The news item came from a proud Preble County paper, with the headline “Preble County natives to open restaurant named Camden in Los Angeles.” Where is Preble County? It's in on the western edge of the state, near Dayton, Ohio.
And what the article means by Los Angeles is actually Santa Ana, specifically the gentrified historic Yost Theater at 307 N. Spurgeon St.
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The Ohio natives are Shane Taulbee, longtime chef at Memphis at the Santora (and the creator of the immortal “Cobra” fried chicken sandwich that Gustavo raves about), and his business partner,
Heather Petersen, both from Camden. And in the
restaurant they will name after their hometown, the two will offer tastes
of Ohio. Taulbee hopes to offer barbecue pork spare ribs to honor the Preble
County Pork Festival, a local delicacy of fried sponge mushrooms, and
recipes featuring black walnut, something Camden residents celebrate
with an Annual Black Walnut Festival.
The restaurant hopes to debut in late July, and in the article, Taulbee
and Petersen offer fellow Preble Countians a free meal at
the new eatery if they can get out to Santa Ana.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.