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At The Village, a New Era Dawns
Words by Anh-Minh Le
Photos by Kelsey Wisdom
On a warm Saturday in April, after more than four years of dormancy, The Village Big Sur was once again a hive of activity. Artist Emily Birmingham, whose family founded Nepenthe restaurant, was hosting a quilting workshop. Sommelier Matt Peterson and chef Tim Eelman—alums of Post Ranch Inn and Big Sur Bakery—brought out the turntables and a binchotan for music and skewers. Frisbee golf was played in the parking lot, and kids flocked to tables set up with watercolors and chalks. It was, in Patrick Orosco’s words, “a good old-fashioned Big Sur hang.”
And if all goes well, this is the vibe that will continue—part of the vision that he and his wife, Mandy, had for The Village when they acquired it in 2017.
This summer, the couple officially debuts the latest iteration of the complex. Joining Word of Mouth yoga studio, which soft launched in January, are Solstice restaurant and bar, helmed by Peterson and Eelman; Big Sur Bodega, a gourmet market with a fresh-pressed juice and coffee bar (its name nods to Mandy’s decade of living in New York City); and Picnic Club, an indoor-outdoor gallery and event space, housed in the former Big Sur Garage venue (hence, its three giant bays).
Gone are the blue shag carpeting, faux-wood laminate flooring and popcorn ceilings. The current material palette for the two-story 11,000-square-foot building centers on salvaged old-growth redwood, concrete, glass, and Corten steel. Solstice’s bar, kitchen pass and tabletops were fabricated from a 32-ton sycamore tree that fell on the property in 2019.
In many ways, The Village fills voids that Mandy and Patrick encountered during their eight years living full-time in Big Sur. For instance, she missed the abundance of yoga studios in New York City. With Big Sur Bodega, locals can now stock up in between grocery runs to Carmel (while campers can swing by for provisions). Mandy notes the previous lack of a gathering spot for the community that was open throughout the day. Now, she says, “you can do yoga and, if you aren’t ready to go home or if you run into a friend, you can have coffee, sit outside, talk, hang out by the river—and come back later for dinner.” A healing arts center is a future ambition, as is a robust slate of workshops and events, from deejay camp for kids to guided botany hikes.
According to Patrick, the site—formerly The Village Shops—was home to the first Big Sur post office and architect Mickey Muennig’s office. Over the years, it contained a “hodgepodge” of small businesses, including galleries, a video rental store and a pizza parlor. “It was frequented primarily by locals,” he says. “It was one of a few ‘third spaces’ that hadn’t been colonized by outsiders. That’s what made it great. Keeping it great—both for locals and for visitors—is the audacious challenge that we face.”
He and Mandy are uniquely positioned to do so. “We discovered Big Sur pretty late into our adult lives, so we have the ability to contextualize it from a visitor’s perspective and having lived there and understanding what makes it tick,” says Patrick, a graduate of Stevenson School whose family’s real estate business is based in Monterey. When he and Mandy met at Art Basel Miami in 2011, she was living in New York City and working in hospitality. Realizing that a cross-country relationship was unsustainable, he half-jokingly suggested they relocate to Big Sur. “I fell in love with the raw beauty of the place and told him I would be up for giving it a try,” she recalls.
The couple moved to Big Sur in early 2013 and, later that year, married on their front lawn, overlooking the ocean. They welcomed a son, Xander, and a daughter, Josephine. In mid-2019, after two years updating The Village, they opened it as a pop-up that included a yoga studio, restaurant and boutique. The plan was to shut down at the end of the year, make additional fixes and fully reopen in April 2020.
Then the pandemic happened. By 2022, with their focus more squarely on family, they were splitting time between Big Sur and Carmel—and questioning whether to proceed with The Village. The turning point was Peterson and Eelman approaching them about the food and beverage program. “We spent months discussing various possibilities and, at some point, fell back in love with our hopes and dreams for the place,” Patrick says. “Matt and Tim are our dream team.”
With high standards for quality and hospitality, the foursome’s shared concept for Solstice and Big Sur Bodega calls for accessible price points, such as the restaurant’s bar menu and the market’s prepared foods, as well as opportunities to indulge, like a seafood tower during the signature Sunday brunch. A live-fire hearth was installed in the open kitchen at Solstice, whose plant- and pescatarian-forward California contemporary cuisine stars Central Coast ingredients.
The Oroscos hope that The Village “becomes a legacy business,” says Patrick. But for him and Mandy, its success is not solely about the bottom line. “Experiences with family and friends are what’s so important in life,” she elaborates. “And showing our children that what we create isn’t always just a job to make money, but something that has meaning.” <img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6457f19f1c1e1601e2c9c3f6/6487a9355b63a6818c705cea_CC-Icon--20.svg"alt="CC" style="display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; min-width: 12px; width: 12px; height: 12px;">
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Anh-Minh Le is a Bay Area-based freelance writer and editor whose bylines have appeared in publications such as the San Francisco Chronicle, Nob Hill Gazette, WSJ. Magazine, CA Home+Design, Luxe Interiors + Design, Diablo and C Magazine.