How artist-chef Roxanne Hampl connects her two passions at Rock Seas Farm Fusion in Hopland
On the outside, Rock Seas Farm Fusion is fairly nondescript. Located on the west side of highway 101 where it passes through Hopland, the plain white house with a steeply pitched roof is tucked between the McNab Ridge winery tasting room and an acupuncture clinic. Aside from its quirky sign, you might miss it if you’re not paying attention when you drive through town.
But the inside is a whole different story. Once you pass through the front door, it suddenly becomes mind-searingly memorable. You’re transported into a small but vividly colored dining room painted in hues of claret and saffron, filled with oil paintings of exotic places, shimmering mosaics over the bar, and undulating carved wood tabletops. It feels like you’ve entered an art gallery, which is exactly how chef-owner-artist Roxanne Hampl intended it.
The effect is replicated on every plate. Colorful salads with tangles of different lettuces, angular drizzles and garnishes evoke a Jackson Pollock painting. Stacks of geometric grits sit aside bushy greens piled on top of plump pork bellies, all with starkly contrasting textures and a palpable dynamic flow.
Known as “Roxy” to friends and as “Rock Sand Clay” in the art world, Hampl’s artistic endeavors first started when she was a small child—outside the kitchen.
“I’ve always been making tons of art, from when I was very young,” she recalled. “I can remember making sculptures and selling them at the town-wide yard sale. That was my thing for a long time. Then when I was 10 years old I really got into ceramics, throwing clay and baking it in kilns and stuff like that.”
“The kitchen is a canvas—it’s got all the ingredients to make all the beautiful art I could ever possibly want.”
– Roxanne Hampl
She started taking college-level art classes at age 12 in her childhood hometown of Poultney, Vermont, and her interest only deepened in the ensuing years. After studying art at a community college in Sonoma County, she moved to the UK for six months and caught the travel bug. She then spent the next few years traveling around the world doing short-term jobs and creating art, mainly in Asia, India and Australia.
The transition from painting and sculpture to food started in 2014. Hampl had stopped traveling and recently settled in Hopland when she met Patrick Martin, a three-Michelin-star chef who had worked at various restaurants around Mendocino County. After they became partners in life, they decided to become partners in business as well.
They decided to turn the former Subway sandwich shop at 13456 Highway 101 into a fine-dining farm-to-table restaurant. Hampl designed the interior and worked as hostess, bartender and waitress alongside her childhood friend Sarah. Martin’s domain was the cooking and the menu. They named it Rock Seas as a play on her nickname, “Roxy,” and in a nod to the surf-and turf cuisine they specialized in.
During their years together at the restaurant, Hampl learned classical French cooking techniques from Martin, even though she was technically only in charge of the front of the house. But those skills would come in handy later.
“In a very short amount of time I feel like I got more training than anybody will ever get in culinary school,” she said. “I could always cook— in fact I had various cooking jobs when I was in Australia— but I absolutely learned how to be a chef from Patrick.”
Martin eventually quit the restaurant, and Hampl’s personal relationship with him ended not long after. She hired a series of new chefs but had difficulty finding and keeping the right people. So, in 2018 she made the big decision to go it alone. It was not easy at first, but she slowly got into the groove.
“It used to be a lot more stressful, just living up to the expectations that I had built for myself around what I wanted this place to be,” Hampl recalled. “But I’ve fully stepped away from other people’s ideas and expectations and morphed into my own expectations of what I really want to be serving people, and just focus on making good, healthy food.”
She settled on a format that combines surf and turf with elevated Southern comfort food, which is evident in menu items such as Nana’s fried chicken with mixed greens, hand-cut fries, and spicy aioli, or the seared scallops with brown butter, quinoa, and crispy Brussels sprouts.
“It’s close to the original concept that I built with Patrick,” Hampl said. “I learned so many of his recipes and his cooking style, which was from the South, and adapted that, because I like that kind of cooking and that kind of food. It’s something that you can’t really find around here.”
She has put her own stamp on the menu too, adding presentational flair, and including items that are inspired by her own travels— such as the cardamom-and-cinnamon-spiced Tunisian carrots— or driven by her own cravings, such as a recent crab dish with chanterelle mushrooms.
“I did all the artwork, I did all the woodwork, I raised the cows, I made all the food, and made it look pretty on the plate. Everything you see, I had a hand in.”
– Roxanne Hampl
“The kitchen is a canvas,” she said. “It’s got all the ingredients to make all the beautiful art I could ever possibly want. And my menu changes all the time, which I like, because I would get kind of bored cooking the same thing all the time!”
Although the coronavirus pandemic forced the restaurant to close from early 2020 through mid-2022—during which time Hampl acquired a liquor license for the restaurant— she is glad that she was able to make it through and get back to making healthy, seasonal, organic food.
One way that she ensures quality control is by using meat from animals raised at her ranch in Hopland, which she shares with her partner Milo, their one-year-old son Orion, two black Angus cows, eight sheep, and a pack of Hampshire pigs.
“I don’t want the gluten. I don’t want all those chemicals,” she emphasized. “I make almost everything from scratch, and I cook just using good, basic ingredients. I raised most of the meat myself— I think it is fairly unheard of to have the actual chef be so hands-on with the animals, living with them day-to-day.”
Hampl admits that she wears a lot of hats—chef, artist, business owner, rancher, mother, partner— and doesn’t have a lot of free time, but she feels that being the sole proprietor at Rock Seas is not only good for her personally, but improves the dining experience.
“At most other places you won’t find the consistency that I am able to bring, because Rock Seas is such a small spot and I have total control,” she explained. “I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I’ve worked really hard. It’s a lot different than walking into a place where there’s a bunch of people that don’t necessarily know what’s going on or where anything came from.”
“This is also a very unique place because it’s one of the only 100% woman-owned restaurants in the county,” she added. “But what I like most about it is that it’s a full circle. I did all the artwork, I did all
the woodwork, I raised the cows, I made all the food, and made it look pretty on the plate. Everything you see, I had a hand in.”
Rock Seas Farm Fusion is located at 13456 Highway 101, Hopland. It is open for dinner Tuesday–Sunday 5–9pm. To make a reservation, call 707-670-6054 or visit rockseas.com.
