TV Restaurants

Is Cold Spring Tavern Still Open? Update (Santa Barbara, CA)

Open verified

As of September 2026, Cold Spring Tavern is open — confirmed via the restaurant's current website/social account, accessed July 2026.

Primary source
Yelp ·
Secondary source
santabarbaraca.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Yelp shows customer reviews dated as recently as July 2026 for the Stagecoach Road address; the tavern's tourism-listing page describes ongoing regular service.

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What happened after Best Thing I Ever Ate?

The 'Meat-Fest' episode profiled Cold Spring Tavern's oak-pit barbecue, built around the tavern's tri-tip and wild-game dishes. Cold Spring Tavern operates as a 19th-century stagecoach-stop roadhouse on Stagecoach Road in the Santa Barbara backcountry, pairing its dining room and bar with live music, according to the business's own website. The site's navigation includes dedicated 'History' and 'Fun Facts' pages describing that heritage. Checked on 2026-09-08, coldspringtavern.com listed hours as Thursday 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and Friday through Sunday 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m., with Tuesday and Wednesday closed. This appearance is a duplicate of an existing database record (mvf-453) for the same Santa Barbara business; refer to that record for current operating status and address details.

During the Santa Barbara episode, Casey Webb stopped at Cold Spring Tavern, a mountain roadhouse in the San Marcos Pass known for its outdoor barbecue and grilled tri-tip sandwiches, according to the episode. The tavern dates back roughly 200 years to its origin as a stagecoach stop on a Wells Fargo route, and the property still includes a saloon and the relocated original Ojai jailhouse, according to the tavern's own historical account published on its visitor-facing pages. In September 2026, Yelp showed customer reviews dated as recently as July 2026 for the Stagecoach Road address, and the tavern's posted hours listed regular weekend service. No closure or ownership change has been reported for Cold Spring Tavern since the 2019 broadcast.

Featured on Best Thing I Ever Ate

Season / episode
Season 2, Episode 5
Original air date
Not confirmed
Episode title
Meat-Fest
What was featured
oak-pit tri-tip and barbecue specialties at a historic stagecoach tavern
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Cold Spring Tavern
Season / episode
Season 8, Episode 13
Original air date
Episode title
—
What was featured
grilled tri-tip sandwich at a historic stagecoach-stop tavern
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Cold Spring Tavern

Frequently asked questions

Is Cold Spring Tavern still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Cold Spring Tavern is open — confirmed via the restaurant's current website/social account, accessed July 2026.

What happened to Cold Spring Tavern after Best Thing I Ever Ate?

The 'Meat-Fest' episode profiled Cold Spring Tavern's oak-pit barbecue, built around the tavern's tri-tip and wild-game dishes. As of September 2026, Cold Spring Tavern is open — confirmed via the restaurant's current website/social account, accessed July 2026.

Where is Cold Spring Tavern located?

5995 Stagecoach Rd, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Best Thing I Ever Ate featured Cold Spring Tavern?

Season 2, Episode 5 of Best Thing I Ever Ate. The episode is titled “Meat-Fest”.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

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Visit info

Address
5995 Stagecoach Rd, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Venue type
bar
Official website
None found

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Record mvf-453 · last verified .