Iconic Pea Soup Andersen’s restaurant abruptly closes

Editor’s note: While the Pea Soup Andersen’s Restaurant is closing for redevelopment, the hotel remains open.

The iconic, nearly 100-year-old roadside restaurant Pea Soup Andersen’s in the Santa Ynez Valley has abruptly closed, according to multiple reports.

Located just off the 101 Freeway in Buellton, three miles west of Solvang, the famous eatery has been a must-stop-and-eat destination for generations of tourists, wine tasters, truck drivers, salesmen and other highway travelers.

A representative for the restaurant told television station KSBY that the closure is only temporary and due to a redevelopment project. However, no timetable for reopening has been announced.

Shortly after electricity was brought to the Santa Ynez Valley in 1924, Anton and Juliette Andersen opened the restaurant under the name Andersen’s Electric Cafe.

While Anton was a professionally trained chef and worked in restaurants in Europe and New York and helped open the Biltmore Los Angeles, it was his wife, Juliette’s, split pea soup that ultimately brought about the name change to Pea Soup Andersen’s.

Just three years after serving the first bowl of her pea soup, the Andersens found that they had to order a literal ton of peas, a staggering amount at the time, to keep up with demand.

“When Anton faced the problem of what to do with one ton of peas, he solved it by putting them in the window, proclaiming the restaurant ‘The Home of Split Pea Soup,’ the slogan it still carries today,” the restaurant’s website stated.

The landmark property, which is owned by Milt Guggia Enterprises, was listed at $4.7 million in August 2020 and has been sold, according to reporting by the Santa Maria Times. While the sale is not complete, the escrow process is expected to be finished soon.

Guggia Enterprises Property Administrator Krista Guggia said the century-old building’s condition makes it impossible to preserve and the buyer is expected to demolish the structure and redevelop it.

“There will be a restaurant involved – whether it will be a Pea Soup Andersen’s is yet to be determined,” she told the outlet. “The new buyers are working closely with the city to make it something that’s going to be a new, exciting, a fresh thing for Buellton.”

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According to reporting from SFGATE, there are rumors that after the building is torn down, the 3.36-acre property may be used to build new housing.

Pea Soup Andersen’s in Santa Nella, which opened in 1976, remains operational for those craving the establishment’s signature homestyle cooking.

The independently-owned hotel, Pea Soup Andersen’s Inn, remains open, hotel representatives tell KTLA, something confirmed by the San Francisco Chronicle.

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