Sebastian (Seb) Fernandez has all the charisma and inspiration of an up-and-coming celebrity chef. His personality brings people to his table and his talent keeps them coming back. But recently, he, wife Kellie Fernandez and best friend Sergio Chavez together have created a place where the customer is the celebrity.

At a summer camp as teenagers, when Kellie noted the coincidence that she and new acquaintance Seb had the same last name, he cheekily predicted, “That’s because you’re my wife!” Nearly a decade later, married for four years in October, Seb is still smiling with a bit of wonder at their lives together.

In the ensuing years, Kellie graduated from California State University, Northridge (CSUN) with a nutrition degree and Seb worked in Chick-fil-A; then in a poke, a Mexican and a vegan restaurant; then cooked in kitchens like Frontside Café in Ventura and Rory’s Place in Ojai, honing techniques and gaining experience. In 2023, the couple started Seb’s Woodfire, a pop-up catering business that started with a portable pizza oven, quickly gained popularity locally and could often be found at places like the Findings Market and Buddy’s Wine in Ventura. “Everything wood-fired is better,” says Seb.

“Opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant was in our five- or ten-year plan,” says Kellie. But when a spot opened up in the Alley in Moorpark (formerly filled by California Coffee Republic and The Outpost), it seemed like the pieces were fitting perfectly together and they just needed to step into it. So they invited their good friend Sergio Chavez to partner with them and opened Hearth in the Alley in Moorpark in April 2025.

CREATING A HUB

Like so many others, the pandemic had a hand in shaping Hearth. “COVID made everything transactional,” says Seb. Food businesses especially became about just the exchange of money for sustenance. The “vibe” of a place, or the community built there, basically disappeared. Seb and Kellie wanted something different; they wanted to create a community hub, with old school hospitality, somewhere that people can be known.

“Our mission is to create a place where care and intention goes into every detail: from the way we source our ingredients to how we welcome you in the door,” says Kellie. “It’s about creating those unforgettable moments of belonging.”

NEW OLD SCHOOL

New old school seems to be the name of the game, even in the concept of the restaurant, which starts the day as a bright coffeehouse—with coffee from MadLabs in LA, house-made pastries and breakfast options like Smashed Avo Toast, Papas Bravas and Chilaquiles—and then transitions to a sit-down reservations-recommended cozy restaurant with warm mood lighting for dinner. The crusty wood-fired 72- hour pizza dough and bread are made from a 25-year-old sourdough starter named Don Francisco, and many of the mouthwatering specialty salsas are recipes from, or inspired by, Sebastian’s grandmother. Officially “Latin-style,” Hearth’s seed-oil-free menu is actually both a nod to seasonality and a tribute to the comfort of home.

“I grew up in the [San Fernando] Valley where we could get every type of food right down the street. You could have a breakfast burrito or arepas for breakfast, Texas barbecue for lunch and street tacos for dinner,” says Seb. “[And] my grandma was always cooking for everyone. My home was the food hub of my childhood.”

Couple that with the cultural cooking style that comes from a Mexican mom and Venezuelan dad and you get “simplicity with a little Mexican flair.” But really, Seb says, “we make food like you’d eat in your backyard, but plated pretty and with a disco ball lighting up the place.”

You’ll often catch Seb chatting up farmers or at the local farmers’ markets, too. “Our farmers decide our menu based on seasonality,” he says. “The best food is what’s in season and fresh.”

So, you’ll see the menu change, even from crowd favorites, when a main ingredient runs out of season, or a new ingredient becomes available. For example, this summer the peach and avocado salad, featuring Apricot Lane Farm avos and Frog Hollow Farm peaches, only lasts as long as the fruit can be sourced. And the Peach Yuzu Espresso Tonic? Don’t expect to see that in the dead of winter. This fall, I can’t wait to see what Seb and his team might do with pomegranates or figs.

HIRING FOR CHARACTER

New old school methodology also pops up in the way that the team has hired staff. “At Hearth, we want to give more than we get, whether it be food, our coffee, but especially our hospitality. We want people [on our team] who get excited about how they make people feel,” says coffee program manager Nate Fortin in an Instagram video. “We want to redefine what the restaurant industry looks like.”

“We want to hire for character, not out of necessity,” says Kellie. To do this, Seb explains, they use a modernized version of staging. The word stage (pronounced stahj) is a French word that translates to “internship.” Traditionally in culinary circles, staging is an unpaid internship used to gain experience in another chef ’s kitchen. Hearth, in contrast, initially hires potential staff for short term paid trials with regular evaluations. “It doesn’t take long to see if a person will fit better here or somewhere else,” says Seb. “And we want the best for them, too!”

So far, it seems to be working. The last time I stopped in to get a Burnt Orange Mocha, not only was I greeted by name, but so were the customers both in front and behind me.

• For more information, visit HearthMP.com and follow @hearth_mp.

Hearth Restaurant & Coffee
330 Zachary St. Unit 109, Moorpark