Open and shut: Secret is out on new restaurant coming to Moorpark’s High Street – VC Star

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Vacant since the 2015 closure of The Secret Garden, the building at 255 E. High St. in Moorpark has a new restaurant tenant on the way.(Photo: LISA MCKINNON/THE STAR)

Once the scene of romantic anniversary dinners and a particularlycontentiousepisode of "Kitchen Nightmares" starring Gordon Ramsay, the former Secret Garden Restaurant space in Moorpark has been claimed by a new tenant.

Danny Margolis, presidentof Moorpark-based Command Performance Catering, plans to turn the remodeled buildingat 255 E. High St. into M on High Street, a full-service restaurant that will serve California-contemporary cuisine.

And he hopes to have the work done in time for a summer2020 debut.

"I've always wanted to branch out and do a restaurant. What better location than historic High Street?"said Margolis, who grew up in the city and remembers dining at The Secret Garden before the "Kitchen Nightmares" crew came calling.

"It's a nostalgic address that people would like to see in use again," he said.

Helping plan the project is executive chef Maya Chrestensen, who joined Command Performance in 2003after more than a decade in restaurants.

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Slated to open in summer 2020, M on High Street in Moorpark will include a back patio furnished with a fireplace, cabana-style seating and a shipping container converted into an outdoor bar. The site was home to The Secret Garden Restaurant from 1997 through 2015.(Photo: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

"I want to offerfood that is similar to what we're doing in our catering, without being too chef-y. It's a chance to say, 'Look what we can do when we're cooking for two people instead of 2,000,'" Chrestensen said with a laugh.

Depending on the season, dishes could includecrispy-skinned Arctic char with smoky tomato veloutsauce andjuniper-brined Porterhouse pork chops with fig marmalade and a Brussels sprouts succotash.

Then again, "we've changed the menus a hundred times in our heads," she added, laughing again.

The addresshas been vacant since the property changed hands fouryears ago. The restaurant'sinterior was later gutted. Pathways and plantings for the once-secret garden at the back of the building were also removed.

Architectural renderings for M on High Street depict several new outdoor areas, including one furnished with a fireplace and picnic-style seating and another with cabana-style sofas arranged under a trellis. Plans also call for converting a shipping container into a bar and ice-cream station.

The patio area may have its own menu, Chrestensen said.

An architectural rendering shows proposed seating areas at M on High Street, slated to open in summer 2020 at the former Secret Garden space in Moorpark.(Photo: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

The restaurant's interior will feature tables arranged near the arched windows, with additional seating at large, U-shaped booths and a bar at the back of the room. The main entrance will be moved to a door that opens onto the Magnolia Street side of the building.

Margolis and company hope the new construction will clear away any bad juju still lingering from as far back as the late 1990s. That's whena jury convicted the then-wife of singer Frankie Valliof misdemeanor battery for slapping Secret Garden co-founderSandra Sofskyduring adining-room dispute over the cost of a meal.

A native ofLyon, France, chefMichel Bardavidunveiledhis version of The Secret Garden in 2000. Nearly eight years later, it became the first Ventura County restaurant featured on the Fox reality series "Kitchen Nightmares." The episode made the most of centuries of bad blood between the French, represented by Bardavid, and the Brits, represented by Ramsay.

Bardavid told The Star in 2009 that he regretted appearing on the show, which included scenes of the mock boarding-up of his restaurant with signs saying it had closed due to bankruptcy something Ramsay said "might" happen if Bardavid didn't follow his advice. (The 2007 episode lives on in re-runs and on YouTube at https://bit.ly/2ZkvVzu.)

After bringing back much of the restaurant's fine-dining French fare, Bardavid sold the business in 2015 as the result of a divorce.

In late November, a peek through the windows revealed concrete floors, framework for new walls and "furnishings" ranging from a wheelbarrow to a portable backyard grill.

Margolis was scheduled to submit plans this week to Moorpark's building and safety department and toVentura County's environmental health division.

The new restaurant will welcome rehearsal dinners, birthday parties and other special events with the exception of weddings. Command Performance already is an exclusive and/or preferred caterer at more than a dozenvenues specializing in weddings in and around Ventura County.

"We see this as an addition to the great restaurants we already have in Moorpark, and a way to give people even more reason to come to High Street," Margolis said. "The more businesses that can be successful there, the better it is for Moorpark."

For more information, click onhttps://www.cpcatering.com.

Also coming to the neighborhood specifically, to 165 Poindexter Ave., Suite D is a new tasting room and working-winery space forCavaletti Vineyards, which previously made its wines at another, not-open-to-the-public location.

Owner, grower andvintner Patrick Kelley also served as wine pourer during sneak-peek tasting sessions Dec. 21-22, when selections included a Los Angeles County-grown ros and a Ventura County-sourced syrah.

After some cosmetic remodeling of the site's bathroomover the holidays, Kelley plans to return in early January with the launch of regular weekend tastings. Join the winery's mailing list and/or check the Cavaletti Vineyards website and social-media feeds for updates (https://www.cavalettivineyards.com).

Already open on High Street isVegiterranean Kitchen, a vegan-meets-Mediterranean-fare spot that debutedlast month at what was home to Le Bon Garon before the gourmet salted-caramels shop moved to Los Angeles.

Open only for take-out and catering orders, Vegiterranean Kitchen is owned and operated by the husband-and-wife team of Sevag Harmandarian and Nora Harmandarian. They're also parents to two daughters ages 10 months and 2 1/2years.

The take-out menu offers soups (gluten-free lentil, $4 and $6; Swiss chard, $5.50 and $7.25), salads (including gluten-free fattoush, $9.50)and appetizers (spinach borag, four for $6, and gluten-free stuffed grape leaves, five for $4.75).

Entrees range from cracked wheat pilaf, or moudardara ($9.50) to gluten-free stuffed eggplant with tahini ($14). Lentil and chickpea wraps ($9each) can be turned into a $12.50 combowith the additionof a drink and a side.

Vegiterranean Kitchen is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Call ahead for changes due to the New Year Eve and New Year's Day holidays (481 E. High St., 805-523-2209,https://vegiterraneankitchen.com).

In OAK VIEW in the OJAI VALLEY,the Wendy's Restaurant at 11560 N. Ventura Ave. is closed after nearly 35 years of business.

A patron reports being told that Dec. 21 was its final day to serve square-patty burgers.As of Dec. 24, the restaurant was still listed as open and accepting orders on Wendy's corporate website. The business'phone rangwithout answer.

Attempts to contact a Wendy's spokesperson via phone and email were notsuccessful.

A LoopNet listing for the property describes it as availablein "Jan 2020." The location offers 2,375 square feet of retail space and a drive-thru, described as "unique for the area as newly constructed buildings are not easily being given drive-thru entitlements."

In OJAIproper, the family behindSanders & Sons Gelato announced in a Dec. 23 Instagram post that they plan to open a retail location at 334 E. Ojai Ave., a multi-tenant structure located between Bonnie Lu'sat 328 E. Ojai Ave.and Revelkombucha bar at 307 E. Matilija St., Suite C.

The under-construction space will feature "patio seating with 12 hand-made flavors rotating daily," according to the post. A late-April opening is anticipated.

Founded by Sanders Marvin, Sanders & Sons is also building a production facility on Bryant Circle about a mile away.The company's from-scratch flavors made with Ojai-grown ingredients are available forshipping via orders placed on itswebsite (https://www.sandersandsonsgelato.com).

In THOUSAND OAKS, do-it-yourself Japanese-stylehot-pot dining is the focus atTabu Shabu, in soft-opening mode since Dec. 6.The Orange County-based chain's name is a play on shabu-shabu, or "swish-swish," the action by which patrons cookseafood, vegetables and thin cuts of meat by swirling them in boiling-hot broth at table-top grills.

Prices range from $14 to $65, depending on size and protein selection (the most spendy optionis Wagyu Zabuton short rib).Beer, wine and sake are available.

Operated by Yina Zarowitz, the Thousand Oaks location serves lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and noon to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, followed by dinner from 5-9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 5-10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays (2920 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Unit A, 805-371-8228,https://tabushabu.com).

In VENTURA, the franchisee-ownedBurgerIMrestaurant at 440 E. Main St. has closed after less than two years of business. It is onthe market for $149,000, according to Dec. 23 posts to the business' Instagram and Facebook pagesand old-school flyers available from a box near the front door. Both forms of communication describe a "motivated seller due to family relocation," with the name and phone number of an Encino-based broker as the contact.

Two other, separately owned BurgerIMs in Ventura County opened and closed this year alone. They were inThousand Oaks (1610 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Suite C), gone after a mere four months, andOxnard (191 E. Gonzales Road), which lastedfive months.

Shuttered locations named in this column are still listed as "open" on the BurgerIM corporate website (https://www.burgerim.com).Attempts to contact a spokesperson for the chain werenot successful.

According toa Dec. 19 storypublished by the trade publication Restaurant Business, BurgerIM recently informed franchisees that it plans to restructure itself a move that couldinvolve filing for bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, the family-owned Evita's Mexican Cafe is scheduled to close on Dec. 31 the self-declared retirement date of owner Aurelio Jaureguiafter 31 years of serving chile relleno burritos and posole verde de pollo.

The restaurant was known as Taco de Mexico when Jauregui bought it and named it after his daughter with wife Martha Hernandez.Evitadiedof leukemia five years later, at age 7.

Hernandez retired in 2017 from the Fillmore Unified School District, where she served asassistant superintendent for educational services. She has encouraged Jauregui to follow suit, although he pledges to stay on past New Year's Eve to help with the transition if an in-the-works sale to a new owner comes to pass.

"I'd like to thank everyone for all the support through the years," Jauregui said. "I've loved being here and talking with customers. That's the part I'm going to miss the most."

Evita's is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays (3868 E. Main St., 805-656-4571).

Lisa McKinnon is a staff writer for The Star. To contact her, send email to lisa.mckinnon@vcstar.com.

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Open and shut: Secret is out on new restaurant coming to Moorpark's High Street - VC Star