Second home

Anton and Chrystal Axelsson moved to Chico in June, with their six kids in tow, and in short order opened the Old Barn Kitchen breakfast and lunch restaurant up in Paradise. Having grown up in the kitchen—his father, who’s from Iceland, is a chef and restaurateur in the Bay Area—Anton had a clear vision for opening one of his own. Post-Camp Fire, the Old Barn Kitchen still stands, the Axelssons are happy to report, but it did suffer smoke damage as well as some fire damage to the exterior. They plan to reopen as soon as possible, but not content to sit idle, they snatched up the space recently vacated by Urban Fresh Fuel—at the corner of Third and Main streets in Chico. They were hard at work redecorating the dining area and reorganizing the kitchen for the second location earlier this week when they took a break to talk about their vision with the CN&R. They hope to open in early 2019.

What’s your background?

Anton: My family’s owned restaurants all the way from Carmel up to the Bay Area. I started working for them when I was about 13. I started from the bottom up. Now it’s our time to venture on, move here and get our family out of the Bay and open up. The plan was always to open up a second location, just not this soon.

Chrystal: There was an opportunity where we could open our second location and get that going while the work is getting done at our Paradise location.

What’s your signature dish?

Anton: Our signature dish is our eggs Benedicts. We have fresh, homemade Hollandaise sauce we make in-house every day. All of our gravies, our soups [are made from scratch]. Even our country-fried steak we cut out of a New York strip loin and pound it out, bread it in-house. We use Tin Roof Bakery for our bread.

Chrystal: We’re branding our own coffee, which is locally made. We make amazing espressos. I have a background as a barista; I was trained by Peet’s Coffee [in the Bay Area].

How did you come up with your menu?

Anton: My father developed all these recipes and my head chef, he’s known me since I was 7 years old, since I was running around his feet in the kitchen. He worked for my father since he was 16—and he’s in his late 50s now. He moved up here, decided to help me have my legacy.

What can people who haven’t been to Old Barn Kitchen yet expect?

Anton: We’re not your greasy spoon breakfast restaurant. We raise the bar above that. We pride ourselves on great customer service and quality. The vibe that we create is family-friendly—we’re going to have a playroom for kids.

Chrystal: Everywhere in Iceland has a place for kids. You go to the grocery store and there’s a playroom with TVs. You go into a restaurant and it’s not sports on, it’s cartoons for the kids.

Anton: So, mom and dad can come enjoy breakfast, have a mimosa, and the kids are back there playing.

Chrystal: It makes it feel like home.