Traditional with Some Tasty Tweaks

Consider that the year Santa Barbara’s Upham Hotel opened was 1871. Other big news that year: Stanley encountered Livingstone, Jesse James’s gang was robbing banks, and the Great Chicago Fire raged. So, the Upham is truly history.

Much more recently, the hotel’s restaurant space, with its inviting veranda on Sola Street, had been the home to Louie’s, a beloved institution. Fortunately, the weight of that history isn’t lost on the Bistro Amasa team that has just taken over the space. Executive Chef Julian Martinez and GM Jesse Gaddy certainly appreciate the roots of things, as anyone who has dined at their first restaurant — Barbareño — knows. After all, it’s named after a Chumash language, and one of its signature dishes, Eggamuffins, is a nod to Mickey D’s breakfast sandwich invented in our town.

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New Barbareño Cookbook Captures a Chef’s Journey

 You won’t hit a recipe in the just-published Barbareño: Cuisine of California’s Central Coast, until page 27 and, at that, it’s just one for Bread and Butter. The author Julian Martinez, who is the West Canon Perdido Street restaurant’s chef and co-owner (with Jesse Gaddy), has been on quite a journey, and this book is all about his path of discovery. 

So prepare for thoughtful consideration of not just why anyone should open a restaurant, but of how one finds oneself in the first place. This impressive book is kind of a memoir shot through with lots of great cooking ideas, plenty of food porn photos (thanks to Carter Hiyama), and, since Martinez has done a lot of reading to develop his thinking, 70 endnotes.

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Peregrine Supreme at Barb’s Pies Is Umami Bomb

 

It’s easy to forget the delight, amid the rest of the memorable meal, of bread service at Barbareño. But when that sourdough and fresh butter arrive, it’s a transformative moment, the simplest of food made transcendent. (And that’s part, I’d say, of a strong Santa Barbara tradition: think back to Downey’s Irish soda bread and Sly’s rye raisin rolls.)

So it’s no surprise that the pizza dough from the same punchy starter kicks off the crust to-die-for at Barb’s Pies, which is Barbareño’s sister restaurant “hiding” in the kitchen at the recently opened bar/restaurant Venus in Furs on East Cota Street. What a crust it is, formed into leftover-providing 18-inch ovals, thin in the center but puffed and charred on the edges. 

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Sip This: Refugio Ranch Barbareño

This red blend’s name, a reference to one of the Chumash dialects, hints at how the wine is a native expression of the Santa Ynez Valley. With 75 percent syrah and 25 percent petite syrah — at least in this vintage (the 2015 is sold out and the 2016 just released, and those percentages are slightly different) — is big and bold, hale and hearty. There’s a lot of French oak, but it’s very well integrated.

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Belly Up to Barbareno's BBQ

Your nose, if it's a oak smoke loving schnoz, will no doubt lead you down De La Vina on Thursdays and Fridays around lunch time. That's because Barbareño has just started serving up CA BBQ, but it's telling on their menu they don't abbreviate the words. That's because there's never a sense of a shortcut here, and they aren't going to do that for a casual lunch service that stars one of their popular-from-day-one proteins, red oak smoked tri-tip, here in a sandwich slathered with their bright and flavor-popping pico de gallo. (You can order meats/the veggies by weight, if you want to skip the bread, btw--nice move.)

So it works like this: you go and order at the door, then grab a table on their patio lovelier than it has a right to be smack up against De La Vina. You take in more of the good grill smell, and if you ordered a drink, from iced tea to beer, you'll sip a bit anticipating. (I highly recommend the poorly named but deliciously crafted Ice from Modern Times--those San Diegans make magic with everything they brew, including this pilsner that's just hoppy enough but not too. And it only clocks in at 4.8%.)

You can get that tri-tip or a smoked chicken or grilled veggies with a smoked harissa romesco I'm sorry I didn't try today. (Ah, a reason to go again.) (Wait, I didn't need one.) Or you can get the pulled pork you see above, spiced with a cumin rub, laced with bigger than you think they'd be but it works pickled tomatillos. That's a ciabatta roll that's hefty enough to hold all its contents, and that has avocado BBQ sauce keeping it moist and ridiculously flavorful--GM Jesse Gaddy said it took some tries, but in their never-ending quest to bring the avocado, they had to do it. You will get a little cup extra of the sauce and eat some of it on your fork all by itself, hoping to puzzle out its combo of tasty goodness (of course avo so that good fat and creaminess, but then smoke, too, but citrus, but just the haunt of it...). The pork is ridiculously good, with some crispy bits but mostly meltingly tender, and then occasional a bit of pork fat, for that different texture thing. Plus, fat is yummy, let's face it, as long as there's not too much.

For sides you can get their evening menu pinquito beans (and if you haven't had them why not?), a ranch slaw featuring fennel (what shouldn't?), a mustard potato salad, grilled sourdough--their in-house usual--with garlic butter, or a grilled avocado, the hole where its pit sat awash in some of that garlic butter, perhaps.

Your only regret will be the only serve lunch on Thursdays and Fridays.

Barbareño Hires New Head Chef Justin Snyder

Chef Justin Snyder’s very tatted arms delicately place down a black bowl with what looks like an exquisite sea creature. But it’s not from the sea at all; it’s a mound of Wagyu tri-tip tartare, with translucent crisps of crostini set in it like fins, sprinkled with delicate sorrel and red mustard greens. His secret, very local ingredient is Bragg’s Liquid Aminos. That, along with his house-made Sriracha sauce, gives the dish length and lift, so the deep beef deliciousness lingers as long as a classic cabernet. “Santa Barbara has such a rich history of food. It’s waiting to boom; it’s going to pop,” he exclaims. “Here I get to have fun and open up my creativity.”

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Eat This: Mushroom Bisque @ Barbareño

Usually there’s no risk to bisque: It’s supposed to comfort you in its creamy arms. Of course Barbareño is all about the clever curve, the elegant update, as now embodied in this gorgeous mushroom bisque.

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Foodie Awards 2015: The Santa Barbara Independent’s Sixth Annual Ode to Our Edible Culture

Though we love the outdoors, Santa Barbarans are quick to sacrifice sunshine time to head inside for a great bite of food. And we’ve never enjoyed more ways to fill our bellies than today, with options ranging from inventively creative to inspiringly authentic.

In 2010, The Santa Barbara Independent started celebrating this bounty of cuisine by launching the Foodie Awards, which shine a light every fall on the people and places cultivating this culture. This week’s issue also kicks off the month-long ode to Santa Barbara’s dining and drinking scene known as Epicure.SB. See epicuresb.com for a full list of events.

[This story co-written with Matt Kettmann.]

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Barbareño Does Santa Barbara by the Book

At one point during my interview with Julian Martinez and Jesse Gaddy — the two twentysomethings behind the new Barbareño restaurant in the old yet very remodeled D’Vine Café space at De la Vina and Canon Perdido streets — the latter leaves abruptly, only to return with a heavy tome that he tosses onto the table. The book, which lands with a dull thud, is beloved historian Walter A. Tompkins’s The Yankee Barbareños: The Americanization of Santa Barbara County, California 1796-1925. “So many books we just read and read,” said head chef Martinez about their search for a concept and name. “The book’s pretty interesting, pretty dry,” adds Gaddy, the general manager, before Martinez concludes, “But now we’re filled with plenty of fun facts.”

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