Ojai there

MEAVE McAULIFFE • Rory's Place and Rory’s Other Place

WORK • Thursday Routine

MEAVE MCAULIFFE (above right with sister Rory)• chef/co-owner • Rory's Place and Rory’s Other Place
Neighborhood you live in: Ojai

It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
The kitchen is already bustling when I arrive. Pasta is being rolled out. The wood fire is crackling with charred onions for our soubise, the prep cooks are picking tons of fresh herbs, soup flavors are simmering on the stove, and I'm reviewing what needs to be done for our dessert menu.

What’s on the agenda for today?
Thursday is the day I like to make the changes to the menu we've been working on throughout the week at the restaurant. Charred kale with hazelnuts? Lion’s mane mushrooms with green risotto? Dandelion green salad with dates? Today, we’re putting on the new vegetable dishes we added to our wood-fired station. It's also my meetings day. I have weekly manager meetings to discuss shared goals and room for improvement. Very important, not to be missed.

Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
My good friend chef Travis Lett recently reopened his restaurant in Venice, RVR, on Abbot Kinney. I couldn’t be more excited to be going. We worked together for six years at Gjelina, and I'm still one of his biggest fans. When the space was called MTN, it was my favorite restaurant in LA.

How about a little leisure or culture?
I loved Doug Aitken's new multimedia artwork, Lightscape, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He's one of my favorite artists, and has a wonderful creative relationship with my mother Jo-Ann, who's been in a few of his pieces. She’s featured in the new film that’s being shown at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. His immersive artworks are rich and transportive.

Any weekend getaways?
My favorite weekend getaway from Ojai is to drive up the coast to Cambria, a little sleepy beach town on Moonstone Beach. We usually stay right on the beach, at White Water Inn. It's always foggy and there's little to do except walk on the beach, read, and enjoy the fire. Our favorite breakfast spot (known for their organic blue corn waffles) is The Hidden Kitchen, just down the road. It really helps me decompress after a busy week at the restaurant. And a great pit stop on the way up is a delicious lunch at Bell's! On the way back, we always stop at Bob's Well Bread for sourdough bread and great pastries. I just got back from there on Tuesday, feeling rested and excited for the week.

What was your last great vacation?
Martha's Vineyard this past summer in late August. I used to live there and I try to go back every year. The island is a special place for me, and there are so many folks there to visit and rekindle our friendship. Clamming has become an addiction that we do every year. It's meditative in its pace and the full sensory immersion as we plunge our hands into the mud at low tide and root around for those sublime littlenecks.

First, we stop at the cafe 7A Foods in West Tisbury for some generous sandwiches like the crowd favorite Liz Lemon — pastrami on rye with potato chips inside. Mo's Lunch also makes incredible sandwiches to take with you on your day’s adventure. Then we stop at Beetlebung Farm in Chilmark for fresh heirloom vegetables to bring home. With the freshly harvested clams in hand, we always have a big dinner party with enormous steaming bowls of vongole pasta, fresh corn, and summer tomato salads. Swimming, surfing, long beach days, tennis, lobster rolls at Larsen's Fish Market in Menemsha, and all the incredible island farms, I love it all.

If we get stuck with a rainy day, which is often the case with the summer storms, we head into Vineyard Haven for some shopping and food. I used to work with the folks who own Behind the Bookstore Coffee Shop, which is one of the best places to get great coffee on the island, they have a little outpost in Vineyard Haven. Lennox & Harvey is a really cute new boutique, and down the street, grab a book at Bunch of Grapes Bookstore for a great beach read. Last summer we really enjoyed the tacos at the newly opened El Barco Taqueria.