After 28 years in the wine business in both Sonoma and Santa Barbara counties, Mark and Wendy Horvath are closing Crawford Family Wines and retiring to Bend, Oregon, for a new adventure.
In May 2025, the couple sold all of their winemaking equipment and closed their Buellton winery, Mark Horvath told me in mid-April, adding that “we started this process two years ago.”
After 28 vintages, starting in Sonoma County for two years, and then moving to Babcock Winery for five, Horvath teamed with longtime friends Joey and Sarah Gummere to create the Kenneth Crawford label, utilizing the men’s two middle names. After 10 vintages together, the couples went their separate ways, with the Gummeres launching Transcendence Wines in Lompoc, and the Horvaths opening Crawford Family Wines.
The family’s initial tasting room was on Alamo Pintado Avenue in Los Olivos, now home to Blair Fox Wines, and in 2019, Crawford Family Wines moved to its current location on Mission Drive in Solvang.
When Horvath and I spoke at the Solvang tasting room in mid-April, all of the Crawford Family Wines’ single vineyard pinot noirs were gone — “they were sold straight to club members,” he said.
Those longtime club members, naturally, are “all very upset but also happy for us.”
Customers are snapping up the wines — Crawford Family’s white wines are long gone. Horvath’s final vintage was in 2023; he sold all of the 2024 vintage as bulk wine, and didn’t harvest anything in 2025.
As with a television show, “I wanted to end it while (things are) still good,” he said, laughing.
Horvath recounted the process that led the couple to close up shop and relocate to a new state: “I turned 60, and my mother, who had lived with us, passed away.” In addition, the couple’s three children have relocated to other cities (and in one case, another country), and the Horvaths are eager for something new.
Olivia, their oldest, is now in San Diego, working in public relations, and Michaela managed the family tasting room for 18 months before relocating to San Francisco and securing a job at a marketing firm. Their youngest, son Zachary, is studying fashion design at the University of the Arts in London.
Horvath recalled taking baby Zachary to work — today, “he has a great palate” because of those years in the cellar with his dad.
Looking ahead: “We are very happy with our plans, but I will miss the smell of fermentation and the making of wine.”
That said, the wine industry, especially now, has “so many uncertainties, and the process can be stressful,” Horvath said.
When we spoke in April, the Horvath family’s Santa Ynez Valley home had been listed for sale for approximately two weeks.
In an email, Wendy Horvath noted that “as soon as our house is in escrow and we know when it’s going to close, we’ll officially close the tasting room. But for now, it’s business as usual.”
Lucky Penny’s Second Location in Los Olivos Now Open
Lucky Penny, the Santa Barbara Funk Zone’s go-to for wood-fired pizzas, salads, frosé and more, has opened at its new Los Olivos at 2902 San Marcos Ave., the former longtime home of Corner House Coffee.
Its hours are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
Lucky Penny Los Olivos will offer both morning and afternoon/evening menus. Fans of the Santa Barbara location will recognize favorites crafted by Jason Paluska, executive chef, including the LP Caesar, Spicy Pork Meatballs and signature pizzas, among them the East Coast Pepperoni, the Californian and Butcher Shop.
General manager Morgan Gray and chef Sixto Zepeda — chef de cuisine for both Lucky Penny sites — have developed additional dishes: The “Good Morning” menu highlights a Savory Breakfast Bowl (farro, mushrooms, grilled broccolini, jammy egg, shaved pecorino, arugula, watermelon radish); Farmhouse Egg Tartine; Ricotta Toast (grilled sourdough, house-made honey ricotta, toasted pistachios, honey drizzle, flaky salt, olive oil); a baked-to-order Dutch Baby; and breakfast pizzas, such as Green Eggs & Ham Pizza.
Also available are tea and coffee drinks, grab-and-go snacks, and sweets and pastries from Helena Avenue Bakery.
With its six rotating flavors, Lucky Penny’s ice cream counter will be the only Santa Ynez Valley venue to offer Santa Barbara-based McConnell’s Fine Ice Cream.
To complement the food menus, there’s a selection of craft beer and private-label wines in partnership with four Santa Barbara County-based vintners — Presqu’ile, Notary Public, Stolpman and Storm.
Lucky Penny Los Olivos offers both inside and outside dining.
Acme Hospitality owns and operates both Lucky Penny restaurants as well as other eateries and hotels throughout California.
For online orders and information, visit luckypennysb.com. The phone number is 805.691.8159.
Grassini Family Vineyards Reveals Fundraising Alliance with Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation
Continuing its longstanding support of the Central Coast’s wine-loving community, Grassini Family Vineyards in early May announced that it is closing in on having raised more than $1 million in charitable donations since founding its Grassini Gives Back program.
The 15th anniversary of Grassini Gives Back reflects the family-owned winery’s core mission, CEO Katie Grassini said.
“We believe in the power of connection — to our land, our history and our community,” Grassini said.
Since 2014, the Grassini family’s efforts have raised more than $965,000 for a variety of local nonprofit organizations, she said.
This year, to celebrate the program’s 15th anniversary, the winery has formed a one-year partnership with Santa Barbara’s Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation to raise $50,000 for that organization by year’s end.
Grassini Family Vineyards will feature special promotions each month this year, allowing wine lovers to contribute to the cause while enjoying wine.
The winery produces estate-grown Bordeaux varietals from the Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara AVA, and hosts guests at both its vineyard property and the tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara.
During May, Grassini Family Vineyards donated $100 for every new wine club membership and $10 for every bottle of sauvignon blanc purchased, Grassini said.
The TBCF has a long history of supporting families with children who are facing pediatric cancer. A diagnosis triggers financial, emotional and educational challenges, and the TBCF steps up to provide financial assistance, professional emotional support programs and educational advocacy tools.
“For our family, wine has always been about bringing people together, and we love being able to turn those shared moments into meaningful support for our neighbors during their hardest moments,” Grassini said.
“Teaming up with Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation for our 15th anniversary feels right because they provide that same sense of family and stability to local families when they need it most. Their work is so vital, and we are incredibly honored that our wine and our community can play a small part in helping these families battling pediatric cancer focus on what truly matters: their children.”
The TBCF is equally thrilled with the project: “Partnership and community are at the heart of everything we do,” said Julia George, TBCF’s senior development director.
Hitching Post 2 Offers $40 Dinners Through June to Celebrate 40th Anniversary
Buellton’s Hitching Post 2, to celebrate 40 years of loyal patronage, a dedicated staff and a legacy of producing pinot noir wines, is halfway through a two-month dining special.
Through June 30, hungry diners are welcome to enjoy a three-course, $40 prix fixe menu paired with a special anniversary wine, the “Cuarenta,” (Spanish for “40”) a 2020 pinot noir from Quinta del Mar Vineyard in Nipomo.
Frank Ostini Jr., owner of the Hitching Post, and his executive chef, Jesus Montano, are offering three dinner specials: Entrées include a seven-ounce top sirloin, seven-ounce pork chop or 10-ounce chicken breast, all grilled over the restaurant’s signature live oak fire.
Dinners include an organic mixed-green salad, a choice of baked potato, fries or rice pilaf, and McConnell’s ice cream for dessert.
The featured anniversary wine, “Cuarenta,” commemorates 40 vintages of Hitching Post Wines; only 20 cases were made. It is available at the restaurant for $38 per bottle and at the adjacent tasting room for $40 (that price includes two 40th anniversary glasses).
“Forty years is a remarkable achievement for both a winery and a restaurant, and we could never have done it without the many Latino teammates who have loyally worked alongside us,” Ostini said.
The original Hitching Post in Casmalia has deep roots on the Central Coast. Frank and Natalie Ostini purchased that restaurant in 1952, and specialized in “Santa Maria Style Barbeque,” a California style honed by Spanish Rancheros who cooked over the heat of a fragrant red-oak wood fire.
Their son, Frank Ostini Jr., opened the Hitching Post 2 in Buellton in 1986. That site gained international recognition thanks to the 2004 Academy Award-wining film “Sideways.”
Ostini and friend Gray Hartley, a fisherman, made their first wine at home in 1979, and released their debut pinot noir in 1981. In 1986, they relocated production to facility dedicated to wines for Ostini’s Hitching Post 2 restaurant, which opened that same year.
Today, the partners’ next generation, Emily Hartley (direct-to-consumer manager) and Weston Hartley (winemaker), play key roles in the winery’s evolution.