I am thrilled to share that 2022 MICHELIN Guide California “Bib Gourmand” recognized restaurant, Peasants Feast just started their inventive dinner service – Thursday through Saturday 5 to 8PM! If you’ve seen any of my Santa Ynez Valley content, you know Peasants Feast is one of 2 restaurants that we dine at every single trip to the area. We basically feel like “locals” at this point and have enjoyed getting to know the husband and wife team, Chef Michael Cherney and Sarah Cherney, along with the rest of their crew. Born out of the pandemic in April 2020, this spot has seriously made a name for itself in Solvang, SYV and beyond over the last few years.

They also recently announced new Chef de Cuisine, Brendan Collins, a Bay Area native who attended culinary school in Los Angeles after undergrad at Cal Poly. He started out as a line cook at Providence, then moved to kitchen work at Hinoki & the Bird, Mélisse, and Otium. After his eight-year Los Angeles restaurant career, Collin’s headed up the Central Coast with stints in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo before taking up residence in the SYV alongside Chef Michael at peasants FEAST.

Hard work pays off!

“We opened peasants FEAST two weeks after the initial pandemic shutdowns, on April 1, 2020. Our whole vision for the restaurant immediately needed to shift, diverting to take-out only, eventually offering outdoor dining and finally, indoor seating in this dining room we felt might never welcome guests,” reminisced Chef Michael Cherney, owner with his wife, Sarah, of peasants FEAST, peasants DELI & MARKET and as of January 2023, the new arcade at peasants DELI.

Sarah Cherney added, “We’ve been riding this restaurant world roller coaster for the past three years, and now we’re finally able to launch our dinner menus and evening service, which were part of the original plan for the peasants FEAST concept.”

Their new dinner menu is an elevated expansion of the eatery’s fan-favorite, comfort food staples. Dishes feature ingredients sourced direct from a selection of the local region’s farms, ranches, and fish mongers. There are wonderfully refined plates – spanning vegetarian to meatier options.

Peasants Feast starts inventive dinner service – the menu

The menu will obviously be seasonal and vary with what is readily available to the restaurant whenever you visit. The dishes featured when we dined were seriously delicious and inventive! You may be wondering why you should pick dinner over lunch service here, but honestly I think if you have the time during your trip to stop by for both, you should. The menus are different enough and each have a bunch of highlights! If you want more information about lunch, check out this post.

Here’s what we ordered for dinner:

STARTERS

roasted chanterelles, cipollini onion, crispy potato, hollandaise sauce

apple, kohlrabi, radish, hazelnuts, fresh horseradish, Stepladder Creamery “Moonstone” cheese, chili crunch, fresh mint

MAINS

fried chicken, garlicky greens, polenta, herb honey

sunflower seed “risotto”, snap peas, asparagus, mushrooms, sunflower sprouts, grana padano

DESSERT

SYV pastry chef Taylor Tate, known for her multi-layered confections, is back delivering pure magic! We got to enjoy:

chocolate passion fruit cake, candied cocoa nibs, passion fruit caramel, vanilla ice cream

Days & Hours

Peasants Feast is currently open for lunch Wednesday through Sunday and dinner Thursday through Saturday. Note: they do not take reservations. We lined up for dinner right before 5 pm and were seated right away. I tend to like to go earlier in their service so that they don’t run out of any of the menu items I am eyeing!

Looking for more on SYV? I’ve detailed where to stay, where to eat, where to drink & what else to do that doesn’t involve food or booze! There is also an SYV guide on my instagram with quite a few places if you like that format.