The Local Cafe

It’s closed. :(

Had the deli trio salad for lunch today. My choices were golden beet salad, roasted brussel sprouts and roasted cauliflower. Veges were caramelized and delicious! Lightly dressed and I ate every bit. Going back tonight for taco Thursday! Can’t wait!

Much improved since the last time I was here. Food was really good & fresh. Yay for real plates & utensils rather than disposables. Lemon bars were delish!
No pizza that day ‘cuz someone stole their firewood! Bad karma on whoever did that!
Great for lunch or takeout.

LOVE this place. Found myself going almost everyday while i was visiting for the week. Seriously good food.
Things I ordered include:
Ginger Squash Soup, BBQ Chicken Salad, Tuna Sandwich, Mushroom PIzza, Grilled Veggies Sandwich. Oh and the lemon bar and bread pudding also fantastic.

4 stars only because the staff wasn’t awesome and it’s not a great ambience for chilling… BUT…
Great creativity in the sandwiches and salads and always great to know the produce is fresh and organic. «house brined» turkey was great with a fire roasted tomato. Really should get a pizza next time cause the oven was really cool.
Very casual, great for a quick lunch.

So I’ve been a diner at the Sidecar for a couple years now, and was really excited to find out that Tim Kilcoyne was doing a casual pizza deli type of place. Just like the Sidecar, the Local Café uses grass fed beef and free range chickens and other more humanly raised meats. Makes me feel a little better about my carnivorous ways.
Here’s the lowdown…
Décor: This is more of a take out place than a dine in place. Though their is seating inside there isn’t many places to sit if its busy. There are really great photos of local produce and flowers on the wall; adds to that «local» theme. Clean restaurant.
Food: There are daily specials on the chalk board above. Some of the things I love are the meatball pizza. It has grass fed beef meat balls, a great marinara sauce with a bit of spice to it, and a wonderful cracker like crust. The italian sandwich is great. I’ve also and a lentil soup and really enjoyed that. If they have cream cheese brownies get them you just die of happiness. Only gripe is their featured salads in the case tend to be a bit bland for me, everything else is so flavorful I just feel they lack in salt.
Drinks: Agua fresca… yes please! Love these and they change often all very refreshing. Meyer lemonade is great too. I love their complimentary water that has basil and citrus in it.
Really wonderful place offering sandwiches and pizzas it a flavorful way that we don’t have in this area.

Yes I’m a fan.
I loved what I ordered (and I’ve ordered it twice so far)
Service is ok, could use more character and personality and energy perhaps… and attention to detail as well… uh they could have informed me that my sandwich (the first time I ordered it) was gonna be cold unless I requested it to be toasted. Yep that is pretty important I would think.. but hey i still ordered it again! so what does that tell you. That sandwich was super baaaadd: P
to be honest with you I don’t remeber the exact name of it but it might be called EGGPLANT something… because the primary ingredient was eggplant — along with feta cheese and a side salad which was a sort of asian cole slaw… mmmmm
Their food though no doubt is great.
Pricing is almost justified: D
but the food is what caught me. This is only one of 2 places in Oxnard and Ventura with this type of variety in their menu for a decent price. I truly like that.
The other one is Fresh and Fabulous in Oxnard, if you like this place, you will like Fresh and Fabulous truuuuust me ;D

Very cute little place off the beaten path of the main area of Main St. Great variety on the menu… very friendly staff!
Food review: I had the special pizza of the day: Gouda cheese with corn salsa and cilantro. Gouda cheese was amazing, pizza crust was great, although the pizza sauce tasted canned and the corn frozen the pizza overall was delicious. I would recommend this place for a good meal at a reasonable price!!!

I really like it here and have been back several times. I try to go on «off» times to avoid the parking issue. I have had (and loved):
— tomato soup & grilled cheese (YUM!)
— margarita (sp?) pizza (delish)
— lemon bar (good but no big deal)
— the Cobb salad with avocado, bleu cheese, turkey, bacon, etc. (another YUM! although, how could anyone go wrong with that combo?)
I love the freshness and variety. I always see several things on the menu and in the salad case that look really good and have a tough time deciding what to have. The service improves a little bit each time I go, so I am giving them points for effort there! I’ll definitely be back!

This place is soo good, the pizzas are fantastic. The salads are delicious, and the sandwiches are mouth watering… Tim, the owner, likes to experiment, so most of the time it’s out of this world.
I like his experimentation, and creativity. Almost always resulting in really good creations. I remember when it was getting started, the ambiance was a bit cold, but that was fixed by putting up pictures of local produce.
I like this place because they use local ingredients. Which I like because you know exactly where the produce is coming from…
This past time we went and got the margerita pizza, the tuna salad sandwich and the bread pudding was amazing, I think that as time goes by, this place will continue to refine its menu, and come out with a knockout menu every time.
Overall: A+.

Just went here today with my Mom for lunch. The ambience gave off a feeling of coldness as we first walked in because there are no booths and the decorating is scarce and plain. Even though atmosphere needs some work the food was AMESOME! My mom and I both got the split pea and ham soup, which was full of smoky delish flavor. I got their homemade ice tea concoction; I forget the name, and the barbeque chicken salad with their buttermilk herb dressing. WOW my taste buds were in for a treat. The chicken gave off a minty tinge combined with crunchy green lettuce and BBQ sauce. Best salad I’ve had in a while. My Mom ordered a trio of mixed salads, kale, thai and whole-​wheat penne. All very tasty and healthy!
Beware:
They serve huge portions! We totally could have shared but at least we have some tasty left over now ;)
Tips: NEED WHOLE WHEAT bread and pizza crust!!! This place gives off the eating healthy vibe and needs to follow through with some whole wheat thrown in the menu. In addition, get some booths and warm up the place by maybe throwing a warmer paint color on the walls.
Great food I definitely will be going back and recommend you try it out. Support a local business!

Decent food and a fair price. Street parking only which may be a problem. We got there at 11:45 and found parking just down the street but there was none to be found when we left at 12:30.
We came for the wood fired pizza and that is what everyone had. I had the meatball pizza, wife had the mushroom and daughter had the tomato and basil. I thought we would have food left over when I ordered but we all finished ours.
My only complaint about the food was the crust. We have been making our own pizzas for a couple of years now and like a nice crisp crust. The crust here is no where near as crunchy as I would expect from a wood fired pizza. My guess is they use 100% all purpose flour since theirs is how ours came out before we found you need some hard wheat flour mixed with the all purpose to make a good crispy crust.
Service was good and the place was clean. I want to try their sandwiches next time. I am not sure it is worth the 45 minute drive just to eat there but we will stop in again when we are in the neighborhood.

Oookay… I want to love this place. I want to give it 5 stars. Fresh, locally grown ingredients? Awesome. Somewhat diverse yet not overwhelming menu? Sign me up. So it’s not exactly fine dining with it’s walk-​up ordering, etc. I’m low-​key. I’m cool with that. It’s Ventura after all, and my idea of a perfect lunch is a burrito.
But when I order the roasted vegetable sandwich and am told «we’re out of that» with no explanation of what exactly they’re out of (the bread? The goat cheese? A particular vegetable?) with no suggestion for a substitution, I’m left tongue tied and fumbling for a Plan B. Fine, there’s lots to choose from and I’m not exactly picky. But if you’re going to tell me you’re out of something and not follow up with a suggestion and the line of customers is building behind me, don’t sigh and act annoyed. Minus one star.
I settled on the pizza bianco and a side salad. The salad was good, fresh simple greens and chopped veggies with a red wine vinaigrette. My favorite kind of salad. However, I’m a little stumped as to why such an eco-​friendly place would plate a «for-​here» order in a «to-​go» box. Like, I get that the packaging is biodegradable but do we really need to throw out more trash?
And the pizza. It wasn’t bad, it was… Lacking. Garlic, maybe? A stronger cheese? Ok, it was boring. Crust was good and the mushrooms were by far the tastiest part of the pizza. It just really needed something else. Minus two stars.
Again, I really want to love this place. I’m willing to put up with meh service if the food is amazing, but it was so-​so. Definitely going back, mostly because I see the potential. Maybe on a different day it will be 5 stars.

Perhaps it should be called the Local FRESH Café… which is just what it is… Extremely fresh. And VERY good. We were impressed that the entrée salads overflowed with abundant goodies (our cobb had massive amounts of roast turkey, chunks of blue cheese, etc…) as well as the amazing quality of all ingredients (incl sandwiches and salads). The place was packed but there was still plenty of street parking on main fyi! This is definitely a great new «neighborhood gem» for inexpensive, healthy fresh food!
Only suggestions: brewed tea (rather than bottled), and maybe a little background music to liven up the atmosphere a bit more. Otherwise… great!!!

I love the food. I’ve been twice now and the pizzas are among the best in town, and a pretty good deal too at around $ 12. My favorite is the one with all the mushrooms and cheese… a masterpiece! I also liked the fruit-​infused water. At first I was put off by the price ($ 3) but after the first drink I stopped complaining. There’s so much fruit in there that it’s practically an appetizer.
So here’s what I don’t like: Eating this great food in the small, white and very sterile restaurant. It’s rather like being in a doctor’s waiting room. The first time I drove to this restaurant was for dinner one night, and the garish light and whiteness spilling out of the front door was so uninviting that my friend and I kept driving. Thankfully I went back that weekend for lunch.
Hopefully they just haven’t decided how to decorate it yet so it’s a work in progress. Their wonderful food deserves to be served in a much more warm and inviting atmosphere! Until then I’ll grab my pizza to go.

I needed a quick, inexpensive and diverse restaurant to serve up 20 women. I thought that the menu and concept of this café looked good, so we took a chance and showed up — all 20 of us — at about 12:30 on a Thursday.
The team here could not have been nicer and happier to see us, even though we really taxed their systems for a bit. Things were quick, accurate and focused on quality… and the food was delicious! EVERY person there was satisfied with their selections, from the salads to the burger to the grilled cheese (add avocado, it rocks like that!)
This is a great little café that seems to have the right intentions around doing right by local businesses and not skipping on quality. We will certainly be back, I wish I lived closer to visit more often!

My wife has been counting the days until this place opened it’s doors and this weekend we had a chance to try it. While other joints in town are questionable at best in their often-​touted «health food» (*ahem* Nature’s Grill) or price out the average eater (Mary’s Secret Garden) this place is reasonably priced and committed as hell to serving local, mostly organic AND seasonal food. I think the seasonal side of it is most interesting to me because I’m not from these parts and I love learning about the growing season here.
She brought home a sampling of sides for us this weekend and a delicious tuna sandwich. While we cook mostly vegan-​ish at home, we generally aren’t too strict eating out and Tuna is definitely a weak spot. To our great happiness, this Tuna was sustainably line-​caught.
The asian soup was a little meh, the other sides were delish. And I hope they keep expanding the vegetarian options.
–Syd
(I’m sharing a Unilocal account with my two band members Patrick and Lisa as we tour the country and try to eat and live healthy while we drive thousands of miles in a van. Our band is called Hotels & Highways This review is part of lists we’re all making about the food we miss most when we’re away from home…)

I was really excited to hear about this place opening very close to where my husband and I live.
We ended up trying it out a few days after it opened.
I really wanted to try the pizza so a dear friend and I split the meatball. It had a very thin crust but was doughy and delicious at the same time. It had a nice spicy kick to it as well. It went nicely with the meyer lemonade with mint. My friend had water with grapefruit slices in it which I thought was different and it tasted great. My husband had the vegetable sandwich which he said was fantastic. Everything tasted incredibly fresh and had great flavor.
I really liked the décor inside and the lettuce flower arrangement. Very creative and eco– friendly.

I have been excited about the opening of this restaurant for months. In theory, I love everything about this restaurant. However, I think they need to work out a few kinks before they reach their full potential.
I went for the first time on my lunch break this week. They were very busy, and although I was happy to see that, their service seemed a bit frazzled and unprepared. I ordered the roasted vegetable sandwich, and the server informed me that they were out of all the vegetables except for eggplant. I decided to try it regardless. When it came out it actually had eggplant and asparagus, which was a pleasant surprise, but kind of odd that the person who took my order didn’t know what was available. The bread used for the sandwich was delicious, but there was too much bread for the amount of filling. The sandwiches come with a choice of side salad. I chose the quinoa salad. The addition of chopped dates was a pleasant surprise, but I felt the salad was a bit over-​dressed.
One other little disappointment: they have a nice self-​serve water station, but the faucet wouldn’t release more than a trickle of water. It would have taken me 20 minutes to actually get a cup of water. I’m sure they will have fixed this, but they were too busy for me to ask about it at the time.
I really look forward to seeing how this restaurant develops. They have a great menu and I love their focus on local food.

Great new casual, local sourced restaurant in Midtown!
Love the bianca (mushroom) pizza and they have the best grilled cheese sandwich I’ve had in ages! Got to try out their homemade Meyer lemon lemonade, and there are specials every night (creamy mushroom soup last night was phenomenal). Also love that the menu is focused on locally sourced, delicious ingredients.
Have to go with a 4, not 5, though, because it seems like they are still working out the kinks of a new space and menu — the space still feels really bare if you eat in, the pizza we got last night was badly burned (also the first time we’ve been there when the owner wasn’t in) and I’m hoping they work on the weaker parts of the menu (roasted vegetable sandwich needed something to cut through the general ‘mush’ texture/​flavor) — but this is quickly becoming a regular stop on the way home to pick up a quick yummy dinner.