"Set to open inside Descanso Gardens at the end of the year or the start of 2025, the Farmhouse at Descanso spans roughly 6,700 square feet with an open kitchen, a bar made from the garden’s fallen trees, and an expansive patio; it takes over a meeting room inside Van de Kamp Hall directly off the gardens’ courtyard, and admission to Descanso Gardens is not required for dining. The menu’s ethos will reflect Richard Mead’s dedication to farm-to-table cooking but won’t be a replica of what he serves in Orange County, and earlier critical notes of his work include praise for the daily wood-fired pizza and the soppressata-topped pie alongside a critique that the restaurant’s signature seasonal vegetable bowl can be “a dense, sluggish welter of fibrous things.”" - Cathy Chaplin