JJ Brewsky's serves up local flavor
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

COOL BREW-Camarillo native Jeff Walker is the new owner of JJ Brewsky's restaurant in Old Town. Walker and a group of local investors bought the eatery a little over three months ago.

It's an early Monday morning at JJ Brewsky's on Ventura Boulevard. The booths and tables are set and ready for the impending lunch and dinner crowds, and the maple bar with its neat rows of bottles, three large-screen televisions and eclectic selection of tap beers is primed for happy hour.

With a cup of steaming coffee in hand, one of the Old Town restaurant's new owners, Jeff Walker, sits down in a booth.

He talks about the eatery with excited anticipation, not just for the restaurant but also the growth of southern Camarillo and the completion of the historic boulevard's redevelopment.

The 42-year-old businessman and nearly a dozen Camarillo investors bought the place about three months ago and have since made it their mission to manage a restaurant that's "authentically local."

"When we say authentically local, we want to have local beers, local produce," said Walker. "We're local owners."

A graduate of Adolfo Camarillo High School, Walker's introduction to the service industry was as an accountant with Ernst & Young, where he did operational and market studies for hotels.

It would be some time, though, before Walker would call himself a restaurateur.

The USC grad went on to own a pair of gas stations in the Frazier Park area but soon realized he wanted to try his hand at the food industry. So he sold the gas stations and began to look for a place to invest his money.

His search led him back home to Camarillo.

"When I came back a few months ago to look for business opportunities, I was just overwhelmingly impressed at how the city has evolved," said Walker. "I wasn't really aware of what had happened in Old Town. When I was growing up here, this was really kind of a blighted, rundown area."

Walker said he originally intended to revive the landmark Buckhorn Saloon. That plan fell through, so Walker and his partners turned up the street to JJ Brewsky's, which had just been put on the market by its original owner, Mark Felipe.

Felipe, who started the restaurant nearly two years ago, sold it to spend more time with his wife and three young children, Walker said.

Because so much of a restaurant's future is determined by its first year, Walker said he was attracted to JJ Brewsky's because it had weathered its early days and established a strong following.

He hopes business will continue to grow as the nearby 1,040home Village at the Park housing development and the 900 homes being built at California State University at Channel Islands are completed.

Walker believes he'll draw more and more college students from the university as the student population grows in coming years.

"I view this neighborhood as the gateway to southern Camarillo," said Walker. "I really buy into the vision of an eclectic walking neighborhood. I'd love to see that for Old Town."

Old Town's redevelopment, a longtime vision for the city, was largely to create an entertainment district for Camarillo similar to Santa Barbara's State Street. To bring that atmosphere home, restaurants like JJ Brewsky's will eventually have outdoor patio seating that's expected to extend onto Ventura Boulevard once the street has been redesigned.

Walker and his group of investors have done little to change the restaurant's classic look. It still seats about 160 diners. JJ Brewsky's occupies a 6,000-square-foot storefront in the 90-year-old Lewis and Sons Building that has been everything from a jail to a department store.

"It impresses people when they walk in here," Walker said. "To me, it's kind of reflective of where, I think, Camarillo has come in terms of an affluence and sophistication to be able to support a place like this."

As for the menu, Walker said he has opted not to change the food for now, but there are plans to create a dinner menu in the near future.

The seafood is very good, Walker said. He pointed to the macadamia nut-crusted halibut and the panseared Ahi tuna fillet as two must-try dishes.

For dessert, Walker recommends s'mores, the restaurant's take on the chocolate and marshmallow campfire treat.

Walker hired Anthony Aitken from Café Fiore in Ventura to head his kitchen.

Although Walker said he's proud of JJ Brewsky's food, he hopes to make just as much of a name from the selection of locally brewed boutique beers.

"I'm a Southern California guy, and I wanted to reflect what's happening in the craftbeer movement in California, really nationwide," said Walker. "That's the segment of the beer business that's growing the most right now."

To that end, the bar pours Santa Barbara's Telegraph Ale and Paso Robles-based Firestone Walker's 10 Ale.

An entrée and drink runs around $16, said Walker, and the bar also offers a wine list made up primarily of vintners from the California Central coast and Napa Valley.

The restaurant also features live entertainment. Again, Walker said, he tries to book local bands to stay with the restaurant's image.

"We enjoy this place. It's one of the reasons why we bought it," Walker said. "JJ Brewsky's, to mewill be a place where it feels local, in ownership and menu and beer selection."

JJ Brewsky's, at 2433 Ventura Blvd., is open for lunch and dinner.