By Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

OJAI, Calif. — Downtown Ojai’s newest hotel, which is also its oldest, stands along Ojai Avenue like a rancher in his best string tie and leather vest.

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This property, now known as Hotel El Roblar, has been a fixture on Ojai’s main street for more than a century — party to multiple civic dramas, one fraud conviction, repeated closures and four decades of fitness retreats. Now, after years of negotiation and restoration, a new team of owners has reshaped the place to evoke Old California, celebrate the Ojai Valley’s wild side and lure Angelenos looking to escape the city.

“There’s a hitching post outside, next to the bike rack,” hotel partner Jeremy McBride pointed out, noting that horseback visits aren’t out of the question.

In a town that’s short on lodging supply, the Roblar stands out for its size, its place in local history and the way it wears that history on its walls. Oh, and the two giant tortoises out back.

It went up in 1919, a blend of Spanish Revival and California Mission Revival styles. Its 2 acres include 39 guest rooms, 11 bungalows, a pool, an event space, a dinner restaurant (the Condor Bar) and a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant (La Cocina). It reopened this summer with nightly rates of $455 and up.

“There are so many trendy design hotels out there, and we certainly didn’t want to do that,” said Eric Goode, the partner with the most longstanding ties to the area. “Ojai is rustic and horsey. It’s not Montecito.”

The hotel entrance is framed by an arch that echoes those in Ojai’s downtown arcade building. Most of the bungalows have kiva-style fireplaces. In the Cocina breakfast-and-lunch room, the bar wall is a stack of colored bottles mortared together with concrete like a ghost town bottle-house.

The centerpiece of the lobby is a stacked-stone fireplace. The walls feature a wrap-around mural filled with Ojai Valley flora and fauna.

The room looks like it goes back a century. But the fireplace is new, rebuilt to resemble old photos. So is the mural, painted by artist Stefano Castronovo last year.

Though Goode, 67, is best known elsewhere as an entrepreneur and maker of documentaries, he spent a chunk of his childhood in the Ojai Valley. While his father was teaching at the Thacher School, Goode said, he was “catching horned lizards and rattlesnakes and putting them in my lunchbox.”

Later, Goode created New York’s Area nightclub/art gallery in the 1980s; took ownership roles in several hotels and restaurants, including New York’s Bowery Hotel; and co-founded the nonprofit Turtle Conservancy with Maurice Rodrigues. Later still, Goode produced and directed the documentary series “Tiger King” (2020) and “Chimp Crazy” (2024).

For about 35 years, Goode said, he has kept a home in Ojai and returned frequently. Yet for most of that time, Goode said, “I never thought I’d do a business here.” The key, he said, was finding a historic property whose reopening might feel more like a revival than a disruption to local culture.

When Ojai and the Roblar were born

The Roblar was born as modern Ojai was taking shape between 1917 and 1920. That’s when the town was renamed from Nordhoff to Ojai and local leader E.D. Libbey hired architects Richard Requa and Frank Mead to effectively reshape the city after a fire.

They designed the city’s long arcade along Ojai Avenue; its signature post office and tower; a church that became the Ojai Valley Museum; and the Roblar, all crafted with Spanish Colonial and Mission Revival features.

While Ojai’s reputation spread as a sophisticated small town with a spiritual bent and spectacular setting, the Roblar prospered, faltered, was renamed the Oaks, added a bar, added a pool and added bungalows. It also added a neon sign and then subtracted it, eventually forsaking much of its original design as owners and managers came and went.

By one account, the hotel’s early managers included a Mr. Canfield from Santa Barbara, followed by Mr. Cromwell from San Francisco, both of whom committed suicide. Later came Frank Keenan, a former Chicago alderman who bought the hotel in 1952 and in 1957 was convicted in Illinois of federal income tax evasion.

“We hope not to follow in their footsteps,” Goode said.

The hotel entered a different era in 1977, when fitness entrepreneur Sheila Cluff remade it as a health-oriented retreat, later passing leadership to her daughter, Cathy Cluff. The Oaks closed in 2017 after suffering smoke damage in the Thomas fire — and when the Cluff family put the property up for sale, the new owners stepped in.

New rooms, new art, roaming reptiles

Nobody will mistake El Roblar for a fitness retreat now. Though its pool and gym are likely to get plenty of use, the new owners are clearly focused on comfort, style and history.

Ojai’s Hotel El Roblar includes a bougainvillea-lined pool area. (Christopher Reynolds/The Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Besides Goode and McBride, who has a background as an entrepreneur and filmmaker, the partners include designer Ramin Shamshiri and restaurateur Warner Ebbink (who co-owns the Little Dom’s restaurants in Los Feliz and Carpinteria and Bar Lou in Montecito).

The sale closed in September 2019. Then the pandemic arrived. It took six years of design, permit negotiations with the city, restoration and construction before the hotel reopened under its original name.

Because the the Oaks was run as a mostly private fitness retreat, McBride said, the restart of the hotel means “it’s really open to the community for the first time in 50 years.”

Its dinner restaurant, the Condor Bar, led by executive chef Brandon Boudet, opened July 17, serving “California Mexican” cuisine and using a Santa Maria-style wood-fired grill. Work continues on the eight guest rooms in the hotel’s Sycamore building, scheduled to open in mid-September.

Across Ventura Street from the hotel, the new owners have also bought a property that once housed World University (which closed in 2017). Their plan still needs city approval, but the hotel owners have said they aim to open a 9,000-square-foot spa and wellness facility “to complement the hotel” in the next 18 to 24 months.

The overarching idea, McBride said, is for the Roblar space to feel “not like a new, fancy hotel, but something that’s always been here.”

The public areas and guest rooms are filled with custom and antique furniture and more than 1,000 pieces of art, many of them from California Auctioneers in Casitas Springs and Early California Antiques in Oxnard. The walls of the restaurant are crowded full of condor images and artifacts — “like you’re having dinner in your favorite natural history museum,” McBride said.

In the walled garden by the hotel’s bungalows, two Aldabra giant tortoises, Abra and Cadabra, creep between sun and shade. (They’re on loan from the Turtle Conservancy. For $100 per adult, Roblar guests can sign up for a tour of the conservancy’s Ojai property, which includes about 500 turtles and tortoises.)

The bar in La Cocina restaurant at Hotel El Roblar. (Christopher Reynolds/The Los Angeles Times/TNS)

The hotel’s website notes that the property and its fireplaces, balconies and lifeguard-less pool are “designed for adults” and that “we discourage children [as overnight guests] for safety reasons.” Dogs under 60 pounds are welcome (with a $250 fee). Also, photography and video recording “are not permitted in shared spaces,” though a ban on selfies might be difficult to enforce.

The Roblar’s rates hint at the short supply of lodging in Ojai, which has drawn many entertainment industry figures yet guards its small-town character aggressively.

The city has about 7,600 residents and a dozen hotels. It levies one of the state’s highest hotel tax rates (15%), forbids short-term vacation rentals and bans chain businesses with five or more locations. The largest hotel in town is the 303-room Ojai Valley Inn, which has its own golf course and summer rates that start around $780.

In 2022, the school board turned down a plan to convert a school district site into a 200-room hotel. Last year, Mayor Andy Gilman’s winning campaign called for civil discourse and open minds, but warned of “our over-dependence on tourism.”

Parking might be the most controversial part of the Roblar’s rebirth. To make room for other elements, the new owners got permission to take out the hotel’s public parking lot, secure off-site parking and require that guests use valet service ($50 nightly). This satisfied city officials, but not some neighbors.

“Just another sickening display of LA $$$$. No real parking,” one Ojai resident complained on Facebook.

Awkward as these debates can be, McBride said, it’s the protective attitude of Ojai residents that has helped keep the city’s identity in place.

“This place is still so special,” he said. “There’s a reason why people who are here want to preserve it.”

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Vibrant in flavor and appearance, this tropical fruit salsa is delicious served with grilled chicken or pork chops. A favorite combo is pairing it with broiled salmon fillets topped with fresh herbs, such as thyme and/or dill and thin lemon slices. It’s also delicious spooned into a warm tortilla and topped with crumbled queso fresco or feta cheese.

The recipe makes enough for a large party, perhaps served as a salsa-style dip accompanied by sturdy tortilla chips or crackers. If desired, the recipe can be cut in half.

Tropical Fruit Salsa

Yield: About 8 cups

INGREDIENTS

4 peeled, diced kiwi

2 cups peeled, seeded, diced papayas

2 cups peeled, cored, diced pineapple

2 mangoes, peeled, seeded, diced

1/3 cup chopped red onion

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned rice wine vinegar

1 to 2 jalapeño chiles, seeded, finely minced, see cook’s notes

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Coarse salt to taste

Cook’s notes: Use caution when working with fresh chiles. Wash work surface and hands thoroughly upon completion and do NOT touch eyes or face.

DIRECTIONS

1. In medium bowl, combine all ingredients. Gently toss with rubber spatula. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. It is best served the day it is made but will keep for up to 24 hours in the refrigerator, draining off excess juice if needed. If storing for longer than a few hours, it is best to omit the cilantro and add it just before serving.

Source: “Melissa’s Everyday Cooking with Organic Produce” by Cathy Thomas (Wiley)

Award-winning food writer Cathy Thomas has written three cookbooks, including “50 Best Plants on the Planet.” Follow her at CathyThomasCooks.com.

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With limited treatment options for stroke patients available, two UConn researchers are developing an experimental drug that is capable of protecting the brain and improving recovery after a cerebral vascular accident also known as a brain attack.

Rajkumar Verma, assistant professor at UConn Health who leads a research program for advancing innovative therapies for stroke, and Raman Bahal, associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical sciences at UConn, targeted a small regulatory biological molecule called microRNA, which becomes abnormally elevated after stroke and promotes inflammation, contributes to tissue loss and causes a decline in neurological function, the researchers told the Courant.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs, which do not translate into proteins, that play important roles in regulating gene expression, according to the National Institutes of Health and the researchers.

“We developed a next-generation inhibitor of this MiRNA to block its harmful effects,” the researchers said. “Unlike traditional experimental drugs that target only a single protein or molecule, this approach simultaneously suppresses multiple damaging processes by targeting several proteins. This reduces brain injury, inflammation, and the damage of the tissue while enhancing protective factors that support repair.”

Current therapies for stroke are limited and include clot-busting drugs and surgical clot removal which are only available to 10 to 15% of patients, Verma said.

“No FDA-approved drugs exist to protect the brain or aid recovery once damage begins,” said Verma.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that stroke remains one of the “leading causes of long-term disability and death.”

Further, CDC statistics show that about 800,000 people in the United States experience a stroke each year with approximately 160,000 losing their lives.

Leading causes of stroke include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, obesity and diabetes, according to the CDC.

Verma said the experimental drug will help to reduce “the secondary damage that occurs after the primary injury” that takes place during the first couple hours of a stroke.

Verma said the use of single proteins to target acute damage by stroke were not effective because stroke affects large number of proteins that may be contributing to brain damage.

Bahal said the research is critical because “we are exploring new chemistries and drug delivery technologies to counterattack this kind of devastating disease.

“It is very different from conventional treatments for stroke,” he said. “We are not using existing conventional small molecules. We want to make sure these treatments are effective but safe at the same time.”

Bahal said research has found that “a single dose of our next-generation miRNA inhibitor administered after a stroke not only decreased brain damage but also markedly enhanced movement, memory, and long-term recovery, with protective effects lasting up to 15 days in a mouse stroke model.”

“Compared to earlier drug candidates, our miRNA inhibitor is more potent, highly specific, longer lasting, and safer,” Bahal said.

The researchers have filed a patent for their MiRNA inhibitor and are in communication with pharmaceutical companies and other partners to develop it into an investigational new drug candidate for a future clinical trial. They have also received a $2.6 million grant for five years from the National Institutes of Health.

Forty percent of baby boomers fear they will outlive their retirement savings. Several recent studies suggest they are right to worry.

Seniors in 41 states are projected to have more expenses than income during their golden years, putting them at risk for outliving their retirement savings, according to a new study by Seniorly, an assisted living online marketplace. The amount they’re missing, on average, over the course of their retirement years: $115,000.

In California, the gap between projected income and expenses for retirees is far higher: $337,000.

Along with the Golden State, three other states — New York, Hawaii and Alaska — have the nation’s highest retirement gaps, where people’s income likely can’t keep up with expenses. That’s no surprise: All are places with high costs of living.

But states with a lower cost of living didn’t necessarily mean a better financial situation for their seniors, in this analysis. Mississippi, for example, is second the cheapest to live, according to Seniorly’s findings, but it ranks No. 12 for a retirement gap. Its retirees need $162,000 in retirement savings to match their expenses over the course of retirement. That is almost $50,000 larger than the national average gap. West Virginia and Alabama are in a similar position, with some of the nation’s lowest costs during retirement, but savings so low they create a gap.

The study also found that retirees in some states are likely to have money left over when they die, also known as having a financial surplus. The greatest surplus: Washington.

The big picture: not saving enough

The study looked at “what they’re projected to spend during retirement and what they’re likely to bring in from Social Security, savings and investments,” Christine Healy, Seniorly’s report author, wrote.

On average, the study found that people are likely to live 18.2 years past 65. To fund their needs and wants in that almost 20-year span, Americans have saved, on average, $762,000. Expenses are projected to be $877,000, leaving a $115,000 gap across all states and the District of Columbia.

Seniorly pulled data from government sources and analyzed life expectancy at age 65, income, net worth and cost-of-living metrics by state, by using data from the Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Social Security Administration.

California’s high medical and housing costs in particular tap retirement income, the report said.

One more reason people are likely to outlive savings: longevity.

“States with higher life expectancy are more likely to outlive savings: At age 65, Hawaii seniors can expect to live another 20.6 years. Despite having the highest income of $1.32 million, Hawaii was the No. 2 most likely state to outlive savings, due to a combination of longevity and high expenses,” the report found.

Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama and Louisiana, with the country’s lowest life expectancy according to the CDC, all have retirement gaps higher than average.

Retirement cushions

The outlook is rosier in nine states, where retirees are expected to have surplus savings.

Washington: $146,000
Utah: $121,2000
Montana: $43,000
Colorado: $38,000
Iowa: $32,000
Minnesota: $23,000
Maryland: $13,000
Kansas: $8,000
South Carolina: $2,000

The sound financial health of retirees in Washington state is “driven by relatively high projected income and moderate expenses,” the report says.

Washington’s monthly health insurance premiums, in one study by Value Penguin, an insurance trade publication, were lower than average — $543. The state’s housing prices, though, are on the higher side compared to the U.S. average.

Minnesota, Utah and Washington hit two high notes. Their retirees are likely to have a financial surplus, and they have among the longest life expectancies in the U.S., ranking in the top 12.

State by state

Are places with smaller gaps or with retirement income surpluses necessarily better places to retire? That is not an obvious conclusion.

The study yields some thought-provoking juxtapositions between cost of living, expected earnings and longevity.

In Hawaii and New York, residents are projected to have higher than average retirement incomes, but higher than average expenses or longer lifespans due to things like diets and access to health care may mean those nest eggs won’t last long enough.

In Georgia and South Carolina, incomes in retirement are less than half those in retirees in Washington and Hawaii. But people in these southern states are expected to enjoy a savings surplus — albeit a very small one for South Carolina. This cushion could be due to lower costs and lower expenses, but also lower lifespans, meaning people there may have fewer years to work through their savings.

Yet in other states, such Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and West Virginia, some of the nation’s shortest lifespans and lower costs of living still leave a gap, where people may outlive their savings, because incomes are also lower there.

New York’s retirees have lower projected incomes than average, $670,000, but some of the nation’s highest expenses, $1.12 million, which explains why it ranks No. 1: $448,000 gap between income and expenses.

States where retirees are expected to enjoy a financial surplus — meaning their projected income will likely be greater than their expenses — tended to have retirees with some of the highest incomes.

One more takeaway from the report:

“Despite its poor overall ranking, seniors in No. 50 Hawaii actually have the biggest financial cushion in the country, with a projected income of $1.32 million over their retirement years,” Seniorly’s Healy wrote. “At the other end of the spectrum, seniors in No. 43 Louisiana and No. 40 Mississippi have the smallest nest eggs, with projected retirement incomes of just $479,000 and $488,000, respectively. No. 35 West Virginia, No. 41 Arkansas and No. 36 Alabama are also near the bottom, with projected incomes of $526,000 or below.”

Not worried enough?

Northwestern Mutual conducts an annual survey about retirement progress and attitudes. It recently found that Americans think they will need $1.26 million to retire. With that goal in mind, it found out how confident different generations are that they will hit that target.

Baby boomers were most confident: 40% said they do not have saved enough for retirement.

Gen Z were slightly more concerned, with 51% answering they will somewhat or very likely outlive their savings.

Millennials and Gen Z respondents were most worried, with 57% and 56% respectively answering they fear they’ll outlive their retirement savings.

“Meanwhile, more than a third (35%) of Americans say they have not taken any steps to address that potential outcome,” the Northwestern Mutual study found.