Today we’d like to introduce you to Antonio.
Hi Antonio, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
We opened up in May of 2019, just before COVID. I always wanted to open up a restaurant, ever since I worked as a sales consultant for restaurants.in the food industry. As I consulted clients, I saw opportunities that clients would sometimes neglect. This place came up, giving me an opportunity to provide something the town did not have in a long time, and I saw the opportunity to provide a steak house to the Lompoc community and its visitors. We have two menus, a lunch menu that is served from 11:00 am- 4:00 pm and a dinner menu served from 4:00 pm to close.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has not been easy. Starting with COVID 19. We had to go on lock down approximately 10 months after opening up. I’m sure most restaurants would agree that we all went through the same struggles. It made it that much difficult as we just started and were attempting to adapting to the normal struggles of the restaurant industry and COVID just added a different level of struggles. Staffing, deliveries, and out of stocks from purveyors made it that much difficult to get as the whole world was shut down and products were difficult to get due to the shutdown.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Through my life I have been a field worker, a sales associate (consultant), a police officer, a food broker, a restaurant owner and now a cocktail bar owner as well. I take pride in the cleanliness of both my locations; the quality of ingredients we put into our products and the positive feedback we receive when our guests leave happy and satisfied of the food and service they were provided with.
What are your plans for the future?
Old Town Kitchen & Bar has always been a small, enjoyable place to come in and have a great meal, relax, and talk with friends. We are proud to bring back the dining experience and not be so involved in the technology with the phones. Guests like dinning in with us and having a conversation with their family and not having that screen time for the kids. We have enjoyable music in the background (Think of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack), and 2 TVs to see score updates (without volume). That’s the extent of media we have here. When guests come here to dine, it’s amazing to see that there are conversations going on without the interruption of social media. We plan on keeping this tradition moving forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.oldtownkitchenlompoc.com
- Instagram: @oldtownkitchen_805
- Facebook: @old town kitchen & Bar
