What do you name somebody who lives in Loma Mar? A Loma Martian.
It’s not a punch line. This eclectic, tiny neighborhood rooted within the Santa Cruz Mountains between La Honda and Pescadero is residence to coastside farmworkers and rich tech households. However between its small inhabitants and its distant location, gathering areas for residents have traditionally been few and much between, leaving the neighborhood susceptible when catastrophe strikes.
Enter the Loma Mar Retailer & Kitchen, a wood-shingled construction amid the city’s coastal redwoods that’s been part of the neighborhood since 1930, serving as a lumber mill, submit workplace and basic retailer over time. In 2014, neighbors Jeff and Kate Haas purchased the store and renovated it, remodeling the constructing into a restaurant, a small grocery store and reside music venue that opened in 2019.
Loma Mar Outpost govt director Janet Clark works on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025 on the newly-restructured non-profit neighborhood area in Loma Mar, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
However the house owners had greater desires for its neighborhood position that required one thing exterior a restaurant’s traditional for-profit setup, says govt director Janet Clark. So final October, they started the method of changing operations right into a nonprofit construction. They renamed the Loma Mar Retailer because the Loma Mar Outpost, created a board of administrators with the Haases in an advisory position and employed Clark to guide it.
“They have just basically gifted this to the community, which is unbelievably generous,” Clark says.
It’s one in all solely a handful of nonprofit eating places within the nation. New Jersey’s JBJ Soul Kitchen neighborhood restaurant group, for instance, is funded by the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Basis. They could possibly be a mannequin, Clark says, for different small cities the place eating places that function as neighborhood hubs wrestle to maintain going below conventional enterprise fashions.
An inscribed Loma Martian hat is displayed on the market on the Loma Mar Outpost, now a non-profit neighborhood hub within the Santa Cruz Mountains, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
Loma Mar’s numerous neighborhood consists of immigrant households, conventional ranchers and billionaires, in addition to artists, musicians and households who’ve lived within the space for generations. As a result of households are so unfold out throughout southern San Mateo County, Clark says, they typically discover themselves low on the precedence listing for county and state assets and a focus. Flooding in Pescadero or downed bushes within the space routinely set off highway closures, and it’s not unusual for energy outages to final greater than every week, she says. That’s an issue when the closest grocery retailer is in Half Moon Bay, a half-hour drive away.
Jeff Ajrrell, entrance left, performs Kingdomino together with his father John Tessier on the newly-renovated Loma Mar Outpost on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, within the Santa Cruz Mountain redwoods. The longtime Loma Mar Retailer was just lately renamed and has change into a non-profit neighborhood area. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
In order that they’re on a wide-ranging mission. Not solely are they working to construct neighborhood amongst guests and locals alike — upcoming occasions embody teen and younger adult-friendly, alcohol-free hangouts, open mic nights and recreation nights — Clark says they’re additionally hoping to bolster community-wide emergency preparedness and meals safety.
Because the Outpost transitions into its new nonprofit entity, the workers is working to deliver down the price of grocery staples and hoping to host common “pay what you can” neighborhood dinners. Its generator and backup propane tanks can be found for residents in case of energy outages.
And if you happen to’re simply passing by — tenting, maybe, at Loma Mar’s Memorial Park — the Outpost has change into not solely a “last chance for Wi-Fi” cease, however a comfortable place to seize a chew. The burgers are made with beef from close by Pomponio Ranch, the grilled cheese is a triple fromage affair, and that’s housemade kimchi in your salmon-topped Loma Martian bowl.
Particulars: Open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m. to eight p.m. Saturday and eight a.m. to six p.m. Sunday at 8150 Pescadero Creek Street, Loma Mar; lomamaroutpost.org.
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