Santa Cruz native and award-winning pizza chef Ryan Thompson is living the dream with the opening of Pogonip Pizza. He’s keeping it in the family as a third-generation Santa Cruz restaurateur.
Co-owner and head chef Ryan Thompson’s grandparents were property managers of the Pogonip Club from 1957 through the early ’60s. Pogonip is just up the road from us and close to UCSC.
Ryan’s dad, Tommy Thompson, used to talk about how fun it was living in the clubhouse as a kid. The Thompson family has deep roots in Santa Cruz’s food and hospitality scene, going back to 1947—with connections to the Castle at Seabright and the Colonial Inn.
The land known as Pogonip was originally part of the vast Cowell Ranch, which Henry Cowell acquired for its lime and timber. The name "Pogonip" comes from a Shoshone word meaning “icy fog”, which settlers are thought to have adopted for the area's often misty mornings.
