What’s coming to SLO Ranch Farms? See inside 6 new restaurants, businesses set to open

Some of San Luis Obispo’s favorite food trucks and pop-ups are about to have forever homes at SLO Ranch Farms and Marketplace.

The marketplace has been open since July, but six vacancies are about to or have been filled recently, including a vegetarian burger joint, southern soul food and a creamery at 871 Froom Ranch Way, according to the property manager.

“From the business standpoint, it was very important that we showcase and promoted local businesses, and I’m very proud that every single one of the merchants here is a local business,” manager Jacob Grossman told The Tribune. “A lot of our businesses are first-time businesses, and we’re very proud to help them see those goals.”

So what is set to open? Here’s a look at the six new businesses coming to SLO Ranch Farms.

Palo Mesa Pizza

The first business to be open will be Palo Mesa Pizza, a pizza chain that’s expanding beyond its existing locations in San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande.

The SLO Ranch Farms spot will be its fifth.

Owner Michael Stevens has a clear vision for the new spot: providing both classic Neapolitan and Roman-style pizzas using a high-speed electric oven.

“The Europeans are starting to use electric more than anything, just because of the ability of it,” Stevens told The Tribune. “There’s just a huge range to play with cheffing, you know, so it’s going to be able to get my chef skills back out.”

Palo Mesa Pizza was testing the new oven this week before slowly opening up shop with a menu containing local ingredients, some even grown on-site, he said.

“It’s exhilarating, it’s exciting,” he said. “What a cool spot and unique place to be able to grow our own vegetables, to grow our own basil and tomatoes and maybe even arugula, maybe even wheat — like grow the wheat that we’re going to be able to use in our dough on the farm.”

Palo Mesa Pizza will be in the same building as Shekamoo Grill and Sushi Table, next to another new spot, Vintage Cheese Co.

Vintage Cheese Co.

Vintage Cheese Co. will feature a 10-foot viewing room as its local cheeses are handmade at the shop.

Husband-wife duo Ryan and Erin Davis run Vintage Cheese Co. at Bravo Farms and SLO County Farms Market, and will open the SLO Ranch Farms location between mid-March and early April, they said.

The cheese shop will go beyond dairy, however.

Caramel apples, fudge and other confectionery will be created in the viewing room, comparable to an old-fashioned candy shop, according to the duo.

“We put a lot of effort into this really awesome viewing room where people could see us making cheese,” Ryan Davis told The Tribune. “Then the question became, what else would people be interested in seeing us make? The whimsicalness of us making all these confectionery items just seem to fit really well with the whole SLO Ranch theme.”

Vintage Cheese Co. also will have counters for a gift shop and cheese bar, where customers can build their own charcuterie board with local cheeses, nuts and meats, Erin Davis said.

Beyond making and selling cheese, the Davises said they have had conversations with the neighboring businesses at SLO Ranch Farms about collaborations in terms of cheese — including one at Palo Mesa Pizza.

Syync Studio

While it may now be open, Syync Studio was the last retail business to sign its lease at SLO Ranch Farms, according to owner Lindsey Graf.

A studio space open for rentals starting this spring, Syync Studio’s home base is a plaster showroom, displaying Graf’s husband’s plaster work on the walls and shelves of the studio.

“For the most case, we’re just focused on people who want to host private events here,” Graf told The Tribune. “So as far as the public, it’s more of just an event space. When it comes to plaster, it just happens to be a plaster showroom, and that’s why we made it.”

The studio space includes chairs, tables and a small kitchen for catering, Graf said. Yoga classes, birthday parties and other celebrations are set to take place at Syync Studio.

Syync Studio plans to have its grand opening the same time as SLO Ranch Farms’ overall grand opening once all the businesses are ready to open, close to April or May. It is to the right of The Corral’s interactive garden plots.

Baby Bear Biscuits

Baby Bear Biscuits is a southern style restaurant with roots in Charleston, South Carolina. Its dishes are heirloom recipes crafted by owner Norwood Pryor.

From catering and farmers market pop-ups to its first brick-and-mortar at SLO Ranch Farms, Pryor said he has big plans for the new space.

At the SLO Ranch Farms spot, he plans to host cooking classes and use the semicircle table as space for demonstrations of recipes.

“It’s awesome, like we’re getting a big positive response in the community,” Pryor told The Tribune. “Everyone’s really stoked to have some good southern food — like the food itself’s got them super excited.”

The food in question includes biscuit sandwiches, a traditional big farmer breakfast, burgers and fried chicken sandwiches, crispy bread pudding and rotating “blue plate” specials, Pryor said.

Baby Blue Biscuits will have a soft opening the first weekend of March, but Pryor said it may extend to the second week based on how well the equipment and space is working.

The restaurant is nestled next to Sushi Table and Shekamoo Grill.

Paso Robles Brewing Co.

Paso Robles Brewing Co. may be a new brewery, but it is already opening its second location next to the Marketplace.

Owner Ryan Bonner opened the first location at 201 Spring St. in Paso Robles in July 2022. He said he wanted to create a space of having regulars and a sense of community.

“In the beginning it was more like, ‘Where can we go and have a really good beer and a nice burger?’ So it kind of started there,” Bonner told The Tribune.

The business was not originally going to be part of SLO Ranch Farms. Bonner said “no” the first time Grossman approached him for a spot.

Once he visited the site of SLO Ranch, however, Bonner was hooked.

“It feels like a miracle,” Bonner said. “I was in the neighborhood, and I pulled in, and it was just dirt where our building stands now. There was nothing there. I just stood right on that location, and I looked around, and I could just feel it. I was like, ‘Wow, this is a pretty special place.’”

Paso Robles Brewing Co. offers burgers, tacos, french fries, cheesesteak, sandwiches and salads. Current season and rotating beers include amber ale, mosaic IPA and nitro stout.

The brewing company is set to open before summer starts, Bonner said.

Plant Ivy

The popular vegetarian food truck on the Cal Poly campus now has a permanent home next to Sushi Table.

Plant Ivy’s menu of Impossible burgers and vegetarian dishes will also expand as the restaurant expands at SLO Ranch Farms.

“The best part is we planned on expanding on this menu and doing more unique options that we weren’t 100% capable of doing while we were on a food truck,” co-owner and chef Jared Richards told The Tribune. “Now that we’re having an option for a brick-and-mortar, it’s allowing us to broaden our horizons and kind of allow the plant in Plant Ivy to be more plant-based.”

The restaurant will continue with its food truck at Cal Poly, and it will open in SLO Ranch in June, according to co-owner Melinda Alvarado.

Plant Ivy will also offer food classes on vegan cooking and making it fun, Richards said.

“Cooking should be fun. It shouldn’t be difficult,” Richards said. “We’re just trying to make the world a better place one bite at a time.”