The Pebble Beach favorite Pèppoli opens for lunch for the first time, but the schedule won’t last.

In reality, it’s just a sautéed cherry tomato with some pesto on a wedge of grilled bread. But in effect, the simple arrangement sends your senses into reverie – your mind soaring over puffs of sweet fruit, settling into notions of spring grasses and mint warming under the sun and wafting aloft again on faint streaks of smoke scored into the bread by the grill.

The expression of ingredients in hearty Tuscan dishes such as braised veal shank or simmered cannellini beans is what has made Pèppoli a Pebble Beach favorite. But the presentation of caprese is lighter, even when plated with sturdy bread.

“It’s different,” says Chef Angela Tamura. “We’re doing things we wouldn’t do on a dinner menu.”

For the first time in the venerable restaurant’s existence, Pèppoli is open for lunch – daily from 11am-2:30pm. However, this is a short-term offer. Come March 2027, midday service comes to an end.

Pebble Beach Company set the new schedule because of Sticks. The Inn at Spanish Bay’s sports pub recently shut down for a year-long renovation, leaving Roy’s as the only lunch option for guests and Sticks employees idle.

Opening Pèppoli for lunch is the solution to both issues. Every day, Chef Anna Marie Bayonito and her kitchen team and wait staff take over the dining room and part of the kitchen, preparing chicken salad with Mediterranean flair, a meatball sandwich, eggplant parmesan, a burger and other dishes, served with a fine dining approach to sourcing and technique, along with a daylight view.

The transition was a quick one. When Sticks closed, its staff was given vacation, leaving them with just four days to train.

“They have done a really great job,” says Bryan Anthony, Pebble Beach’s vice president of food and beverage. “The menu is an approachable representation of Pèppoli.”

It’s a manageable list of starters, sandwiches – including a grinder, for those willing to take it on – as well as a few main plates or Roman-style pizzas. The drinks menu is equally tidy, with wines by the glass and five specialty cocktails. According to Tamura, the trick to developing the initial menu was using ingredients already on hand at the restaurant – for the most part.

“Flank steak – we wouldn’t do that at night,” she points out. “But I like it.”

The rugged cut is used for a lunch portion of steak fritte, drizzled with salsa verde drawn from herbs, capers and pepperoncini. Like a capricious but faithful dance partner, it flits over the husky tone of the beef, but also embraces its earthy savor. Wedges of potato justify the extra t in their spelling. They are large and plush, like whipped potatoes under a lightly-fried patina.

To Tamura’s point, however, bufala mozzarella turns up on the eggplant parmesan at lunch, the bruschetta appetizer come dinner time. She plates broccoli rabe with braised short ribs for dinner guests and tosses it on a sausage pizza at lunch.

Well, Chef Bayonito does that part.

After a major renovation at The Lodge that sent The Tap Room – arguably Pebble Beach’s most beloved restaurant – bouncing from one location to another, the company is well-versed in improvisation. But turning Pèppoli into a shared space did require some juggling.

The kitchen is not spacious enough to accommodate two crews – one in full swing grilling burgers or doling out minestrone while the other begins to shape pasta dough or reduce sauces for the evening. Making room for the Sticks team to craft more traditional Italian dishes would have meant slashing from the dinner offerings.

Tamura and Bayonito decided to confine lunch to the front kitchen with its grill, leaving the back – where pastas and dishes like osso buco are prepared – to the Pèppoli team. They have managed to pull off what is a new experience for everyone, including guests.

“Can you imagine going to Pèppoli for Saturday lunch and looking out over the ocean?” Anthony says – especially from the patio, with a meatball sandwich and a glass of wine. “This is a special moment for Pèppoli.”

Of course, this special moment can only last so long. Sticks – with its new look and new menu – reopens in about nine months.

PÈPPOLI, 2700 17-Mile Drive, Pebble Beach. (800) 877-0597, pebblebeach.com.