East County welcomes 3 new restaurants
Three new restaurants have risen in eastern Ventura County. Here's a quick take on each:
Crawford’s Social
Crawford’s Social — an upscale bar with 24 drinks and entrees such as chicken and steak — is slated to open by mid-December at 974 S. Westlake Blvd., Westlake Village.
In addition to beer and wine, the 5,500-square foot bar will feature margaritas, pina coladas, frozen wines called froses, mint juleps and cocktails such as the old fashioned, managing partner John Damas said.
Damas, who was among the partners at Chicago-based Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse, described the cuisine as California coastal with an emphasis on entrees people can share. He said dishes will vary from tuna tartare wrapped in avocado to pizzas, crab cakes, pan-seared salmon with couscous and hamburgers with buns from a local bakery.
Prices will range from $12 to $38. The venue features 10,000 square feet of outdoor seating.
“This is going to be a place you can come once, twice or three times a week and have a drink with your friends and say hi to your neighbors,” Damas said. More information is at crawfordssocial.com.
Freda’s Farm to Fork Kitchen
Freda’s Farm to Fork Kitchen, which serves American and Italian dishes, had its soft opening Saturday at 233 E. High St., Moorpark. The restaurant is located on the bottom floor of a two-story commercial building.
Owner Phil Adler previously opened Freda’s pizza restaurants in Camarillo and Westlake Village. He said the new 1,600-square foot Moorpark eatery will offer a variety of pizzas — everything from smoked salmon to bacon potato and margherita. Pastas will include house-made gnocchi.
The Moorpark restaurant will offer a more extensive menu than its two counterparts, Adler said. Highlights include salmon from New Zealand, lobster roll, crab cakes and prime rib-eye.
Adler, who has opened restaurants for the Cheesecake Factory, said desserts will vary from banana cream pie to a popular coffee-flavored Italian treat, tiramisu.
Prices range from $12 to $18 for starters and $18 to $35 for entrees, he said. Prime steaks are $50 and the 32-ounce prime tomahawk will be about $100.
The restaurants are named after Adler’s mother, who taught him to keep food simple. “Balance is the most important thing," he said.
A grand opening will follow in January after the new location gets a liquor license.
The Moorpark location will eventually feature live music on weekends including a Beatles cover band and jazz ensembles.
La Princière
La Princière French bakery, patisserie and cafe opened Oct. 31 at 1341 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Suite 102, Thousand Oaks.
The restaurant offers breakfast entrees, sandwiches, pizzas, chicken cordon bleu and salmon meuniere. Pastries vary from eclairs to crème brûlée, cheesecake, fruit tarts and chocolate raspberry dome. Other treats include spinach and goat cheese croissant, macarons, almond sticky buns, baguettes and avocado toast.
Prices vary from $6 to $30. Customers can order at toasttab.com.
“We use butter imported from France and organic flour," said owner Ahlam Ziani, who was born in Toulouse, France. "For our pizzas, we use sourdough. Some people say they taste like pizzas on a baguette,”
She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from France in 2016, then to Thousand Oaks a couple years later.
Ziani said she didn’t originally plan a culinary career. She saw how hard her mother, a pastry cook, worked, so she earned college degrees instead in literature and art.
“But I never stopped baking and cooking,” said Ziani, who followed in her mother's footsteps and became a pastry chef. “Every time I try to get out of the kitchen, the kitchen pulls me back in.”
Dave Mason covers East County for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at dave.mason@vcstar.com or 805-437-0232.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: East Ventura County welcomes 3 new restaurants
