Heir Apparent

Sara Skrinski is carving new trails at Arnoldi’s Café

It’s tempting to make snowboarding quips about the challenges facing Sara Skrinski when she took over Arnoldi’s Café last year. It was an uphill battle. And she had to move mountains to make sure the place didn’t go downhill.

Okay, quips over. Because the situation was no joke.

A former professional snowboarder, Skrinski was faced with the challenges when her father, Dave Peri, died of a sudden heart attack last May. He and his wife, Kitty, had run Arnoldi’s, a Santa Barbara landmark, since 2002, in partnership with Dede and Jim Nonn. Many hopefuls were circling, bidding to take over.

“Everyone was jumping to get it,” Skrinski said in an interview. But Jeanette Arnoldi, the longtime owner, chose the heir apparent. “I couldn’t let some corporate person come in and make changes,” Skrinski said. In addition to the passion she brought to the table, she had the heritage, since both the Arnoldi and Peri families hail from Italy’s Lake Como region.

“I’m totally the baby of the family,” Skrinski said. “None of my siblings wanted anything to do with it.” Any doubts were pushed aside by Bob Carlson, her snowboarding mentor and founder of Arbor Snowboards. “He believed in me,” Skrinski said. “He knew what I’m capable of. I’m tenacious.”

Once the decision was made, there was that mountain of challenges to face. Just negotiating the lease terms took “a month of back and forth,” Skrinski said. Then there was an overhaul of the restaurant, a “complete restructuring of the business,” getting the liquor license, etc. and etc. “Eighteen-hour days,” Skrinski said. “The place was a mess. But I was determined to make it work and it did.”

She got to introduce ideas she’d been proposing for a long time, since she began bussing tables at age 18. Fresh paint. A better inventory method. Advertising. Cost-cutting measures. Weddings. Special events. “All the way to plants,” Skrinski noted.

How’s it going? “It’s amazing,” she said. “It’s so successful now.” It helps that her husband, Bryan, is the support staff. A lineman for Southern California Edison, he’s been “a pivotal part,” Skrinski said. Whatever needs fixing or building, “he does all that.” He also specializes in making ice balls for cocktails. “We’re a perfect pair,” she said. He advises her to delegate more duties to others “but I love it too much. I’m super hands-on. It’s my baby, for sure.”

If you want to get an idea of how Arnoldi’s is doing these days, drop by anytime, but most definitely on any Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday evening. That’s when the bocce leagues are rolling. To say that these courts are venerable would be an understatement. They date back to the misty yore of Arnoldi’s, which opened in 1940. Word in the bocce community is that they’re the oldest courts between Santa Barbara and Chicago. “Some people did research, and apparently it’s so,” Skrinski said.

How busy are those courts? “Oh, my goodness,” Skrinski said. There are 24 teams, with 16 players hard at it on each of the three league nights. And there’s a waiting list to get on board. “People actually get mad at me,” she said. “They’re really passionate about it. But it’s hard. If there’s no table [available] on the patio, I get chewed out.” Arnoldi’s has about 50 tables, inside and out, and those patio treasures are “full almost every night,” Skrinski said.

One thing that she’s been careful not to change too much is the menu. For a while in the ’70s and ’80s, Arnoldi’s became something of a steakhouse, but “my dad turned it more toward Italian, with some fun additions.” Skrinski’s favorite? “The rotolo, which my dad introduced when he reopened, and the famous gnocchi tricolore that’s viral on TikTok right now.”

As for the famed generous platefuls, Skrinski said, “When we first opened we had one of the top chefs in America, who wanted portions slimmed down. But now we’re back to enormous. I don’t like people mad at me.” And of course there’s “really good local wine,” she said. “Dad was really picky about it.”

Reviewers are lavish in their praise for the food and the place. Wrote one visitor from Berkeley, “Arnoldi’s is Santa Barbara’s oldest Italian restaurant! And you can really taste the years of work put into perfecting these dishes.”

In addition to the big bocce nights, Skrinski is putting a focus on Sunday football, opening at 10 for breakfast with pregames on their four TVs.

But whatever day you choose for an Arnoldi’s visit, you can’t miss the feeling of local history. It’s built into the stones, the distinctive golden Santa Barbara sandstone dug by Giuseppe Arnoldi himself from a quarry in Refugio Canyon and hauled 24 miles east to the 600 Olive Street site 85 years ago. On June 27, 2017, the city declared Arnoldi’s a Santa Barbara landmark.
As for the secret of Arnoldi’s ongoing success, Skrinski is quick to give credit where it’s due: to her loyal staff and customers. “I absolutely love them all,” she asserted. “I see this place as all of ours. It’s truly a community place. I’m just the lucky one, with a lot of grit and determination, to carry it through this next phase.”

by Jeff Miller

Arnoldis.com
Photos By Carly Otness

Dining Out