Wood Ranch Turns 20

Wood Ranch BBQ & Grill turns 20 this year. The Agoura Hills-based company will celebrate by contributing a portion of guests’ checks to end child hunger.  Also, each Wood Ranch restaurant will hold a weekly drawing to give away a $50 gift card.

“We just thought it would be better to celebrate by giving back to our guests and to our community,” said Eric Anders, co-founder, and father of two. “More than a million children in Southern California go hungry every day. We’ve partnered with Share Our Strength’s ‘No Kid Hungry’ campaign to try to help end that. We’ll also be giving away a $50 gift card in each Wood Ranch restaurant for 20 weeks beginning on May 7.”

“We’ve always contributed to good causes in the communities we serve,” said co-founder Ofer Shemtov, who is the father of three. “We’ve now expanded that effort so that we can help focus some attention on a vitally important issue that affects all of us.”

Guests will be invited to “like” Wood Ranch on Facebook at www.facebook.com/WoodRanchBBQ.  Details can be found there. 

Guests will be able to download and print a certificate that can be taken to Wood Ranch. A percentage of the guest’s check will then be donated to No Kid Hungry. The same certificate will be used to enter a drawing for the weekly $50 gift card prize. 

The group of 14 premium-casual restaurants was founded in 1992 in Moorpark. 

 “We stood at the edge of the parking lot just before we opened,” remembered Anders, “and we counted a total of six cars go at dinnertime.  We can laugh a little bit about it now.”

Since 1992, the company has opened restaurants in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, in addition to Ventura County.

“We’ve been able to stay open during the worst economic downturn in our lifetimes,” Shemtov said.  “We never reduced the quality of our product and I think that we’ve been able to keep our guests coming back. We really appreciate the support they’ve shown us.”