Buellton: A Cattle Baron's Ranch and a Bowl of Pea Soup
Near Los Olivos, California
At the western gateway of the valley, where Highway One Hundred One crosses the Santa Ynez River, sits Buellton, a town born from a cattle empire and made famous by a bowl of soup. Its founder was Rufus Thompson Buell, who with his brother bought part of the twenty-six thousand acre Rancho San Carlos de Jonata in eighteen sixty-six and by eighteen seventy-two owned the whole grant. Buell poured over one hundred thousand dollars into the land, building a prosperous ranch that ran thousands of cattle and sheep, hundreds of horses and hogs, and a large dairy, alongside thousands of acres of wheat and grain.
The town took his family name. Then, in nineteen twenty-four, a Danish immigrant named Anton Andersen and his French-born wife Juliette opened a small roadside restaurant here. Juliette brought a split pea soup recipe from her family, and that simple soup made the place a legend.
Pea Soup Andersen's became one of the most famous roadside stops in California, its cartoon chefs Hap-pea and Pea-wee waving travelers in off the highway for a century, until the restaurant finally closed in recent years. Buellton still calls itself, with a wink, the home of split pea soup.
