La Bahia Hotel & Spa Is The Culinary Destination Santa Cruz Never Had

Santa Cruz, the laid-back surfers’ haven, roughly an hour and a half drive south from San Francisco, has always had a bounty of ingredients. The Pacific just offshore delivers black cod from Fort Bragg and petrale sole pulled from local waters. Fogline Farm, tucked into the Santa Cruz Mountains in Pescadero, raises some of the finest pasture-raised poultry in California. Far West Fungi, a celebrated regional purveyor, grows mushrooms that would make a Napa chef envious. And Manresa Bread, the James Beard-recognized bakery out of Los Gatos, has been turning out naturally leavened loaves that rival anything baked in San Francisco. What Santa Cruz has never had, until very recently, is a kitchen ambitious enough to bring all of it together under one roof, including a room worth staying in while you eat it.

La Bahia Hotel & Spa , which opened in September 2025 directly on Main Beach—not to be confused with a Bahia Resort in San Diego, is making a credible run at changing that. (My mom and stepdad live nearby in Aptos, so I took my mom on a girls’ getaway here in early January to experience it for myself.)

The 155-room luxury property is Santa Cruz’s first genuine upscale hotel, a Spanish-Mediterranean landmark whose restored century-old bell tower rises against the Pacific. But the most interesting story is not the architecture or the ocean views, absolutely stunning as both are. It is what Executive Chef Fernando Reyesis cooking across three distinct concepts, and whether a hotel restaurant less than a year old can earn diners who would make a reservation without a room key. Judging what’s coming out of these kitchens right now, the answer is increasingly yes.

A Long Time Coming

The Santa Cruz Seaside Company, the family-owned enterprise behind the iconic Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, purchased the La Bahia building in 1984. What followed was four decades of Coastal Commission negotiations, community debate, and stalled projects. Locals watched the crumbling bell tower weather for a generation. When the hotel finally opened under the management of Ensemble Hospitality, it did so with something that is very on-trend in the hotel world: a genuine sense of what this particular stretch of coastline actually produces and what it deserves on a plate.

Ensemble is worth knowing about in this context. The company also manages Bernardus Lodge & Spa in Carmel Valley ,a Forbes Four-Star, two-Michelin-Key retreat whose food and wine program has long been one of the most serious on the Central Coast, and a continued nod to the passion for good food and hospitality of original owner, Ben Pod. I stayed at Bernardus recently while attending the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival , and breakfast alone at the hotel’s all-day restaurant, Lucia, justified the detour.

A pastry basket from local Sunny Bakery & Cafe, from food writer, recipe developer, and chef-owner Analuisa Béjar, originally from Mexico City, arrived stacked with chocolate croissants, cinnamon rolls, and a berry pound cake so tender it needed no butter. Then came the ultimate breakfast: a crab cake on grilled country bread, topped with a poached egg and a caviar hollandaise that was indulgent without tipping into excess, and served with crispy hash browns. Under Executive Chef Gus Trejo(formerly of Jack O’Neill Restaurant & Lounge at Dream Inn in Santa Cruz) and newly appointed Master Sommelier Roland Micu, Bernardus is deepening a program that already had 15,000 bottles in the cellar and an on-site organic garden supplying the kitchen daily. The thread connecting both properties is clear: Ensemble understands that the food program is the main story, not an afterthought to the room rate.

The Great Glow Up at La Bahia Hotel, Santa Cruz

The building’s lineage matters here. In 1926, UC Berkeley professor and architect William C. Hays designed the original structure as the Casa Del Rey Apartments, a grand oceanfront complex that was later renamed La Bahia, only to fall into decades of neglect. The restoration is extraordinary: the whitewashed walls, terracotta rooflines, and arched doorways have been meticulously restored, while everything inside has been rebuilt to contemporary standards. Designed by ForrestPerkins, the interiors are built around the fictional persona of Aunt Elva, a well-traveled woman whose imagined collection of global art, textiles, and artifacts fills every corridor. With its roaring fireplace, Mexican tile flooring, and elegant furniture, the lobby is where I spent much of my time appreciating the new design.

High Tide: When the Kitchen Gets Serious

The hotel’s signature fine dining restaurant, High Tide , seats 128 guests behind sweeping three-quarter windows that frame Monterey Bay with the kind of drama that makes you want to linger. Time your reservation for sunset. The light off the water turns the room a warm amber that no interior designer could replicate. The menu is offered both à la carte and as a four-course tasting for $110, with a sommelier-curated wine pairing available for $90, pricing that may be spendy for this more down-to-earth seaside town, but genuinely competitive for Northern California. The kitchen is led day-to-day by Chef de Cuisine Joe Locke (not to be confused with the Heartstopper actor Joe Locke) alongside Executive Chef Reyes, whose 20-plus years at properties including the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay and Carmel Valley Ranch give the program a technical foundation that shows.

The raw bar announces the kitchen’s confidence early. Tuna sashimi arrives with California caviar, ponzu, Fresno chili, and chives, a dish that is equal parts California and Japan. The hamachi crudo, plated to resemble a rose in full bloom, is built on cucumber aguachile, puffed black rice, and cilantro. It is the kind of dish that stops conversation at the table. Case in point: “Wow, that looks so pretty, like it belongs in my garden,” my mom exclaimed when it arrived.

The entrées lean hard into local sourcing. The Fort Bragg Black Cod sits in a mushroom dashi with bok choy and king trumpet mushroom, a quietly stunning bowl of umami that feels genuinely of this coastline. The Fogline Farm’s Chicken Roulade is paired with marinated eggplant, Thai basil, and chicken jus. The Far West Fungi Mushroom Risotto, finished with mascarpone, Parmesan, and asparagus, is the dish that makes vegetarians feel sorry for their meat-loving table mates. The local Petrale Sole in green curry with sugar snap peas and cipollini onions is a lighter option that carries a punch of flavor.

The dessert program, overseen by Pastry Chef Courtney Moisant, closes the meal with interesting options such as the Mont Fuji, a buckwheat sablé made with mandarin and chestnut, or the chocolate mousse with olive oil and sea salt from Big Sur.

La Bahia Hotel’s Low Tide: Where You’ll Find the Locals

If High Tide is the destination dining room, Low Tide Bar & Grill is the beating heart of the property, and arguably the reason most people come back. The ground-floor restaurant and bar spills out onto an adjacent patio (book a reservation to coincide with sunset) and draws a crowd that tells you everything about why it works: salty locals who’ve been waiting decades for a neighborhood spot this good, mixed with the Bay Area weekenders who drove over the hill specifically for a beachside table. My mom and I loved it so much we went twice, once for dinner and again for lunch the next day, which is either a testament to the food or to the fact that watching surf from a good bar stool is one of life’s underrated pleasures. Probably both. That said, the menu is not going to win any originality awards. Expect a lineup of familiar favorites like pizzas, a burger, and grilled fish. It’s casual coastal with incredible Pacific Ocean views.

Opt for the Surf Tacos: three grilled mahi mahi tacos with avocado, cabbage, pickled jalapeño, and lime sauce, all tucked into locally made corn tortillas. They capture the fresh-fish-meets-California-coast spirit of the city better than almost anything else on the menu. The Burrata Toast, served on grilled Manresa Bread with grapes and pistachio jam, is the kind of shareable that disappears as soon as it hits the table. If grilled artichokes appear on the menu as a seasonal special, order them immediately. My mom and I ordered them both times we ate there. A nod to the artichoke capital of the world, just down Highway 1 near Castroville, Low Tide’s artichokes arrive charred and confident with a punchy garlic dipping sauce.

The larger plates hold their own. The Roasted Fogline Farm Chicken with fingerling potatoes, roasted peppers, and mole brings the same local-producer story from High Tide down to the casual menu, which is the right move. The Far West Fungi Mushroom Pizza, a white-sauce pie with wild mushrooms and crispy leeks, is one of the better things to eat at the bar with a cocktail. The Pesto Rigatoni with Dirty Girl swiss chard, stracciatella, and cherry tomatoes is a reminder that even the vegetarian options here are sourced with some intention, Dirty Girl Producebeing a beloved Bay Area farm with serious credibility.

Save room for dessert, and specifically for the Warm Chocolate Chip Cookie with Milk, a giant, house-made cookie served with vanilla-scented milk that costs $12 and is worth every cent. My mom, who is a discerning and well-traveled eater, broke into a grin that I can only describe as that of a gleeful ten-year-old when it landed on our table.

Carnival Cocktails & Coffee at Pearl, La Bahia Hotel

Pearl, the posh lobby champagne bar styled after London’s great hotel bars, is where the evening should begin or end. Scanning the cocktail menu, one of my favorite ways to spend time at a new bar, I spot some clever odes to the sea and the famous Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Take the Soda & Popcorn, for example—a cocktail that tastes like the treats sold at the Boardwalk across the street. It’s a Cuba Libre riff built on rum, brandy, crème de banane, lime, and Mexican Coca-Cola, finished with caramel popcorn. Locally distilled spirits, like Venus Spiritsof Santa Cruz, are featured on Pearl’s cocktail menu as well.

It took me a while to discover it, but the morning coffee shop on the second floor, just outside High Tide, is worth scouting. It features splurge-worthy pastries like coffee cake from Manresa Bread, the celebrated Los Gatos bakery whose naturally leavened loaves have become a quiet benchmark of quality across the Bay Area. Coffee is Cat & Cloud, a Santa Cruz specialty roaster, whose beans fuel the morning quite nicely.

Swim, Spritz & Sleep at Santa Cruz’s La Bahia Hotel

The outdoor pool and jacuzzi complex, called Plunge, is reserved for hotel and spa guests and sits at the edge of the ocean-facing terrace with an unobstructed view of Monterey Bay. During our girls’ getaway in January, my mom, who does not typically linger poolside in winter, hopped from the jacuzzi to the pool—unwittingly doing her own type of biohacking. The combination of being outdoors in the water, cool salt air, and that particular quality of winter Pacific light turned a simple morning into a memory.

Other simple pleasures included sound sleep. My mom’s Oura ring logged some of the best sleep scores she had recorded in months that night, which we credited to the new beds, the Frette pillows, and the hand-painted headboard depicting Santa Cruz as a dreamscape.

Poolside drinks and bites at the Plunge barlean into a St. Tropez-meets-Mexico vibe, where you can have an Aperol Spritz and ceviche.

Above the pool, the fifth-floor rooftop deck spans 5,400 square feet with panoramic bay views, making it one of the more compelling event and wedding venue spaces on the California coast.

Santa Cruz’s La Bahia Spa: One More Reason to Stay

The Spa at La Bahia on the sixth floor is the only full-service luxury spa in Santa Cruz, a gap the city has needed filled for some time. Eight treatment rooms, two steam rooms, a vitality pool, and a co-ed outdoor sauna with floor-to-ceiling glass walls framing the Pacific make a strong case for building in an extra night. Of course, no girls’ weekend is complete without a spa treatment or two. My mom opted for a facial and I tried the Sea & Sand Polish that uses volcanic black sand, tropical papaya enzymes, and glycolic acid. Feeling glowy and relaxed after our sessions, we sat by the outdoor fireplace, sipped warm honey water, and nibbled chocolate truffles from the local chocolatier Ashby Confections.

Santa Cruz Luxury Getaway

Santa Cruz has always had the cool surf culture, the dramatic coastline, and the Boardwalk. What it never had was a high-end, culinary destination to match. While the food world looked past it toward Los Gatos, Carmel, and Napa, La Bahia Hotel is quietly assembling something worth the detour…right on the water, where it always should have been.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com