Formerly: Cold Spring Relay Station
Santa Barbara, California · Founded 1868 · Building: circa 1860
A San Marcos Pass stagecoach-stop site near Santa Barbara, preserved by the Ovington-Wilson family as a destination restaurant since 1941.
Cold Spring Tavern occupies a historic San Marcos Pass site near Santa Barbara that its own history dates to an 1868 stagecoach stop. The site later passed through several owners before Adelaide Ovington bought the surrounding property in 1941 and ran the tavern with her daughter Audrey. It now operates as a rustic restaurant and bar known for tri-tip barbecue, while its nineteenth-century origin date remains disputed among published accounts.
Cold Spring Tavern's own history says the original structure is believed to have been built around this year.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'
According to Cold Spring Tavern's history, what is now the tavern began operating as a stagecoach stop while the Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Turnpike Road Company operated a stage line over San Marcos Pass.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'
Cold Spring Tavern's history says the Doulton family purchased 160 acres that included the tavern property.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'
The horse-drawn stage line over San Marcos Pass ceased operation, according to the tavern's historical account.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'
The tavern history says the Doulton family transferred the property to the Miramar Corporation.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'
The Miramar Corporation went bankrupt and lost its mortgage, according to Cold Spring Tavern's historical account; caretakers later oversaw the property.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'
Adelaide Ovington purchased 40 acres surrounding the tavern for $2,000 and operated it with her daughter Audrey.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'; Nation's Restaurant News, 2024
The tavern's history says Audrey Ovington received the relocated Ojai Jail as a gift; the small building was originally built in Ojai in 1873.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'
Audrey Ovington died after serving as sole proprietor following Adelaide Ovington's death in 1972.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'; Nation's Restaurant News, 2024
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The tavern's detailed history, a historical-marker account, and recent reporting consistently describe the site as a rest stop where travelers ate and stagecoach horses were changed. This pass did not inspect the underlying transportation records, and published accounts conflict over whether the start year was 1865, 1868, or 1886.
Cold Spring Tavern's history identifies the small structure as the Ojai Jail, built in 1873 by Constable Andrew Van Curen and given to Audrey Ovington in 1959. The reviewed material does not support calling it an 1860s Mattei's Tavern jail.
The available chronology documents a stagecoach stop, changes in ownership, a 1934 foreclosure, caretaker management until 1941, and later restaurant stewardship. It does not establish uninterrupted public hospitality or restaurant service from the nineteenth-century stop to the present business.
Multiple recent accounts say Adelaide Ovington purchased the tavern property in 1941, followed by daughter Audrey and later Joy Ovington Wilson and Wayne Wilson. The operational family lineage is well supported, though this pass did not review deeds, trust documents, or corporate filings.
A restaurant-industry profile reports that Audrey Ovington was Steve Henson's first commercial customer in 1956, when he began marketing the dressing beyond his nearby Hidden Valley Ranch. The story is widely repeated, but this pass did not locate contemporaneous business records or a primary Henson source.
Cold Spring Tavern was founded in 1886.
The exact origin year is unresolved. The tavern's own history dates its stagecoach-stop operation to 1868, a 2024 restaurant profile gives 1865, and some recent local coverage repeats 1886.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'; Nation's Restaurant News, 2024; Santa Maria Sun, 2025
The jail at Cold Spring Tavern is an 1860s Mattei's Tavern jail.
Cold Spring Tavern's own history identifies it as the Ojai Jail, built in 1873 by Constable Andrew Van Curen and relocated to the tavern in 1959.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'
Cold Spring Tavern has operated continuously as a restaurant or roadhouse since the nineteenth century.
The reviewed record supports an old stagecoach-stop lineage and current operation, but it does not document uninterrupted restaurant or public hospitality service across the entire period.
Source: Cold Spring Tavern, 'History'; Nation's Restaurant News, 2024
Cold Spring Tavern outlasted the stagecoach era by becoming a destination rather than a transportation necessity. The Ovington family and later Joy Ovington Wilson and Wayne Wilson maintained its remote canyon setting, historic buildings, food service, and weekend barbecue appeal. Its survival story is well supported from the 1941 Ovington purchase onward; the earlier operating chain needs more archival work before it can be called uninterrupted.
Cold Spring Tavern occupies a historic San Marcos Pass site near Santa Barbara that its own history dates to an 1868 stagecoach stop. The site passed through several owners after the horse-drawn stage line ended in 1901, and Adelaide Ovington bought the surrounding tavern property in 1941. Her family continued its stewardship, and the site operates today as a restaurant and bar, although published sources conflict on whether its original stagecoach-stop date was 1865, 1868, or 1886.
No verified evidence from this review establishes Cold Spring Tavern as Santa Barbara's or Santa Barbara County's oldest operating restaurant. It has a credible nineteenth-century stagecoach-stop history and remains open today, but the record conflicts on its start date and does not document continuous restaurant or hospitality operation from that era to the present.
No. Cold Spring Tavern's own history identifies the small building as the Ojai Jail, built in Ojai in 1873 and given to Audrey Ovington in 1959. It is a historic relocated structure at the tavern site, not an original 1860s jail from the Cold Spring stagecoach stop.
5995 Stagecoach Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
(805) 967-0066
Near Highway 154 in San Marcos Pass; the tavern currently offers indoor and outdoor dining, a Log Cabin Bar, and weekend tri-tip barbecue.