bottles mortared together with concrete like a ghost town bottle-house.
The hotel has been a fixture on Ojai’s main street for more than a century — party to multiple civic dramas, one fraud conviction, repeated closures and four decades of fitness retreats. Its latest life began after years of negotiation and restoration, and the new team of owners has reshaped the place to evoke Old California and celebrate the Ojai Valley’s wild side.
The Condor Bar serves “California Mexican” cuisine and uses a Santa Maria-style wood-fired grill. The hotel’s nightly rates begin at about $525.
Savor a sandwich, or quiche, at Rory's Other Place
As the menu lettering on its glass door attests, Rory’s Other Place serves breakfast and lunch, including quiche (my gruyere-spinach quiche was terrific), salads, sandwiches, baked goods, charcuterie, Korean rice bowls, house-cured salmon, tinned fish and soft serve desserts. (It’s a modest interior space, filled to the gills with food products.)
To drink, there’s matcha, coffee, beer and wine.
There’s no indoor dining behind that blue-trimmed storefront and dangling stained-glass sign, but there is a hedge-lined patio area. Rory’s Other Place is open daily, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The original Rory’s — which sisters Rory and Meave McAuliffe opened in 2022 — shut down after a fire in December 2023, then reopened in July 2024. It serves dinners Wednesday through Monday starting at 5 p.m., with occasional pop-up guest chef and collaboration events.
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Roam with giant reptiles at the Turtle Conservancy
The Turtle Conservancy, a 90-acre property on the outskirts of Ojai, is dedicated to the protection and proliferation of these creatures worldwide. The nonprofit organization was founded by Eric Goode and Maurice Rodrigues in 2005.
The Ojai site is not open to the public. But members of the conservancy and guests at the Ojai Valley Inn and just-opened Hotel El Roblar can book tours for a fee. And those tours can be fascinating.
“We’re now at 48 different species and more than 500 turtles on site,” Education director Manci Rasmussen told four of us one recent morning.
As we roamed the tree-shaded property, Rasmussen explained how some turtle species can vocalize beyond human hearing range, see beyond the human spectrum, pause their pregnancies until their health is better, live 190-plus years and last a year without food or water. Yet thanks to human habits, many species are endangered.
We also learned firsthand that radiated tortoises like shell rubs. Before the tour was over we’d each met many species, seen a baby Burmese star tortoise and a Chinese big-headed turtle up close and fed celery by hand to a 275-pound Galapagos giant tortoise.
Tours run 60 to 90 minutes. Overnight guests at the Hotel El Roblar and the Ojai Valley Inn can book them through the hotels at $100 per adult, $50 per child under 16. If you’re not staying at one of those hotels, a year’s conservancy membership begins at $100 for adults (with discounts for students and seniors) and entitles an individual to two visits yearly.
(The conservancy likes to keep its street address quiet.)
Pause for caffeine and avocado toast at Highly Likely
On the menu: lots of coffees, teas and food for casual (order-at-the-counter) all-day dining. Options include breakfast burritos, chilaquiles, Mediterranean eggs, “ubiquitous avocado toast,” sandwiches, bowls, falafel and fish and chips. There’s also a kids’ menu.
The restaurant opened in May.
Highly Likely is a bit of a surprise for Ojai — it’s part of a Southern California chain that also has locations in L.A.’s West Adams and Highland Park. Because Ojai’s local laws forbid “formula” chains with five or more locations, Highly Likely comes in safely under the limit.
Open daily beginning at 8 a.m., closing at 10 p.m.
Feel the beat, and maybe taste the meat, at Joplin's
The menu includes plenty of smoked beef ribs, pork shoulders and tri-tip, along with shakes and side dishes from the great American comfort food songbook — that is, corn bread, potato salad, mac and cheese and cole slaw. Vegetarian options include mushroom-based burgers and bowls.
Joplin’s is backed by Saw Naing, the partner-executive chef of the Dutchess (and former musician in a metal band), and his wife and partner Brittany Naing. The brightly painted walls feature rock-star photos and posters and a projector screens images of live shows. Whether you eat inside or on the patio, you can count on plenty of rock, classic and otherwise, on the sound system.
Joplin’s opened July 1. Its hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 5-9 p.m.
Have a high-fidelity nightcap at Radio Roma
Besides its snug black-box interior (which includes a massive mirror ball, short bar and impressive sound system), Radio Roma has an ample patio, popular on warm nights. Already, the turntable has seen a wide range of guest DJs and musical genres.
The menu includes $5 tacos, mariscos and other Mexican dishes from the neighboring Taco Roma, which is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Back in the bar, mezcal drinks begin at $11 for a smoky shot of Madre Espadin.
The bar is open Wednesday through Sunday from 5:30 p.m. to 11, midnight or 1 a.m., depending on the night. As the Ojai Valley News points out, this is one of the very few Ojai establishments where you can get food or a drink past 9 p.m.
