edible endeavor

New Beginnings from Old Azu

By | November 18, 2021
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AZU founders Laurel Moore and daughter Elizabeth Haffner pose by the AZU bar before it was sold.

A look back, and forward, at a legendary Ojai restaurant

For a time in the 2010s, there was a beautiful waitperson at AZU restaurant in Ojai who, according to my husband, flirted with him. This suited me fine, as I adored AZU’s falafel-chiles rellenos and my husband was only too happy to oblige when I suggested AZU for dinner. The situation was a two-fer: He got an ego boost from the purported flirting—somehow, I never witnessed it—and we both got a delicious meal.

When AZU closed in late August 2021, after over 20 years of business, it was a sad day for its patrons, but it also turned out to be a bit of a two-fer for the community. Elizabeth Haffner, daughter of AZU founder Laurel Moore and manager of the restaurant for 16 years, has together with her husband, Jeremy Haffner, opened a taproom on the grounds of their Ojai Valley Brewery on nearby Bryant Street. Meanwhile, the building that housed AZU has been sold to Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan of the Rustic Canyon Group of restaurants, where Nathan is planning, along with a trio of collaborators, an all-day (7am– 11pm!) eatery called The Dutchess. In mid-October, I sat down separately with Haffner and Nathan to learn more.

Photo 1: Olive oil morning cake with pistachios and candied kumquats by The Dutchess’ pastry chef Kelsey Brito could be on the menu.
Photo 2: Jeremy Haffner, founder and brewer at Ojai Valley Brewery in the old tasting room at AZU.
Photo 3: The new tasting room at the Ojai Valley Brewery on Bryant Street is open and ready for customers!
Photo 4: Bread at The Dutchess will be made by Kate’s Bread baker Kate Pepper. Photo Courtesy of The Dutchess

Haffner met me at a picnic table on the grounds of the Ojai Valley Brewery just one week after the taproom’s early-October grand opening. But before we started talking about the beer garden, we took some time to reminisce about the last 20-plus years at the Ojai Avenue location of AZU, which her mother, Moore, started as Panini & Gelato before converting it to a full-service restaurant and rechristening it AZU.

Over the years, the AZU menu evolved, including a shift from Spanish-Mediterranean to Spanish- Mexican cuisine. This was prompted by the family’s love of travel around Mexico—and with no apparent regard for my feelings about the resulting demise of the falafel-chiles rellenos. Paella, the burger and the fried chicken sandwich were also customer favorites.

Another significant moment in AZU’s story took place in January 2017, when they started serving beer from Ojai Valley Brewery, a venture that Haffner and her husband, Jeremy, had dreamed up on a family ski trip to Utah in 2015. By 2016 they were brewing at the Bryant Street facility, where they remain the only brewery making beer in Ojai. This was the groundwork for the taproom that’s just opened, followed by Moore and Haffner’s 2019 decision to close the restaurant. Moore was ready to retire, and Haffner didn’t want to run AZU without her.

Looking back on the restaurant’s closure in August, Haffner says it’s bittersweet but also that “21 years is a huge success for any restaurant, so we feel really good about it.”

The opening of the taproom gives the Haffners something else to feel good about. It has a low-key, family- and pet-friendly vibe, complete with games, fire pits, heaters and ample parking. Haffner tells me she’s had several inquiries from East End locals about whether it’s OK to show up on your horse and confirms that it is.

The beer is as approachable as the setting, something Haffner tells me is important to them. To this end, there are four lagers, including J.F.B., short for just f***ing beer. In addition to approachability, Ojai Valley Brewery beers are characterized by low carbonation, high alcohol content and a sense of place. The terroir of Ojai shows up in multiple ways, including a “core lineup” of locally inspired beers: Pixie (tangerine), Sugar Bush (sumac), East End (prickly pear and hibiscus) and Chapparal (sage) ales, plus an Arbolada (Mexican vanilla bean) lager. Of the Chapparal ale, Haffner notes, “it smells like your hike.”

The brewing technique is sympathetic to local drought conditions, eschewing commonly used but wasteful reverse osmosis water systems and instead brewing with filtered, mineral-filled Ojai water, the better to express the location.

While the brewery focuses on beer, patrons can bring their own food and expect a regular schedule of food trucks. There are plans for a few special events in the next year, including Octubrefest, a Mexican take on Oktoberfest complete with a ranchero band. And for anyone who remembers Haffner’s 13 years of Halloween parties at AZU, she plans to continue the tradition at the brewery.

But for now, having secured several staff members from AZU to join the brewery team, Haffner is stepping back from day-to-day operations to give herself a year off. She’s still helping where needed, but husband Jeremy, the brewery’s CEO, is running the show.

Chef Saw Naing (left), Kate Pepper, Zoe Nathan and pastry chef Kelsey Brito (far right). Photo courtesy of The Dutchess

Over at The Dutchess, the roles are reversed. After spending years in the kitchens of restaurants opened with her husband, Josh, Zoe Nathan is taking more of a leadership role here while he pursues writing part-time. Also, for the first time, Nathan has handed the kitchen reins to three collaborators: Kate Pepper of the Ojai home-based bakery Kate s Bread; pastry chef Kelsey Brito; and Myanmar-born chef Saw Naing. All four are connected through stints at restaurants in the Rustic Canyon Family, including the time Kate spent in 2013 commuting from Ojai to Santa Monica for weekly back-to-back shifts at Milo + Olive to gain experience in a commercial bread kitchen.

As a roster of three bakers/pastry chefs suggests, The Dutchess will include an onsite bakery, which is only appropriate given the name of the venture comes from the oven that belonged to the building s original commercial tenant, Bill Baker’s Ojai Bakery.

For Pepper, the timing couldn’t be better: A bear has recently taken to hanging out at her home bake shop. And if all goes to plan, The Dutchess—with collaborated menus including favorites from Kate’s Bread plus coffee and pastries, seasonal sandwiches and sourdough flatbreads, bar snacks and a full Burmese-Californian dinner service overseen by Chef Saw—will be open as early as mid-December of 2021. Noting this is the 10th time she’s opened a restaurant, Nathan demurs that it may be more like the middle of January 2022. The team’s vision of The Dutchess as a showcase for community producers—which means you’ll be able to wash down your Burmese curry with a pint from the Ojai Valley Brewery—sounds well worth the wait.

For more information visit: OjaiValleyBrewery.com | @thedutchessojai The Ojai Valley Brewery is located at 307 Bryant St. The Dutchess is located at 457 E. Ojai Ave.

*Correction: In our print issue we incorrectly spelled Chef Saw Naing's name.