Though chef Ray Martinez looks young enough to be carded in his own restaurant, he’s no rookie behind the line. At 29, he has already spent much of his life in restaurant kitchens, from his family’s café in Morro Bay to Michelin-noted restaurants including Harbor House in Elk, Ox + Anchor in San Luis Obispo and Troubadour in Healdsburg. Now leading the newly opened Bohemian Bistro in Occidental, he’s bringing fine-dining polish, hard-won tweezer skills and considerable culinary creativity to west county.
But what I ate two weeks ago and what lands on your plate are likely to be entirely different — by design. Sourcing ingredients from within 15 miles of Occidental, Martinez takes his cues from what nature, local farmers and foragers deliver each week.
The opening menu in early June included a riff on strawberry shortcake with a quenelle of crème fraîche, later replaced by raspberry mousse with fermented raspberry sauce. English peas with cured egg yolk and mint became blistered peas with fermented dashi, while locally sourced king salmon with an airy lemongrass hollandaise gave way to braised lamb with Rockwell beans and lobster mushrooms. In Martinez’s kitchen, a week can make a remarkable difference. The four-course, prix-fixe menu, plus an amuse-bouche, feels like a bargain at $88.
The intimate dining room mirrors the menu: polished but not precious. Geometric art deco wallpaper, dark wainscoting and rust-colored banquettes nod to the 1920s without beating you over the head with a flapper dress. Even the washroom gets in on the act, with artwork restrained enough to suit the room but cheeky enough that you may send your tablemates in for a look.
“We wanted it to be a throwback to a happy time,” co-owner Erica Kniess said. “The ’20s was the heyday of service, white tablecloths and dressing up for dinner. It’s a time where you weren’t rushed.”
Seasonal, local
The menu, however, has its own sense of urgency, built around ingredients that come and go with Sonoma County’s micro-seasons. Where some chefs might see a logistical headache, Martinez sees creative opportunity.
“I think a lot of people think it’s kind of a crazy idea and a difficult task, but that’s enjoyable for me,” he said, just two weeks after opening.
He’s also in the enviable position of working for an experienced fine-dining chef whose chain of successful burger joints helps support the passion project. Bohemian Bistro is owned by Todd Kniess and his wife, Erica, founders of Acme Burger. Todd Kniess cut his teeth at the Fairmont and Ritz-Carlton hotels before opening a French bistro in Berkeley, which he ran for 16 years. After moving to Sonoma County, he turned his attention to the perfect burger, opening the original Acme Burger in Cotati in 2019. The Kniesses now operate five locations.
But it isn’t Kniess running the Bohemian Bistro kitchen. He consults with Martinez on menus, but the couple’s daily focus remains on their burger business. So why open a destination restaurant in Occidental?
“It’s a chance to give someone else the chance he was given,” Erica Kniess said. “It’s about leaving something behind in a way that resonates for him.”
Not that the 56-year-old Todd Kniess is planning to step away anytime soon. But with a busy family and plans for additional Acme locations, he has traded his toque for a tie.
A chance to lead
Martinez, who grew up in a small town, is candid about his age and about how much he still has to learn. He also doesn’t shy away from the fact that he wasn’t the Kniesses’ first choice for executive chef. He had been hired as sous chef after working his way from dishwasher to apprentice under a series of respected chefs. When the couple parted ways with their original choice just months before opening, Martinez stepped in.
“I just went for it,” he said, seemingly undaunted.
The move appears to have worked out for everyone. Martinez had wanted the executive chef role from the start, not least because of the restaurant’s unusual cob oven, inherited from Jim and Michele Wimborough, the owners of the former Hazel restaurant. They, in turn, inherited it from Bistro des Copains, the beloved French restaurant that once occupied the space.
“That oven is the whole reason I’m there,” Martinez said. “Live-fire cooking is one of the earliest kinds of cooking and has a place in our whole existence. It helped us survive. People don’t use ovens like this much anymore at home, and it’s a piece of technology that’s almost been lost.”
Such ancient technology, however, is not usually the centerpiece of fine dining.
Unlike a brick oven, a cob oven is typically made from clay, sand and straw packed into a dome. It can be built inexpensively from local materials but takes longer to heat and doesn’t retain warmth as long as a well-built brick oven. The natural materials create a steep learning curve, though the process becomes intuitive over time, Martinez said.
“I just wanted to master this and make it the ultimate cooking vessel,” he said.
Proteins and vegetables take especially well to the high heat. His repertoire of sauces, however, requires a different sort of finesse. Like sourdough starter, the French sauces build on one another, with a portion of the previous batch helping fortify the next. Martinez spends three to four days creating a single sauce for service.
It’s the kind of attention to detail that separates fine dining from more casual cooking, where prepared sauces and stocks are often the practical choice. Leaning over each plate, Martinez carefully ladles small pools of beurre blanc and velouté onto dishes, using oversized tweezers to place edible flowers and herbs.
He’s reluctant to linger on the details of the sea lettuce in his risotto or the way he braises, presses and sears his lamb. But for food obsessives, those details are the point. His wild fennel, black trumpet mushrooms and fermented raspberries translate beautifully on the plate, leaving diners wondering what’s next and encouraging discovery with each bite. Is that mint or basil? How exactly do you ferment a raspberry?
Martinez’s cooking has the polish of someone who has spent years paying close attention, but not the stiffness that can come from strict adherence to convention. At Bohemian Bistro, his youth works in his favor — curious, exacting and bold enough to make this tiny Occidental dining room feel as though it is on the verge of becoming west county’s next destination restaurant.
If you go
Wednesday nights are locals nights, with affordable pizzas, salads and other dishes, often priced under $20. The outdoor pop-ups will offer seating on a first-come, first-served basis and a come-as-you-are atmosphere.
The curated wine list is available by the glass or bottle, or as a pairing with the meal. Most selections come from within a 15-mile radius. Maître d’ Patrick Stanley can answer questions and offer suggestions.
Reservations are required.
3782 Bohemian Highway, Occidental, 707-874-6888, bohemianbistrorr.com