Tom Obata’s backyard is to barbequers as Disneyland is to kids:
a fun-filled, technology fueled, imaginative collection of
irresistible ingredients. To start, take one DCS-brand 36-inch gas
barbeque on a smooth granite countertop. Add a stainless steel
sink, warming burners and a sun-shielding umbrella. Mix in a custom
stone fireplace and a black iron pizza oven. Sprinkle liberally
with sofas, friends and libations and you have a party
– literally.
Tom Obata’s backyard is to barbequers as Disneyland is to kids: a fun-filled, technology fueled, imaginative collection of irresistible ingredients. To start, take one DCS-brand 36-inch gas barbeque on a smooth granite countertop. Add a stainless steel sink, warming burners and a sun-shielding umbrella. Mix in a custom stone fireplace and a black iron pizza oven. Sprinkle liberally with sofas, friends and libations and you have a party – literally.
“We used to throw parties once in a while,” Obata said. “But since we put this in, we’re out here all the time.”
Since the backyard was completed in the summer of 2002, he and girlfriend Valerie Munoz have thrown a Hawaiian Luau, complete with hula drinks and roasted Hawaiian pork, and a Fiesta del Sol, a Mexican-flavored event catered by their friend Dave Bozzo of the Gilroy Grill and complemented by two rented margarita machines.
Munoz even admits to the ultimate extension cord fix: running a long line from the adjacent cabana/pool room so guests can watch football while dining under an umbrella of blooming climatis and wisteria.
“I think we ate here every night last summer,” said Obata, a farmer in Gilroy who has owned his home on Ric Court for 15 years. He built his home and a cabana out back but had never fully developed the wide space between the two structures. Two years ago, he decided it was time for a full-fledged backyard kitchen and began planning with the help of Munoz.
“We visited Home Expo, Barbeques Galore, you name it. We just picked up ideas here and there,” Munoz said.
The trellis design, for instance, came from a Morgan Hill Starbuck’s. And the idea for the piece de resistance – the stone fireplace – came during a dinner at Shadowbrook Restaurant in Capitola.
“The fireplace there was just what we had been thinking of. We sketched it on a cocktail napkin and that became the basis for the design,” Munoz said.
Once they had a few ideas ready, Obata hired contractor Scott McNamara of Gilroy and landscape designer Pete Gluhaich of Greenstreak Landscaping to help with the hardscape construction and the plant installation. Gluhaich and McNamara worked with Obata and Munoz to come up with a design that won an award for Greenstreak Landscaping. Obata’s backyard project was given the Judge’s Award in the regional California Landscape Contractors Association’s annual contest, awarded for the best innovative design and utilization of materials.
“We all really worked well together,”Gluhaich said. “Everyone just pitched in ideas and we drew up a really fun design.”
Obata said the contractors’ experience helped bring the project into reality.
“I knew basically what I wanted, but they really helped to define the ideas and they came up with a lot of good, practical suggestions,” Obata said.
The suggestions include a raised veranda that runs along the side of the house under a covered roof. Lounge chairs and a large patio table are shaded there from the sun or rain and are set two steps up from the concrete deck of the pool. The pool itself had been built years before but was resurfaced with a green-black exposed granite treatment during the four-month project.
Dark slate tiles accent the concrete base that runs conveniently from the back door of the kitchen to the barbeque area where Obata spends much of his off-work time. He’s gathered an impressive array of barbeque equipment and conveniences, such as the DCS gas grill and the Italian-made pizza oven.
“We have made a lot of pizza in that oven,” said Obata, who alternately makes homemade pizza or uses store-bought. “No matter what you make, it tastes better being in that oven.”
The oven can also be used for roasting meat, baking chickens and nearly everything else that can be made in a regular kitchen oven. First, a fire must be built in the bottom. The top door conceals a brick-lined oven with a rack in the middle. Because of the oven’s depth, four full-sized pizzas can be baked at the same time. The pizza oven heats to about 600 degrees, enough to bake a crisp pizza and warm up guests at the same time.
“We love spending time out here,” said Dan Gluhaich, a longtime friend of Obata’s and a fan of the new backyard design. “It’s set up perfectly for entertaining – places to sit, a nice bar, and the fireplace. You should see it in the summer.”
That’s when this backyard kitchen truly shines. Obata calls Munoz “the real garden person” and credits her with the blooming plants that start budding in spring. The many terra cotta planters contain drip irrigation systems to support Munoz’ favorite flowering annuals.
“In the summer, one of my favorite places is under the trellis with the wisteria hanging down,” Munoz said. “It creates a lot of shade and looks beautiful, too. We’ve even moved the patio table under there.”
In this family project, even Obata’s dad, Tom Sr., has taken a starring role. A retired farmer, Tom Sr. still works regularly in his shop, fixing farm implements and exploring his more artistic side. Scattered throughout the garden are his creations: decorative iron bells, cast iron plant stands and a set of extra-long fireplace tools he designed for the pizza oven. Tom Sr.’s invention is especially useful because the tools stand upright, attracted to a magnetic tool holder that’s mounted into the rock of the fireplace.
“There are a lot of special things about the backyard,” Obata admits. “It’s sometimes hard to leave here; we just want to have people over all the time.”
The guests often include his two grown daughters, Munoz’ two grown daughters and their families and friends.
“We’ve had a lot of good times out here,” Munoz said. “I love eating out here because it’s casual and people want to sit for a long time and just talk. It’s really perfect for our style of entertaining.”
