If you’re looking for a new and fun lunch option for your weekend afternoon, you might enjoy the special Ethiopian menu at Petit Valentien in La Arcada, downtown Santa Barbara. The combination platter (above) features six items from the a la carte menu plus injera*,...
Everyone knows the restaurant business is about as steady as a bucking bronco. So why open a string of restaurants and one meal-prep service in and around Santa Barbara in a short amount of time? That’s the question posed to Julian Martinez, chef/co-owner of Barbareño...
Star chef Anthony Bourdain’s masterpiece book, “Kitchen Confidential,” (published in 2000) was more than an entertaining deep dive into the “culinary underbelly” of the restaurant world. It offered inspiration. To some, the wild but true tales from behind the kitchen...
Sip + Sushi: A bit of a twist at Margerum’s new tasting spot in Los Olivos Doug Margerum is at it again, this time with a gem of a new tasting room in Santa Barbara Wine Country’s charming Los Olivos. The spot offers a new twist on wine-pairing: a bento box with your...
A natural winner The first step to success is often failure. Failures like Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, and J.K. Rowling all agree on that. And you can add Kelly Brown to that list. For Brown, the watershed night was May 7, 1993. “I screwed up,” he recalled. Brown and...
This summer marks the 30th year that chef-owner Roy Gandy has operated his eponymous Restaurant Roy at its location on West Carrillo Street in downtown Santa Barbara. A fixture in the community since its opening in 1993 with a menu offering soup, salad, and an entrée...
