By admin 
A new ingredient-driven, Central Coast-sourced market, restaurant, tasting room and distillery led by Michelin-starred chef Jeremy Fox is set to open in Edna Valley this summer and fall.
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The new venture, named Edna, seeks to be a “culinary destination” that combines regional wines, craft spirits, fine dining and a family-friendly market all in a single four-part space, a news release said.
The food and drink destination, located at 2585 Biddle Ranch Road in San Luis Obispo, takes over the former E&J Gallo tasting room that was listed for sale in 2024.
Fox, a seven-time James Beard Award nominee who previously earned a Michelin star at Napa’s Ubuntu and Santa Monica’s Rustic Canyon, is guiding Edna as its culinary director and overseeing the property’s philosophy, the release said.
“From the very beginning, the vision for Edna was to create a place where people naturally want to gather in the heart of Edna Valley,” Fox said in the release.
Visitors to the new venture will discover a scenic view of vineyards, mature olive trees and Islay Hill in the distance. Even the Edna parking lot is surrounded by baby lemon trees and speakers playing low-fi, melodic tunes.
Edna will be opening in phases this August and October. The Tasting Room at Edna celebrated its soft opening on Aug. 6, and the Market at Edna will open its doors on Aug. 27.
The Restaurant at Edna and the Valley of Nine Distillery will both officially launch in October, though diners can start making restaurant reservations in September.
Michelin-starred chef launches new food and wine venture in SLO
Fox initially discovered the empty Gallo property through a local farmer.
He was immediately interested in revitalizing the space after he was approached to complete the area’s culinary picture, Edna’s executive chef Matthew Schaler told The Tribune.
Previously, Fox launched Ubuntu in 2007, garnering a Michelin star and a spot on the New York Times’ list of the country’s best restaurants, and was named Best New Chef by Food & Wine in 2008.
He later went on to create Birdie G’s and Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica, as well as write two cookbooks — “On Vegetables” and “On Meat” — that hone in on seasonal, ingredient-focused recipes for the home cook.
Fox said the new multi-part culinary space will showcase Edna Valley’s agricultural variety and remarkable ingredients.
“Every experience is connected by a shared respect for this region, its farms, vineyards and makers,” Fox said in the release. “Whether a guest joins us for dinner, a glass of wine, lunch at the market or a tasting at the distillery, we hope they leave feeling a little more connected to this place than when they arrived.”
Edna’s core will be its full-service restaurant, run day-to-day by Schaler, featuring fresh, in-season ingredients sustainably-sourced from Central Coast farms, along with a beverage program packed with “exceptional” local wines, according to the release.
Schaler said the Restaurant at Edna will be both upscale and inviting, without any of the pretension typically found in fine-dining establishments.
Instead, the menu will “showcase what’s happening around here in a really thoughtful and fun way,” he told The Tribune.
What to expect at new market and bottle shop
The Market at Edna, opening Aug. 27, is a more causal daytime option for local families and visitors looking for sandwiches, salads, a bottle of wine or quality snacks to fill a picnic basket.
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“Think of this as our lunch option,” Shaler said. “But still focusing on local purveyors, local agriculture, local artisans, where we provide something that is very approachable, unique, but not hard to understand or like very weird.”
Inside the colorful market, towering sage green cabinets are filled with trendy bags of chips, pretzels, popcorn, crackers and mixed nuts. There’s fancy chocolate bars, healthy sodas, artisan ice cream pints, board games and a wall of wine.
Behind a lunch counter, people can choose from a list of sandwiches, salads, charcuterie and dessert options.
Schaler said some of his favorites include a chicken salad croissant sandwich with Vadouvan curry, pine nuts and currants, along with the mushroom banh mi that’s packed with pickled vegetables and cilantro on a house-made roll.
Cold sandwiches will also be available as grab-and-go fare, using bread sourced from Wayward Baking in Los Osos.
The market menu will be “informed with the seasonality of produce,” Schaler said, while also having a few mainstays that locals can rely on.
The Market at Edna also has a bottle shop where visitors can order wines by the glass or half-glass to take out to the back patio where there’s a variety of outdoor seating and a large grassy space where kids and dogs are welcome to run around.
Schaler said the market and outdoor space were created to be extremely family friendly.
“I want people to come in and be able to relax,” he said. “We want to take care of you. We want to feed you. We want to make sure that the food we have for you is delicious, and that for a little bit of time you don’t really have to worry about much.”
New tasting room offers options from 4 local wineries
Nextdoor to the market is a 50-seat tasting room that offers several different flights of wine from local winemakers.
The Tasting Room at Edna features wines from Central Coast producers Stephen Ross, Dunites, Greengate and Vestre.
Edna director of hospitality Joe Johnson said the tasting room’s aesthetic exudes quiet elegance amid blue and green undertones and a picturesque view of rows of grapevines, but at the same time “doesn’t take it too seriously either,” he told The Tribune.
“The tasting room offers guests an approachable introduction to the diversity, craftsmanship and sense of place that define the Central Coast’s acclaimed wine community,” the release said.
Johnson encouraged people to make reservations ahead of time for tastings but said some outside seating is available for walk-ins.
He said Edna in its entirety is a “choose-your-own-adventure” destination where families can grab drinks, sandwiches and ice cream from the market and picnic outside, while wine-seekers can experience “an elevated tasting” and then food-lovers can make a reservation at the restaurant and have “hopefully one of the greatest kind of culinary experiences you’ve had.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline “Michelin-starred chef launches ‘culinary destination’ in SLO wine country.”
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