Our connection to the Central Coast took root four generations and more than 75 years ago, on a Santa Rosa Island cattle ranch.
Plenty was not part of a long-held plan. It came much later—after our family had put down its roots in Alisos Canyon and built a life around farming, winemaking, cooking, and gathering at our home table every day.
The Central Coast story of the family behind Plenty begins in the early 1950s with Colonel Jack A. Blacker, known as "Blackjack" — a career Air Force fighter pilot, two-time recipient of the Silver Star, and commander of Vandenberg Air Force Base's 300-person Santa Rosa Island Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron.
Following combat tours in WWII and Korea, Jack served on Santa Rosa, where he was charged with early detection of westbound threats. The assignment led to a close friendship with the Vail and Vickers families, who owned the island and operated its 7,000-head cattle ranch, where cattle were barged from the mainland before leaping into the ocean and “surfing” ashore.
Jack was also raising his young daughter Lois as a single father and widower. Because his duties required extended time on the island, he received special permission for Lois to accompany him — an unusual exception to the ranch’s general rule prohibiting women and children.
That exception gave Lois access to a world few children ever saw. She spent as much time as she could there throughout her childhood and into high school, taken in by the island’s vaqueros, sailors, and pilots — learning to ride, rope, sail, and help with ranching duties.
Santa Rosa became more than the site of her father’s command. It shaped her childhood and began the family’s enduring connection to this rugged stretch of California’s Central Coast.
From 1901 to 1998 cattle were barged across the Santa Barbara Channel and turned loose to "surf" the last stretch ashore through the breakers.
Noah was born in North Los Angeles but spent as much time as he could on the Central Coast. His mother, Lois, always kept a garden, grew most of the produce for the family herself, and passed her hands-on approach to seasonally focused food to her kids. In 2013, Noah returned to Los Alamos permanently to raise his young children and built his life around regenerative farming, winegrowing, and winemaking.
Codi grew up on her family’s farm and horse ranch in Iowa, where her grandmother Clarissa likewise showed her from an early age how to grow food used in the family kitchen. She came west in 2008 to train Arabian horses in Los Alamos.
The two met in the midst of the COVID pandemic, when months of restaurant closures had drawn them deeper into the garden and kitchen. They soon discovered a shared love for growing their own food and preparing scratch-made meals shaped by the seasons and centered around the family table.
Together, they built a home where those ideals became a way of life—one defined by what was growing, what was ready to be gathered, and the simple pleasure of sharing it with others.
Noah and Codi’s three children have grown up in Los Alamos with the rhythms of the farm around them.
Today, the family regeneratively farms 45 acres of winegrapes and 30 acres of seasonal vegetables. Noah also makes estate wine, while vegetables, fruit, and other ingredients harvested find their way to both the family kitchen and the restaurant.
For the family’s sourdough, Codi hand-mills the flour and ferments the dough with wild yeast from the vineyard. Loaves take shape over several days before reaching the family table or restaurant counter.
Horses, highland cattle, chickens, cats, and dogs are all part of the zero-waste approach and daily rhythm. Caring for animals is woven into the family’s life alongside the garden, vineyard, and kitchen.
Just as Noah and Codi were shown how to grow food for the family table, they are passing those same habits to their children.
The whole family helps prepare what has been grown—learning skills and traditions children will eventually carry into homes of their own.
We never set out to open a restaurant, but when an opportunity arose to take the reins at Plenty on Bell, our whole family recognized it as a natural extension of the way we already lived.
At home and in our restaurant, our food begins with fresh ingredients and straightforward preparation: produce from our garden and farm, breads, sauces, and stocks made in-house, and seasonal components from growers, ranchers, anglers, and local purveyors throughout the Los Alamos region.
Plenty is our neighborhood table — a place for a nourishing meal, warm conversation, and food that comes from people we know, places we trust, and the community we’re proud to share.
It takes more than one family to make Plenty what it is. The farms, ranches, boats, bakeries, creameries, and small producers around us are an essential part of what we serve.
It takes more than one family to make Plenty what it is. The growers, ranchers, anglers, bakers, creameries, and small producers around us are essential to what we serve.
