Visit our newest restaurant: Woody’s at Watsonville Airport
100 Aviation Way, Watsonville, CA
Please call for reservations: (831) 722-7077
hello@woodyswatsonvilleairport.com
Open all days except Tuesday.
LUNCH: 10:30-2:30 (All Day Menu inbetween) DINNER: 4:30-9:00
Woody’s at Watsonville Airport Now ‘Softly’ Open (With Style Points)
Article and photos by Mark C. Anderson
The Watsonville outpost brings the burgeoning Woody’s family of restaurants to four: The OG at the Monterey Regional Airport (MRA), Woody’s Del Mesa (a verifiable Found Treasure), Woody’s at Carmel Valley Athletic Club and now Watsonville, which will be open for lunch to start.
(And five if you count Woody’s Cockpit Cafe, which awaits past security check downstairs at MRY.)
As the leadership team writes in an internal memo to staff, “Every location has taught us something.”
“We have a beautiful setting with mountains in the background, airplanes coming and going, and a community of people looking for a place to gather,” it continues. “We want this to be a comfortable, casual destination where friends, families, pilots, travelers, and neighbors can sit down, share a meal, and catch up.”
City Councilman District Eduardo Montesino voted with the rest of his Watsonville City Hall colleagues to give Wood’s proposal priority, and ranks among the locals eager to fly by.
“A lot of people in the community are hoping for a really good restaurant and another option,” Montesino says. “It’s a great addition for the restaurant [scene], with different food and a reputation earned by successful restaurants that we’re really hoping they can replicate here.”
The on site Easy Rider props include a Captain America motorcycle helmet signed by Peter Fonda and a full-on roadster replica of the one used in the Oscar-nominated movie.
Chef and restaurateur Tim Wood plans to open Woody’s at Watsonville Airport by mid-March, bringing the third location of his Woody’s restaurants to a longtime gathering spot after Ella’s at the Airport closed last summer. The restaurant will serve thoughtful American fare, aiming to be a neighborhood hub for locals and pilots alike while continuing the airport’s 40-year tradition of having a full-service public eatery.
Restaurant owner and chef Tim Wood is new to the Watsonville area, but he said he’s already met plenty of curious locals while working on his newest project at Watsonville Municipal Airport.
“Lots of characters have stopped by to check us out when we’re unloading tables and chairs, painting and working on the electrical,” said Wood. “They’re ready to have their restaurant back.”