Mattei’s Tavern has a long and interesting history that has always involved family and fine cuisine. Felix Mattei envisioned the need for weary stagecoach travelers to rest and enjoy a great meal, and opened the Inn in 1886. Over the years, Mattei’s inn and restaurant would flourish through the switch from stagecoach to rail, the advent of the motorcar age, world wars, prohibition, booms and busts. Through it all, the hospitality of the Inn and the cuisine of the Restaurant prevailed.

The history of the Tavern is quite fascinating, and the business skills of founder Felix Mattei astounding. As author Walker A. Tompkins notes; “On your first visit to Mattei's Tavern, be sure to unleash your imagination for a moment. Can't you almost hear old Gin singsonging over his pots and pans out back, as he prepares your favorite dish? If the wind is right, does it not catch the ghostly rattle of axle boxings and trace chains as the Santa Barbara stage rounds the corner behind a drum-roll of hoofs? And hark to the remote, lonely wail of a locomotive whistle announcing the approach of a narrow-gauge train rolling down from Los Alamos. . .”

Click here for excerpts from Walker A. Tompkin’s Mattei’s Tavern. Where Road Met Rail in Stagecoach Days.